INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 5 



should try by every means in their power to better their con- 

 dition, physically speaking, and we cannot wonder that they 

 should take to fishing to counteract the evils I have just 

 spoken of. But great difficulties lay in the way of the 

 Sheffield anglers. There was no stream near that place in 

 which they could ply, or that fish could live in, and so they 

 had to go further afield, and a vast majority chose the Trent 

 and the Witham as their hunting-ground. In spite, how- 

 ever, of all the difficulties they had to contend with, perhaps 

 in no other town in England has angling and its attendant 

 associations made such rapid progress as in Sheffield, we hear 

 that there are over two hundred and twenty angling clubs 

 there, and that the anglers themselves have been estimated at 

 nearly ten thousand. This fact alone speaks volumes for the 

 popularity of angling ; the social and sanitary condition of 

 Sheffield have altered for the better since the time of the 

 gloomy picture I have drawn, and one of the brightest signs 

 pf the social elevation of the workers of Sheffield are these 

 numbers of angling clubs that have sprung up in all direc- 

 tions, in which they can tell one another of their various 

 exploits, and plan some fresh adventure. Now as I pointed 

 out further back the vast majority of these anglers are bottom 

 fishers, and some of them are considered to be the best roach 

 and dace fishermen in the country, and they spend a lot of 

 time in their avocation. But by far the greater number are 

 those who can only steal a day occasionally, and with these a 

 visit to the river side is like the visit of an angel, remarkably 

 infrequent. 



Not only Sheffield boasts of this, but most other populous 

 towns share in the general advancement, from "John 

 o' Groat's " to Land's End, and from the coast of Lincolnshire 

 to the Isle of Man. 



I am afraid I have made a terrible digression, but my 

 readers must forgive me, for I could not help alluding to the 



