ANCIENT ANGLING AUTHORS 147 



Stillingfleet, then Dean of St Paul's, and afterwards 

 Bishop of Worcester, came to pay a visit in the 

 neighbourhood. While on his visit this eminent 

 divine was seized with a " violent fit of the gout," an 

 attack which may possibly have accounted for the 

 severity of some of his criticisms, and his host, Sir 

 Richard Burgoin, having been at the same time 

 called away owing to a domestic affliction, the Dean 

 appears to have passed the time by discussing with 

 the curate the amusements inappropriate for clergy- 

 men. The Dean held the opinion that the clergy 

 had then injured the respectability of their characters 

 by mixing too much with the amusements of laymen. 



The dialogues are written in an amusing strain, 

 and contain several witty anecdotes : the following 

 is told of a clergyman, who was so fond of hunting 

 that he was led thereby to neglect his clerical duties. 

 On one occasion, when he was out hunting, the fox 

 took to earth, " on which he cried out, ' Gentlemen, 

 I must leave -you : This puts me in mind, that I have 

 a corpse to bury at four o'clock this evening ; and I 

 fear that I shall be an hour too late.' " 



After hunting and shooting had been discussed, the 

 conversation turned on angling : 



" You have said nothing against fishing. Do you 

 allow me to suppose this amusement to be a clerical 

 one ? It is silent, quiet, and may be contemplative." 



" I am afraid," said the Dean, " I shall be thought too 

 rigid if I abridge a clergyman of this amusement : 

 and yet I cannot bring myself to allow him any 



