n6 FISHING FOR PLEASURE 



Johnson's famous definition of an angling rod, 

 which we have not been able to see in any old 

 folio edition of his dictionary, has long been a 

 standing joke against anglers, 'that it was a 

 stick with a fool at one end and a hook at the 

 other.' " It is a curious fact that no one has ever 

 yet been able to point out this saying in any 

 work of Johnson's, and the late Dr. Birkbeck 

 Hill, whose mind was saturated with Johnsonian 

 literature, has stated that he had never found it. 

 Johnson of course was not an angler, but cer- 

 tainly he was a profound admirer of Izaak 

 Walton. Curiously enough, on p. 204 of Mr. 

 Blakey's book I find the following quotation : 

 " La ligne est un instrument ou il y a une bete 

 k chaque bout Ancelot L'Homme du Monde." ' 

 This quotation heads a chapter on " L'Art de la 

 peche a la ligne" in the celebrated work of Mon- 

 sieur Colnet, called " L'Hermite de Belleville." 

 This work was published in Paris in 1815, but 

 the above chapter heading from Ancelot was 

 doubtless of a much earlier date. 



1 See also " Walton and some Earlier Writers on 

 Angling." By R. B. Marston. London, Elliot Stock. 



