FOREWORD 11 



In the Westmorland, Cumberland, and North 

 Yorkshire dales fifty years ago it was a common 

 practice for both men and boys in the long winter 

 nights to congregate together round particular 

 kitchen fires. The popular places were those 

 where something interesting was always sure to be 

 afoot, distinct in a way from such usual village 

 haunts as the cobbler's and blacksmith's shops. 



I am greatly indebted to Mr R. B. Marston for 

 the loan of a print of Archdeacon Paley, which 

 appeared in the Fishing Gazette of April i/th, 

 1920. Interesting items of this kind are a constant 

 joy to readers of the Gazette. This portrait and 

 its history, as written up by Mr Marston, appealed 

 to me as local lore, and so accounts for its inclu- 

 sion. There are several reasons for reproducing 

 Romney's portrait of Westmorland's most distin- 

 guished angler here. The famous Archdeacon 

 was Vicar of Appleby where " Bob's " apprentices 

 began, and some of them continued and hope to 

 end, but not too soon, their fishing. Romney was 

 also a local celebrity. 



Paley became Archdeacon of Carlisle in 1782, 

 and sat to George Romney for the portrait here 

 reproduced, in 1789. Mr Marston says there are 

 many references, contemporary and otherwise, to 

 Romney's fine three-quarter length portrait of the 

 writer of the " Evidences of Christianity " as a 

 fisherman. It was engraved as a mezzotint by John 

 Jones, and published in 1792. 



