INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 



of 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 

 social condition of Sheffield and its connection with the 

 angling world. 



The history of angling seems to go a long way back, and 

 to be nearly lost in the mists of antiquity, for we read of it 

 in the earlier sections of the Bible, and in the records of 

 ancient Egypt and Assyria, the seat of powerful empires 

 and a civilized people. The story of Antony and Cleopatra 

 is of course known to most anglers, wherein Cleopatra sent 

 her own diver down to hang a dried fish on Antony's hook, 

 which he pulled up to his utter confusion. Shakespeare, it 

 will be remembered, immortalizes this incident in his play, 

 " Antony and Cleopatra." I have read also somewhere that 

 the Chinese practise this plan habitually. The rocks and 

 stones at the bottom of the sea on the Chinese coast, it 

 appears, are covered with small shell fish ; two men go out 

 to fish one holds a line, attached to which is a baited 

 hook; the other, a diver, takes the hook and a hammer, 

 and dives to the bottom, and there he begins cracking and 

 knocking to pieces the masses of shell fish. The fish draw 

 round to feed ; the diver selects his fish, and literally 

 thrusts the hook into its mouth, and his friend above pulls 

 it up. 



