PRACTICAL LESSONS 



IN THE 



GENTLE CRAFT. 



I HAVE the honour to submit for your approbation a few 

 remarks based principally upon practical knowledge, and 

 having reference to the pursuit of angling for what are 

 commonly called " the coarse fish " of this country. 



This class of sport is, very deservedly, popular in the 

 extreme, and day by day, I think, grows in the public 

 estimation. The reason for such popularity is not difficult 

 to find, inasmuch as in great towns, such as London, or 

 indeed in any manufacturing centre, the man who either 

 inherits or cultivates a taste for angling, becomes a student 

 in a charming and health-giving pastime, not necessarily 

 expensive to one of limited monetary resources, yet one 

 which, followed out faithfully and observantly, is, I believe, 

 the invariable means of developing any latent disposition 

 to good. Coarse fish angling has also another distinction 

 of its own. It is particularly the sport of the poor man. 

 Salmon fishing, with all its gloriously moving incidents by 

 "flood and field," is a branch of English sport nearly 

 entirely confined to the wealthier classes. Trout fishing 

 is almost, if not quite as exclusive. There is hardly a yard 



