C 637 ) 



CHAPTER VII. 



THE ENGLISH POETS ON FISHING. 



RIGHTLY has a poet observed that 



" The power of waters over the minds of poets has been 

 acknowledged from the earliest ages ; through the flumina amem 

 sylvasque inglorius of Virgil, down to the sublime apostrophe 

 to the great rivers of the earth by Armstrong, and the simple 

 ejaculation of Burns : 



" * The Muse na Poet ever fand her, 

 Till by himsel' he learned to wander 

 Adown some trotting burn's meander 

 And no think lang.' " 



This has been partly testified to by the quotations 

 already given in chapter II. from ancient poetical authors, 

 whose theme has been fish and fishing, many of whom 

 have been happy both in themselves and in their English 

 translators. We now come to the English piscatory poets 

 themselves. But here, again, there is some little difficulty 

 as to who can fairly be included in the category ; and 

 perhaps it would not be well to draw too hard and fast a 

 line in this manner, but to include those who make more 

 or less lengthy allusions to fishing and sing the praises 

 of angling. 



It would savour of optimism to argue that English 

 piscatory poetry generally maintains a high standard ; but 

 we cannot help thinking that Mr. Westwood is a little hard 

 on our authors when he says, " To some three or four of 

 them may be assigned a place shall we say midway, by 



