Opinions of the Press on the Angler- Naturalist. 



Field. " An admirable book . . . it is in fact the most complete history of 

 British fresh- water fish of the present day." 



John Bull. " A work of national importance. Characterised by a careful and 

 systematic knowledge of the special branches of zoology which come within its 

 scope ; and thoroughly worthy to place its author's name by the side of that Cory- 

 phaeus of this class of literature Gilbert White of Selbome." 



Saturday Review. " It admirably carries out its selected programme. It claims 

 for every sportsman that he should be a bit of a naturalist, and does its part to 

 make the angler a complete one, as far as fish are concerned. That its author is 

 both one and the other we have abundant evidence. The lucichts ordo bespeaks the 

 naturalist, the practical information a true disciple of the gentle craft." 



Reader. " An admirable work. It is stored throughout with anecdotes, which 

 Mr. Pennell relates in language that is always terse and graceful. On the subject 

 of fishing he is well known as an authority. . . . The Angler-Naturalist is a 

 clever book, and a useful book, and a book sui generis. We have no doubt that it 

 will become a standard work of reference. Let us add, what Mr. Pennell has mo- 

 destly omitted, that it is the most complete history of British fresh-water fish of 

 the present day ; and that the illustrations are equal to the text which is the 

 greatest compliment we can pay them." 



Opinions of the Press on the Boole of the Pike. 



Field. " Since the days of Nobbes, the father of trailers, no work has issued 

 from the press likely to carry such consternation into the homes and haunts of the 



tyrant of the waters as the book before us Mr. Pennell has certainly 



taken in the pike and done for him, and there is nothing left for succeeding writers 

 on pike-fishing to tell their readers. He has exhausted the subject, and has done 

 it so well and so deftly, that one wanders on, and on, and on through his pleasant 

 pages, wondering where he has gathered all this pike-lore from, and how it is that 

 in a somewhat restricted subject like the history of, and means of capture employed 

 upon, one particular fish, he has contrived to beguile one of any sense of tedium. 

 And yet the book is essentially what it assumes to be The Book of the Pike, neither 

 more nor less. Here we have all about him how, when, and where he is raised, 

 reared, educated, fattened, slaughtered, and cooked nothing is wanting. On the 

 practical department of his book we need enlarge but little. Mr. Pennell is so 

 well known to be a senior angler in the art he professes, that it is far better to let 

 him speak for himself, and to recommend our readers to cull his directions from 

 the fountainhead, than to attempt to condense them in simply mangled fragments. 

 As for criticising them, there is no need of it." 



Sporting Gazette. " That there is an actual necessity for and value attached to 

 such an addition to the fisherman's library, apart from the consideration of the liter- 

 ary and piscatory talents of the author, will readily be conceded by those who are 

 iiware that no English work has ever before been devoted exclusively to pike-fish- 

 ing. We may therefore congratulate ourselves that such an addition has come to 

 us, and from such a source. . . . Part II. exhausts, we may say, completely and 

 satisfactorily, all the various details of each method of pike-fishing. 



Land and Water. " 'Has this book a sufficient excuse for existence?' Mr. 

 Pennell asks in his preface. The best of excuses we reply. Since Nobbes, of the 

 dark ages, no substantial treatise on pike-fishing has been given to the world, if we 

 except those of Salter and " Otter" the one a Cockney, the other a catchpenny 

 production. The Book of the Pike, on the contrary, is the work of a scholar and a 

 gentleman, and of a senior angler to boot, and it treats its subject exhaustively." 



Bell's Life. " This is in every sense of the word a clever book, and is, moreover, 

 as useful as it is unpretending. . . . We can with every satisfaction endorse 

 the prophetic suggestion of Mr. Westwood, whose Bibliographical Anglomania is 

 known and admired by all anglers of note, when he says, that ' Posterity will agree 

 to designate Mr. Pennell the ' Father of Pike-fishers.' ' A naturalist and a most 

 genial writer, Mr. Pennell is also a student in history, and the charm of his teach- 

 ing is heightened by its graceful and gentle utterance." 



