62 THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 



occurred on the meeting between ' 'cute John " and his 

 father may be imagined by all who have read that 

 between the Vicar of Wakefield and his son Moses, on 

 the return of the latter from a very similar expedition ; 

 neither can much be said of the appeal to the Squire of 

 Amstead, as a magistrate. As for granting warrants for 

 two "respectable-looking persons in leather breeches and 

 top-boots," that was quite out of the question : forasmuch 

 as, in those days, half the buyers and sellers of horses in 

 the fair were thus accoutred ; moreover, in the case of 

 these two rogues, it would have been doubly useless, as no 

 doubt but the said leathers and top-boots were hidden 

 from sight, by smock-frocks, or overalls, as soon as the 

 wearers of them were once clear of the town ; and at 

 least three inches taken off the colt's tail, if he were not 

 further disfigured. All that Mr. Eaby could do, was to 

 throw back ten pounds of his rent to the old miller at the 

 next audit-day, to console him for his loss, and to caution 

 Tiim, in future, from making " our John " believe there 

 were not sharper fellows in a horse fair than the son of a 

 country miller. 



It was the wish of Mr. Eaby that his sons should learn 

 the art of fishing, in its higher branches, if such a term 

 may be allowed me ; but he discouraged the practice of 

 angling with live worms for small fish, as being both 

 cruel and unprofitable. " The art of angling," he would 

 ?ay, " opens a wide field for the naturalist ; and is a 

 rational and contemplative amusement cheap, and in- 

 structive withal." Mr. Egerton, himself a fisherman, also 

 encouraged this sport in his pupils, reminding them 

 not only of its antiquity, but that it was not considered 

 infra dig. by Homer, Virgil, and other celebrated poets, 

 when distinguishing their heroes by their professions, 

 ^business, or pursuit, to mention the " skilful angler." 



Andrew entered heartily into this sport, and, by the 

 instructions of the keeper, Perren, became a rather 

 dexterous fly-fisher ; he could also take good pike with 

 his trolling-rod, generally making his bait an artificial 

 minnow, or frog, by the advice of his amiable tutor. 

 " Why torment fishes or insects," he would say, " by 

 impaling them alive on hooks, when inanimate objects 

 will be equally attractive as baits 1 Besides, inde- 

 pendently of the reflection cast upon angling, from the 

 unnecessary pain inflicted, the principal art of the fisher- 



