INTRODUCTION, 



Cajjiamas Jrunbitu |)mbas. 



' Y DEAB BOYS, I have often thought of 

 writing, for your amusement, a short 

 account of my fishing in the neighbour- 

 hood of Edinburgh, that, if you are spared, you 

 may remark the difference which manufactories 

 and drainage have made there, on the rivers and 

 waters I frequented in my youth. I w r ill also 

 extend the circle to other places ; and though of 

 late there has been much written and said on 

 the Art of Angling (it being almost a fashion to 

 do so), I think, as it is now fifty years since I 

 first took to it, I can tell you something that you 

 will not find in any of the books which have 

 been published on this pleasant sport. Now, I 



