Our Friend Angling 1 1 



when one is unaided and alone, by a state of 

 happiness that cannot easily be described. 



' We must, however, admit, whatever our 

 peculiar preference may be, that this sort 

 of pleasure belongs to other pursuits also, and 

 I wish to dwell upon what seems to me a 

 special charm of fishing rather than upon 

 one which it shares with other sports. 



'There is, in the first place — if we are 

 thinking of trout-fishing — the charm of 

 clean running water ; the various moods and 

 the life and movement of a stream come to 

 fascinate an eye which has been used to 

 watch them. In any view of country, water 

 has a great attraction : there is a light upon 

 it, which makes it seem itself to be the eye 

 of the landscape ; we are drawn towards it, 

 and we find near it the best trees and grass, 

 or wealth of flowers and green things, and 

 the greatest number of birds. To such 

 places does fishing take us, and most often 

 at the best time of the year. That seems to 

 me the great charm of trout-fishing : it takes 

 us to the most beautiful places in May and 



