Our Friend Angling 3 



fancy, will occur quite readily to the reader 

 — has been written of almost as often in 

 connection with the cultivation of orchids at 

 home as of railways and markets in Greater 

 Britain ; a third is perhaps unique among 

 statesmen in the absorbing interest he is 

 known to take in the laboratory ; while a 

 fourth might be described as equally at home 

 in library and paddock — a scholar among 

 sportsmen, and a sportsman in the best 

 sense among scholars. It is the same with 

 many of our most notable living authors, 

 artists, scientists, and divines. The harder 

 the brain-labour, in the case of the great 

 majority of workers, the more ardently pur- 

 sued the out-of-doors pursuit or hobby. I 

 think I am not exaggerating in the interests 

 of our well-loved sport when I say that one 

 of the most active spirits and strenuous con- 

 troversialists on the Bishops' bench is never 

 happier nor more contented than when he 

 takes his fishing-rod and book of flies and 

 sets forth to spend a day or two by the 

 banks of one of his native Welsh trout- 



