A Purist amongst Purists 165 



try a likely-looking trout lying obviously on 

 the look-out for food near the surface, he pro- 

 fessed to take but little pride and interest in 

 such an operation ; it was not quite ' the real 

 thing.' Of course, a good many keen and 

 good anglers hold somewhat similar views, 

 but this one would somehow be for ever 

 forcing them upon you. It was his solemn 

 boast that as a scientific angler he was sans 

 peur et sans reproche. His friends, therefore, 

 could not but admit that he was — though a 

 good fellow and a fairly good angler — a bit 

 of a purist, whilst his enemies called him a 

 prig ; possibly something in between the 

 two would have hit him off to a nicety — say 

 a purist amongst purists. 



On days when nothing was doing, and no 

 fly hatching, he might not rarely be heard 

 remarking that he had not wetted his line. 

 When he came back to the angling inn with 

 nothing in his creel, which was often the 

 case, as it is often the case, for the matter of 

 that, with ninety-nine anglers out of a hundred, 

 he did not go in for a number of lame excuses, 



