284 SPORTING STORIES 



deceives no one ; for who was ever known to accept 

 without a liberal grain of salt the angling stories of even 

 his dearest friend? Just as discount booksellers take off 

 three pence in the shilling from the advertised price of 

 books, every angler discounts the statements of his brother 

 anglers, and thinks none the worse of them because such 

 discount is necessary to arrive at an approximate estimate 

 of the truth. For, like the Scotchman in the familiar story, 

 each angler secretly confesses, " I'm a bit of a leear myself." 



I hope I shall not offend my brother anglers by these 

 candid remarks any more than Sir Samuel Montagu did. 

 For I love the sport and sympathise with all who follow it, 

 though fly-fishing is the particular branch which has most 

 charm for me. Old Robert Burton mentioned angling 

 among the cures for melancholy; and many anglers will be 

 interested in the following passage from that monumental 

 collection of out-of-the-way learning and quaint philosophy. 

 The Anatomic of Melancholy. 



" Fishing," said the Oxford Don, " is a kind of hunting 

 by water, be it with nets, weeles, baites, angling, or otherwise, 

 and yields all out as much pleasure to some men as dogs 

 or hawkes when they draw the fish upon the bank. T. 

 Dubranius dc piscibus telleth how, travelling in Silesia, he 

 found a nobleman booted up to the groines, wading himself, 

 pulling the nets, and labouring as much as any fisherman 

 of them all ; and when some belike objected to him the 

 baseness of his office, he excused himself, that if other 

 men might hunt hares, why should he not hunt carps ? 

 Many gentlemen in like sort with us will wade up to their 

 armholes on like occasions and voluntarie undertake that, 

 to satisfie their pleasure, which poore men for a good stipend 

 would scarce be hired to undergo. But he that shall con- 

 sider the variety of baits for all seasons, and pretty devices 

 which our anglers have invented, peculiar lines, false flies, 

 several sleights, etc., etc., will say that it deserves com- 

 mendation, requires as much study as the rest, and it is to 

 be preferred before many of them. But this is still and 

 quiet ; and if so be the angler catch no fish, yet he hath 

 a wholesome walk to the brook's side, pleasant shade by 

 the sweet silver streams ; he hath good aire, and sweete 



