v^-is.. V 



whose soul, is not insensible to the charms presented 

 by the natural combination of 



" Field and forest, flood and hill, 

 Tower, abbey, church, and mill/ 1 



such as our friend here will enjoy after he has landed 

 the salmon, which has held him in work for this last 

 hour and a half. 



Though the love of angling is generally acquired in 

 youth, yet it sometimes attacks persons of more ma- 

 ture age; conveys a maggot into their head, and then 

 they dream, of gentles ; tickles their nose with a May- 

 fly, and straight they talk of palmers, red and black, 

 dun-cuts, granams, coachmen, professors, gnats, moths, 

 March browns, and peacock hackles; shows them a 

 salmon in a fishmonger's shop, and then they think of 

 landing an eighteen pounder; makes them dream, 

 speak, and think of nothing but angling ; and 



" . . . . winna let the puir bodies 

 Gang about their business !" 



Few persons who have been educated in the country , 

 except the peevish or sickly, and such as have had a 

 brute for a master, can look back upon their boyish 

 days without bringing to mind many recollections of 

 real, heartfelt, unalloyed pleasure ; amongst which that 

 of angling, with an episode of bathing or bird-nesting, 

 is not the least delightful. On a fine summer afternoon 

 when the new-mown hay smells sweet, when the trees 

 are in full leaf, and wild-flowers in full bloom, the corn 

 in the ear, and the bean in blossom; when there are 

 trout in every burn, and nests in every hedge and 



