however fond of walking, in pursuit of his sport, 

 through pleasant meads and by rippling streams, 

 can "be entitled to the character of a skilful angler, 

 unless he "be capable of "bringing home, "by the fair 

 exercise of his rod and line, a tolerable load of fish ; 

 yet it "by no means follows that mere fish killers, 

 whose practice has never extended "beyond the Docks 

 at JBlackwall, the Surrey and Regent's Canals, or a mile 

 from Islington, on the New Eiver, are entitled to the 

 name of anglers, in the "best sense of the word. Their 

 hands are dabbled in "blood from the butcher's tub 

 and fouled with the garbage with which they bait their 

 ground; and there is the fragrance of no flowers to con- 

 ceal the loathsome smell. They hear not the murmur 

 of the stream, nor the song of birds ; they see not the 

 forest in the fulness of summer leaf, nor the meadow 

 prankt with summer flowers. Confined, in pairs, in a 

 punt or boat, or singly to a strip of ground some thirty 

 feet long, the extent of their rod and line, they sit or 

 stand for hours, the picture of despondency their eyes 

 never raised from their float, unless when roused by the 

 coarse salute of a sailor or bargeman, or by the sarcastic 

 query of "what success?" from the passer-by. Such per- 

 sons, if married men, are generally those who seek 

 relief from domestic annoyances ; and who, in the words 

 of one of their poets, 



" bend their way 



To streams, where far from, care and strife, 

 From smoky house and scolding wife, 

 They snare the finny race." 





