n of the country, that England is peculiarly 

 o form a race of anglers. The very cli- 

 mate, which certain foreigners decry as "being dull 

 and cloudy, is decidedly in favour of the angler; for, 

 notwithstanding the number and excellence of our 

 streams, had we the clear atmosphere and cloudless 

 skies of Italy, the fly-fisher's occupation would, in a 

 great measure, "be gone. Above all other classes of 

 Englishmen, the fly-fisher has most reason to be satis- 

 fied with the climate of his own country; and were a 

 course of angling to form as it ought a branch of 

 liberal education, we should not have so many ab- 

 sentees mis-spending their money and their time, 

 and losing the freshness of honest English feeling 

 in the enervating climate and degraded society of 

 Italy. 



" O, native Britain ! O, my mother Isle ! 

 How shouldst thou prove aught else but dear and 



holy 



To me, who from thy lakes and mountain hills, 

 Thy clouds, thy quiet dales, thy rocks, and seas, 

 Have drunk in all my intellectual life, 

 ATI sweet sensations, all ennobling thoughts, 

 All adoration of the God in nature, 

 All lovely and all honourable things, 

 Whatever makes this mortal spirit feel 

 The joy and greatness of its future being!"* 



Under the term "Angling," Professor Rennie in- 

 cludes all kinds of fishing with a hook, in salt water 



* Coleridge, Fears in Solitude. 



'.., - 



