2 ANGLING DEFINED. 



which leads to perfection. In their efforts to ac- 

 quire the surest, most amusing, most health-giving, 

 and, I may say, most elegant modes of pursuing 

 and capturing their game, be it the produce of 

 field or flood, they call to their aid several ancil- 

 lary studies, amongst which stands prominent that 

 of the natural history of animals and of other 

 living things, ranking not so high in the scale of 

 creation. The hunter studies the habits of horse 

 and dog, and of the fercz naturce he pursues with 

 them, the fowler of the birds of the air, and the 

 fisherman of the fish of the water. Hence know- 

 Iedge 4 skill, and success ; hence the accomplished 

 sportsman, rarely found except amongst the best 

 types of Englishmen, whether of high or low 

 degree. 



Though angling has been jeered at more than 

 any other sporting practice, still no other subject 

 connected with field sports has been more minutely 

 and extensively written upon. No sporting writer 

 is so generally known as Izaak Walton, and his 

 " Complete Angler" has earned for him an im- 

 mortality which will last until the art of printing 

 our language shall be forgotten. May that time 

 never arrive ! The subject then cannot be un- 

 worthy of a modern pen ; but the pen perchance 

 may be unworthy of the subject, and thus prove 

 an obstacle to my design, which is to write upon 

 angling in a plain, connected, business-like way, 



