182 ANGLING LITERATURE OF 



mention with commendation the art of angling. Pope 

 .says : 



" In genial spring, beneath the quivering shade, 

 Where cooling vapours breathe along the mead, 

 The patient fisher takes his silent stand, 

 Intent, his angle trembling in his hand ; 

 With looks unmov'd, he hookes the scaly breed, 

 And eyes the dancing cork and bending reed. 

 Our plenteous streams a various race supply, 

 The bright-ey'd perch with fins of Tyrian dye ; 

 The silver eel, in shining volumes roll'd, 

 The yellow carp, in scales, bedrop'd with gold ; 

 Swift trouts, diversified with crimson stains ; 

 And pikes, the tyrants of the wat'ry plains." 



Thomson, the author of the Seasons, was, in his younger 

 days, a zealous and successful angler. He was born and 

 educated at the village of Ednim, in Roxburghshire, which 

 is situated on one of the finest little streams that run 

 into the Tweed, and is full of the richest trout in that 

 part of the Scottish border. The following elegant lines 

 are from the pen of this much and deservedly admired 

 poet, 



" Now, when the first foul torrent of the brooks, 

 Swell'd with the vernal rains, is ebb'd away ; 

 And, whitening, down their mossy- tinctur'd stream 

 Descends the billowy foam, now is the time, 

 While yet the dark-brown water aids the guile 

 To tempt the trout. The well dissembled fly 

 The rod, fine tapering with elastic spring, 



