186 VARIOUS REMARKS ON THE 



CHAPTER IX. 



A brief notice of some Literary Effusions on the Inhumanity 

 and Folly of Angling, as an Art. 



DR. JOHNSON'S famous definition of an angling rod, 

 which we have not been able to see in any old folio edition of 

 his Dictionary has long been a standing joke against 

 anglers ; " that it was a stick, with a fool at one end, and 

 a hook at the other." The Doctor considered fishmongers 

 persons entirely devoid of feeling, and he cites as an evi- 

 dence of this opinion, that when once passing a fishmonger's 

 shop, where a man was skinning an eel, " he cursed it be- 

 cause it would not lie still." l 



It is a good and just rule to hear both sides of a ques- 

 tion ; and as the great majority of works on angling in 

 fact, we may say nearly all treatises on the subject are 

 more or less laudatory of the sport, it is but in accord- 

 ance with our notions of impartiality, to notice a few 

 lucubrations of an opposite character. We do not enter, 

 however, into the controversy in a serious mood ; but have 

 chiefly confined our selections of such productions as treat 

 of the matter of fish and fishing in a good-tempered spirit 

 of banter, raillery, or fun. The angler's art stands so 

 high in public estimation ; he has so large a measure 

 1 Croker's Boswell, vol. vii, p. 253. 



