

OF ANGLING. 213 



The celebrated Thomas Bewick took a leading position, 

 at the commencement of the present century, in the repre- 

 sentations of angling scenes. Every one has been delighted 

 with his several woodcuts on the art. Take, for example, 

 that given at page 61, or 238, of the second volume of 

 his Birds. Look at the rocks rising from the margin of 

 the river, the wood fringing their sides and crowning the 

 summits; the trees bending down their branches, -as if to 

 kiss the pure waters still flowing coyly on ; you see the 

 rocky ledge over which the water is breaking and tumbling 

 (you may hear it murmur), and finally passing away into 

 that current surface so grateful to the eye of the skilful 

 fly-fisher. Then again look at the angler himself ; how 

 calm, and quiet, and contemplative he is; one who has 

 no care or anxiety, or wish, but for a wet night, and a 

 south wind on the morrow. You may see at a glance 

 that he has not a grain of gall in his composition ; that 

 neither avarice nor ambition disturbs him ; that he has 

 never thought of raising himself in the world, but only 

 how he might raise a trout. 



The late Mr. Isaac Nicholson, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 

 a pupil of Bewick's, threw off many admirable sketches 

 of angling and river scenes. All Mr. Nicholson's labours 

 in this line of wood engraving, show what a keen and 

 truthful eye he had for all that appertained. to the piscatory 

 art, as displayed in the fine fishing streams of the North 

 of England. 



There were several very witty caricatures of our own 



