THE 



PRACTICAL ANGLER. 



CHAPTER I. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



NGLERS, unlike excisemen, have no ground 

 of complaint against the definition given 

 of their occupation in Johnson's Dictionary. 

 Angling, the world is there informed, is 

 " the art of fishing with a rod." This may 

 be imperfect may need a little filling up 

 (the task, indeed, which we propose to our- 

 selves) but it is perfectly fair and unpreju- 

 diced. Not so, however, another definition, dropped 

 from the lips of the same great authority in private, 

 and which has ever since passed from mouth to 

 mouth with a sneer. " Angling," said Dr. Johnson^ 

 " means a rod with a fly at one end and a fool at 

 the other." Nothing has rankled so deeply in the 

 angling mind as this obiter dictum of the Mitre. It 

 came from one, however, who knew nothing what- 

 ever about the pursuit at which he threw his sarcasm, 

 who, short-sighted and hypochondriacal, probably 



