ENTHUSIASM OF ANGLERS. 3 



They have certainly in their ranks a larger pro- 

 portion of men of literature and science than can 

 be found among the followers of any other field 

 sport ; and for the comfort of those who have not the 

 much-despised gift of patience, we could point to a 

 number of celebrated anglers, who are by no means 

 celebrated as possessing this virtue, while numbers 

 of the most patient followers of Izaak Walton are 

 very far from having rivalled his success. Angling, 

 when once embarked in by any person possessed of a 

 reasonable amount of soul and brains, becomes a pas- 

 sion, and like other passions will grow and feed upon 

 the smallest possible amount of encouragement. Fish 

 or, no fish, whenever opportunity offers, the angler 

 may be found at the water-side. If this only went on 

 in fine weather, people could understand it, but now- 

 a-days, even in summer, the weather is not always 

 fine j and when a man is seen standing in the water 

 for hours in a torrent of rain, with benumbed hands 

 and an empty basket, doubts of the individual's 

 sanity naturally suggest themselves, mixed with 

 feelings of pity for the terrible consequences in the 

 way of colds, rheumatism, etc., which it is supposed 

 must inevitably follow, but which don't. We have 

 it from high medical authority, that rheumatism is 

 more engendered by hot rooms and fires than by 

 exposure, and as for the comfort of the thing, that 

 is according to taste. It is surely better to have fresh 

 air and exercise, even in wet, than to be spending 

 the whole day in some country inn, yawning over 



