4 INTRODUCTORY. 



some second-rate novel for the third time, the 

 amusement agreeably diversified by staring out of 

 the window at the interminable rain, by poking a 

 peat-fire, and possibly by indulging in a superfluity 

 of that institution of the country, pale ale. 



" Though sluggards deem it but an idle chase, 

 And marvel men should quit their easy chair 

 The toilsome way and long long league to trace ; 

 Oh ! there is sweetness in the mountain air, 



And life that bloated ease can never hope to share. " 



That angling is good for exercise is certain. 

 That it is also good for amusement is equally certain ; 

 but the pleasure derived from the catching of fish, 

 like that derived from other field sports, is more 

 easily felt than described. There can be no doubt, 

 that by the great majority of people an amusement 

 is valued in proportion as it affords room for the 

 exercise of skill there is more merit, and therefore 

 more pleasure in excelling in what is difficult and 

 though we may astonish some of our readers, we 

 assert, and shall endeavour to prove, that angling is 

 the most difficult of all field sports. It requires all 

 the manual dexterity that the others do, and brings 

 more into play the qualities of the mind, observation, 

 and the reasoning faculties. In shooting and hunt- 

 ing, the dogs do the observation and the reasoning 

 part of the business, and the sportsman the me- 

 chanical ; but the angler has not only to find out 

 where his fish are, but to catch them, and that not 

 by such a " knock-nie-down" method as is practised 



