96 AN ANGLER'S SEASON 



are exceptionally gifted in the faculty of 

 observation and in the power of reasoning 

 from things observed ; and naturally these 

 excel. As for my own instance, that of 

 the friend who had nearly a creelful of 

 trout on his first attempt : that is a 

 harder nut to crack ; but it is crackable. 

 A few years ago, writing in The Academy, 

 then under the control of Mr. C. Lewis 

 Hind, who liked his contributors to be 

 original, I set forth the proposition that 

 any one who was adept in angling was 

 necessarily of high capacity in purely in- 

 tellectual arts. This teaching did not at 

 the time call forth much public comment. 

 Perhaps that was because it was not pre- 

 sented with sufficiently elaborate reason- 

 ing. The fact is, the proposition, instead 

 of having been thought out, was merely 

 the expression of an intuitive surmise. 

 Now, to my astonishment and delight, 

 it turns out to have been profoundly true. 

 Writing to The Times in support of Mrs. 

 Humphry Ward's plea that London 

 should provide public playing -grounds 



