11. INTRODUCTION. 



flows down a rocky gorge to the Severn Sea. Devon, also, had he 

 at hand Devon, the " Shire of the Sea Kings " ; the land of junket, 

 cream and cider with all its wealth of lovely trout-streams, and 

 moorland and sylvan scenery. Yet this man saw neither poetry nor 

 romance in angling ; whilst others find both in the far less beautiful 

 midland rivers, on sluggish fenland drains, or even on the prosaic 

 banks of canals. 



Successful sport with the fish is undoubtedly the greatest 

 delight of the angler, but this does not constitute his only incentive, 

 his solitary joy. Certainly a man does not don the garb of a 

 Waltonian merely that he may study Nature, or spend the whole or 

 part of a day in idleness ; but, whilst pursuing his leisured pas- 

 time, he finds ample time to observe and study those things that 

 are not exactly part of the gentle art of angling. For example, 

 the bottom-fisherman, seated on camp-stool or basket ; the dry-fly 

 man, watching for a " rise," and the wet-fly man, passing from one 

 stickle to another, have unrivalled opportunity for gaining exact 

 knowledge of the habits of the numerous beautiful wild birds that 

 frequent the riverside meadows, or, if less scientifically disposed, 

 for revelling in the countless beauties of a luxuriant countryside. 

 And, although the angler is often too much preoccupied to feast his 

 eyes upon all the pictures and phenomena of Nature, he nevertheless 

 feels and is influenced by their presence. As a fellow Waltonian 

 so charmingly expresses it : " To lure the speckled trout is after 

 all a small thing compared to the associations which surround the 

 recreation of the contemplative man, active withal in his recreation. 

 The wielding of the rod, the casting of the fly, is in its way the 

 most artistic and elegant of sporting accomplishments that man 

 has made for himself and woman has graced herself with as an 

 accomplishment." 



The genuine angler is an admirer of the beautiful and a lover 

 of the ancient. He delights in anything that is shrouded in the 

 mystery of the dim and distant past ; he revels in legend, folk-lore 

 and in the quaint and homely rustic characters he meets in his wan- 

 derings. And, when he has decided upon the scene of an angling 



