INTRODUCTION. 



Hark to the music of the reel ! 



We listen with devotion ; 

 There's something in that circling wheel 



That stirs the heart's emotion ! 



Songs and Ballads of Sport. 



What exquisite thrills the harsh battle-song of the reel sends 

 through the frame of the angler ! Every nerve becomes tense, every 

 muscle tightens, at the sound of the shrill, discordant music. It 

 rings with a note of coming triumph, and of the realised joy of 

 strife : the angler has overcome all preliminary difficulties, and 

 at last is at grips with his fish ! One of the supreme moments of 

 an angler's day has come to him a moment of " glorious life." 



But, speaking metaphorically, the song of the reel is not 

 merely a song of death. It sounds also a far finer note, a note 

 more subtle, more intense an elfin symphony a song of the poetry 

 and wondrous romance of the rod. 



On the banks of one of the swift and beautiful streams of 

 Exmoor, the writer once met a man of the district, who solemnly 

 imparted the fact that he considered fishing dreadfully slow unless 

 he was catching fish continually. " I wait until the rain has replen- 

 ished and clouded the streams," said he, " then, using worm, I have 

 some rare sport, frequently filling my basket with forest fish." 



This man, who judged of the joys of angling by the number of 

 fish he caught, had, as it were, all the wonder of Exmoor at his 

 feet : a region pregnant with the memory of John Ridd and the 

 Doones : a region abounding in such delectable streams as the Barle, 

 the Exe, Badgworthy Water and the far-famed Lyn, which last 



