The Big Trout. 185 



bait put it into his head to do the very thing 

 he promised not to do, for my poor trout was 

 never seen afterwards — by me, at all events. 



In walking down Piccadilly this afternoon, 

 I saw in a picture-dealer's shop-window four 

 new paintings which very much pleased me, 

 and I feel sure that they would send a thrill of 

 delight through the heart of any real fisher- 

 man. They are so full of life, character, and 

 so true to nature, and I feel sure that no man 

 could have painted them unless he had known 

 how to handle the rod ; whoever he is, he is an 

 artist as well as a painter. The subject is 

 " Salmon Fishing," which forms the top rung 

 of the ladder of the fisherman's craft, and bears 

 the same relation in that art as woodcock 

 shooting does to the gunner, or fox-hunting 

 -to the hunter. The four pictures are, " The 

 Rise," "The Leap," "The Struggle," and 

 " Landed," and each one is a perfect study. 



