DOWN THE BECK 25 



ought to be attracted from his study to the brook. 

 Plutarch tells how the Pythagoreans abstained from 

 eating fish, deeming them, on account of their 

 dumbness, creatures most kindred to the philo- 

 sophic mind. Theology itself has not scrupled to 

 embalm the highest mysteries under the symbol of 

 a fish ; and grave bishops at present do not disdain 

 exploits with the salmon-rod that are duly chronicled 

 in the columns of the Field. Thus, the true angler 

 may well join Sir H. Wotton in deeming the hours 

 spent on his favourite sport " his idle time not idly 

 spent," even if he cannot echo his sentiment that 

 " he would rather live five May months than forty 

 Decembers." # We have always regretted that good 

 Bishop Andrewes, the model of a saint, a scholar, 

 and a divine, did not angle. What additional zest 

 would it not have lent to those rambles of which his 

 biographer speaks in such simple language ! " His 

 ordinary exercise and recreation was walking, 

 either alone by himself, or with some other selected 

 companion, with whom he might confer and argue 

 and recount their studies ; and he would often 

 profess that to observe the grass, herbs, corn, trees, 

 cattle, earth, waters, heavens, any of the creatures, 

 and to contemplate their natures, orders, qualities, 

 virtues, uses, &c, was ever to him the greatest 



* Walton's Life of Sir Hy. "Wotton. 



