26 DOWN THE BECK 



mirth, content, and recreation that could be ; and 



this he held to his dying day." # 



" Wisdom's self 

 Oft seeks to sweet retired solitude ; 

 Where, with her best nurse, Contemplation, 

 She plumes her feathers." 



There is little doubt that had the writer of these 

 well-known lines been able to tear himself from his 

 books for any diversion, it would have been in 

 order to angle. A great authority recommends a 

 man weighed down with overwhelming mental 

 trouble to learn a new language by way of divert- 

 ing his thoughts from self ; it would be far more 

 efficacious for him to sally out fishing, not, certainly, 

 to stand for hours beside a sullen pool angling 

 with float and worm — this would be to invite 

 suicide — but to ramble down the bank of some 

 winding stream, burdened with nothing heavier 

 than a clear conscience and a light fly-rod. Then 

 may St Nicholas speedily befriend his votary ! 



Now put on your flies — a green drake, by all 

 means, if it be May — if not, nothing can be better 

 than the " red spinner," the " coachman," and, above 

 all, " the professor," from its taking qualities — fit 

 namesake of Christopher North. We have reached 

 the Beck, and this warm south wind " will blow 



* Life of Bishoji Andrewes by H. Isaacson, his amanuensis. 

 Andrewes' works, Anglo -Catholic Library. 



