46 AN APOLOGY FOR FISHING 



There surely never was any pastime regarded 

 with so little respect as this of fishing. But one 

 good quality (that of patience) is ever identified 

 with it ; and even that, when connected with this 

 particular sport, is sometimes spoken of in a dis- 

 paraging tone ; so that it is by no means an un- 

 common thing to hear a man brag of his deficiency 

 in this respect, saying, " I've not got patience enough 

 for that sort of thing " ; as if the fact redounded 

 enormously to his credit. 



" Going fishing ? " says your hearty friend as he 

 meets you in the hall, equipped for the sport, "You 

 must be hard up for some amusement — for of all the 

 deadly-lively proceedings — " 



" Going fishing \ " says another. " Well, it's cer- 

 tainly too early in the season for anything else in 

 the way of sport ; but still — " 



The very partisans of fishing, too, help, in a cer- 

 tain way, to bring it into discredit. What a litera- 

 ture it has ! The literature of all sport is apt to be 

 trying ; but this of fishing is surely especially dis- 

 astrous. The facetious element always figures here 

 in such grievous force. Nor only that. Dreadful 

 conventional forms of expression, phrases in inverted 

 commas, involved ways of expressing a simple thing, 

 abound — so that one meets continually with such 

 expressions as the " gentle craft " and the " finny 



