8 ANGLING SKETCHES 



Success with pen or rod ma}' be be)'ond one, 

 but there is the pleasure of the pursuit, the rapture 

 of endeavour, the dehght of an impossible chase, 

 the joys of nature — sky, trees, brooks, and birds. 

 Happiness in these things is the legacy to us of 

 the barbarian. Man in the future will enjoy bricks^ 

 asphalte, fog, machinery, ' societ)',' e\'cn picture 

 galleries, as many men and most women do already. 

 ^^'e are fortunate who inherit the older, not ' the 

 new spirit ' — we who, skilled or unskilled, follow in 

 the steps of our father, Izaak, b}- streams less 

 clear, indeed, and in meadows less fragrant, than 

 his. Still, they are meadows and streams, not 

 wholl)' dispeopled )'et of birds and trout ; nor can 

 any defect of art, nor certaint}' of laborious dis- 

 appointment, keep us from the ^^'aterside \\'hen 

 April comes. 



Next to being an expert, it is well to be a con- 

 tented duffer : a man who would fish if he could, 

 and who will pleasure himself by flicking off his 

 flies, and dreaming of impossible trout, and smok- 

 ing among the sedges Hope's enchanted cigarettes. 

 Next time we shall be more skilled, more fortunate 



