xiv ROBERT BLAKEY 



and enlarged. In the following year a similar Guide 

 for the rivers and lochs of Scotland was published, and 

 that appeared as a second edition in 1859. 



In the May of 1855, Blakey called on Dr. Hume in 

 Liverpool, to look over a large stock of ballads which 

 he had been collecting for several years, the object 

 being to find if there were any on angling. Blakey's 

 store of angling songs and poetical pieces generally was 

 by this time already voluminous, and that year " The 

 Angler's Song Book, compiled and edited by Eobert 

 Blakey" (pp. 276 8vo), was published in London 

 and Edinburgh. He quotes from Dennys, Moses 

 Browne, Gay, Pope, Peter Pindar, and others, and it 

 is not too much to say that it is the best collection of 

 the kind ever made, for he draws freely upon the rich 

 stores of Scotland and the Border, and was evidently 

 familiar with much excellent material which seems to 

 be quite unknown to modern compilers. Some of the 

 contributions are Palmer Hackle's own compositions 

 reproduced from Hints, and they show that if Blakey 

 was not exactly a poet he had a very versatile and 

 tuneful pen. 



The late Mr. Thomas Satchell, a most precise biblio- 

 grapher, is severe in his monumental Bihliotheca 

 Piscatoria, upon Blakey's next book, Historical 

 Sketches of Angling Literature, which was published in 

 1856. He describes it as "a slipshod and negligent 

 work, devoid of all utility." "With all respect for Mr. 

 Satchell's judgment, this I think is hard measure. The 

 work is at anyrate interesting, if it is "irrelevant"; 

 and if there are "indiscriminate sweepings from 

 miscellaneous sources," it supplied a want : there was 

 nothing better for angling readers of the day. Blakey, 

 however, was often loose in verbal quotations, names, 

 and dates, and that would be enough for the always 

 exact Satchell. It must be remembered that Blakey's 

 work was avowedly " historical sketches of the angling 

 literature of all nations," and his deliberate intention 

 was to glean sayings and doings on the general subject 

 of fishing during all the centuries. The chapters on 



