ROBERT BLAKEY xv 



angling literature and practices of the ancients ; on the 

 periods from the Christian era to the revival of letters 

 in Europe, and the institution of the art of printing ; 

 on the connection of angling with heraldry, architecture, 

 ancient coins, and superstitions, astrology, necromancy, 

 and the drama, are an exhaustive epitome written in easy 

 style ; and the last chapter, on the angling literature of 

 Great Britain from 1800 to 1855, was of considerable 

 value, even if it was largely flavoured by the Nodes 

 Ambrosiance of Blackwood. One of the curiosities of 

 this chapter is an extract from a Cape Town newspaper 

 of 1852, in which a correspondent describes a marvellous 

 day's fly-fishing for " trout." There were no trout (as 

 we know them) to our knowledge in South Africa at 

 that time, but the statement is made without note or 

 comment by the author. The publisher of this book, 

 John Russell Smith, added as an appendix a Biblio- 

 graphical Catalogue of Writers on Angling and Ichthy- 

 ology to date, and this was a decided boon to our brother 

 anglers at the time of its publication. 



The Autobiography ends rather abruptly, and the in- 

 formation in the Memoirs is never complete. Blakey's 

 editor supposes that the entries are mere reminders 

 upon which he himself intended to enlarge in some 

 future leisure, which never arrived. Amongst the brief 

 facts is an entry that in 1854 he wrote two books for 

 Messrs. Koutledge, Angling (the present work), and the 

 kindred volume Shooting, in the " Books for the Country" 

 series. 



These would seem to be his final books on sport, and 

 indeed hereafter his only finished work was Old Faces 

 under New Masks. He enlarged some of his more solid 

 treatises; and in 1860 received a pension of £100 from 

 the Civil List. The later years of his arduous life were 

 spent in the seclusion of his London home, and he died 

 on 26th October 1878. He enjoyed occasional angling, 

 " till his infirmities made it no longer possible for him 

 to follow it." 



The Eev. H. Miller of St. Andrew's Presbyterian 

 Church of England, Hammersmith, edited the Memoirs 



