CHAPTEE I 



INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS 



The art of angling is one of the most ancient amuse- 

 ments and practices of which we have any record in 

 the history of the human family. We read of it in the 

 Old Testament ; and in the records of ancient Egypt, 

 Assyria, and the whole of the eastern section of the 

 globe, once the seat of powerful empires, and of a 

 civilised people, we have innumerable testimonies in their 

 several sepulchral and architectural remains, that angling 

 — as we angle at this day — was an art well known, and 

 generally practised, both as an amusement and as a 

 means of support. In the polished and literary States 

 of Greece and Rome we have still more pointed and 

 irrefragable testimony of the high antiquity of the art. 

 The bucolic writers of Greek poetry descant upon the 

 subject in a variety of forms ; while graver historians 

 among that singular and enlightened people dwell upon 

 the art as one firmly embedded in the permanent customs 

 and habits of the nation. The literature of Rome like- 

 wise portrays the existence of the gentle art among the 

 warlike conquerors of the world. Not only formal 

 works were composed on the subject, but we find that 

 the classic poets, both serious and comic, make many 

 direct allusions to the amusement of the rod-fisher, and 

 to the fish he was in the habit of catching. 



From the Christian era, and during the first centuries 

 of the decline of Roman power and conquest, we find 

 that angling continued to be one of the common 

 pursuits of many nations, then in a state of transition 



