4 THE ANGLEE-NATUKALIST. 



of the first angling nation in the world. England is^ indeed, 

 preeminently the land of the rod and line — the fisher- 

 man's paradise. There is no other country where the 

 gentle craft is so thoroughly understood and appreciated, 

 and where everything around unites to make a man an 

 angler, and to keep him so. Is he a bottom-fisher ? here 

 he may wander by the margin of ever-gliding streams, 

 knee-deep in meadow-sweet, or, with tranquil mind, muse 

 away life " in the green gleam of dewy-tasseFd trees." 

 Is he a troller ? in England he wiU find broad meres 

 and stately rivers that might ravish the soul of a Nobbes. 

 A fly-fisher ? by the rush of a Dove, or a Coquet, he will 

 be mated with trout and the goddess of scenery — 



" Sliut in — left alone — with himself, and perfection of water." 



Yes, England is the paradise of the angler ; and to Eng- 

 land, as Badham has gracefully expressed it, " in after-life, 

 wherever he may have travelled and fished in the mean 

 while, he will be delighted to return, and re- visit the scenes 

 of his angling boyhood — the banks of each well-known 

 stream, the unchanged lake, the paternal pond, and the 

 boat of ' auld lang syne ' rising two inches in the boat-house 

 to greet him — that dear old boat to which he used furtively 

 to creep, and, loosing her rusty and trusty chain from its 

 moorings, confide his mistress^'s name and the earliest efforts 

 of his Muse, or else, in some bright August day, 



" ' When showers were short and weather mild .... 

 Would sit all day, with patient skill, 

 Attentive to the trembling quill.' " 



