8 PEOSE HALIEUTICS. 



this omission of a fishing bishop as successor to St. 

 Peter, in a church which professes to follow so exactly 

 the apostolic pattern in all things, is an extraordinary 

 oversight ! 



England is the only country where the gentle art is 

 thoroughly understood, and where everything around 

 conspires to make men anglers, and to keep them so. 

 Here in cheerM solitude Piscator may wander by the 

 edge of the stream, and fear neither wild snake nor 

 lurking crocodile; here he can 'retire at night with his 

 few trouts (to borrow the pleasing description of old 

 "Walton), to some friendly cottage, where the landlady 

 is good, and the daughters innocent and beautiful; where 

 the room is cleanly, with lavender in the sheets, and 

 twenty ballads stuck about the wall ! Here he may en- 

 joy the company of a talkative brother sportsman; have 

 his trouts dressed for supper, tell tales, sing old tunes, 

 or make a catch! Here he can talk of the wonders of 

 nature with learned admiration; or find some harmless 

 sport to content him, and pass away a little time, with- 

 out ofience to God, or injury to man.' Here too, in 

 after-life, wherever he may have travelled and fished in 

 the meanwhile, he will delight to return, (and if he be 

 a true disciple of Walton) to 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 sliort and weather mild. 

 The morning fresh, the evening snuled. 

 Would sit all day with patient skill, 

 Attending to the trembling qnill. 



The mere sight of a fishing-line in after-life is ofttimes 



