74 NOTES ON PISH AND FISHING. 



is in search of. The bold, impetuous rider is by no means 

 disqualified from beating his turnips and stubbles as a 

 plodding, careful shot ; or a sportsman who is either the 

 former or the latter, or both, from being a patient, " con- 

 templative" angler. 



Still, if I were asked, " Which of the three sports creates 

 the most enthusiasm ? " I should say at once angling ; and, 

 " Which yields the keenest sensation of pleasure? " I should 

 undoubtedly give the same answer. The hooking, play- 

 ing, and eventual landing of a big fish is facile princeps 

 the most intense sporting excitement we are capable of. 

 Our first partridge, our first brush (or even the first kiss 

 "at love's beginning," as Campbell has it), are as nothing 

 compared to our first salmon or our first big trout, while 

 for ever afterwards a big bag, or " the run of the sea- 

 son/' are not painted in the memory with such unfading 

 colours as a memorable take of fish. The fact that a dis- 

 appointment in losing a good fish is one of the greatest 

 of sporting trials, makes success all the more pleasurable. 

 In Poster's recent life of Swift we find that the Dean, in a 

 letter to Pope, wrote thus : " I remember, when I was a 

 little boy, I felt a great fish at the end of my line, which 

 I drew up almost on the ground, but it dropped in, and 

 the disappointment vexes me to this very day." So 

 intense are the emotions which fishing excites. 



And as the angler is the most enthusiastic of sports- 

 men, so do none persevere with it so long. The well- 

 known picture of the old gouty fisherman in his night-cap 

 and dressing-gown, and one foot on a rest, indulging in 

 his favourite sport in a tub which had been brought up 

 to his bedroom, is but a little exaggeration of his animus. 

 There is a good story told of an old courser on his death- 



