80 NOTES ON FISH AND PISHING. 



Dr. Leigh, who was Master of Balliol College, Oxford, 

 Sir John Hawkins informs us, made angling " the recrea- 

 tion of his vacant hours," though " turned of ninety." 

 He died in 1790. 



I might have gone back farther, and mentioned other 

 anglers of more ancient days, like Anthony and Cleopatra. 

 The Emperor Augustus was an angler, and so was Cara- 

 calla, whose exploits in the " Virginia Water of the 

 Caasars " Oppian has happily chronicled. 



We gather, too, from some scurrilous verses by the 

 witty and venomous Lord Rochester, beginning 



" Methinks I see our mighty Monarch stand, 

 His pliant angle trembling in his hand," 



that our Charles the Second was one of the fraternity. 



More lately among those of notable anglers we have 

 the names of Sir Humphry Davy, Archdeacon Paley, 

 Sir F. Chantrey, Brinsley Sheridan, Sir Anthony Car- 

 lisle, Professor Wilson, and Sir John Soane, all men of 

 eminence. 



Modern anglers are of course a very miscellaneous 

 class, ranging from the highest to the lowest in the land. 

 The " Upper Ten " and the " Plutocracy " supply most of 

 the salmon fishers, for salmon-fishing is an expensive 

 amusement — 



" Non cuivis homini contingit adire Corinthum." 



There are men who give up their lives to salmon fish- 

 ing, and go almost all over the world for it, spending 

 fortunes in the pursuit. They have cast a fly on almost 

 every river in the three kingdoms, and know every inch 

 of the famous Scotch waters almost as well as Mr. Watson 

 Lyall, the proprietor and editor of the Sportsman's 



