FISHING AS A SPOET. 83 



plied wonderfully. They hold their meetings, weekly or 

 bi-weekly, in the season, at some congenial hostelry, the 

 landlord of which is generally one of the fraternity. These 

 names are " fanciful" but significative of their craft or 

 indicative of the good fellowship which reigns supreme 

 among anglers. Thus we have the " Friendly Anglers," 

 the " Amicable Waltonians," the " Brothers-well-met," 

 the " Golden Barbel," the " Sir Hugh Myddelton," the 

 " Convivial," the "Nil Desperandum," the "Isaak Wal- 

 ton," the " Silver Trout," the "Walton and Cotton," the 

 "Hoxton Brothers," and "Brothers" and "Anglers" 

 innumerable with an agnomen signifying their particular 

 district. Their club-rooms are decorated with preserved 

 fish, many splendid cases of which they exhibited at the 

 Piscatorial Exhibition at the Westminster Aquarium in 

 1877, and various piscatorial trophies. At their meetings 

 they " show " and " weigh in " their captures, and prizes 

 are given for the " takes." It would be more easy almost 

 to enumerate what these prizes are not than what they 

 are, as they range from a set of dining-tables down to a 

 silver thimble, and like Achilles, the least fortunate mem- 

 ber values his prize, though it be "but a little one." 

 Watches, teapots, lustres, purses, cigar-cases, et hoc genus 

 omne, not forgetting fishing-boots, waterproof-coats, and 

 fishing-tackle, serve as testimonials to skill and luck; 

 while coals are also at Christmas time among the rewards 

 of merit, and even a lively young porker and a half-grown 

 donkey have figured among the honoraria. 



The establishment of these clubs in London, and in the 

 provinces, where they flourish equally well, has given rise 

 of late years to Angling contests, by which, of course, 



the "enterprising landlord" of the Arms, who 



G 2 



