88 NOTES ON FISH AND PISHING. 



pursue his sport and observations together. This is, as 

 I have said, one of the great charms of the fisherman's 

 sport ; and which makes it, par excellence, " The Contem- 

 plative Man's Kecreation." I can well understand the 

 earnest ejaculation of a well-known writer and sportsman 

 still among us, when he says, — ■ 



" You may shoot, you may hunt, you may stalk the red deer, 

 Let me list to the music of some falling weir.'' 



Yes—" The Eecreation " of a " Contemplative Man," 

 in the highest sense of the word : for I will venture to say 

 that anglers, as a rule, are "devout," if not strictly 

 speaking, "religious men." It has been well said, that 

 " an indevout philosopher is mad." I would almost say 

 the same of an " indevout " angler. The devout tone of 

 angling literature, from its beginning to the present day, 

 is very marked. Isaak Walton's book may almost be 

 called a religious work, so replete is it with religious 

 thoughts which had their origin in the contemplation of 

 the wonders and beauties of nature. I do not mean, of 

 course, that fishing on the banks of the Lea or Dove or 

 quiet Staffordshire streams, made Walton a religious man. 

 He was, and would have been that, without his love of 

 angling and of nature. But, doubtless, his angling 

 rambles increased his love of nature, and his love of 

 nature his love of its Creator. Here is one passage, 

 a well-known one out of scores, which illustrates his 

 frame of mind, and his constant contemplation of nature 

 as (to use the striking expression of Chaucer) "The 

 Yicar of the Almightie Lord :" — • 



" Lo there, the nightingale ! Another of our airy creatures, which 

 breathes such sweet loud music out of her little instrumental throat, 



