94 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. 



a long pedestrian or rowing excursion, or laborious shooting 

 or deer-stalking. I have known many men come back 

 from a month or six week's holiday, in which bodily 

 exercise has been a main feature, worse men than they 

 set forth.. Angling supplies sufficient opportunity for 

 taking exercise and laying in a stock of fresh air to such 

 persons as I have mentioned, without entailing bodily 

 exhaustion ; while it affords abundant diversion and plea- 

 sureable excitement of not too exacting a character to the 

 mind. It is the very kind of recreation which will restore 

 both body and mind, and refit the man to return to work. 

 As Pheedrus says, — 



" Ludus animo debet aliquando dari, 

 Ad oogitandum melior ut redeat tibi." 



A word or two on angling as a sport and pastime for 

 Ladies. Why should it not be so? It is par excellence 

 the " gentle " art. Why, then, should not those pursue 

 it whose nature is specially characterized by " gentle- 

 ness " ? The question of cruelty in angling I have already 

 disposed of. Lady anglers need fear no greater qualms 

 than gentlemen. Peter Pindar has sung quaintly and 

 prettily enough in his Ballad to a Fish of the Brook, — ■ 



" Ob, harmless tenant of the flood ! 

 I do not wish to spill thy blood ; 



For Nature unto thee 

 Perchance has given a tender wife, 

 And children dear to charm thy life, 



As she has done to me. 

 Enjoy thy stream, oh, harmless fish ! 

 And when an angler for his dish, 



Through gluttony's vile sin, 

 Attempts, a wretch, to pull thee out, 

 God give thee strength, oh, gentle trout, 



To pull the rascal in ! " 



