THE GUDGEON. 319 



sport, which, is far more fascinating than many might 

 imagine. As an instance of this, Daniel, in his Rural 

 Sports, tells the story (and it must be retold in every 

 book about angling, like the story of Antony and Cleo- 

 patra) of a certain Vicar of Thames Ditton who was en- 

 gaged to be married to a daughter of the Bishop of Lon- 

 don, and to pass away the earlier hours of his wedding-day 

 betook himself to his favourite amusement of gudgeon- 

 fishing. He became so deeply interested in his pursuit 

 that he entirely forgot what ought to have been the great 

 crisis of his life, till after the canonical hour had passed. 

 He was consequently late in presenting himself at the 

 church, and the lady, in a fit of indignation, broke off the 

 match with a man who " preferred his basket to his 

 bride." Who can doubt the fascination of gudgeon-fish- 

 ing when we are told that our great Sir Isaac Newton 

 was a gudgeon-fisher, to say nothing of other " small fry,''' 

 as Bacon, Gay, and Hollinshed, who indulged freely in 

 this sport ? 



It is said, and I believe with a great deal of truth, that 

 ladies, when they take kindly to the gentle art, make better 

 gudgeon-anglers than men. They soon learn that it is 

 not correct to use both hands to the rod, and at a bite to 

 heave the line out of the swim with a long continuous 

 pull, and throw it over their heads into the water at the 

 other side of the punt, or to jerk the tackle into the faces 

 of their companions ; and when once they have acquired 

 the art of striking with the wrist, they become adepts in 

 gudgeon-fishing, their delicacy of hand standing them in 

 good stead. Last autumn, at Marlow, I gave a lady her 

 first lesson in gudgeon-fishing. She had never had a rod 

 and line in her hand before, and had, or pretended to have, 



