352 NOTES ON MSEC AND FISHING. 



" padding," if you like, good critic!) — will be on "Thames 

 Angling." 



I am essentially a Thames angler, as my readers have 

 probably discovered long ere this. I love the dear old 

 river above all other rivers. I was born on the Thames, 

 i. e. on its banks ; I learnt my Latin grammar and the 

 grammar of angling on the Thames ; and I took my 

 degree both as M.A. and, to perpetuate a threadbare old 

 joke, as a senior (wr)angler on the Thames. I know 

 every inch of the river, from its source (which is its 

 source, by the way?) to the Nore. I could map every 

 reach from Oxford to Richmond, tell the name and depth 

 of almost every " swim," and the spot where grows each 

 rare aquatic plant, such as the rich butomus, or flowering 

 rush, and the elegant villarsia, the latter of which, by the 

 way, can only number about six patches in the 150 miles. 



I — may my apparent egotism and my enthusiasm, too, 

 be pardoned — admire the soft beauty of the Thames, its 

 quiet "home" scenery, such as no other river in the 

 world can boast, its varied volume of water, — 



" Strong without rage, without o'evflowing full," 



(except in the wretched "flood" times), its thousand 

 charms, which seem to gather rather than lose force as 

 yea.rs pass on, — 



" Tending to the darksome hollows, 

 Where the frosts of winter lie." 



" Once a Thames angler, always a Thames angler," I 

 believe. It cannot be otherwise. If, in the hey-day of 

 youth, even before we cared for fishing as a sport or 

 viewed it as an art, by chance we formed one of a party 



