INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON ANGLING. 17 
Gay, Thompson, John Tobin, R. T. Coleridge, Pro- 
fessor Wilson, Sir Walter Scott, and Sir Francis Chan- 
try, were all ardent disciples of Walton; and Admiral Lord 
Nelson was so passionately fond of the sport, that he fished 
with his left hand a long time after he had lost his right. 
Benjamin West, who enjoyed many a day’s sport with 
Sir Humphrey Davy, was an American Painter; and to come 
down to our own day, IIy, Inman, one of the best American 
Painters living, now on a visit to Europe, divides his time 
partly in painting the portraits of the nobles of England, and 
partly in the noble sport of trout and salmon fishing, in the 
beautiful lakes and rivers of Scolland. 
Daniel Webster finds relief, after a tedious winter’s 
session of Congress, in angling for salmon in the Kennebec, 
and for trout in the various streams of Massachusetts. It is 
said, moreover, that this distinguished statesman is quite as 
much at home in preparing a kettle of chowder, as he is in 
the halls of legislation at Washington; and Martin Van 
Buren is acknowledged to be equally successful in angling 
for pickerell as in the cultivation of his beautiful farm. 
Many other names of distinguished men, who 
Oft have tried with baited hook 
To tempt the tenant of the brook, 
could be added to this list, to prove that angling is held in high 
regard by all classes of people, but it is unnecessary. The 
observant reader will draw his own conclusions. 
When, however, we take into consideration the extent of 
our country, its many beautiful streams and quiet lakes, where 
the finny tribe abound, we will find that the number of an- 
glers, when compared with that of England, is astonishingly 
small. But the fact is, (and a deplorable one it is, too,) that 
the majority of the American people are so much engaged in 
“ getting rich,” that they scarcely ever think of enjoying the 
