UC-NRLF 
 
w 
 
 
 0^ 
 
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 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
 '^<^^^ 
 
 ^t^^nZy- / f '^'V 
 
AN 
 
 ANGLER'S STEANGE EXPERIENCES, 
 
 A WHIMSICAL MEDLEY, 
 
 AND AX 
 
 OF-FISH-ALL RECORD WITHOUT A-BBIDGE-MENT. 
 
 COTSWOLD ISYS, MA. 
 
 FELLOW OF ALhSOLES; LATE SCHOLAR OF ITAVCfl-ESTER. 
 
 PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED IN A STYLE NEVER BEFORE AVV-BOACS-&D IN THESE DATS AFTER 
 
 B^RAWINGS IN TF4r^i?-C0L0UR3. 
 
 " Piscator. I will tell you some of the wonders that you may see, and not till then believe, unless 
 you think fit. 
 
 " Venator. Sir, take what liberty you think fit, for your discourse seems to be music, and charms 
 me to an attendance." — The Complete Angler, by Izaak. Waltox, Author of " Life of Hook-er." 
 
 UonKon : 
 SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON, 
 
 CROWN BUILDINGS, 188, FLEET STREET. 
 1883. 
 
 ' [^All righUs resei-ved.] i^.. 
 
 A. -J- 
 
Loirsoir 
 
 FKINTES BT 6ILBEBT ANB KIVINGTON, LIMITED, 
 
 8T. John's squabb. 
 

 TO THE EIGHT HONOURABLE 
 
 HENRY FAWCETT, D.C.L., M.P., 
 
 POSTMASTEB-QENEBAL, 
 
 THIS VOLUME, RELATING TO AN ART IN WHICH HE IS SUCH A 
 
 PEOFICIENT AND ENTHUSIAST, 
 
 IS, WITH HIS KIND PERMISSION, 
 
 RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Poem Dedicatory, which reads like a Post-scriit . ix 
 
 Preface xi 
 
 A Fraternal Invitation to the International Fisheries 
 
 Exhibition at South Kensington .... xiii 
 Proem (being also a Metrical Treatise on most Moral 
 
 Philosophy and very Natural History ... 1 
 
 Stave 1 13 
 
 Interlude — Song : The Angler and the Brook . . 20 
 
 Stave II . . .22 
 
 Interlude — Song: The Music op the Reel . . .36 
 
 Stave III 38 
 
 Interlude— A Modern St. Anthony's Sermon to Fishes 46 
 
 Stave IV 48 
 
 Interlude — The Old Brook Revisited . . . .55 
 
 Stave V. . . 57 
 
 A Little Flight op Flies 62 
 
 The Song op the Red Spinners . . . . .64 
 
 To the Quill Gnat ....... 65 
 
 To THE Dragon Fly ....... 66 
 
 The Salmon Fly ........ 67 
 
 Hampshire Fly-Fisbing 60 
 
 Mtl'l I^POR 
 
VIU 
 
 Contents. 
 
 NOETH COUNTEY FlY-FiSHINQ 71 
 
 Weeds ' 73 
 
 elverwaeds : moeninq 76 
 
 Noon: Dinner al Fresco 78 
 
 Homewards : Evening 80 
 
 Broken Lines and Doubles Entendres . . . .83 
 The Wary Old Trout caught wjth a Salmon Fly . 86 
 
 Captain Trout and the May-Fly 88 
 
 "My Beauty''— a Song 90 
 
 Ode foe the Royal Inauguration op the International 
 
 Fisheries Exhibition . . . . . .91 
 
 Epilogue 93 
 
 Postscript (being a Poem on Fros — and Gons, and a 
 
 General Pocket-Kod for Anglers) . . . .97 
 
POEM DEDICATORY, 
 
 WHICH READS LIKE A POST-SCRIPT. 
 
 A FISHER-POET, like a fisher cunningr, 
 
 I seek to pay expenses by ray punning, 
 
 (For, when you think what Art will yet take off it, 
 
 How can a book like this yield much of profit ? 
 
 And guilty publishers take gilt, they say. 
 
 Off author's gingerbread : — not mine, I pray !) 
 
 And, wanting fishers all to buy my book, 
 
 I sought a name wherewith to bait my hook, 
 
 One that, alike for sport and persons' sake. 
 
 Would with the angling tribe be sure to take, 
 
 And therefore sought wherewith this hook to bait, 
 
 Sucli patron in a Minister of State. 
 
 " In such, an angler find ? " said some ; *^ go try 
 To find in August, sir, a real May fly : 
 Go, seek to rise a grayling with a midge 
 Beneath the middle arch of London Bridge ! 
 A statesman, Cotswold, to endorse your puns ! 
 He'll send you back the bluest of blue duns." 
 " Is not," said I, " the Master of the Post 
 A master of the Rod ?" 
 
 No time was lost ; 
 I sought him. Though, alas ! he could not see. 
 He felt, as I expected, sympathy : 
 Rare sympathy with fishers and their art 
 Was in his hand and in his kindly heart — 
 
Poem Dedicatory. 
 
 Heart ever kindly, but now kindlier made 
 By recent passage through the gloomy shade, 
 Where long above him poised that threatening dart 
 Propitious heaven averted from his heart — 
 And, for my theme, he to my prayer inclined. 
 And to my faults — and impudence — was blind. 
 
 Thus stamped, my book through Angle-land should j^ost, 
 And should be soon delivered on each coast 
 Where'er the fisher ph'es his gentle ad 
 In peaceful pastime that doth soothe the heart ; 
 Where'er the rod the luring fly doth fling. 
 And red trout rise, or silvern salmon spring ; 
 Where'er dace dance, or glinting grayling glide,' 
 Chub grub, carp creep, or slimy eel doth slide ; 
 Where'er the barbel burrows, or the bream 
 Bobs at the bait in lake or pond or stream ; 
 Where'er perch prowl, pike prey, or roach do roam • 
 The green-fringed waters of our island home ; 
 Where'er the foreign mails in Fawcett's name. 
 Bear FmgX^ndi's fisherman-Postmaster^ s fame. 
 
 » " Salvian takes the grayling to be called Timber, from lis swift swimming 
 or gliding out of sight, more like a shadow or a ghost than a fish." — 
 Walton's "Complete Angler," p. 116 (Pickering). 
 
 2 I know what you are thinking about, my dear Ciitic, as to this being 
 a complete, or incomplete, catalogue of the denizens of British waters. 
 Ye-« tench. But who cares for tench ? Their very name is five-sixths of 
 an abomination. As you ttickle for accuracy, you will also observe that I 
 have omitted sticklebacks. 
 
PEEFACE. 
 
 The genesis of the following medley is as strange as any of 
 the experiences recorded in it. It was born in a sick-room, 
 and nurtured in darkness. It was composed to beguile the 
 time and amuse the mind of the author himself, when suffering 
 for some weeks from a form of ophthalmia, which necessarily 
 precluded him from reading or writing, or engaging in any 
 literary work of a more serious character. 
 
 The author cannot but feel a grateful affection for this 
 composition, from the fact that his hours of gloom were 
 brightened by it with many a sweet memory of happy hours 
 spent by brook and river-side, and that it afforded amusement 
 to his mind when there was little else to occasion it. 
 
 He will be very happy if it have the same effect, under 
 similar circumstances, upon any of his readers. 
 
 While, however, innocent amusement has been a leading 
 aim, it will be seen that the author has had a far higher one. 
 The lyrics interspersed will, he hopes, gratify the taste of the 
 most refined, and subserve a far higher purpose than the 
 mere amusement of an idle hour. Long before the days of 
 good old Izaak, even the poets of antiquity have discerned 
 not only a poetical, but even an ethical element in the angler's 
 art. 
 
 Almost every incident; even to details, is strictly and 
 literally true, and this will render the record not the less, but 
 
xu 
 
 Preface. 
 
 the more amusing. Mauy of these experiences — and some 
 of the most ludicrous — were personal; while those that were 
 not so were those of the author's own friends, or other 
 members of the angling fraternity. 
 
 The author believes and hopes that his work will be relished 
 by that large and interesting body, most of whom are genial 
 souls — a common prejudice to the contrary notwithstanding — 
 and have a love of humour which renders them more than 
 commonly appreciative of a good joke in connexion with their 
 favourite amusement. Should this veracious record amuse 
 them, and add to their enjoyment in the pursuit of the gentle 
 art, he will not regret the painful affliction, without which it 
 would not have been written. 
 
 TlIK "complete" ANQLEU. 
 
FRATERNAL INVITATION TO THE INTER- 
 NATIONAL FISHERIES EXHIBITION AT SOUTH 
 KENSINGTON. 
 
 1. 
 
 Shine kindly on the Fair of Fish, 
 
 And be not foul, O skies ! 
 Ye anglers all from East and West 
 
 And North and South arise ! 
 Come, join your brethren at the Fair, 
 
 For there you're sure to meet 'em ; 
 Nor ye alone who capture fish. 
 
 But ye who love to eat 'em. 
 
 2. 
 
 Come from Norweyan glassy fjords. 
 
 From Zembla's icy seas. 
 From India's strand and Nilus' shore. 
 
 And the stormy Hebrides ; 
 " Advance Australia ! " come, Ceylon, 
 
 Columbia, Carolina ! 
 Come rods Japanned ! and bring your twist 
 
 And pigtail lines, O China ! 
 
 We'U gather from the watery world 
 All vertebrates with scales — 
 
 And some without — from tittlebats 
 Up to the Pnnce of Whales ! 
 
xiv A P^raternal Invitation to the 
 
 Fishers, the fish of every stream 
 Will show, and how they took 'em ; 
 
 And how each angler for himself 
 
 May breed, and catch, and cook 'em ! 
 
 4. 
 You'll see the ova-hatching box 
 
 That can all fish create, 
 And furnish forth for every stream 
 
 A private Billingsgate ! 
 All tackle known for taking fish — 
 
 Harpoons and spears and prods. Sirs, 
 From mighty trawls to minnow-nets ; 
 
 All baits and flies and rods. Sirs. 
 
 5. 
 And wondrous reels that wind themselves, 
 
 Whene'er they feel a rise ; 
 And rods that swallow their own joints, 
 
 And fly-clad hooks with eyes ! 
 The arts of famous anglers there, 
 
 Your wondering eyes will strike, Sirs, 
 You'll learn the road to fisher-fame. 
 
 And have to pay no j^i/ce. Sirs ! 
 
 6. 
 You'll see electric floats that dance 
 
 Like fireflies on the streams ; 
 And flies of fire that coax by night 
 
 The trout from lazy dreams ! 
 Nor should I wonder if you see 
 
 Baits that, as bottom-trotters. 
 Will of themselves find out the fish. 
 
 And hunt for them like otters ! 
 
International Fisheries Exhibition. xv 
 
 7. 
 You'll see the magnates of " The Field" 
 
 F. F. and A. R. I. 
 E. L. ; and also R. B. M., 
 
 Who our " Gazette " doth ply. 
 And many another famous man 
 
 Renowned for pisci-slaughter ; 
 Nor finer fellows could you find, 
 
 Tho' searching " Land and Water." 
 
 Fi&h-doctors will be there to show 
 
 To what fish-flesh is heir 
 By foil disease from parasites ; 
 
 And all the wondrous care 
 They take to find out remedies — 
 
 I fear they won't ensure 'em ! — 
 And if your talcen fish grow ill, 
 
 They'll teach you how to cure 'era. 
 
 9. 
 Jurists will meet to thwart their plans 
 
 Who show such love to mar 
 Our sport : — the Irish foes to Kelts — 
 
 The Scotch who'd kill our parr ! 
 The millers who on every stream 
 
 Pour out their chemic poison, 
 Steam-launchers, poachers, all, in fine. 
 
 Who hinder river foison.' 
 
 10. 
 Lovers of man — who love their foes — 
 Riparian owners e'en — 
 
 ^ An old Saxon word of comuion occurrence in English Law, signifjing 
 plenty, abundance. 
 
xvi A Fraternal Invitation^ &c. 
 
 Will prove that " Crowuers " need not work 
 So hard to serve the Queen ! 
 
 They^ll show the perils undergone 
 By gallant salt- sea- rangers, 
 
 And how humanitarian Art 
 Can mitigate their dangers. 
 
 11. 
 
 You'll see the brave life-saving raen. 
 
 Who'll show their floating buoys ; 
 Lights that will burn in heavy seas. 
 
 Signals that shout " Ahoys ! " 
 The porpoise-boat that won't capsize, 
 
 The net that will not break, Sirs, 
 The stove that water will not quench, 
 
 But cook in floods a steak, Sirs ! 
 
 12. 
 
 And, for your sporting angler, all 
 
 He needs to make him bold ; 
 From hat to boot, his precious form 
 
 To keep from catching cold ; 
 And this the greatest fact of all. 
 
 In this important crisis — 
 You'll see " The Strange Experiences 
 
 Of angling Ootswold Isys ! " 
 
4^- 
 
 AN ANGLER'S STRANGE EXPERIENCES. 
 
 PROEM. 
 
 BEING ALSO A METRICAL TREATISE ON MOST MORAL PHILOSOPDY 
 AND VERY NATURAL HISTORY. 
 
 1. 
 
 A DISCIPLE of Izaak, in writing this poem. 
 Would ask his good reader to list to a Proem ; 
 The more since his theme seems unfit for the harp. 
 And as cold as a bleak, and as dull as a carp. 
 
 Who know not its pleasures, our pastime deride, 
 And think it to all that is senseless allied. 
 And define it, like Johnson— that terrible ghoul, — 
 " At the one end a worm, at the other a fool." 
 
 3. 
 
 But what pastimes or sports, recreations or games,' 
 Can vie with a day on the broad-bosom'd Thames ? 
 
 ^ " Angling is the most difficult of all field sports. It requires all the 
 manual dexterity that the others do, and brings more into play the qualities 
 of the mind, observation, and the reasoning faculties. In shooting and 
 hunting, the dogs do the observation and reasoning part of the business, and 
 the sportsman the mechanical ; bi^t the angler has not only to find out where 
 his fish are, but to catch them, and that not by such a knock me-down 
 method as is practised upon some unfortunate blackcock or unwary hare, but 
 
 B 
 
 6 
 
An Angler^ s Strange Experiences. 
 
 #■ 'jjig for hunting or shooting, or coursing the hare, 
 With a day on the Dove ^ they can never compare. 
 
 'A PLEASANT EXCITEMENT IN BISES AND BITES. 
 
 by an art of deception. The angler's wits, in fact, are brought into direct 
 competition with those of the fish, which very often, judging from the result, 
 prove the better of the two."—" The Practical Angler." W. C. Stewart. 
 2 The favourite stream of Walton and Cotton in Derbyshire. 
 
 B 2 
 
An Angler's Strange Experiences. 
 
 4. 
 
 What are gambling or wrestling or boxing, at best, 
 But as absinthe to ale, to a day on tlie Test ? ^ 
 And a day at the Derby to one on the Lea 
 Is a whisky debauch to a family glee. 
 
 5. 
 
 'Tis a sport that refreshes, — not over-excites : 
 There's a pleasant excitement in rises and bites j 
 But ^tis not an excitement — or something far worse — 
 That injures the morals, the health, or the purse. 
 
 6. 
 
 Some think fishing cruel, like Byron/ who wish'd 
 A strong hook in the mouth of the monster who fish'd : 
 But I think in that notion the censor mistaken — 
 For what were fish made for, if not to be taken ? 
 
 7. 
 
 And while we fish for them, they are hunting for others, 
 The cannibals ! even their sisters and brothers ! 
 This fact, furthermore, to your reason depict, 0, 
 They always are caught in flagrante delicto / 
 
 " But they never deceive I " Oh, no, never ! — Walk-er / 
 '* And they never ply lures ! " — Let your Bucklands aver 
 No, of course, sly old Jack ne^er pretends he's a stake, 
 Nor feigns to be sleeping when quite wide-awake ! 
 
 ' A famous trout-stream in Hampshire. 
 
 * " The quaint, old, cruel coxcomb, in his gullet 
 Should have a hook, and a small trout to pull it." 
 
 " Don Juan." 
 
Afi Angler^ s Strange Experiences. 
 
 9. 
 
 But granted 'tis so, yet poor fish know no better, 
 
 While yoxi ' For the compliment, sir, I'm your debtor ; 
 
 But, being thus the poor, witless brute *-dullards you call 'em. 
 They can't suffer much when I tenderly haul 'em ! 
 
 10. 
 
 ''But have fish no feelings ? " Yes— so has a thistle ; 
 And sensation is hardly acute in cold gristle : 
 And as to the worm, tho' he wriggle, he feels 
 Little more than the hook that his body conceals. 
 
 'As it is expected that this book will be largely used for educational 
 purposes in the higher schools in both England and America — especially in 
 ladies' colleges, such as Girton — in connexion with their studies on the genus 
 Homo, in especial relation to its sports and pastimes, it may be as well to 
 explain that the term brute is not confined by scientists to quadrupeds. 
 Indeed, I have read (not heard, you observe, although I am a married man) 
 of the refined and discriminating tongues of women — even wives — applying 
 
6 
 
 An Angler^ s Strange Experiences. 
 
 11. 
 
 If you halve him, you really but add to his wealth. 
 Each fraction enjoys the most excelleat health; * 
 And both crawl contentedly into a hole. 
 To enjoy double life,— to be each half a whole. 
 
 it to bipeds, even to their own husbands. It is also correctly applied to the 
 genus pisces. Shakespeare asks concerning the brute Q&Wh^n, "Is it a man 
 or a fish?" While scientific anglers, when a fish takes their line into the 
 
 " YOU BBUTE ! ' 
 
 weeds, will be heard to exclaim with natural and accustomed scientific 
 propriety (not " Tu Brute," but) "You brute ! " 
 
 • A friend questions the scientific truth of this statement. But I have 
 heard on good authority that what I have stated is a fact; at any rate it is a 
 common belief And one of the many benefits to society which are expected 
 to result from this poem will probably be this, — that all the naturalists of 
 Europe will now devote themselves to the consideration of the truth of this 
 stanza. 
 
An Angler s Strange Experiences. 
 
 ^2. 
 Wliat a proof in the common consent of mankind. 
 That no animal duller of feeling you 6nd, 
 Than the proverb they use when they wrathf ully burn. 
 Namely, " Even a worm that is trod on will turn " ! 
 
 13. 
 '' But what of live bumble-bees ? " — I never use them. 
 And therefore can never be said to abuse them ; 
 Yet a jam-eating wasp, cut in twain in the middle. 
 Keeps eating, apparently " fit as a fiddle." ^ 
 
 ' The author not being a musician, is not able to say precisely wherein the 
 perpetual congruity of this delightful instrument consists ; but the simile, 
 although a vulgarism, is often used in University circles, and he therefore 
 supposes that there must he philosophy in it. As to its being a vulgarism, 
 it seemed less objectionable than the cognate simile which suggested itsell", — 
 " As right as ninepence." Apart from his being unable to determine to his 
 own satisfaction tlie ethical problem hove right 9</. is, and why it should be 
 more right than 8frf. or 10§«?., the writer felt that, while there was a 
 cacophony about the latter, there was an alliterative euphony about the 
 former simile that made it far preferable for introduction into a classical 
 poem. No doubt 9c?. is right enough when given in change out of 1*. to a 
 gentleman who has purchased an article worth 3rf.; but 9(/. in the elegant but 
 deceiving form of three threepenny pieces is obviously wrong, when it is 
 tendered by a cabman to an elderly lady as a correct return, when she hands 
 him half-a-crown to pay her 1*. fare. There is, however, another form of 
 this saying, viz. " bright as ninepence." But, after mature consideration, 
 this seems as hopelessly indefinite as the other. For, inasmuch as there is 
 no silver coin equivalent to this sum in English currency, it can, of course, 
 only refer to coppers. Now, it is in the highest degree improbable that nine 
 bi-ight new penny pieces should ever be found together, except at the Mint. 
 No doubt nine such pieces, however old and dull, would look very bright to 
 " Papaw, sir," if given to him by a benevolent old gentleman for an evening 
 Echo. But we opine that the same amount would look uncommonly dull to 
 an artisan's wife, if given to her by her husband on his return from the 
 public-house on Saturday night, as all that was left of his week's wages for 
 the necessities of housekeeping. No such objections as these, it will be 
 admitted by the candid ciitic, lie against the simile adopted in the text. 
 Moreover, not to lay stress on the interesting fact that a fiddle is very much 
 of the same shape as a wasp, while 9rf. has no definite shape at all, the simile 
 
An Anglers Strange Experiences. 
 
 14. 
 Poor old Johnson, we know, was of all fish most odd ; 
 And no wonder such savage did not " spare the rod :" 
 Nor in crossing the line was the sage overwise ; 
 He'd have seen more acutely with hooJcs in his eyes. 
 
 15. 
 
 Loving streets before streams, the old ricketty " Rambler," 
 Cane in hand, hitting posts, the stern, cynical shambler ^ 
 
 adopted has a peculiar fitness for the theme of this poem, since the music ol 
 tlie violin is caused by " drawn gut." 
 
 « Our readers know that " The Rambler " was the title of Dr. Johnson's 
 celebrated serial. 
 
 » Notwithstanding his peculiarities, let no one suppoje that we think ill of 
 the good old Doctor. We have a great reverence and even affection for the 
 dear *' old Bear." Under his rough exterior there was a good deal of bear's- 
 grease in him, and under that what a true and tender soul. 
 
An Angler^ s Strange Experiences. 
 
 Took to Gruh Street his lines, and rejoiced that the Fleet 
 No longer held fishes, and was but a Street. 
 
 16. 
 
 " What were fishpools to Fish Street ? " he askM of his cane ; 
 " Or the haunt of the angler to Fishmonger Lane ? 
 What the buzzing of bees to the buzzing of Bozzy ? * 
 Or the babble of brooks to the prate of Piozzi ? " ^ 
 
 17. 
 
 Bozzy^s hero — as happens in far higher spheres — 
 Knew nought of the art that excited his sneers ; 
 Had he been its adept, he would then have exclaim'd, 
 " For pure pleasure, beside it no sport can be named/' 
 
 18. 
 
 It absorbs, like a novel, its skilled devotee. 
 And cheers, not inebriates, soothing like tea ; 
 Like tea, not as sipped at the fire by old maids, 
 But as drunk at a picnic in green summer glades, — 
 
 19. 
 
 Not like tea that is swallowed with plain bread and butter. 
 Or biscuits of Palmer — " and Co." I can't utter — 
 But like tea with sweet cresses and cold capon roast, 
 And the flavoury relish of anchovy toast. 
 
 ' James Boswell, Johnson's biographer and satellite. 
 
 2 Mrs. Piozzi, formerly Mrs. Thrale, one of the Doctor's most intimate 
 friends. Macaulay describes her as "One of those clever, kind-hearted, 
 engaging, vain, pert young women who are perpetually saying or doing 
 something that is not exactly, right, but who, do or say what they may, are 
 always agreeable." The reader need not, in English verse, ItiUianize the 
 pronunciation of her name. 
 
An Angler s Strange Exferiences. 
 
 1 1 
 
 20. 
 
 A taste of this toast j6n will get, I dare say. 
 If you list while I sing to the end of my lay ; 
 While, to give you amusement, I try to rehearse 
 The facts of my fishing in varying verse. 
 

 ■■'HmK^ 
 
 
 
 ~^a 
 
 "^ '■•5' t^A 
 
 <',■'•> ' \ . •^' ^ .V i ■•TV 
 
AN ANGLER'S STRANGE EXPERIENCES. 
 
 " Mira sed acta loquor." — Otid. 
 STAVE I. 
 
 What strange surprises and freaks of chance 
 Around tbe angler's footsteps dance ! 
 And what infinite zest do these impart 
 To the keen ' pursuit of the gentle art ! 
 
 II. 
 
 The lustiest trout that I ever took, 
 
 I caught in a pool of a tiny hrooh ; 
 
 And the smallest my eyes have ever spied, 
 
 I whipp'd from a river both deep and wide. 
 
 TII. 
 
 The heaviest creel that I ever filled 
 I bore on a day that the East-wind chilled ; 
 While in vain I flogg'd through a summer's day 
 A stream on which Zephyr himself did play. 
 
 IV. 
 
 I have sometimes tried at a rising fish, 
 With a faith that has seen him served on my dish ; 
 In vain ; — while I've aimlessly dangled the line. 
 And hook'd with 'surprise a troutie fine. 
 
 3 No reference whatever to the angling writer, J. Harrington Keene. 
 
H 
 
 A7t Angler's Strange Experiences. 
 
 V. 
 
 I have cast for trout in the likeliest place. 
 And nothing would rise but impertinent dace ; 
 While I've chosen my flies for dace with care. 
 And the trout hava fancied the dace's fare. 
 
 VI. 
 
 I have chosen a casting line with skill. 
 Which a young half-pounder has snapped at will ; 
 While I've sometimes taken the first that came. 
 Which has proved too strong for the fish most game. 
 
 M7 uviva cbeel! 
 
An Angler^ s Strange Experiences. 1 5 
 
 VII. 
 
 I have sometimes chosen my largest creel, 
 
 Which has held all day but my sandwich meal ; 
 
 Then IVe thought '^ with a creel Til not bother my back/' 
 
 And Fve taken enough to fill a sack. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Once having no creel, it came to pass 
 That I threw three trout behind on the grass ; 
 I heard a deep grunt, and look'd round in a jig. 
 And lo ! my three trout were devour'd by a pig. 
 
1 6 An Angler^ s Strange Experiences. 
 
 IX. 
 
 I've been askM to spend a hopeful day 
 On a ivater 'preserved, and IVe come away 
 Without a fin : — while I've stood in a press 
 On a public bridge, and had much success. 
 
 In hope of the monsters I should get 
 
 I've taken my largest landing-net, 
 
 And caught nothing but bleak :-r.IVe gone out with none, 
 
 And then I have wanted my largest one. 
 
 XI. 
 
 I have come to a stream when 'twas quite to my mind : — 
 Yes, really ! — I'd left my reel behind; 
 I've gone back, and returned, thus supplying my need — 
 Lo ! the river was cover'd with floating weed. 
 
 XII. 
 
 I have often cast o'er a splendid rise 
 Both the eye of hope and tempting flies ; 
 When the puff of a breeze has fix'd my line 
 In a neighbouring bramble's thorny twine. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 Anon I have cast an aimless fly 
 With no hope at all, and have let it lie. 
 When it seem'd in the open jaws to fall 
 Of a fish that cared not to rise at all. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 I have fish'd all day, but I've fish'd in vain, 
 Till was almost due my latest train : 
 Then, hooking a fish, I've been hurried, and lost 
 Both my fish and ray train to my terrible cost. 
 
An Angler s Strange Exferierices. 
 
 »7 
 
 WILL HE CATCH IT 1 
 
 XV. 
 
 I've hook*d a dace wliich a jack did seize, 
 
 And has carried it off till I cried, " Stop, please ! " 
 
 Both dace and jack, I do declare, 
 
 I drew to land with a singrle hair ! * 
 
 XVI. 
 
 While I on the jack one day did wait. 
 
 From opposite quarters two rush'd at the bait : 
 
 The smaller got fix'd in the greedy maw 
 
 Of the larger, and both succumbed to lock-jaiv. 
 
 * Dr. Brunton exhibited at the Piscatorial Exhibition a jack so taken bj 
 himself, with a little dace-fly in his mouth. 
 
 » Two large pike thus locked together may be seen in the Piscatorial 
 Department of the South Kensington Museum. 
 
^^ 
 
 i8 
 
 An Angler's Strange Experiences, 
 
 XVII. 
 
 Once, spinning for pike, in an anchorless boat, 
 A huge twenty-pounder arrested my flote,® 
 And tow'd me down stream, to his infinite glee. 
 As though he were a steam-tug, and I a bargee. 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 One day, just after I'd taken ^yerch, 
 My stool gave way with a sudden lurch. 
 And myself and my kit fell over the ridge. 
 Souse into the stream, near Ca^ford Bridge. 
 
 * No ; thi.-* is not a misprint [or float (for we never use floats in spinning), 
 but is the old English word from whence com.es Jlotsam, 
 
1TKDSB WEIGH ! 
 
INTERLUDE I. 
 
 SONG.— THE ANGLER AND THE BROOK. 
 
 1. 
 
 The west wind wafts the scent of May 
 
 Adown the verdant valleys ; 
 The friendly sun with temper'd ray 
 
 Peers forth from cloudy alleys. 
 And, in his gleams, the duns and browns 
 
 In joy of life are winging, 
 While I, afar from noisy towns. 
 
 Go forth to angle singing. 
 
 2. 
 Anon the music of the brook 
 
 Sounds near in happy chorus ; 
 Her beaming face with laughing look 
 
 Sings, O the joy before us ! 
 I greet her with a look as bright, 
 ^ And wave my wand above her ; 
 
 She glances coy, pretending fright. 
 Yet knows me for her lover. 
 
 Through cowslip meadows, side by side. 
 We wander, fondly clinging 
 
 Each unto each, like groom and bride. 
 No turns estrangement bringing ; 
 
An Angler's Strange Experiences. 
 
 21 
 
 And many a gold and coral gem 
 She takes from out her bosom. 
 
 And, proud, at eve she gives me them. 
 Beneath the hawthorn's blossom. 
 
 4. 
 
 I stoop and kiss her pure, sweet lips. 
 
 And mine she softly presses, 
 Then turns aside, and shyly dips 
 
 Beneath her drooping tresses ; 
 Then babbling on in laughing glee. 
 
 Assumed to hide her sorrow. 
 She pauses 'neath a willow -tree. 
 
 And sings. Return to-morrow ! 
 
 ,^ii^^^^^^^^h^^^$f^^^ 
 
 -*%g"4 
 
STAVE II. 
 
 A BRILLIANT idea my young fancy smote — 
 I would use a live duch in the place of a float; 
 So I caught a strong quacker and baited his leg, 
 Let him swim on the pond, and then fastened my peg. 
 I sat down on the bank to enjoy the fine fun, 
 And, ere long, at the bait a large jack made a run : 
 The float began quacking, and flew round and round. 
 But oh ! jack drew it under, and thus the float drown'd.^ 
 
 :my tloat sinks ! 
 
 n. 
 
 To hook fish is cruel," say some— see my proem— 
 But it proves they who say it do not really know 'em ; 
 
 7 And served me right and tlie poor duck wrong, for the act was that of a 
 thoughtless, cruel young rascal. 
 
 8 Matt. xvii. 27 has long ago settled the question to the contrary in my 
 
All Angler s Strange Experiences. 
 
 23 
 
 For I once lost a jack who had swallowM my tackle. 
 
 While I, like a hen o'er her lost chick, did cackle. 
 
 But I fished on down stream, and some two hours thereafter 
 
 I landed another, when — judge of my laughter — 
 
 As I sat to unhook him upon a green hummock, 
 
 'Twas the very same jack with my gear in his stomach ! ' 
 
 And a nice little job did I have, sir, when at home, I 
 
 Strove to extract it from out his anatomy. 
 
 Now, I fancy, if I at my breakfast had swallow'd 
 
 My spoon and my fork, I should rather have hoUoa-ed, — 
 
 " Go, fetch me a surgeon, for oh ! I am sick,'' 
 
 Than '' Cook, I am hungry ; let dinner be quick ! '^ 
 
 mind. He would never have ordered a cruel way of takii^g fish. The 
 ailment that in this case it was a necessity altogether fails as applied to 
 Him. 
 
 ' This strange fact was relattd in a recent number of the Fithivg 
 Gazette. 
 
24 
 
 An Angler's Strange Experiences. 
 
 III. 
 Once, fishing for eels in the moat around Fulhara/ 
 Which holds monsters so large that you hardly can pull ^em. 
 My float sank; I then struck, and liauFd iu, and — oh! 
 
 mockery ! — 
 I had fish'd up a piece of the Bishop's old crockery ! 
 
 ' This should not be pronounced in the way the Scotch anglers pronounce 
 it, — Foul-em. 
 
An A7igler^s Strange Experiences. 
 
 25 
 
 You laugh : but I add — as they say in the South — 
 " The laugh may be turned t'other side of the mouth/ 
 When I tell you I caught one, as true as I sing. 
 Which had in his stomach a lady's gold ring ! 
 
 IV. 
 
 I was fishing for dace seven lionrs by the clock 
 (It sounds like a paradox) : passing a lock, 
 The pole caught my creel, as if it were thieving, 
 And gone were my silvern dace, past all retrieving ! 
 
 AH, FOB THB SILVEBN DACE 
 
26 
 
 An Angler's Strmige Experiences. 
 
 They sank in the waters, all swirling and curling. 
 And I sang out, a la Madame Antoinette Sterling, 
 Or Patey, *^ Ah ! silvern dace, isn't it galling ? 
 A-ah for the silvern dace, gone past recalling ! " ^ 
 
 At a pool of the river, while fishing for roach, 
 1 beheld a fine pounder my white- bait approach ; 
 
 " mee-t'-haw, sin !" 
 
 2 To save ourselves from any charge of plagiarism of a very popular song, 
 we quote the following refrains from it, from which it will be seen that it is 
 as different from our own lines as gold is from silver : — 
 
 •'Once in the days bcyoiul recall iuLT, Once in the golden days, — 
 Ah ! for the days beyond rcUioviug, Ah ! for the golden days." 
 
An Angler's Strange Experiences. 
 
 27 
 
 I struck home — when an ass o'er my shoulder hee-haw'd. 
 
 And off jerk'd my fish, and made straight for the broad. 
 
 I was so overcome by that Vigour of Bray, 
 
 That I have not recover'd the shock to this day : 
 
 For, when xoach fishing, still, my hand trembles afraid. 
 
 And my float bibble-bobbles to " Should he xnp-hrm/d ! " 
 
 VI. 
 
 A musing milch-cow, switching flies from her back, 
 Stood behind me, while, eager, I struck at a jack : 
 I whirl'd my bait back, like a thresher his flail. 
 And my many-hook'd roach caught the cow's curling tail. 
 Oflf she gallop'd and bellowed : and I, loth to yield. 
 Was tugg'd, like a fish, the whole length of a field. 
 Till she made for a shed, where one sat on a pail. 
 And ran in to be milk'd with my flight in her tail !'' 
 
 VII. 
 
 AVhile fishing abroad, in a pond in a park, 
 I threw in a roll, when the fishes said ^' Hark ! " 
 And three scaly monsters to seize it arose, 
 Bibble-bobbling it each with his leathery nose. 
 
 A fact related in the Fishing Gazette. 
 
An Angler^ s Strange Experiences. 
 
 29 
 
 A large rat from the shore heard the splashing, and said, 
 " Tliey can^t swallow, but I can, that hard-baken bread ;" 
 And, swimming towards it, he coolly walked over 
 Their noses, and with it swam back to his cover/ 
 
 vin. 
 #A trout rising shyly, I whipped out his eye,* 
 And idly kept using it still as a fly : 
 The very same trout with his other eye saw 
 His lost optic, and rose, and got hook'd in his jaw.' 
 
 IX. 
 
 Once, after long watching my float in a lake, 
 
 I thought a short turn up and down I would take; 
 
 " But when I came back " — to quote Mother Hubbard — 
 
 Some fish with my bait had gone oS" to his cupboard. 
 
 I lifted, I tugg'd, tugg'd both that way and this. 
 
 And this way and that, — all in vain. " Now, I wis," 
 
 I exclaim'd, " I have surely a carp like a hog. 
 
 Or a five-pounder tench — or it may be a log ! " 
 
 ■• This amusing incident was witnessed in the park of the Prince of Hesse 
 at Homburg, by the author and his brother, exactly as described. 
 
 * Even a boy will understand that this was not intentional, but a pure 
 accident. ' 
 
 ' This strange incident is also literally true, and is mentioned as his own 
 experience by (if I remember rightly) Mr. J. Harrington Keene. 
 
30 
 
 An Angler^ s Strange Experiences. 
 
 I fear'd for my rod, and I fear'd for ray line, 
 
 Bnt by patience and skill that were all but divine. 
 
 The monster gave way — yes, gave way to my reel. 
 
 And judge, brother anglers, judge liow I did feel. 
 
 When, through three feet of mud, came — a quarter-pound eel ! 
 
 ^■>x^ ^'^l'^ 
 
 X. 
 
 One sweet summer eve — I remember it now — 
 My hook, flying back, seized a little bow-wow. 
 
 Who, round and round howling, 
 
 Glared up at me growling, 
 And twisted my line round his legs till he dropp'd. 
 
32 An Ayigler's Strange Experiences, 
 
 " Come here, little doggie, 
 
 I don't mean to flog 'e," 
 I said. He replied, " I don't mean to be whopp'd ! " 
 
 So I motion'd to pat him, 
 
 — He thought I was at him 
 Again, and began with new vigour to strike for his 
 Freedom and growl' d, and sliow'd all his white ivories. 
 Then I tugg'd at my line, and with that he arose 
 And sprang out of captivity straight at my nose ! 
 
 XI. 
 
 A fisher-bard, I— like the sweet *' swan of Avon," 
 
 Of whom Tm so fond that my friends say I rave on 
 
 The poet — am apt to get quite lost in thought 
 
 When I'm fishing ; although, as an angler, I ought 
 
 To be thinking alone of the sport I'm about — 
 
 An axiom that's certainly true without doubt.— 
 
 This incident proves it indeed. Upon Avon 
 
 The ropes of the barges annoyingly shave on 
 
 And over the green sedgy banks, you're aware, 
 
 If yourself, my dear reader, have ever fish'd there. 
 
 Well, one morning I sat in a very " brown study," 
 
 With my eyes on my float, o'er that river so muddy, 
 
 And suddenly heard a shrill cry in my ear 
 
 From a horse as it seemed, " Hallo,— hallo-a there ! " 
 
 Up I started, bewilder'd, and saw a long cable 
 
 Come slithing along : — to escape it unable 
 
 I lifted one leg to stride over it, when the rope 
 
 Tightened and lifted me skyward ! and then the hope 
 
 Vanished of ever beholding my little ones 
 
 Or wife again ! But — mercy that brittle ones 
 
 Ropes often are— or the harness hitch'd on to them ; 
 
 Hooks often are, or the thread that's stitch'd on to them ; 
 
4 
 
 34 -^^ Angler's Strange Experiences. 
 
 But — something was rotten, and so the rope parted,''' 
 And let me down bruised, but, believe me, glad-hearted ! 
 
 XII. 
 
 The most curious fish that ever I hook'd 
 Was — a man ! and, oh ! how aghast I looked 
 When I felt the hook behind me flip, 
 Right up to the shank in his lower lip ! 
 As I tried to unhook him, but quite in vain, 
 Oh, how like a fish did he wriggle in pain ! 
 Then I led my fish to a neighbouring town. 
 And got him unhooked by Surgeon Brown. ^ 
 
 ^ If the reader will turn to my portrait on page 17, he will perhaps be able 
 to account for this strange, but to me happy, catastrophe. He will there see 
 that I am both "a man of wecJit,'' and also a man of agility. The latter 
 fact accounts for my keeping on the tight rope ; and the former — partly — 
 for its giving way under me. 
 
 ^ Every point in this incident is, like almost every other in the poem, 
 literally true ; and, what is still more curious, the young man so hooked by 
 the author went by the sobriquet of " Fish " for years before this happened. 
 
D l 
 
36 
 
 INTERLUDE II. 
 
 THE MUSIC OF THE EEEL. 
 Song for the ojpening of the Trout Season. 
 
 1. 
 
 Hail ! soft and genial vernal morn ! 
 
 Hail ! brooklet flowing clear ! 
 joy, with rod in hand again 
 
 To greet our opening year ! 
 While Hope's bright pleasures cheer my heart 
 
 And o'er my fancy steal, 
 As on my ear so sweetly rings 
 
 The music of the reel I 
 
 2. 
 It sings of winter past and gone. 
 
 Of daily lengthening hours. 
 When sunny spring shall gaily bring 
 
 The cuckoo and the flowers ; 
 When oft amid the meads my rod 
 
 Shall lightly wave, and feel 
 The leaping trout arise and ring 
 
 The music of the reel ! 
 
 3. 
 
 Nor Hope alone is in the tone 
 
 This sweetest music gives; 
 But many a happy memory wakes, 
 
 Thus started, and re-lives, — 
 
An Angler^ s Strange Experiences. 
 
 37 
 
 Of morn and eve by river- side, 
 And easeful, noon-day meal, 
 
 While slept upon the resting rod 
 The music of the reel ! 
 
 4. 
 
 But Hope o'er Memory now prevails, 
 
 And fans her forward wing ; 
 And as I lift anew the rod 
 
 I hear her cheerly sing, — 
 May coming days be best of all. 
 
 And fuller fill the creel. 
 And richer spoil reward thy toil 
 
 With music from the reel ! 
 
 l(^\?ii':??r 
 
38 
 
 STAVE III. 
 
 I HAD caught a fine roach ' with a worm, when a jack. 
 Swimming by, on the roach made fe-roach-ious attack. 
 I drew him along to the top of the water, 
 And my landing-net seized to accomplish his slaughter. 
 When he sucked oflF my roach, and was off like a shot. 
 Leaving me, like a fool, with no roach for my pot ! 
 
 DEeEUVBS TO LOSE UIII. 
 
 • This happened at Newingtoii, Middlesex. 
 
An Angler^ s Strange Experiences. 39 
 
 II. 
 My beloved friend Jones, with ineffable cheer, 
 Struck a twenty-pound pike on a broad Norfolk mere. 
 When in crisis of battle — O woe worth the day ! — 
 With the half of his line giant Jack went away. 
 Ten days after this terrible, tragic event, 
 To the very same mere I a- jack-fishing went, 
 When a tug and a run brought my heart to my eyes, 
 For I felt, here is one matching Joneses in size ! 
 But what if he too should from me break away ? 
 So I cried, " Steady, Johnny ! " and brought him to bay ; 
 When lo ! you may judge what amazement was mine. 
 When I saw my bait caught in a fragment of line 
 That hung from Jack's mouth ! — 'twas the jack of my friend. 
 Who had come through his line to this singular end. 
 
 III. 
 
 At a spot near a bridge,* where the Wandle is free 
 
 For a few tiny feet, there appear'd fishers three 
 
 On each opposite bank, who perforce threw their flies 
 
 In the face of each other, each seeking a rise. 
 
 Being one of them, I, by superior good luck, 
 
 Got a beautiful rise, and immediately struck. 
 
 My opposite neighbour struck too, for he thought 
 
 The rise was to him ; and in striking he caught 
 
 Not the fish but my line, and his hook running down, 
 
 Caught the fish in the lip, when I yelFd with a frown, 
 
 " Hold, 'tis mine ! " " No, 'tis mine ! " and, as neither would 
 
 yield, 
 Each bent to his rod, and his line tightly reeled. 
 The taut lines spanned the stream, and the trout, though a 
 
 staggerer. 
 Looked very like Blondin When crossing Niagara ; 
 
 * Hackbridge, Surrey. 
 
40 An Angler s Strange Experiences. 
 
 Till each over-wound gut, with a twang and a shiver, 
 Snapped asunder, and troutie plopp'd into the river ! 
 
 rv. 
 His hope the old fisher doth often sustain 
 By the knowledge that, though he may fish all in vain 
 Through a whole luckless day, yet at length he may win 
 By the very last throw, or the very last spin." 
 Thus, when spinning for jack, I could not get a run. 
 And said, "This for a last throw, and then I have done/' 
 So I threw, — and I drew, and I drew, and I drew ; 
 But each draw was in vain, and my bait came in view. 
 When lo ! close behind, to my utter surprise, 
 A jack followed fast with inquisitive eyes ; 
 When, just as my bait left the water, he thought, 
 " Now or never," and, leaping, the sweet morsel caught, 
 Then fell plop at my feet, 'mid the weeds and the rubble. 
 And most kindly of landing him spared me the trouble. 
 
 V. 
 My favourite place on the Thames is near Datchet, 
 No spot on the river, I fancy, can match it. 
 You can run down from town by the coach that leaves Hatchett 
 And Co. from the Cellar ; ' or, if you can catch it. 
 And take the 8.20 from Waterloo ; all the day 
 Long you can fish, and return at the fall of day, 
 Back up to town quite in time for a heavy tea. 
 Play, dance, or what not, if given to levity. 
 One day you'll have luck, another day, none there, — 
 But always you're sure of abundance of fun there ; 
 Especially if you're a man of inquiring 
 Proclivities — well up in boring and wiring 
 
 ' The angler's art in this, as in many other respects, teaches a philosophy 
 that is capable of many higher and nobler applications. The discerning 
 reader will perceive this in many other portions of this book. 
 
 3 The White Horse Cellar, Piccadilly. 
 
An Angler s Strange Experiences. 
 
 41 
 
 Yourself by your blandiness into the secrecies 
 Men of the rod, o'er their luncheon or tea cresses, 
 May, by a brother, be led to impart 
 To glorify — never themselves, but — their art I 
 
 " Well, sir, what sport ? " I ask, first say of Mr. A. 
 
 " Just hook'd a twenty-pound trout — but I miss'd her, eh 1 " 
 
 (" Her," you see, so that it was not a he male; 
 
 So clearly he saw her, he knew 'twas 2i female !) 
 
 " Dear, dear, 'twas annoying ; but just as I tilted the 
 
 Net to her nose, she provokingly jilted me ! " 
 
 " Better luck soon ! " I say : then go to] 
 
 Mr. B., 
 Asking to learn of his luck all the mystery. 
 " Ah, luck's against me, for nothing I've done, sir ; 
 But fifty at least I've lost, if I've lost one, sir ! " 
 '' Vexing, indeed ! " I say, showing my sympathy. 
 
 Then on to Mr. C, asking of him hath he 
 Had better luck than hi^ neighbours ? 
 
 " No, not to-day ; 
 But, sir, last Friday I took quite a lot away ! " 
 
42 An Angler's Strange Experiences. 
 
 Then Mr. D. I overtake, and accost him : 
 
 '* Ha ! he has hook'd a Jive-pounder, and lost him ! " 
 
 Mr. E. I approach. " Well, and how goes the pace, sir ? " 
 "0 fairly!" "Much luck?'' "Well, about twenty brace, 
 
 sir." 
 " And good ones, I hope ? " '^ Yes I think each a pound. 
 
 about." 
 — A very convenient and nice little roundabout 
 Way that's adopted by some of our bounces, sir. 
 Of describing a fish that is barely two ounces, sir ; 
 And a safe, for they know you can ne'er be so rude, you see. 
 As into their creels sceptic eyes to intrude to see ! 
 
 Then F. I interrogate. He is loquacious. 
 
 And tells me he's found the fish quite vo-voracious ! 
 
 Had never such sport ; and has taken a sack, sir ! 
 
 " May I look at them ?," Can't, for lie's put 'em all hack, sir. 
 
 He cares not for fish, but he dearly loves fishing ! 
 
 Thinks only of sport, but despises the dishing ! 
 
 And so on, and so on ! 
 
 Such the tidings that greet you 
 From nine out of ten of Thames' anglers that meet you ; 
 Till you say to yourself, as the banks you along go. 
 How fearfully some of our friends draw the long-bow ! 
 
 VI. 
 
 1. 
 
 You know the Eamsgate sands,* 
 And the crowd that on them stands. 
 And the minstrelly hub-a-bub, jingle and rub-a-tub 
 Made by the noisy bands. 
 
 * Musical anglers, if so disposed, can sing this song to Mr. Arthur 
 Sullivan's music. The air may bo found in " Patience," in the duet " A most 
 intense young man.'' 
 
An Angler's Strange Experiences. 43 
 
 2. 
 
 " Only a penny a shoot ! " 
 " Donkey, Miss ? Give us your foot." 
 " Oranges," " Brandy-balls/' " Comfit and candy " calls. 
 " Root-at-tee, toot-a-toot ! " 
 
 3. 
 
 " Over the garden wall :" 
 '' Machine, sir, did you call ? " 
 '' Paid for your seat, sir ? " " O give 'em a treat, sir ! " 
 " Phrenology here for all ! " 
 
 4. 
 
 " Telegraph — Daily News ! " 
 " Who'll bid for these ormolus ? " 
 " My sweet, pretty Jenny :" '' Six shies for a penny \* 
 " Your photograph ? Don't refuse ! " 
 
 5. 
 
 And you know that very near 
 Is the famous Ramsgate Pier, 
 Where " gents " for a jolly day, out on their holiday. 
 Smoking their pipes, appear : 
 
 6. 
 
 And how they rudely quiz 
 What they vulgarly call " the phiz " 
 Of every young maiden, with blushes overladen " 
 At such indignities. 
 
 7. 
 They swagger and swear and stare. 
 And criticize "all the fair : — 
 But this, to the story that now is before ye. 
 Is neither here nor there. 
 
44 -^^^ Angle/ s Strange Experiences. 
 
 But nay, it is so far " liere " 
 That two in my story appear, 
 "Who — thus theyare relevant — down from "The Elephant," 
 Stood upon Ramsgate Pier. 
 
 9. 
 While myself and Tom Galashiels 
 Were busy with rods and reels — 
 When the tide came in flowingly, breezily, blowingly — 
 Fishing for conger eels. 
 
 10. 
 A crowd was standing there. 
 And behind me a lady fair ; 
 My bait I was swinging high, when the wind flingingly 
 Stuck it in her back-hair ! 
 
 11. 
 As I gave the forward strain, 
 She raised such a yell of pain ! 
 And I heard such a clatter 1 " Whatever's the matter ? 
 What has he done, Mary Jane ? " 
 
 12. 
 Laughter arose in peals, 
 With shouts and feminine squeals. 
 All mingled together, I didn't know whether 
 I stood on my head or heels ! 
 
 13. 
 " What are you up to ? " cried 
 Her young man by her side ; 
 And, not waiting a minute, ho tumbled me in it. 
 Ho did ! — in the briny tide ! 
 
An Anglers Strange Experiences. 
 
 45 
 
 14. 
 
 I floated like a buoy/ 
 While the gazers shout " Ahoy ! " 
 And a boat with true bravery dash'd out to save, or I 
 Shouldn't be here, my boy. 
 
 15. 
 Dripping, upon the pier, 
 I sought Mm <far and near. 
 My courage up plucking, to give him a ducking ; 
 But he didn't or wouldn't appear ! 
 
 ' The discerning reader will see by a reference to my portrait again on 
 page 17 how buoy-like I am in appearance, and how buoyant in every respect. 
 
46 
 
 INTERLUDE III. 
 
 A MODERN ST. ANTHONY'S SERMON TO FISHES/' 
 
 ON " THE LUST OP THE FLESH, THE LUST OF THE EYES, AND THE 
 PRIDE OF LIFE.^' 
 
 1. 
 
 Ye who casting downward vision, 
 
 Grrope and grovel in the mud. 
 Water-swine of oozes Stygian, 
 
 Dull of brain and black of blood, 
 Hating, fearing light of heaven, 
 
 Finding bliss in foulest deeps. 
 Gross with flesh desire doth leaven. 
 
 Brothers of the worm that creeps ; 
 Beware desire, beware desire ! 
 That winsome morsel ye admire 
 Is devil-sunk before your eyes. 
 To charm you into Death's surprise ! 
 
 2. 
 
 Ye who roam the reedy sedges. 
 
 Or in dozing, dreamful ease, 
 Bask beneath the lily ledges. 
 
 Shaded by tlie summer trees, 
 
 ^ Our predecesBor in this style of preaching was St. Anthony of Vieyra, 
 in Spain, whose celebrated "Sermon to Fishes'' is well known. It need 
 hardly be added that that was in prose. St. Anthony was one of the keenest 
 wits and satirists of his age, and his great gift of humour was used to the 
 noblest endx. 
 
An Angler's Strange Experiences. 47 
 
 Greedy, grasping, never staring, 
 
 Preying on your weaker kin. 
 Wrapt in self, nor ever caring 
 
 Who may lose, so you may win ; 
 Beware desire, beware desire ! 
 Or, ttougli ye rise above the mire. 
 Some barbed gaud may tempt your eye 
 On Death suspicionless to fly. 
 
 3. 
 
 Ye whom nobler aspiration 
 
 Saves from grossness, mud, and slime, 
 Scorning deeps of degradation. 
 
 Skyward lifting eyes sublime, 
 Eanging clearer, purer waters, 
 
 O'er whose bosom fancy-flies. 
 Summer's fairy-footed daughters 
 
 Robed in beauty, fall and rise ; 
 Beware desire, beware desire ! 
 Beware her soul-propelling fire ! 
 Under Beauty's gauzy wing. 
 Death conceals his barbed sting. 
 
48 
 
 STAVE IV. 
 
 I HAVE seen a young woman take a young chuh 
 
 With her hand in the midst of a washing-tub ; 
 
 In a coalpit Fve seen a fisherman strike, 
 
 And a mail coach, with luggage, pass right thro' a piko ! 
 
An Anglers Strange Experiences. 49 
 
 II. 
 
 ftn a village pond, by strange good luck. 
 
 With a bright grem drake I have caught a hrown duck ; 
 
 And I once saw a debtor at sport undone 
 
 By the sudden sight of a yellow dun? 
 
 HI. 
 
 I have often hook'd a fish in tlie Ayr, 
 While a swallow has swallow'd my fly, I declare ; ' 
 I've caught in Ould Ireland, a fish of the say 
 In pure fresh water, and salmon in Tay. 
 
 IV. 
 
 In fishing for salmon Tm never at^a/r. 
 And find luck no go on Loch-na-Garr ; 
 While fishing u}} stream I have taken '' nuue," 
 But many fine fishes in fishing Doon. 
 
 V. 
 
 I have fished in Aar,^ and in Exe and Wye, 
 
 And what is still more £xe-Taw-Aive-Dee(N)-Ayr-j,^ 
 
 ^ It may be as well to inform the uninitiated that the italicized words 
 refer to the names oi favourite flies, well known to anglers. 
 
 * The author actually caught a swallow while fly-fishing, which dropped 
 in the water and was safely drawn in, landed, and released. 
 
 ® The river Aar is in Switzerland. 
 
 ^ " From the occult references in the second line of this verse to the rivers 
 and lakes named, it is clear that the author means to suggest that the Kiver 
 Dee in the last line must be beyond them all, even farther north than Loch 
 Awe. He farther intimates that it was beyond Dee, N., that is the Northern 
 Dee, which is in Aberdeenshire. The Dee, S., is in Cheshire, but we know 
 of no Dee beyond Dee, N. In face of the other marvels of this wonder-full 
 
 E 
 
50 
 
 An Angler's Strange Experiences. 
 
 ^ 
 
 I have caught a hee and passed over the sea, 
 And dibb'd with the point of a rod in the Bee. 
 
 VI. 
 
 My master being Irish would seize my pate, 
 And take his rod and begin to hate ; 
 But " He never will rise" he forebodingly said, 
 " I am wasting up(fh him my ex-wise head/' ^ 
 
 poem, we are not prepared to deny that there is such a Dee, hut it is very 
 extraordinary. Moreover, as he says he ' passed over the sea ' to get to it, 
 we wonder where the author could have been ? Altogether, it is not only 
 ' more extraordinary,' but most extraordinary." — A Ceitic. 
 
 Our enlightened critic forgets that the Dee flows into the Irish Sea — a 
 fact of much importance in this mystery. We admit that this is rather a 
 reversal of ordinary laws (as is seen in other matters connected with that 
 sea), for usually C flows into D. 
 
 2 The master efidently meant this as a contraction for extra-wise, and not 
 in the other sense of " ex '' — that he himself was now out of his senses. 
 
An Angle/ s Strange Experiences. 
 
 51 
 
 "TE SCHOOLMASTKB TAKES HIS ROD AND BEGINS TO BATS.'" 
 
 VII. 
 
 Yet I rose notwithstanding and lived to be 
 An angler upmatcli'd in the whole countree, 
 And in my sport, as you shall see, 
 I showM most remarkable energy : 
 E 2 
 
An Angler's Strange Experiences. 53 
 
 Thus, — I once struck a cliub with such vigour of glee. 
 That I jerk'd master leather-mouth into a tree ; 
 
 And, aloft in the branches, the chub I heard 
 
 Fluttering: about like a netted bird. 
 I stood looking up with a grin and a frown. 
 And I whipp'd like a coachman to get him down ; 
 
 But, woe worth the day ! 
 
 The best hne will /mj/; — 
 And thus all my vigour was thrown away. 
 
 vrii. 
 
 And, though lessons, I fear, were not in my line, 
 
 In my other walks I was apt to shine j 
 
 Nor do I think I was quite the " dull brute " 
 
 My master calFd me, but rather 'cute ! 
 To justify this my vain remark. 
 Listen to this, but pray keep dark I — 
 Keep dark, I mean, to Anglers' Clubs, 
 To which most readers no doubt are sabs. 
 
 Well, down at our Club I once did win 
 
 A prize for " the biggest take weighed in " 
 
 Of eels — eels, the most wonderful eels ! 
 Enough to supply the Lord Mayor's meals 
 For a week, and daintiful they would be. 
 
 How did I catch them ? Listen to me 
 
 But a moment more and you shall see ! 
 
 — I was walking home one night from the Lea 
 
 Across the marshes, and heard such a rustle 
 
 And fussle and hustle and fearful bustle 
 Below in the grass 
 That I wonder'd whatever had come to pass. 
 Then I struck a fusee. 
 And what did I see 
 
 But the meadow alive with eels — with eels 
 
 Cutting capers, and dancing reels ! 
 
54 ^'^ Angler s Strange Experiences. 
 
 No j not snakes, though I thought they were 
 Myself; but, sir, I do declare, 
 They were eels — eels ! 
 
 Slipping right under my toes and mj heels ; 
 Shiny, slimy, slithy, and writhy. 
 Wriggling along to a water hard by. 
 Because their own was nearly dry !' 
 What did I do ? 
 Sir, what would you 
 
 Have done yourself, if you, like me, 
 
 Belong'd to an angling club, you see ? 
 Why, I fillM my creel, and my pockets, too, 
 With eels no less than sixty-two ; 
 Till my body with all this live stock on. 
 Appeared like that of Laocoon.'* 
 But, stored with my burden, I got to town. 
 And the very next night at the Bose and Crown, 
 I weighM them in that had weighed me down ! 
 
 IX. 
 
 But does my reader doubtfully shake 
 
 His head about a " proper take,*' 
 
 And question the strict morality 
 
 About the words " from the river Lea '' ? 
 
 — Pray tell me, what am I to understand 
 
 By " a take,'' if it is not by the hand ? 
 
 And sure 'tis as plain as plain can be, 
 
 That the eels came " from the river Lea," 
 
 And equally plain they were '' caught " by me ! 
 
 And more, — 'tis as pointed and plain as a pin, 
 
 That, if not a take out, it was a take in ! ' 
 
 ' That eels do so migrate under such circumstances is a well-authenticated 
 fact of natural history. 
 
 * Some of our readers will pardon us if, for the salce of others, who will 
 thank us, we observe that this name is pronounced La-ok-o-on. 
 
 ' How far the " weighing-in " customs of some angling clubs encourage 
 such casuistry', S(c,, is a question worth a little consideration. 
 
55 
 
 INTERLUDE lY. 
 
 SONG.— THE OLD BROOK REVISITED. 
 
 1. 
 
 How changed, how changed, how little changed ! 
 
 Myself and these dear haunts of eld ; 
 These fields, where I a schoolboy ranged : 
 
 Not one familiar tree is fell'd ; 
 'Tis all the same — the garden wall 
 
 Blooms with the selfsame blossoms still ; 
 The old brook murmuring round the Hall, 
 
 Seeks still the same old water-mill. 
 
 Oh, changed ! oh, changed ! yet little changed ! 
 O earth ! O sky, how little changed ! 
 
 How changed ! how changed ! Years twice a score 
 
 Have left their various mark on me ; 
 The playmates of those days of yore — 
 
 How many dead, or o'er the sea ! 
 And some that live now pass me by, 
 
 Not knowing, or with hearts estranged ; 
 Ah ! 'mid this unchanged scene I sigh, — 
 
 How much is changed ! how much is changed ! 
 
 How changed, where all seems little changed ! 
 O days ! years, how much is changed ! 
 
S6 
 
 An Angler s Strange Experiences. 
 
 3. 
 
 Ay, though this old grey pile doth know- 
 No more its ancient lord or ways, 
 
 'Tis so the same in outward show. 
 That forty years seem yesterdays ; 
 
 The same — yet not the same : 'tis so 
 With me ; this strange self's outer part 
 
 How changed ! yet these old loves that glow- 
 As memory wakens, prove the heart 
 
 But little changed, but little changed 
 
 — By changing years, how little changed ! 
 
 
57 
 
 STAVE V. 
 
 I. 
 
 A POET once sang, " Absence makes tlie heart fonder,*' 
 
 And the tender, sweet sentiment often I ponder ; 
 
 But absence of mind, saith your truest well-wisher, man, 
 
 Makes often a precious great fool of a fisherman. 
 
 Thusly : Once while my rod I was fitting a water at. 
 
 My attention was drawn to a whisker'd old water-rat 
 
 Preening his cheek on a stone green and mossy-like 
 
 Till he made it like silk, soft and sheeny and glossy-like. 
 
 I had just got my cast through the loop of my line. 
 
 What time the old rat had attracted my eyne, 
 
 Then, forgetting *twas loose, grasped my rod, and so flinging 
 
 forth. 
 Flung off cast and flies, — exactly a shilling's worth ! 
 
 II. 
 
 Once again, when distracted in similar manner, — I 
 
 Eemember the spot near a Worcestershire tannery, — 
 
 Having long fished for perch in a hole that was full of them, 
 
 I went to my bottles * and took a good pull at them ; 
 
 And fatigued with the number and weight I had caught there 
 
 Abandoned myself to vagaries of thought there. 
 
 Then took from my pocket my pencil-case golden, 
 
 Laid my line on the bank, and in dreams was enfolden, 
 
 And being struck with a fancy, forthwith I there wrote of it, 
 
 Or, like Captain Cuttle, at once made a note of it : 
 
 Which done, with my pencil-case playM I while musing. 
 
 And took up my line to prepare for its using ; 
 
 • The one contained milk and the other water. 
 
58 An Angler's Strange Experiences. 
 
 Still dreaming, I put the hook right through the ring of it 
 
 (Ah, 'twas no laughing matter, although I thus sing of it), 
 
 And from my hand dangled it, till in my dream 
 
 I lifted my rod and line over the stream, 
 
 And wrapt in " Reflections'' as sober as " Sturm," ' 
 
 Dropp'd it into the river instead of a worm ! 
 
 III. 
 If trout be your fancy go, fish you at Mitcham, 
 And, if you're a bungler — I wish you may kitch 'em ; 
 And this furthermore I would earnestly say 
 In broad Graelic, — Rise early, and then " mak' y'rr hay." ^ 
 Not "while the sun shines," but is hid behind cumuli. 
 Or just as well, snug at home in your bed, you may lie ! 
 For so still is the stream that the trout of the Wandle 
 Can hear you as plainly as Richard heard Blondel : 
 So clear, they can see you, as though on their wet eyes 
 They wore the best spectacles made at Negretti's. 
 You, too, can see them by the dozen together. 
 Provided, of course, it be fair summer weather. 
 For three hours on this stream over one did I whip, sir. 
 And oft did my dainty fly tickle his lip, sir ; 
 For oft would he rise and provokingly smell it. 
 Then dart to a neighbour trout, and the joke tell it ; 
 — " Drop into your mouth," said I, " won't you, fish, let it ? " 
 He replied with a wink, " Don't you wish you may get it ? " 
 
 ' Sturm's " Reflections " is a standard religious book, and was a great 
 favourite with a former generation. 
 
 ' It is one of the — shall I say unfortunate ? — peculiarities of this poem, 
 that it affords my friends all sorts of conjectures as to hidden meanings and 
 references. Thus, some have actually thought that in this Gaelic, aad 
 especially in this particular phrase, there is a mysterious allusion to a very 
 celebrated brother of the angle, well known on the Wandle, It is, I confess, 
 rather singular that that gentleman's name should happen to be James 
 McRae, and that there is no man that tho trout of the Wandle fear more, 
 or his many friends like better. 
 
An Angler's Strange Experiences. 59 
 
 IV. 
 
 In the use of your flies don^t be too economical. 
 
 Or your fate may be rather more serious than comical. 
 
 And, saving a loss, you may actually cause it, 
 
 " What you gain at the spigot, may lose at the faucet." ' 
 
 Thus : once a whole day did I fish with but one fly, 
 
 I remember it well, 'twas a bright yellow dun fly ; 
 
 And three brace of fine fish did he bring to my larder. 
 
 And never did fly work or better or harder; 
 
 When, at eve, a big trout rose with such a rapidity 
 
 As quite irresistibly moved my cupidity ; 
 
 So I looked once again at my bright yellow dunny. 
 
 And said, " You'll do yet, and Fll save so much money." 
 
 So I threw to my friend this my tired little yellow. 
 
 And Sir Trout said, " I fancy that bright little fellow ! " 
 
 And he rose ; and I, greatly admiring his plucky 
 
 Admired, even more, my own skill and good luck. 
 
 But, alas ! I then learnt, sir, how many a slip 
 
 There may be 'tween the creel and the firmly hook'd lip ! 
 
 For the fly, overworn, shook the gut by the hand 
 
 And said, " I perish here ; go you back to the land ! " 
 
 And it came, with this message, " fool for your pains. 
 
 He hath who well spendeth ; who loseth he gains ! " 
 
 V. 
 
 Take care of each hnot, or, believe me, you'll not 
 
 At the end of your day have a trout for your pot : 
 
 Or, the big ones you'll lose through your bungling and patching. 
 
 And never take one that is really worth catching. 
 
 Even now I can hear that most musical cAu^, 
 
 And e'en now my wrist feels that strong, muscular tug 
 
 Of a trout that, I think, by that pull and that sound, 
 
 Must have weigh'd something under, saj, ten or twelve pound ! 
 
 ' Xo, I protest there is no occult reference here to the Bight Hon. gentle- 
 man who has allowed me to dedicate this book to him. How coald any one 
 lose bj him ? 
 
6o An Angler's Strange Experiences. 
 
 I struck; and I never more firmly struck in. 
 
 And I felt that I had him in each struggling fin. 
 
 And I play'd him securely down, up, and cross stream. 
 
 Awhile of his beauty and weight I did dream ; 
 
 Till, at last, I reel'd in, and he answer'd, though toughly. 
 
 And obediently followed, though now and then roughly, 
 
 Then, from ray left hand, my net forward and slow went. 
 
 While my right held him firm for the critical moment ; 
 
 When, just as I drew him towards his " home circle/' 
 
 I felt some sensation — some whirl or some jerkle. 
 
 And — thunder and murder and all that is horrible ! 
 
 Fate and misfortune ! and all that is worryble ! — 
 
 My bent rod flew back, and I saw all my cast 
 
 Part where the line joined it — not where 'twas made fast : 
 
 Reft of sense, stood I still, as the wretch away flew with it, 
 
 And I mused half an hour upon " What will he do with it ? " 
 
 VI. 
 
 Beware how you hill your fish — strong and hard-headed ones. 
 
 Pike, carp, or perch, big and tough and long- wedded ones — 
 
 Or, although you may land them, ay, hand them, you see, 
 
 It may happen to you as once happen'd to me. 
 
 I secured such a perch as I never set eyes upon. 
 
 And his size aldermanic I gazed with surprise upon ; 
 
 Then bore him away in both hands from the water 
 
 To accomplish more safely his difiicult slaughter. 
 
 So I darted away up a zigzaggy narrowlet, 
 
 And struck his hard head on a bridge's stone parapet, 
 
 When he raised his back fin and struck into my finger, sir. 
 
 Saying, " Why^ in your hands, should I longer thus linger, 
 
 sir?" 
 And, curling his tail with a muscular movement, he 
 Thought, " Water, to this, would a little improvement be ! " 
 And leapt from my hands with a spring and a wriggle, sir, 
 And screwed up the stream with perceptible giggle, sir; 
 
An Angler's Strange Experiences. 
 
 6i 
 
 While I stood " as dumb as a drum with a hole in it/' 
 And as white and as stiff as a shirt with a pole in it ! 
 
 VII. 
 
 " Who then would an angler be ? " dost thou say, 
 In face of the dolours revealed in my lay ? 
 And dost thou expect of me doubtful reply ? 
 I answer, ''In spite of them, I would — 7/" 
 
 VIII. 
 
 To this sport I attribute my mark'd affability. 
 
 My patience domestic and sweet amiability ; 
 
 And if one had a daughter, one hardly could wish her, 
 
 A fortune more blest than to marry a fisher ! 
 
62 
 
 A LITTLE FLIGHT OF FLIES. 
 
 1. 
 
 Some trout fancy names, and will never be gammoned 
 
 Till you meet their nice taste with a '' Francis" or "Hammond;' 
 
 So fanciful others, I never could trick *em. 
 
 Till, suiting their fancy, I put on a '^ Wickham." *° 
 
 2. 
 
 If a basket of fish you wish for your dinner, 
 I have read in Espin,^ you should take a Bed Spinner ; 
 (Of course, if 'tis coarse, make your line somewhat taperer) 
 This failing, try then a good turn with a caperer. 
 
 >" " The Francis," " Hammond's Adopted," and " The Wickham Fancy," 
 the uninitiated may be again informed are the names of well-known artificial 
 
 flies. 
 
 ' " Unpublished Letters to a Friend on Fly«Fishing and Spinning," by 
 Crespiffny JEtpin, Esq. 
 
An Angler s Strange Experiences. 63 
 
 I always fare well when I artfully -ply 
 A coachman — " at evening a capital fly :" 
 As a cockney on Wandle, of sport I ne'er fail. 
 But a good story tell with. " Carshalton cock-tail.'* 
 
 4. 
 The great month of the year, for the bungler, is May, 
 And his fly the green drake — if ^tis out, that's to say — 
 Then the trout catch themselves — so insatiate their lust — 
 And success is no question of may but of must. 
 
 TWO BUNGLKHS. 
 
64 
 
 THE SONG OF THE RED SPINNERS. 
 
 1. 
 
 Up and down ; in and out ; 
 Now witliin ; now without ; 
 Falling in ; falling out ; 
 
 Buzzing our glee ; 
 Winging and singing, 
 And singing and winging, 
 And winging and singing, 
 
 How happy are we ! 
 
 2. 
 
 Sing away ; wing away ! 
 Live to-day ; love to-day ! • 
 Dance in the dancing ray ; 
 
 Sing, never sigh ! 
 Life — the bliss of it ! 
 Love — the kiss of it ! 
 Death — we know this of it, 
 
 Dancing we die ! 
 
65 
 
 TO THE QUILL GNAT. 
 
 1. 
 
 Sunshine's blissful, beautiful daughter, 
 Sailing over the sheeny water. 
 
 Gliding so gleefully gay ; 
 Tremulous, tiny, gauzy, airy. 
 Dreamy, downy, delicate fairy. 
 
 Whither, O whither away ? 
 
 2. 
 Wait but awhile on the way that thou wingest ; 
 Sing me one strain of the song that thou singest ! 
 
 Pause on this pendulous spray ! 
 Pause and some pleasure impart 
 To the sight of my eyes and the love of my heart, 
 
 Then wing, if thou wilt, on thy way ! 
 
 TCOTTON AND WALTOS'S FISHING-HOFSB ON THE DOTJE. 
 
 F 
 
66 
 
 TO THE DRAGON FLY. 
 
 1. 
 
 Flashing gem on silver-netted, 
 
 Fan-like, dryly-rustling wings, 
 Chased with wondrous art, and fretted 
 
 With that curious maze of rings ; 
 On this leaf thy form doth quiver 
 
 Like an arrow in a targe, 
 Shot by elfin of the river. 
 
 Sporting viewless on its marge. 
 
 2. 
 
 Like some glistering, gleaming jewel 
 On some beauty's restful hand, 
 
 Art thou, yet I feel thee cruel. 
 As I o'er thee raptly stand : 
 
 Flash ! — thou^'t gone ! not wont to linger ; 
 'Tis as tho* from out her ring 
 
 Sprang the gem, and from the finger 
 Suddenly took wing. 
 
67 
 
 THE SALMON FLY. 
 
 1. 
 
 " Not an insect that flies in our northern sky, 
 
 Nor a worm that doth crawl on our British soil, 
 Resembles this thing you denominate " fly/' 
 
 With its wools and its feathers and golden foil ; 
 And yet it is plain that the salmon will take 
 
 This utter monstrosity fishermen ply : 
 For what do the salmon the wonder mistake ? 
 
 For to me 'tis inscrutable mystery/' 
 
 2. 
 
 " A riddle no longer, I think, it will be, 
 
 If you only remember what well you know, 
 That the salmon I take inhabit the sea. 
 
 Though they come to these rivers to spawn their roe ; 
 And deep in the caves of the warm southern seas 
 
 Are sweet, dainty zoophytes fairily hued, 
 To salmon the richest of delicacies. 
 
 And this they mistake for that exquisite food." 
 
 F 2 
 
69 
 
 HAMPSHIRE FLY-FISHING. 
 
 1. 
 One, two, threo ! and tlae wavy line 
 
 Backward and forward flies. 
 Four ! — and there falls, as a gossamer light, 
 
 On the further ring of the rise, 
 My gay quill-fly, with her wings so dry. 
 
 And she sails on the flowing stream 
 As a nautilus sails on a summer sea, 
 
 Or a fairy floats in a dream ! 
 
 2. 
 True in the cast, and she wings her way ' 
 
 In a line as straight and true. 
 Thro' the widening rings, as the famous " Line 
 
 Cuts the sphere of the world in two ! 
 But oh ! she has reachM the nearer ring, 
 
 And is unmolested still ! 
 And she sails along with the doleful song, 
 
 « Ah me, I have fail'd to kill ! " 
 
 3. 
 One, two, three ! and she falls again, 
 
 And she says to Sir Trout, " pray 
 Don't let me escape as my sister did. 
 
 Who passed just now this way ! " 
 But ah ! that she thus comes sailing on. 
 
 Proves that the prayer was vain ! 
 Sir Trout is, at least, of doubtful mind ; 
 
 Well, well, let us try him again ! 
 
70 An Angler s Strange Experiences. 
 
 4. 
 
 One, two, three ! — not a shade of doubt 
 
 That the fly is right to a shade ! 
 Nor more like that he is rising at 
 
 Could any quill-gnat be made ! 
 So now, my friend, like an auctioneer, 
 
 T^ll wait for your little bid ! 
 'Tis going, going, going — ^one / 
 
 Ha, ha !— 'twas well I did ! 
 
 5. 
 
 So ho ! So ho ! Don't hurry away 
 
 With my goods to your weedy home 
 Like a common thief ! — there's the bill to pay ! 
 
 So come, my beauty, come ! 
 So ho ! hysterics are out of place ! 
 
 Let me lead you gently, so ! 
 Ha ! would you escape ? turn back, my friend. 
 
 That isn't the way to go ! 
 
 6. 
 
 So ho ! So ho ! You're faint, I see. 
 
 And needing a little rest ! 
 Here's a nice little room will fit you well; 
 
 In which you may make your nest ! 
 Don't make such a fuss ! lie down, lie down ! 
 
 That's better ! come here to me 
 On this grassy bank, and hear from my lips 
 
 How proud I am of thee ! 
 
7^ 
 
 NORTH COUNTRY FLY-FISHING. 
 
 1. 
 
 Let your Southron stand with rod in hand, 
 
 Fishing as in a dream. 
 In his one green meadow, the morning long, 
 
 By his clear, still, chalky stream ; 
 But ever let me, in the North countree, 
 
 V/ander my burn beside, 
 Where it winds through the mead and the rocky gorge. 
 
 And the moorland wild and wide ! 
 
 2. 
 No thresher am I of the vexed air. 
 
 Or your quiet, mantling pools. 
 Who stands for an hour on the same green sod, 
 
 'Mid a crowd of gaping fools ; 
 Changing each little failing fly. 
 
 Till all in his book are tried ; 
 My one good cast for a day will last ; 
 
 And on with my wand I stride ! 
 
 3. 
 
 Stretcher and dropper, one, two, three, four. 
 
 With flies of various hue — 
 Meeting the taste of the connoisseur 
 
 With yellow, green, brown, or blue^ 
 I fling, with a shortened line, across 
 
 The swirling, eddying burn, 
 Drawing them tenderly toward my bank. 
 
 With a delicate-handed turn. 
 
72 An Angler's Strange Experiences. 
 
 They sink, and they swirl, and I cannot see 
 
 My flies ; but my hand can feel : 
 My hands are the eyes that see the rise, 
 
 My vision is in my reel ! 
 Let the Southron look, like a boy on his book, 
 
 For his still-stream, dimpled ring ; 
 'Tis the hand that can see in the North countree, 
 
 And hear when the reel doth sing ! 
 
 I feel the pulse of the burn's bent arm. 
 
 Where it lies on the gravelly strand ; 
 And under the shade of the beechen boughs, 
 
 I deftly ply my wand ; 
 But most I love the eddying pools 
 
 At the foot of the rock-toss'd foam. 
 For the fat and the fair of the stream are there 
 
 For morning calls, " at home ! " 
 
 6. 
 
 Thus on I go, from shallow to pool, 
 
 And from pool to shallow again ; 
 And all is change, and all is life, 
 
 Moor, meadow, and gorge, and glen ! 
 Thus, keeping step with my flowing burn. 
 
 My happy moments steal. 
 And ne'er do I pause, save when IVe cause 
 
 To add to my filling creel ! 
 
73 
 
 WEEDS. 
 
 1. 
 
 If there be above another 
 One annoyance that doth smother 
 All my patience, angling brother, 
 And make me savage with my mother, 
 *Tis the weeds. 
 
 Down they come in swirls and rushes. 
 Grass and thistles, thorns and bushes ! 
 Al l at once the rising hushes ! 
 And my naughty anger flushes — 
 Hang the weeds ! 
 
 3. 
 O that unseen wretch above there ! 
 ~ He hath little of my love there. 
 
 With his busy hand in glove there ! 
 Will no friend give him a shove there 
 In the weeds ? 
 
 4. 
 
 Well he seems to know 'tis my day. 
 Well, how he can spoil my high day. 
 For he always chooses Friday, 
 Bank and bush to render tidy. 
 Cutting weeds ! 
 
 5. 
 
 They unman me, they unmake me ; 
 • « , Now doth Fortitude forsake me ! 
 
 ^^Z > -^ Fell despair doth grimly shake me — 
 
 t** Shall I cause my wife to take the 
 
 ■ ^ Widow's weeds ? 
 
^n^if^z 
 
 
 P3 9 
 
 
 •V5/f.' ,' 
 
 
 •'^.,< 
 
 Ci ^ 
 
An Angler's Strange Experiences. 
 
 75 
 
 6. 
 Passion cannot be defended, 
 Nor bad luck by wrath be mended^ 
 So I'll not wish him extended. 
 All his hateful toiling ended, 
 
 'Neath the weeds. 
 
 7. 
 What shall soothe my soul's vexation ? 
 What shall calm my indignation ? 
 Ha! I'll seek some consolation — 
 what fitting compensation ! — 
 In the weed ! 
 
 ''^m 
 
 jiii|iilj|P 
 
 MOEE FAiyFVL ANJiOTAKCE THAN EVEN WEEDS. 
 
76 
 
 EIVERWARDS: MORNING. 
 
 l'espoir est ma force. 
 
 1. 
 
 Hope in my heart ; health in the air, 
 The freshness of morning everywhere. 
 Pleasure before, and care behind, 
 I tramp to the river with gleesome mind. 
 And with brotherly love to all mankind ! 
 And the tramp of my eager feet doth say, 
 I wonder, I wonder what luck to-day ! 
 
 2. 
 Fear begone ! and away with Doubt ! 
 The river, I know, is full of trout ; 
 Do ye say, " Yon cloud may blacken the sky. 
 Or weeds may come down, or — pigs may fly " ? 
 I'm ready for all, and what care I ? 
 And the tramp of my eager feet doth say, 
 I wonder, I wonder, what luck to-day ! 
 
A7t Angler s Strange Experiences. 
 
 77 
 
 3. 
 
 " Good morning," says one. " I wish you sport ! 
 And he brings of the river a good report : 
 " They were rising like fun when I came by." 
 And I tramp on my way more cheerfully : 
 Such power in a hopeful word doth lie ! 
 And the ti'amp of my feet doth plainly say, 
 I hope for good luck indeed to-day ! 
 
 i 
 
 4. 
 
 Off the road, and on to the grass j 
 Two sweet meadows to overpass ; 
 Beautiful sound, that buzzing of flies. 
 Bringing my heart up into my eyes ! 
 Ha ! what was that ? — a magnificent rise ! 
 Oh, I hope to-night to my friends to say, 
 What splendid luck I have had to-day ! 
 
78 
 
 NOON: DINNER AL FRESCO. 
 
 1. 
 
 Sub tegmine fagi, me, Tityre,' 
 
 Behold, now enjoying my dinner. 
 Two chops fried in eggs, and some cool bitter B 
 
 — A repast fit for Alderman Skinner ! 
 While my creel and my rod and my line on the grass 
 
 Lie at rest with my little red-spinner. 
 
 O Tityre ! I believe that this tree 
 
 Is the son of a seedling that Maro 
 Pick'd up in Italia, and sent o'er the sea 
 
 To some consul in Britain afar, ! 
 And this bitter's Falernian, or else I do dream. 
 
 It never came forth from a bar, O ! 
 
 3. 
 
 Blest beech ! how sweet to my eye is thy shade ! 
 
 And how restful thy bark to my back, ! 
 And no carpet that ever in Persia was made, 
 
 Or wove in the looms of Astrakko, 
 Was so soft as this grass ! Oh, I feel like a Shah, 
 
 Smoking on it my pipe of tobacco ! 
 
 * A few brother anglers may be glad to have a free translation of this free 
 Latin : — " Behold me, O Tityrus ! under this spreading beech-tree ! " 
 
An Angler s Strange Experiences. 79 
 
 4. 
 
 O surely this day*s an Arabian Night, 
 
 Or my fancy now taking a tour is ; 
 Those seeming tall poplars are platans moon-bright ; 
 
 And yon turkey apparent, I'm sure, is 
 A peacock ; while those that seem'd haymaking jades. 
 
 Are gauzy-veil'*d, exquisite houris ! 
 
 ^- 
 
 And what this white incense that silvers the green. 
 As tho' from spice-gardens it clomb ? ah ! 
 
 The artist that could but depicture this scene. 
 Would be worthy a royal diploma. 
 
 And Pheme should write of his work to the Queen 
 On a page that should breathe this aroma ! 
 
8o 
 
 HOMEWARDS: EVENING. 
 
 1. 
 
 The crimsou-tinted gloaming fades, 
 The sheeted silver of the stream 
 
 Is darkening into sombre shades, 
 And day dies like a happy dream ; 
 
 And now, my rod, the time is come 
 
 For home — sweet home ! 
 
 2. 
 
 The distant sheep-bell faintly rings 
 
 Above the young lamb's plaintive bleat ; 
 
 The drowsy bat on shadowy wings 
 
 Sails round the homestead's snug retreat ; 
 
 Mute is the wheel of yonder mill : — 
 
 How calm ! how still ! 
 
 3. 
 
 The meadow path is damp with dew. 
 
 The rooks flap toward their woodland nest ; 
 
 The gazing kiue the sweet cud chew ; 
 All Nature soothes itself to rest ; 
 
 What peace, what joy to all is given ! 
 How kind is Heaven ! 
 
THE LEA IN WALTON'S TIME. 
 
82 
 
 An Angler's Strange Experiences. 
 
 Afar I hear the minster bells 
 
 Swing faintly out their evening chime. 
 In soothing falls, and cheering swells, 
 
 That with my homeward feet keep time, 
 And gratitude my heart o'erwells : — ■ 
 Dear, holy bells ! 
 
83 
 
 BROKEN LINES AND DOUBLES ENTENDRES. 
 
 A RIVERSIDE REVEIilK. 
 I. 
 
 I NEVER can that hour forget. 
 
 And dear to me the very place is, 
 
 When first at Vivian Place we met, — 
 
 What memories .that sweet name embraces ! — 
 
 She sweetly sang ; I praised the song ; 
 
 Her pleased smile went thro' and thro* me. 
 
 Nor could I sleep the whole night long — 
 
 That rise was to me ! 
 
 2. 
 I went to Vivian Place next day, 
 
 On some pretence that love invented, 
 And chanced to meet her on the way. 
 
 And spoke, confused and half demented ; 
 Recall'd the song with praise, and she 
 
 Fearing my praise would come too thickly. 
 Was rather stiff — becomingly — 
 
 I struck too quicTily ! 
 
 3. 
 I took the hint ; it did me good ; 
 
 I stay'd away a month lamenting ; 
 I let her see I understood 
 
 My fault, and sadly was repenting; 
 a 2 
 
84 An Angler^ s Strange Experiences. 
 
 And she, I found, grew guarded too. 
 
 Nor walk'd but witli her sister Connie, 
 Lest meeting me, I might renew — 
 
 ' Ware ! " Steady, Johnny ! " 
 
 4. 
 I too assumed a proud reserve. 
 
 Concealing love 'neath outward coldness, 
 And seemM unworthy to deserve 
 
 Her notice since my former boldness ; 
 I carried roses in my hand 
 
 To make her fear my heart was ranging. 
 Yet tried to make her understand — 
 
 Tliat fly wants changing ! 
 
 5. 
 
 I then sincerer tactics tried. 
 
 And went to pay a call, and surely 
 
 I met her — Connie by her side — 
 
 They bow'd and pass'd, and look'd demurely ; 
 
 She said, " He shall not think me flirt, 
 So with reserve let us accost him :" — 
 
 My love was pain'd ; my pride was hurt — 
 0, almost lost him ! 
 
 6. 
 
 But still, methought, that tender flush 
 That mantled on her cheek had meaning ; 
 
 Mere scorn could ne'er so sweetly blush ; 
 Scorn never had such gentle screening : 
 
 It gave me hope ; it gave me cheer ; 
 'Twas plainly writ down in my duty. 
 
 With caution still to persevere — 
 
 You're mine, my beauty !' 
 
 3 gee page 90. 
 
An Angler's Strange Experiences. 
 
 85 
 
 7. 
 
 I now grew bolder, slie less shy, 
 
 Some little coyness notwithstanding. 
 
 And soon — dear Connie not being by — 
 We came unto an understanding. 
 
 And seaPd it with a kiss and vow, 
 That evermore by Hymen banded. 
 
 Our hearts should be — as they are now — 
 
 Ha I safely landed ! 
 
 " HA ! SAPELY LANDED !" 
 
86 
 
 THE WARY OLD TROUT CAUGHT WITH A 
 SALMON FLY. 
 
 [Suggested by the following passage from " Mj First Salmon Run," by 
 Mr. Francis Francis: — 
 
 " I fished on down to the end of the cast, and got a dashing rise, but I 
 found it was only a big yellow trout, of three pounds, which I very soon 
 disposed of with a certain amount of contempt ; and j'et when trout-fishing 
 I had tried that trout most carefully with a variety of lures over and over 
 again, for I knew him well, and many a time my heart had been in my 
 mouth as he came up cautiously, and critically inspected my fly or minnow, 
 and then with a wave of his tail, expressive of his contempt for it. retreated 
 to his watery fastness ; and jet to-day, because I chanc d to be after salmon, 
 1 holced on him as inferior ware, while he, who had so cautiously looked 
 into moderate offers, and reasonable four or five per cent, bargains, where he 
 had a fair chance of getting off with bait and all for a scrape, like a rash 
 speculator, thinking he could realize ten or fifteen per cent., with limited 
 liability, risked his all in one mad rush and lost it. Verily the world of 
 fishes may be likened unto that of humanity in many respects."] 
 
 1. 
 
 I OFT had seen in Whammle-foot 
 
 A large and shapely trout. 
 And, with adapted lure, had tried 
 
 In vain to coax him out ; 
 I match'd the flies I knew he loved, 
 
 I plied my utmost skill : 
 I rose him oft, but all in vain — 
 
 That trout I could not kill ! 
 
 2. 
 But once I went to Whammle-foot 
 
 Not seeking trout, nor wishing 
 To see my friend ; far lordlier game 
 
 Was sought in that day's fishing ; 
 
Aft Angler's Strange Experiences. 87 
 
 My cast a mauy-colour'd fly, 
 
 And large, had on, to gammon, 
 By all the skill that art could ply. 
 
 Some splendid silver salmon. 
 
 3. 
 
 Nor less than three that gloi'ious day 
 
 My 'prentice hand had caught ; 
 And now I reached my trout's old home. 
 
 Yet gave him not a thought, 
 Nor wish ; when whistle went my reel, — 
 
 Said I, " What luck's about ? 
 Another salmon ? " Ah ! I'd got 
 
 At last, and thus, my trout ! 
 
 4. 
 
 As thus with fish, so oft with men : — 
 
 Temptations plied with skill 
 To meet their taste, will often fail 
 
 Their eye with lust to fill : 
 While baits, that seem for them too gross. 
 
 Prove oft the fatal spell 
 That takes their eyes with quick surprise, 
 
 And lures them into hell ! 
 
CAPTAIN TROUT AND THE MAY-FLY. 
 
 1. 
 
 May is come, to trout so dear, 
 Month of months of all the year ! 
 Warm the water, soft and clear. 
 Soon the May-fly will be here ! 
 
 Ope your eyes and shake your fins ! 
 
 Now the feast of feasts begins ! 
 
 For the revels all prepare ! 
 
 the dainties rich and rare ! 
 
 2, 
 
 Ha ! up yonder what is that, 
 WingM with beauty, long and fat ? 
 Let me now arise, and see 
 If indeed 'tis really he ! 
 
 Ope your eyes and shake your fins ! 
 
 Now the feast of feasts begins ! 
 
 For the revels all prepare ! 
 
 the dainties rich and rare ! 
 
 3. 
 
 No mistake about it, boys ! 
 O that antepast of joys ! 
 'Twas indeed the pioneer ! 
 Swarms for all will now appear ! 
 
 Ope your eyes and shake your fins ! 
 
 Now the feast of feasts begins ! 
 
 For the revels all prepare ! 
 
 the dainties rich and rare ! 
 
Aft Angler^s Strange Experiences. 89 
 
 4. 
 
 " Now's the day, and now's the hour ! " 
 See the cloudy swarm doth lour ! 
 Now, ye trout, arise and kill. 
 And of plenty take your fill ! 
 
 Ope your eyes and shake your fins ! 
 
 Now the feast of feasts begins ! 
 
 For the revels all prepare ! 
 
 O the dainties rich and rare ! 
 
 5. 
 Are ye ready ? upward flash ! 
 Downward, upward, slap and dash ! 
 Thro' the bubbling waters crash, 
 Splash and dash and flash and clash ! 
 
 Ope your eyes and shake your fins ! 
 
 Now the feast of feasts begins ! 
 
 For the revels all prepare ! 
 
 the dainties rich and rare ! 
 
 ^^^>^^' 
 
90 
 
 "MY BEAUTY." * 
 
 SONG. THE OLD ANGLER TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 1. 
 
 I CALLED thee *' my beauty " when first in our youtli 
 We pledged to each other our love and our truth, 
 And I felt there were none in the ranks of the fair 
 That could with " my beauty " one moment compare; 
 But how small was the part of the beauty reveal'd, 
 To the beauty within that thy beauty conceal' d. 
 
 And O with what joy, what elation and pride, 
 
 I calFd thee " my beauty/' array'd as my bride. 
 
 When I felt that thy beauty would gladden my life 
 
 In the form of my good and my beautiful wife ; 
 
 And the years as they roU'd with their good and their ill, 
 
 Ueveal'd some new beauty more beautiful still ! 
 
 3. 
 
 those years, ah, how many, " my beauty " have flown ! 
 
 They are counted by birthdays of children upgrowu ; 
 
 They have left the sad traces of trial and care, 
 
 And many a sorrow hath silver'd thy hair ; 
 
 But, although the fresh bloom of thy youth is no more, 
 
 Thou art now more " my beauty " than ever before ! 
 
 * See last Hue of stanza 6, page 84. 
 
9» 
 
 ODE 
 
 FOR THE ROYAL INAUGURATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL FISHERIES 
 
 EXHIBITION. 
 
 1. 
 
 Queen of the Island-Realm, 
 
 Vein'd with the silver streams 
 That flow thro' England's verdant meads, 
 
 Like songs thro' poet's dreams; 
 And circled by the seas 
 
 Where Britain's navies ride — 
 Those that thy Throne and People guard ; 
 
 These that their wealth provide ! 
 
 2. 
 
 Not those engage to-day 
 
 Thy Royal heart and mind. 
 But these that brave the stormy wave 
 
 The finny food to find ; 
 Not those that flash in fire. 
 
 To make thy foemen flee. 
 But these that thro' the fields of blue 
 
 Sail out to reap the sea ! 
 
 3. 
 
 These that encounter Death 
 
 To reap a living store ; 
 Nor thro' the wrack do all come back 
 
 To barvest-home ashore ! 
 
92 An Angler's Strange Experiences. 
 
 Their sorrows on the sea 
 
 They know thy heart doth share. 
 
 For Science, Art, and Law thou bidst 
 For their protection care. 
 
 No booming guns of War 
 
 Shake in thy praise the skies, 
 But manly cheers from lowly ships 
 
 Of Peace and Plenty rise ! 
 Britannia^s Fisher-Fleet, 
 
 Prow-pointed toward this scene, 
 Their gracious Queen salutes to-day, 
 
 And these salute their Queen ! 
 
 5. 
 
 But since thy Flag doth float 
 
 Supreme on every sea, 
 Thy heart includes the total main 
 
 In blest Philanthropy ! 
 The Fisher- world is one. 
 
 Whatever its various name. 
 And here to-day with heart and voice 
 
 Unites in one acclaim ! 
 
93 
 
 EPILOGUE. 
 
 1. 
 
 This moral, angler, my poem will bear — 
 However tilings look, you need never despair : 
 Be never surprised when the hopeful day fails, 
 Nor hopeless when all that is adverse assails. 
 
 PLY-FISHING FOB TBOUT AND GEAYIING IN AUGUST. 
 
94 -^'^ Angler's Strange Experiences. 
 
 2. 
 
 If the morning be such as to damp all your pluck, 
 At eve you may get quite a run of good luck ; 
 If this pool, or that, yield you nought but despair. 
 The next may give treasure both ample and rare. 
 
 3. 
 If your tackle give way, be your ]ieart true and firm ; 
 Let your spirit ne^er break like a poor, brittle worm ; 
 Scour it well by true patience and render it tough; 
 Take the rough with the smooth, and 'twill hardly be rough. 
 
 4. 
 If the wind's in the east, still of that make the best, 
 'Tis so fickle, it soon may chop round to the west ; 
 "Nay, Jish are so fickle, they sometimes will feast 
 When your hope is blown chill from the nor'ard of east. 
 
 5. 
 If we find disappointment, yet spirits like ours 
 So tutor'd to patience, may laugh as it lours ; 
 We have always this solace to comfort our pain. 
 That in seeking we find, and in losing we gain. 
 
 6. 
 
 If the fish do not rise, still our sky doth not fall; 
 We find " books in the running brooks," goodness in all ^ 
 If we lose our hook'd fish, we find pastime and health, 
 And, though empty our creel be, in these we find wealth. 
 
 7. 
 Though all be not fish that comes into our net, 
 If we often are dry, and we sometimes get wet, 
 Though we're hinder'd by dncls, yet our hearts never quail, 
 We've a store of good spirits, and always are hale. 
 
96 
 
 An Anglers Strange Experiences. 
 
 'IP WE OFTEN ABE DKl'.' 
 
 8. 
 
 And whatever tlie trials with which we may cope. 
 We may always enjoy the sweet " pleasures of hope ;" 
 And good health and fresh air, and the music of streams. 
 Fill our days with pure pleasure, our nights with pure dreams. 
 
97 
 
 POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 BEING A POBM: ON PJJ05-AND CONS, AND AT THE SAME TDIB A ROD IN 
 
 TEN PIECES. 
 
 1. 
 
 Some affirm, For lively sport 
 
 You may go to sea, sir ; 
 I would say — I mean no ill — 
 Rather go to Dee, sir ; 
 . ' Taste is all ; let all who will 
 Sojourn at the seaside, 
 I — excuse my want of taste — 
 By far prefer the Deeside. 
 
 2. 
 Some affirm. No fishing can 
 
 Be e'er compared to bottom ; 
 Others, and among them, I, 
 
 The top's the place to pot 'em ; 
 Yet when all is said and done. 
 
 Your success the test is ; 
 Whichever you can do the best, 
 
 That for you the best is. 
 
 ' 7» Some affirm. If goodly trout 
 
 You at eve would dish up. 
 Never fish adown the stream. 
 
 Rather always fish up : 
 I would say. Or up or down. 
 
 As you freely wish, sir. 
 Guided by this rule alone. 
 
 How can you catch fish, sir ? 
 
98 
 
 An Angler s Strange Experiences. 
 
 BOTTOM-FISHING. 
 
 4. 
 
 Some affirm, Of wood for rods 
 
 Best that styled lance is ; 
 One man fancies hickory ; 
 
 Bamboo, saith Francis Francis 
 For myself, I little care 
 
 What the kind of wood is ; 
 If it suit my muscle well, 
 
 Then I think it good is. 
 
An Angler s Strange Experiences. • 99 
 
 0. 
 Some aflBrm, The rod for trout 
 
 Should be one of ten feet ; ^ 
 Do they not in this forget 
 
 That in fisher-men., feet 
 Differ as their muscles do. 
 
 And as their length of bones, sir ? 
 And, therefore, what is long for Smith, 
 
 Is far too short for Jones, sir. 
 
 6. 
 
 Some advise, Play long your fish ; 
 
 And others, Kill him quick, man ! 
 As though all fish were game or tame. 
 
 And all so long, so thick, man; 
 I — Judge by your fish : one fish 
 
 Is no more like another 
 Than good and gentle Abel was 
 
 Like Cain his wrathful brother. 
 
 7. 
 
 Some affirm, Our English trout 
 
 Have lately grown aesthetic ; 
 And that a green sou'-west of green. 
 
 On Itchen is emetic : 
 Doubtless Angling School-Boards may 
 
 Fishes' wits have whetted, 
 Yet I think, with shades of shades 
 
 Trout need not be petted. 
 
 8. 
 And when I read of salmon-flies 
 
 In books of learned anglers. 
 And hear the jargon that is talk'd 
 
 By colour-crazed wranglers. 
 
 Notably W. C. Stewart in his " Practical Angler." 
 
loo An Angler s Strange Experiences. 
 
 I often think, it is indeed 
 Enough to make a pussy 
 
 Laugh in her sleep to dream that fish 
 Can be one half so fussy. 
 
 9. 
 
 I now dismiss you to your rod 
 
 With my fraternal benison. 
 By borrowing this sage remark 
 
 From laurell'd Alfred Tennyson, — 
 " Others follies teach us not, 
 
 Nor much their wisdom teaches, 
 But most of sterling worth is what 
 
 Our own experience preaches." ^ 
 
 10. 
 
 And now my last advice is this — 
 
 Dear friend, put in your pocket. 
 Whene'er you fishing go, this book, 
 
 And don't at home uplock it; 
 'Twill brighten up your hour of rest, 
 
 And make you feel how wise is 
 The counsel underneath the fun 
 
 Of genial Cotswold Isys. 
 
 * Will Waterproofs Lyrical Monologue. 
 
 FIN-IS. 
 
 eiLBEBT AND BIVINOtOir, LIUITBD, ST. JOHN'S SQV^BB, LONDON. 
 
^0 02645 
 
 M31SJ909 
 
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