Theory and Practice. —A Word about "Book-learning.". Throwing the Line and Flies. - Striking-its Necessity and Object. Quotations from Mr. Ronalds, Mr. Younger, and "Ephemera."-Friendly Hints on pisca- torial Etiquette. — Instructions for playing and landing a Fish.-A Word about Patience, and a Glance at Love. - Insensibility of Fish to Pain. - Sir Humphrey Davy General Remarks on the Fly-fishing Season. - - Spring. Dace Fishing. A good preliminary "School" for the superior Art of Trouting. - Remarks and Instructions thereon.- Autumn Fishing.—Where to fish, and what THE VADE-MECUM OF FLY-FISHING, &c. &c. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. My good scholar, we may say of angling as Dr. Boteler said of strawberries, 'Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did;' and so, if I might be judge, God never did make a more calm, quiet, innocent recreation than angling."-IZAAC WALTON. GLORIOUS old Izaac! What delightful thoughts - what poetical imaginings — the bare mention of thy name evokes! They come fresh and uncontaminated from the pure fountains of nature -as if haloed with cowslip garlands, bespangled with the blue-bell and the water-lily- stealing along amid the murmur of the summer stream, the hum of insects, and the song of birds! B What more can be said in praise of angling than that which the good and quaint old father of anglers has so charmingly discoursed? What more delightful picture of an angler's life and pleasures of the scenes 'mid which he wanders, and the poetry which shines in his heart and illuminés the mental atmosphere in which he lives -can be presented than that which Walton has bequeathed to us in the delightful book which he designed as "a picture of his own disposition," and which is described as having "hardly its fellow in any of the modern languages?" Who, on reading, or recalling to his recollection, the beautiful scenes and dialogues in that exquisite production, will not fancy himself the delighted companion of Piscator, Auceps, and Venator?— will not be carried away for a while from the stern realities and corroding cares of the world, to the quietude and poetry of nature — to the flower-spread banks of a lovely river in some sequestered vale embosomed by its tree-clad hills? —will not feast, in imagination, upon the glorious and ever-varying scenes through which an angler roams, and taste the indescribable enjoyment which is peculiar to his fascinating pastime? "God never did make a more calm, quiet, innocent recreation than angling,”—let cavillers and those who have no acquaintance or sympathy with rural recreations say what they will to the contrary. It delights, by bringing its votaries. into direct and intimate communication with nature in her loveliest guise; it instructs, by compelling them, if they would pursue the art successfully, to acquire a knowledge of some of her most interesting productions; it soothes and elevates, by the habits of "calm, quiet, and innocent" contemplation which it induces; it interests, by the triumph which skill and perseverance enable them to effect in the capture of shy and cunning creatures by elegant and scientific means - by art and reason over instinct; and it invigorates, mentally and physically, by the active exercise which it demands, and by the agreeable excitement which it produces. "That undervaluer of money, Sir Henry Wotton, the late provost of Eton College — a man," says Walton, "whose very approbation of the art ought to be enough to convince any modest censurer of it," was wont to say of angling that it was "an employment for his idle time, which was not then idly spent; for it was, after tedious study, a rest to his mind, a cheerer of his spirits, a diverter of sadness, a calmer of unquiet thoughts, a moderator of passions, a pro curer of contentedness; and that it begat habits of peace and patience in all who professed and practised it." It is universally admitted, that of the different branches of angling the most scientific and interesting is that on which this unaspiring treatise is written. In preference to any special enumeration of its claims to that distinction, we shall endeavour to convey an idea of their nature, and at the same time of the attractions of this delightful art, in an off-hand sketch of a day's fly-fishing on one of the most celebrated streams of "the west countrie;" and this perhaps will prove a not unfitting introduction to our more dry, but we hope not useless, chapters. Down far, far into one of the most picturesque parts of the country-away from the bustle and gaiety of city life—is nestled a quiet and secluded valley, through which a clear and dancing stream pursues its devious way, and on every side diffuses health and freshness. This valley is enclosed and sheltered by ranges of high hills which the hand of Cultivation (the arch-enemy of landscape beauty) has not yet quite denuded of their wood, although its approach is everywhere manifest. Among them, branching away in different directions, are snug little combs into which the eye |