Prose halieutics, or, Ancient and modern fish tattle / by C. David Badham.

  • Charles David Badham
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Prose halieutics, or, Ancient and modern fish tattle / by C. David Badham. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    this omission of a fishing bishop as successor to St. Peter, in a church which professes to follow so exactly the apostolic pattern in all things, is an extraordinary oversight! England is the only country where the gentle art is thoroughly understood, and where everything around conspires to make men anglers, and to keep them so. Here in cheerful solitude Piscator may wander by the edge of the stream, and fear neither wild snake nor lurking crocodile; here he can ‘retire at night with his few trouts (to borrow the pleasing description of old Walton), to some friendly cottage, where the landlady is good, and the daughters innocent and beautiful; where the room is cleanly, with lavender in the sheets, and twenty ballads stuck about the wall! Here he may en- joy the company of a talkative brother sportsman; have his trouts dressed for supper, tell tales, sing old tunes, or make a catch! Here he can talk of the wonders of nature with learned admiration; or find some harmless sport to content him, and pass away a little time, with- out offence to God, or injury to man/ Here too, in after-life, wherever he may have travelled and fished in the meanwhile, he will delight to return, (and if he be a true disciple of Walton) to re-visit the scenes of his angling boyhood: the banks of each well-known stream, the unchanged lake, the paternal pond, and the boat of auld lang-syne rising two inches in the boat-house to greet him—that dear old boat to which he used furtively to creep, and loosing her rusty and trusty chain from its moorings, confide his mistress's name, and the earliest efforts of his muse; or else, in some bright August day. When showers were short and weather mild, The morning fresh, the evening smiled. Would sit all day with patient skill, Attending to the trembling quill. The mere sight of a fishing-line in after-life is ofttimes
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