Of such books, thank Heaven, there is a
plenty to bring a Maytide charm and cheer into the fisherman's dull
December. I will name, by way of random tribute from a grateful but
unmethodical memory, a few of these consolatory volumes.
First of all comes a family of books that were born in Scotland and
smell of the heather.
Whatever a Scotchman's conscience permits him to do, is likely to be
done with vigour and a fiery mind. In trade and in theology, in
fishing and in fighting, he is all there and thoroughly kindled.
There is an old-fashioned book called THE MOOR AND THE LOCH, by John
Colquhoun, which is full of contagious enthusiasm. Thomas Tod
Stoddart was a most impassioned angler, (though over-given to strong
language,) and in his ANGLING REMINISCENCES he has touched the
subject with a happy hand,--happiest when he breaks into poetry and
tosses out a song for the fisherman. Professor John Wilson of the
University of Edinburgh held the chair of Moral Philosophy in that
institution, but his true fame rests on his well-earned titles of A.
M. and F. R. S.,--Master of Angling, and Fisherman Royal of
Scotland. His RECREATIONS OF CHRISTOPHER NORTH, albeit their humour
is sometimes too boisterously hammered in, are genial and generous
essays, overflowing with passages of good-fellowship and pedestrian
fancy.
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