Lines in Pleasant Places | Page 4

mood, salmon

or gudgeon, spinning bait or black gnat, Middlesex or Mississippi, your
pages have something to suit it.
Ever since I first met you, on a September evening at Newbury now
nearly twenty years ago, you have consistently given me
ever-increasing cause for gratitude. Whether as accomplished journalist
and Editor of the Field, as writer and author of books, as a man with a
genius for friendship, if I may quote the phrase, or as an expert with rod
and line--in whatever guise you appeared I had cause to thank you for
allowing me "to call you Master." That I am able to do so now thus
publicly means that one at least of my ambitions has been realised. And
I will take leave to subscribe myself with all affection, "Your scholar,"
H. T. SHERINGHAM.

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
AN OPEN LETTER
CHAPTER
I.
ANGLING AS A REAL FIELD SPORT II. MANFORD AND
SERTON'S COSY NEST III. MAYFLY DAYS AND DIALOGUES
IV. MY FIRST TWEED SALMON V. MUSINGS OF A BUSH RIDE
VI. WITH VERDANT ALDERS CROWN'D VII. A FIRST
SPRINGER AND SOME OTHERS VIII. ANGLING COUSINS AT
THE VICARAGE IX. A CONTRAST IN THAMES ANGLING X.
TWO RED LETTER SALMON XI. A SERMON ON VEXATIONS
AND CONSOLATIONS XII. THE SALMON AND THE KODAK
XIII. HALFORD AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES XIV. CASUAL
VISITS TO NORWAY XV. CASTING FROM ROCKS AND BOATS
XVI. SOME CONTRARIES OF WEATHER AND SPORT XVII.

LAST DAYS WITH NORWAY AND ITS SEA TROUT XVIII.
GLIMPSES OF CANADA, ETC. XIX. HASTY VISITS TO
AMERICA XX. A DEVASTATED ARCADIA

LINES IN PLEASANT PLACES
CHAPTER I
ANGLING AS A REAL FIELD SPORT
One of the commonest misconceptions about angling is that it is just
the pastime for an idle man. "The lazy young vagabond cares for
nothing but fishing!" exclaims the despairing mother to her sympathetic
neighbour of the next cottage listening to the family troubles. Even
those who ought to know better lightly esteem the sport, as if, forsooth,
there were something in the nature of effeminacy in its pursuit.
Not many summers ago a couple of trout-fishers were enjoined by the
open-handed country gentleman who had invited them to try his stream
to be sure and come in to lunch. They sought to be excused on the plea
that they could not afford to leave the water upon any such trifling
pretence, but they compounded by promising to work down the
water-meads in time for afternoon tea under the dark cedar on the
bright emerald lawn. As they sauntered up through the shrubberies, hot
and weary, the ladies mocked their empty baskets, and that was all fair
and square; but a town-bred member of the house-party shot at a
venture a shaft which they considered cruel:
"You ought to have joined us at luncheon, Captain Vandeleur," said she.
"I can't imagine what amusement you can find in sitting all day
watching a float."
To men whose shoulders and arms were aching after five hours'
greenheart drill at long distances, and who prided themselves upon
being above every form of fishing lower than spinning, the truly
knock-down nature of this blow can only be imagined by those who

understand the subject. The captain, who is reckoned one of the worst
men in the regiment to venture with in the way of repartee, was so
amazed at the damsel's ignorance that he answered never a word,
leaving some of her friends in muslin on the garden chairs around to
explain the difference between fishing with and without a float--a duty
which they appeared to perform with true womanly relish as a set-off
against the previous scoring of the pert maid from Mayfair, who had
borne rather heavily upon them from a London season elevation.
Allow me to recommend angling as a manly exercise, as physically
hard in some of its aspects as any other field sport. During the lifetime
of those of us who will no more see middle age this recreation has
become actually popular, and it is generally supposed that the
multiplication a hundredfold of rod-and-line fishermen in a generation
is explained by the cheaper and easier modes of locomotion, the
increase of cheap literature pertaining to the sport, and the
establishment of a periodical press devoted to it amongst other forms of
national recreation. These reasons are undoubtedly admissible. Yet I
venture to add another, namely, the great and beneficial movement
which has opened the eyes of men and women to the importance of
physical exercise.
When the young men who had in their boyhood been taught to regard
almost every form of recreation as a sin to be guarded against and
repented of, were taught another doctrine, a new impulse was given to
cricket, football, and all manner of athletics, and angling was quickly
discovered by many to