An Amateur Angler's Days in Dove Dale; Or, How I Spent My Three Weeks' Holiday.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1888 edition. Excerpt: ...to carry me to see But I am now beginning to think I can enjoy all such pleasures as these without encumbering myself with a fishing-rod, basket, and net, and uselessly whipping the stream.1 When I first thought of fly-fishing as a holiday amusement, my imagination had pictured to myself a walk by the side of a sweetly-flowing stream on a lovely summer's evening, when one had only to cast one's flies over the water and draw out the simple trout and grayling till one's basket required the aid of a strong boy to carry it. That was the sort of thing I looked for in fly-fishing. How that pretty, imaginary picture has been dispelled by the reality! how I have been soaked and sodden, torn and scratched, stung by nettles, pursued by wasps, bitten by Islam, a romantic scene, now belonging to a family of the name of Port, but formerly the seat of the Congreves.... I recollect a very fine amphitheatre, surrounded with hills, covered with woods, and walks neatly formed round the side of a rocky steep, on the quarter next the house, with recesses under projections of rock, overshadowed with trees; in one of which recesses, we were told, Congreve wrote his 'Old Bachelor.'"--Bosivelts Life ofJohnson. 1 "I always consider the mere act of fishing as a secondary consideration. I connect with it the enjoyment of the country, the song of birds, the beauty of the day, the refreshment of mind, and the calmness of thought which these bring with them."--Jesse's Rambles. venomous insects, my fingers lacerated, and coat and trousers torn by my own hooks! how, weary and footsore, with my angelic temper tried to the utmost, I have returned to my hotel! All these things, friendly reader, thou already knowest. Recollections such as these, I am bound to...