est where she rang'd before.

It is in "Windsor Forest" that many lines are found by which Pope is
perhaps alone remembered by many sportsmen. The references to the
well-breathed beagles and the circling hare are happy, and very
characteristic of the poet's telling style in the couplet in brackets.

Beasts, urged by us, their fellow beasts pursue,
And learn of man each other to undo.

Equally characteristic of his defects are the shooting touches in which
the "unwearyd fowler" is introduced, with the "leaden death" of the
"clam'rous lapwings," and the "mounting larks." The glimpse of lonely
woodcocks haunting the watery glade is sufficiently apt, but let the
shooting man stand at attention when grandiloquently informed.

He lifts the tube, and levels with his eye;
Straight a short thunder breaks the frozen sky.

Ten lines further in the poem stands the picture which endears Pope to
anglers for all time, and which need only be indicated, as in the hymn
books, with the first line:

The patient fisher takes his silent stand.

CHAPTER VII

A FIRST SPRINGER AND SOME OTHERS

There is no specific virtue that I ever heard of in a first anything,
yet you very often hear of it as a remembrance that may be pleasant,
and is often otherwise. The sportsman is as prone as anyone to such
references, and I defy the fishing or shooting editors of the _Field_
to count off-hand the number of MSS. that they receive headed first
salmon, first tiger, first pheasant, or first something. At this
moment I seem to have a better understanding of the reason. The
heading is used to get rid of the difficulty as to what exactly would
be better, and in much the same way as A. is made a member of the
Cabinet lest there should be awkwardness over the claims of B. and C.
My choice of a title of this sketch is not precisely so to be
explained. I simply plead sequence.

In a previous chapter I wrote of my first Tweed salmon, and in this
chapter there is no reason why I should not fall back upon the dear old
formula for a reminiscence of the Tay. The emphasis should be on
"springer," for I went northwards with a desire to catch one that had
taken the form of a longing, a yearning for many successive seasons.
Besides, it was February, when the springer is prized more positively
than at a more advanced period of the spring. You will probably get a
dozen kelts to one springer, and the fish, therefore, is in the
categor