The Project Gutenberg eBook, Angling Sketches, by Andrew Lang

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: Angling Sketches

Author: Andrew Lang

Release Date: April 18, 2005 [eBook #2022]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ANGLING SKETCHES***

Transcribed from the 1895 Longmans, Green, and Co. edition by David
Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk

ANGLING SKETCHES

Contents:

Preface
Note to New Edition
The Confessions of a Duffer
A Border Boyhood
Loch Awe
Loch-Fishing
Loch Leven
The Bloody Doctor
The Lady or the Salmon?
A Tweedside Sketch
The Double Alibi
The Complete Bungler

DEDICATION

TO MRS HERBERT HILLS

'NO FISHER
BUT A WELL-WISHER
TO THE GAME.'

IN MEMORY OF PLESANT DAYS AT CORBY

PREFACE

Several of the sketches in this volume have appeared in periodicals. "The
Bloody Doctor" was in _Macmillan's Magazine_, "The Confessions of a
Duffer," "Loch Awe," and "The Lady or the Salmon?" were in the _Fishing
Gazette_, but have been to some extent re-written. "The Double Alibi"
was in _Longman's Magazine_. The author has to thank the Editors and
Publishers for permission to reprint these papers.

The gem engraved on the cover is enlarged from a small intaglio in the
collection of Mr. M. H. N. STORY-MASKELYNE, M.P. Such gems were
recommended by Clemens of Alexandria to the early Christians. "The
figure of a man fishing will put them in mind of the Apostle." Perhaps
the Greek is using the red hackle described by AElian in the only known
Greek reference to fly-fishing.

NOTE TO NEW EDITION

The historical version of the Black Officer's career, very unlike the
legend in "Loch Awe," may be read in Mr. Macpherson's _Social Life in the
Highlands_.

THE CONFESSIONS OF A DUFFER

These papers do not boast of great sport. They are truthful, not like
the tales some fishers tell. They should appeal to many sympathies.
There is no false modesty in the confidence with which I esteem myself a
duffer, at fishing. Some men are born duffers; others, unlike persons of
genius, become so by an infinite capacity for not taking pains. Others,
again, am