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John Gay’s Rural Sports describes the joy of trout fishing as the likes of Charles Cotton or Izaak Walton would approve.
...”The sporting fish their wonted Haunts forsake,
And in the Rivers wide Excursions take;
They range with frequent Leaps the shallow Streams,
and their bright Scales reflect the daz’ling Beams,
The Fisherman does now his Toils prepare,
And Arms himself with ev’ry watry Snare,
He meditates new Methods to betray,
Threat’ning Destruction to the finny Prey.
When floating Clouds their spongy Fleeces drain,
Troubling the Streams with swift-descending Rain,
And Waters, tumbling down the Mountain’s Side,
Bear the loose Soil into the swelling Tide;
Then, soon as Vernal Gales begin to rise,
And drive the liquid Burthen through the Skies,
the Fisher strait his Taper Rod prepares,
And to the Neighb’ring Stream in haste repairs;
Upon a rising Border of the Brook
He sits him down, and ties the treach’rous Hook;
A twining Earth-worm he draws on with Care,
With which he neatly hides the pointed Snare,
Now Expectation chears his eager Thought,
His Bosom glows with Treasures yet uncaught,
Before his Eves a Banquet seems to stand,
The kind Effects of his industrious Hand”.....
John Gay continues with his poem which is much too long to provide in this glimpse of his works. It remains for those who enjoy the art of fishing and the pleasures of the written word to find and read the works of John Gay.
The Poetical Works of John Gay, Edited with a life and notes by John Underhill, Vol.1, pp 255.Lawrence and Bullen London, 1893.
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