ANGLE-LAND. NOTWITHSTANDING what learned antiquaries and historians have said about the name of England, or Angle-land, being derived from the Angles, an obscure tribe from Jutland-which, by the way, is never mentioned by our most ancient annalists as forming a considerable body of the Saxon invaders of Britain-it is not unlikely that they may all have been hunting on a false scent. The most obvious derivation is from Angling, the mystery of catching fish with rod and line; an elegant branch of the fine arts, in which the people of this country excel all other nations, and the instinctive love of which, becoming more intense in each succeeding generation, they probably derive, from an illustrious race of angling ancestors, who flourished the long rod during the Heptarchy; and from whom the seven kingdoms, when united under one crown, were called Aengle-land; a name in which all would cordially agree as peculiarly appropriate, since, from St. Michael's Mount to the Frith of Forth-which we believe was the extent of "Old" England-they were anglers all. Hence, natio Anglia est; and till the end of time may the love of her children towards F The the gentle art, and their skill in its exercise, continue to render the name appropriate ;-for so all piscatory authors, booksellers, publishers, and tackle-makers are in duty bound to pray. conjecture that the name Anglia, or Aengle-land, is derived from "angling," will be considerably strengthened when we consider that the more ancient name, Britannia, is most probably derived from Britthyl, a trout, meaning the country abounding in trouts; a much more feasible etymology than that of Humphrey Lhuyd, who derives it from Pryd and Cam, fertile and fair: a far-fetched etymology, for which Buchanan-a savage with the rod, as the royal breech of James VI. could testify -scourges him soundly. The change of name, from Land of Trouts to Land of Anglers, is at once simple and natural, and exactly what a philosophical etymologist would be most likely to infer. Let any person look at the map of England, including in his survey Scotland, Ireland, and the Principality, -that is, if he have not personally visited each country, which every gentleman, at least, ought to do before making the tour of Europe,—and from the brooks, becks, and burns which he will see rising in all directions, and winding through the country, at last forming a noble river-capable of bearing on its bosom the native oak which erst shaded its banks, but now formed to bear Britannia's thunders, and to quell the depths below,"-and he will directly perceive, trom the very physical constitution of the country, that England is peculiarly adapted to form a race of anglers. The very climate, which certain foreigners decry as being dull and cloudy, is decidedly in favour of the angler; for, notwithstanding the number and excellence of our streams, had we the clear atmosphere and cloudless skies of Italy, the fly-fisher's occupation would, in a great measure, be gone. Above all other classes of Englishmen, the fly-fisher has most reason to be satisfied with the climate of his own country; and were a course of angling to form --as it ought-a branch of liberal education, we should not have so many absentees misspending their money and their time, and losing the freshness of honest English feeling in the enervating climate and degraded society of Italy. "O native Britain! O my mother Isle ! How shouldst thou prove aught else but dear and holy To me, who from thy lakes and mountain hills, Thy clouds, thy quiet dales, thy rocks, and seas, All sweet sensations, all ennobling thoughts, All lovely and all honourable things, Whatever makes this mortal spirit feel The joy and greatness of its future being !"* Under the term "Angling," Professor Rennie includes all kinds of fishing with a hook, in salt water as well as in fresh; and it must be admitted * Coleridge, "Fears in Solitude." |