2-888-343 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Sniggling for Eels - drawn by Duncan, 1850. '...call to mind the semi-snaky creatures that furnish our dramatis personae - pseudo-serpents. You could not "troll" them, nor "angle," nor "clip," nor "bottom fish"; "eel-spearing" has a bombastic sound, and "bobbing " is low. 'Sniggle' is the word...Its origin is obscure. Dr. Samuel Johnson merely describes it as a verb neuter: not a syllable about a worm at one end, and a fool at the other..."thus", according to gentle Izaak, "sniggling is performed. In a warm day, when the water is lowest...take a strong small hook, lied to a string about a yard long; and then into one of the holes where an eel may hide himself, with the help or a short stick, put in your bait leisurely, and as far as you may conveniently: if within the sight of it, the eel will bite instantly, and as certainly gorge it: pull him out by degrees".' From "Illustrated London News", 1850.