3-008-575 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"The Fisherman's Haunt", by G. Chester, in the Exhibition of the Royal Academy, 1862. Engraving of a painting. 'This picture is not only the best we have seen by the artist, but has a twofold interest - to wit, both piscatorial and pictorial...the painter, by his very title, seems to address himself especially to the gentle disciples of "good old" Izaak Walton. Moreover, he draws our attention by a quotation from Tennyson to this as being a "likely spot" for "here and there a lusty trout, And here and there a grayling". It is, however, very unkind and provoking that he does not tell us where the spot actually is, and if easily accessible. But this is characteristic. Who ever heard of an angler so committing himself, even to his bosom friend? With him, indeed, "there is society where none intrude." A pretty time of it our little fisherman would have if his solitary bliss were rudely destroyed, and his monopoly of the chances of those same lusty trout and pretty, graceful grayling unfeelingly opposed by any heartless intruders or malicious competitors. What would be his feelings if, after walking perhaps many miles, he found his favourite seat preoccupied, or if a skirmishing enemy were to open upon him from the ambush on the opposite bank?'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862..