Page:Forest scenes in Norway and Sweden (1855).djvu/12

mation on the subjects treated on as lie could compass ; and with such an object before him, absolute fiction would have been useless. His descriptions, therefore, in that book were real descrip- tions, his anecdotes, real anecdotes — the incidents of the story did actually happen ; his instructions in the arfc of fly- fishing and the hydrography of the river were the results of his own experience, and the fairy legends were his own collections. Unless these things had been true, his book would have been merely a book of entertainment, — and he was ambitious of something beyond that. Everything of this kind, therefore, was recorded accurately ; and in the few instances in which the requirements of the story compelled the author to transplant his incidents, their real localities were always given. All this was important to the public, or, at least, as im- portant as the subject itself; but it was of no consequence to any one, except for the gratification of mere curiosity, to be able to identify the precise Captain A. who broke the weirs of the Laune, while such information would not have raised Captain A.'s character at the Horse-Guards. The Liberal member for B. might enjoy the recollection of the row he got up at Kildoney, but might not find it convenient to be reminded of it on the hustings. Attorneys might look askance at Barrister C, who for a whole summer had directed his studies to the practice of Club-law ; while Parson D., who had passed three months of his life waist-high in the Erne, might possibly expect, were he identified, to have cold water thrown upon him by his Bishop for the rest of his life. "With all these matters, interesting enough to the charac- ters themselves, the public had nothing whatever to do : it was sufficient for them that they had their information and their story ; and, provided the incidents of that story hap- pened to some one, it signified little to them, which, of all the letters of the alphabet, composed his name. The public should feel grateful to any fisherman who has truly revealed the silks and feathers of his favourite fly ; it is what very few fishermen will do : let them be satisfied with that : they shall never know— they have no right to know — which of