TO W. H. PEPYS, ESQ.
April, 1808.
MY DEAR PEPYS,
Children has had the kindness to arrange our party, and we are to meet him, at all events, on Tuesday at two o'clock, at Foot's Cray.
I have proposed that we should leave town at about five or six on Monday evening, sleep at Foot's Cray, and try the fly-fishing there.
Will you arrange with Allen, whom we must initiate in the vocation of the Apostles, as he wants nothing else to make him perfect as a primitive Christian and a Philosopher?
I am, my dear Pepys,
Most affectionately yours,
H. Davy.
Hitherto his passion for angling has only been noticed in connection with his conversation and letters; I shall now present to the reader a sketch of the philosopher in his fishing costume. His whole suit consisted of green cloth; the coat having sundry pockets for holding the necessary tackle: his boots were made of caoutchouc, and, for the convenience of wading through the water, reached above the knees. His hat, originally intended for a coal-heaver, had been purchased from the manufacturer in its raw state, and dyed green by some pigment of his own composition; it was, moreover, studded with every variety of artificial fly which he could require for his diversion. Thus equipped, he thought, from the colour of his dress, that he was more likely to elude the observation of the fish. He looked not like an inhabitant o' the earth, and yet was on't;—nor can I find any object in the regions of invention with which I could justly compare him, except perhaps with one of those grotesque personages who, in the farce of "The Critic," attend Father Thames on the stage, as his two banks.
I shall take this opportunity of stating, that his shooting attire was equally whimsical: if, as an angler, he adopted a dress for concealing his person, as a sportsman in woods and plantations, it was his object to devise means for exposing it; for he always entertained a singular dread lest he might be accidentally shot upon these occasions. When upon a visit to Mr. Dillwyn of Swansea, he accompanied his friend on a shooting excursion, in a broad-brimmed hat, the whole of which, with the exception of the brim, was covered with scarlet cloth.
Notwithstanding, however, the refinements which he displayed in his dress, and the scrupulous attention with which he observed all the minute details of the art; if the truth must be told, he was not more successful than his brother anglers; and here again the temperament of Wollaston presented a characteristic contrast to that of Davy. The former evinced the same patience and reserve—the same cautious observation and unwearied vigilance in this pursuit, as so eminently distinguished his chemical labours. The temperament of the latter was far too mercurial: the fish never seized the fly with sufficient avidity to fulfill his expectations, or to support that degree of excitement which was essential to his happiness, and he became either listless or angry, and consequently careless and unsuccessful.—But it is time to resume the thread of our chemical history.