MR. PUNCH WITH ROD AND GUN Transcriber's Note: Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. Irregularities and inconsistencies in the text have been retained as printed. Words printed in italics are noted with underscores: _italics_. PUNCH LIBRARY OF HUMOUR Edited by J. A. HAMMERTON Designed to provide in a series of volumes, each complete in itself, the cream of our national humour, contributed by the masters of comic draughtsmanship and the leading wits of the age to "Punch", from its beginning in 1841 to the present day [Illustration] [Illustration: A FEAT OF AGILITY.--_Voice from the Bow_ (_to Binks, who is trying to adjust the moorings, and has arrived at the happy moment when he is doubtful whether he will stay with the pole or return to the punt_). "Now then, you idiot, keep still! I've got a nibble!"] MR. PUNCH WITH ROD AND GUN THE HUMOURS OF FISHING AND SHOOTING [Illustration] _WITH 193 ILLUSTRATIONS_ BY CHARLES KEENE, JOHN LEECH, PHIL MAY, GEORGE DU MAURIER, L. RAVEN-HILL, C. SHEPPERSON, CECIL ALDIN, BERNARD PARTRIDGE, W. J. HODGSON, A. S. BOYD, TOM BROWNE, REGINALD CLEAVER, CHARLES PEARS, H. M. BROCK, AND OTHERS. PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT WITH THE PROPRIETORS OF "PUNCH" [Illustration] THE EDUCATIONAL BOOK CO. LTD. THE PUNCH LIBRARY OF HUMOUR _Twenty-five volumes, crown 8vo, 192 pages fully illustrated_ LIFE IN LONDON COUNTRY LIFE IN THE HIGHLANDS SCOTTISH HUMOUR IRISH HUMOUR COCKNEY HUMOUR IN SOCIETY AFTER DINNER STORIES IN BOHEMIA AT THE PLAY MR. PUNCH AT HOME ON THE CONTINONG RAILWAY BOOK AT THE SEASIDE MR. PUNCH AFLOAT IN THE HUNTING FIELD MR. PUNCH ON TOUR WITH ROD AND GUN MR. PUNCH AWHEEL BOOK OF SPORTS GOLF STORIES IN WIG AND GOWN ON THE WARPATH BOOK OF LOVE WITH THE CHILDREN [Illustration] [Illustration] PREFACE As a fisherman MR. PUNCH is in the best of his humours. He makes merry over the weaknesses of those who follow the craft of Old Izaak, always with the slyest of genial manners. The angler's habit of exaggerating the size of his catch--his patience or his impatience when the fish won't bite--the conscious or unconscious ridicule he has to endure from onlookers when he is unsuccessful--the proverbial thirst that attacks the fisherman, whether he catches anything or not--MR. PUNCH has a keen eye for all such incidentals and presents them so jovially that nobody laughs over them more heartily than his victims themselves do. [Illustration] Leech, Charles Keene, Phil May, Du Maurier, Raven-Hill, Bernard Partridge, G. D. Armour--most of the best-known PUNCH artists, old and new, have revelled in the humours of both fishing and shooting. [Illustration: "POTTING SHRIMPS"]