374 CYPR1NID.E. 



" One day, looking over the bridge at Carlisle, he saw a 

 man fishing with what he fancied was a new bait (boiled 

 cheese) ; and as the judge was in a logical mood, he considered 

 that the using of a new bait was all in favour of catching a new 

 fish. He smoothed down his wig ; and, as well as he could, 

 smoothed the wrinkles of his face into a smile, and asked 

 the man ' what he was fishing for? 1 ' Allmacks! 1 was the 

 answer : the judge was right ; new baits caught new fish ; he 

 had never before heard of a piscine Almacks. His curiosity 

 and his generosity were at once excited, and slipping into the 

 fisher's hand a retaining fee of half-a-crown, bound him over 

 to bring up the bodies of all the Allmacks caught that day 

 before him at his inn, in time then and there to be dressed 

 for dinner ; in fact, a sort of piscatory habeas corpus was 

 issued. The judge trotted nimbly home ; prepared for court 

 first, however, imparting to his marshal that he should dine 

 alone, and confiding to him that a certain man would bring 

 a certain new kind of fish, which he desired should be care- 

 fully dressed in three different ways, plain boiled, fried, and 

 broiled. The court rose : it is not pretended that any in- 

 justice was done, neither did the guilty escape, nor were the 

 innocent convicted, that the judge might dine ; but those who 

 were accustomed to the judged manner, saw that as the hour 

 of dinner crept round, a slight cloud of impatience passed 

 over his brow, and there was less sifting of the evidence, and 

 less subtlety of logic than usual. The judge got back to his 

 lodging ; the dinner came up ; the judge, with his mouth 

 watering, was all impatience : the master led the way with a 

 small dish, in which were four fried gudgeons, two miller's 

 thumbs, and a bream ; and the next two dishes contained a 

 boiled perch, and a boiled eel, and a samlet. The judge 

 stared ; and then, to his mortification, first learned that All- 

 macks meant all sorts what one can catch" 



''' Allmncks, all sorts. Brockett's Glossary of North-country words, p. 131. 



