66 ANGLING IN GREA T BRITAIN 



a short space of time I contrived to get from the pool, 

 or from the two-inch shallows down stream, nine and a half 

 brace of specimen dace, which, with the addition of a few 

 others contributed by my friend, made the total weight 

 nearly lo lbs. 



We have glanced at the grand salmon rivers and the 

 swift trout streams, and at the more sluggish rivers by 

 which the general angler watches his travelling float, or 

 keeps the tightened leger line well in hand. Lakes and 

 ponds, amidst the " tall ancestral trees " of country 

 domains, have not been forgotten. But autumn reminds 

 me of yet another haunt of the English angler. It is the 

 millpool, within the upper wall of which the waterwheel 

 drippingly revolves, grinding the corn of the miller and his 

 men. Not less dear to the angler than the poet and artist 

 is the English mill. Above the mill head there is often a 

 quiet reach, permanently tenanted by pike and perch. 

 From the pool miscellaneous bags are extracted. The 

 live bait works on its own accord on the other side under 

 the graceful willows, while the angler, with his ordinary rod, 

 line, and float, angles promiscuously. Out of such a mill- 

 pool I have seen, lying in one heap upon the grass behind 

 some old woodwork upon which the angler sat, a representa- 

 tive sample of many British fresh-water fishes, and as they 

 were caught on an October day, they were all, with one 

 exception, in their healthiest hues and forms. The heap 

 comprised a 7 lb. pike, four or five burly perch, a brown 

 and a white bream, several roach and dace, one gudgeon, 

 four minnows, and a small barbel. The exception indicated 

 was an indiscreet trout, which had taken a gudgeon on the 

 live-bait apparatus, and since the hook used was the gorge 

 affair that is threddled under the skin of the side, the case 

 was hopeless, and the kindly miller, on being appealed to. 



