62 NATURE NEAR LONDON. 



daisy ; this last a late comer in the neighbourhood. 

 The blackthorn, the horse-chestnut, and the hawthorn 

 came, and the meadows were golden with the butter- 

 cups. 



Once only had I noticed any indication of fish in 

 the brook ; it was on a warm Saturday afternoon, 

 when there was a labourer a long way up the stream, 

 stooping in a peculiar manner near the edge of the 

 water with a stick in his hand. He was, I felt sure, 

 trying to wire a spawning jack, but did not succeed. 

 Many weeks had passed, and now there came (as the 

 close time for coarse fish expired) a concourse of 

 anglers to the almost stagnant pond fed by the side 

 hatch. 



Well-dressed lads with elegant and finished tackle 

 rode up on their bicycles, with their rods slung at 

 their backs. Hoisting the bicycles over the gate into 

 the meadow, they left them leaning against the elms, 

 fitted their rods and fished in the pond. Poorer boys, 

 with long wands cut from the hedge and ruder lines, 

 trudged up on foot, sat down on the sward and 

 watched their corks by the hour together. Grown 

 men of the artisan class, covered with the dust of 

 many miles tramping, came with their luncheons in 

 a handkerchief, and set about their sport with a quiet 

 earnestness which argued long if desultory practice. 



In fine weather there were often a dozen youths 

 and four or five men standing, sitting, or kneeling on 

 the turf along the shore of the pond, all intent on 

 their floats, and very nearly silent. People driving 

 along the highway stopped their traps, and carts, and 

 vans a minute or two to watch them : passengers on 



