192 SOME WRITERS ON THE GENTLE CRAFT 



Henderson's." " A rush to the river, an anxious 

 pause, a gentle uplifting of the rod, a loud scream of 

 wonder, and backwards I ran, far into the dusty road, 

 dragging a trout, whose weight was at least a pound." 

 Breaking ground, or rather water, with such a monster, 

 was surely an amazing piece of good fortune. The 

 first of our own early prizes must have run ten or a 

 baker's dozen to the pound ; and we well remember 

 how the first really satisfactory rise we had set us 

 whipping a bit of stagnant and brackish back-water in 

 the estuary of a northern salmon-river, through the 

 brightest and most unlikely hours of a long summer 

 afternoon. We had had ocular evidence that a 

 " whopper " had been there, and we were determined 

 to bring him up to the hook again if indomitable per- 

 severance could do it. That by the way. As for the 

 far more lucky Master Henderson, in his case, as in our 

 own, the boy became father to the man. As he had 

 whooped and danced like an Indian on the warpath 

 over the triumphs of his maiden rod and line, so in 

 riper years he settled down into the earnest enthusiasm 

 which made matter for this volume which has taken 

 our fancy. We know the city and county of Durham 

 pretty well archasologically ; we know the county of 

 Northumberland very well piscatorially ; and it is 

 delightful to revisit many a favourite haunt with a 

 guide so intensely sympathetic as Mr. Henderson. 

 The very names in his pages are eminently suggestive 

 in one way or another. The first trout of his was 

 taken on the Brancepeth Road, near the romantic 



