BRITISH SPORT PAST AND PRESENT 



roots of oak and elm, shall we pick out full many a goodly 

 trout. There, in yon stop-hole underneath that tree, not ten 

 feet broad nor twenty long, where just enough water trickles 

 through the hatches to make a ripple, are a brace of noble fish, 

 no doubt ; and one of them you may be sure of, if you will go 

 the proper way to work, and fish scientifically Avith the brace 

 of flies which I have put on for you — a governor and a black 

 alder. In the first place, you must throw up into the little 

 pool, not down. If you throw down, they will see you in an 

 instant, and besides, you will never get your fly close under 

 the shade of the brick work, where alone you have a chance. 

 What use throwing into the still shallow tail, shining like oil in 

 the full glare of the sun ? 



' " But I cannot get below the pool without — " 

 ' " Without crawling through that stiff shrubbed hedge, well 

 set with trees, and leaping that ten-foot feeder afterwards. 

 Very well." It is this sort of thing which makes the stay-at- 

 home cultivated chalk-fishing as much harder work than 

 mountain angling, as a gallop over a stiffly-enclosed country 

 is harder than one over an open moor. You can do it or not, 

 as you like ; but if you wish to catch large trout on a bright 

 day, I should advise you to employ the only method yet 

 discovered. 



* There, you are through ; and the keeper shall hand you 

 your rod. You have torn your trousers, and got a couple of 

 thorns in yovu* shins. The one can be mended, the other 

 pulled out. Now, jump the feeder. There is no run to it, so — 

 you have jumped in. Never mind : but keep the point of 

 your rod up. You are at least saved the lingering torture of 

 getting wet inch by inch ; and as for cold water hurting any 

 one — Credat Judaeus. Now make a circuit through the 

 meadow twenty yards away. Stoop down when you are on 

 the ridge of each table. A trout may be basking at the lower 

 end of the pool, who will see you, rush up and tell all his neigh- 

 bours. Now, kneel down, take off that absurd black chimney- 

 pot, which you are wearing, I suppose, for the same reason as 



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