THE ROACH. 1 



HE Roach or, as its technical name 

 might be translated, the " Red Dace," 

 from the scarlet colour of the fins is 

 a great favourite with London fishers, 

 who at any time between August and May may 

 be seen perched, regardless of safety, upon pro- 

 jecting trees, bridge-buttresses, and, indeed, every 

 other accessible " coigne of vantage " between 

 Battersea Fields and Walton on Thames, or clus- 

 tering on the hundred-and-one lock-gates with 

 which the pretty river Lea is intersected almost 

 to its source. From these perilous eminences they 

 contemplate and we may presume are also con- 

 templated by the intelligent Leuciscini, which, 

 notwithstanding, seldom fail to find their way in 

 greater or less numbers into the cockney's basket. 

 The Londoners, in fact, bear away the palm from 

 all competitors in Roach-fishing a department of 

 angling, be it said, demanding a by no means 

 small amount of quickness of hand and eye. Mr. 



1 Leu cisc us rutilus. Leuciscus, a Dace, Gr. rutilus ^ red, Lat. 



