FISHES AND FISHIN 7 G. 251 



with the boat : my companion begged me to stop a 

 moment, till he put on his gloves, and, to the astonish 

 ment of the fisherman and myself, he put on a pair 

 of kid gloves, but little soiled ; they soon, however, 

 became too dirty ever to be cleaned, so he left them 

 in the punt ; and when we had finished our sport, 

 went to the inn, washed his hands, had some rum or 

 brandy and milk, put on a clean pair of kid gloves to 

 walk home to breakfast. I had the pleasure of taking 

 with me a leash of good pike, or rather jack, for nei 

 ther of them attained four pounds, therefore were not 

 pike. The fisherman, who did not know the gentle 

 man's name, used often to inquire after him, as the 

 gentleman who wore gloves when he went netting ; 

 and we often laughed at the occurrence, till the death 

 of the poor youug man stayed any mirthful recollec 

 tions of him. 



The navigation of the Thames is, as I before ob 

 served, most materially altered for the better, as to 

 the trafiic, and, I presume, also for the increase of 

 the City funds, but to the complete destruction of the 

 Thames fishery for salmon, by the ill-judged forma 

 tion of the weirs. Formerly, within my recollection, 

 there was no lock before you reached Boulter's Lock, 

 near Taplow, about fifty-four miles by water from 

 London Bridge; and in very dry summers the pas 

 sage of barges, particularly those called west country 



