DAYS IN DOVE DALE 35 



first that it would be waste of words to re- 

 describe them. Need I say how proud I was ? 

 I felt like Sir Francis Chantrey with his two 

 salmon. 1 



I saw a party of ladies coming along on the 

 opposite side in mackintoshes and under um- 

 brellas (for rain does not keep ladies indoors 

 in these parts), so with pardonable vanity I 

 laid my brace of trout on a conspicuous bank 

 where they could easily see them, and no 

 doubt remark, " See, there is a true Waltonian ; 

 he knows how to do it." 



Well, now I perceived a wet and dripping 

 angler coming down the other side. " What 

 sport, my friend ? " cried I. 



" I have toiled all day," he replied, " and 

 have caught nothing. Not a rise, not a bite ! 

 How fares it with you ? " 



" Oh," said I, " poorly, very poorly, only 

 these two half-pounders. Nice little fish, are 

 they not?" 



Then he asked the name of the fly I was 



1 Sir Walter Scott says that when Sir F. Chantrey 

 caught two salmon in one morning, "his sense of self- 

 importance exceeded twentyfold that which he felt on the 

 production of any of the masterpieces which have immor- 

 talized him." 



