THE ENGLISH LAKE COUNTRY 



food with these caprices. There is, in short, something 

 altogether pecuHar about the lake. Some of those 

 best qualified to speak declare that a large proportion 

 of the Ullswater trout are solely * night risers,' not 

 evening and sunset risers, but through the dark hours 

 of midnight and early dawn. This is not a high form 

 of sport, fishing at short range entirely by feel and 

 seeing nothing. I have known well for years the only 

 regular fly fishers on the upper half of Ullswater. 

 They are hard-working men as well as keen sportsmen, 

 and can be more than counted on the fingers of one 

 hand ; for I do not reckon the few odd rustics who 

 come down after working hours and sit with a bait at 

 a beck mouth for an hour or two with generally small 

 results. I have constantly seen the baskets of these 

 two or three experts who fly fish through the night, and 

 they often weigh from eight to ten pounds. And the 

 Ullswater trout, though not large, are clean and hand- 

 some and strong fighters, as they should be out of 

 such waters. The lake in the upper part is extremely 

 deep. The trout lie mainly in the shallow shelving 

 bays or in rocky coves where crags tufted with blae- 

 berries and feathered with pine or birch drop sheer 

 into deep waters. These last, with the exception of 

 the famous promontory of Styborough, are mainly, 

 however, on the eastern shore, from which the rugged 

 slopes of Place Fell rise wild and steep for a couple 

 of thousand feet. On the other, the Helvellyn side, 

 the foot-hill pastures of Glencoin and Gowbarrow 

 sweep along the lake shore in graceful curves, with 

 projecting bars of silvery sand or broken rocky ledges, 

 or mossy rims where daffodils and blue-bells in their 



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