NORTHUMBERLAND 



through the foliage into the water again without 

 mishap ! Being out for small trout, my friend had no 

 landing-net, and ultimately, to cut short the story, 

 and at a very long distance from where he hooked the 

 fish, he tailed it successfully in a suitable place. It 

 proved to be a sea trout weighing nine pounds, the 

 largest that had ever been killed in that country. It 

 needs no telling that Wooler was agog with the event, 

 particularly the other fishermen staying at the hotel. 

 Some of them, not a little jealous that a stranger 

 from the far south had achieved such a triumph, 

 were sufficiently lacking in logic and humour to lay 

 ingenuous stress on the fact that the fish had been foul- 

 hooked ! If it had not been, the capture would be a 

 noteworthy local incident, but assuredly not worth 

 the telling here. Such a fish might, of course, have 

 been hooked by any one. If fastened in the mouth 

 it might have been landed by any good fisherman, 

 but a small hook in the side of such a powerful fish 

 is quite another matter. I frankly admit I envy my 

 friend his performance immensely, though I trust 

 ungrudgingly, and I am glad to think that I can look 

 upon that fish any day. 



His other adventure was of a different character, and 

 took place two or three years ago in Brittany, where 

 he was sketching, though with a trout rod, of course, 

 among his effects. Lured by representations of a 

 fictitious or over-sanguine character and the apparent 

 moderation of the figure, he rented a stretch of what 

 under happier circumstances no doubt would have 

 been a trout stream. It soon became evident that 

 whatever it might once have been, it no longer merited 



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