66 NATURE NEAR LONDON 



thing he fancied, and drifting out again to bring up at 

 his anchorage. If people looked over the parapet that 

 side they did not see him; they could not see the 

 bottom there for the shadow, or if the summer noonday 

 cast a strong beam even then it seemed to cover the 

 surface of the water with a film of light which could 

 not be seen through. There are some aspects from 

 which even a picture hung on the wall close at hand 

 cannot be seen. So no one saw the trout ; if any one 

 more curious leant over the parapet he was gone in a 

 moment under the arch. 



Folk fished in the pond about the verge of which the 

 sedge-birds chattered, and but a few yards distant ; but 

 they never looked under the arch on the northern and 

 shadowy side, where the water flowed beside the beech. 

 For three seasons this continued. For three summers I 

 had the pleasure to see the trout day after day whenever 

 I walked that way, and all that time, with fishermen 

 close at hand, he escaped notice, though the place was 

 not preserved. It is wonderful to think how difficult it is 

 to see anything under one's very eyes, and thousands 

 of people walked actually and physically right over 

 the fish. 



However, one morning in the third summer, I found 

 a fisherman standing in the road and fishing over the 

 parapet in the shadowy water. But he was fishing at 

 the wrong arch, and only with paste for roach. While 

 the man stood there fishing, along came two navvies ; 

 naturally enough they went quietly up to see what the 

 fisherman was doing, and one instantly uttered an ex- 

 clamation. He had seen the trout. The man who was 

 fishing with paste had stood so still and patient that the 

 trout, re- assured, had come out, and the navvy trust a 

 navvy to see anything of the kind caught sight of him. 



