About Several Men tvho ivent a- Angling. 47 



batter to ran down to a place t\yenty miles from London, 

 more or less, which Izaak Walton once trod, for the purpose 

 of quiet and enjoyment in meadows which were sacred to 

 those who paid for privacy and seclusion, than to do nothing. 



According to the accounts direct from the fishery, the 

 fishing was A 1. The real truth was that, under very 

 special seasons, and at special times, a ten or even a fifteen 

 pound pike mi'jht be caught, but in ordinary times perch 

 and roach and jack of no great size ruled the market. 



Well, I went a fishing ; and having the run of the back 

 waters, and by working all day, I had a little incidental 

 sport of no great moment, but every bit of which lifted a 

 ton weight off my mind ; and I spent more time chatting 

 with those who were fishing than I spent in my own sport ; 

 so exit No. 1 of the dramatis per sonce. 



Enter No. 2. The poor Clerkenwell clockmaker and the 

 little boy with the crutch and the kitten. 



No. 1 was taking stock of the frequenters of the water, 

 and "fell into discourse," as Mr. Pepys would have said, 

 with No. 2, and he learnt that No. 2 and his little boy and 

 the kitten had started on foot, on Saturday afternoon, from 

 Clerkenwell, and had made an easy ten miles ; my little 

 friend with a crutch being '■' a rare game one to j^eg along," 

 according to his father's account, and had slept at a friend's 

 house some eight miles from the fishery, and had finished 

 the journey that morning early. Good heavens, little 

 Bethel ! could this honest clockmaker have been fishing on 

 a Sunday ? 



The little fellow was shoutinaj with delisfht at butterflies 

 and dragon-flies, and wdien he saw a Idngfi slier for the first 

 time he went quite mad, and told the kitten all about. 



Well, I sat and looked at the clockmaker for a long time, 

 and saw 7«i.§ fishing. He had a very long bamboo ro 1 which 

 could readily be pulled to pieces, for the 2:>urpose of 



