4 .TROUT FISHING 



There were two or three even in the Holy Well, a 

 wonderful little pool of crystal water lying behind 

 a bush on the right hand of the road as you go from 

 the vicarage to the church. What a road to a child 

 newly escaped from London ! The very dust 

 seemed to be sweet-scented. And there were dog- 

 roses in the hedges, and baby rabbits which you 

 could very nearly catch. But the eels were the 

 greatest adventure to me. I could not catch them 

 either, the well being too deep. I remember them 

 with affection, with the delightful dust and the dog- 

 roses. Refer at si Jupiter annos ! 



To try and get back to somewhere within range 

 of my subject — ^the eel is in my opinion almost the 

 worst enemy that the trout has. Not nearly enough 

 stress has been laid upon him by the professors of 

 aquiculture. They have thundered against the 

 chub and fulminated against the pike, but about the 

 eel they have, for the most part, said little or nothing. 

 This is probably because about the eel they know 

 little or nothing. I do not know much myself, but 

 very early in life and within a short half-mile of the 

 Holy Well mentioned, I had an experience which 

 taught me the abilities of the eel. There was an 

 old fish pond which had formerly been made for 

 a small monastic establishment, and was now the 

 property of a farm. It was full of fish — carp and 

 roach — and there was reason to suspect that it also 



