60 TROUT FISHING 



any less fire in the narrative which soon followed of 

 last week-end's " pretty two-pounder " than there 

 has ever been in his tales of triumph, or any less 

 enthusiasm in the description of the birds that were 

 noted during the visit. To feel once a week like a 

 schoolboy going home for the holidays is a wonderful 

 aid to the preservation of enthusiasms. 



And of course my friend is not alone in that. He 

 is, indeed, one of a great company. All trout 

 fishers, who are really fishers by nature and not 

 merely because sporting fashion prescribes a few 

 days with the rod as an essential to the complete 

 sportsman, must know the intense joy of being on 

 the way to their fishing with all its excitements 

 and thrills in prospect. For the time being they are 

 detached from the rest of life with its worries and 

 troubles, and every one they meet, everything they 

 see, the whole tangible and visible world is more 

 or less in keeping with the peaceful and blameless 

 nature of their errand. I often think it can hardly 

 be possible that the inhabitants of certain delightful 

 fishing resorts are quite perfect. There must be 

 some little flaw in them somewhere, because they are 

 human beings. But on a fine fresh May morning as 

 one takes one's way to the river the streets certainly 

 seem to be peopled entirely by the pick of humanity. 

 Even the small boys proceeding schoolwards with 

 shining faces would appear to be decorated with 



