238 TROUT FISHING 



placed fly, a timely strike, and a light yet controlling 

 hand — these distinguished the achievement; and 

 the brace weighed respectively one pound nine 

 ounces and one pound ten ounces — very handsome 

 fish. Honour thus satisfied, I essayed no more 

 slaughter, but turned serenely in my tracks and 

 strolled homewards through the dusking meadows 

 and under the solenm avenue of over-arching trees. 



My thoughts ran somewhat as follows : " Here 

 am I, knowing the difference between blue-winged 

 olives, male and female, which in itself is much. 

 But more than such book-learning, here am I able 

 to profit by it. Half an hour by clear-flowing 

 Itchen, and, behold, a brace of noble trout ! Marryat 

 himself could have shown no better result. If I am 

 able to do this in a first brief thirty minutes, what 

 shall I not do in the many hundreds of minutes which 

 lie before me ? Positively I am a menace to a 

 fishery ; ut puto malleus fio. But no, I will not tell 

 the tale in dozens. I will hold that terrible hand; 

 I will hammer discreetly. And my reasonable 

 number of trout shall be made up only of the finest 

 and fattest specimens that Itchen affords. Two- 

 pounders I will retain ; the rest I will return." 



So climbed my thoughts, and even to worse 

 eminences, which I forbear to describe. It only 

 shows what a great and besetting sin is this pride 

 that so much pother should come of a brace of 



