20 Sporting Sketches in Pen and Pencil. 



hot buttered toast and a pot o' coffee at eight o'clock. We'll be pretty 

 sharp set by then ; and get that 'ere Irish stew ready by two, and send the 

 boy up wi' some beer and a drop o' gin soon as ever they opens at the Gastle. 

 D'ye hear ? " 



" All right, Bill," and, as Bill remarked, " Right it was," for Mrs. W. 

 was a notable provider. 



The day had now broken fully, and it was rapidly getting light, 

 and by the time we had poled up to the weir and hung on to our 

 ripeck it was quite light. We never took our ripecks out in those 

 days. Ould Tommy Davis, the only other fisherman (he is still alive 

 I am glad to say), and Bill chose their swims on the 1st of June, 

 stuck in their ripecks, and never moved them after till the end of 

 the season. 



We had chosen a fine swim for general sport;, roach, dace, barbel, bream, 

 and a chub or two all in turn came to hook. We were about a punt's length 

 from the shore, where a row of walnut trees stood over the water, and below 

 us, some fifty yards or so down, commenced a huge deep eddy of the most 

 superior kind. In those days it was one of the finest on tlie Thames. It was 

 about seventy yards long, and in many places between twenty and thirty feet 

 deep. An old camp sheathing had fallen away from the bank, and tumbled 

 into the hole, and the old but of a poUard willow along with it ; and a few 

 other trifles of that sort, made the hole a paradise for big fish, and tons 

 of big barbel, bream, and chub lay snugly there all the winter long. No 

 matter how the water poured and tore along outside, in their deep secure 

 eddy they were snug enough, and could rest there for ever. As for a net, 

 if anyone had ever been so rash as to put one in he would certainly have 

 left it there; it never could have come out again. When the water suited, 

 and was just of that pleasant change between foul and clear which seems 

 to make aU manner of fish hungry, we baited the swim some fifty yards 

 or so above this hole, where it was nice and level ; and the fish, finding a 

 steady stream of worms coming down, followed it up till they got into our 

 swim, and stayed there so long as the feast was spread for them. We 

 now provided ourselves each with a light punt rod and float tackle, with 

 our ledger rod lying over on my companion's side, he being in the stern 



