78 Sporting Sketches in Pen and Pencil. 



When we were boys we were dreadful gobemouches, and believed weU- 

 nigh anything, and the more unlikely and extraordinary it was the 

 more we heheved it ; and I never, till I grew up, doubted for a moment 

 that story of the Manheim pike that was 19 feet long, and wore a 

 collar put on him 260 odd years previous, when he was turned into the 

 Kaiserwag Lake by that wag of a Kaiser Frederick, who styled himself 

 "The Sovereign of the Universe." Change for that sovereign, I should 

 think, might have been obtained even in those days. Examination by 

 experts, however, has shown that the 19 feet was made up of some 

 extra feet piled on by means of false vertebra, and the pike had double 

 as many vertebra as he ought. 



Then there was that extraordinary story of the Lillieshall pike, which 

 weighed upwards of 1701b., and had a watch, with ribbons and seals, 

 inside him. And why shouldn't he ? Hadn't sharks been caught times 

 and again which had anything in them, as Jack used to put it, " from 

 a milestone to a street piaiiny," and wasn't the pike the fresh- water shark ? 

 Time, however, showed that the report was traceable to an innkeeper, 

 who exhibited the identical watch and seals, and got much custom 

 thereby ; and this custom was clearly the discount to be charged to the 

 story. 



That pike of very large size have been taken there is no doubt, 

 and it is quite possible that they may have been caught of 1001b. 

 weight, though we have no well accredited instance of such a monster 

 being taken; 701b. or 801b. is the outside that can be registered safely 

 in this kingdom; and that would be an awful beast, to judge by the 

 head of a 40-pounder which I have in my hall, and which was caught 

 in Sweden by my poor old friend " The Old Bushman," who sent it to 

 me not long before his death. It had been hung up to dry, and was 

 never properly preserved and set up, so that it does not show to 

 advantage. 



Paddy Hickson used to tell a tremendous yarn of one he hooked in 

 Loch Corrib, which towed the boat for many hours. " He was a turrible 

 monsthfir, an awful baste," and when he gaped at Pat I forget what he 

 said he could have put in his mouth. "My honour's carpet bag" would 



