Roaching. 115 



fish not well on, and we sat down and munched sandwiches under our 

 hawthorn hedge, and tried to feel like Piscator and Venator under the 

 honeysuckle, and to fancy our sandwich "powdered beef and radish" as 

 provided at that immortal breakfast, and our "bottle of drink" was 

 hidden away under a pollard instead of a sycamore; but still we were 

 as happy as they, and quite as satisfied as they were to be " civil, 

 well-governed, well-grounded, temperate, poor anglers," instead of 

 " drunken lords." Then we changed the venue once more, and we went 

 back to the original pitch, and soon found the roach in a recovered 

 humour, and for an hour or two they bit splendidly, we often having on 

 two at a time. Two or three topped l^lb., and several IJlb. ; and so 

 they went on, until all our bait was used up, and about five o'clock, as 

 usual, they began to knock off. As we had had a right good turn, and 

 did not want to persecute them, we knocked off too ; and then what a 

 sight was there! — thirty-eight roach that would weigh at least 301b., 

 two good chub, and two tea-tray bream. "We don't get such a day 

 as that every day, old man?" said I, rather proud of my little brook. 

 "No, indeed!" said Jork ; "any fellow walking through the East-end 

 of London with that lot would have the whole of the population after 

 him to get the tip." 



No, we don't often get such a day — about once a year perhaps. My 

 best day this year was forty-two, and my next twenty-six. I have 

 taken six bream in an afternoon, and two of them would go Gib., and 

 none under 41b. Erom a dozen to a score is a fairly good take ; but I 

 seldom work them harder than there is any need — I prefer to leave some 

 for another day ; and, having such roaching at home, why, I don't see 

 the need to spend a sovereign in seeking it on the bosom of Eather 

 Thames. 



I used to get roach fishing nearly or quite as good as this, formerly, 

 in a little river at Titchfield in Hampshire : a river formerly beloved by 

 Eather Izaak. At the mouth of that stream there is a wide extension 

 called " The Haven," much grown over with reeds, and which can only 

 be got at from a boat. Amongst these reeds — with ducks, coots, and all 

 sorts of wildfowl — there were vast shoals of roach which used to tenant 



