124 BY UOOK AND BY CItOOS:. 



angling, and when an extraordinary take has fallen to 

 our share we cannot recollect that we have been able to 

 congratulate ourselves upon any particular smartness ; 

 but we have many a time arrived home pleased with 

 having landed a few fish under somewhat unfavourable 

 circumstances^ and are inclined to think that, compara- 

 tively speaking, poor fishing makes a good fisherman 

 in the same manner that poor land makes a good farmer. 

 It may be that the grapes are sour. 



Without further excuse we will proceed to narrate 

 the circumstances which gave rise to the foregoing 

 remarks : — *' Can you get me a day's trout-fishing any- 

 where near London ? " said a friend to us one day — 

 a question which in our times takes, as a rule, a good 

 deal of answering; but on this occasion, thanks to 

 the kindness of a friend, who at the time rented about 

 a couple of miles of good water on the Test, we were 

 in a few hours able to reply in the affirmative. 



The necessary preparations were made, and down we 

 went one broiling hot evening in July by train to a 

 Junction on the South-Western Railway, and thence 

 drove about eight miles to the house, which had been 

 kindly placed at our disposal. We arrived in nice time 

 for an hour's fishing before supper, which at the time of 

 year is worth about as much as the previous hours of 

 the day all put together, especially when the weather 

 is really hot and sultry. 



The river here has few trees or tall bushes growing 

 on its banks, so is easy to cast over, but it is a sine 



