228 BY HOOK AND BY CROOK. 



post-time entailed a determination, when, for once in a 

 way, we selected the narrow path represented in this 

 case by the ticket and Inn. 



With a lingering regret the refusal of our friend's 

 kind oJBTer was dropped into the post-box, and we could 

 but console ourselves that no particle of constraint 

 would hinder operations — we could rise, turn in, and 

 feed when we might wish. 



We arrived the next evening in time to get the tackle 

 to rights for the following day, and ascertained that, 

 since our last visit, a possibility of sale of portions of 

 the water, which the ticket included, had suggested to 

 some occupiers of land adjacent to the river to erect 

 notice-boards at frequent intervals, warning off tres- 

 passers in general and anglers in particular. 



Upon inquiry at headquarters we ascertained that 

 the boundaries stated on the ticket still held good, and 

 were instructed to ignore the notices of the tenants 

 and others, who were said to be simply trying it on, 

 actuated by a policy by which they could lose nothing 

 and possibly gain ; so under the circumstances we did 

 not anticipate serious interference, and after a pipe and 

 glass with some of our old village friends in the kitchen 

 of the Inn, we turned in at a useful hour. 



How keen is the angler to commence operations each 

 successive spring ! With appetite whetted by enforced 

 inactivity of the close season, he looks forward to the 

 opening day with as much anxiety as the schoolboy 

 does to the holidays while striking off from his calendar 



