256 "'OD ROT 'EM BLESS 'EM." [PARTII. 



foxes, should be felt and acknowledged by those 

 who reap the benefit. Those who hunt as well as 

 shoot, may well sometimes say of them, as an old 

 garden-man used of my brothers and myself when 

 we were boys: "Well, they did plague me some- 

 times, but I did love 'em, 'od rot 'em bless 'em." 



NOTE. 



THE following letter, for which I am indebted to the 

 kindness of a friend, has reached me too late for incorporation 

 with my Notes ; but the incident to which it refers is so 

 remarkable in itself and so strikingly illustrative of the 

 voracity of the Pike, before alluded to (page 43), that, 

 rather than omit it, I must ask the Printer to give it here 

 a separate place. 



BARTONMERE, SUFFOLK. 

 MY DEAR H. 



You ask me . about the Pike who choked himself to 

 death and was survived by his dinner. 



One day, some years ago, I was fishing from my punt 

 on the Mere, and saw something moving oddly about just 

 beneath the surface of the water a few yards off. I paddled 

 up, and found a Carp of about two pounds weight swimming 

 blindly round and round with a Pike on his nose. The Pike 

 was dead and limp several leeches had already fastened 

 upon him but the Carp could not shake or rub him off, 

 the Pike's teeth turning inwards and entering deeper the 

 more the Carp withdrew. I took them both into the boat, 

 and released the Carp. After measuring him and finding 

 him considerably bigger than the Pike, I put him into the 

 water again and he swam off with a light heart, but a very 

 sore nose. 



Yours truly, 

 (Signed) HARRY JONES. 



