94 By Stream and Sea. 



Having this inexhaustible conversation before me, I 

 should say, were I allowed the privilege of a private opinion, 

 that these pleasant wayfarers were quite ready for their cup 

 of drink when they at last reached the village hostel. We 

 smile almost as a matter of course at these Waltonian 

 dialogues, for we are appallingly smart in these days. Yet 

 it is an appetising picture these three men going to their 

 respective amusements along the high road " on a bright 

 May morning long ago," and with zest enjoying each other's 

 company, the scenery, the anticipations of sport, and ex- 

 changing notes upon men and things with a beautiful old- 

 fashioned simplicity and courtesy. Let us accept it, at any 

 rate, as a picture of the Lea angler and his method in that 

 middle period of the seventeenth century. 



The Lea angler of the present day takes a return ticket 

 at the Bishopsgate Railway Station, and is rarely to be seen 

 marching along the high road. Walton's river represents 

 the East End angler's paradise, and special privileges are 

 granted to him by the Great Eastern Railway Company. The 

 Sabbatarian who is at all sensitive respecting the observance 

 of the Lord's Day had better not take his Sunday walk upon 

 the banks of the Lea when the East End contingents are 

 out on the war-path. 



The style in which these humble brethren of the angle 

 charge the ticket-office at Bishopsgate Station is a sight never 

 to be forgotten. Tired with a week's toil, and many of them 

 with honest workshop stains still tinting their noble brows, 

 'prentice lads and pale adult journeymen by the hundred 

 rush in, laden with rods and baskets, so eager for the fray 

 that they forego their night's rest in order to catch the 

 midnight train that takes them to Lea-side. When the 

 grey mists of early morning are hanging over the meadows 

 you might possibly observe a few couples plodding towards 



