A Week at a German Castle. 99 



was even better than in the morning, and took 

 fish after fish. In one broad pool a hardly per- 

 ceptible movement showed where a fish was 

 feeding. I threw over him, and another almost 

 imperceptible break of the water proved that 

 my invitation was accepted. After a brisk 

 struggle, a handsome grayling between three- 

 quarters of a pound and a pound was credited 

 to the little green. A German grayling in 

 sharpish water in the autumn is distinctly a 

 gainer and stronger fish than a trout of the 

 same size, and will show a surprising amount 

 of sport. I have seldom fished for them in 

 England, but those I have taken were not so 

 game as their German brethren. Possibly the 

 more rapid character of the German streams 

 makes the grayling in them a stronger and 

 more active fish. 



The dinner-hour at the castle was a quarter 

 past four, and I quitted the banks of the river 

 a quarter of an hour before that time. Sitting 

 down on the edge of a meadow covered with 

 the delicate pink of the autumn crocus, varied 

 with the pale-blue flowers of the wild succory, 

 which were very abundant, I turned out the 

 contents of the basket at the foot of a clump of 



