7* OUR HOLIDAY IN CORNWALL 



red-letter day for me. On this day it was that 

 " The Amateur Angler" and "Noss Mayo" first 

 foregathered. We had by previous correspondence 

 arranged for this day to visit, by the generous 

 permission of the owner, a lovely lake in the centre 

 of Cornwall, not a hundred miles from Penzance 

 on the one hand, or Saltash on the other. 



I am not going to betray confidence or allow 

 my readers to approach nearer to our lake than 

 I have thus indicated. Their mouths must water 

 outside. Wild horses will not drag further informa- 

 tion on this head from me. Here we are, then, 

 " Noss Mayo" and I, on a lovely summer's after- 

 noon, on one of the most lovely lakes that ever was 

 seen, three sides of it surrounded by noble elms, 

 occidental and oriental limes, and an infinite variety 

 of trees and shrubs and flowering plants, casting 

 their shadows on the water gently rippled by the 

 breeze. A fourth side lies open to the park-like 

 lawn on which the mansion looks down, and here 

 one could cast from the bank without fear of tree 

 or shrub. This lovely lake is full of trout, "too 

 full," says our noble host, and yet I ought not to 

 tell it in Gath nor make it known in Israel, but 

 truth must prevail. We fished before lunch, we 

 fished after lunch ; we fished before tea, we fished 

 after tea till the gloaming ; and what dici we catch ? 

 There were three of us we fished from the shore, 

 and we fished in a boat two experts and the 

 A. A. Had we weighed-in when *ve left off the 

 lot would not have turned the scale against a 



