THE FORGE VALLEY xn 



them ugly French name why not call them 

 brakes ? or, as they call them in Cornwall, Jersey 

 cars. Each of these ten vehicles carried about 

 twenty-five passengers, so that there must have 

 been two hundred and fifty in all, glad young people 

 let loose in these pretty grounds and thoroughly 

 enjoying the only fine day they have seen for weeks. 

 Among them were two or three happy anglers, 

 who immediately wended their way down to the 

 river. How I envied them as I saw the tops of 

 their rods glinting in the sun ! Why had I not 

 brought my rod with me ? The char-a-banc may 

 have gone on to Jericho, I would not have gone 

 with it. Hereabouts I am told is the best fishing 

 on the Derwent. 



But to return to my first day's fishing after 

 this long digression. I have no other incident 

 to relate than that, unluckily, in making a cast, 

 unaware that my boy was too close behind me, 

 I caught him by the ear my fly was firmly fixed 

 in the rim of it he screamed out, and unfortun- 

 ately tore away at the hook, thereby causing 

 much bloodshed and only driving it in more 

 securely. As some of my readers may remember, 

 I have had personal experience of an eyed hook 

 firmly fixed not in the ear, but in a still more 

 prominent feature. I hesitated to perform such 

 a delicate surgical operation as was evidently 

 necessary in this case, so I hurried him away 

 home. He started off on his bicycle two miles 

 away, and came back before I left the village with 



