144 AN OPEN CREEL 



trout do not like chalk and water, and I did not get a 

 rise the whole evening. 



This ought to have been a warning to me, but on 

 the next morning I was again on Sunderlandwick 

 Bridge, and preparing to give battle to the biggest 

 trout I had seen in the beck. I saw him, a good 

 three-pounder, moving slowly upstream, and finally 

 beginning to rise about thirty yards above the bridge. 

 I tried him first with a Wickham, changed to a ginger 

 quill, and was just about to try again when down came 

 the chalk and water as before, and the rise was over. 

 Had I been wise, I should, as advised by the keeper, 

 have gone hurriedly downstream and got below Bell 

 Mill, where the discoloration would not be so notice- 

 able. But I was not wise, and I tramped in waders 

 and brogues under a burning sun straight upstream. 

 As I went my indignation increased, and I pictured 

 to myself the pleasure it would be to drive the cattle 

 out of the cool water into the hot sun and flies. At 

 last, about two miles up, I found them, twenty or 

 thirty of them, and they looked so happy that I had 

 not the heart to disturb them. I passed by, to find 

 that the beck was just as thick above them. There 

 was an assemblage of horses in it in the next field 

 but one, and there were more beasts in it a long way 

 above. I went up nearly another mile, till the beck 

 was quite tiny, and never came to them, and the 

 water was no clearer, nor did a fish move the whole 

 way. Finally, I turned round and tramped all the 

 way back again, hotter than I have ever been in my 

 life, pestered with flies, and in a very indifferent 

 temper. 



