XIII IMPERFECT SYMPATHIES ^ *> 



THIS title has been used by to compare great with 

 small another. But Elia said no word of 

 angling that I can recollect, or of anglers, except 

 perhaps by implication, and that unconscious, in so far 

 as the Scots are a nation of anglers. Had he considered 

 them in that light, I dare swear his essay had never 

 been written, and so I feel justified in borrowing his 

 most convenient heading. It was recalled to my mind 

 one day by the side of that historic Winchester water 

 known as Chalkley's. I had just put the net under a 

 small grayling, and was extracting the hook, when I 

 became aware of controversy at my elbow and two 

 urchins engaged therein. The first, after expressing 

 admiration for so vast a fish (it weighed about five 

 ounces), propounded a question as to the manner in 

 which it might most properly be slain. " Cut their 

 'eads off," said his fellow, with an air of grave experi- 

 ence. I shuddered, as I think would any fly-fisher, at 

 the thought of decapitated Salmonidae. Even the first 

 urchin dissented, but it was only that he might in effect 

 agree. " They stamps on 'em," he stated at large. A 

 grayling without a head is better than a grayling crushed 

 underfoot, but both are unthinkable ; and that was as 

 far as I could sympathize with the boys. 



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