44 THE TROUT ARE RISING 



the occasional tendency to " crab everything," the 

 disposition as it were to walk into the sweetest 

 dairy and pronounce some of the freshest milk a 

 trifle sour, let us hope that all this is merely a 

 passing phase, an aftermath perhaps of the gigantic 

 upset caused by the war. 



It seemed strange, though, that so ungracious 

 a thing should be said of peaceful fisherfolk, a 

 good number of whom that year were officers on 

 leave or demobilized. Abuse, working overtime, 

 is not likely to be constructive or helpful. The 

 shortsightedness of it, too, in this particular 

 instance, is obvious. 



In South Africa and New Zealand they use 

 their wits to advertise for and to attract visitors, 

 even for the trout fishing, and, as regards London, 

 South Africa will probably do more advertising of 

 its trout fishing. Overseas authorities know that 

 the more people they win the more business is 

 done in their country. It is the same with villages. 

 It means money brought in, it causes interchange 

 of ideas. It denotes progress. Angling, too, is 

 one of the busy man's best recreations, whether 

 he be rich or poor. Happily, nowhere else in all 

 the counties of England and Scotland, where I 

 had the good fortune to fish before going over- 

 seas again, did I hear any ill-natured comment. 

 The one quoted was, in fact, an isolated remark. 

 Indeed, in the very village where the stern critic 

 lives, the kindly, human welcome shown to 

 angling visitors was enough to show that his view 

 was shared by no one else, 



