A TRIBUTARY OF THE SEVERN 87 



and numerous. Once he got into them, it would 

 be fatal for any chance of securing him. There- 

 fore I applied pressure, and determined on a 

 desperate plan : I got the landing-net ready, so 

 that by giving him short shrift I might tire him, 

 or if he should providentially lie on the top of the 

 weeds I might by chance very quickly get the net 

 under him. But it turned out otherwise. True, 

 he was kept clear of the weeds, but, after a minute's 

 palpitating excitement, he leaped a yard or so out 

 of the water : the hook came away ! After so 

 many years' fishing, one has learned to keep fairly 

 cool when playing a fish, but this affair was just a 

 little too much. My heart seemed to have left 

 its usual latitude and longitude and to be 

 carrying on somewhere near a rib on the right 

 side. Well, well : the trout was off, but I would 

 have liked to know its exact weight. On the same 

 river, I once caught, as described elsewhere, a trout 

 weighing three and three-quarter pounds ; the 

 weight, length, and girth were all ascertained. 

 But this lost trout is all conjecture. What weight 

 was he ? I am sure he must have been in the 

 neighbourhood of four pounds. Even if he had 

 topped four pounds he would by no means have 

 been a record for the Tern ; for instance, Mr. F. 

 C. Woodforde, formerly head of the Market 

 Drayton Grammar School, got one weighing over 

 five pounds on the Stoke Grange length. 



