126 THE TROUT ARE RISING 



service. He is still an Important Person. Also, 

 of course, he never loses the capacity of inspiring 

 awe in wrong-doers, or the reputation for being 

 " a man of his hands " which come to wearers of 

 the blue. All that counts a good deal in 

 keepering. 



The roving days fitfully described in this 

 book gave me opportunities of studying the water- 

 bailiff and the keeper in various districts. When 

 the president of a medical board at a military 

 hospital near Portsmouth early last year said 

 spontaneously and suddenly : " Do you like trout 

 fishing ? " the question thrilled me with antici- 

 pation. " Yes, sir ! " I replied with the promptness 

 of a good conscience. After service abroad in a 

 climate so warm that the partition between it and 

 a climate still warmer (" H.E. 2 sticks," the 

 Major calls it) is, so the irreverent ones say, only 

 a cigarette paper, it appeared that the best medicine 

 was "open air and pottering about with a rod by 

 a trout stream." So it proved on two months' 

 sick leave, in Devon and Cornwall. Then when 

 demobilization came in due course, and strength 

 came with it, pottering about was promoted to 

 active, regular fishing. 



Wherever chance took me, there was the 

 water-bailiff sooner or later to be found. Now, 

 the peripatetic fisherman, wherever he goes in 

 England, at any rate must take out a fishing 

 licence if the river concerned comes under the 

 control of a Board of Conservators. In addition, 

 if the water or any part of it may be fished by 



