THE THAMES. 37 



paragraph, which "went the rounds" at the beginning of 

 the trout season of 1874 : 



"Yesterday morning a salmon trout was observed by a ferryman, 

 leaping about in the Thames off Gordon House, Isleworth, the 

 residence of Earl Kilmorey. It was supposed to weigh lolb. or 

 I lib. A few days ago a salmon trout weighing ylb. 4joz. was 

 captured by a bargeman off the island near the same place." 



This narrative, however, unlike many other paragraphs 

 worded in the same phraseology, had some real foundation. 

 Reduced into truth, the facts were that a bargeman on the 

 Surrey side of the river, opposite the Church Ferry, saw 

 *had his attention directed to," I believe is the correct 

 expression a prodigious splashing in a hole which the 

 retreating tide had converted into a small lake cut off from 

 all communication with the stream. The bargeman pro- 

 ceeded to the spot, and forthwith interviewed the splasher, 

 who turned out to be a slightly sickly but undoubted 

 Thames trout of seven pounds weight. That it was not 

 one of our old phantom friends we know from well-attested 

 evidence, for the captor took his troutship to Gordon 

 House, and Lady Kilmorey sent it to Mr. Brougham for 

 inspection and verification. 



Isleworth, perhaps it is scarcely necessary to add, is not 

 precisely the region where you would look for these noble river 

 aristocrats. You may in the hot summer time see shoals of 

 dace and bleak in the cloudy water, and there is a tradition 

 that within the memory of man a bond fide seal, straying far 

 from the house of his fathers, was surprised at Isleworth, 

 shot in the eye, chased from one side of the river to the 

 other, and finally hauled out by his flapper. Flounders and 

 eels also abide hereabouts, but trout are so rarely seen so 



