THE THAMES. 61 



to be always in season. Its prolific nature entitles it to be 

 termed the rabbit of fresh water, for there can be little doubt 

 it spawns two or three times a year. Wiped very dry, 

 enveloped with egg and breadcrumbs, fried crisp and brown, 

 dashed with lemon juice, and eaten with brown bread and 

 butter, it is renowned on the Continent as a delicious morsel, 

 and, as all who have eaten it in that condition must admit, 

 is well worthy of its high reputation. Moreover, it is easy of 

 capture, and the lightest and cleanest form of bottom-fishing. 

 Thus gudgeon-fishing on the Thames is a favourite pastime 

 with ladies, who 



" Feast on the water with the prey they take : 

 At once victorious, with their lines and eyes 

 They make the fishes and the men their prize." 



In running water it is unnecessary to use a float, for the 

 .gudgeon grubs on the ground like the barbel, which it some- 

 what resembles, and may be followed with the stream, the 

 line shotted according to circumstances. At Tempsford, on 

 the Ouse, I was once given as a pike bait a gudgeon seven 

 inches long. Four inches, however, is over the average 

 length, and three-inch fish are quite large enough for the 

 table. 



