132 LINES IN PLEASANT PLACES 



comes at the precise time when sport is hot and 

 high. 



Get a good breakfast before starting ; secure an 

 honest dinner at the finish ; but beware of heavy eat- 

 ing meanwhile. Keep going steadily with the rod 

 through the livelong day, taking a slight repast as it 

 were on the wing just to keep body and soul from 

 premature separation. By this method you will 

 remain in condition for your work, and have all the 

 chances of sport that the time offers you. Sandwich 

 boxes I have long forsworn, for, after the contents 

 (which are seldom satisfactory) are gone, the awkward 

 metal shell remains bulging out your pockets, or banging 

 about in your basket. Once I tried to fish upon a 

 small silver box filled with meat lozenges. It may 

 have been as per prospectus of the manufacturers that 

 I carried the essence of a flock of Southdowns in the 

 waistcoat pocket, but the sheep after all did not seem 

 to have a satisfactory effect, and a sucked lunch was 

 not at all up to my sense of proportion. Then I tried 

 cold chops, or sausages, carried in a fine white napkin ; 

 and very capital they are for the five minutes you 

 allow yourselves on the bridge, or by the fallen log 

 under the hedge, when tired nature suggests rest and 

 refreshment. Afterwards I pinned my faith to a couple 

 of home-made pasties, at the same time adhering to 

 the fine napkin, which comes in very handy for sundry 

 purposes when the fodder has disappeared. To anyone 

 who likes the excitement of a domestic breeze, as a 

 wind up to a fine day's sport, I can recommend nothing 

 better than the steady use of the household serviette 

 for drying the hands after the capture of every fish. 



As to drink, that is too delicate a subject. My friend 

 Halford, until he had a fishing box of his own, and 

 could establish " regular meals," carried a flask of cold 



