84 LONDON ANGLER'S BOOK, 



I was more than an hour playing him ; he was killed 

 in every sense of the word, for he was so exhausted, 

 that he lay any way in the water I chose to drag him. 



I should not have been so long, but my landing- 

 net being small, and the handle not more than two 

 feet, I was obliged to get a piece of willow stick tied 

 to the end, to make it long enough to reach the 

 water, the bank being very high ; this was the gamest 

 Trout I ever saw ; he leaped three times out of the 

 water a yard high, and repeatedly visited every part 

 of the Pool, but my tackle being good, and having 

 at that time an unaccountable stock of self-possession, 

 I succeeded in capturing the most beautiful Trout an 

 Angler can imagine : ten persons supped off it, and 

 it ate quite as well as it looked. 



There may appear a little of the Munchausen in 

 this, but the fact is as I have stated ; my wife wit- 

 nessed the whole affair, and I can tell the reader I 

 was not a little proud on that account ; several other 

 persons now living at Waltham Abbey witnessed it 

 also. Not that I consider the taking of a Trout that 

 size with minnow-tackle a wonderful affair, as several 

 much larger have been taken, and one in the Pool below 

 by Mrs. Astley; but my saying one was waiting for 

 me, and taking it the length I had described, together 

 with its being the first Trout I recollect seeing, and 

 the first I ever took, that has induced me to relate 

 the adventure as somewhat singular. 



Trout are the most beautiful, as well as the best 



