148 FxVCT AGAINST FICTION. 



of the lovely woods of Fontlilll Towers, one of the 

 seats of the Dowag'er Lady Westminster. 



That is a lake, so to sj^eak, of considerable 

 dimensions, and, in places, of very considerable 

 de2)th ; indeed, in spots I am told that it is almost 

 nnfathomable. Besides its volume of still water, 

 it lia,^ its sunny shallows, witli a clear, clean, stony 

 bottom, and everything suitable to many kinds of 

 useful and delicious fish, were they but there. 



I do not hesitate to say I have seen thousands 

 on tliousands of small carp, with thin bodies 

 and large lieads, basking on the top of the water 

 in hot, still days ; and I have seen them pretend 

 to be trout from very hunger, and rise at and take 

 any fly or moth that accidentally dipped on the 

 surface near them. 



This wooded lake, so beautifully situated in 

 the Ijosom of mighty trees, is fed by very small 

 springs ; tliose that reach the eye are very 

 scanty, l}ut as the lake always keeps to the brim, 

 I think tliere must be a larger and natural 

 underground supply — a supply which no ^^soak " 

 from adjoining uplands could administer. Here is 

 a ivaste of water, so far as any valuable produce 

 is concerned, for that great, over-grown, and 



