256 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 



water. So well was tliis annual fact known to 

 the vermin in tlie neiglibourliood, that the house- 

 rats from every homestead^ Larn, and cottage 

 gathered together by night at this weir for the 

 purpose of a piscatory harvest. 



In the mornings beneath every available spot 

 on which there was any cover, such as a few 

 boards, an old hurdle, or a hollow stone, more 

 than a bushel of these fish might be found secreted, 

 all of them caught by the rats during one night, 

 some being dead, some still alive, but all of them 

 marked more or less by the teeth of the spoiler. 



After I had taken possession of the Winkton 

 fishery, and came to live at Winkton House, on 

 my visiting the place one day, I found my punt, 

 which was moored to the gravel-walk in the 

 garden, with a great many lampernes still alive 

 in an inch or two of water that tlie punt con- 

 tained. This made me demand of the man in 

 charge wIkj it was that had dared to fish in my 

 absence with my boat. He replied, that no one 

 had done so; to which I ansAvered, '^Tlien how 

 comes it to be full of live fish ? " To this he 

 rejoined, ^^ that the fish liad been left there by 

 the house-rats.'^ In order to utilize the spoils 



