EARLY MEMORIES 37 



The only other fishes that we lads used to catch 

 there was an occasional lean plaice or, after a 

 spell of east wind, a weever, evil incarnate, which 

 was treated with either foolhardy indifference or 

 exaggerated terror. One man I remember to 

 this day with respect. He used, all through the 

 August of 1884, to catch large bass at high tide, 



THE BEACH, HASTINGS 



some of them fine fish. Baiting with squid, which 

 he was known to procure from the trawlers that 

 send their harvest ashore each morning opposite 

 the fishmarket, he used a couple of handlines, 

 always fishing inside the pier, among the piles. On 

 calm days, morning or afternoon as the tide suited, 

 he would take off his shoes and socks, roll up his 

 breeches above the knee, and stand in the water 

 at the lower end of the east stage. Whether his 



