49 



out great sacrifice. Happily it is possible to 

 go away, if not to home, at any rate to some 

 country retreat at the end of the week, and to 

 combine the best of dry fly fishing with this on 

 Saturday. Where this can be done, the prospect 

 of the escape on Saturday till Monday is a great 

 consolation in all moments of leisure during the 

 week. It is borne about with us like a happy 

 secret ; it draws the thoughts towards it continu- 

 ally, as Ruskin says that the luminous distance 

 in a picture attracts the eye, or as the gleam of 

 water attracts it in a landscape. 



If our work will let us escape on Friday even- 

 ing, it is luxury ; but even if we belong only to 

 those in the middle state of happiness, who work 

 till midnight or later on Friday, and can have the 

 whole of Saturday and Sunday in the country, we 

 may still be splendidly well off, provided that we 

 are careful to miss nothing. The earliest trains 

 leave Waterloo, the usual place of departure for 

 the Itchen or Test, either at or just before six 

 o'clock in the morning. To leave London it is 

 possible once a week, even after late hours, to get 

 up in time for these early trains, and if you have 

 no luggage (and you need have none if you go 



