io6 FLY FISHING 



tiveness that are clearly remembered. In look- 

 ing back to Oxford and other first experiences 

 of later days, it is but a dim and blurred outline 

 of feelings that I can recall, but very clear 

 and distinct are the outlines of a very real self, 

 moving amongst unfamiliar surroundings, in 

 the first two or three weeks at Winchester. In 

 these weeks I did not even think of fishing ; 

 everything about me was so strange ; but there 

 were not really any hardships, and as the sense 

 of strangeness wore away, as knowledge came of 

 what might and wljat might not be done without 

 offending against customs and unwritten laws 

 of opinion, I soon began to rejoice in the com- 

 parative freedom of a larger world, in the 

 greater scope of work and games, in the anti- 

 cipation of all that was before me. I made 

 many plans during the winter for the opening 

 of the next fishing season. The trout could 

 be watched in the Itchen much more easily 

 than in northern streams; they were there 

 before our eyes. On mild autumn days we 

 could watch them feeding, and numbers of them 

 were larger than any I had ever hooked. Warn- 

 ings were given abundantly that these trout 



