WINCHESTER 113 



lasted, and to change from one fish to another, 

 rather than from place to place, all day. He 



* 



was also a very silent angler, as if his business 

 was solely with the trout, and what he was, 

 besides being the best resident fisherman at 

 Winchester, remained unknown to me. I was 

 so struck by his success in fishing that it 

 never occurred to me to ask about anything 

 else. 



One or two of the men who fished this portion 

 of "Old Barge" occasionally, were anglers of 

 renown. There was, for instance, the late Mr. 

 Francis Francis, at that time probably the best 

 known of all authorities on angling; my recol- 

 lection of his fishing on the Itchen is that he 

 used a double-handed rod, and threw a small 

 fly with it more accurately than it seemed easy 

 to do with so large an instrument. Sometimes 

 too, but not often, we saw on " Old Barge " 

 the greatest angler I have ever met. One could 

 not say which was the more instructive, to 

 watch his fishing or to listen to his talk; no 

 one had more information to give, no one was 

 more generous in giving it ; his knowledge 

 seemed the result not only of observation and 



H 



