WINCHESTER 117 



There would, as a rule, be no success at first, and 

 the trout would go on feeding, apparently with 

 a fixed determination to pay no attention to an 

 artificial fly, but every now and then one of 

 them after much casting would lose his head 

 or make a mistake and be hooked. To land 

 one fish not below the limit of size was satis- 

 factory ; a brace was a real success. The result 

 of the best hour which I ever had was two 

 brace and a half, but that was very exceptional. 

 It happened at the end of May, on a day when 

 the water was made rough by a strong wind up 

 stream, and when there was a great rise of full- 

 sized duns, which the trout were taking greedily. 

 On whole school days it was impossible to get a 

 full hour's fishing in the afternoon, and though 

 there was more time on half-holidays, it was very 

 seldom that there was a rise at that time. In 

 the same meadow as this part of " Old Barge," 

 there was another stream, known to the outside 

 world as the mill pond. It was a very dull bit 

 of water with hardly any current, and though it 

 held larger trout than the main river, they did not 

 rise till comparatively late in the season, and then 

 generally in the evening only. These trout were 



