NATURE AND SPORT IN BRITAIN 



brewed ale from the cool cellar and carry it with him on 

 these excursions. That wooden bottle held a gallon of 

 ale, all of which on a summer's day Master Jessey could 

 comfortably dispose of. 



Arrived at the Feeder, the net was set at one of the 

 small field-bridges, and the plunging began some 

 hundred and fifty yards away — one plunger on either 

 side the stream. The frightened fish were gradually 

 driven into the net until the crucial moment came ; 

 then the leads were sharply picked up, the net hoisted 

 over to the bridge, and thence to the meadow, and its 

 gleaming contents picked out. Those were great days 

 for Master Jessey, and he was particular in seeing that 

 the performance was carried out with due ceremony and 

 detail, exactly as had been done by his father before 

 him. He looked always to fill at least two large 

 buckets with fish — mainly perch and gudgeon — from 

 such a morning's work, and he was seldom disap- 

 pointed. 



With these and other ancient and innocent forms of 

 recreation Master Jessey filled in the details of his 

 simple existence. It was scarcely the life of the nine- 

 teenth century. It took one back rather to the placid 

 days of country life in the time of Isaac Walton. The 

 old man has lain a long five-and-twenty years now in 

 the quiet village churchyard. Looking back, one won- 

 ders that such a character could have survived so far 

 into this generation of haste and unrest. 



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