- THE TROUT OF THE LATHKIN. 17 



would go down a second time to the " great 

 deep ! " how few would be the second births ! 



AMICUS. Yet, as the adage has it, " the burnt 

 child dreads the fire." 



PISCATOR. In its destructive, consuming 

 agency, and by its increasing heat with proxi- 

 mity, it gives constant warning. 



AMICUS. You just now spoke in praise of the 

 trout of the Lathkin. What I have heard of 

 them is not so favourable : I have been assured 

 by a friend, who has often fished that well- 

 preserved stream, that a trout in good condi- 

 tion is rarely to be taken there. 



PISCATOR. Izaak Walton is my authority, and 

 the time, of course, the past. He, speaking of 

 the stream, describes it as " by many degrees 

 the purest and most transparent he had ever 

 seen, either at home or abroad" (he had never 

 been in Westmoreland), "and as breeding 

 the reddest and best trouts in England." 

 These are his words. As to the real quality of 

 these trout at present, I agree with your friend ; 

 they may have been excellent, but now they 

 certainly are not: all I have taken, excepting 

 the smaller, have borne marks of being ill fed ; 

 they were soft, lank and flabby, 

 c 



