280 THE COUNTRY CLERGYMAN. 



" moss'd with age, and high top bald with grey 

 " antiquity ; " and here the party satisfied their 

 hunger with the good things which Mrs. Hastings 

 had sent to meet them from the parsonage. 



While they were enjoying their wine, which had 

 been cooling in an adjoining spring, Dr. Hastings 

 gave his friends some account of the fish they hoped 

 shortly to capture. He said the trout was a most 

 voracious fish, and as an instance, he mentioned 

 that on one occasion he was witness to one having 

 taken a martin. It was, however, not on wing, 

 or at the end of a line, but floating on the surface 

 of the water. It had just been shot by one of 

 those thoughtless persons who can amuse themselves 

 by destroying those joyous, pleasing, and useful 

 birds, and was floating before the wind, not a long 

 throw from his fly, for he was fishing at the time. 

 In this situation, he distinctly saw a fish make a 

 run at it, and it disappeared. He added, that it 

 was a regular trout run, and was in the broad water 

 of a mill-head. The man who was behind him 

 with the landing-net saw it also, and as there were 

 no pike in the river, he had no doubt of its being 

 a trout which took the swallow in this singular 

 manner. 



The trout is a bold, and a vigilant fish, espe- 

 cially those of a large size, which feed but little 

 during the day, having their haunts amidst roots 

 of trees, or in deep holes, and coming out later in 



