Lively Celtic Imagination 233 



assuring me that, only a day or two before my talk with 

 him, he had " seen the falcon come down, and lift a hen 

 from close to his house, while he stood watching it." It 

 would be unseemly to question the veracity of so circum- 

 stantial a story ; but the Celtic imagination is exceedingly 

 lively, and, when once set in motion, is often apt to carry its 

 owner considerably beyond the point he had in mind when 

 starting ; while his patriotism is such that he would never 

 think of allowing his own particular falcon to be outdone by 

 others of which he had read in fable, or of admitting that 

 the trout, in the stream near his house, are surpassed in 

 size, or weight, by those of any other district whatever. It 

 is perhaps the climate that is to blame more than anything ; 

 and if to-day you fail to land a fish that is worth basketing, 

 when " only the day before yesterday Mr Jones, of Bala, 

 killed four dozen beauties " (they averaged about a foot in 

 length, as indicated by Mr Jones', of Trothtellydds, hands), 

 you will at any rate soon find that you have the sympathy 

 of most other visitors, none of whom can do any better ; 

 and if it is a consolation to know that by to-morrow, or 

 next week at latest, your own poor fingerlings will have 

 grown to half- and three-quarter-pounders, and have added 

 amazingly to their numbers, you may rest assured that that 

 glory, too, awaits you, when Mr J. shall have the chance of 

 telling others of the baskets you have made ! 



