FISHES AND FISHING. 



At a very distant period from the present time, I 

 found myself the inmate of a large, old-fashioned 

 mansion-house, surrounded with extensive walled-in 

 gardens, beautiful pleasure grounds, a bowling-green, 

 a wilderness, a canal with small summer-houses, 

 under weeping willows at one end, and a handsome 

 stone temple at the other, and a clear trout stream run- 

 ning at the bottom of the garden ; numerous stables, 

 coach-houses, laundries, poultry-houses, and yards, 

 with other offices, were attached to the premises. 

 All these were situate down a lane called Water 

 Lane, leading out of the main street on entering 

 Dartford, in Kent, a posting town, then of very con- 

 siderable notoriety, being the chief direct road to the 

 continent. The middle of this lane was occupied by 

 a shallow stream of clear water ; on one side of it was 

 a raised fjot path : on the other side, the water washed 



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