FISHES AND FISHING. 251 



with the boat : my companion begged me to stop a 

 moment, till he put on his gloves, and, to the astonish- 

 ment of the fisherman and myself, he put on a pair 

 of kid gloves, but little soiled ; they soon, however, 

 became too dirty ever to be cleaned, so he left them 

 in the punt ; and when we had finished our sport, 

 went to the inn, washed his hands, had some rum or 

 brandy and milk, put on a clean pair of kid gloves to 

 walk home to breakfast. I had the pleasure of taking 

 with me a leash of good pike, or rather jack, for nei- 

 ther of them attained four pounds, therefore were not 

 pike. The fisherman, who did not know the gentle- 

 man's name, used often to inquire after him, as the 

 gentleman who wore gloves when he went netting ; 

 and we often laughed at the occurrence, till the death 

 of the poor young man stayed any mirthful recollec- 

 tions of him. 



The navigation of the Thames is, as I before ob- 

 served, most materially altered for the better, as to 

 the traffic, and, I presume, also for the increase of 

 the City funds, but to the complete destruction of the 

 Thames fishery for salmon, by the ill-judged forma- 

 tion of the weirs. Formerly, within my recollection, 

 there was no lock before you reached Boulter's Lock, 

 near Taplow, about fifty-four miles by water from 

 London Bridge ; and in very dry summers the pas- 

 sage of barges, particularly those called west country 



