ANCIENT ANGLING AUTHORS 163 



small end of the Top ; so that when the Splices both 

 of Top and Stock are bound together (when you 

 come to use your Rod) the Loops on your Top may 

 range with the Loops on your Stock in a strait 

 Line ; and at the very point End of your Top, bind 

 on one of your Loops, that the Head or Ring part 

 of the Loop may just over-reach the Top-point, and 

 not turned up as the rest are to be, but lie strait 

 out, through all which Loops draw your Silk-Line 

 when you come to fish ; but be sure all your Loops 

 both on Stock and Top, when put together, be 

 exactly and directly even against one another, other- 

 wise your Silk-Line will not run clear. 



Mention is made of some record trout, but the 

 author declines to vouch for the accuracy of the 

 measurements, as he was not Occulatus Testis of 

 either : the first one mentioned was taken in a cast- 

 net at Newbury, and measured 45 inches in length. 

 Hewlett considers that this fish ought to have been 

 presented to King Charles II., who at the time of 

 its capture was staying in Newbury, and it would 

 have been presented to him " as a Rarity, had not 

 those Proud Epicurean Belly-Gods been more intent 

 in sacrificing to their own Net, and gratifying their 

 covetous, greedy Appetites, than in paying a dutiful 

 Reverence to their Sovereign." 



Another trout is alluded to, which was caught at 

 Tyrone, in Ireland, and measured 46 inches in 

 length. 



Hewlett also gives a very marvellous instance of 

 the rapid growth of some trout, which were placed in 

 a freshly made fish pond at Lewisham : seven brace 



