SOME BRITISH FRESH-WATER FISHES 193 



pike was at Helmingham Hall, Suffolk, whose 

 splendid moat I was one day admiring, when the 

 kitchen door which abutted on it opened, and the 

 cook came out and threw a piece of raw beef 

 into the clear water. Instantly a large tame pike 

 dashed up with a mighty swirl, bolted the meat 

 and asked for more, which he got. My fingers 

 itched, as every good angler's should, for a rod and 



1'IKK. 



line, and permission from his noble owner to catch 

 him ! 



Angling near London Bridge ! What non- 

 sense ! Yet it used to be a common occurrence. 

 Was there not, in Queen Elizabeth's time, a polar- 

 bear kept in the Tower, that, secured by a chain, 

 was periodically allowed to go fishing on his own 

 account? Certainly, we are told so. So there 

 must have been fish, though Bruin's share could 

 not have been very generous. 



At idle moments the citizens of London used to 



