208 TROUT FISHING 



fishing in 1917 which I will duly record, since it 

 fits in well with the scheme by which my sport with 

 this fly is ordered under Providence. 



At any more normal period I should have made 

 bold to complain a little. I still do not think I 

 was treated well. Providence does things too 

 thoroughly. It began by tantalising me with the 

 sight of a Mayfly sitting on a sailor man's white cap 

 in the Baker Street- Waterloo Tube Railway. 



I might so easily have been spared that unusual 

 sight. Come to think of it, you might travel the 

 line year in year out for a decade and never see the 

 like again. It was a real live Mayfly, not an imita- 

 tion, which, I imagine, would be contrary to the 

 King's Regulations and might be provided for under 

 some comprehensive article. For the insect itself 

 I am sure there is no provision of any kind. 



Well, as I say, I saw that sight, had speech with the 

 unconscious wearer of the cap, and deduced that 

 the Mayfly was up in a district where I should be 

 on Bank Holiday. That, of course, set me to 

 thinking about fishing in spite of much graver 

 preoccupations which then were mine. 



For in that district lives what an amusing writer 

 has called "the occasional trout." What better 

 opportunity of making the acquaintance of that 

 mysterious but attractive fish? I have a firm 

 conviction that he is never under three pounds, 



