AUGUST ON THE ITCHEN. 173 



AUGUST ON THE ITCHEN. 



A DIFFICULT MONTH THE BANK TO ONESELF 



SEDGE FLY STALKING THE KEEPER THE BEST 



TROUT OF THE SEASON. 



The day is dying. I shall see him die, 



And I shall watch the sunset, and the red 

 Of all that splendour when the day is dead. 

 And I shall see the stars upon the sky. 



ERIC MACKAY. 



PESSIMISM must be kept far removed 

 from anything to do with angling. 

 Otherwise, I should be thinking of the 

 cynical proverb quoted to me by a fly-fishing 

 schoolmaster, * God sends nuts to those who 

 have no teeth to crack them.' He was 

 answering the congratulation of some City men 

 who envied him his three months' holiday a 

 year. He wanted to exchange January for 

 May very naturally and the first half of 

 August for the first half of June. The three 

 weeks at Easter, he conceded, were sometimes 

 well timed; but cited, as a leaden lining to the 

 silver cloud, that hotels were crowded and prices 

 advanced, that full trains meant empty creels, 



