THE GRA YLING. 



your knees, and have executed a clumsy cast 

 that made a cart whip ripple through your own 

 shadow, she will come and take that fly on the 

 drag as though it had been previously invisible, 

 will hook herself without a strike on a semi- 

 slack line, will come through or over the weeds 

 like a girl after an actor, and literally throw 

 herself at your feet. 



Of grayling taken out of season I have 

 nothing to say. It is done persistently, and 

 those to whom it appeals as sport must continue 

 to practise it. The reputation of the grayling 

 has suffered immensely by its being hooked 

 played and landed during the may-fly season. 

 That is when so many of the two and three 

 pounders are ' captured.' A dusk June evening 

 a large spent gnat and tackle strong enough 

 to cut weeds with. 



We will not insult the sex by repeating 

 judgments given in May and June, any more 

 than one would gauge a season's beauties by 

 their appearance when approaching their bathing 

 machines after a long swim attired in hired 

 dresses. A person publishing a snap shot made 

 on such an occasion deserves to have his 

 pleasures curtailed. It brings its own punish- 

 ment in loss of appreciation for what is sporting 

 and beautiful. 



Let grayling fishing be reckoned with part- 

 ridge shooting and its real pleasures, actual and 

 sentimental, are doubled immediately. 



For my own part, September has been the 

 only month indeed in Hampshire only the 



