T\HE CURVED MEADOW. 253 



This continues for the rest of the way, 

 terminating in fifty yards of the most perfect 

 deep run, just below the gravelly and stony 

 stickle leading from the dam pool under the 

 jackdaw rock. For a final half hour of down- 

 stream fishing at dusk, with a sedge or palmer, 

 this run and shallow offer a generous solatium 

 on days when no dry fly has charmed ever so 

 fruitlessly during the preceding hour, and when 

 disappointment and vexation have done their 

 worst. 



Thus the features and figure of the curved 

 meadow offer every variation of beauty; and 

 hardly a summer passes that it does not give 

 the angler at least two hours of memory which 

 he will store to the westering of his days. 



It is not always that a short beat offers such 

 diversity of angling : each furlong, as it were, 

 asking for its particular change of fly 

 and for its special tactics. In early spring, 

 for downstream success, the upper portion is 

 unrivalled; in April and May the middle stretch 

 affords ideal water for quick up-and-across 

 casting; and in summer, the lower end harbours 

 just those experienced trout whose wits are best 

 circumvented by the small dry midge after 

 sundown. 



Having dealt at some length on the theory 

 and practice of blank days, as enjoyed by myself 

 and hundreds of others; I would like to tell 

 you, if I may, of my first successful evening 

 spent upon this enchanted ground. 



I had reached the river, where the wire bridge 



