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good things provided. Most of the broken bread and 

 toast is taken almost as soon as it touches the water, 

 and great plops and circles a little lower down betray 

 the presence of an outer ring of pensioners, who take 

 care that not a crumb is wasted. " Of course," says a 

 fair spectator, "you never catch these dear tame fish." 

 "My good lady," I reply, "we do not catch many of 

 them, for they have a very keen appreciation of the 

 difference between floating crumb and the most deftly 

 presented dry fly, and are extraordinarily shy and 

 difficult to please when fished over with a Wickham 

 or an olive quill ; tame as they seem, they will hide 

 themselves in the weeds in a moment if the shadow 

 of a rod or line falls on the water. The stream runs 

 sharply, and there is abundance of weed, for I am no 

 believer in leaving fish without food and shelter ; and 

 it is no easy thing to put a fly neatly over a rising 

 fish in the narrow channels between the cresses so 

 that it goes over him properly cocked, and without 

 any drag. Still it is occasionally done ; but the 

 expert who, from his vantage-ground behind the big 

 Gunnera, has succeeded in beguiling one of these fine 

 fat fellows may justly pride himself upon his lightness 

 of hand, the directness of his cast, and the skill with 

 which he has ' skull-dragged ' his prize over the weeds, 

 or guided him down the clear water at the side before 

 he has had time to bury himself in one of those thick 

 patches which generally mean a broken cast and a 

 lost fly. If you should happen to meet that fish upon 

 the breakfast- table you will find that his farinaceous 

 diet has agreed with him, and will be slow to hurl 

 reproaches at his captor." 



The next item on the programme is a stroll down 



