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been in good condition. I was not going to eat him 

 myself, but I presented him to one of the old men at 

 the almshouse, where quantity is more valued than 

 quality, and received his effusive thanks both before 

 and after the brute had been cooked. Never before, 

 he said, had he eaten such a fish, and I can well 

 believe it ! 



I once killed an uglier and much larger fish also in 

 a queer way in Mr. Abel Smith's water at Wood Hall 

 in Hertfordshire. There also the river flows through 

 a large artificial lake the work, I believe, of " Capa- 

 bility Brown" and falls over a hatch into a large 

 deep pool. I had just reached this spot when a violent 

 thunderstorm came on. I took shelter under an alder- 

 bush, and in the deep hole below me, not three yards 

 off, I spied a giant trout, blear-eyed and black, one 

 of those cannibal brutes which are as great a pest 

 in a stream as a pike. Partly to occupy the time I 

 determined to try to " snatch " him, for there is no need 

 to be particular about the method used to get rid of 

 such vermin. I had no poaching-tackle in my box, 

 but I took off the fine point of my casting-line and 

 attached a big alder to the gut. I sunk it with some 

 difficulty, for I had no weight on, and twice I brought 

 the hook against the side of the fish and struck, but 

 failed to get it in, or, strangely enough, to frighten 

 away the sluggish monster. The third time I was 

 endeavouring to sink the hook the fish turned slowly 

 round and swallowed my alder as if it had been a 

 worm, and in another moment the line was running 

 through the rings as the fish bored heavily into the 

 strong running water below the weir. His weight de- 

 manded some caution, but he did not put up much of 



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