224 FISHING GOSSIP. 



The salmon " meet " at Llangollen, to borrow the 

 familiar phraseology of another department of the 

 sporting world, is the next on the river. The turn- 

 out of pink and white on the field is not quite so 

 large as at Overton ; but the barrier being more per- 

 pendicular, and better adjusted to the muscular forces 

 of the gymnasts, the practice is perhaps superior. 

 While admiring the play of the performers, prepara- 

 tory to the final jump, I thought of Dick Milliken's 

 bit of natural history in the famous " Groves of 

 Blarney," in which he introduces 



" The trout and salmon, 

 Playing at backgammon ;" 



and concluded that the parody of the Dublin "Droll" 

 was not after all more extravagant, in making the 

 " finsters " of Blarney engage in a " twopenny hit " 

 at backgammon, than the antics attributed to Irish 

 characters by a certain class of novelists for the 

 amusement of the public. Milliken's was at least the 

 racy genuine specimen of what Moore nicely defines 

 as the "back-water of Irish wit ;" theirs the vulgar 

 pinchbeck imitation, fabricated out of materials 

 gleaned within the "Circular Eoad" of the Irish 

 metropolis. But whether intoxicated by the sparkling 

 champagne of the pool, flowing down cool and fresh 

 from the mountain-springs, or intent upon higher 

 purposes up stream, it is certain salmon are seldom 

 tempted by the angler's lures on occasions of public 



