52 In Pursuit of the Trout 



it in order. It was almost choked up with 

 weeds, and overgrown in many parts with 

 miscellaneous underwood and thorn-bushes. 

 The trout were few, but they were nearly 

 all giants. It was necessary to get these 

 fellows out of the brook before any yearlings 

 or fry were put in. My friend, with the aid 

 of another willing angler, set to work and 

 took from the water the majority of the fish, 

 which he is prepared to swear averaged up- 

 wards of four pounds apiece. Imagine the 

 sport these fish must have given in a brook 

 so neglected as this one had been for a 

 matter of years ! Fit for a king it must 

 have been ; and, from his glowing accounts, 

 actually was. 



Not so many miles from that spot as the 

 crow flies is a stretch of water which the 

 same inveterate angler — who has probably 

 killed, during his long fishing career, as many 

 heavy trout as any man living — has also, on 

 more than one occasion, described to me in 

 terms of the highest praise. Once, in the 

 Eighties, he went thither with a boon com- 



