84 In Pursuit of the Trout 



Wye is bank-full and even brimming over. 

 But how w^idely different is this spot in 

 summer-time ! In April it is still inclined 

 to be bleak and unattractive ; before May is 

 well advanced the angler begins to stop and 

 search its backwaters for rises, and by mid- 

 summer it is a jungle of sweet, flowering, 

 growing things. Then the fisherman can 

 tarry there in charming seclusion, hearing 

 and seeing the trippers on their way to and 

 from Haddon, but himself secure from all 

 intrusion. The two old willow-trees, the 

 high willow-herbs which form a regular 

 hedge by the brink of the stream, the tall 

 and softly waving meadow-grasses of June, 

 and the thousand thousand other glorious 

 green things of the lusty season — these all 

 combine to shelter him from the curious 

 gaze of the tripper. One of the willows has 

 a kindly root high and dry above the water, 

 and on this the angler can sit and scan every 

 nook and corner of the backwater. 



One season the pool was reported to have 

 *gone off' a little. It scarcely yielded its 



