92 In Pursuit of the Trout 



friend who came to ' carry the net ' and 

 watch the sport, I succeeded, more by 

 luck than skill, in putting together a total 

 bag of seventeen and a-half pounds of trout 

 in the course of the afternoon, five of the 

 fish scaling exactly one and three-quarter 

 pounds apiece, which was, and I think still 

 is, the record out of may-fly time on that 

 water. But on this particular May day I 

 had no friend to help me carry the net or 

 fish, and as it so turned out did not greatly 

 need assistance. I started forth intent above 

 all things on loitering away the whole 

 of a long day by the stream. The word 

 ' loiter ' may have an evil sound in the ears 

 of some painfully laborious folk, but not 

 so surely in those of Izaak Walton's true 

 disciples, for did not the grand old angler 

 boast of his desire to loiter whole days by 

 Shalford Brook ? A whole day at this time 

 of year spent in the meadows restores, re- 

 invigorates, physically and mentally ; a few 

 hours are too little for the purpose. Richard 

 JefFeries found that he could not shake off 



