A May Day's Angling 95 



doners the best of all medicines, peace. The 

 meadow-grass was somewhat cruelly browned 

 as though by the scorching heat of August ; 

 but the hedges were brilliantly green as at 

 midsummer, with the oaks bursting forth 

 into their full splendour of foliage. A hill- 

 side coppice hard by the stream was carpeted 

 with wild hyacinths, and here and there 

 in the open great marsh marigolds dared 

 the heats and rainless days of a summer in 

 spring. 



Thus everything combined to make a 

 pageant for a dweller in a towered city to 

 feast his eyes and mind upon. But none 

 of these things combined to make a good 

 fishing day. The trout, it was true, were 

 here in abundance, but lying in a sulky or 

 slothful frame of mind at the bottom of the 

 stream, and ignoring utterly the few olive 

 duns which sailed jauntily down in the 

 sunshine, and an occasional alder-fly which 

 fell on the water and seemed bent on at- 

 tracting the attention of its enemies by 

 helpless flutterings. Nevertheless I strolled 



