May-fly Dreams 147 



most beautiful and the most likely-looking 

 for big trout that the enthusiast ever dreamt 

 of. I have often fished the water above, 

 and several times, too, the water below, and 

 have had some delightful trout out of both. 



Below the trout run big, and you must 

 really take the trouble of looking very care- 

 fully indeed to your gut about the time 

 the spent gnat comes out. Above, again, 

 there are genuine little flour-mills still 

 working, things you read of in poetry, and 

 watercress beds, and tiny bee-farms, and 

 perfect hamlets of the kind you see as a rule 

 only in Birket Foster's dainty pictures, and 

 a real old English village — a village in the 

 midst of ' poppy-mingled corn,' where 



* Aylmer follow'd Aylmer at the Hall, 

 And Averill Averill at the Rectory 

 Thrice over,' 



And there is a baker's in that village where 

 they make the most wonderful bread. The 

 door of the shop is always open at this 

 time of year in the daytime, and as you 

 pass you enjoy an aroma not easily for- 



