HUNTING FOR FISHING 97 



a rather narrow road, and we were having a 

 pleasant chat, when all of a sudden there came 

 dashing round a sharp corner, and without 

 warning of sight or hearing (and, according to 

 my version, at the rate of sixteen miles an hour), 

 a fine young gentleman of the new school, with 

 his groom beside him, driving a spanking horse, 

 and smash he came into our modest dogcart, 

 quite unprepared for the encounter. He struck 

 the cap of our axle, snapped our off-spring, and 

 otherwise seriously injured our trap, not with- 

 out, I may, perhaps, maliciously say, with some 

 gratification, considerable damage to his own 

 vehicle. The wonder was that our trap, being 

 much the lightest, was not upset, and the 

 "Amateur Angler" and his friend seriously 

 maimed, or, indeed, one or both of us killed. 

 Fortunately, much the lightest weight was on 

 the near side, or the trap had inevitably gone 

 over. As it was, we abused each other in the 

 road with as much eloquence as each of us 

 could suddenly muster, he vowing that I was 

 not on my own side, and that his pace was not 

 eight miles an hour, and I stoutly asserting that 

 his pace was at least sixteen miles, while I was 

 quietly driving in the middle of the road, and 

 H 



