102 HUNTING FOR FISHING 



or grayling still rising in precisely the same spot. 

 Conscious as I was that I was poaching on pre- 

 served waters, I threw my fly over him. Yet, 

 was I poaching ? I was on the turnpike road, 

 and I made my cast over the stile. Anyhow, 

 the fish came at me at once, and, as some of 

 your anglers say, "attached" himself to my 

 betrayer. Jack landed him on the footpath. 

 Was he poaching ? I take to myself the benefit 

 of the doubt, and wouldn't mind doing the same 

 thing again ; he was a pretty grayling, say, ~ Ib. 

 Thus, happy omen ! I had caught a fish at my 

 first cast. Our landlord was crazy with joy, and 

 foretold the grand baskets we should make when 

 we got up to the unpreserved water. I may say, 

 in passing, that, strictly speaking, there is no 

 unpreserved water here, for the water we are now 

 about to invade belongs to a club, and there were 

 notice boards up all along warning trespassers, 

 with penalties, by order, and so on. But we were 

 told by the farmers who held the land that they 

 looked on the dub as of no account, for they had 

 been paid no rent for years, and they were not 

 likely to get any ; so they gave us permission to 

 fish, on the condition that we and they should 

 " share and share alike," with the result 



