A DAY ON THE LEA 115 



and Ware. At the present moment the water 

 is very low, and perhaps does not convey to 

 one the true spirit of it, when a few days of up- 

 hill rain have served to give it enlivenment. It 

 has been basking in the sun too long, and even 

 the fish are beginning to sweat and to cry with 

 the youthful poet, 



" Hang it, how hot we shall be ! " 



There are plenty of trout here ; the water is, 

 on the whole, and in ordinary times, easily 

 approachable, the river fishable, and the trout 

 run to big weights. But there is always a but 

 when I go a-fishing you cannot just now 

 possibly get at them ! The banks on either 

 side were rife with the lusty growth of tall weeds 

 and bushes, through which one could not pene- 

 trate with any degree of satisfaction. Of course 

 there are a few gaps here and there, and it can 

 be understood that to cast over a hedge of 

 weeds above your head into a stream only five 

 or six yards wide, overhung by a like hedge 

 opposite, is not a thing to be easily accomplished ; 

 but these long grassy hedges, which are mostly 

 but temporary, were nothing to be objurgated 

 upon compared with the state of the water itself. 



