Fly-Fifliing. 73 



fall to his lot. It was his proud boaft, that though 

 he fell far fhort of me in numbers, he could beat 

 me hollow in fize. Alas, for the old cuckoo-note 

 of the " Dodger." The laft time I was out with 

 him he had to fmg to another tune. Taking a 

 trout a little under a pound from his bafket, which 

 doubtlefs looked far larger when dripping with 

 wet and floundering on the bank he firft caught 

 fight of it, he triumphantly alked, if I had one 

 out of the forty I had caught that could come up 

 to that ? Yes, I replied, I have one half as large 

 again, that I killed in the bend of the river above, 

 at the very top of the pool that has the large tree 

 lying acrofs it. Not another word did he fay on 

 the fubjecl, knowing that he had tried the fame 

 fpot with all the art he was mafter of, though to 

 no purpofe. 



Should the reader wonder at this digreflion from 

 the Wye to the Clun, he will, I truft, excufe it, 

 from a defire on my part to touch (no matter how 

 (lightly) on any pifcatorial reminifcence, that may 

 at the moment occur to me, though not abfolutely 

 in order. 



To return, however, to the Wye, which of courfe 

 would afford little opportunity to the "Dodger" 

 for creeping and crawling along its banks. 



