Fly-Fifhing. . 91 



tain, leaving Polly behind us fafe and found, tail 

 and all, and how reluctantly we pafled the fparkling 

 waters of the Hondu,* I will not ftay to defcribe. 

 Nothing interrupted our learned difcourfe on 

 fly-making, &c. till we found ourfelves in the very 

 midft of a difturbed family not of gipfies, or fuch 

 like anomalies, but Groufe. All helter-fkelter, 

 it is marvellous how fome of the wee, fluttering, 

 frightened creatures efcaped being crufhed by our 

 feet. (No worfe death, perhaps, than being riddled 

 with mot from Squire Broadland's Manton a few 

 weeks hence !) It was pleafant to fee Pifcator 

 {tumbling through the heather in full chafe of the 

 old bird that was dodging before him, now running 

 here, and now fluttering there ! Ay, and plea- 

 fanter far to hear the chuckle of the latter in the 

 ear of his baffled purfuer, whom he had fo dexter- 

 oufly decoyed from his younglings that merry 

 chuckle that feemed to fay in his way in expreflive, 

 though not very polimed phrafeology, t( Don't you 

 wifh you may get it ? " 



* A very beautiful ftream, not only in the fifherman's 

 eye, but the artift's. Early in the feafon, or later after 

 rain, there is no prettier water for a fly ; though the trout 

 are fmall, owing to the incefTant poaching from May to 

 Midfummer, and perhaps beyond. 



