Fly-FiJhing. 131 



a better one, efpecially in the evening after a clofe, 

 fultry day. 



When the two fifhermen above were quite out 

 of fight, fuch a delicious repofe feemed to fettle 

 down on the whole fcene, undifturbed fave by the 

 rippling of the water ; the foft and fcarcely per- 

 ceptible hum of the infect world; and the familiar 

 note of the robin, who feeks the fociety of man 

 more than any other of his wild companions ; that 

 I was irrefiftibly led to give way to a dreamy ftate 

 of reverie that took entire pofleffion of my fenfes 

 for a time. 



It was fweet, though fad, to wander back, far 

 back, in thought to days, that the more they re- 

 cede in the diftance, the more invariably do they 

 gather a ftronger hold upon us with the filken ties 

 that, woven firft perhaps by the hand of childhood, 

 have remained ever fince unravelled, till we find 

 them in after life flill clinging to our hearts with 

 a gordian knot, that the hand of death can only 

 tear afunder ! 



It feemed but yefterday that, let loofe on a May- 

 morning with a hoft of fchool-fellows on the banks 

 of the Corve,* I took my firft leflbn in fly-fifhing 



* The Corve is a fmall river, or brook, that falls into 

 the Teme, in the neighbourhood of Ludlow. 



