i8o BROADLAND SPORT 



however, no boats to be hired near enough for day anglers, 

 although permission to fish from the banks is rarely refused. 

 Still further up the river, beyond Aylsham, the fishing is 

 private and preserved, and the necessary permit is more diffi- 

 cult to obtain than the sport merits. 



Whilst exploring the upper tributaries of the Bure one of 

 our party introduced us to a Broadland Trilby, whose charms 

 and winning graces took the whole ship by storm. 



In years gone by, when the dormant spark of sporting 

 instinct within his breast was being fanned into a tiny flame 

 by an early contact with birds, beasts and fishes, so oft 

 encountered in his lonely ramblings, he had one day met 

 this Diana of the marshes. With a fellow-feeling upper- 

 most in both their minds, what was more natural than that 

 such a casual acquaintance should lead to a closer friendship, 

 which the difference in their sex, at that youthful and 

 romantic age, soon ripened into una vowed affection. 



As the years rolled on their secret meetings (so he told 

 us) became more seldom and more wide and wide apart, and 

 when he was sent away to school he almost lost sight of 

 his pretty-faced little sweetheart-poacher. Not that it is 

 wished to insinuate for a moment that she poached anything 

 for herself, her kith or kin, but rather that she, by her 

 superior marsh-craft, assisted him in a manner he could 

 never have learnt for himself, whilst she at the same time 

 gained his boyish respect, his admiration, and became the 

 heroine of his " calf love." 



For many years he had not seen her, but she apparently 

 had not the while forgotten him, and when chance once more 

 led him to the neighbourhood of her humble abode no time 

 was lost by him in reseeking the cottage door to pay a call 

 and to renew an old-time acquaintance. That call awakened 

 sweet memories which formed many a happy reverie in 

 his day-dreams at least, so he confessed. She appeared as 

 fresh, as unaffected, and as charming as of yore, although 

 time had worked many changes to external appearances. 

 The curiosity of our whole crew was naturally aroused and 



