22 AN ANGLER'S HOURS n 



rippling fords of Teme, where I first made 

 his acquaintance with great pleasure and 

 some profit, and I regarded him as one 

 of the jewels in the angler's crown not so 

 bright, perhaps, as the trout, but by all means 

 worthy of his setting. Now, however, I 

 know him for the knave he is, and am 

 become his enemy. And this is the manner 

 of the conversion. 



Over the wine-cup, or the modern drink- 

 ing utensil which in these degenerate days 

 has supplanted it, we were speaking of holi- 

 days. " There are far too many grayling 

 there," said the expert, insidiously, " and 

 you'd get the tail-end of the trout fishing." 



I hesitated ; meditation had been busy 

 with a certain unknown nook in Wessex, 

 where the great roach are. But the expert 

 went on persuasively : " There are some 

 very big grayling there." 



He spoke of two-pound fish caught in 

 the May-fly season and returned, that they 

 might be taken again when in condition as 

 three-pounders. He mentioned five brace 

 as the kind of basket that ought to be the 

 daily reward of painstaking effort, and 

 finally he appealed to my sense of duty. 



