1 86 AN ANGLER'S HOURS xi 



that his tail clings marvellously to earth, 

 and if you pull too hard he breaks in twain; 

 but if you work him gently as one works a 

 loose nail out of wood he will yield, and 

 gradually all his great length is your own. 

 When you have him you have an excellent 

 bait to your angle-rod, but, as I have shown, 

 in the catching he needs to be handled 

 with as much love and tenderness as Master 

 Walton's frog itself. I am not ashamed of 

 having hunted him here, but I am glad 

 Lady Maud did not happen upon me while 

 I was doing so. The disembodied spirit 

 and the maker of earth are too incongruous, 

 and she might conceivably have resented 

 my preference for the worm ; even the ghost 

 of a woman, I suppose, does not like being 

 scorned. 



But I could not exist within a few yards 

 of Thames unless I had lobworms in store. 

 For the river below is the Thames in in- 

 fancy, innocent as yet of locks and weirs, 

 almost ignorant of boats, but not too young 

 to be full of fish. Immediately under the 

 old ivy-mantled wall Thames is a standing 

 lesson to those who forget that they have 

 ever been young. He is no more than six 



