APRIL 85 



Ah, there he was again, and this time 

 the line was taut ! 



It was not a small fish I had on. 

 Being high above the pool, on which 

 sunshine was shimmering, I had seen him 

 as he rose from the depth. He was 

 larger than the best of the trout any of 

 us had taken from the Alderley lakelets, 

 stocked from Lochleven. 



How was I to get him out ? 



The sides of the pool, like what may 

 be called the apron, were high and 

 precipitous ; and I could not drop from 

 the bridge, which was at least twenty 

 feet above the water. What had Lord 

 Stanley told me to do in the event of my 

 having a fish on ? For the life of me, I 

 could not remember. It had been an 

 explicit injunction ; but, as I had taken 

 it to be part of a practical joke, it had 

 fallen on inattentive ears. 



My host himself could not be far off; 

 but, what with the noise from the water- 

 fall and that of the wind in the trees, he 

 would not hear my cry for help. 



