118 AN ANGLER'S SEASON 



time by the waterside. He is never for 

 a moment at rest. Before my own rod 

 was in ply His Honour, by that time fifty 

 yards away, had about half-a-dozen fish 

 in his creel. I had seen them tossed out 

 of the water. You do not need to use 

 much ceremony with the hill trout. You 

 may offer them flies if you like, and in 

 that case, when you hook a fish, you had 

 as well be wary, fly tackle being delicate 

 gear ; but anglers to the mountain born, 

 though highly polite to strangers, have 

 an ill-concealed contempt for daintiness 

 such as that. The Provost merely 

 dropped his line into every likely place, 

 and out a fish came flashing ! Two 

 seconds or so after a trout caught sight 

 of the worm that trout was transferred 

 to the heather. When angling in the 

 valleys one puts on a fresh worm, if 

 that bait is used at all, for each trout, 

 it being on the plains a traditional and 

 well-founded belief that even a slightly 

 lacerated worm will scare instead of 

 attracting ; but in the hill stream the 



