78 ANGLING 



and ready next morning at 3-15 prompt. Mr. Hopper there- 

 fore proposes to take leave of the readers of his angling notes 

 until next week. 



P.S. Since penning the foregoing notes Mr. Hopper has 

 been gudgeon fishing to a favourite resort which necessitated 

 a short journey by rail. Needless to say Mr. Hopper had 

 not arranged to go alone. Bowlingreen Twynkles was to be 

 one of his companions, and the other yes ! he was there, on 

 the platform. His name is Rugless, but on that particular 

 morning Mr. Hopper thinks " Douglas " would have been 

 a more appropriate name. As Mr. Hopper entered the 

 station at 5-35 a.m. there stood Rugless in proud possession of 

 the platform, and looking for all the world as if he had just 

 purchased and paid for the whole of the undertaking known 

 as Grimsby Town station. Rugless was wearing a Tarn 

 o' Shanter, the bob of which at the top was nearly as big as a 

 pawnbroker's ball, and the left side of his " Tarn " sloped 

 with an artistic droop until it rested gently on his left 

 shoulder. Rugless was not bootless oh ! no. He had on a 

 pair of hip boots which mounted nearly up to the top of his 

 thighs, and which were capacious enough, even when his legs 

 were inside them, to have held another pair of legs very com- 

 fortably. Rugless was a grand looking man that morning-, 

 but Twynkles and Mr. Hopper on arrival at Louth took care 

 to smuggle him through a quiet part of the town where he 

 would not be much observed. The water bailiff charged Mr. 

 Hopper and his friend Twynkles 6d. each for their angling 

 tickets, but he said he could not think of allowing anyone 

 wearing such a pair of boots and such a distinguished looking 

 Tarn o' Shanter to fish the ancient waters of the Louth naviga- 

 tion under a fee of is., and Rugless was mulct a " bob " 

 accordingly. The day's proceedings produced 250 roach and 

 two gudgeon ; the latter species had wandered away, goodness 

 knows where, in consequence of the length of water fished 

 being partly drawn off to refill the next two ponds in the 

 canal. 



