98 MOSTLY ABOUT TROUT 



we are now passing over. Let us get on to the 

 next morning as quickly as we can, to a little 

 earthly paradise already described, where, alas ! 

 there is only room for one, who carries the 

 knowledge of it about as a happy secret through- 

 out the whole working year. There are only 

 two water-meadows, and a copse, on the right 

 bank of the stream ; a wood and two copses 

 extend along nearly the whole length of the other 

 bank, and under the boughs of them I know of 

 several heavy trout. It is a wee river, best 

 fished with a little eight-foot rod, a typical 

 chalk-stream, with w r ater as clear as crystal 

 except for the little gentle swirls on the surface 

 where something beneath obstructs the free 

 run of the current. Gut must be of the finest, 

 or every trout that sees it will flee to cover. 

 The rod is ready, put up overnight and picked 

 up in the morning in a little study fragrant 

 with the scent of lilac and pheasant- eyed 

 narcissus. Out into the garden by widely 

 opened French windows, down a hill, and away 

 by a dusty road to the gate leading into the 

 water-meadows. Splash through sparkling little 

 runnels of clear water in the rich emerald-green 

 grass, dotted with golden clumps of marsh- 

 marigold ; one of my waders sticks in a mud- 

 hole in my hurry, as the moment gets nearer 



