AN EVENING RISE 113 



attached to a long point of fine (xxxx) gut, with 

 not a knot showing thereon for eighteen inches. 

 In six hours' fishing three such trout were 

 induced to take. They usually average almost 

 exactly 1| Ib. in weight in this particular bit 

 of the Itchen (between the Tichborne and the 

 Avington Park water). One of the three, from 

 the feel of him and the dignity of his move- 

 ments, I should say must have been If Ib. or 

 over. All three got away, the tiny hook having 

 lost its hold. A day of disappointments and 

 of sheer toil, begun in over-keenness, and ending, 

 for a time, in physical exhaustion. There was 

 one compensation, companionship of the best, 

 that of a fine soldier, late of the Rifle Brigade, 

 whom many would place at the very top amongst 

 those who put the soul into the little old British 

 Army of 1914. 1 Of him it was written, after 

 the country had lost him : " He banished all 

 meanness from his neighbourhood, all thoughts 

 of self-interest and personal advancement. Duty, 

 discipline, self-discipline, and the joy of life 

 these were the rules he walked by ; and if 

 you found yourself in his company you had 

 perforce to walk with him, keeping up with 

 his stride as best you could." 2 We had been 



Brigadier-General J. E. Gough, V.C., C.B., C.M.G., 

 A.D.C. * Ordeal by Battle, F. S. Oliver. 



8 



