SUNDRY CONSIDERATIONS 79 



separate letting occurred because the bridge became 

 dangerous, and would have cost too much to repair, 

 anyhow, when I came first to know this particular 

 part of the river in the early eighties, there was 

 nothing left of the bridge except a stump or two, 

 green with slime, brown with rot, showing just 

 above water, or intercepting weed — just that and 

 a band of bottom a little higher than the river- 

 bed above and below, as if the made bottom 

 which had carried the bridge still persisted. Even 

 the stumps are long gone the way of all stumps, 

 and the made bed is only just traceable if you 

 know where to find it. But for all that, after all 

 these years, this is the place in the river where 

 trout are to be found feeding, if they are found 

 feeding anywhere ; and they feed in much the 

 same way, seeming secure, yet really shy, as the 

 trout feed under or just below all the bridges on 

 the river. All bridge trout seem to be shy. Some 

 bridges make shyer trout than others. I knew 

 one — a railway-bridge on that length — under which 

 in four-and-twenty years I never got a trout, or 

 even a rise, for all I tried persistently, wet and 

 dry, until 1908, and then only because on that 

 particular day a strong ruffle of wind blew up the 

 arch and made good big waves. Then I got a 

 brace to a floating Tup's Indispensable, and lost 

 another fish. Whether it is the holt into which 

 to run at hint of danger, or the insects which 

 haunt the woodwork, or the clear space of un- 



