Ditches by the Brook. 359 
fish is made use of along the Thames to attract bait 
for those night-lines which are the detestation of the 
true angler. The bait catcher has a long pole, at the 
end of which are iron teeth like a rake. With this he 
rakes up the mud, waits a few seconds, and then casts 
a net, which generally brings some minnows or other 
small fish to shore. These fish are then placed ina 
bucket, and finally go on the night-lines. 
The ditches as they open on the brook are the 
favourite resorts of all aquatic life, and there most of 
the insects, beetles, &c., that live in the water may be 
discovered. They form, too, one of the last resorts of 
the reeds; these beautiful plants have been much 
diminished in quantity by the progress of agriculture. 
One or two great mounds by the brook can show a small 
bed still, and here and there a group grows at the 
mouth of these deep ditches, on the little delta formed 
of the sand, mud, and decaying twigs brought down. 
I have cut them fifteen feet in length. Some people, 
attracted by the beauty of the feathery heads of these 
reeds, come a considerable distance to get them. I 
have made pens of them: it is possible to write with 
such pens, and they are softer than quills, but on 
account of that softness quickly wear out. 
A woodcock may occasionally be flushed from such 
a ditch in winter. Woodcocks are fond of those 
ditches down which there always trickles a tiny thread 
of water—hardly so much as would be understood 
by the term streamlet—coming from a little spring 
