250 



An English Stream. 



just there is deep, and stiller than elsewhere, with 

 scarcely a perceptible ripple or murmur, and is a fair 

 mirror for all that is in its borders. As I have stood 

 and looked, more especially in the evening time, 

 suddenly a trout would rise — a fellow of a couple of 

 pounds at least — after a midge or May-fly, and • go 

 down again with a plump, sending a widening circle of 



ripples over the glassy water, attesting that the deep 

 holes round about the old arches of this bridge have 

 their finny denizens — so cunning, I came to learn, that 

 no fisher, however skilled, or with tackle however fine, 

 had the slightest chance of killing these shrewd old 

 fellows. 



Passing onward, we emerge by-and-by into a barer 



