184 FISHES I HAVE KNOWN 



usually caught in traps. Personally, I left them 

 severely alone, as an eel wriggling on the grass, 

 twisting and turning the line into hideous, slimy 

 confusion, is an abomination ; and die they will 

 not, unless the head be half severed. Experts 

 tell us that the vitality lies in the tail, but that 

 appendage will not keep still long enough for us 

 to put this theory to the test. 



I said that angling was a recreation indulged in 

 by the ladies of the house, worms and gentles 

 being eschewed in favour of clean, well-kneaded 

 honey paste. Once I performed the gentle office 

 for a certain fair friend, then leaving her to 

 her own devices, crossed the bridge to angle on 

 the other side of the moat. She was fishing at a 

 spot that had a beautiful background of an old 

 red-brick wall, richly and deeply tinted by age, 

 and covered with espalier cherry-trees laden with 

 tempting may dukes and huge purple morellas. 

 Suddenly I heard a faint scream, and, lo ! there 



was Miss L running along the bank, her rod 



over her shoulder, a small eel at the end of the 

 line which was dragging on the ground, and a 

 cat making after the wriggling fish! 



I had seldom seen so comical a sight, but I 

 went to the fair angler's aid, when she explained 

 that so great was her horror of eels, that when, 



