SOME BRITISH FRESH-WATER FISHES 



193 



pike was at Helmingham Hall, Suffolk, whose 

 splendid moat I was one day admiring, when the 

 kitchen door which abutted on it opened, and the 

 cook came out and threw a piece of raw beef 

 into the clear water. Instantly a large tame pike 

 dashed up with a mighty swirl, bolted the meat 

 and asked for more, which he got. My fingers 

 itched, as every good angler's should, for a rod and 



f^feS" 



line, and permission from his noble owner to catch 

 him ! 



Angling near London Bridge ! What non- 

 sense ! Yet it used to be a common occurrence. 

 Was there not, in Queen Elizabeth's time, a polar- 

 bear kept in the Tower, that, secured by a chain, 

 was periodically allowed to go fishing on his own 

 account ? Certainly, we are told so. So there 

 must have been fish, though Bruin's share could 

 not have been very generous. 



At idle moments the citizens of London used to 

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