212 FISHES I HAVE KNOWN 



imperatively repeated. But no anglers, as yet, 

 patronise the ship canal. 



Then there is the River Mersey, so foul that no 

 fish can live in it ; and there are sundry cross-cut 

 canals, but the favourite is the old Bridgewater 

 — -Brindley's wonderful century-old work, forty- 

 two miles long, and connecting the Mersey with 

 Manchester — more useful than ever now that 

 tugs have almost superseded horses in convey- 

 ing cotton and coal from the seaports to inland 

 mills. Compared with modern canals, it is narrow, 

 of course, but sufficient for the trade, and has 

 with age become picturesque in many places. At 

 Walton (near Warrington), where the canal runs 

 past Sir Gilbert Greenall's park, it is almost 

 romantic. Walton is the Warrington " lads' " 

 favourite angling ground, where the " lad," 

 generally accompanied by a boy, well-pro- 

 visioned, and with rods and lines of the best, 

 goes early in the morning to his special pitch. 

 There he sits hour after hour, occasionally rising 

 to stretch his legs, or when a passing string 

 of barges necessitates his taking the line out of 

 the water. Not a word does he exchange with 

 the anglers on either side of him. Now and again 

 there is a murmur of excitement when a good- 

 sized roach is hooked, a somewhat rare event, for. 



