THE TROUT. 135 



Nee mora nee requies for either of you. If a term may- 

 be borrowed from the hunting-field, it is "a sharp 

 burst." Let the fisherman poet, Gay, for a moment 

 describe the contest, his verse applying to a large Thames 

 trout equally well as it does to a salmon : — 



" Soon in smart pain he feels his dire mistake, 

 Lashes the wave and beats the foamy lake ; 

 With sudden rage he now aloft appears, 

 And in his eye convulsive anguish bears ; 

 And now again, impatient of the wound, 

 He rolls and writhes his straining body round ; 

 Then headlong shoots beneath the dashing tide, 

 The trembling fins the boiling wave divide. 

 Now hope exalts the fisher's beating heart, 

 Now he turns pale and fears his dubious art ; 

 He views the trembling fish with longing eyes, 

 While the line stretches with th' unwieldy prize ; 

 Each motion humours with his steady hands, 

 And the slight line the mighty bulk commands ; 

 Till tired at last, despoil'd of all his strength, 

 The game athwart the stream unfolds his length — " 



And so on, till safely landed he — 



" Stretches his quivering fins, and gasping dies." 



But oh, the disappointment at losing your fish when 

 you have battled with him awhile, full of hope and nigh 

 unto victory. It not unfrequently happens that Thames 

 trout do get away after being hooked, and this probably 

 arises from the traditional use of some four or five 

 triangles of hooks, and those, too, of too small asize,instead 

 of one triangle, or at most two, in accordance with the 

 most reasonable teaching of that Master of Arts in 

 spinning, Mr. Cholmondeley Pennell. Possibly hardly a 



