THAMES ANGLING. 355 



— I mean a bond fide Thames fisherman, who is the bond 

 fide owner of a punt, poles, ripecks, rakes, tackle, and all 

 the miscellaneous paraphernalia required for every variety 

 of Thames fishing, and who attends to nothing else all the 

 year round but waiting on " customers " when they do 

 come, and for them when they don't. How many there 

 may be of such fishermen between Oxford and Eichmond 

 I cannot say off-hand — perhaps at a very rough guess 

 about a hundred, two-thirds of whom would be below, 

 and one-third above the City Stone at Staines. 



Having had a long experience of them, from fishing at 

 almost every fishing-station on the river during the last 

 twenty years, I have no hesitation in saying of them as a 

 class that they are a very good set of fellows. They are 

 " active and intelligent," as reporters, when under some 

 little obligation, say of police officers, and "civil and 

 obliging," as they say of station-masters and other officials. 

 One of their chief virtues is a love of, or at least the 

 practice of order and cleanliness. Their cottages are 

 generally models of these graces, though their wives must 

 be credited with part of this commendation. It is indeed 

 a treat for a smoke-begrimed Londoner to find himself 

 the temporary tenant of a sitting-room and bedroom in 

 one of these humble little domiciles. He may hardly be 

 able to " swing a cat " in the parlour, and upstairs his tub 

 may occupy the greater part of the superficial area, clear 

 of furniture ; but he sits in an atmosphere of cleanliness and 

 neatness, and sleeps in the same, surrounded with hangings 

 of spotless white dimity, with bedroom furniture to match. 

 He is not troubled by the bloodthirsty marauders of the 

 insect world that " walk by night," nor, if he lies awake 

 for a brief space, by the noises " that make night hideous." 



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