CHAP. VII.] THE SECOND DAY. 251 



slippery, cobling stones.'^ Believe me, Sir, there you were nimble, 

 ■or else you had been down. But now you are got over, look to 

 yourself : for, on my word, if a fish rise here, he is like to be such 

 a one as will endanger your tackle. How now ! 



Viator. I think you have such command here over the 

 fishes, that you can raise them by your word, as they say con- 

 jurors can do spirits, and afterward make them do what you bid 

 them ; for«here's a Trout has taken my fly ; I had rather have 

 lost a crown. What luck's this ! he was a lovely fish, and 

 turned up a side like a Salmon. 



PiSCATOR. O Sir, this is a war where you sometimes win, 

 and must sometimes expect to lose. Never concern yourself for 

 the loss of your fly ; for ten to one I teach you to make a better. 

 Who's that calls ? 



Servant. Sir, will it please you to come to dinner ? 



PiSCATOR. We come. You hear, Sir, we are called : and 

 now take your choice, whether you • will climb this steep hill 

 before you, from the top of which you will go directly into the 

 house, or back again, over these stepping-stones, and about by 

 the bridge. 



Viator. Nay, sure the nearest way is best ; at least my 

 stomach tells me so ; and I am now so well acquainted with the 

 rocks, that I fear them not. 



PiSCATOR. Come then, follow me. And so soon as we have 

 dined, we will down again to the little house : where I will begin, 

 at the place I left off, about fly-fishing, and read you another 

 lecture ; for I have a gi-eat deal more to say upon that subject. 



Viator. The more the better ; I could never have met with 

 a more obliging master, my first excepted. Nor such sport can 

 all the rivers about London ever afford as is to be found in this 

 pretty river. 



PiSCATOR. You deserve to have better ; both because I see 

 you are willing to take pains, and for liking this little so well ; and 

 better I hope to show you before we part. 



Viator. Come, Sir, having now well dined, and being again 

 set in your little house, I will now challenge your 

 Chap. . promise, and entreat you to proceed in your instruc- 

 tion for fly-fishing ; which, that you may be the-better encouraged 



* Mr Bagster, who visited the spot in the autumn of 1814, for the purpose of identify- 

 ing the scenery, and who went step by step over the ground which is the scene of this 

 dialogue, says that "the undeviating accuracy of delineation is very striking; but at 

 this spot an alteration was made a few years since, by cutting ?,vivj part of the rock, and 

 removing the bridge, the site of which is still marked by fragments of stone." 



