io8 WATERSIDE SKETCHES. 



furious rushes, but waited till the line slackened to winch 

 him cautiously and proudly in, amidst such cries as " Bravo, 

 Bowles," or " He won't get over you, guv'nor," or " Give 

 him time, Georgy.'' 



The noise of the crowd hushed at last, for young Badger 

 had, by direction, gone down to the water's edge to use the 

 landing net. Bowles was bracing himself up for a final 

 effort. Wind, wind, wind went the winch ; in, in, in came 

 the monster ; " Be careful. Badger, be careful," said the 

 crowd; "Now, then, nip him, nip him," shouted Bowles. 

 Ah, me ! what a tremendous roar there was when the 

 monster was landed — a drowned retriever, with whose 

 blown-out carcase the eddy had been playing unkind 

 pranks ! 



Writing in 1839, Hofland, whose name one would ever 

 mention with the tribute of admiration due to a master-hand 

 and master spirit, also tells a story, though of a different 

 kind, about Nottingham Bridge. At the risk of being 

 abused for the unpardonable sin of garrulity I should like to 

 repeat it, for the sake of pointing a moral to adorn his tale. 

 Listen, then, to Hofland : — 



"When I was a boy, and living at Nottingham, I frequently ac- 

 companied, to the River Trent, a gentleman who was fond of fisliing 

 for salmon from the bridge ; he used to stand within the recess of a 

 pier, and baited with two lobworms ; he had a bullet on his line about 

 twelve inches above the hook, with at least eighty yards of line upon 

 his reel. He dropped his bait into the eddies, or pools, near the 

 starlings ; and in tliis manner he frequently caught large barbel, 

 and sometimes a salmon. On one occasion, when I was only nine 

 years old, I followed him to the bridge, and after I had patiently 

 watched him for two or three hours, without seeing a fish caught, he 

 gave the rod into my hands, showing me how to support it on the 

 bridge, and telling me, if I felt a tug at the line, to let it run freely, 

 and not to touch the reel, but to call out loudly, that either the toll- 



