WHARFEDALE. 129 



character, not perhaps of the sex, but of the fish. They 

 are undoubtedly skittish cattle (fish, and once more, not 

 women), as we were that day and the next destined to find. 

 One could almost fancy that they were cognisant of their 

 rarity and value, and gave themselves airs in consequence. 

 Cotton, who ought to be a good authority on the matter, 

 seeing that the Derbyshire streams where he exercised his 

 skill were, and in a minor degree still 'are, famous for their 

 grayling, has no high opinion of the fish. His pupil 

 exclai'his — 



"I have him now, but he is gone down towards the 

 bottom. I cannot see what he is ; yet he should be a good 

 fish by his weight ; but he makes no stir." 



"Why, then," the master replies, "by what you say, I 

 dare venture to assure you it is a grayling, who is one of 

 the deadest-hearted fishes in the world, and the bigger he is 

 the more easily taken. Look you, now you see him plain ; 

 I told you what he was. Bring hither that landing-net, 

 boy ! And now, sir, he is your own, and believe me, a 

 good one, sixteen inches long I warrant him." 



If the grayling thus described had brought an action for 

 libel against Charles Cotton, of Beresford Hall, in the 

 county of Derby, Esquire, a fair-minded jury must have 

 found a verdict with damages. The grayling is in every 

 sense by which a fish may be judged entitled to respect. 

 Walton, who was as innocently credulous as a child in 

 , matters with which he was not practically acquainted, who 

 would believe almost any story so long as it appealed to his 

 quaint simple sentiment, and who probably knew less about 

 the grayhng than any other English fish, is inclined to place 

 him on a pinnacle of honour. He reminds us that Gesner 



