UNLUCKY DAYS IN WALES. 231 



command, entreaty, and (I fear me) 'abuse, the fish might 

 have weighed half a pound. 



The second trout was a beauty, of nearly three times this 

 size; with it no trifling could be permitted. Our iriend, 

 therefore, repeating his dangerous assaults, was instantly- 

 deprived of the landing net, and the angler became his own 

 assistant. If the truth must be wholly told this anecdote is 

 introduced to pave the way for a morsel of advice. Keep 

 your landing net and gaff in your own hands as much as 

 possible — you will be more independent, less likely to lose 

 fish by trusting to inexperienced strangers, an d better able 

 to cope with a sharp emergency when it arises, as sooner or 

 later arise it will. 1 



A third trout completed my bag on this early February 

 day on the Usk. My own London-made March browns, 

 upon which I had with reason prided myself, were, as so 

 often happens, useless : it was a large and unpretending fly 

 given me by the keeper which performed the trifling trans- 

 actions that I had been able to carry through. 



When the fish .are rising, and one's stay by a good river 

 is restricted, all the feeding encouraged during the day should 

 be left to the fish and such like small deer. The keen 

 sportsman cannot afford to tlirow away half-hours upon 

 knife-and-fork. But on a February day, appetite sharpened 

 by the frost, and hopes blighted by two hours without a 

 rise, asceticism does not commend itself to the pilgrim's 

 affections. Man, after all, is a gross animal. It is humilia- 

 ting to chronicle the admission, but it is true, that the feature 

 of that particular day which stands out most boldly in my 

 recollection is — not the drive along the mountain side, not 

 the yellow furze blossoms and silvered branches, not the 



