least. For at each of them, in some sharp-rippling spot, lies a
great trout or two, waiting for beetle, caterpillar, and whatsoever
else may be washed from among the long grass above. Thence, and from
brimming feeders, which slip along, weed-choked, under white hawthorn
hedges, and beneath the great roots of oak and elm, shall we pick out
full many a goodly trout. There, in yon stop-hole underneath that
tree, not ten feet broad or twenty long, where just enough water
trickles through the hatches to make a ripple, are a brace of noble
fish, no doubt; and one of them you may be sure of, if you will go
the proper way to work, and fish scientifically with the brace of
flies I have put on for you--a governor and a black alder. In the
first place, you must throw up into the little pool, not down. If
you throw down, they will see you in an instant; and besides, you
will never get your fly close under the shade of the brickwork, where
alone you have a chance. What use in throwing into the still shallow
tail, shining like oil in the full glare of the sun?

'But I cannot get below the pool without--'

Without crawling through that stiff stubbed hedge, well set with
trees, and leaping that ten-foot feeder afterwards. Very well. It
is this sort of thing which makes the stay-at-home cultivated chalk-
fishing as much harder work than mountain angling, as a gallop over a
stiffly enclosed country is harder than one over an open moor. You
can do it or not, as you like: but if you wish to catch large trout
on a bright day, I should advise you to employ the only method yet
discovered.

There--you are through; and the keeper shall hand you your rod. You
have torn your trousers, and got a couple of thorns in your shins.