and fine stream below, under that rock, that fills the deepest pool in all the river, where you are almost sure of a good fish.

Viat. Let him come, I'll try a fall with him. But I had thought, that the grayling had been always in season with the trout, and had come in and gone out with him.

Pisc. Oh, no! assure yourself a grayling is a winter-fish,' but such a one as would deceive any but such as know him very well indeed; for his flesh, even in his worst season, is so firm, and will so easily calve, that in plain truth he is very good meat at all times: but in his perfect season, which, by the way, none but an overgrown grayling will ever be, I think him so good a fish, as to be little inferior to the best trout that ever I tasted in my life.

Viat. Here's another skip-jack; and I have raised five or six more at least whilst you were speaking: Well, go thy way little Dove! thou art the finest river that ever I saw, and the fullest of fish. Indeed, Sir, I like it so well, that I am afraid you will be troubled with me once a year, so long as we two live.

Pisc. I am afraid I shall not, Sir: but were you once here a May or a June, if good sport would tempt you, I should then expect you would sometimes see me; for you would then say it were a fine river indeed, if you had once seen the sport at the height.

Viat. Which I will do, if I live, and that you please to give me leave. There was one; and there another.

Pisc. And all this in a strange river, and with a fly of your own making! Why what a dangerous man are you! Viat. I, Sir, but who taught me ? and as Damætas says by his man Dorus, so you may say by me:

If my man such praises have,3

What then have I, that taught the knave?

1 The best grayling fishing is from October to Christmas. They are then in fine season, and in my humble opinion they are a much better fish than a trout.-ED.

2 That is, part in flakes.-BROwne.

3 From

1655, lib. i.

The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia," by Sir Philip Sydney, page 70, which reads-

For if my man must praises have,

What then must I, that keep the knave?"- Ed.

But what have we got here? A rock springing up in the middle of the river! this is one of the oddest sights that ever I saw.'

Pisc. Why, sir, from that pike, that you see standing up there distant from the rock, this is called Pike-Pool. And young Mr. Izaak Walton 3 was so pleased with it, as to draw it in landscape in black and white, in a blank book I have at home; as he has done several prospects of my house also, which I keep for a memorial of his favour, and will show you, when we come up to dinner.

Viat. Has young Master Izaak Walton been here too? Pisc. Yes, marry has he, sir, and that again, and again too; and in France since, and at Rome, and at Venice, and I can't tell where; but I intend to ask him a great many hard questions so soon as I can see him, which will be, God willing, next month. In the meantime, sir, to come to this fine stream at the head of this great pool, you must venture over these slippery, cobbling 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!

Viat. I think you have such command here over the fishes,

1 Almost every rock in this charming river has its own peculiar name. Some are called sugar-loaves, others shoulders of mutton, foxes-holes, the twelve apostles, spires, &c. The rock Viator refers to here, stands in the middle of the river.-ED.

2 It is a rock, in the fashion of a spire-steeple, and almost as big. It stands in the midst of the river Dove, and not far from Mr. Cotton's house; below which place this delicate river takes a swift career betwixt many mighty rocks, much higher and bigger than St. Paul's church before it was burnt. And this Dove being opposed by one of the highest of them, has, at last, forced itself a way through it; and after a mile's concealment, appears again with more glory and beauty than before that opposition, running through the most pleasant valleys and most fruitful meadows that this nation can justly boast of.—WALTON.

3 In 1675, Izaak Walton, the younger, who appears to have been as amiable and pious as his father, accompanied his uncle, Thomas Ken, in a tour through Italy to Rome, and other places. It was the year of the great Papal Jubilee, a period of great interest to the travellers, and of fear to some of their friends, lest, when many were wavering, they also might receive contamination of their faith. Izaak Walton, however, returned to occupy a canonry at Salisbury; Ken, to fill a prebendal stall at Winchester, and ultimately the bishopric of Bath and Wells.—Life of Ken.

that you can raise them by your word, as they say conjurors 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 !

Pisc. 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?

Pisc. 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.

Viat. Nay, sure, the nearest way is best; at least my stomach tells me so: and I am now so well acquainted with your rocks, that I fear them not.

Pisc. 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 great deal more to say upon that subject.

Viat. 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.

Pisc. 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.

1 Taken in the worst sense, viz. broke away with it.-H.

D D

FISHING AT THE TOP-FLIES FOR THE MONTHS OF JANUARY, FEBRUARY, MARCH, APRIL, AND PART OF MAY; INCLUDING, UNDER MAY, PARTICULAR DIRECTIONS HOW TO BAIT WITH THE GREEN-DRAKE.

Viat. Come, sir! having now well dined, and being again set in your little house, I will now challenge your promise, and entreat you to proceed in your instruction for fly-fishing: which, that you may be the better encouraged to do, I will assure you that I have not lost, I think, one syllable of what you have told me; but very well retain all your directions both for the rod, line, and making a fly, and now desire an account of the flies themselves.

Pisc. Why, sir, I am ready to give it you, and shall have the whole afternoon to do it in, if nobody come in to interrupt us: for you must know, besides the unfitness of the day, that the afternoons so early in March signify very little to angling with a fly; though with a minnow, or a worm, something might, I confess, be done.

To begin then where I left off. My father Walton tells us but of twelve artificial flies, to angle with at the top, and