Samuel Pepys ever foregathered. Can any reader tell me? I was by chance reading Pepys the other day when I came upon this passage: "Swallows are often brought in these nets out of the mudd, from under water, hanging together or others dead in ropes, and brought to the fire will come to life."-Pepys' Diary, Dec. 11th, 1663. Izaak Walton says: "It is well known that swallowes, which are not seen to flye in England for six months in the year, but about Michaelmas leave us for a hotter climate; yet some of them that have been left behind their fellows have been found (many thousand at a time) in hollow trees, where they have been observed to live and sleep out the whole winter without meat.” One might easily fancy they had talked it over. Gilbert White, a hundred years later, does not contradict this theory of the hibernation of swallows.1 It struck me as at least curious that these three very remarkable men should roundly assert 1 Mr. Grant Allen, in his edition of "White's Selborne," says that "White could never quite get over the belief in hibernation, a point to which he recurs again and again throughout these letters." as facts, more or less within their own knowledge, and certainly within their belief, what are now, by the light of modern investigations, regarded as purely mythical and incredible. Whilst the Major and I devoted ourselves to the trout in the river-I with my usual enthusiasm, which towards evening resulted in rather shaky knees and very sore feet, and he with that philosophic calm which soon led him to the shady willow aforementioned—the young ones fished an adjoining lake with perfect satisfaction to themselves. Master Bob made friends with the keeper, and was initiated in the art of catching crayfish with a bit of bloater, and so we passed a very pleasant day, one which the youngsters will remember for years to come, and the older ones not readily forget. It is not often that father, son, and grandson all fish together for trout with the fly, and all catch some. CHAPTER IX FISHING IN THE ISLE OF WIGHT GRAND REVIEW AT SPITHEAD-CARISBROOKE FISHING ASSOCIATION-ABUNDANCE OF TROUT-FAIR SPORT -A DELIGHTFUL DAY-AND A DELUGE AT NIGHT "Complete content-the day has brought it- August, 1902. HE Isle of Wight is probably the last place in Great Britain to which an angler on fishing bent would be likely to resort. I went there for other reasons, but being there I was pleased to find on inquiry that there is to be had some very good trout-fishing indeed. I was on a visit to Piscator Major at Sandown, where he and his family were temporarily residing. Mine was only a week-end visit. On Saturday, August 16th, his Majesty the King reviewed the ships at Spithead, and expressed his extreme satisfaction at the appearance of the ships and the ships' companies. I had already passed through and reviewed them the day before, and expressed my “extreme satisfaction" as the result. That being so, it was from no unpatriotic or disloyal motive that I abstained from attending his Majesty's Review on the Saturday, as I have said I had already seen and blessed them. suppose I it will be within the memory of a good many readers that on July 19th there appeared in "The Fishing Gazette" a short article entitled "Trout Fishing in the Isle of Wight," and that was really the secret cause of my apparent disloyalty. The Major, you may be sure, had an eye on this fishery when he took apartments in breezy, bracing Sandownbracing, I mean, for the island, which in the month of August does not generally sustain that character. He had accordingly obtained further information from the courteous and energetic secretary of the Carisbrooke Fishing Association, Mr. Percy Wadham, who lives at Waltondale, Newport (the very name of his residence is a proof that he is a disciple of Izaak Walton). We took an early train from Sandown on Saturday morning, and in due time we reached Newport, where Mr. Wadham met and escorted us to Pond No. 1. There are five mill-ponds, which are fed by the river Lukely, within the limits of the club's fishing rights. I should say that on this occasion I am bound by no pledge of secrecy, therefore I gladly give names and place of our day's outing. Before we begin to fish it may be as well to say that the club is of a high-class character, that the number of members is limited to twenty, and the annual subscription ten guineas. The number of trout to be taken by one rod in a day is two brace. As regards these rules I will only remark that it seems to me that being bound down to two brace a day is not sufficiently encouraging. I should have thought four or five brace a day would have been more tempting to bring subscribers up to the full number.' 1 The limit of two brace was fixed for this season as the fish have not long been put in. Mr. Wadham tells me that next year the limit will probably be four or five brace, and I am sure there will be no difficulty in getting rods. Last Tuesday (August 19th), fishing with Mr. E. M. Tod's new fly, I caught seven or eight brace of |