English fiction -- 19th century; Short stories, English
Decidedly, leave in England is a disappointing thing. I've wandered
into two stations since I wrote the last. Nothing but the labels on the
bag remain--oh, and a memory of a weighing-in at an East End fishing
club. That was an experience. I foregathered with a man on the top
of a 'bus, and we became great friends because we both agreed that
gorge-tackle for pike was only permissible in very weedy streams. He
repeated his views, which were my views, nearly ten times, and in
the evening invited me to this weighing-in, at, we'll say, rooms of
the Lea and Chertsey Piscatorial Anglers' Benevolent Brotherhood. We
assembled in a room at the top of a public-house, the walls ornamented
with stuffed fish and water-birds, and the anglers came in by twos and
threes, and I was introduced to all of 'em as "the gen'elman I met just
now." This seemed to be good enough for all practical purposes. There
were ten and five shilling prizes, and the affable and energetic clerk
of the scales behaved as though he were weighing-in for the Lucknow
races. The take of the day was one pound fifteen ounces of dace and
roach, about twenty fingerlings, and the winner, who is in charge of a
railway book-stall, described minutely how he had caught each fish. As
a matter of fact, roach-fishing in the Lea and Thames is a fine art.
Then there were drinks--modest little drinks--and they called upon me
for a sentiment. You know how things go at the sergeants' messes and
some of the lodges. In a moment of brilliant inspiration I gave "free
fishing in the parks" and brought down the whole house. Sah! free
fishing for coarse fish in the Serpentine and the Green Park water
would hurt nobody and do a great deal of good to many. The stocking
of the water--but what does this interest you? The Englishman moves
slowly. He is just beginning to understand that it is not sufficient
to set apart a certain amount of land for a lung of London and to turn
people into it with "There, get along and play," unless he gives 'em
something to play with. Thirty years hence he will almost allow _cafés_
and hired bands in Hyde Park.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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