For t seven years, from o ween, w I chiefly remember is fishing.

    Don’t t I did not’s only t ain to sill t Mott’s and  to tcripes, and got my first bicycle and a long time after long trousers. My first bike  up on t rests and let t eristic sigeen- up in t to trembling, because of tful tales Joe old me about old er, tle man,  like a  t, ake out and s to my surprise I did rat sc o me t I migually Joe ter dunce, got t once a ayed someill een. My second term I took a prize in aritic and anotuff t ly concerned  by time I een alking about scy. Fations for Joe and me in t I so ‘college’. ting round t I o be a sceaco be an auctioneer.

    But I  many memories connected ruck by t t t over t frig public sc flattens t into s or t of t it. It  so  to tayed till you een, just to s you  a prole, but sc you ed to get aiment of loyalty, no goofy feeling about tones (and t enougie and not even a sco yourself, because games  compulsory and as often as not you cut tball in braces, and t o play cricket in a belt, you rousers. t ump cricket o play in t made out of a bit of packing case and a compo ball.

    But I remember t and boots, and tone in t ing block and le baker’s se  no a  sc t—you  if you  iquette t you o carve your name. And I got inky fingers and bit my nails and made darts out of peny stories and learned to masturbate and cer, and bullied t of little illy Simeon, taker’s son, old e trick o send o so buy t didn’t exist. All tamps, t- of striped paint—poor illy fell for all of t one afternoon, putting ub and telling o lift  it  one really lived.

    to do in ter o borros—Mot Joe and me keep t y smelly to do a bit of ratting. Sometimes t us, sometimes told us to  and said rouble ts. Later in er s er, 1908 it must ing for er squirrels er on  birdnesting. e  birds can’t count and it’s all rig tle beasts and sometimes  knock t dorample on toads o catcoads, ram till t. t’s  kno tangled in t ttom, and  black.

    But fis many a time to old Breook tiny carp and tenc of it, and once a urday afternoons. But after  bicycles arted fis seemed more groo catch one.

    It’s queer, till  call myself a fis a fis long, and it’s ty years noo fifteen seems to  fisail uck clear in my memory. I can remember individual days and individual fis a coer t I can’t see a picture of if I s my eyes and te a book on tec ackle, it cost too muc of our t- money in t on ss and Lardy Busters. Very small kids generally fis pin,  to be muc you can make a pretty good ’s got no barb) by bending a needle in a candle flame o plait  it  as good as gut, and you can take a small fiser  to o allace’s ols didn’t tackle. And talogue t I picked up some ails about gut-substitute and gimp and Limerick s and disgorgers and Nottingecies.

    t o use. In our sy of meal very good. Gentles ter. You o beg tt, tco dras or do enamena-mina-mo to decide  usually too pleasant about it. iff, and eels on y treacle-tin in your ill any customers hen say very humbly:

    ‘Please, Mr Gravitt, y’got any gentles today?’

    Generally : ‘! Gentles! Gentles in my s seen suc blow-flies in my shop?’

    o deal rip of leatick,  to enormous distances and smack a fly into paste. Sometimes you o go a any gentles, but as a rule  after you just as you were going:

    ‘‘Ere! Go round t find one or two if you looked careful.’

    You used to find ttle clusters every like a battlefield. Butc ors in tles live longer if you keep t.

    asp grubs are good, t’s o make tick on t.   at nigurpentine do and plug up t day t t and take t urps missed took t t up all nig all toget very badly stung, but it y tanding by opc t bait tick t any s and just flick to and fro on t. But you can never get more t a time. Greenbottle flies, o catc bait for dace, especially on clear days. You  to put t take a  it’s a tickliso put a live he hook.

    God knoe you make by squeezing er te bread in a rag. te and e and paste . Boiled  bad for roacriped and smells like an ear to keep try to keep tty good for roacake a caken  out of a bun.

    In teentarts) till mider I  often  a tin of les in my pocket. I s  it, but in t of forbidden teen ed going after girls, and from t fis t , t sticky afternoons in ting a predicates and subjunctives and relative clauses, and all t’s in my mind is ter near Burford eir and to and fro. And terrific ruser tea, to Co to get in an ill summer evening, t splaser ing. And tcerally praying) t one of t before it got too dark. And t ’s es more’, and t five minutes more’, until in to o too a ligimes in t out to make a day of it ter and a bottle of lemonade, and fisc nig you’d eaten  of your bread paste, o cook t  river fis trout and salmon. ‘Nasty muddy t of all are t catcrous fiso see oernoons and  a rod  allo. On Sundays you o go for  and ton collar t sa I sa one. And sometimes in trout go sailing past. trout groo vast sizes in t tically never caug one of ttle-nosed blokes t you see muffled up in overcoats on camp-stools y-foot roac all seasons of to catcrout. I don’t blame t entirely, and still better I sa then.

    Of course ot my long trousers,  sc to Confirmation classes, told dirty stories, took to reading, and e mice, fretage stamps. But it’s al er- meadoance, and ter and ter, tjars stocks and latakia. Don’t mistake alking about. It’s not t I’m trying to put across any of t poetry of cuff. I kno’s all baloney. Old Porteous (a friend of mine, a retired scer, I’ll tell you about er) is great on try of cimes uff about it out of books. ordsime o say  no kids of rut kids aren’t in any ic, ttle animals, except t no animal is a quarter as selfis interested in meado a landscape, doesn’t give a damn for flo o eat,  kno from anot’s about as near to poetry as a boy gets. And yet all t peculiar intensity, t long ime stretc and out in front of you and t wever you’re doing you could go on for ever.

    I tle boy, ter-coloured  except for a quiff in front. I don’t idealize my co be young again. Most of to care for  care if I never see a cricket ball again, and I  give you t of ss. But I’ve still got, I’ve al, but I’ve actually o go fis and forty-five and got tal about my c my oicular c tion  at its last kick. And fisypical of t civilization. As soon as you t don’t belong to tting all day under a ree beside a quiet pool—and being able to find a quiet pool to sit beside—belongs to time before tler. tenc  live in terror of time eating aspirins, going to tures, and  of tration camp.

    Does anyone go fis to catc trout-fise ers round Scotcels, a sort of snobbiscificial flies. But s or coreams aren’t poisoned ories ty tins and motor-bike tyres.

    My best fis some fis I never caug’s usual enough, I suppose.

    fourteen Faturn of some kind to old aker at Binfield

    a good turn. One day a little o buy c me outside topped me in  of a bit of root, and only teeth, which were dark brown and very long.

    ‘ you?’

    ‘Yes.’

    ‘t you en, ted to, you could bring your line and ry in t ty bream and jack in t don’t you tell no one as I told you. And don’t you go for to bring any of t their backs.’

    oo muc Saturday afternoon I biked up to Binfield s full of les, and looked for old  t t time Binfield y for ten or ty years. Mr Farrel, t afford to live in it and eit or  let it.  of  to tting, ttles, tations o meadoo s it iful ance. It  , I suppose, about Queen Anne’s time by someone aly. If I  t a certain kick out of ion and t t used to go on t suc t for ever. As a boy I didn’t give eit old  finis surly, and got o so t   a lake, about a y yards across. It onis t age it astonis t fifty from London, you could ude. You felt as mucely round by trees, ed in ter. On tc, and up at one end of tting among the bulrushes.

    t four to six incurn er. too, and t  sometimes one t urn over and plunge  o ter. It rying to catcried every time I  tried t in t alive in a jam-jar, and even  of a bit of tin. But t bite, and in any case tackle I possessed. I never came back from t at least a dozen small bream. Sometimes in t te and to ter and  of all o be alone, utterly alone, t a quarter of a mile a old enougo kno it’s good to be alone occasionally. itrees all round you it o you, and notirred except ter and t, in t I  fisimes did I really go, I  more t ook up a  least. And sometimes oturned up, and sometimes o go it rained. You knohings happen.

    One afternoon t biting and I began to explore at t from Binfield  of an overfloer and to fig of jungle of blackberry busten boug rees. I struggled t for about fifty yards, and to anoted. It  more ty yards  over. But it er and immensely deep. I could see ten or fifteen feet doo it. I  for a bit, enjoying tten boggy smell, t almost made me jump out of my skin.

    It e   t glided across ter, and to ter on t as if a s fisood t breat anoter, and toget possibly tenc more probably carp. Bream or tenc groime ted ream   been forgotten. It’s a t s forgotten some for years and decades and to monstrous sizes. tes t I c be a  a soul in t t me. Very likely it y years since anyone  tten its existence.

    ell, you can imagine . After a bit I couldn’t even bear tantalization of co t my fisoget rying for tes ackle I  as if it  go on fisiny bream. t of tomac as if I o be sick. I got on to my bike and  for a boy to rous fis—fis  bait you offered t ion of getting rong enougo s. I’d buy tackle t eal t of till. Some  or gimp and Number 5 les and paste and meal a carp mig. t Saturday afternoon I’d come back and try for them.

    But as it  back. One never does go back. I never stole t of till or boug of salmon line or ry for t immediately afterurned up to prevent me, but if it  been t it hings happen.

    I kno you ting about t t medium- sized fis long, say) and t t it isn’t so. People tell lies about t and still more about t are  a I never caugried to catcive for lying. I tell you they were enormous.