_For the Table Book._
It is a liberty taken by poachers with the little brook running through
Castle Coombe, to catch trout by _tickling_. I instance the practice
there because I have there witnessed it, although it prevails in other
places. The person employed wades into the stream, puts his bare arms
into the hole where trout resort, slides his fingers under the fish,
feels its position, commences tickling, and the trout falls gradually
into his hand, and is thrown upon the grass. This is a successful snare,
destructive to the abundance of trout, and the angler’s patient
pleasure. The lovers of the “hook and eye” system oppose these ticklish
practices, and the ticklers, when caught, are “punished according to
law,” while the patrons of the “rod and line” escape. Shakspeare may
have hinted at retribution, when he said
“A thousand men the _fishes_ gnawed upon.”