"
[5] Johnson's Life of Waller, wherein the poet is stated to have
been born March 3.
* * * * *
SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.
TROUT TICKLING IN IRELAND.
What will our _ticklish_ correspondent, W.H.H. say to this?
"Kniveing trouts" (they call it tickling in England) is good sport. You go
to a stony shallow at night, a companion bearing a torch; then stripping
to the thighs and shoulders, wade in; grope with your hands under the
stones, sods, and other harbourage, till you find your game, then grip him
in your "knieve," and toss him ashore.
I remember, when a boy, carrying the splits for a servant of the family,
called Sam Wham. Now Sam was an able young fellow, well-boned and willing;
a hard headed cudgel player, and a marvellous tough wrestler, for he had a
backbone like a sea-serpent; this gained him the name of the Twister and
Twiner. He had got into the river, with his back to me, was stooping over
a broad stone, when something bolted from under the bank on which I stood,
right through his legs.
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