1 8 THE ANGLING CLUBS AND PRESERVATION 



Society to keep going unless the angling public provides 

 the sinews of war. This section of the public will know in 

 an instant whether they have done so or not. 



It is at once an injustice and a wrong to brand a body of 

 men with shortcomings in their work, when the very work 

 itself is dependent upon the help which a local association 

 like the Windsor and Eton receives from the public who 

 fish its waters. I venture to think that few, if any, of the 

 hundreds of men who yearly go to Windsor and its 

 charming environs from London, sometimes taking good 

 bags of fish home with them, ever subscribe, or ever did 

 subscribe, one single penny to its funds. 



The Maidenhead, Cookham, and Bray Angling Society, 

 whose headquarters are at Skindle's Hotel, and whose 

 excellent secretary is Mr. W. G. Day, takes up the work of 

 preservation at Monkey Island, continuing their operations 

 over an important section of the Thames. There is pro- 

 bably none other of the local associations which has done 

 such wonderfully good work. But then the reason is not 

 far to seek ; they are not only siipported fairly by the local 

 gentry and inhabitants, many of whom are themselves keen 

 lovers of angling, but also by a considerable number of 

 London anglers, principally members of the leading clubs. 

 That just makes all the difference, and although I do not 

 pretend to say that the Windsor and Eton has not done all 

 in its power with the funds which it had at command, the 

 Maidenhead and Cookham sets such a brilliant example, by 

 stocking their waters with splendid Wycombe trout, and 

 that too in the most liberal manner, that their example 

 possibly commanded the support they have unquestionably 

 received to a certain extent from a small section of the 

 angling public. 



I say a small section advisedly, because where a society, 



