22 ANGLING IN GREAT BRITAIN. 



have in my possession a photograph given to me by the 

 late Mr. Crawshay, of Cyfarthfa Castle, at the close of a 

 day's successful trout fishing, during a frosty day in the 

 month of February a few years ago, representing nine 

 salmon killed by him on October 22nd, 1874, with the fly ; 

 and a singular thing in connection with this day's sport 

 was that the three largest fish, one of 22 lbs., one of 

 19 lbs., and one of 16 lbs., were hooked foul, the salmon 

 being, as they too often are, in a more playful than feeding 

 humour ; yet carried their gambols too far, and were nicked 

 accordingly — two in the pectoral fin, and a third in the 

 side. These fish were placed upon an unhinged door, 

 which was tilted up by a couple of men to allow Mr. 

 Crawshay, who was a very skilful amateur photographer, 

 to take their likenesses. 



Considering the amount of poaching to which the English 

 rivers, up to within ten or fifteen years, were subjected, 

 and the gross neglect from which they long suffered, it is 

 marvellous that in all parts of the country the commoner 

 kinds of fishing should be so good as they are at the present 

 time ; and considering the number of anglers who test their 

 value upon every available day of the year, it would 

 not be surprising if the rule was to toil all day and catch 

 nothing, and if the language of every English angler was 

 that of the prophet of old, " The fishers also shall mourn, 

 and all they that cast angle into the brooks." But, as I 

 have remarked on a previous page, we have more to be 

 thankful for than to complain of 



It would be invidious to single out one county as better 

 than another, were it not that our best trouting districts 

 arc limited. There is probably no county in England that 

 has not a trout stream of some kind ; and tributary streams 

 and brooklets known only to a i<^\v, and very naturally 



