A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



merits. Peering through the bushes, he could wait 

 until a sufficient number of birds was in the cage, 

 and then, by means of a clever contrivance of 

 cords and pulleys, would lower the door of the 

 trap and imprison his victims. Xhis method of 

 working a decoy, although neither so skilful nor 

 so sporting as that in which the man and the dog 

 work together to drive and entice the fowl up 

 the pipe, is very successful on a small pond, 

 where it can be conducted without making any 

 noise and without raising the least suspicion on 



the part of the fowl that they are not alone. 

 Such decoys as these, however, were generally 

 only employed when the object of their exist- 

 ence was simply to supply the household of 

 the owner with fowl when required, and at 

 O^sington no more than sixty to a hundred 

 birds were taken in a season, the best catch at 

 one time being no better than seventeen. Xhis 

 small decoy was abandoned about thirty years 

 ago, when the lake, which was silting up, was 

 dredged. 





ANGLING 



From the earliest times the art of fishing for 

 food or recreation has been practised in the well- 

 stocked River Trent, and the fame of the Not- 

 tingham style, the Nottingham reels, and the 

 Nottingham floats, has spread far and wide. 



In the records of the corporation of Notting- 

 ham for the year 1527 is the- following interest- 

 ing entry : ' Hit is an olde custome for the 

 Mayre for the tyme being to give his bredren 

 knowlege for to see the annual sport of the 

 fishynge ' which indicates that there was a day 

 set apart yearly for the members of the corpora- 

 tion to enjoy the sport. 



In 1531 the fishery was farmed by one 

 Richard Smith for the sum of 40;. a year. 

 Twenty-one years later an Act was passed, 

 applying to the Trent among other rivers, 

 to preserve the spawn of the fish which in 

 some places had been used for food for swine 

 and dogs. Salmon and trout were not to be 

 taken out of season, nor was pike or pikerel to 

 be captured of less than 10 in. in length, salmon 

 15 in., trout 8 in., and barbel 12 in., and ex- 

 cept for taking smelts, loches (ruffes), minnies, 

 bull-heads, gudgeons, and eels no nets were to 

 be used of less mesh than 2^ in. 



The last entry in the corporation records with 

 reference to what is termed the 'Corporation 

 fishery' is in the year 1715, when we find it 

 leased to Alderman Watkinson. In 1/83 an 

 Act of Parliament for rendering the river navi- 

 gable at all times to large boats was passed, and 

 the Extension Act of 1794 mentions that ' the 

 fisheries on the river are amply protected.' 



For coarse fishing the Trent is unsurpassed in 

 England, and there was a time when it abounded 

 with trout and grayling. 



And bounteous Trent that in himself cnseames 

 Both thirty kinds of fish and thirty sundry streams. 



So sang Spenser in ' The Faerie Queene,' and 

 the statement has been repeated by Izaak Walton 

 and many other writers since. Rising in the 

 moorlands of Staffordshire, the Trent receives 

 the waters of the Tame, theDerwent, the Dove 

 and the Soar, and entering Nottinghamshire near 

 'Thrumpton, it flows in a broad stream past 



Nottingham to within a mile of Newark, whence 

 it takes a more northerly course to West Stock- 

 with. Here it enters Lincolnshire, and finally 

 empties itself in the Humber, after a serpentine 

 course of nearly 200 miles. During its passage 

 through Nottinghamshire it receives the waters 

 of the Erewash, the Leen, the Dover Beck, and 

 the Greet, as well as of a number of smaller 

 streams, and its character is so diverse that it 

 affords remarkably varied sport. Here it flows 

 majestically along ; there it ripples merrily over its 

 gravelly bed ; anon it broadens out into still 

 and quiet pools, or, compressed by narrow banks, 

 rushes along in a surging stream. 



Charles Cotton described the Trent as ' one 

 of the finest rivers in the world and the most 

 abounding with excellent salmon and all sorts of 

 delicate fish.' Salmon it still contains, and in 

 1905 an exceptionally large number ascended 

 the river. While spinning for pike Mr. Clements 

 caught a salmon estimated to weigh about 40 lb., 

 but as it was the close season the fish was re- 

 stored to the river. This was an exceptional 

 size for Trent salmon, one of 2O lb. being con- 

 sidered a fine capture. Tom Bailey of Newark 

 on one occasion landed a salmon that scaled 

 32^ lb. It is notorious that salmon cannot be 

 taken on the Trent with the fly; but with a 

 spinning artificial bait and worms they fall 

 victims to the wiles of the Nottingham bottom- 

 fishers, who generally employ a strong 12 ft. 

 barbel rod. 



Sixty years ago we find angling writers lament- 

 ing that the fish in the Trent had sadly dimin- 

 ished in size and number. The increase in the 

 number of anglers and the decrease in the size 

 of the mesh of the nets, with which the river 

 was then so frequently drawn, accounted for this 

 state of things. There were giants in those days. 

 The veteran Caborn, Bendigo, the prize-fighter, 

 and William Bailey, author of ' The Angler's 

 Instructor ' and the champion of Nottingham 

 these, with many others, formed a school of 

 fishermen unsurpassed in skill by any others in 

 the kingdom. Bailey's career is a singularly 

 interesting one. Forsaking the shoemaker's stool 

 for the rod and line, he had at the age of 1 7 



407. 



