BRITISH SPORT PAST AND PRESENT 



and mouth would have made the former quite useless. His 

 measurement accurately taken was Jive feet four inches from 

 eye to fork.' 



The weight of this fish was estimated by Colonel Thornton 

 at between 47 and 48 lbs., which estimate is borne out by com- 

 parison of its dimensions with those of other pike that have 

 been weighed. Large pike killed of recent years are two of 

 40 lbs. each : one taken at Epton House, Edgehill, in 1879, the 

 other from Suffolk waters in 1896.^ These were far outdone 

 by the pike caught in an inlet of Lough Corrib in 1905, par- 

 ticulars of which Major A. E. Mainwaring sent to the Field 

 (16th May 1905). This pike weighed 48 lbs. : it was a spent 

 female in poor condition ; had it been caught before spawning 

 it would have weighed at least 60 lbs. It was caught with a 

 gaff. 



Reference to monster pike suggests inclusion here of that 

 which is surely the Earliest Fish Story. Marred though it be 

 by the parish clerk's escape, this from the Gazetteer and New 

 Daily Advertiser of 25th January 1765 compares favourably 

 with modern enterprise in the same field : — 



' On Thursday last, at Lilleshall Lime Works, near New- 

 port (Shropshire) the water of a jdooI about nine yards deep was 

 drawn off, when an enormous pike was found. He was drawn 

 out by a rope fastened round his head and gills in the presence 

 of hundreds of spectators, many of whom assisted. He 

 weighed upwards of 170 lb. and is thought to be the largest 

 pike ever seen. Some time ago, the clerk of the parish was 

 trolling in the above pool when his bait was seized by this 

 ferocious creature, and doubtless it would have devoured him 

 also, had he not by wonderful agility and dexterous swimming 

 escaped the dreadful jaws of this voracious animal.' 



Let us turn from daring fiction to homely fact. Among 

 its thousand modern scribes the late Mr. Frank Buckland 

 remains unsurpassed in his description of Thames angling. 



' See 'The Big Pike List' compiled by the late Lord Inverurie and published iu the 

 Fishing Gazette of 13th November 1897. 



206 



