CHAPTER IV. 



Referring to Lake Vyrnwy Loch Leven The English Lake District. 



IN the merry month of May, 1891, I visited the well-known 



Lake Vyrnwy, in North Wales. It was at that time a piece 

 of virgin water, so to speak, and I had a good opportunity of 

 seeing it under somewhat varied circumstances as regards weather, 

 etc., so important a factor in any work one has to do where trout 

 are concerned. . 



The lake was made by order of the people of Liverpool, 

 primarily for the purpose of obtaining an increased supply of 

 water for drinking and other purposes. I fear I rather shocked a 

 respected inhabitant of that wealthy city, who was evidently not 

 an angler, and who expounded to me some of the advantages 

 possessed by their already celebrated new waterworks, and then 

 turning to me, asked for my opinion. " Why ! " I said, " you've 

 made the finest fish pond in the world ! " 



And so it is, or may be, and if the reader will have a little 

 patience, I will endeavour to describe this charming piece of 

 water, and some of its surroundings. 



It is to be found in the parish of Llanwddyn, in Montgomery- 

 shire, and is some twelve miles distant from the nearest railway 

 station, Llanfyllin. The exact distance as laid out on the 

 ordnance map is something less, but anyone who has driven 

 over the road will, I think, agree that the local reckoning is not 

 out of place, taking into consideration the elevations reached in 

 traversing the wild hills that lie between the railway terminus of 

 Llanfyllin and the magnificent sheet of water now known as 

 Vyrnwy Lake. On the occasion of my visit, I travelled from 

 Scotland through the night, and reached my railway destination, 

 via Crewe and Llanymynech, about 9-20 a.m. I may say that I 

 travelled in a special fish car conveying over twenty thousand 



