SOME WILTSHIRE MEMORIES 



many people think of it as a Hampshire river, though 

 nearly every drop of water in it comes out of the 

 Wiltshire downs ; in addition to which it carries the 

 Wylie with it from Salisbury to the sea. Nor, by 

 the way, do I know of any big town in England 

 where from its very streets you can watch large trout 

 rising, as is the case at Sahsbury. For the river 

 prattles upon a gravelly bottom right through it, to 

 wash a little later the back of the cathedral precincts 

 in truly picturesque fashion. Here and below Salis- 

 bury are trout, I think, almost as heavy as the monsters 

 of the Kennet. An oil painting of a twelve-pounder, 

 killed near Downton, comes back to me at any rate 

 from the study wall of an old angler with whom I 

 was intimate long ago. Indeed, I cannot imagine a 

 river more likely for the heaviest type of trout than 

 the lower Avon. 



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