CLEAR WATERS 



land, and average from a quarter to three-quarters 

 of a pound. Though essentially wet-fly rivers, some 

 of them are excellent for dry-fly fishing, if you pre- 

 fer that method. Practically all of them rise in the 

 Welsh mountains and carry their natal impetuosity 

 into English valleys, whose oftentimes gentle gradients 

 succeed in partially curbing it and creating that com- 

 promise between the rapid and slow river which is 

 the ideal of many trout fishermen. Lastly, some of 

 them, notably the Teme and Lugg, are also natural 

 grayling rivers of the first order. 



As an item of useful information it may be noted 

 that the whole of them are preserved by owners, 

 lessees or members of clubs. There is very little 

 hotel water and scarcely any free or association fishing. 

 I have myself fished here and there at different times 

 on all these streams, but more frequently of recent 

 years upon the Lugg, though more often to be sure in 

 quest of its grayling, rather than of its trout. There 

 is probably no better portion of the Lugg for a com- 

 bination of trout and grayling than those pleasant 

 reaches by which it winds its purling way from the 

 battlefield of Mortimer's Cross to Leominster, where 

 it meets its smaller sister the Arrow. It is strange 

 that its upper waters should have been the scene of two 

 historic conflicts : the greater one just mentioned, 

 which seated Edward iv. upon the throne and wrought 

 such havoc among the Lancastrian notables ; and that 

 other less known one of Pilleth, which ushers in the 

 first act of Shakespeare's Henry IV. and marked the 

 first formidable blow of the 'damned Glendower.' 

 For the Lugg, like the Arrow, rises in the wild moor- 

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