CLEAR WATERS 



water may be in flood or under a rasping east wind. 

 Give a man his one or two days at discretion within, 

 say, a fortnight, if a Hmit is necessary. If any incon- 

 venience should arise, which is most unlikely, that is 

 surely the angler's not the owner's look-out. The 

 former, I am sure, would far sooner take such remote 

 chances of undue congestion than be tied to a hopeless 

 day or days, as if a river were a pheasant cover or a 

 golf-course. It doesn't cost anything to be merely 

 sensible ! Moreover, if A fishes the top mile, 

 and B the middle, and C the lower (say half-mile, 

 if you like) from ten o'clock on, or whatever mutual 

 arrangements they may agree upon, the water is pre- 

 sumably covered only twice in a day by a single rod, 

 and what does that amount to ? Nothing at all ! — 

 particularly as trout usually rise only during periods, 

 not through the whole day. 



Ludlow, to my thinking, is the noblest country 

 town in England, for its blend of stately pose and 

 old-world charm. There are streets perhaps in some 

 other towns quainter, and as full or even fuller of 

 ancient dwellings, though Ludlow has still some sixty 

 or seventy half-timbered houses which mere stripping 

 would expose in all their pristine beauty. But it isn't 

 such detail alone that gives character to the south 

 Shropshire town, but a combination rather of every- 

 thing that makes for distinction, pose, antiquity, 

 beauty of surroundings and historic atmosphere. 

 The lines of the place, too, are finely laid. The streets 

 are wide and slope upwards from a narrow river vaUey, 

 charming in itself, with quick waters and embowering 

 woods, to the noblest parish church on the Border, 



