CLEAR WATERS 



grayling in its lower portions, and joins the Teme 

 at Bromfield, already mentioned as some three miles 

 above Ludlow. It rises in Radnorshire, and follows 

 the little branch railroad from Bishop's Castle to 

 Craven Arms Junction down a winding, picturesque, 

 and narrow vaUey. At Craven Arms there is a com- 

 fortable hotel on the river bank with some fishing 

 privileges for trout and grayUng. But the upper 

 Onny, and what is generally known as the Plowden 

 water, being the property of that ancient Roman 

 Catholic family, the Plowdens of Plowden, whose 

 beautiful Tudor manor-house stands above the stream, 

 has been held ever since I first knew it, some thirty 

 years ago, by a small club. This, however, is a more 

 or less local body with certain hospitable clauses, 

 which have been kindly exercised in my favour on 

 various occasions. The Onny is a bewitching little 

 stream, particularly above Craven Arms and the grayling 

 stretches, though, like the Teme and all its tributaries, 

 it is afflicted with the intrusive chub. The chub has 

 not a particle of restraint in his composition, nor the 

 faintest sense of propriety. He is an out-and-out 

 vulgarian, a rank ' climber.' Unlike other coarse fish 

 who push into trout, grayHng, and salmon waters, he 

 thrusts himself into every corner of them. Regardless 

 of his plebeian qualities, his gross body, unpalatable 

 flesh, and lubberly antics, when he has seized your fly 

 and spoiled a pool, he usurps the hovers of the rightful 

 denizens of the stream. He doesn't stick to the heavy 

 waters and muddy bottoms, but will assert himself as 

 often as not in the very best fly water. Nay, from 

 the Wye particularly, where he is even more of a curse, 



156 



