BY STREAM AND SEA. 



CHAPTER I. 



A HERTFORDSHIRE VALLEY. 



MONO the many tributaries which feed old Father 

 Thames during his proud career through a drainage 

 basin estimated, I believe, at over six thousand 

 miles, commend me, in the double capacity of wanderer and 

 angler, to the Colne. It is within easy reach of town, it is 

 very fairly stored with fish, and it traverses interesting and, 

 in some portions of its course, exquisitely beautiful scenery. 

 How many Colnes there may happen to be in this country 

 I know not ; my Colne is not, however, the feeder of the 

 Calder which receives the foul discolouration of the West 

 Riding cloth factories, nor the stream of that name which 

 runs through the north-eastern part of Essex to Colchester, 

 nor the little Coin (so often spelt with a final e) that rises in 

 the Cotswold Hills, and gives some occasionally worthy 

 trout fishing at Fairford. My Colne is that lovable stream 

 which brightens a goodly section of pastoral Hertfordshire, 



