186 HINTS ON ANGLING. 



valley is studded with the most picturesque villages 

 imaginable, at short distances of a mile or two from each 

 other; and the landscape is everywhere diversified by 

 the most exquisite rural scenery. 



The best plan the angler can pursue in order to fish 

 this river effectively, is to go at once to Fauquembergues, 

 a small town about twelve miles from St. Omer. It is a 

 picturesque little place of some antiquity. In 1198 it 

 was burned and destroyed by Kenaud, count of Boulogne ; 

 and in 1355 it was pillaged and devastated by the 

 English. There are but few remains of the old chateau, 

 so often burned and rebuilt; but the crumbling stones 

 will not fail to interest the English angler, when he 

 remembers that the conquerors at Azincour passed the 

 night within its walls, after the close of that terrible 

 conflict. 



From this place, the angler must march up the river 

 for nearly ten miles, and he will find many good streams ; 

 particularly at Renty, where the water is of a first-rate 

 character, and the locality remarkably favourable for the 

 fly not a tree, nor a bush, nor the slightest impediment 

 or obstacle of any kind for more than a mile, to interrupt 

 or embarrass his movements. The streams here are clear, 

 rushing, continuous; brawling over a gravelly bottom, 

 winding along through pleasant meadows, and falling 

 occasionally over some old staunch into a large deep pool 

 beyond, replete with trout, and all that one could desire 

 for deep fishing with the worm or minnow. In the 

 village of Renty, between the mill-tail and the bridge, 

 there is a strong rush of water over a stony bottom for 

 about a hundred yards. This spot is often full of fish, 

 and has more than once or twice yielded us some capital 

 sport. 



