134 AN OPEN CREEL 



smaller in the way of a legal basket ; where there is 

 no limit one deduces either that the water is private, 

 heavily stocked and little fished, or else that the autho- 

 rities are confident in the ability of their trout to take 

 care of themselves. A club which fixes a limit of ten 

 brace on a stream where such a basket is no utter 

 impossibility must be very sure both of itself and of its 

 fishing. From what I have seen of the beck I can 

 testify that the Driffield anglers are right in their con- 

 fidence. The water teems with fish, and so long as it 

 is managed with the skill and discretion visibly dis- 

 played at present, the club can safely enjoy the proud 

 distinction of inviting those of its members and guests 

 who can do it to make huge baskets. 



Driffield Beck has another distinction which, I fancy, 

 places it alone among the chalk-streams : it is hospitable 

 to both the wet-fly and dry-fly methods. The coming 

 of the dry fly has not, as on so many streams, put the 

 wet fly under a ban ; the older method seems to do 

 as much execution as the newer, but, as can be readily 

 understood, it needs some assistance from the weather, 

 in form either of wind or rain. In hot, bright, still 

 weather the floating fly takes the first place. I believe 

 my host was one of the first to use it on the beck, well 

 over twenty years ago. He arrived at Driffield early 

 one July morning on his first visit to the stream. The 

 head-keeper of the time met him with a gloomy 

 countenance, and explained that the weather was so 

 hot and bright that fishing was useless; the angler 

 would do well to depart, and come again on a more 

 propitious day. He persevered, however, gave the 

 keeper a first sight of the dry-fly method, and made a 



