BY SEVERNSIDE IN SHROPSHIRE 71 



Shropshire at any rate for a brace. The fish may 

 be of good size, though. Two, each well over three 

 pounds, were captured by spinning one day in 

 1917, near Cound, which is between Cressage and 

 Atcham, and they now adorn a wall at Cound 

 Lodge behind honourable glass. Grayling find 

 the river much to their liking where it has 

 sandy, gravelly beds, and in some years, as in 

 1913, quite good sport with them is reported. 

 Of coarse fish, pike, perch, chub, roach, dace, 

 there is a good stock. 



" You have learned many things, my friend, 

 but one thing you have not learned the art of 

 resting," to quote a passage from "The In- 

 tellectual Life." If any busy man is keenly 

 desirous of acquiring this vital art, a July day in 

 Severnside meadows ought to help him. If there 

 has been no freshening rain, fly-fishing for trout 

 is out of the question, except early or late in the 

 day, so one may potter about 



" Any man that walks the mead, 



In huil or blade, or bloom, may find 

 According as his humours lead, 

 A meaning suited to his mind " 



and enjoy the fresh air and the smell of the 

 country ; taking, in short, the cue from Darwin, 

 himself born at Shrewsbury in 1809, when in a 

 letter to his wife he wrote : " At last I fell asleep 

 on the grass, and awoke with a chorus of birds 

 singing around me, and squirrels running up the 

 tree, and some woodpeckers laughing ; and it 

 was as pleasant and rural a scene as ever 1 saw, 



