RIVER PRESERVING AND RIVER POACHING 73 



angler to possess. Nothing is more aggravating to 

 a farmer than to find that a fisherman has taken a 

 short cut across a field of strongly growing mowing- 

 grass, leaving behind him a path deeply beaten down 

 by his heavy wading-boots, when a detour or retrace- 

 ment of fifty or a hundred yards would have ob- 

 viated any such destructive proceeding. 



Those who have fished any South-country river, 

 Test, Wiley, or other delightful stream, will at once 

 recall memories of lush water-meadows, while Derby- 

 shire men will conjure up visions of Haddon Fields 

 just before hay-cutting time. I am sure that injuries 

 to crops are nearly always done unthinkingly, but I 

 cannot refrain from here stating my feelings on this 

 matter, which I am convinced is one of considerable 

 importance to the fishing public. It is, of course, 

 impossible to avoid doing some small hurt to the 

 grass on the bank of a river ; for if one does not move 

 along the streamside one cannot fish that is perfectly 

 clear. But this is not what I allude to ; it is the 

 straying away in an uncalled-for degree from the strip 

 of ground by the river-bank which is always dedicated 

 to the fisherman's use ; that it is which I would depre- 

 cate, and on which I have thus briefly commented. 



But unless some extra-malign influences exist, there 

 ought to be no great difficulty in properly preserving 



