170 T/ie FordwicJi Trout. 



they might satisfy their curiosity." . . . 

 Walton then states that this fish " knows 

 his times (I think almost his day) of com- 

 ing into that river out of the sea, where 

 he lives (and it is like, feeds) nine months 

 out of the year, and fasts three in the 

 River of Fordidge. . . . You are to know 

 that this Trout is thought to eat nothing 

 in the fresh water." 



So far Walton ; now, in his excellent 

 edition of The Compleat Angler, Dr. 

 Bethune has this reference to Walton's 

 Fordidge Trout : 



" Fordwich is about two miles east of 

 Canterbury, on the river the Stour. 

 Yarrell says, unhesitatingly, that the Ford- 

 wich trout is the salmon trout (Salmo trutta 

 of Linnaeus, Salmo albus or white trout, 

 Flem, Brit. An,}, what is called the hirling 

 in some parts of Scotland. He says also, 

 in contradiction to Walton and his friend 

 Sir George Hastings, that quantities are 

 taken with the rod, and on being examined 

 are found full of various insects, particu- 

 larly the sand-hopper. The very rapid 

 digestion of the salmon family led to our 

 -author's error." 



This is a fair specimen of the manner 

 in which Walton is flatly contradicted, and 

 yet I feel certain that he is perfectly right 

 and Yarrell wrong. I was for some years 



