5 2 WA TERSIDE SKETCHES. 



sea; but its landscapes in many respects have no equal. 

 They tell in every feature of peace and plenty : of corn, 

 and wine, and oil. 



To the angler the Thames offers a wide choice. It con- 

 tains fish for all fishers. Towards the close of last year's 

 season I saw a dainty little lady, sitting in a punt near the 

 bridge at Hampton, catch with most graceful skill a fine 

 dish of gudgeon, who might truly have said : 



" And Beauty draws us with a single hair." 



On the first Saturday in May a gallant friend of mine, 

 snatching an outing at Maidenhead, caught a grandly- 

 speckled trout of five pounds, hooked a pike of ten 

 pounds, which, under the extradition treaty of the fence 

 months, was returned to the place whence it came, and in 

 the same way and with the same result captured a chub of 

 the unusual weight of six pounds. Of course while there are 

 some prizes, I do not deny there are many blanks. That is a 

 rule of life. In Thames trout-fishing there are, it is useless 

 to conceal, many, many blanks ; perhaps it is not too much 

 to say that prizes are the exception. In the commoner 

 fishing, however, the luck which falls to rods on the 

 Thames, skilful and unskilful alike, is for these days, when 

 the tendency of things is to destroy the remnant of sport 

 that is left to us, amazingly great. Let any sceptic and 

 anglers somehow have to endure a maximum of undeserved 

 unbelief who doubts this betake himself on Sunday nights 

 to the fishing clubs which encourage " weighing-in," and he 

 will be surprised at the baskets of the coarser kinds of fish 

 that are brought home from the Thames stations. 



While the preservation of the Thames has been worthy 



