70 ifcfnss of tbe 1Rot>, IRffle, anb Gun 



respect, gravely tells us, in his Introduction to Izaak 

 Walton's " The Compleat Angler," of a pike taken in 

 1765 in a pool at Lilleshall Lime-works that weighed 

 170 Ibs., and had to be drawn out by several men with 

 stout ropes fastened round its gills. I am thankful to 

 say that no one has yet attempted to go one better 

 than that! 



With respect to the contents of the pike's stomach, I 

 find in The County Chronicle of June, 1822, the 

 following statement : " An enormous pike, caught at 

 Chillington Pool, in Brewood, Staffordshire, the seat 

 of Mr. C. F. Gifford, weighed 46 Ibs. and measured 

 from head to tail 4 ft. 3 in. In its belly was found 

 a trout weighing 4^ Ibs., and a mole with which the fish 

 was caught when devouring it." 



Sir Samuel Montagu, when presiding last spring at 

 the annual dinner of the Fly-Fisher's Club, laid it down 

 as an axiom that in estimating the veracity of angler's 

 tales as to the weight and size of fish landed or lost, one- 

 third of both size and weight should be subtracted. 

 And as no dissent was offered by any angler present to 

 this proposition, I presume that everyone felt that the 

 subtraction was moderate and reasonable. Yet strange 

 to say, although Colonel Thornton was in his own day 

 considered rather a tall shooter with the long bow, modern 

 writers on angling give him credit for veracity in his 

 statements of the dimensions of these pike, and do not 

 even make Sir Samuel Montagu's reduction either in 

 these cases or in that of the 7 J-lb. perch which he caught 

 in Loch Lomond. And, indeed, I am inclined to agree 

 with them, for Colonel Thornton, though some of his 



