76 LINES IN PLEASANT PLACES 



" with water dead stale, we had about the same num- 

 ber of gudgeon, and quite sixty roach from $ Ib. to 

 i J Ib." And yet they tell us that the Thames is played 

 out ! 



Three days since I saw a colleague who was going to 

 the City to see a J-lb. roach which had been taken out 

 of the Thames in a bucket at London Bridge the day 

 before. It should be stated that Mr. Butler was with 

 " John Bickerdyke," now in South Africa, and A. E. 

 Hobbs, the hon. secretary, founders of the Henley 

 Association, and co-workers in other directions with 

 his friends, James Henry Clark, Bowdler Sharpe, Thurlow 

 of Wycombe, and many another. He founded the 

 Reading and District Angling Association in 1877, and 

 practically ran it during its successful career ; it ended 

 three years ago, but its work remains in the head of fish 

 in the district and a thorough loyalty amongst the 

 working men's clubs which he helped to start and 

 establish. Mr. Butler, too, was the prime mover in 

 stocking the Thames in the Reading district with two- 

 and three-year old trout, buying and bringing the fish 

 from High Wycombe. I know and appreciate his 

 voluntary work for anglers and am glad of an oppor- 

 tunity of recording it. 



Might one trespass so far on the reader's patience as 

 to return to the inspiration of the beginning of this 

 sketch for a conclusion ? The remark of which I would 

 deliver myself is that the artificiality of which the poet 

 Pope is accused in his natural scenery generally applies 

 to his references to sport. He is more sympathetic with 

 his anglers than with his fowlers, but neither appears 

 to kindle the fire as in the lines in which he traces the 

 name of the Loddon to Lodona, the fabled nymph of 

 Diana. Pan's chase of the hapless nymph through 

 Windsor Forest calling in vain for aid upon Father 



