152 LINES IN PLEASANT PLACES 



phenomenon, only equalled by the hatch of Mayfly in 

 the Kennet Valley twenty years ago. Just as clouds of 

 Mayfly would greet you on the railway platforms 

 between Reading and Hungerford, flying into the open 

 windows, clinging to the lamp-posts and seats, so at 

 Houghton and Stockbridge the shucks of the grannom 

 would drift into eddies and collect almost as solid as a 

 weed-bed. Such things are not to be seen now, and 

 have not been seen for years. 



From the swaddling clothes of the risen grannom, 

 cast thus upon the surface of the water by the insect 

 made perfect, Halford turned to the artificial imitations 

 then in use. They were of importance in those days, 

 for the grannom was an institution much regarded, and 

 the grannom season was held in high esteem. Anglers 

 packed their kit and hurried away when the grannom 

 was signalled up. There were as many patterns of 

 the artificial grannom as there are to-day of the March 

 brown, and it was because Halford found them of 

 varying forms and colourings, and not a really good 

 imitation of the natural fly amongst them all, that he 

 resolved to learn how to dress a fly for himself. His 

 stores of patience were heavily taxed in the preliminary 

 stages, and the victory came only after a long battle 

 with difficulties. The standard volumes he produced 

 on the subject of dressing, and the kindred subject of 

 the entomological side of it, are conclusive evidence 

 of what came of it all. " Halford as a fly-dresser," 

 however, is a topic too big to handle in a chapter which 

 merely aims at rambling recollections of him by the 

 waterside, and indeed it can only be dealt with by a 

 master in the art of fly-dressing. 



In his early days at Houghton, Halford went to 

 John Hammond's shop in Winchester just before the 

 opening of the 1879 fishing season to buy flies, and 



