CHAP. iv.J THE THAMES. 149 



Hampton Court, and Kichmond ; that it laves the grassy lawns 

 of Twickenham, waters the gardens of Kew, and that it bears 

 upon its bosom the gigantic commerce of London we can at 

 once realise its importance, and can understand its being called 

 the king of British rivers, although it is neither so long, nor 

 does it contain so voluminous a body of water as some other 

 of our British streams. The total length of the river Thames 

 is 215 miles, and the area of the country it waters is 6160 

 square miles. It has as affluents a great many fine streams, 

 including the river Lodden, as also the Wey and the Mole. I 

 am not entitled to consider it here in its picturesque aspects 

 my business with it is piscatorial, and I am able to certify 

 that it is rich in fish of a certain kind 



" The bright-eyed perch with fins of Tyrian dye, 

 The silver eel in shining volumes rolled, 

 The yellow carp in scales bedropp'd with gold, 

 Swift trout diversified with crimson stains, 

 And pike, the tyrants of the watery plains." 



Considering that all its best fishing points are accessible to 

 an immense population, many of whom are afflicted with a 

 mania for angling, it is quite wonderful that there is a single 

 fish of any description left in it ; and yet but a year or two 

 ago, the "pen of the war" bagged a seven-pound trout near 

 Walton Bridge ! I may be allowed just to run over a few 

 Thames localities, and note what fish may be taken from them. 

 Above Teddington at different places an occasional trout may 

 be pulled out, but, although the finest trout in the world may 

 be got in the Thames, they are, unfortunately, so scarce in the 

 meantime, that it is hardly worth while to lose one's time in 

 the all but vain endeavour to lure them from their home. 

 Pike fishing or trolling will reward the Thames angler better 

 than trouting. There are famous pike to be taken every here 

 and there in the deep pools and at the weirs : and, as the 

 pike is voracious, a moderately good angler, with proper bait, 



