250 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN. 



tered, and they are got up to again, the struggle is 



over. 



The perfection of the shooting at Heron Court is 

 the variety of the game, and the ignorance of the 

 gunner as to what next will rise before him. Lord 

 Malmsbury, I think, killed thirty-six wild swans in 

 one winter to his own gun ; and an eagle and a swan 

 have been shot within twenty -four hours of one 

 another. The stuffed specimens of the rare birds 

 killed there, and which adorn the hall, are unequalled 

 in number, variety, and interest. 



Attached to Heron Court, are the Stour, Little Stour, 

 and Moors river, where the pike-fishing is excellent : 

 the largest fish I killed with the rod, in March last, 

 weighed twenty-one pounds and a half; and, like all 

 the Stour pike caught in season, was most excellent, 

 when baked, for the table. The best way to dress a 

 pike is to boil it with the scales on ; on carving, the 

 scales peel ofi:' in large flakes with the skin, under the 

 fish-knife, and, the water being thus kept out of the 

 fish, adds to its firmness and flavour. The tench, 

 sometimes weighing three or four pounds, from these 

 rivers are beautiful, and so are the perch ; but in those 

 portions of the Stour where I have fished, the perch 

 seldom exceed a pound in weight. Salmon come a cer- 

 tain distance up the Stour, as well as the Avon ; yet, 

 though the rivers approximate so close as to form the 

 same harbour at Christchurch, the salmon will only 

 rise to a fly in the Avon. The largest salmon I ever 

 killed in the Avon, if I remember rightly, was from 

 sixteen to eighteen pounds ; but Lord Canning hooked 

 one, who broke him, of forty-four pounds. The fish 

 was taken in a net in the same week, with his Lord- 

 sliip's fly in his mouth. Lord Malmsbury, Lord 



