SOUTH COUiNTRY ANGLING 3 



hoped to flush near where now stands Regent 

 Street or the Marble Arch. The Ravensbourne and 

 its trout are flowing away into history as the 

 Fleet or the Tyburn have long since done ; but 

 the " silver Wandle " of Pope's day has to some 

 extent withstood till now in its upper parts " the 

 wreckful siege " of bricks and mortar ; the Darenth 

 of Kent, if sorely tried by mill and tapped by 

 water company, has stood out w^ell against builder 

 and polluter alike ; while the quiet flowing streams 

 of that charming trouting county Hertfordshire, 

 should at least see out us and our time. A smaller 

 space than the two hours above mentioned will often 

 suffice to find the keen angler at work on the banks 

 of any of these trout streams round about London. 

 If only we had more streams in the south of 

 England, and if they were more easily accessible — 

 for trout fishing in the south is not, it must be ad- 

 mitted, to be had by every angler for the trouble of 

 applying — we might be visited far more than we 

 are by eager anglers from all parts of the country 

 and many parts of the world. Ours indeed, if a 

 small, is a goodly angling heritage. 



In succeeding chapters I shall try to describe 

 the beauties, the characteristics, and the variety of 

 angling in the south and south-eastern and western 

 counties, and later on to give in something like 

 detail short accounts of the fish, flies, peculiar 

 features and methods of angling in regard to each 

 leading trout stream. Before entering into these 

 particulars it will be well to treat in a broader and 

 more general way the subject of fish and fishing in 

 the south country as a whole. 



Trout are, as we all know, occasionally found in 

 sluggish and dirty waters, such as canals, and in 



B 2 



