THE TROUT STREAM 21 



the mill. On large streams like the Test, below 

 say Longparish, the mills scarcely harass the 

 angler or disturb the trout, but the case is different 

 where small streams are concerned. By holding 

 up the water in order to get a good store to work 

 with, that very picturesque person the miller, 

 white-dusted as the walls of his premises and 

 commonly blessed according to poets with a sweet 

 daughter, sorely tries the patience of the trout 

 fisherman. It is annoying to the fly fisherman who 

 arrives at the stream, eager for sport, to find the 

 water reduced to a mere trickle and the trout at 

 their wit's end to find shelter. In Kent and 

 Hertfordshire it is often one's lot to wait for a 

 matter of hours for the water, or to find a good rise 

 suddenly stopped by the operations of some mill 

 above. Moreover this constant interference with 

 the water by mills seem to have the effect in at 

 least some rivers of disturbing the trout and 

 making them disinclined to feed at the surface. 

 When the water, pent up for several hours, does 

 come down it brings with it a quantity of river 

 refuse and bottom food, of which the trout partake 

 freely to the discomfiture of the fly fisherman. The 

 lower the springs of the river the more necessary, 

 of course, the miller finds it to hold up the water 

 for working his wheel. 



The miller is often a good fellow, who loves to 

 see a bit of sport, and will sometimes grant a 

 day's fishing to a keen angler ; but still business is 

 business. I once, on a pretty little chalk stream, 

 struck an agreeable bargain with a sporting miller. 

 It was a summer day about May-fly time, and the 

 scene was by a delicious mill race in a land of 

 sleepy hollows. Mid-day found me hungry both for 



