THE TROUT STREAM 33 



Test of Hampshire, both flowing through the chalk, 

 and both enjoying among their special admirers 

 the reputation of being " the best trout stream in 

 the south of England." Of course it must be 

 admitted even by the most patriotic southerner that 

 we have in our country none of the noble river 

 scenery that is so plentiful in wild Wales and in 

 the north. We have nothing that answers to the 

 Welsh Dee or Usk ; and I do not think that any 

 Devon man who knows the Derbyshire and 

 Staffordshire waters w^ill claim for his " delicious 

 land" a stream of such invariable nobility in 

 regard to its scenery as the Dove. The truth is 

 we have hills where the northerner has mountains ; 

 therein lies the secret of the superiority of the 

 North of England, of Wales, and of Scotland, in 

 point of grandeur of river scenery. Nor have we, 

 with two notable exceptions, the splendid moor- 

 lands which are a feature of so many northern 

 rivers : we can only boast commons and here and 

 there a so-called waste So much may be ad- 

 mitted ; but no more. 



It may be hard, in writing of the beauties of the 

 chalk streams in mid-June or in the declining days 

 of summer to escape the charge of being a drawer 

 of the long bow. But at any rate one may draw it 

 in good company ; for what says Charles Kingsley, 

 not in his Chalk Stream Studies^ but in Yeasty of 

 these w^aters t " Of all the species," he writes, 

 "of lovely scenery which England holds, none, 

 perhaps, is more exquisite than the banks of the 

 chalk rivers." Chalk stream pictures are artfully 

 inserted into more than one page of Yeast. 

 Launcelot sits and watches the stream for hours, 

 and this is what he sees : — " The great trout with 



D 



