38 SOUTH COUNTRY TROUT STREAMS 



butterfly called the greasy fritillary (^Artemis) on 

 the banks of the Test, as others have found it in 

 numbers in certain water-meadows of the little 

 Chess of Buckinghamshire ; another, upon the 

 retiring water rail, feigning, it seemed, for the 

 sake of eggs or young, to be badly injured ; whilst 

 one evening later on in the season my search for 

 scarce water flowers, " far through the marish green 

 and still " was well rewarded by the discovery of 

 some fine specimens of that curious escape from 

 cultivation, Miiniilus, with fine yellow blossoms 

 spotted with rich brown. A chalk stream diary 

 might be well worth keeping. How the perusal 

 of it would lighten the gloom of some dark winter 

 day in the roaring city ! Even for those busy folk 

 who have neither time nor taste for the countless 

 details, which make up a southern trout river scene, 

 there is a beauty that soothes and satisfies about 

 the very green meadows and the gently undulating 

 country of the Test. " It is not," wrote a gifted 

 descendant of Colonel Hawker of Longparish, " the 

 scenery men cross continents and oceans to admire, 

 and, yet it has a message of its own. I felt it that 

 day when I was heart weary and was glad that 

 in one corner of this restless world the little hills 

 preached peace." 



Not a few of the old-world hamlets of, for 

 instance, the Test at Itchen deserve the name of 

 fishing villages. For the sake of a day or two on 

 a renowned trout stream, keen anglers, even out 

 of holiday time, will tear themselves away from the 

 world of " getting and spending " and come down 

 on Thursday evening to fish Friday and Saturday. 

 Ah ! those week-ends, when the weather holds 

 up and the fish rise to the fly ! There is a rare 



