44 SOUTH COUNTRY TROUT STREAMS 



attractions of other trout waters in the South of 

 England, besides the two classes — namely, the 

 major chalk streams and the moorland streams of 

 the two western counties, Somerset and Cornwall 

 — which we have just considered ; but the feeling 

 that it needs the hand of a master indeed to de- 

 scribe all the delicate details of the scenery of these 

 little rivers of ours, urges me in an opposite direc- 

 tion. Otherwise it would be hard to pass over 

 the clear swift Coin of Gloucestershire, and the 

 happily named Windrush of the same county, — 

 streams not belonging to the chalk, but combining 

 some of the advantages and beauties of that class 

 of water with those of a more rocky bed. Neither 

 could I here refrain from dwelling upon the Wilt- 

 shire and Berkshire Kennet, a noble trouting name 

 to conjure w^ith among fly fishermen all over the 

 land : nor the excellent streams of Hertfordshire, 

 such as the Mimram or Maran, that can often 

 hide itself behind a thin hedge so as to be neither 

 seen nor heard by one who passes by within a 

 few yards, and knows nothing of its dashing two- 

 pounders ; and the baby Lea, where it emerges 

 from the Bedfordshire border to soon hold three, 

 yes, and four pounders, by pretty Wheathamp- 

 stead and by Brocket, with its old brick walls and 

 noble timber. The very names of these places are 

 alluring to the angler : he thinks of them in con- 

 nection with villages half lost amidst towering 

 elms and wide-spreading horse-chestnut trees ; 

 graceful church spires ; old inns held together by 

 many oak beams within and without ; and mills 

 whiter perhaps than even the little places of worship 

 dotted here and there above the blue Norwegian 

 fjords. 



