PART II 

 CHAPTER I 



THE KENT STREAMS 



Kent is scarcely a well-watered count}Trom the 

 fly fisherman's point of view, containing, now that 

 the Cray has been all but lost to the angling 

 world, only three trout streams of note, — namely, 

 the Stour, the Little Stour, its tributary, and the 

 Darenth. There is a streamlet at Dover, the 

 Dour,i and there are also trout here and there in 

 the tributaries or branches of the IMedway, the 

 chief river of the count}% setting aside, of course, 

 the Thames ; but these hardly claim notice, being 

 of an insignificant character. The Dour does 



^ This is one of the most significant of English river 

 names, carrying us back to the days when the population of 

 Kent was Celtic. The name Dour almost certainly repre- 

 sents the old Celtic dur^ water, a contracted form of dobhar 

 (dovar), which remains unchanged as Dover. Although 

 dobhar and dur no longer exist as terms signifying " water " 

 in modern Celtic dialects, the old word may still be traced in 

 the Gallic for " otter " — doran^ the water beast — and in the 

 Welsh dyfrgi^ Breton diirki and Irish dobharcJni^ the water 

 dog. Other Celtic names for rivers survive in Avon, Exe, 

 Ouse, Loddon and Dublin on the Test. — Ed. 



