THE KENT STREAMS 49 



There are two associations on the Stoiir, the 

 Lower Stour Fishery Association and the Upper 

 Stoiir Fishery Association. The Lower Stour 

 Association has been in existence for about six years, 

 and its rights in regard to its three miles of water 

 are vested partly in the corporation of Canterbury 

 and partly in the landowners. The association 

 throws open half the waters which it protects to 

 the public and reserves the remaining portion as a 

 subscription water, — entrance fee four guineas, and 

 annual subscription four guineas. The water is 

 well cleared of pike, and restocked every year with 

 about a thousand two-year-old trout. The Upper 

 Stour Fishery is treated in the same way. 



The trout season is from April i to September 15, 

 and fly and minnow are the two baits allowed. 

 The flies commonly used on the Stour, which is a 

 genuine chalk stream, are the olive, blue, and yellow 

 duns, ginger quill, alder, red spinner, black gnat, 

 and sedges. The May-fly is abundant on the upper 

 part of the stream. Mr. Pike specially recommends 

 two fancy flies, the governor and the pink Wick- 

 ham, together with the blue upright. No trout 

 can be killed on the association water of under 

 thirteen inches in length. Chilham — Alma and 

 Woolpack Lin — or Canterbury may be made 

 headquarters by the angler according to whether 

 he is fishing the upper or the lower part of the 

 Stour. 



The Little Stour rises near Bishopsbourne — of 

 which the theologian Hooker was once rector — in 

 the grounds of Bourne Place. "The valley," ^, 

 says Bagshaw in his Kejit, " from the source Little 

 of the Bourne upwards, is dry except after ^^^^"^ 

 great rains and thaws of snow, when the springs of 



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