So SOUTH COUNTRY TROUT STREAMS 



The Chess is in truth a lovely trout stream, 

 flowing through one of the most charming and 



The fruitful districts in the home counties. 



Chess Rising close to Chesham, it flows past that 

 town, then on to Latimer and Chenies, through a 

 land of high chalk hills crowned with beeches, to 

 join the Colne at Rickmansworth. Two more 

 prosperous or two prettier villages than Latimer, 

 which belong:! to Lord Chesham, and Chenies, 

 which is almost entirely owned by the Duke of 

 Bedford, it would be very hard to find in the south 

 of England. The position of Chenies, on a wooded 

 hillside overlooking the little valley through which 

 the Chess flows, is perfect. The village green, with 

 its knot of " immemorial elms " ; the large red-brick 

 cottages, nearly all built on the same model, and yet 

 far from conveying a sense of monotony ; the trim 

 little gardens, ablaze in the summer months with 

 the old flowers the cottager all over our land loves ; 

 the ivy covered Tudor house, with oriel windows, 

 where Queen Elizabeth once tarried on her way to 

 Hatfield ; and the church with its splendid Russell 

 Chapel, all combine to make Chenies an ideal 

 English village. Despite its fame and the fact 

 that it is almost within the magnetic influence of 

 London, Chenies has escaped the contamination 

 of the city. No hideous street lamps have here 

 been erected by enterprising local authorities, and 

 no appalling hoardings, or the like, announce " This 

 desirable plot of land to be let for building pur- 

 poses." Carshalton has been taken, but Chenies, 

 thanks to a great family, left. 



The Chess is well stored with fine trout, which 

 do not, however, often run to a very large size. 

 Big baskets have been and still are made on this 



