82 SOUTH COUNTRY TROUT STREAMS 



Colnc. It waters some considerable lakes at Mis- 

 senden Abbey and Shard loes, and then passes 

 The Mis- Amersham, a pleasant Buckinghamshire 

 bourne town, Chalfont St. Giles, and Chalfont St. 

 Peters. The best trouting is in the five miles of 

 stream between the last named village and the 

 Colne, and this is well preserved. The angler may 

 stay at the Bull at Gerrard's Cross, or at Den- 

 ham. Trout are pretty plentiful, running up to a 

 good size, and the May-fly comes on in fair 

 quantities. Chalfont St. Giles, a pretty village, is 

 famous through its associations with Milton, who 

 lived here during the time when the Great Plague 

 was raging, correcting some of the sheets of 

 Paradise Lost and writing Paradise Regained. 

 Gurney's mill on this stream is said to be the 

 oldest in England. 



The Wick, Wyk, or Wye, rises in a mill pool at 

 West Wycombe, and passing High Wycombe, 



The Loudwater, and Woburn joins the Thames 



^^^^ between Cookham and Bourne End 

 bridges. The Wick is sadly polluted in its lower 

 lengths. It is on the whole, however, a clear chalk 

 stream, working a number of mills. Several of these 

 mills are for the manufacture of paper, and some 

 years ago the trout were decimated by them. 

 Latterly much greater care has been taken to avoid 

 poisoning the water, and as a result there has been 

 next to no injury done to the fish in the first six 

 miles or so of the stream.^ 



The Wick, or, as they are more commonly 

 called, the Wycombe trout, are celebrated, one 

 might almost say, the world over. They are ex- 



^ Since writing this I see that a number of good fish have 

 been killed by a bad case of pollution. 



