THE WILTSHIRE STREAMS 131 



of Stoford Bridge, Wiltshire. The average weight 

 of the trout killed on this water would be about 

 f lb. As regards the flies, there is now only a 

 small hatch of May-fly where twenty years ago 

 there was a big one. The usual chalk-stream 

 patterns of duns, &c., are used, and dry fly fishing 

 is found, as a rule, to be the best method of tempt- 

 ing the trout. The stream is clear, flows at a 

 moderate pace, and is not greatly interfered with 

 by mills. The Wyl}'e is thus referred to in 

 Michael Drayton's Polyolbion : — 



" First, Willy boasts herself more worthy than the other, 

 And better far deriv'd : as having to her mother 

 Fair Selwood, and to bring up Dyver in her train ; 

 Which, when the envious soil would from her course 



restrain 

 A mile creeps under earth as flying all resort : 

 And how clear Nader waits attendance in her court ; 

 And therefore claims of right the Plain should hold her 



dear, 

 Which gives the town a name ; which likewise names the 



shire." 



The Nadder, which has on its banks Lord 

 Pembroke's place, Wilton, once described by 

 Tennyson as " the most paradisal country The 

 seat," where Sir Philip Sydney wrote his Nadder 

 Arcadia, rises at Shaftesbury in Nadder Head 

 Lake, and, flowing through some pleasant scenery, 

 joins the Wylye at Wilton, after passing Tisbury 

 and Dinton, and being swelled by the overflow of 

 several lakes at Wardern Park. It is scarcely so 

 well preserved as the Wylye, except above Tisbury, 

 where there is a fly-fishing club, and also near 

 its junction with the larger stream. Trout are 

 plentiful above Tisbury, where they would average 

 about \\ lbs. ; below they have been occasionally 



K 2 



