CHAPTEE XXII 



A FIRST VISIT TO IRELAND. 



ALTHOUGH since the beginning of the year I have 

 watched every opportunity, scanned and answered 

 every likely advertisement, I have been unable to 

 obtain any fishing this season in Hampshire or the 

 adjoining counties good enough to satisfy the 

 fastidious tastes of a dry-fly purist, save at an 

 enormous and, according to my ideas, wasteful and 

 prohibitory rental, nor even to secure a rod on any- 

 thing like reasonable terms. On the Test, for 

 instance, the river I most affect, as much as 45 is 

 asked for a short season (May 1 to Aug. 31) on 

 two miles of a middle portion of it, eight or nine 

 rods working it. And on the Laverstoke fishery, 

 which is only about three miles in extent, but 

 available from both banks, 75 is the price per 

 rod one of eight. I was offered a rod on both. 

 Indeed, by reason of the yearly increasing and 

 excessive demand for dry-fly sport, all the rentals of 

 our south country streams, small tributaries, or 

 parent rivers, good, bad, or indifferent, are advanced 

 far beyond their value. Under these circumstances 



