74 THE PIKE. 



best water. The reach below Culham Lock, 

 and at Clifton-Ilampdcn ; from Streatley to 

 Harts Wood ; Maple Durham to Caversham ; 

 from Sonning and thence half-way towards Ship- 

 lake ; Wargrave to Henley ; Hambledon Lock 

 to Medmcnham ; from Temple Lock and on past 

 Bisham Abbey ; Marlow-weir to Spade Oak ; 

 the water under Clevendcn Woods ; from 

 Taplow to Monkey-Island and thence to Water 

 Oakley ; the old river at Old Windsor, and 

 the shallows by the Bells of Ouseley and Magna 

 Charta Island ; the river from Staincs, round 

 Pcnton Hook, to Laleham. Many of the above- 

 named waters vary from four to nix feet in depth, 

 hold plenty of jack and pike, and if carefully fished 

 should well reward the persevering angler. The 

 Kennet from Hungerford to Reading is another 

 first-class stream, celebrated for fine pike, of 

 which fish the late Mr. Francis Francis made many 

 large captures ; once (I think at Earl Craven's, 

 near Newbury) he put on record nearly 3 cwts., 

 the result of a day's spinning executed by 

 himself and a friend. But fishermen have so 

 increased in numbers of late years, that such 

 catches, or anything approaching them, are few 

 and far between. The Avon, which rises in 

 Wiltshire near Devizes, is fishable for pike at 

 Bulford, and all through its course from thence to 

 Salisbury, and on past Ringwood, contains many 

 fine stretches of water peculiarly adapted for 

 spinning. At Longford Castle, through the 

 kind permission of the Earl of Radnor, I once, 

 with Francis Francis for my companion, had two 

 days of grand sport ; and just below Braemore 

 Bridge, Mr. C. H. Pennell, some time since, caught 



