CHAPTER XI. 

 LATE AUTUMN PIKE AND PERCH FISHING. 



ONE of the most beautiful landscapes than . 

 which perhaps there are few lovelier within 

 forty miles of London is to be enjoyed from the 

 park at Brarnshill, Hampshire, where, -from altitudes 

 clothed with pines, oaks, elms, and yews, the spec- 

 tator can look out far and wide, over an expanse of 

 valleys, to the heights of Chobham Ridges and the 

 Fox Hills, with the Hog's Back beyond Guildford 

 in the far distance. The lowlands are fertilised by 

 the waters of the river Loddon, which rises near 

 Basingstoke, and its affluents, some of them being 

 overflows from large lakes, among which are those 

 of Brarnshill, Tundry, and Dogmersfield ; the last- 

 named, I think, supplies water to the Basingstoke 

 Canal. 



At Odiham, close by, is a stream, holding large 

 trout ; but it is difficult to obtain permission to fish. 

 The lakes contain pike and perch, carp, tench, &c. ; 

 while in most of the streams chub are plentiful ; but 

 it is of pike and perch that I write. In this beauti- 

 ful country, on the confines of Bramshill Park, lived 

 and died the Rev. Charles Kingsley, Rector of 



