SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



success under the management of the Hon. 

 D. J. Monson that for several years prior to 

 1891 it had its full complement of 1,500 mem- 

 bers under the presidency of his late Ma- 

 jesty, King Edward, then Prince of Wales. 

 Of these, however, only 200 were shooting 

 members, many of whom took no part in 

 pigeon shooting. The sport therefore gradu- 

 ally ceased to be carried on under the favour- 

 able conditions it had enjoyed at Hornsey 



Wood and the Gun Club, 1 and owing to the 

 greater popularity of polo, it has now been 

 driven from the scene where it may be said to 

 have attained its zenith. 



The best shots at Hurlingham and the Gun 

 Club during recent years have been Lord 

 Hill, Lord de Grey,Captain Shelley, Mr. Berke- 

 ley Lucy, Mr. Dudley Ward, Mr. Aubrey 

 Coventry, Captain Aubrey Pullen, Mr. H. J. 

 Roberts, and Lord de Clifford. 17 



ANGLING 



The fishing rivers of Middlesex are the 

 Thames, the Lea, the Colne, and the Brent, 

 none of which, however, rises in the county. 

 The Thames first touches Middlesex at Staines, 

 and from that point to Shepperton the river 

 forms part of the western boundary of the 

 county ; and is its southern boundary from 

 Shepperton to Bromley in Essex, where it is 

 entered by the Lea, which from this point 

 northwards to Waltham forms the eastern 

 boundary of Middlesex. 



As the Thames appears to have been from 

 time immemorial tidal as well as navigable up 

 to Richmond, 1 there has always been a public 

 right of fishery in its waters up to that point ; 

 but in early times this right was limited by the 

 existence of private fisheries created by the 

 crown prior to the passing of Magna Charta 

 which put an end to such grants. In Domes- 

 day Book eleven manors in Middlesex are re- 

 turned as leasing several fisheries, the owners of 

 which had an exclusive right to all the fish 

 therein, and of these manors three Staines, 

 Shepperton (Scepertone) and Hampton (Hamn- 

 tone) were situated on the non-tidal, and two, 

 Isleworth(Gestleworde)and Fulham (Fuleham) 

 on the tidal waters of the Thames. It also ap- 

 pears from the confirmation by Henry III in 

 1225 of various charters granted to ' the Charity 

 of St. MaryMerton and the canons there in the 

 county of Surrey ' that this order had rights of 

 fishery at Brentford, as it provides, inter a/ia, 

 that ' no one shall in future fish before the 

 weir of the said canons in Brainford, or more 

 than was wont to be done in the time of the 

 king's ancestors.' 3 The king's water bailiff 

 and conservator, however, claimed a ' fee 

 draught ' or right to take a net down the 



17 Shooting (Badminton Library), 345. 

 1 Stewart A. Moore and H. Stewart Moore, 

 The Hist, and Law of Fisheries, 101. 

 ' Cal. of Chart. \, 381. 



Thames through all the private fisheries once 

 a year, a right which appears to have been ex- 

 ercised as late as i82O. 3 



The injury both to fishery and navigation 

 resulting from the number of weirs, kiddles 

 and other fixed engines with which fishery 

 was carried on in mediaeval times led to the 

 enactment in Magna Charta, 4 repeated in 

 subsequent statutes, 8 that ' all weirs shall 

 henceforth be entirely put down on the Thames 

 and Medway and throughout all England 

 except on the sea coast,' and in the fifteenth 

 century we find similar legislation with 

 respect to fixed nets. A statute of 1423 6 

 prohibits the fastening of ' nets and other 

 engines called trinks and all other nets which 

 be fastened continually day and night by a 

 certain time of year to great posts, boats, 

 and anchors overthwart the river of Thames 

 and other rivers of the realm,' as causing 

 ' as great and more destruction of the brood 

 and fry of fish and disturbance of the common 

 passage of vessels ' as the weirs and kiddles. 

 It therefore enacts that nets should only be 

 used by drawing and pulling hem by hem as 

 other fishers do with other nets ; but it may 

 be noted that this restriction is followed by a 

 proviso ' saving always to every of the king's 

 liege people, their right, title, and inheritance 

 in their fishings in the said water.' 7 In 1393 

 the conservancy of fishery in the Thames from 

 Staines downwards, and also in the Medway, 

 was entrusted to the Lord Mayor of London 

 by the statute of 17 Richard II, which 

 provided for the appointment of justices of 



* Hist. andLavi of Fisheries, 8 1 . This right was also 

 exercised on the Avon in Sussex and the Frome in 

 Dorset and possibly in other rivers. 



4 9 Hen. Ill (1225). 



6 21 Ric. II, cap. 19, (1397) ; i Hen. IV, cap. 

 12(1 399), and 4 Hen. IV, cap. 1 1, &c. 



6 2 Hen. VI, cap. 15 (1423). 



7 Ibid. Cf. Hist, and Law of Fisheries, 171 et seq. 



267 



