A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX 



by Mr. Beresford of the ' White House,' at 

 Homerton, little more than 3 miles from 

 London. He also had the ' Horse and Groom,' 

 a mile above the 'White House,' and the 

 fishery attached to it, and angling in each of 

 these ' subscription waters ' was procurable 

 for the payment of half a guinea subscription 

 per annum. Both of these private fisheries 

 are described by Hoffland as abounding in 

 jack and pike, carp, barbel, chub, perch, 

 roach, dace, eels, gudgeon and bleak. 23 ' Above 

 Lea Bridge,' he says, ' a considerable space of 

 the river is free to anglers up to Tottenham 

 Mills, 5 miles from London, where is Tyler's 

 subscription water, and 6 miles farther there 

 is Ford's water. 24 



HofHand makes no mention of trout, 

 which, if not existent in his day, must have 

 been since introduced into the river, since it 

 is stated in an article in The Field of 4 May, 

 1907, on 'Trout fishing in the Lea,' that 

 ' though not comparable with the Thames, 

 the open or public waters of the Lea are to be 

 by no means despised by the trout angler who 

 has no preserved or private fishery on hand.' 



The Colne rises to the south-west of Hat- 

 field in Hertfordshire, running 13 miles south- 

 west past Colney and Watney to Rickmans- 

 worth, and entering Middlesex at the north- 

 west extremity flows southward between that 

 county and Bucks past Harefield, Uxbridge 

 where it divides into several channels forming 

 islands Cowley, and Colnbrook, to the 

 Thames at Staines. Another arm of the 

 river diverges from its main course at Long- 

 ford and reaches Staines by Laleham, while 

 another uniting with the Cran a small 

 stream rising in the high grounds between 

 Pinner and Harrow flows across Hounslow 



Heath to Twickenham and Isleworth. Yet 

 another branch runs through Han worth, 

 Bushey, and Hampton Court parishes. 



The manors of West Drayton (Draitone), 

 Harmondsworth (Hermondesworthe), Stan- 

 well (Stanewell), and Harefield (Herefelle) 

 on the Colne are all returned in Domesday 

 as having several fisheries, 26 and other ancient 

 records show that this was also the case as 

 regards those of Cowley (Covele), Denham, 

 and Whitton (Witton) on the same river. 26 



Neither Izaak Walton nor Hoffland refers 

 to the Colne, but it is mentioned by Daniel 

 in his Rural Sports, published in 1 8 1 2, as a good 

 fishing river. The fishing at West Drayton 

 is now preserved by various local angling 

 societies, and is especially abundantly supplied 

 with pike and jack. 



The Brent rises near Barnet in Hertford- 

 shire, and entering Middlesex near Finchley 

 flows 1 6 miles south-west, through the middle 

 of the county, by Hendon, Twyford, and 

 Hanwell, to the Thames at Brentford. 



That there was originally fishing in this 

 river is evident from a grant of 1640 by 

 Robert Lee, aliening the manor of East Twy- 

 ford, 'consisting of 100 acres of arable land, 

 80 of meadow, 200 of pasture and 50 of 

 wood -with free fishery in the river of Brent'' 

 a term synonymous with ' several fishery ' 27 

 to John Hooke and his heirs. 28 The weir 

 at Brentford, already referred to as belonging 

 to the canons of St. Mary Merton, 29 must 

 also presumably have been at the confluence 

 of the Brent with the Thames. Owing, 

 however, to the utilization of the river for 

 the disposal of the drainage of Ealing and 

 adjacent western suburbs it has long ceased 

 to be available for purposes of fishery. 



CRICKET 



MIDDLESEX COUNTY 



The history of county cricket in Middle- 

 sex begins in 1863, when it was started at a 

 meeting over which the Hon. Robert Grim- 

 ston presided, and at which Messrs. J. and 

 V. E. Walker were present. It may be 

 briefly stated that for many years the county 

 club only existed through the munificence of 

 the Walker family, who must be inseparably 

 connected with its history. For a long time 

 the county team suffered from lack of an 



" The British Angler's Manual, 276, 277. 

 '< Ibid. 278. 



abiding place. A start was made in Islington 

 in 1863, with R. Thorns as umpire and 

 George Hearne as ground-man, but in 1865 

 Norris the landlord raised the rent by 50, 

 and in 1869, after further trouble with him, 

 a move was made to Lillie Bridge. There 

 the turf proved bad, and the club was on the 

 verge of dissolution, continuance being carried 

 by one vote at a meeting of thirteen mem- 



' 5 Domesday Bk. ; cf. Hist, and Law of fisheries, 403. 

 * Hist, and Law of fisheries, 407,410, 41 1,422. 

 17 Ibid. 37, 38. 



88 Pat. 1 6 Chas. I, pt. 1 5. Cf. Lysons, Environs 

 ofLond. iii, 259, 260. " Ante, 267. 



270 



