FISHES: PONDS, SALMON, ETC. 63 



and by baiting three or four hooks at the end of a piece of string and leaving them hi the water all 

 night. In the morning I have found two, and sometimes three, large fish captured. On one occasion 

 " Squire White," the proprietor of the estate, discharged his gun, apparently at me, to deter me 

 from this act of poaching and trespassing. J. B.] 



As for ponds, we cannot boast much of them ; the biggest is that in Bradon Forest. There is 

 a fair pond at West Lavington which was made by Sir John Danvers. At Draycot Cerne the 

 ponds are not great, but the carpes very good, and free from muddinesse. In Wardour Parke is 

 a stately pond ; at Wilton and Longleat two noble canals and severall small ponds ; and in the 

 parke at Kington St Michael are several ponds in traine. [The latter ponds are supplied by two 

 springs in the immediate vicinity, forming one of the tributaries of the Avon. The stream abounds 

 with trout, many of which I have caught at the end of the summer season, by laving out the water 

 from the deeper holes. J. B.] 



Tenches are common. Loches are in the Upper Avon at Amesbury. Very good perches in the 

 North Avon, but none in the Upper Avon. Salmons are sometimes taken in the Upper Avon, rarely, 

 at Harnham Bridge juxta Sarum. [On the authority of this passage, Dr. Maton includes the 

 salmon among the Wiltshire fish ; but he adds, " I know no person now living who has ascertained 

 its having ascended the Avon so far as Salisbury." Hatcher's Hist, of Salisburji, \>. 689. J. B.] 



Good pikes, roches, and daces in both the Avons. In the river Avon at Malmesbury are 



lamprills (resembling lampreis) in knotts : they are but inches long. Tliev use them for 



baytes ; and they squeeze these knotts together and make little kind of cheeses of them for eating. 



