20 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 



old river, " Father Thames," and never fail to expatiate upon 

 its natural beauty whenever or wherever occasion offers itself. 

 It may have more capabilities than our Midland river, the 

 Trent, I will allow, but still the Trent is a splendid river, 

 and has a good supply of all fresh-water fish. As the Lon- 

 doners love the Thames, so do I love the Trent. Sitting in 

 my den here at home, thinking of our grand old river, what 

 a host of pleasant memories rise up before my mental vision. 

 In fancy I seem to see it winding through the pleasant 

 meadows, and each pool and gravelly shallow has some plea- 

 sant episode connected with it on which my mind loves to 

 dwell : and if perchance some old friend drops in to have a 

 chat on matters piscatorial, how eagerly we fight our battles 

 o'er again, how we recall that splendid day's sport among 

 the barbel, or that one we had with the chub, or bream, or 

 roach ; or how in fancy we again fight that big pike we had 

 gone after time after time, and which would not be seduced 

 by our most alluring bait tiU one lucky day, which will 

 always stand on our calendar as a red-letter day. Did we 

 not spin a tempting gudgeon that proved too seductive for 

 his lordship to resist, and after a struggle, the remembrance 

 of which even now makes our fingers tingle, bear him 

 home in triumph 1 " Once an angler, always an angler," I 

 believe to be a true saying, whether we are of Thames, 

 Trent, or any other river ; and the impressions we receive 

 from our fishing excursions are never effaced from our memo- 

 ries. "Whether we have good sport or not the chances are 

 that we shall go again at the first opportunity. Xo bottom 

 fisher perhaps has a better field for his sport than those who 

 live, as it were, on the banks of the Trent, for the great 

 majority of the fishing is bottom fishing, and the river 

 abounds with fish. 



The Trent takes its rise from the north-west part of the 

 county of Staffordshire, about ten miles north of ISTewcastle- 



