70 TROUT FISHING 



find a more level lot of trout. The exception was a 

 rather ill-conditioned trout of a pound and a half 

 caught, not on the shallow, but on the narrower 

 water below. 



The Longparish shallow is the place famous in 

 history as the scene of Colonel Hawker's equestrian 

 fishing. He used, we are told, to do his wading by 

 proxy and catch great store of trout from his horse's 

 back, fishing his wet flies presumably downstream. 

 After a wet winter I have no doubt such a thing 

 could still be done there with success. R. B. M. 

 and I were there after a wet winter, and the river 

 held a lot of water. We were able to wade upstream 

 abreast, and so wide is the Test there that we might 

 have been fishing different streams. There would 

 have been room for probably two more rods between 

 us. It was a memorable day, none the less because 

 I believe we were the first anglers on the water that 

 year. 



More recently I had the privilege of another day 

 there in company with " D. O'C.," whose initials 

 are also well known to the brotherhood, and I was 

 interested to renew my impressions of the place. It 

 may have been imagination, but there seemed to be 

 less water than at the earlier visit, and it did not 

 look as though four rods abreast would be a possi- 

 bility any longer. There had, on this occasion, been 

 a dry winter, and of course it may have been that 



