18 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 



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 till 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. No 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 Newcastle- 

 under-Line. At first it makes a circular turn towards the 

 south-east, bending to the south, as far as within ten miles 

 of Tamworth, where it receives the Tame, flowing through 

 that town. Afterwards the Trent runs north-east, towards 

 Burton- upon-Trent, a little beyond which it is enlarged by 

 the waters of the Dove, which flow from a north-west direc- 

 tion. After this the Trent receives the Derwent, which 

 descends from the mountainous parts of Derbyshire, and the 

 whole of these waters collectively flow towards the north by 

 Nottingham and Newark to the Humber. The Trent has 

 an entire course of two hundred and fifty miles, and is 

 navigable for one hundred and seventy miles from the Hum- 

 ber, and, by means of canals, has a communication with many 

 of the most important rivers of the kingdom. This long river 

 flows through a country rich in natural beauty and splendid 



