334 WHAT I HAVE SEEN WHILE FISHING 



Locally this hole is known and spoken of as 

 Colnbrook Churchyard. During the time I resided 

 at Wraysbury I made several attempts to discover 

 why it had been so named, but I could never get 

 beyond the general belief that the Hounslow Heath 

 highwaymen, who frequently made Colnbrook their 

 head-quarters, used to sink their victims in this 

 deep hole. 



The last time I came here I was early, yet too 

 late. As we rounded the corner we saw that it was 

 already occupied by a punt, in which there was 

 a gentleman, a lady, and a boy, and as we were 

 deciding what we were to do, I saw the gentleman 

 strike a fish, and then ensued one of the grandest 

 struggles I had seen for many a long day. 



Everything favoured the fish a heavy stream 

 was running, and if, with the aid of this he could 

 only get fifteen short yards down stream, he would 

 have no difficulty in regaining his liberty. There, 

 in the deep hole, lies a tree, branches and all, as 

 washed from a spot 500 yards up stream, where 

 it toppled into the river. Many a good fish that 

 could, and ought to, have been prevented, has done 

 this little rush clean off the reel, much to the 

 astonishment of sundry fishers who were not too 

 clever by half at barbel fishing. 



To-day the battle is pretty equal. A score 

 of times, at least, the fish came within a yard or 

 two of home, to be got back to the punt bit by bit, 

 and, when he could no longer keep the bottom, 





