FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD 

 river Dove, and in Trent, and some other smaller rivers, as that which 

 runs by Salisbury "; but he does not mention it as inhabiting the Itchen, 

 which he knew so well. 



Grayling receive frequent mention in the earliest entries in the journals 

 of the Houghton Fishing Club, which was founded in 1822, and still 

 continues in possession of a long stretch of the Test near Stockbridge. 

 The largest number killed in any one season by the members of the 

 club was 198, in 1848, the average weight being 1 lb. 11 oz. In the same 

 season they killed 179 trout averaging 1 lb. 13 oz. That may be compared 

 with the season 1904, when only four grayling were killed, against 235 

 trout of an average weight of 2 lb.; but the comparison is vitiated by the 

 immense number of trout which the club has been turning into its water 

 for many years past, as well as by the disfavour with which grayling have 

 come to be regarded by gentlemen who only fish in summer. It was re- 

 solved in 1904 to turn out 1,500 large trout annually from the club's stock 

 ponds, and there is no record of any of the members visiting Stockbridge 

 in autumn and winter, as they used to do, for grayling fishing. The great 

 average weight of the trout taken is to be accounted for by the rule which 

 prohibits the killing of any trout under 1^ lb. in weight. No account is 

 made of the numerous trout under that weight which were landed and 

 released. 



The following entry in the " Houghton Club Chronicle " seems to 

 indicate that there were no grayling in the Itchen eighty years ago: 



•* 19th November, 1830. Mr Dampier met me here on 15th inst. . . . 

 Mr Garrett joined us on the 17th . . . the principal object of this meet- 

 ing was to catch store grayling for Mr Paulet Mildmay, who was 

 desirous of introducing them into the River Itchen. The fish rose 

 well and afforded good sport. On the 18th thirteen brace and a half 

 were sent off in tubs from Houghton Shallows, and ten brace reached 

 the Itchen alive, many of them one pound weight. They were put into 

 the Itchen at Shawford, below Winchester." 

 On the other hand it is recorded in the same journal as follows: 



** 2nd June, 1873. Through the kindness of Mr Thomas Chamber- 

 lain of Cranbury Park, 17^ brace of grayling from the Itchen have 

 been turned into the River [Test] above the town at the tail of the 

 mill. Of these fish, twelve or thirteen weighed 2 lb. and upwards." 

 From the middle of the nineteenth century onwards, grayling have been 

 distributed far and wide; in the Clyde, the Tweed and many other northern 

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