HAMPSHIRE WATER MEADOWS. 143 



HAMPSHIRE WATER MEADOWS. 



THE ROMANCE OF FLY FISHING WEEK END 



PLEASURES THE BLACK GNAT TIME AFTER THE 



THUNDERSTORM. 



Perhaps it would imply an excessive egoism 

 if we were all to set ourselves down to 

 think out the order in which we should 

 place our pleasures . . . 

 . . . There are moments that stand out in 

 one's life memories as the best and brightest, 

 and these in my own mind's vision, have 

 the serene yet sparkling face of a river 

 for their background. 



HORACE HUTCHINSON. 



COMPARISONS are ungrateful: more so 

 in angling perhaps than in other sports, 

 for the reason that so many circum- 

 stances and surroundings are ancillary to the 

 day's pleasure. To plash through the water 

 meadows of the Avon or Itchen, to crouch 

 behind the giant rushes or dock leaves at the 

 water edge, to peer over and see whether the 

 two pound trout, or grayling, is rising beyond 

 the waving weed patch, need not be considered 

 in any way a joy superior to that felt by the 

 angler making his way up a Northumbrian 

 burn or a rocky stream in Derbyshire. Nor 



