A HISTORY OF DORSET 



vicissitudes, pleasures and disappointments, pertain- 

 ing to the first few seasons of a career as a falconer, 

 will ever linger in his memory. He has in recent 

 years trained and flown in Dorset peregrine 

 falcons, Barbary falcons, merlins, goshawks, 

 sparrowhawks, and even sakers and larmers im- 

 ported from Asia, and with them he has taken 

 such quarry as herons, blackgame, pheasants, 

 partridges, wild duck, snipe, pigeons, rooks, crows 

 and seagulls with the falcons, larks with merlins, 

 and hares and rabbits with the goshawks. The 

 best places for flying hawks in Dorset are 

 the open moorlands around Wareham, Wool, and 

 Bere Regis, the downs near Blandford and the 

 surrounding country', and such places as Fording- 

 ton Fields near Dorchester. Two other sports- 

 men have kept and trained hawks in Dorset 

 during recent years. Colonel Thompson of the 

 7th Dragoon Guards, when acting as adjutant of 



the Dorset yeomanry some years ago, kept 

 and trained hawks at Charminster, and Mr. G. 

 Blaine, who was for a few seasons the tenant of 

 the Bere Regis manor, kept a fine establishment 

 of trained hawks at that place. Time, space, 

 and the nature of this article do not admit of any 

 detailed account of the actual method by which 

 hawks are trained and flown. Nothing but a 

 fine day spent with a falconer and his hawks in 

 such places as a grouse moor in August, or on 

 the downs in spring when riding hard after good 

 rook hawks, will give the reader an idea of the 

 immense time and patience which are required ere 

 a falconer can render tractable and subser\'ient to 

 hiswill one of nature's wildest creatures. Then for 

 the nonce he may imagine himself once more back 

 in the olden days, when falconry was the sport 

 of kings, and hawking parties issued forth from 

 every stately hall or castle in Merrie England. 



ANGLING 



The fishing in Dorset is extremely good in 

 some parts ; salmon, trout, and all descriptions 

 of coarse fish may be taken, and some very good 

 sea line fishing is to be found on the coast. The 

 principal fishing rivers are the Frome which, 

 rising near Rampisham, flows into Poole Harbour ; 

 the Piddle which rises above Piddletrenthide 

 and empties itself into Poole Harbour ; and the 

 Stour, with its tributaries, which rises in the 

 north-east corner of the county, and flows into 

 the sea at Christchurch. 



Dorset salmon fishing, although not nowadays 

 first class as regards the number of fish taken, is 

 first class for the size of the fish. Trout fishing 

 is really first class, for there are few places in 

 the United Kingdom with better natural trout 

 streams, and where the water is carefully pre- 

 served the skilled angler may make phenomenal 

 bags. Many a big catch has been made with 

 the wet fly ; but of the best fish the greatest 

 number, whether in the Frome, the Tarrant, or 

 the Piddle, have certainly fallen to the lot of the 

 dry fly fisherman. Coarse fishing in many of 

 the rivers is really good, and excellent sport 

 may be enjoyed by the skilled bottom fisher- 

 man. 



The Frome 



The history of salmon fishing on this river 

 is of great antiquity and importance, but it is 

 as an industry rather than as a sport that we find 

 early mention of it in the accounts of the honour 

 of Gloucester. In 1544 Henry VIII made a 

 grant of the manor and borough of Wareham 

 to Catherine of Aragon, including all sporting 

 and fishing rights. 



In 1 56 1 the Frome salmon fishery was 

 leased to a certain Francis Browne and 



Anne his wife, at 69J. ^d. with a fine of 

 j^20. In 1582 it appears to have been 

 granted to Edmund Frost and John Walker. 

 In the same year it came into the possession of 

 Sir Christopher Hatton and after that went to 

 Sir John Bankes. From him it passed to the 

 Calcraft family, who have held it ever since ; 

 the present owner being Captain Marsden, R.N., 

 nephew of the late William Calcraft of Remp- 

 stone. Hutchins in his History of Dorset relates 

 that an old fisherman of ninetj'-three had told 

 him of a catch of forty-seven salmon weighing 

 sixty score, which, being unsaleable at Ware- 

 ham, were carried on to Bindon Fair and sold 

 at 2d. a lb. The best netting was below Ware- 

 ham Bridge, and in one year 150 salmon were 

 taken — all big fish. 



It was not until quite modern times that rod 

 fishing for salmon was introduced on the Frome, 

 but after several successful years of the nets, 

 when Messrs. Panton & Son had the netting 

 rights of the Calcraft estate, it was attempted. 

 The first to try the rod was the late General 

 Hankey, who was stationed at Dorchester about 

 1868, and though permission was granted when 

 he asked leave of Mr. Bond of Creech Grange, the 

 idea of catching a fish was laughed at. Begin- 

 ning at Holme Bridge, he fished steadily down 

 to a pool about 400 yards below the present 

 Swanage Railway Bridge. Here he hooked a 

 fish which from its play he imagined to be a 

 pike, and after about a minute it broke away 

 without showing itself. Having fished the river 

 down, he returned to the same pool and in it 

 rose, hooked, played and landed a salmon of 

 28 lb., a clean fresh run fish. On examination 

 he found the tongue split and bleeding, which 

 proved it to have been the fish he had hooked 



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