CLEAR WATERS 



doubt, however, that when on the take they are much 

 easier to kill and much less shy than trout. On the 

 table they greatly resemble the latter. I should say 

 that a grayling was the equal of an average trout, 

 though not trout of the best class, such as those, for 

 instance, out of rocky mountain streams. But the 

 Lugg grayling are generally regarded by those who 

 have the best opportunities for comparison as equal 

 in October to the Lugg trout of June, which is also 

 white-fleshed. 



After leaving Leominster, to pursue a course of some 

 twenty miles towards its junction with the Wye below 

 Hereford, through flat meadows for the most part, the 

 Lugg gradually, I think, deteriorates as a trout stream, 

 though the fish perhaps get heavier. But neither they 

 nor the grayling rise so freely, and I fancy the coarse 

 fish begin to get some hold. But whenever I cross 

 it at Lugwardine, or again, travelling south by road 

 from Hereford to Ross, stand on the bridge at 

 Mordiford just above its junction with the Wye, it 

 appears to me a different river from the buoyant 

 stream of Kingsland and Mortimer's Cross. And 

 looking back up the wide, flat meadows, I always feel 

 that it has seen its best days from every point of view, 

 and that it is full time it should merge its waters in the 

 most beautiful of all English and Welsh rivers. 



In the cottage in the orchard by Lugg bridge where 

 the keeper now lives, there dwelt for many years a 

 well-known character, fisherman and fly-tier. Seques- 

 tered spot though it be, he sent his flies all over this 

 border country, and had clients, I believe, in other 

 parts of England. An accomplished angler himself, 

 168 



