NORTHUMBERLAND 



through an association, like so much of the lower 

 Coquet. Below Alhwick castle, however, in that 

 beautiful demesne of Hulne park, the Aln has become 

 more of a brawling, rocky trout stream, and for two 

 or three miles sings through as charming a blend of 

 art and nature as one might wish to see. Having ex- 

 hausted the beauties of the park, which contains lofty 

 hills, gracefully clad with fine timber, native and 

 exotic, and two ruined abbeys, besides herds of deer and 

 Highland cattle, I returned there upon another day 

 with permission to fish it, in which matter the duke 

 is very generous. I had been told by my angling 

 friends and acquaintances in the country that a good 

 day there meant forty to fifty quarter-pounders. 

 Mine was a September day in a dry spell. I did not 

 look for any such returns, and was not disappointed 

 with a dozen and a half, for the compensations of fish- 

 ing amid that beautiful Arcady were considerable. 

 It struck me as rather odd that the trout were nearly 

 all the same size, but it suggested the possibility that 

 there were rather too many of them in the stream. 



I had no intention of writing an angling guide to 

 the rivers of Northumberland in the space of a chapter, 

 but I find that the Wansbeck is literally the only one 

 in the county I have made no allusion to, and it has 

 always a rather tender place in my memory, though 

 I have only fished it once in my life. It is not for the 

 achievements of that solitary day it holds this cherished 

 position, though those being satisfactory no doubt 

 lent flavour to the occasion. But at the moment I 

 had just returned from a residence abroad of ten years, 

 which in early life is a long time. I had caught, to be 



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