170 In Pursuit of the Trout 



bear signs of considerable change. The 

 scythe has to some extent been superseded, 

 as has the good old hand-driven plough, and 

 there is a railway station at Longparish — ^a 

 very pretty one, be it added ; but other 

 changes are probably neither numerous nor 

 material. Bransbury Common itself is as 

 untouched by civilising influences as Exmoor 

 Forest. It is the w^eird haunt, as I discovered 

 to my delight, of the skulking water-rail, the 

 drumming snipe — that quaint little bird, all 

 ' belly and bill,' as Mr. Emerson calls it — of 

 the beautiful cotton-sedge, of the marsh 

 fritillary butterfly, of the pink underwing 

 moth, and last, but to the angler-naturalist 

 assuredly not least, of the most splendid 

 trout. The Common is watered by three 

 streams, the Test proper, the ' Old River,' 

 and the ' Small River,' as well as by several 

 springs and feeders. I came upon the fritil- 

 lary, an insect which many ardent ento- 

 mologists are never fortunate enough to 

 observe in a wild state, while I was stalking 

 a golden-hued, crimson-spotted trout in the 



