CHAPTER II. 



DESCRIPTIVE NOTICES OF THE THAMES, AND 

 ITS TRIBUTARY STREAMS, THE KENNET, THE 

 COLNE, THE WANDLE, AND THE LEA. 



THE author of " Salmonia," some six or seven years 

 ago, declared that the glory of fly-fishing had departed 

 from many of the streams of Scotland; but Christopher 

 North, a much higher authority , writing within this pre- 

 sent year, gives to all anglers a comfortable assurance 

 that, though there is what he, " Christopher, and a 

 Scotchman," calls first-rate angling, " in few, if any, of 

 the dear Engli sh lakes ;" and though, with your own 

 tackle, you may angle in Crummock water, " with amo- 

 rous ditties all a summer's day," and never get a rise ; 

 'tis never so in the lochs of Scotland. But all living 

 creatures/' he thus continues, " are in a constant state 

 of hunger in this favored country ; so bait your hook 

 with anything edible it matters not what snail, spi- 

 der, fly and angle for what you may, you are sure to 

 catch it almost as certainly as the accent or the itch." 

 In addition to this express testimony of one so well 

 qualified to give an opinion on this subject, we shall 

 just quote an account of the Ettrick Shepherd's suc- 

 cess, in little more than a mere en-passant whup at a 

 couple of streams, the Meggat and the Fruid, when 



