FEBRUARY 35 



general assumption that their manage- 

 ment is the best in the world, it is 

 astonishing to gather that were they not 

 regularly replenished with heavy trout 

 they would be in as poor a plight as 

 streams elsewhere in England, and all 

 over Scotland, which are under practi- 

 cally no management at all. 



This obliges us to perceive that the 

 controversy between the two methods of 

 angling, the Hampshire method and the 

 method which is general elsewhere, has 

 a serious side as well as a silly side. 

 The Hampshire convention, none too at- 

 tractive either in life or in literature, is 

 confessedly a failure as regards the pre- 

 servation of the stock. It is questionable 

 whether, with all the advantages touched 

 upon, any mile of the Itchen or of the 

 Test has more trout, or even more large 

 trout, than an equivalent stretch of 

 the Tweed or of the Tay. The less 

 fashionable practice, then, cannot be 

 deemed more injurious than the 

 other. 



