EXPERIENCES & REMINISCENCES. 47 



It is curious not to say wonderful what extraordinary 

 names are given to certain places on the Trent which are 

 known to anglers as "good swims." Here are a few : Putty 

 Nob, Scotchman's Hole, Shuttle Swim, Cranus's Pits, Girton 

 Stakes, Bream Swim, Turnpost Swim, The Rovings, The 

 Ropes, The Staithe Swim, Dunham Dubbs, and any amount 

 of others. Mr. Hopper once went to " Putty Nob." It took him 

 2^ hours to tow the boat there, and when he arrived the wind 

 was so strong that the boat dragged the big stone let down to 

 moor the boat in position and gradually drifted down stream. 

 There was no help for it but to go home again. No more 

 " Putty Nob " for Mr. Hopper on a windy day. 



The steamers on the Trent, with sometimes four or five barges 

 in tow, are a great nuisance to anglers, as when one is coming it 

 means up with your mooring stone at once and away to the bank 

 side. Mr. Hopper and Twynkles were fishing Dunham Dubbs 

 last year when the steamer " Robin Hood " with five barges in 

 tow suddenly popped round the corner. No time to pull up the 

 stone, as we were fishing in water just upon 30 feet deep. Mr. 

 Hopper had just time to sheer the boat ashore when " Robin 

 Hood" was abreast, the nose of the row boat touched the 

 shore, and the mooring line being quite taut she flew into mid- 

 stream. It was now almost a certainty of being run into and 

 smashed by one or other of the barges and left to get ashore 

 as best could be. " Get your oar, Twynkles," said Mr. 

 Hopper, who seized his and commenced to pull for his life, but 

 he was horrified to find no way being made. There was 

 Twynkles pulling like a modern Hercules and blowing like a 

 grampus ; but, would you believe it, he had sat down in the 

 excitement and flurry of the moment facing Mr. Hopper, and 

 consequently also facing the stem of the boat. Whatever 

 work Mr. Hopper had therefore been putting in Twynkles 

 had simply neutralised ! As luck would have it there were a 

 decent lot of men on the barges, and the tillers were put " hard 

 over," with the result that the last barge just missed running us 

 down by two or three feet. Twynkles is not a bad man, but he 

 was scarcely ready for thirty feet of water that October day. 

 Oh ! Twynkles thou dids't look pale, and a mighty big sigh 

 of relief escaped thee when the danger was past ! 



