NATURE AND SPORT IN BRITAIN 



and one's hands and legs are drenched with salt water, 

 is rather a chilling form of pleasure, conducive to 

 rheumatism and other ills, Prawning is, in truth, 

 essentially a summer pastime, thoroughly enjoyable in 

 those warm, pleasant days when no one minds partial 

 immersion, and a tumble into a pool or gully among 

 the rocks is rather matter for laughter than otherwise. 



The pursuit of the lively and voracious prawn has, 

 during the last few years, become quite a fashion upon 

 the south coast. Always in favour among a few en- 

 thusiasts who could appreciate a good thing, it has 

 rather suddenly acquired a much more considerable 

 vogue. Prawning parties are now constantly organ- 

 ised, and expeditions of seven or eight miles frequently 

 made in search of this excellent spoil of the sea. Even 

 comparatively raw amateurs can secure quite respect- 

 able bags, and a party of six or eight will often return 

 with a catch of 500 or 600 prawns. No one, not even 

 the man who turns up his nose at the humble shrimp, 

 can possibly affect to despise the noble prawn, and a 

 dish of these delicacies, cooked and eaten the same 

 evening, is a luxury fit for Lucullus, well worth the 

 small trouble of catching. The prawn, indeed, bril- 

 liant in its scarlet coat, is not only an ornament to the 

 snow-white cloth, but a delicacy to be highly appreci- 

 ated even by the greatest of gourmets. 



The advent of cycling has placed many a distant 

 prawning-ground, once only frequented by the pro- 

 fessional fisher, and by him, perhaps, only occasion- 

 ally, within easy reach. Waggonettes and brakes are 

 chartered, and those who can afford it appear to think 

 a guinea or a guinea and a half in the way of carriage 

 hire by no means ill spent for the pleasure of a day 

 with the prawns, and a delightful picnic into the 

 bargain. To catch prawns you must, of course, be in 



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