SALMON-FISHING IN THE AVON 205 



The largest salmon I ever killed in the Avon, if I remember 

 rightly, was from sixteen to eighteen pounds ; but Lord Canning 

 hooked one, who broke him, of forty-four pounds. The fish was 

 taken in a net in the same week, with his lordship's fly in his 

 mouth. Lord Malmsbury, Lord Castlereagh, and others have 

 killed many fish in the Avon ; and my opinion is, that if the 

 safety and preservation of the salmon could be assured to a 

 greater distance up the river, and Sir George Rose, to whom the 

 fishery belongs, would lower his rent to a considerable figure, 

 the breed of salmon might be increased, and by degrees the rent 

 be raised to even more than it was before. The exorbitant 

 rent at present demanded induces the gentlemen who take the 

 fishery to make the salmon defray a portion of the expenses, 

 consequently, every Saturday before the passage up is opened, all 

 the fish that have refused the fly during the week are caught 

 with a net, not only to pay expenses, but because the neighbour' 

 above would catch them with nets the moment they passed to 

 his portion of the river. The salmon killed with a fly are, 

 therefore, very few; and it would be curious to compare the 

 price of each fish so taken with the amount of rent. I think 

 the average price of a salmon would be about ten guineas the 

 rise. Of this all men may rest assm-ed, that no pleasure, except 

 the miser's questionable delight in making money, ever pays its 

 own cost in pounds, shillings, and pence ; many pleasures, as the 

 saying goes, do pay, and will repay in enjoyment those who seek 

 them : to have pleasure for nothing is impossible ; and it is 

 right that it should be so ; if men did not pay for their pleasure, 

 on my word I think some would have none at all. 



I was fishing once in the Stour for perch, and my man, who 

 was walking by the brink of the river, clear, swift, cool, deep, 

 and beautiful as it i-an just at that place, exclaimed to me, " Sir, 

 here are two great eels." On repairing to the spot, the water 

 without a weed, was gliding rapidly over a firm marl or clay 

 bottom, perhaps from five to six feet in depth, and in the centre 

 of the stream were, not two eels, but two large lampreys, very 

 busily employed, as it seemed to me, in boring a hole in the 



