A HISTORY OF KENT 



Lord Stanhope preserves the river at Seven- 

 oaks, but the miller at Longford, close by, 

 owns some water, and issues day tickets to 

 visitors for roach and trout fishing. Eynsford 

 affords some excellent trout-fishing — cer- 

 tainly the best that the river has to offer, 

 and probably the finest in the county. This 

 part of the Darent is closely preserved by 

 Mr. W. B. Leaf, who has spent a great 

 deal of money in improving the fishing 

 and re-stocking with trout from time to 

 time. Occasionally he has a rod to let. At 

 Farningham a nice stretch of the river 

 is leased by the proprietor of the Lion 

 Hotel, who issues tickets for the season or for 

 shorter periods. This fishing is well looked 

 after and was re-stocked with brown trout 

 in 1907. A variety of flies are used on the 

 Darent, the best, according to season, being 

 the following : red and grey quills. Wick- 

 ham's fancy, March brown, mayfly, olive 

 dun, black gnat, and hare's ear. A trout of 

 ij lb. or so is nowadays considered very good 

 on the Darent waters, but in 1844 Mr. A. 

 Jardine took a magnificent specimen of 

 6jlb. 



Among the less important streams or tribu- 

 taries of the county may be included the 

 Cray, Beult, Teise, and Eden. They are 

 in part preserved, but the sport obtainable 

 in them is not very noteworthy from a general 

 point of view. The public may fish them in 

 parts, and there are roach, pike, and a few 

 other coarse fish to be caught in all of them. 

 Trout are met with occasionally in the Beult 

 and Cray. The Cray, which before the 

 period of pollution set in was regarded as 

 a sport-yielding stream of no small merit 

 considering its size, has a beautiful gravel 

 bottom in some of its reaches, but owing to 

 the discharge of unclean matter and the low 

 state of the water of recent years, a great 

 deal of rubbish has collected, and the river 

 requires heavy floods or dredging before 

 it can regain its former good condition. 

 Signs of recovery have become apparent 

 during the past two or three seasons and now 

 (1907) the river is showing a fair flow of water 

 once more, notably in the Sidcup and Bexley 

 districts. An attempt has latterly been 

 made to re-stock the Cray with trout, 

 but it is to be feared that the value of 

 the river for fly-fishing has been too badly 

 affected to recover in a short period. The 

 waters at Orpington, Sidcup Place, the Crays, 

 and at Bexley are private. 



The Beult is a tributary of the Medway, 

 and has its source near Headcorn. It joins 

 the main river close to Yalding. There is 

 nothing to be said of it from an angling point 



of view that does not apply to the smaller 

 streams of Kent in general. The Teise, 

 another tributary of the Medway, is a nice 

 little stream which rises near Tunbridge Wells, 

 and runs through Goudhurst, Horsmonden, 

 and Staplehurst, and finally, like the Beult, 

 empties itself, after a wandering career of 

 some thirty miles, into the Medway near 

 Yalding. Another sporting little stream, 

 the Eden, which joins the Medway near Pen- 

 hurst, holds a variety of fish, principally dace, 

 roach, and gudgeon, with a few bream here 

 and there. It is mostly in private hands 

 and is well preserved. In the Edenbridge 

 district permission may be obtained to fish 

 its waters on payment of a nominal fee of a 

 shilling or two per rod for the day. The 

 Eden rises near Godstone in Surrey and is 

 sixteen miles in length. Mention should 

 also be made of the Ravensbourne, although 

 as an angling stream its glories have long 

 since departed. At one time good fish were 

 caught in its waters, which extend for ten 

 miles, but being, as it is, a tributary of the 

 Thames, commercial enterprise has ruined 

 its capabilities as an angling river. The Dour, 

 from which Dover takes its name, is a small 

 stream of no importance to the angler ; and 

 the Rother, which rises in Sussex and for some 

 distance forms the boundary between that 

 county and Kent, is, properly speaking, a 

 Sussex river. It offers very fair sport to 

 the general angler and a few trout of moderate 

 size are to be caught in its reaches. It is, 

 however, like a few other out of the way 

 streams in Kent and Sussex, very badly 

 poached in places, and some of its smaller 

 tributaries are netted in wholesale fashion. 



Besides its rivers Kent possesses a number 

 of excellent lakes and other still waters, 

 several of which are well stocked with fish. 

 The majority of these are in private hands, 

 but permission to fish them can often be 

 obtained by application or introduction. 

 The lakes at Leeds Castle near Maidstone 

 hold some good perch and several pike of 

 large size. Leave to fish here can be obtained 

 occasionally. Mr. A. Jardine once caught 

 a 36 lb. pike in the Leeds Castle waters, and 

 other anglers have had several specimen fish 

 during more recent times. Mr. Jardine's 

 pike was landed in 1877, and still ranks as 

 one of the largest fish of the kind taken in 

 English waters. Perch weighing as much 

 as 4 lb. apiece have been taken in recent 

 years at Leeds Castle. In 1879 H.R.H. the 

 Duke of Edinburgh captured another very 

 fine pike of 24^ lb. in the lake at East- 

 well Park near Ashford, the seat of Lord 

 Gerard. In years gone by there was good 



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