SPORT 



fishing in Dartford Creek, and there are 

 still ponds in the neighbourhood of Dart- 

 ford holding carp, roach, perch, and bream, 

 many of which run to a good size. The 

 lake at the Phoenix Paper Mills contains 

 bream, and visitors to the district can com- 

 bine angling for trout and roach in the 

 Darent between Crayford and Dartford 

 with a visit to the water referred to. Per- 

 mission can usually be obtained. 



The Hythe Military Canal is a favourite 

 resort with many anglers. It contains 

 roach, rudd, tench, perch, carp, pike, and 

 eels ; and the bream and tench fishing is often 

 marked by excellent sport in June, July, and 

 August. Not a few anglers, particularly 

 club fishers from London, pursue their sport 

 by night in the warm months, and at times 

 are rewarded with heavy bags of bream, tench, 

 and eels. Near Hythe a member of the South 

 West Piscatorials, Battersea, early in the 

 summer of 1906 caught more tench one night 

 than he could conveniently carry to the station 

 — viz., 124 lb. The fish taken numbered 

 fifty-eight, and in the evening they were on 

 view at the angler's club in London. Tickets 

 (l/. a day) are required by anglers in this 

 district, and are to be obtained at the Swan 

 Inn at Hythe. In the autumn and winter 

 the canal furnishes sport for pike anglers, 

 live-baiting and spinning both proving success- 

 ful. One of the best reaches for pike is to 

 be found at Ham Street. Many good pike 

 have been taken here, and Mr. L. J. 

 Weston, a member of the Hastings Angling 

 Association, in the autumn of 1906 killed 

 a 20 lb. fish. The water in the canal is 

 rather shallow in many parts, and the finest 

 tackle that can safely be used is to be preferred. 



Anglers may be interested to learn that it 

 is to the French that they must be grateful for 

 the existence of the Hythe canal. Mr. 

 Beavan in his book ' Fishes I have Known ' tells 

 us that during our tremendous struggle with 

 the French in the early years of the last 



century, certain precautious were taken by 

 the military authorities, in anticipation of 

 a descent upon the south coast by our gallant 

 foes. A chain of martello towers was one 

 feature ; a fresh-water canal between S.ind- 

 gate and Appledore was another. Mr. Beavan's 

 fishing experiences in the canal were not par- 

 ticularly happy. 



The waterway [he says] has always been attractive 

 to boating men and also to anglers, as it is reputed 

 to be not only well stocked with roach, bream, and 

 perch, but to contain a few pike. For the sum 

 of, I think, two shillings per week, leave and licence 

 is granted to angle for any of the above fish, but 

 leave and licence is also granted to rowing boats 

 on the canal, and so shallow is it, as a rule, that the 

 oar-blades churn up the mud at each stroke. As 

 the trippers in their gondolas pass the wretched 

 angler on the bank, spoiling his ' swim ' and sending 

 his float out of sight, unparliamentary language 

 is provoked, and the proverbial ' gentleness ' of 

 Izaak Walton's art is belied. 



But Mr. Beavan must have been singularly 

 unlucky, and the big catch referred to above 

 has been made since he drew so mournful a 

 picture of Hythe and its canal. 



Probably the most remarkable fish ever 

 taken in Kentish waters is that which is 

 referred to in the following paragraph which 

 appeared in The Globe, 26 September 1904 : 

 ' The Press Association says that a novel 

 capture has been made in the river Medway 

 at Rochester. A man named Buckingham 

 went to witness the launch of a barge, and 

 noticing a fish leap from the water and fly 

 along the surface, he struck at it with his 

 walking stick, with the result that he was able 

 to capture it. It proved to be a fine specimen 

 of the flying-fish, measuring fifteen inches 

 in length. The wing-fins are very promi- 

 nent. It is most unusual for so tropical a 

 fish to come to our chilly shores.' 



Stray pilot fish have been captured in 

 Ramsgate Harbour, probably following a 

 ship.i 



CRICKET 



No county has a greater cricket history 

 than Kent. As Lord Harris observed in his 

 preface to the History of Kent County Cricket 

 (Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1907), which must 

 be the standard work on the subject, ' Kent 

 has probably put good elevens into the field 

 over a longer period than any other county.' 

 Research shows that the earliest recorded 

 match played within ' the garden of England ' 

 was at Mailing in 1705, when eleven gentle- 

 men of the west part of the county of Kent 



opposed as many of Chatham for eleven guineas 

 a man. In 1723 the championship had 

 already apparently come thither, for in that 

 year the Earl of Oxford speaks of ' the sport 

 of cricket, which of all the people of England 

 the Kentish folk are most renowned for, 

 and of all the Kentish men the men of Dart- 

 ford lay claim to the greatest excellence.' 

 In the match between the Prince of Wales 



Arthur H. Beavan, Fishes I have Known, 83. 



509 



