40 By Stream and Sea. 



stand why so many mutilated and murdered fish were found, 

 but at length the ruinous cause was discovered to be 

 "snatching." Happily, a bye-law was unearthed under 

 which the snatcher could be brought under the hand of the 

 police, so that the Itchen anglers during succeeding seasons 

 reaped the benefit of a strict enforcement of the penalties in 

 such case made and provided. 



The Itchen about Winchester is* the only portion which 

 is within the reach of the angler who is able and willing to 

 pay for his sport, and there is no river in England where the 

 terms are fairer and the probabilities of moderate sport 

 better. You may, for a trifle per diem, purchase the right of 

 fishing the lower waters, where large fish roam ; or you may 

 secure advantageous terms by taking weekly, monthly, or 

 yearly tickets. The upper water is a ten-rod and ten-guinea 

 subscription fishery, and there the trout are more numerous, 

 though not, as a rule, so heavy. These particulars I mention 

 to assist any brother angler who, wishing to know how best 

 to spend that holiday which gives him release from care and 

 toil, is hampered and too often disappointed by not knowing 

 where to go. The higher parts of the Itchen are most 

 strictly preserved by the landowners, and hence there exists 

 a common impression that the whole river is beyond the 

 grasp of an ordinary individual. Winchester is but sixty- 

 seven miles from London, and if a London angler takes the 

 earliest and latest trains he may enjoy a long day's hard 

 work with his fly rod by the side of a well-stocked trout 

 stream and amidst lovely pastoral scenery. 



Yesterday, as I can vouch from actual observation, one of 

 the subscribers between ten and three o'clock caught seven 

 brace of fish, weighing twenty pounds ; four and five brace 



* Referring to the season of 1874. 



