no ANGLING 



Note to Chapter VI 



Blakey, it may without any unkindness be assumed, knew very 

 little about grayling or grayling-fishing. Derbyshire, Yorkshire, 

 and the Herefordshire and Worcestershire streams were for many 

 years the districts in which the grayling was supposed to be indi- 

 genous. It is a disputed point, which probably will never be 

 settled, whether the grayling was an original inhabitant of the 

 country, or was imported here by monks from the Continent. The 

 fish has been introduced in our times into scores of rivers where 

 they did not previously exist, and some trout-fishera maintain that 

 this has been done to the deterioration of the trout. The strong 

 argument adduced by the admirer and therefore defender of the 

 grayling is that when the trout-rod is laid aside by the law of the 

 land and the canons of sport (which shoiild be at the end of 

 September), the grayling, which is a very free-rising fish, affording 

 charming sport to the fly-fisher, is in its best condition, and con- 

 tinues to be in season during the winter months, it being one 

 of the so-called summer spawners, which deposit their eggs in the 

 spring. It is a delicious dish of meat for the table, and has a host 

 of enthusiastic admirers for its elegance and courage. Walton's 

 description of the grayling as the "deadest-hearted fish in the 

 world " has often been quoted, to be laughed at ; but the dear old 

 author of The Complete Angler was not an immaculate authority 

 as a fly-fisher, and was at anyrate mistaken as to the sporting 

 character of this fish. It does not so often leap out of the water 

 when hooked as the trout does, and its method of struggling to 

 escape is different ; but a grayling in condition, and in a lively 

 stream, gives the angler almost as much to do to come out victor 

 in the fight as a trout. To the grayling-rivers mentioned by 

 Blakey must now be added the Itchen, the Test, the Cheshire 

 Dee, the Colne, the Lea, the Clyde, the Tweed, the Ayr, and of 

 course all the tributaries of the Trent. — W. S. 



