THE THAMES 169 



the distance of eleven hundred and fifty yards. The 

 inn is the Horse Shoe ; and the fishermen the Messrs. 

 Harris. 



Staines is now a favourite station for the London 

 sportsman on the Thames. Trout-fishing has greatly 

 improved here of late years. The preserved waters 

 extend two hundred and ten yards east of the bridge. 

 Barbel, roach, chub, and a fair portion of gudgeons are 

 to be caught in this locality. The inns are the Bush, 

 the Angel, and the Swan; and the fishermen, whom 

 we have invariably found very civil and obliging, are 

 Fletcher and Chambers. 



Windsor has now become a very fair trout station ; 

 some fine large fish have recently been taken in its 

 waters, both with fly and with natural and artificial 

 minnows. Eton and Surley Hall weirs are favourite 

 spots for good fish. The bridge at Windsor is 

 an excellent place for barbel ; and about Datchet this 

 kind of fish are always more than usually abundant. 

 There are numerous shoals of gudgeons about the 

 Windsor and Eton waters, which we have seen taken 

 in large quantities. 



The angling stations of Maidenhead, Cookham, 

 Henley, Waegeave, Eeading, Pangbourne Burn, and 

 Streatlt, come all within the reach of the London 

 anglers, and are looked upon as suburban waters for 

 their especial recreation. We refrain from enumerating 

 their individual properties and facilities for piscatory 

 labours ; they all bear a strong family likeness. These 

 angling stations just mentioned are all easily accessible 

 by railway conveyance ; and, speaking generally, the 

 farther the angler ascends up the river — the greater 

 distance he travels towards the higher waters — the better 

 will he find this famous stream for the ordinary pur- 

 poses of trout, and especially of fly-fishing. 



Our limits would not permit us, as we have hastily 

 run over these angling stations on the Thames, to dwell 

 upon the num.erous sources of interest embodied in all 

 of them to the rod-fisher of taste and refinement. There 

 are spots of superlative scenic beauty, and also great 



