200 ANGLING 



Me of her sturgeons sends, that I thereby the more 

 Should have my beauties graced with something from him 



sent : 

 Not Anoum's silvered eel excelleth that of Trent ; 

 Though the sweet - smelling smelt be more in Thames 



than me, 

 The lamprey, and his lesse, in Severn general be ; 

 The flounder smooth and flat, in other rivers caught. 

 Perhaps in greater store, yet better are not thought: 

 The dainty gudgeon, loohe, the minnow, and the bleak, 

 Since they but little are, I little need to speak 

 Of them, nor doth it ftt me much of those to reck, 

 Which everywhere are found in every little beck ; 

 Nor of the crayfish here, which creeps amongst my stones, 

 From all the rest alone, whose shell is all his bones : 

 For carp, the tench, and bream, my other stores among, 

 To lakes and standing pools that chiefly do belong. 

 Here scouring in my fords, feed in my waters clear, 

 Are muddy fish, in ponds, to that which they are here." 



But great as the praise is, wliicli is justly due to the 

 waters of Severn, we would not think of recommending 

 a metropolitan angler to pay it an express visit. The 

 river — and a noble one it is, especially for commercial 

 and navigable purposes — is unquestionably interesting 

 to the rod-fishers in the several localities on its banks, 

 as it flows through Shropshire, Stafibrdshire, and 

 Worcestershire to the ocean; but it does not possess 

 those peculiarly interesting attributes which a purely 

 fly-fishing river should have. Bottom-fishing, in all its 

 forms and richness, is undoubtedly its staple angluig 

 commodity; although there are many spots upon its 

 waters where the fly can be thrown with a fair chance 

 of success. 



Trout have been taken in the Severn of great weight ; 

 one we know of late years, by trolling, of twelve and a 

 half pounds. The salmon are likewise very excellent in 

 quality. Anglers on these waters recommend dark- 

 coloured flies, with gold-tinselled bodies, as the most 

 efiective in these waters, more especially in the early 

 sections of the fishing season. Trolling is more success- 

 ful than the fly. 



The Severn has a "Welsh origin. It springs out of 

 the vicinity of IMount Plinlimmon, and its primary 



