AUGUST 197 



river Dove [a tributary of the Trent], and in the Trent, 

 and some other smaller rivers, as that which runs by- 

 Salisbury [the Avon] ' ; but it is to be observed that he 

 does not mention the grayling as inhabiting the Itchen, 

 beside which he spent so much of his life. Probably 

 there were none in that fair stream in Izaak's day. 

 Trout fishers wish to goodness there were none now. 

 That there were none in the Test previous to the 

 nineteenth century seems clear from the following 

 extract from the Chronicles of the Houghton Fishing 

 Club, which I had the pleasure of editing in 1908 : 



'Origin of the Gbayling in the Test. 



' About the year 1816 Mr. Tate and Mr. Snow of Longstock 

 sent Mr. John Haines their fisherman to Heron Court [on the 

 Avon] to fetch 25 brace of grayling given to them by Lord 

 Malmesbury. Haines brought the fish in a water-cart, and 

 rested them in the miller's trunk at Eomsey. One fish only 

 died, and the survivors were put into the Test at Longstock. 

 They were small ; not more than 3 or 4 oz. each. 



' The Longstock Fishery in a few years became well stocked 

 with grayling; but, as the stock increased, they gradually 

 quitted that part of the river for the water below, and it is 

 now (1834) some years since any have been taken above the 

 town of Stockbridge. At the present time, the place at 

 which grayling most abound is Houghton Shallows and 

 neighbourhood, about four miles below Longstock. ... In 

 consequence of a wish to increase the stock, no small grayling 

 were killed until the year 1829 ; but in that year, when the 

 numbers had increased, the members of the Club more 

 frequently resorted to Stockbridge late in the year for the 

 autumn fishing, killing grayling of 1 lb. weight without 

 reserve, from which they had heretofore generally abstained.' 



This note in the Chronicle was entered in 1834. 



