CHAPTER III 



SOME ENGLISH TROUT STREAMS 



' The pleasantest angling is to see the fish cut with her golden oars the 

 silver stream and greedily devour the treacherous bait.' 



Shakespeare. 



I CAIN hardly explain to the layman (and to the angler it is 

 unnecessary as he knows aU about it) the quality of my 

 delight when I first saw the radiantly beautiful trout streams 

 of England. Whether it was a sense of proprietorship, as my 

 ancestors on aU sides fished these streams prior to 1656, or just 

 mere appreciation, I cannot teU. I have no doubt that having a 

 strong underlying appreciation for what England has done to 

 civilLze the world, my inner consciousness had bridged the two and 

 a half centuries since my Quaker ancestors left England for 

 America, as missionaries. I am sure that aU. these forefathers 

 at some time were anglers, as a man could not be human and 

 resist the more than beautiful and alluring streams of England. 

 I am going to believe that they were, and that some of them saw 

 the Dove, and knew Walton and Juliana Berners, and all the 

 rest of that little band of honest anglers who have added to 

 the joy of living, by creating the purest and most delightful of 

 outdoor sports — angling with a fly. 



Everything is old in England, and the ancient Britains, the 

 Eomans, the early angling Saxons and many more races have 

 known England, its trout, salmon and grayling in the past five 

 or ten thousand years, and nowhere in the world has sport been 

 so well conserved, so dignified and made so completely a part 

 of the health of the race. 



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