CHAPTER IV 



SOME SMALL GAME FISHES OF ENGLAND 

 (COARSE FISH) 



'Angling is somewhat like poetry, men are to be born so.' 



Walton. 



THEEE are some deligMful old Englisli customs relating to 

 tlie fishing rights of certain streams, which I heard one 

 night at a banquet of the Fishmongers' Guild in honour of Lord 

 Bversley, who has done so much for the fishing interests in Great 

 Britain. One referred to certain rights at Oxford, and another 

 to Loch Maben, where the inhabitants have an annual ' Vendace ' 

 fishing day in the neighbouring lakes, taking advantage of a right 

 to fish awarded them by James Vll. The vendace is not known 

 in many places in Scotland, so I am told, being peculiar to the 

 Lochs in Dumfriesshire, in Derwenter and the Bassenthwaite 

 Lakes, having been brought from France by Mary, Queen of 

 Scots, according to the legend. The vendace is not a game fish, 

 living in the deeps of the lochs ; feeding, it is said, on certain algae 

 which impart to it a deUcious flavour. This is but one of scores 

 of old customs the angler meets in England, relating to manor 

 and other rights, the privileges of certain streams, a subject, 

 which I imagine, of itself would make a most interesting little book, 

 as who would not like to join the people about Loch Maben on 

 vendace day ? 



In stroUing up the Thames in England in the direction of 

 Maidenhead, or along the Seine in Paris, the alien wonders what 

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