312 THE DRY-FLY MAN'S HANDBOOK 



Millers' rights are at times very prejudicial to those 



of the fisherman, and millers, 



Millers' rights. as a class, are rather prone to 



claim more than their strictly 

 legal rights. In the absence of any specific grant, a 

 miller is entitled to the natural free and unimpeded 

 flow of the stream, and may cut himself or require 

 to be cut for his convenience any weeds which create 

 an obstruction to such flow. If a tenant finds himself 

 likely to be landed in a difficulty on such a point, 

 he must do all in his power to settle the question 

 amicably. Lawsuits are proverbially expensive, and 

 the result even of a successful lawsuit is apt to be 

 unsatisfactory. Then, too, to get at loggerheads with 

 a local miller or a local farmer or your landlord and 

 his agent, or even with the humblest of farm labourers 

 on the estate, often lowers the fishing tenant in the 

 estimation of the locals generally, and brands him 

 as a cantankerous and undesirable addition to the 

 amenities of the district. When once he is locally 

 considered in this light it is safe to predict that his 

 life at the river-side will not be a happy one, and 

 somehow the fishing will not turn out as good or 

 as pleasant as it should. The motto of a sensi- 

 ble fishing tenant in dealing with his neighbours 

 should be suaviter in modo sed fortiter in re, 

 by which I mean that, except for the strongest 

 reasons and in reference to the most serious in- 

 fringements of his rights, he must try to smooth 

 over difficulties. If perchance he is forced to show 



