40 WA'IERSIDE SKETCHES. 



met an inglorious fate by a night-line set for eels. In the 

 middle of the month four hundred troutlings were transferred 

 from the Sunbury rearing ponds to the Thames, and at 

 Maidenhead there were numerous captures of the smaller 

 fly-taking trout which so rarely come to one's basket. 



Latterly, I hear that an effort is to be made to adapt the 

 grayling to the Thames. It is indeed a consummation 

 devoutly to be wished that the common brown trout and 

 the grayling may establish themselves as regular householders 

 of the river, many parts of which are eminently suitable for 

 their peculiarities. But there are two determined enemies 

 to the entire plan, if not more — namely, the pike and perch, 

 and recent experience proves that these prowling bandits 

 have multiplied exceedingly under the judicious rules 

 enforced for their protection. 



It is a little singular to read in an angler's book published 

 forty years ago that while pike and perch fishing seemed to 

 be followed only occasionally, "as it is very uncertain sport 

 in the Thames," trout were fairly numerous. Then, as now, 

 the proper thing for the angler was to perch upon the top of 

 a pile with the uproar and gallop of the weir flood beneath 

 him, and spin patiently for the expected monster ; but there 

 were spinners and trollers also in those days, piscatorial 

 sons of Anak whose deeds were, and here and there are still 

 to be seen, commemorated in the rudely outlined fish drawn on 

 the walls of the comfortable hostelries on Thames-side. In 

 1835 Jesse speaks of a large trout that took its daily airing 

 opposite the water-gallery of Hampton Court, but had 

 defied every endeavour to capture it. The wish expressed 

 by Jesse that " something will be done for the protection of 

 the fish during the earlier stages of their existence " has 



