1 1 o WJ TERSIDE SKETCHES. 



description of small hackle is required. His fishing boots, 

 however, gave him an unapproachable advantage. Sixteen 

 dozen dace and three or four pound roach lay in his rush 

 basket when we met at night, all taken by a thinly-made red 

 palmer with gold twist. Even I, the stranger, whipping 

 from the bank, could show over four dozen silvery fish, 

 running about three to the pound, exquisitely shaped, and 

 more gamesome than the dace of either Thames or Colne. 

 Anglers, perhaps I need not labour to show, do not always 

 return from the Trent with sixteen dozen dace, but they 

 would be downcast indeed if they did not surpass my four 

 dozen, of which, nevertheless, I was very proud. 



Of the higher waters of the Trent — and it may be assumed 

 as a safe rule with all rivers which minister to large towns 

 and ultimately become navigable, that they improve for the 

 angler as you ascend them — Armstrong writes : — 



" If the breathless chase, o'er hill and dale, 

 Exceed your strength, a sport of less fatigue, 

 Not less delightful, the prolific stream 

 Affords. The crystal rivulet, that o'er 

 A stormy channel rolls its rapid maze, 

 Swarms with the silver fiy. Such, through the bounds 

 Of pastoral Stafford, runs the brawling Trent." 



A chapter upon Midland Streams would be incomplete 

 without a word upon those classic tributaries of the Trent, 

 the Dove and the Derivent, and the sub-tributary the Wye. 

 And a word only may suffice for rivers immortalised by 

 Walton and Cotton, and by the numerous disciples who 

 have spoken or sung their beauties until this day. Time has, 

 unfortunately, considerably reduced the trout and grayling 

 as to numbers, but the angler may still reap honour in the 

 well-known dales of Derbyshire. The straits of Dovedale, 



