134 WATERSIDE SKETCHES. 



combination of stream and pool, shallows of marl, loam, and 

 gravel, and an abundance of flies and larvae. The grayling, 

 grows with marvellous rapidity, moves from one part of the 

 river to another in a migratory mood, and can exist — as it 

 does in the Tyrol — in a turbid stream. The fish has been in- 

 troduced with success into the upper portions of the Clyde 

 watershed, and in other Scotch rivers to which they were 

 altogether foreign. At the same time it must not be for- 

 gotten that a former attempt to introduce the grayling into- 

 the Thames failed. The Lug seems by general consent to 

 be considered the best of modern grayling rivers. Rising in 

 Radnorshire it flows for about thirty miles through the most 

 fertile tracts of fruitful Herefordshire, and joins the Wye at 

 Mordiford. For several miles after entering the English 

 county the river course abounds in fine valley scenery. 

 Leominster, the town famous for its five W's, " water, wool, 

 wheat, wood, arid women," is the town which best commands- 

 the Lug — the key of the position, so to speak. 



Many grayling-masters give the preference, nevertheless, 

 to the Teme, and no doubt in Sir Humphrey Davy's time it 

 was far superior to any other river. It is swift running, and 

 along its downward course of sixty miles — it falls 367 feet 

 from its junction with the Onny, near Ludlow — it presents 

 an unusual number of rapids, rocky ledges, and deep pools. 

 It first waters a bit of Wales, and then fertilises the counties 

 of Shropshire, Hereford, and Worcester, where the capacious 

 Severn receives it. Ludlow is to the Teme what Leominster 

 is to the Lug, and they both enjoy the rarest advantages- 

 of situation, the one in a luxuriant vale, the other on an 

 eminence crowned with the grey ruins of a picturesque castle. 



The Derbyshire streams have been referred to in the 



