April 15, 1893] 
CONTENTS. 
THE EISHING GAZETTE 
267 
N.B.—All rights reserved in articles published in 
paper. 
this 
THE WORLD’S FAIR AND THE 300th 
ANNIVERSARY OF WALTON’S 
BIRTHDAY. 
The World’s -Fair and the 300th Anniversary of 
Walton’s Birthday.267 
An Easter Outing (and Inning) .267 
An Autumn Eeminiscenoe of the Highlands.268 
Scotch Notes .269 
Notes and Queries .270 
Easter Fishing on Bransbury Common.271 
English Anglers and Norwegian Sporting Agents... 272 
Wm. Bartleet and Sons’ Exhibit at the Chicago 
World’s Columbian Exposition .272 
Waltoniana.272 
Proposed New Thames Fishery Bye-laws .272 
The ■■ Acme ” Line Saves a Man’s Life.273 
'The 291b. Loch Stenness Trout .273 
Correspondence.273 
Windermere and the Lake District.275 
The Sussex Piscatorial Society .276 
The Fishing Tackle Exhibits at Westminster 
Aquarium .276 
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— mt — 
SATURDAY, APRIL 15th, 1893. 
SPECIAL NOTICE. 
THE “IZAAK WALTON TEECENTENARY." 
OUR 1893 SUMMER NUMBER. 
Although vs-e have published the date of Izaak 
Walton’s birth literally millions of times on the 
very forefront of the Gazette, we are reminded 
by a letter, which we publish, from our friend 
Dr. James A. Henshall, chief of the Angling 
Department of the Chicago World’s Fair, that 
August 9 next will be the 300th anniversary of 
the birth of Izaak Walton, and that they pro¬ 
pose to have a special celebration of the event in 
Chicago, as described in his letter. 
Not to be behind our American cousins, we 
propose to issue our DOUBLE SUMMER 
NUMBER this year, early in August, as the 
“WALTON TEB,CENTENARY NUMBER,’’ 
with Special Illustrations, Articles, Notes, &c., 
and, we hope, a reproduction of the American 
Walton Exhibit. 
World’s Columbian Commission, Office of the 
Director-General of the Exposition. 
Chicago, Ill., U.S.A., March 27, 1893. 
Dear Mr. M.\rston, —There will be a repro¬ 
duction of Walton and Cotton’s fishing house on 
the World’s Fair grounds to celebrate the 300bh 
anniversary of Izaak Walton’s birthday, which 
occurs Aug. 9, 1893. 
I would very much like a good photograph of 
his statue in Winchester Cathedral in order to 
have an enlarged print made from it to place in 
the house. If you can procure a good one, and 
will mail it to me, 1 shall be very much gratified, 
and will cheerfully re-pay you for any expense 
that you may incur. The fine illustrations of 
the house in your “Centennial edition’’ will 
prove of great assistance in the reproduction of 
the structure. 
With kindest regards, and in the hope of 
seeing you this summer,—I am, yours very truly, 
J. A. Henshall, 
In charge Angling Pavilion, Fisheries 
Building, Jackson Park, CJhicago. 
Mr. R. B. Marston, 
Editor Fishing Gazette, London, England. 
[We have sent Dr. Henshall the photograph 
and some other views which may be useful.— Ed.] 
AN EASTER OUTING (AND INNING). 
By “The Am.yteur Angler.” 
The oldest inhabitant whom I have encountered 
lately, and he was between eighty and ninety, 
assured me that he never remembered such a 
splendid March as this last one. It by no means 
follows that during the eighty odd years of the 
old man’s memory there has not been many such 
March months. 
I have seen many months of March in my time, 
but in such matters my memory is so treacherous 
that I could not say with certainty what sort of a 
March we had even two or three years ago. I 
leave it to chronologers to say how many such 
months of March there may have actually been 
during the time of this old man’s pilgrimage. My 
general impression about the month of March is 
that it has almost always been cold and wet, and 
sleety and snowy, with biting easterly and north¬ 
easterly winds, and altogether disagreeable. 
My old and venerated friend, Gilbert White, 
gives us a record of the weather for every month 
for twenty-four years (1768-1792), and of all those 
months of March there is only one, that of 1770, 
which can be quoted as even approaching the one 
which has so pleasantly, and alas, so swiftly just 
passed from us, all the rest have the bad character 
my own memory attributes generally to this 
ungenial month. 
“ 1770, the whole of March frosty with bright 
weather.” 
Our March has been somewhat “ frosty,” and I 
know not what our fruit growers think of it. My 
own small garden seems to have enjoyed it 
thoroughly, though now looking out for the warm 
April showers, which as yet do not seem to be 
forthcoming ; apple and pear, plum, apricot, and 
gooseberry buds all appear to be plentiful and 
firm. Gilbert White’s April of 1770, following the 
bright March, was*' cloudy, with rain and snow.” 
So much for the weather, bright and beautiful 
it has been since March came in, and still con¬ 
tinues, for April though now far advanced, hath 
not yet “ with his sweet showers pierced the 
drought of March, and bathed every vein in the 
balm that produces flowers,” as he did in Chaucer’s 
time.* 
Such bright weather with an easterly wind, how¬ 
ever gentle and breezy it may be, is not the best 
kind of weather for angling for trout; nevertheless 
when the Major said to me three or four days 
before Easter, “Will you go a-fishing.“” I 
responded with alacrity, “ I will ”—and so it was 
that on Thursday the 30th of March we found 
ourselves on the banks of the ever pleasant Itchen. 
My old henchman was there, hale and hearty and 
* Leigh Hunt’s paraphrase of Chaucer. 
eighty-two as he often told me, and ready with 
net and basket. It was in full stream, bright and 
clear as erystal—but the fish were not “ on the 
rise.” Dry fly-fishing was not practicable, our 
only chance being to fish the stream—a kind of 
fishing which the accomplished Major somewhat 
despises. He prefers crouching on bended knees 
half an hour at a time waiting for a rise, and then 
to drop his deadly fly, dry and floating, just above 
that fated trout, which would of course soon find 
his way to creel. But in this very bright weather 
even the Major soon grew tired of his favourite 
method, and, like me, he mostly devoted himself 
to the streams and rippling shallows. Fishing in 
this way and wading down stream, casting 
straig'ut across and allowing the fly to float down 
slightly under the rippling water, I was the first 
to get a rise, and a nice half-pound trout came 
into old Davis’s net. This was a fair beginning. I 
soon hooked another and brought him in, but, 
alas! he was a grayling of a pound and more— 
out of season, he had to go back with grace to 
grow bigger, please goodness, to give me another 
chance at him next autumn. 
And now our troubles began. The Major was 
unfortunate, he caught one I|lb. trout, and then 
neither of us could catch anything bnt grayling. 
“Confound these grayling ” we said; “ what right 
have they to be rising like this when they are not 
in season ?” There must be ten grayling to one 
trout in this bit of our river—they really ought 
to be thinned out, or else they should keep them¬ 
selves down till they are wanted. One proof that 
they are more numerous than trout is that when 
we netted the river for jack in February last we. 
brought up at every draught three or four or six 
grayling and only a trout or two. On that 
interesting occasion of netting for jack, which I 
had never witnessed before, and which deserves a 
longer description than I can now devote to it, 
we caught twenty-two jack, varying in size from 
21b. to 101b. A curious lot they were. One of them 
had an ancient gash in his side, in which one 
could bury one’s finger, but he was otherwise in 
good health, and as lively as he could be expected 
to be when turned out to grass; another 
disgorged a live jlb. trout, which went back to 
the river to grow bigger. One trout was caught 
with four flies hooked to his lips, and bits of gut 
sticking out like a cat’s whiskers. 
They were netting again a few days afterwards 
when I was not present, but our valiant keeper, old 
Davis, was there to see that our trout and gray¬ 
ling were properly put back. Davis vows that 
on that occasion he saw in the shallow water a 
jack of about 41b. go quietly up behind a lib. 
trout and swallow him at a gulp. The trout was 
entirely taken by surprise, and was allowed no 
opportunity for making a splash about it. The 
moat curious thing was that immediately after¬ 
wards they drew the exact spot where he had 
seen this tragedy enacted, and their haul brought 
up amongst others a 41b. jack, in which they 
found a 11b. trout, which was already partlv 
digested ! Now ye learned piscators, tell me if 
this was the same jack and the same trout which 
Davis had seen performing as above not many 
minutes before ? But to return to our trout and 
grayling. 
1 had another good trout, over a pound. J 
caught him in a very awkward position. I hooked 
him down stream nearly on the opposite side ; i 
could not get below him on account of a deep 
pool and a hedge, so I had to draw him across 
and up stream. He fought well—I never had 
such a fighter. I was in middle of the river, 
and I got him at last to close quarters, when he 
sank and sulked in a bed of weeds, and there he 
held on tight and motionless. At length I got 
the net from Davis and gave him a prod; out he 
leapt, but still hook and gut held on to him, till 
finally after a few minutes’ struggle I got the net 
outside his pretty pink-spotted body. 
Now, although the pesky graylings kept our 
baskets light, I must say they gave us good 
sport, and the game was lively and interesting. 
There w^as scarcely a fly to be seen on the water. 
Occasionally one came across a solitary “March 
Brown.” AVe were too early for them, the nights 
being very cold; but the days were glorious, and 
I assure y'ou, my friends, we had a most 
delightful little holiday. All nature was alive 
and gay, the air was exhilarating, the birds sang 
their sweetest songs in the woods, and in the trees 
and hushes by the river. A sweet little black- 
