RAIL TOURIST-ANGLER'S GUIDE 1867

[ This Victorian Angler's Guide by John Frederick Greville (of Barnes) was based on the new railways accessible to Londoners.
Only the sections relevant to the Thames are here (click the link above for the whole work)
The Thames sections are here in Thames order proceeding upstream.
The links in the text are to WHERE THAMES SMOOTH WATERS GLIDE. In some cases the right place for the link is a guess because names have changed (particularly islands).
So much fish! Is that more than in 2024? Can a fisherman tell us?
Sewage problems appear in many places. Fred is confident the river is improving. See Chiswick Bridge. ]

INDEX

Battersea Bridge; Battersea Railway Bridge; Wandsworth Bridge; Fulham Railway Bridge & Footbridge; Putney Bridge; Boatrace 1860s; Hammersmith Bridge; Chiswick Eyot; Barnes Railway Br & Footbridge; Chiswick Bridge; Kew Railway Bridge; Olivers Ait; Kew Bridge; Brentford Aits; Lots Ait; Kew; Grand Union Canal entrance; Brentford Marina; Syon House; Isleworth Ait
RICHMOND LOCK
Twickenham Bridge; Richmond Railway Bridge; Corporation Island; Richmond Bridge; Glovers Island; Eel Pie Island; Swan Island
TEDDINGTON LOCKS
Teddington Footbridge; Trowlock Island; Stevens Eyot; Boaters Inn; Kingston Railway Bridge; Kingston Bridge; Ravens Ait; Ditton Slipway; Swan Inn; Thames Ditton Island; Hampton Court; Rivers Mole & Ember; Hampton Court Bridge
MOLESEY LOCK
Ash Island; Taggs Island; Ducks Ait; Garricks Lawn; Hurst Park Launching; Garricks Ait; Benns Ait Hampton Sailing Club; Platts Eyot Grand Junction Island; Sunbury Court Island;
SUNBURY LOCK
Sunbury Lock Ait; Wheatleys Ait; Walton Bridge; Walton Slip; Desborough Cut; Shepperton Old Channel; D'Oyly Carte Island; Shepperton Ferry; Weybridge Slipway
SHEPPERTON LOCK
Thames Court; Pharoahs Island; Chertsey Bridge; Boathouse & Kingfisher
CHERTSEY LOCK
M3 Bridge; Laleham Slip
PENTON HOOK LOCK
Truss's Island; Staines Railway Bridge; Staines Bridge; Church Island; London Stone; Holm Island; Runnymede Bridge
BELL WEIR LOCK
Hythe End Island; Cooper's Hill; Runnymede; Magna Carta Island; Pats Croft Eyot; Bells of Ouzely Ousely Island; Friary Island
OLD WINDSOR LOCK
Ham Island; Ham Bridge; Albert Bridge; Datchet; Sumptermead Ait; Victoria Bridge; Jubilee River outflow; Black Potts Islands; Black Potts Railway Bridge
ROMNEY LOCK
Romney Island; Cutler's Ait; Eton; Windsor Bridge; Fireworks Ait; Brocas; #Barry Avenue Island; Windsor Railway Bridge; Baths Island; Cuckoo Weir Island; Windsor Slip; Elizabeth Bridge
BOVENEY LOCK
Windsor Racecourse Marina; Ruddles Pool, Surly Hall, the Willows; Windsor Marina; Queens Eyot; Bray Marina; York Cut; Summerleaze Footbridge; Monkey Island; New Thames Bridge; Pigeonhill Eyot
BRAY LOCK
Headpile Eyot; Bray Slip; Maidenhead Railway Bridge; Guards Club Island; Maidenhead Rowing Club; Blue River Cafe; Maidenhead Bridge; Skindles; Bridge Eyot; Grass Eyot; Below Boulters; Taplow Foot & Cycle Bridge; Ray Mill Island
BOULTERS LOCK
Jubilee River; Bavins Gulls or Slow Grove Islands; Cliveden Deep; Cliveden House; Hedsor
COOKHAM LOCK
Slip & Ferry InnS; Cookham Bridge; Cookham Nunnery; Bourne End Railway & Footbridge; Bourne End; Sailing Club; Spade Oak; Quarry Woods; Taylor Island; Gibraltar Island; A404 Bridge; Marlow Weir;
MARLOW LOCK
Marlow Slipway; Compleat Angler; Marlow Bridge; Bisham Church; Bisham Abbey; Temple Mill Island
TEMPLE LOCK
Temple Footbridge; Harleyford Marina; Harleyford Manor; Hurley; Hurley Islands; Hurley Silly FootbridgeH; Hurley Camping
HURLEY LOCK
Hurley Winch; Campsite; Frogmill Ayt; Blackboy Island; Medmenham; Medmenham Slip; Magpie Eyot; Culham Court; Aston Slip
HAMBLEDEN LOCK
Hambleden Mill; Greenlands; Temple Island; Fawley Court; Phyllis Court; Remenham; Henley Slip; Leander Club; Red Lion Inn; Henley Bridge; Angel on Bridge; Public Landing; Hobbs; Bird Island; Eyot Centre; Rose Toop Boatyard; Salters Landing; Henley RC; Rod Eyot
MARSH LOCK
Park Place; Hennerton Backwater; Bolney Island; Lashbrook; ; Wyatts; George & Dragon; Wargrave; Shiplake Railway Bridge; R.Loddon
SHIPLAKE LOCK
Phillimores Island; Shiplake; Lynch Island; Hallsmead Ait; St Patricks Stream; Great Court; Mill Theatre; Great House; French Horn; Sonning Bridge
SONNING LOCK
Breachs Ait; Dreadnought Reach; K&A Canal; Heron Island; View Island
CAVERSHAM LOCK
Reading Bridge; Christchurch Bridge; Fry's Island; Piper's Island; Caversham Bridge; Reading Slip; St Mary's Island; Scours Slip; Poplar & Appletree Island; Purley; Mapledurham Ho; Mapledurham Mill; Mapledurham Church
MAPLEDURHAM LOCK
[Otter] Island; Hardwick House; Whitchurch Bridge
WHITCHURCH LOCK
Hartswood Reach; Swan Inn Pangbourne; Basildon Ferry Site; Gatehampton Railway Bridge; Goring Gap Boat Club; Goring Gap; Goring Bridge
GORING LOCK
Swan Inn Streatley
CLEEVE LOCK
Leatherne Bottel; Beetle & Wedge; South Stoke Slipway; Moulsford Boatyard & Slip; Moulsford Railway Bridge; Papist Way Slip; Mongewell; Winterbrook Bridge; Wallingford Bridge; Boathouse Wallingford
BENSON LOCK
Benson Waterfront Slipway Cafe; Rush Court Landing; Shillingford Bridge; Shillingford Hotel; Shillingford; R.Thame; Wittenham Clumps
DAYS LOCK
Burcot; Clifton Hampden; Clifton Hampden Church; Clifton Hampden Bridge; Barley Mow Inn; Long Wittenham
CLIFTON LOCK
Appleford Railway Bridge; Sutton Courtenay; Sutton Bridge
CULHAM LOCK
Culham Cut Footbridge; Culham Reach; Old Culham Bridge; Andersey Island; Abingdon Slip; Nags Head Island; Abingdon; Abingdon Bridge; Abbey Meadow Island
ABINGDON LOCK
Swift Ditch Entrance; Nuneham Railway Bridge; Lock Wood Island; Nuneham Park; Radley Boats; Sandford Lasher
SANDFORD LOCK
Kings Arms @ Sandford; Rose Island; Kennington Railway Bridge; Isis Bridge; Iffley Mill
IFFLEY LOCK
Isis Inn; Boat House Island; Christ Church Meadow; Salters

THE RAIL AND THE ROD - Thames excerpts

Battersea Bridge
[1766 - 1885]
Battersea Railway Bridge
[Just opened 1863]

There is a likely place for roach and dace near Battersea New Bridge, and if the river continues to improve it will doubtless be excellent, as it has been remarked that the fish harbour more and more about this spot.

Wandsworth Bridge;
[Opened 1873]

Wandsworth, or as it appears in Domesday Book, Wandlesworth, is so called from the Wandle river and "Sworth", signifying shore.
It is six miles and three furlongs from London bridge by water.

Beside the old church resided the well known Jane Shore.
The Feathers public house, kept by one of the Salters, at the entrance to the Wandle on the right, was resorted to by oarsmen whenever, as it is termed, they had a "greenhorn to sell".
This was done by taking a companion here to drink "a yard of ale", which was offered to him in a glass tube of that length, with a bulb so disposed that, if the drinker did not hold the apparatus sufficiently steady to let air in to the bulb to supply the ale as it was displaced, the whole of the liquid that remained would escape with violence over the luckless wight, to the delight of the hoaxers.

Watney's Lawn in front of the house and mill used, years ago, to be a first rate spot for roach at particular times of tide, and will, in all probability, be so again.
I have a memorandum of an old Chelsea pensioner I used to meet fishing here, which records the fact that this man took, in February of the year 1827, 47lb. of roach, flounders, and perch, during a snow storm which lasted all day.
Chub, dace, or bream, were seldom caught about this, nor do I find sufficient records of barbel to make the place of note for the capture of that fish.

River Wandle

The river Wandle, which is not navigable, serves the uses of numerous extensive mills and factories.
It is said to turn a greater number than any river of like size in England.
The trout of this river (the "Vandalis" of Pope) were formerly abundant and of great richness of flavour.
Our dear old Izaak delighted in its fishful qualities, and it is said that the great Lord Nelson, who had residences at Merton and Carshalton, enjoyed much of his leisure in fishing in the Wandle.
It reflects great discredit upon those residing near it, that, in these days of sanitary improvement and of cultivated taste, its waters are not only suffered to be completely poisoned, but offensive odours and disgusting appearances have now, for many years, marked its course as it approaches towards the Thames.
I have taken many a handsome bag of roach and dace from the public path at the Mill head, but now I should have to travel inland as far as the estate recently occupied by Samuel Gurney, Esq., or get to Rutter's Mills, or mayhap to George Bidder, Esq., before I saw more than half a dozen dace.
These gentlemen, however, are doing all they can to keep up a stock of trout, but it is only at the expense of great watchfulness, and an occasional vexatious lawsuit, that they can protect the waters from the fatal contamination with which they are beset from manufactories and other causes.
It is said that the May fly is never seen upon the Wandle.
The artificial trout flies used are very small, and the finest gut is necessary with the exercise of great caution and consummate skill, to get half a dozen brace of Wandle trout.

The first tram road formed in England was between Wandsworth and Merstham.
George Howard and Jack Ruff are the fishermen at Wandsworth.

Fulham Railway Br & Footbridge
[Opened 1885]
Putney Bridge
[1729 - 1885 see also Putney Aquaduct 1856 - 1885]

Putney anciently Putelei - is seven miles two furlongs from London Bridge by water.
The Thames is about the third of a mile from this station.
Lewis Gibson is the best man here to apply to for information respecting the river, and is likewise useful in providing bait for anglers going down the line, as he can readily get a few dozen of dace, and meet his customer at the station with them alive.
He is an intelligent, civil fellow, and much patronised by gentlemen, who take him considerable distances into the country fishing, as his resources piscatorial are great, and his tact and experience in his peculiar craft of a high order.
Old Lewis Gibson, this man's father, figured in portraiture as often, if not more so, on the Royal Academy's walls, than royalty itself, for whereas the Georges and Williams were as but one picture at that annual pictorial gathering, old Lue was there, mending his nets upon this canvas, laying his eel pots upon that, and doing something honest but fishy in almost every department of the gallery.
I believe young Lewis sits to artists, but he has not yet become sufficiently weather beaten and deeply seared with wrinkles to make him extremely popular at the Life Academies, but time may create a demand for the presence of the man in his nor' wester, pea jacket, and hip boots.
But, perhaps, in gaining the requisite age for one art, he may lose in that of another, for his angling trips with gentlemen are now much enlivened by his vocal abilities, and to hear him sing Fisherman's Daughter, with a depth of pathos, is to listen to the song in both perfection of voice and character.

The fishermen say, that the two churches of Putney and Fulham were built by a pair of angels, who, having but one mallet between them, threw it backward and forwards to each other across the river, and when it arrived, they either cried out "Put nigh", or "Full home", and hence the names of the places.

There are plenty of roach round and about Putney Bridge, thirty yards west to twenty east of the bridge, in all fifty yards, is preserved from the net.
The spot is the middle arch when the tides are not high, say, then, three hours before flood until flood, otherwise the Washing Grain; the next wide arch or lock from the centre on the Surrey side, is the best.

John Phelp, the fisherman, has been seen angling here of late.

The moat round the Bishop of London's residence, at Fulham, on the opposite side, was, in my recollection, well supplied with jack, roach, carp, eels, & c., but it is now a putrid ditch, all the sewage of Fulham emptying into it.
Its appearance, as it issues from the conduit into the Thames, is simply villainous.
It is a curious fact that water, as it becomes bad breeds leeches, and its absence of purity might be almost arrived at by the number of these blood suckers found in a pail full of water dipped from any given place.
The Thames is not exempt from this plague, and has been known to be infested by it, more or less, as high as Fulham, when the pool water has flowed up in a bad condition.

It is said that a fishery was established at Putney prior to the Norman Conquest.
Sturgeon, if caught here, is the property of the Lord of the Manor, and is usually presented by him either to the Sovereign, or to the Lord Mayor of London.

Boatrace 1860s

This part of the river Thames possesses an attraction for the thousands of spectators of all ranks, and for the many who are variously concerned in the great university and other boat races which annually take place.

The wooden bridge at Putney is ugly to some, dangerous to others, but endeared to many an artist.
It is one of the oldest of the Thames bridges.
A writer in 1742, says, "It is a handsome wooden fabric, and as convenient, by its many angular indentings, for foot passengers as for horses and coaches.
A toll is paid for every one that passes it, let it be ever so often in a day, and the rate pretty much the same as the ferry used to be.
And as the proprietors are said to divide £10 or £12 per cent from the profits of it, 'tis pity, methinks, that foot passengers, who cannot wear the bridge, should pay at all."

The last sturgeon caught here was by Lewis Gibson in May, 1867, and weighed 661b.

In Putney there is a free school, founded by Thomas Martyn, a London merchant, who was rescued from drowning by a Putney waterman.

The Bells Tavern, formerly Avis's, has lost its fame in a remarkable manner.
The best waterside house is undoubtedly the Star and Garter, kept by Mrs. Baker, and all that is sold there is good and reasonable.

Barn Elms, on the Surrey side, consisted of two houses built by Queen Elizabeth, the one used by herself as a dairy, and the other given by her to her favourite minister Sir Francis Walsingham, who frequently entertained his royal mistress in great state.
The celebrated Dr. Dee, the astrologer, visited Queen Elizabeth, at Barn Elms, and was doubtless entrusted by her at times with peculiar and delicate business of a secret nature as a spy or informer.
Cowley, the poet; Handel, the composer; Henry Fielding, the novelist; Heydigger, the master of the revels, in the time of the early Georges, and other celebrities, were among the occupiers of Barn Elms during the eighteenth century.
Heydigger entertained George II here, the king coming from Richmond by water.
Jacob Tonson, the publisher, when secretary of the Kit Kat Club, resided at Queen Elizabeth's dairy, which is now Elms Farm house, occupied by Mr. Francis Trowell.
In my memory Barn Elms has been the residence of several families.
Here Vice - Chancellor Shadwell lived, who was so fond of bathing that he had the ice broken for him in the depth of winter, and of whom it is related that upon one occasion an injunction being urgently needed, the applicants took a boat, and, rowing out upon the Thames to the Chancellor, he desired them to proceed with their argument, which he heard while floating upon his back, and having thus considered the case he granted the injunction, with the consent to which the astonished lawyer and his clients returned to London.
Since that time it has passed through various hands, and is now in the possession of Mr. Garcia, a foreigner.

The pleasure grounds of Barn Elms are not extensive for the size of the estate, but they are very pretty, and there is a certain wildness and solitude which renders them interesting.
The lake is, or was, full of pike, but the constant succession of proprietors, and their absence from time to time, afforded tempting opportunities of spoliation, which has been carried on here in a most wholesale manner.
The pond is fed from a small rivulet, which rises at the back of Wimbledon Common, near Combe Wood, crosses Kingston Bottom, enters Richmond park, passes through private grounds and market gardens over Barnes Common, and enters the Thames by a creek at Barn Elms.

Between Putney and Hammersmith the dace will be found at dead or neap tides, at which times they may be seen, more particularly off Crabtree Shelf, when, if at night a stone is cast amongst them the silence is disturbed by their rushing into the deeps.

Near and about Craven Cottage is a great locality for eel potting.

Off the jetty of Cowan's Soap Manufactury - Surrey side - there is a tolerably good swim for roach and dace, and doubtless for barbel, as several may be seen of a morning priming just above this spot.
Immense quantities of fry collect round the course made by the hot water waste pipe from Haig's distillery Middlesex side, and as many as sixty to eighty swans may be counted at a time off this in the winter, whether attracted by the fish or any refuse from the distillery I have not been able to ascertain, but both causes may induce so large a number of these birds to collect here.

Hammersmith Bridge
[The first Hammersmith Suspension Bridge 1827 - 1885]

Just above the Suspension Bridge, which is nine miles by water from London bridge, on the Middlesex side, is a shallow which at low water runs into mid channel, extending, with a break here and there, along the Mall, past Biffin's, the boat builders, and the Red Lion up to a spot nearly opposite Clarke's lead mills, where dace may be observed during their spawning time and scouring themselves afterwards, in considerable numbers, more particularly at three quarter ebb tide when, about the first week in May, they rise very freely at the fly.
Indeed, capital practice, after the first of June, might be had here with a light fly rod and black gnat, or by whipping with the gentle, either added to the fly or alone.
There are likewise plenty of bleak, which is far from a despicable fish for the table, and prized by some epicures beyond gudgeons.
This used to be known as Corney Reach.

The warm water that runs out from the engine house of the oil mills of Pinchin and Johnson, attracts vast quantities of fry which appear to delight in the warmer temperature.

Chiswick Eyot

Opposite Chiswick church is a once noted place for punt fishing, and is still known by its old name "Slut's Hole".
With the great improvement which the Thames is undergoing, this spot will doubtless come again into favour; Jack Johnson and "Chuckum" Gibbs are the fishermen at Hammersmith.

At Chiswick lived the well known fishermen, old Wakeman, Bill Seekings, and Jem Brown, and it still boasts of some smart fellows who know how to handle that curse of the upper Thames - the net, as well as any men in England.
They are all good scullers, amongst whom the best are Pope, Brown, and "Chuckum" Gibbs, the latter is moreover an excellent pilot and trainer for eight oared outriggers.

The eel pots used by the fishermen hereabout, are 2ft. 6in long by 6in or more across the mouth.
The bait is mostly worms threadled on a wire stuck into the stopper, which is made, as usual, with bass.
Gibbs tells me of a curious exception to this bait.
"On one occasion," says he, "Stubbs was agetting as many eels agin as any on us, and we could'nt make it out; so we goes on the sly and looks into his pots, and I'm blowed if he warn't abaiting with the flower of them large water buttercups, and as then the river was very bad and thick they wouldn't take the worm, but they sees summat inside as was ashining, and so I 'spose they goes in to see what ere it was."
This flower has since become a favourite bait when the water is clouded.

The upper reservoir of the waterworks at Barnes contains vast quantities of roach, many perch and large eels.
Permission to fish it is very charily given, but although the replies to inquiries, as I am assured, are almost invariably that no tickets whatever are granted, I can personally bear witness to the fact that it is angled by many persons who are duly authorised, or the bailiff who resides on the spot, a steady, honest, and trustworthy fellow, would never permit the intrusion of a strange foot upon the banks.
It is nearly six years since this fine piece of still water was last netted, and it was done then, as much as anything else, to rid the direction of the applications to fish, which had increased so as to become a positive nuisance.
Jem Gibson, better known as Gunner, he being the man employed to let off the cannon at the Regatta and prize matches, was selected for this task in 1861, and the yield of roach, eels, and perch was very great.
A brace of the latter were weighed on the bank, and turned the scale at 5lb. In throwing one of this pair back into the punt, it struck the gunwale, and fell again into the reservoir.
As this, by some, was supposed to have been done on purpose, the nets were plied many times to recover it, but all efforts were useless.
This circumstance, trivial in itself, is often related by the users of nets as an argument that a pond or lake may be severely and persistently dragged, and yet permit fish to avoid the mesh.
I do not hold with this, excepting in the case of carp and tench who are wondrously cunning in fencing the mesh, now diving under, now springing over, and now rushing by the sides, but I fancy in the instance in question, the perch from the blow it received by the side of the punt, or from the time it had been kept out of the water, had become unconscious, and had sunk at once to the bottom, and there the net passed over and over it as it would pass over any other substance without picking it up.
Rely upon it, if a net is perfect and the men used to it, nothing larger than the mesh escapes its screening properties, and it is only the difficulty of getting a wet net home again that prevents the few ponds now left unmolested from being annually visited, and as regularly skinned.
These men make no secret of this fact, neither do they make any boast, but the majority of them consider it no greater crime to empty a well stocked lake, than they would to apply their mouths to a leaking rum cask.
"Sometimes", observed one well versed in these doings, "Sometimes the fish are all round the edges of the ponds, and sometimes in the middle, but we can always lead the net, light or heavy, to convenience them."

Barnes Railway Br & Footbridge
[1849]

The quiet ditches which run some way inland, and intersect the osier beds opposite Barnes Terrace, both above and below the railway bridge, have, at three quarter tide, generally a shoal or two of dace therein.

There is a strong prevailing notion amongst the Thames fishermen, both above and below London Bridge, that dace spawn twice a year.
Some of these men likewise assert that there are two distinct kinds of dace.
If the latter are correct, it may be that the former are in error, and that the two species spawn at different times.

The jutting towing path causeway, running under the railway bridge on the Surrey side, often affords average barbel fishing.

Two gentlemen who lived at Roehampton used, in the autumns of 1865-6, to fish it before seven in the morning when the tide suited, and I have been shown two, and upon one occasion nearly three, dozen of barbel, taken with the two rods by ledgering, from three or four o'clock to this hour, but the fish seldom exceeded 1lb. or 1½lb. each in weight.
It is partly a clay bottom, which barbel much like.

Barnes Station is on the common, and is about a mile and a quarter from the Suspension Bridge, passing the Red Lion, a very good house with pretty tea grounds, and the Boileau Arms, where one of the best racket grounds in England is kept in admirable order.

Many duels took place on Barnes Common, and perhaps of all that history relates concerning them, no story of profligacy can be found equal to that which resulted in the triple fight that occurred here exactly 200 years ago, when the infamous Countess of Shrewsbury, disguised as a page, held the rein of her paramour's horse whilst he was engaged in slaying her husband.
It was in accordance with the manners of the period that the earl should engage in personal combat with the notorious George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, who had dishonoured him, even on behalf of so worthless a spouse.

After passing the waterworks on the towpath side, we come to the boundary stones of the parish of Putney and Barnes, and from these marks for full five hundred yards up to the Barnes Railway Bridge, there is a pretty shallow for dace, with a gravelly bottom, one of the best spots of which is opposite to the magnificent evergreen oak in Lord Lonsdale's garden, near the summer house over the moat.

Three quarter ebb is likewise best for the fly here, as it is at most places in the tidal water.

Passing the upper part of Barnes Terrace, the houses of which sewer by olfactory outlets through an otherwise clean stone faced shore, the well known White Hart, kept by Mr. Wilcox, touches the river side - an excellent house deserving the fame it has acquired wherever oarsmen are in the ascendant.

The river stretches boldly now to the right, and from Wilcox's until we get to the landing stage of Stratton's coal wharf, the bottom is of a clear gravelly nature, and shoals of dace may be seen rising at times.

But before we reach Stratton's is the Queen's Head - an old fashioned, quaint public house, with ancient, wide wooden sashed windows and an entrance court from the waterside up stone steps that are worn under the pressure of many a foot of low and high degree.
The house, which is now in a neglected stage of dilapidation, and appears crying through its broken panes for a sympathising owner, is flanked by two wings, the one to the right being higher than the other, which makes the house look in the distance like a wounded duck, and on the leaden roofs of these wings are tables and benches from which the river may be optically spanned, the matches seen to advantage, and shandy gaff incontinently imbibed.
But this terse description of the artistic attractions of the house would be incomplete if the elm tree - which grows at the top of the first flight of steps, and stands with its three trunks like a triple armed and obsequious attendant, holding a parapluie over the head of the visitor, completely covering the area by the assistance of supports, and thus affording a cool retreat from the sun, if not from a descending shower - were omitted, as it is almost unique in its characteristic irregularity.
I believe boats are let here.

Mortlake railway station is here close to the Thames, and Mortlake is eleven miles four furlongs from London Bridge by water.

From Phillips and Wigan's lower malt house there is a fine gravelly shallow which ought, by and by, to be good for gudgeons, as the water carts and horses are constantly in and out, and creating that commotion at the bottom so attractive to these fish.
This reach, particularly in the evening, is very tranquil and lovely, and the number of tilt boats generally lying here, or eel potting, add to the sylvan character of the picture.
This is a favourite spawning bed of the smelt, which visits the Thames twice a year, that is in March and August.
In the earlier period the smelt very often advances up the river as high as Richmond, but rarely get beyond Blackwall or Greenwich in the latter month.
They are a splendid bait, when first caught, for spinning for jack and trout, as they are stiff and wear well upon the flight of hooks, when fresh; but a day is sufficient to render them limp and flaccid, and they become wholly useless except for the gorge bait, and even then no little trouble is involved in tying them on to the lead.
But nothing can surpass them for their wondrous power of emitting a flashing silvery light when but a few hours old and drawn rapidly through the water by a master hand.
An old fisherman, one Tony Hart, in Dorset, used to say that "the pike liked the smelt best when it had the flavour of violets, next when it gave out the odour of cucumber, and not at all when it stunk like a green fig."
He was pretty correct in this notion, and it would seem that the smelt in its change from extreme freshness to that of putrescence, evolves the fragrance of the violet, the scent of the cucumber skin, and the objectionable - to some - odour of the green fig, which may serve to reconcile the seemingly conflicting opinions of their smelling to different persons of one only of these essences.
This season (1867) the smelt came up earlier than usual, and were almost gone again before the 25th March to the 1st May, the time when the smelt net is permitted to be used.
The fishermen have often had a grant of fourteen days earlier by petition to the conservators, but this concession was not permitted this year.
The appearance of the smelt from year to year has been annually quoted by some as an evidence of the increasing purity of the river.
The advent of this fish, however, has little to do with the subject, for instead, as it is urged, of the smelt being a delicate fish in its choice of waters, like the salmon, the trout, and the gudgeon, it is the very reverse, and when we anglers desire to catch this fish we generally find them congregating most at the mouths of the drains and sewers.
The smelt is only a "delicate" fish in the sense that ducks or pigs are delicate, not from what they grovel and feed upon, but the flavour of their flesh, which is produced from this filth and offal by the marvellous chemical conversionable power of Nature.

The improvement in the purity of the river becomes now yet more manifest.
The mud banks have diminished considerably.
Flounder fry have again shown themselves as high as Twickenham, and tyros with stick and string catch the tiny fish from the banks as they were wont to do in the days of our boyhood.
The fishermen, who have by apprenticeship a prescriptive right of netting, are again to be seen hauling in a remunerative freight of white fish; and indeed there are indications throughout the tidal way about this of a return to the good old times when Father Thames was a clean and respected individual.
Amongst these indications there are few more substantial than those afforded by residences upon the banks.
Fine old mansions, inhabited by well-to-do citizens, which had fallen with the river's degradation to the rentals of cottages, are again eagerly sought for.
Their broken urns and statues and decayed walls are gradually giving place to new sculpture and masonry, and, by the extension of outlay upon their demesnes, evidence the return of that class of tenantry who were driven away solely by the contaminations which floated endlessly to and fro beneath their windows.
At Mortlake this freshening up of properties is particularly noticeable, Messrs. Phillips and Wigan, the brewers, having led the way by sweeping reforms both of river embankment and village alterations.

The dangerous turning at the end of High street, Mortlake, has just undergone a marked change, and rendered the journey from Richmond to London far less perilous.
A fine approach from the centre of the High street to the river's bank has also been made, affording greater facilities to the public using the towing path.
Shaky, rotten rookeries have been pulled down, and altogether the example bids fair to mark an era which shall entitle the place to any other name than that of the "Death Pool of the Plague", which it at present bears.

This portion of the river, as is well known, is the goal of the Oxford and Cambridge contest.
The élite of society and the beauty of our aristocracy grace the locality by their presence, only to be rewarded, at the moment of victory, with a drenching by the wash from the passing steamers.
Messrs. Phillips and Wigan have very handsomely, and, at their own expense or conjointly with the Conservators, raised the embankment both above and below their brewery, so as to render it, at least as regards this portion of the racecourse, free from so aggravating a source of discomfort.
This done, it is rumoured that the money ready to be voted by the various water companies will be in part appropriated to the raising and widening of the river's banks.
It will thus be seen that, length by length, a promenade, as alluded to in my General Remarks, if not a carriage drive, will eventually adorn the river from London to Richmond, as at Kew it would join an embankment skirting the gardens the whole of the way to Richmond, which is kept in the best possible condition, dry and hard in the worst of seasons, bordered with fine elms, and dotted with seats, for the comfort of those who wander along this charming portion of the Thames.

Gibbs tells me that six years ago — say in the summer of 1861 and about that period - the fishermen could go amongst the rushes at Mortlake and take 200 gudgeon in an hour with the net, besides eels and other fish.
For the gudgeons, they got 4s. a hundred from the tackle shops.

The Ship Inn, close to the Thames, is memorable as being the residence of the celebrated Coombes, the sculler.
It is now landlorded by W.Gray, a civil, decent man.

Here the tow path rises on to a fine broad terrace, high out of reach of the tide, and from which there is a pretty view along the bank, past some gentlemen's well built cots and villas.
From the terrace parapet fishing is to be had at high water.
At the end of this terrace, two footways branch off, the one the tow path, the other across the fields leading to the Richmond end of Kew green.
The latter is exceedingly rustic and picturesque in parts.

The botanist will notice that the banks hereabout begin to exhibit a greater variety of flowers, than for some years past, and that the river is fringed with the common rush.
A notion of what the poisonous sewage has deprived us, may be gleaned by the fact that, in a letter kindly sent me by Mr. Boswell Syme, that gentleman enumerates from memory no less than ninety eight plants which were more or less common on the banks of the Thames, from Battersea to Teddington, within reach of the tidal flow, scarcely eight years ago.
Any student who may take an interest in watching the gradual return of the individual objects of this once exquisite natural parterre, may find many of these plants locally - mentioned in "Brewer's Flora of Surrey", Van Voorst, 1863; or, if desired, I would cheerfully send him the list so courteously forwarded to me by Mr. Syme.
My friend, Mr. George R. Wright, of Barnes, made allusion to this exquisite aquatic decoration, when, in one of his gifted volumes, he sang:

By the river gently flowing -
Flow'rets wild with rushes growing
Deck the banks - and now a'glowing
Sinks the sun with golden light,
Bidding all a sweet good night.

The bottom of the river is still gravelly, but the banks shelve at once into deep water.
Some of the pollard willows have attained an enormous girth without having split.

The first creek here appears to have been formed for the sole purpose of entrapping dead dogs, which, after floating into this harbour, lie hidden amongst the rank and luxurious vegetation of a bog; the latter, it is to be hoped, devoted ere long to profitable cultivation like some of its succeeding fellows, which, by embankments, have recently been rendered sufficiently dry for ordinary market gardening.

While standing on the second creek and tow path bridge on Thursday, 16th May, 1867, I noticed a small shoal of good sized dace at the mouth of the creek, darting out of the water, and immediately afterwards saw a jack of about 6lb. pursue them up the gully, but catching my eye he turned tail and disappeared.
Directly the jack had done this the dace made for open water, but again returned in obvious perturbation, when a pair of perch, a male and female, of 1lb. each, with fins and back erect, came up in full sail and looked eagerly about, but apparently finding nothing small enough or sufficiently toothsome for them, they quietly backed into deep water and disappeared.

There are bushes on the opposite side of the river, between which fishing used to be much practised by bank anglers in times past, and mayhap will be so again.
Most of the creeks along this tow path to Kew, have a hole more or less deep in the inner side, and herein are plenty of eels to be taken by bobbing.

Between the third and fourth bridge there are two gravel spurs, which run out into the river to some distance, and form hills and scours for dace; and another creek, up which there is a good deal of old wood piling, just before the new railway bridge is reached, is good for small perch when the tide is coming in, but they seldom exceed the standard measure.

Chiswick Bridge
[1933]
Kew Railway Bridge
[1869]

The railway bridge will have four piers, and, both on the Surrey and Middlesex side, there will be a "set out", to allow persons to pass under; and, as these "set outs" will project into deep water, a swim or two may be anticipated for the bank fisher.

Olivers Ait
There is fly fishing all round the ait of Strand-on-the-Green.

If the disused landing stage for the Kew boats above the bridge should be left, a very good place for barbel might be got.

The new landing stage is at the covered dock where the "Maria Wood" city barge used to lie.
It is a commodious structure, and very convenient of access to the passenger, but as it is not seen from either up or down the river, it is far from being so well placed to advertise itself as the former one.

Kew Bridge

Kew Bridge is thirteen miles by water from London Bridge.

The moat between Kew and Richmond, which bounds the river towing path and the gardens, has many jack in it, which get through the iron pipes from the river, although the fish are not seen by the unobservant; and it possesses some carp, plenty of tench and roach as heavy at times as llb. each.
The eels are likewise plentiful here.

Flounders may be met with in the main river.
The brood of this fish is now enormous, and if the bad water from below does not visit the upper districts the fishing for them with the angle will again come into vogue.
The licensed fishermen are likewise on the qui vive, and have for the first time for many years provided themselves with rug nets It may not be generally known that these fish are the portion of the flounder brood that was deposited at Penton Hook, in 1865, at the expense of the fishermen, the bad water having destroyed every flounder in the Thames up to that period.
There were large quantities killed last season that had worked down from the Hook and met their death in the fouler districts.
The few left were fit to take in this summer (1867), and the first brood of these parent fish will be ready in the autumn.
There exists a great peculiarity in the flounder; the slightest cold weather makes them squat, that is, they work themselves into the mud for warmth.
They are said to prefer mud for spawning, but where the rivers are free from this deposit, they penetrate into the sand for this purpose.
In cold weather the flounder in its sunken hiding place becomes so torpid that they are often brought up in the dredger's "spoon"; that is, the iron hoop and net used by these men in getting ballast out of the river by the windlass.
The best bait for them is a shrimp, but they will take worms.
When they are of a full size they are a plucky fish, and curling their flat sides against the water offer so much resistance to the angle, that many a boy has fallen backwards when the fish has left its element, from the unchecked force used to pull it out.

J.G. Wise (a Queen's waterman), lets out boats on the Surrey side of Kew Bridge.
Next is the King's Arms Gardens (W.Pring),
then G.Williams solicits our patronage with his skiffs, wherries, and funnies,
and next are the tea gardens attached to the Rose and Crown, with its large and smooth bowling green and handsome red May tree.
On the Middlesex side of Kew, opposite the railway station, we have the Star and Garter Hotel (T. Hartley), much improved and plenty of room for it, since the late landlord left it.
The Poplars Tavern, just above the bridge, called likewise the Hall by the River, has been enlarged, and is a clean, reasonable and respectable hostelrie.
Ham and beef tea, 9d., hot water, 2d., and it has a good well kept stone landing stage.
Close to this is W. Barker, who lets out boats.

Brentford Aits

There are three aits near to Old Brentford, the one which is commonly called Brentford Ait, is, says old Roger Griffiths, the water bailiff, 1746, - who makes but two aits - "a very pleasant spot, on which is a publick house, inhabited by a fisherman, who of late years has greatly improved the spot by making therein several fishponds and other ornaments, for the more agreeable reception of those who shall make use of his house;
the other, which near adjoins to this, is planted with osiers and situated on the Middlesex side of the river, notwithstanding they are in the parish of Kingston (!)[sic] in the county of Surrey."
If this be the middle ait alluded to, not a trace is left of the house or ponds, and curious enough, at the present moment no one seems to know to whom to attribute the ownership.

Brentford Ferry is thirteen miles and a half by water from London Bridge, and Isleworth Church fourteen and three quarters from the same structure.

Lots Ait Kew Grand Union Canal entrance Brentford Marina

Brentford dock is the property of the Great Western Railway Company.
It holds large quantities of roach of about 1lb., bream of 3lb., chub of 2lb., perch of lb., and jack are taken constantly of from 3lb. to 4lb., and have been killed as heavy as 8lb. Bleak abound in this water, and seven to eight dozen can be caught in a few hours with a line baited with three or four small hooks, and the skins of the gentle.
The docks are about 16ft. deep at high water, and are principally used for the conveyance of lime and coal.
A good deal of the dust of the latter falls overboard, and gradually accumulates into a mud deposit.
The lime being of greater value is happily economised, or the consequence to the fish would be serious.
It is not easy to get an order to fish, as the number of rails which run into it render it imprudent to admit strangers.
The anglers in the neighbourhood generally angle in the open creek of the Brent, and the Brent itself, which is influenced by the tide, which the docks are not.
Live shrimps are the best bait for perch in the docks.
There is a fine deep off these docks in the river, which leads well up to Zion House, say a distance of half a mile, and averages 12ft. at low water, which is considered a great depth here.

Indeed, from Isleworth to Richmond the demand for ballast for building purposes has been so great of late years that the whole of the bed of the river has undergone an alteration, and the Sampson steam dredgers have worked all up stream until no more gravel was to be met with.
One Mr. Schooley, a contractor, paid £200 a year to the conservators for this licence, but he was debarred from going near to a bridge by so many hundred yards, and a like prohibition protected the shore.
This very wholesome regulation, it is to be hoped, will be carried out in the upper Thames, in which dredgers have been working where they like to the great injury at times of the river.
To show the severity with which these laws are carried out, two years ago this contractor made a hole too close to Chiswick Ait, and not agreeing with the terms of his undertaking, the conservators made him fill it up again at a cost of £200.
This gentleman being somewhat surprised at the much greater quantity of ballast it required to repair the damage, over that which had been removed, discovered that the "crab men" who work with a spoon and windlass in a barge, were helping themselves, and he had to pay extra expenses to watch the spot until the hole was filled in.

Syon House Isleworth Ait The London Apprentice public (Walker) at Isleworth, formerly Thistleworth, is an old fashioned long established house, well known to boating men.
You may sit at the window at high water on a summer day, and see shoals of dace and great numbers of bleak.
The house was once noted for its handbells and bell ringing societies.
There are also the Bell, and Northumberland Arms.

There was an exciting seal hunt here some few years since, in which "Chuckum " Gibbs, who was the first to detect the nature of the animal, took an active part, firing and hitting it with ball more than once as it rose to the surface to blow.
It would appear that it had been observed in several places on its way up the river, but at most it had attracted no more attention than that of a dog swimming with the stream.
It was, however, hotly pursued at Isleworth, and its manœuvres to escape by diving from one side of the river to the other, and creeping stealthily in shallow water under any overhanging bush, showed a remarkably high order of instinct.
At length, exhausted by fatigue and loss of blood from one of its eyes that had been pierced by a shot, the poor creature became powerless, and before Gibbs could get up to seize the prize to which he was entitled, young Styles went off in a boat, and, catching the seal by the flipper, made him captive.
It was shown for a consideration for a while in Styles's boathouse, when Miss Farnell became possessed of it.
It measured 5ft. 6in. in length.

These "crabmen" do not altogether depend upon dredging for their living; they are generally watermen and fishermen, and are, strange to say, bits of archaeologists and antiquarians, and have come by experience to look as closely at the turning out of the spoons of the debris of the Thames into the barge as a washer at Ballarat watching the scouring of the detritus of the river for golden results.
In this way but lately a Roman shield, which sold for £40, was found, and spear heads and coins of value; but the great prize now sought after is a horse shoe, which, curiously enough, has not yet been cast up, although at some of the fords many have been met with.
At Chiswick Hill a number of battle axes were discovered, and stags' horns of a large size.

At the lifting of the sluice in the creek of the Duke of Devonshire's, at Chiswick, great quantities of tench escape into the Thames, and they would feed back next tide, and if possible regain their old quarters, but when these flood gates are open there are generally one or more boats and their fishermen ready to make a clean sweep of the truant fish.

There was a sturgeon taken as high up as Brentford in the year 1863.

The tail of the Isleworth Mills and the water at the back of Orange tree Yard are at times full of dace, and Mr. Henry Crystall, with his two brothers, caught twenty three dozen there during one tide, in the winter of 1864.

Another capital swim in winter is nearly opposite the centre of the Isleworth ait.
Here the same piscator took in the warmer months 10lb. of fine chub in a north east wind, fishing with gentles; but the angler must be careful, as the barbel sometimes comes suddenly on the feed, and the safety of fine tackle is rendered precarious.

The moat of which I have already spoken, when it reaches the termination of the pleasure grounds of the Royal Gardens at Kew, ceases to be confined by a brick fosse wall, and is bounded by the portion of Kew Park not open to the public.
Here it assumes a more natural aspect, becomes deeper and deeper until we get opposite Isleworth, where we have full six feet, if not more, of water, while the splendid horse chesnut trees that shadow it, and in many places arch over its entire breadth, laving their branches in its waters, give it a really riverlike aspect.
It must be observed, however, that this is strictly private, and may not be fished without permission from the authorities, and should the angler obtain a permission card he cannot do better than commence at the first conduit from Richmond, where eight feet of water is under his hand, and jack are waiting for him of a weight which may surprise those who angle there for the first year or two after this disclosure is made public.
For further particulars ask Platt the fisherman, at Richmond, who will likewise put the would be angler of the Pen Ponds, Richmond Park - tickets of which are to be obtained of Colonel Liddell, the deputy ranger — up to the best mode of securing the pike which are otherwise difficult to bring to hook.

RICHMOND Half tide lock & weir
[ Opened 1894 ]

Twickenham Bridge
[ Opened 1933 ]

Richmond Railway Bridge
[ Opened 1849 ]

Richmond Railway Bridge is fifteen miles five furlongs by water from London Bridge, and Richmond Bridge two furlongs farther.

The best time to fish Richmond may be gathered from the tidal tables.
Thus, when the tide is at its highest, say at 10 a.m., the angler can fish until dark, while every other week there is good morning and evening angling.
To prevent disappointment, however, I should advise the posting a note of inquiry to Mr. George Howard, fisherman.
I find the usual charge for puntsman and baits is 7s. 6d. a day without refreshment, but this depends upon the party.
In the winter it is 4s. for a punt alone, and 6s. with a man.

The sewer at the Railway Bridge, near the towing path, is literally infested with anglers in the season, and as the swim can be reached from the bank with a long rod and waded to by an immersion up to the knees, every humble description of person connected with fresh water fish catching appears to assemble there in turn, or it may be altogether, excepting the bailiffs, who seem to think it infra dig to interfere for the salvation of the tiny fry so remorselessly sacrificed at this odorous outfall.
There is occasionally a first rate angler to be found here begirt in Fagg's hip boots, and up nearly to their tops in the river, who takes the largest quantity of fish known to be captured at this sweet spot.
He has an official appointment both at Astley's and Cremorne, and has been christened by his friends after the latter resort.
He is both a skilful and an honourable angler, and nothing appears to induce him to bag a fish, the legal size of which is doubtful.

There is an excellent swim for barbel under the middle arch of the public stone bridge, and another beneath the second arch from the Middlesex side, from both of which a good many barbel are taken on one occasion eighteen were captured within the hour by one rod.

There are no swims between this and the sewer.

The depth of water about the bridge varies, as of course does the whole of the river to Teddington, according to the tides, but the average in the Richmond district during spring tides is 4ft. feet at low water, and 10ft. at high water, and neap tides average from 8ft. to 10ft. at high water.
Should it, however, blow a gale below, the wind will either keep the water back, or drive it yet higher up, according to the point of the compass from which it rages.

The deeps or preserves, as commonly so called - although all the river as far as the City stone at Staines is presumed to be protected from the net - are 700yds. reaching westward from Richmond Bridge to the Duke of Buccleugh's.

The first good pitch holds 5ft. of water at low tide, and is opposite Mr. Painter's house.
The next is opposite the summer house of this gentleman, and is of the same depth.
Another swim is indicated by the entrance to a brewery, known as the Waterworks Pitch; this is 3ft. to 4ft. at low, and 10ft. to 12ft. at high water.
A swim succeeds called The Ditch, opposite the Marquis of Lansdowne's; holding about the same water as the last.
A very favourite pitch faces the Duke of Buccleugh's old boathouse; this is 5ft., and 10ft. to 12ft. at high water, according to the tide.
Formerly this was one of the best roach pitches in the river.
It has, however, much filled in of late years.
If it were ballasted out, and a few similar holes made just out of the bargeway, to hold the big fish, Richmond deeps would be immensely improved.
The fish caught in these deeps are roach, dace, barbel, perch, and indeed fresh water fish of almost all kinds, trout being a great rarity, but when taken are generally large.

Just above the last swim, and pointed at by a willow on the Duke's lawn, is another good pitch, and it likewise serves, by taking a line somewhat to the Middlesex shore to "spot" a most excellent place called "The Roach Hole".
The depth is, say, 3ft., 4ft. and 7ft. at low, and 8ft. and 10ft. at high water.

Of late years many fine carp have made their appearance in Richmond deeps, and are often caught by roach fishers.
They are supposed to have escaped from private waters, probably from the canal at Sion House, or worked down from the flooding of some pond above.

A few yards above the Roach Hole, and near the end of the Buccleugh property, many fine dace are taken when on the "hill" with fly, gentle, or red worm.

The Buccleugh lawn and house are very pretty from the water, but to the bargemen, who possess no soul for beauty, the place is simply detestable, owing to the fact that the towing path is stopped by it, and horses and men have to go round the back of the domain, and then make fast the towing rope from the other end of the grounds.
Perhaps, indeed, the whole of the rest of the Thames does not hear so many curses, not only loud but deep, that fall around this spot.
This is the only instance on the Thames, I believe, where private grounds interfere with the public towing path, and it is without doubt a public nuisance, for which, it is said, we are indebted to that "merrie monarch", Charles II.

Here ends the "old preserve".

Leaving this, we find a large hole opposite Petersham Island, 8ft. at low water by the plumb line.
This is remarkable as having been a shallow until lately; but ballasting has altered the character of the scours, and formed a resort for large roach, driving the dace from their old haunts to seek a more appropriate home.
This shallow is mentioned by old Roger Griffiths, the author water bailiff, who in his work upon the Thames, dated 1746, says that "Petersham Roots was a noted place for roach, dace and other small fish, coming in spawning time to Hill as it was called, laying their spawn there in great quantities, being a shallow gravelly place, with a swift current."

At the top of this island, on the Surrey side, is a beautiful barbel swim, 8ft. or 9ft. deep at high, and about 7ft. at low water.

There is a spot much sought after opposite Little Marble Hall, and all the way up just outside at the edge of the weeds in the channel, are likely places for perch, & c.
Perhaps for this bold biter the angler could not do better than try near General Peel's.
Between this and Eel pie Island there are two capital pitches for dace and barbel.

There is another ballast hole opposite Ham House, which yields well.
There is about 4ft. of water in it.
Ham Hill is noted for its dace scours, where the angler will find good whipping water from bank or punt.

The fish go up and down to a great extent with the tide, and as the water falls they may be seen making their way in shoals to the lower deeps.
This is more particularly the case in the spring tides, which is the worst time, for that reason, for the fly.

The exquisite poem of "the Elm Tree", by the late Thomas Hood, is said to have been suggested by the avenue of Ham House, from which the following is an extract:

With wary eyes, and ears alert,
As one who walks afraid,
I wander'd down the dappled path
Of mingled light and shade.
How sweetly gleamed that arch of blue
Beyond the green arcade!
How cheerly shone the glimpse of heaven
Beyond that verdant isle!
All overarch'd with lofty elms,
That quench'd the light the while,
As dim and chill
As serves to fill
Some old cathedral pile.

George Howard, the late water bailiff, Harry Howard, jun., Christopher Brown, and W.Platt, are the fishermen at Richmond.

The inns frequented by anglers are: the old Ship, Mr. Redding, landlord, opposite George Street;
he Cricketers (J.N. Barrett), on the Green;
the Marquis of Granby, a modest hostelrie, kept by one Dapple, an "old brother bob";
the Queen's Head (F. Wallace), is another cricketing house, to which anglers likewise resort;
the King's Head (Cirby's) (beds ), close to the bridge where omnibus stops, and whose landlady exhibits great tact, kindness, and thoughtfulness to all her customers alike;
the Greyhound, a first rate comfortable house;
Jolly Anglers, Water lane, humble, clean, and reasonable;
Three Pigeons (James Chitty), near the Duke of Buccleugh's;
the White Cross, on towing path, to the east of Richmond Bridge;
and several other excellent houses.

The Thames Angling Preservation Society publish every year an annual report, and attached to this brochure are the names of seven inns only, from Richmond to Egham, where good accommodation can be found by the angler.
In the large town of Richmond we have but one house selected, although Richmond must contain at least twenty eligible hostelries peculiarly adapted to the modest wishes, early habits, and cleanly wants of the disciples of old Izaak.
But when it is stated that the grand palatial hotel known as the Star and Garter, at the top of the hill, is the one chosen by the society as an appropriate retreat for those who would pursue the sport of killing roach and dace hereabout, it reads more like a poor joke by Theodore Hook, than a serious desire to guide and assist the aquatic wayfarer.
In "Paved Court", near the Green, E. Taylor, a hairdresser, sells tackle, and another tackle shop is near the bridge.

Corporation Island; Richmond Bridge; Glovers Island

Twickenham Ait

Twickenham Ait is seventeen miles two furlongs from London Bridge by water.

It has been said, that, from General Peel's to the Eel Pie Island, there are two excellent pitches for dace and barbel.

The best is opposite the second flower vase from the east on the Duke d'Aumale's garden wall.
It is one of the most approved of the summer swims in the Twickenham waters, and is scarcely ever, during that period, without a punt and its party.
It used to be fished much by Mr. David Newbold, a noted roach angler, who has often taken there 30lb. of roach and upwards, all running large, at a single sitting.
He used to go to work by placing his punt athwart the stream, and ground baiting with the paste with which he angled.
This he did: having carried on board some few hundred of small round pebbles, and covering these with a coat of dough, he would drop two or three at a time close to the punt, letting the stream break up the bait.
He fished with a much longer rod than customary for a punt, holding it with both hands, single hair line, and no running tackle; and, taking the very top of the swim, when a bite occurred, he hit upwards - not a strike as usually understood, but much after the fashion that a nurse throws up a baby - and he seldom lost a fish.

There is likewise a large hole just below the ferry under a willow, kept clean by a veteran Waltonian of Twickenham, who fishes here from a private lawn.
Let me impress upon my brother anglers the courtesy of leaving this swim to the uses of this worthy piscator - that is, of course, should he so desire it - as he can command it from the seat raised on the bank, and he has well earned his right to this preference by the pains he has taken to render the spot fishable.

Eel Pie Island

The river side of the Eel Pie Island affords a good deal of average bank fishing, and from a boat several holes may be reached, more particularly between the poplars and before we get to the landing stage of the hotel kept by the widow Mayo.
I have known a surprising quantity of dace to be taken fairly, and by the most simple means, on the shallows in the stream on the Middlesex side of the island in July, August, and September, by three men in a humble position of life.
The most successful of the three is a farrier at Brentford; but they all fish much after the same fashion, with a withy wand, a tight line of about fifteen feet of Indian twist or common thread, gut, and hook baited with a gentle or house fly.
Thus they whip the waters knee deep in the scours, and often seven and eight dozen of dace have fallen to the lot of one wand.
I saw upon one occasion as many as eighteen dace taken in about seventy casts.
These casts are made with great rapidity.
No apparent skill is exercised, no letting the lure float down the stream; it is no sooner on the surface of the water than it is jerked off again, as if to chance a bite, and the fish itself is jerked out of its element and into the hand of the angler with singular dexterity.
Upon my expressing surprise at this primitive mode of angling bearing such results, a looker on who was accustomed to the sight observed, "O, that's nothing; I have seen him pick twelve dace out running, and his arm go as fast as a pump handle."

Now we stretch away from the Island, and find all shallow except in the extreme channel; and those who are fond of wading may do so in front of the large double flanked and green verandahed house, formerly Lord Drummond's, with every right to feel assured that, if dace they care for, there are myriads of them of average size disporting all around the little mound at the end of the Swan Ait.

Here follow the celebrated Twickenham deeps, which are generally dotted with punts.
There are many first rate pitches, one opposite Pope's villa, and on the Surrey side a splendid shallow for dace and small chub.
Indeed, at the top of the tide this is a capital spot.
There is a notable pitch at the corner of the island, just below the late Mr. Chillingworth's, on the Middlesex side.

As bleak are very abundant in the Thames, it may be well for the punt angler to have a few handfuls of dry bran with him, and when these fish are troublesome, he has only to throw in a pinch or two, which will spread over the water, and as the stream carries it away the bleak will follow.
The same applies in catching bleak from the bank, in which case the angler should follow the bran and fish about a foot below the surface with very light tackle and small hook.
Bleak are a splendid spinning bait for trout, jack, and perch.

The fishermen here are old John Coxen, and his son "Doree" Coxen.

Swan Island

The inns are: the Swan, at Twickenham, near the Ferry, where the stuff sold is far from palatable;
the Eight Bells in Thames lane, a small house, but excellent malt;
the Coach and Horses, at the corner of Thames lane, in the main thoroughfare (beds);
the George Inn, kept by the goodly and courteous Dame Gilham, where the omnibus stops;
and the Railway Hotel (beds), near the station.
Flies and broughams may be had next door to the latter house, from the much respected Mr. Baily, once well known as a worthy landlord both at Windsor and Twickenham.

The end of the "Cross Deeps" below, may be said to be the boundary of the Teddington (formerly tide-ending town) district.
These deeps extend up to Mr. Chillingworth's house, and offer many piscatorial attractions, amongst which are more swims than I care to enumerate; and if I did so, their numbers would tend but to confuse.

There is, however, one opposite Lady Waldegrave's boathouse, and another at the bottom of the hill, opposite "The Bachelors", so called from a select coterie of gentlemen residing there for many years in single blessedness, until a member being suspected of having got married on the sly, he was put upon his trial by the rest, and in his defence made out so good a case, that most of his companions followed the delinquent example, and thus this celibated band was broken up, and the ladies of Teddington became jubilant.

There is a third swim that I ought not to omit, near the first summer and boathouse on the lawns, recollecting we are going up stream.
The next pitch of consequence is opposite Mr. Strachan's house; and then succeed shallows until we get near the locks at Teddington, excepting always in the channel at the edge of the weed.
Mr. Ericker, of the High street, is well acquainted with the river about Teddington, and although not a professional fisherman, will cheerfully afford any information to a brother angler.

Teddington Weir

As we approach the locks we get again into deeper water, which continues to the weir, in which there is capital fishing, at times certainly equal to any other place on the Thames.
There are thousands of dace; ten dozen a day is a common take for one rod.
About fifty yards below the weir is Kemp's Hole, well known for the great quantity of barbel taken there, and which hole used to be considered the private property by long use and investiture of the Kemp family, who are said to have slept over it for many a night, to keep it warm for themselves and their customers.
Teddington lock is famous for its lamperns, which yield a large income.
They are nearly all sent over to Holland as bait for turbot, & c., and generally fetch a shilling a pound.
There is said to be an apparition of a bucknet occasionally at this weir, which, however ghostly in its character, from its sudden appearance and disappearance, contains at times a corporal weight of fish.

Teddington Locks; Teddington Locks Footbridge; Trowlock Island;

We pass through the locks, which are free to the pleasure boat, and, after an inspection of Doust the lock keeper's picture gallery, glide over a long stretch of deep and superb water; but the weeds of the summer and autumn are a great obstruction to angling, although they afford excellent harbour to the fish and bother the net.

That little opening on the right is the end of a sweetly pretty piece of back water, known as "The Trollocks".
It abounds in large - sized roach and chub, and there are a few jack in its miniature lagoons.
It can be fished from the ait or a punt; the inner bank is private.
A friend upon one occasion was pulling me up this piece of water, when he accidentally disturbed a swan sitting upon her nest, and the female uttering its peculiar cry, the male bird close at hand flew out, and, striking the end of one of the sculls with its wing, imparted so severe a shock to the arm of my friend that it dropped as if paralysed, nor did he recover the numbness which succeeded the pain for a long time during that day.
These exquisitely graceful and picturesque birds are far too numerous on the Thames, where they destroy the spawn of most fish to an incalculable extent, and, where they trespass, poison the herbage to such a degree that even a donkey will not eat the grass they have trodden over.
The ova of the perch are their favourite food, and when they are gobbling this up they cannot be driven from their banquet without considerable difficulty.
The Trollocks enters above from the main stream opposite the One Tree, near Sir John Broughton's.
There is an excellent pitch opposite the One Tree, with quite 8ft. of water, good for roach, chub, and perch, and particularly the latter fish.
The whole of the banks of the ait formed by The Trollocks abound in large sized chub, roach, and a few perch, and can be fished from the ait itself, or what is better, from a punt.
I have seen the Nottingham style of angling practised here with great success.
There are no particular pitches throughout this district, but the whole may be pronounced more than average water, there being from 7ft. to 8ft. of it, with an excellent and even bottom.
Then follow several small reedy inlets, which should be tried for jack, and are always well stocked in early autumn, when the weeds are down.
It is " first come first served " here, as in many other places of easy access.
Near this same ait there are deep, sly - looking places amidst the gnarled roots of trees where chub of heavy weight are known to hide, and occasionally, when the water is slightly coloured and the small frog is in season, fall a prey to the cautious and quiet angler.

Stevens Eyot; Boaters Inn

Just past the walls of Sir John Broughton's, near Stevens the fisherman's cottage, there is a bank on the Surrey side that is deep and tempting.

The fishermen at Teddington are James Kemp, William Kemp, James Baldwin, and James Messenger; and Stevens, as mentioned, who goes out with anglers.

The inns are: Kemp's, close to the weir;
the Grotto Inn, kept by T. Bendy (beds), nearer to London;
the Royal Oak, Gallatly, in the centre of the village of Teddington, which has a welcome look about it to an angler, and makes up five or six beds;
and the Clarence Arms Inn, close to the Teddington and Bushey Park Station, kept by F. Metcalf, which is remarkable for the elegant yet simple style of its architectural and general interior arrangement.
The Adelaide Inn has a yet more quiet appearance, and is nearer to the park gates; it is said to have all the requisites to make a humble angler contented and happy.

Kingston Railway Bridge

The railway bridge now comes in sight, and all the water up to it harbours plenty of fish.
The whole of this reach is singularly quiet, and is in direct contrast to the often disturbing bustle above Kingston Bridge.
The bridge offers some very good fishing for barbel, roach, and chub.
If a line be drawn from the middle of the centre arch, and 20yds. measured from the bridge down stream, a hole of reputation, but little known, will be found.
This deep extends about 30ft., and was made by the Messrs. Cubitt to remove some especially fine clay from thence for the making of tiles.
It gives 20ft. of water even at low tides.
One hundred barbel leaps have been counted here in two hours; but, of course, one fish may have broken water more than once.
The spot we are on - below the railway bridge — is the selected fishing ground of Johnson, of Kingston, the puntsman, who, it is credibly asserted, has taken tons of fish out of it with the rod and line, of course aided by his numerous customers.
The ballasting for the new railway bridge has not, it would appear, made any perceptible difference about here; but near the bridge itself some very deep water has been caused by it, into which the barbel have dropped down from their former haunts at the old town bridge.

The old malthouse is now on our right, from which the Kingston preserve was dated.

Near the Old Swan, and the lower side of Kingston Bridge, there is average punt fishing, and the bank angler will find the advantages offered off the wharves by no means contemptible.

Kingston Bridge

Kingston Bridge by water is twenty miles two furlongs from London Bridge.

Exactly in a line with the golden letters "Ind, Coope, and Co.", upon the landing stage of the Sun Hotel, is a deep hole, with roach, chub, and a few jack, but no barbel.
This is Mr. Smith the barge master's (the energetic committee man of the Thames Angling Preservation Society) favourite pitch, and he is mostly well rewarded for his choice.

The Griffin Hotel, at the entrance to the Hog Mill stream, has a garden front, from which an angler may while away an hour or so with float or fly.

We now sight the Jolly Anglers, where Bill Clarke, the fisherman, may be met with, and every information obtained anent the river in this neighbourhood, as he is both intelligent and truthful.

About 100 to 250 yards above the Anglers, on the Surrey side, close in shore, is the celebrated Kingston preserve for bream.
It is in a direct line with the two solitary cottages built on the skirt of the Hampton Home Park, on the Middlesex side.
This place used to be systematically poached with nets, until Bill Clarke sunk a couple of old hogsheads covered with tenter hooks, and then the netters and their nets got despoiled in their turn; and the bream are now as plentiful and safe in and around their Diogenesian fastnesses as the heart of the most greedy of anglers could desire.
Bill Clarke tells me that the largest barbel upon record here was 191b. 6oz.
The heaviest that Clarke ever took was when he was eleven years of age, some twenty five years ago, while fishing with a Mr. Dean, a boot and shoe maker to her Majesty, of Old Bond street; its weight was 15lb.

Ravens Ait

A small ait just before we get to Messenger's makes a scour on the Surrey side, where I have used a fly with Mr. Tredegar, of Surbiton, in early morning and in dry autumns, with singular success.

The sewer opposite Messenger's boathouse has disappeared, and with it the knot of anglers who used to elbow each other to get at this coveted place for coarse fish.

All along the nicely kept promenade - much improved of late by the formation of landing steps - is good, and the bank fisher may fill a tolerably sized bag, if he be there between three and six p.m. in July, or by break of day in August.

As we pass the promenade and get under the walls of the waterworks, the river becomes very deep, and heavy perch are often caught.
The bank angler cannot do better than try between the bushes which hang from the towing path, beneath which the water is likewise deep, and perch and chub are to be met with, more particularly at the lower part of the bend opposite where the Fox and Hounds formerly stood.

When the angler passes the sites of the old Three Pigeons ferry and the Crown and Anchor (the roadside front of which was one of George Morland's favourite studies) - now removed for the extension of the waterworks - he will find the bush cleared away, and good casts may be made into excellent water from the shore for trout and jack; the former that are taken hereabout are large.

Several fine trees have been cut down on the towpath side by order of the Commissioners of her Majesty's Woods and Forests, and the beauty of the landscape much interfered with.
The inequalities of the ground are, however, being filled up, and this may be accepted as some equivalent, this portion of the handsome walk having been long in a disgracefully marshy condition.

While upon the subject of the extension of the Thames water companies, it may be remarked, that one of the best meadows above Hampton - dear to the bank fisher - is threatened by the aggrandising strides of these companies, and that the stakes have already entered another fine mead, near Sunbury, for a like purpose.
These proceedings may be inexorable; but, while depriving the angler, who has had a vested standing upon the margin of the river for time out of mind, of his cherished privileges, could not the water companies make some concession in exchange by emptying the fish generated in such vast numbers in the upper reservoirs back into the stream - say once in five years?
Here is "Angling from this bank is not now allowed", the "rough" element having become an intolerable nuisance to the neighbourhood.
If the Conservators of the Thames were to issue licences at a trifling cost, such an infliction, here and elsewhere, could be held in check, by the forfeiture of the grant in case of misconduct.
Another hint of usefulness for the Thames Angling Preservation Society - or, what would perhaps be better, to a few independent Thames anglers, who might, with no loss of dignity, and probably with every advantage to the river, memorialise the board of the water company.
The upper reservoirs at Hammersmith, Kingston, and Hampton abound in fish, and all above the restricted size might be "rendered to Cæsar", and the rest kept for growth and another acceptable donation.

Ditton Slipway; Swan Inn; Thames Ditton Island

Thames Ditton Ferry is by water twenty two miles five furlongs from London Bridge.

The Swan Hotel at Ditton, so famous in the history of the Thames, and so intertwined with the reminiscences of the latter part of the last and beginning of the present century, has undergone during the past twenty years many fluctuations.
It is now, however, all that can be desired.
The host is commendable, the hostess equally so.
The fare is good, and the cook a chef in petticoats.
The village and its quaint church will afford an agreeable stroll for an appetite before dinner, and the views from the windows after it will blend pleasantly with the dessert.
Indeed, no Thames angler could desire a more suitable retreat, after his early morning's pursuits, and before the eventide delights of the rod which await him.

Old Billy Tagg, the waterman to Her Majesty, has gone to fraternise with Charon; but he has left many a curious anecdote behind of the piscatorial habits and manners of Theodore Hook, Edmund Kean, Vansittart, and even of Royalty itself, who, when out in a punt with him, appeared to think the gay dress he wore on state occasions, and the office he held, entitled him to hob and nob it with the nobility of birth and genius.
But, racy as they are, they have a strength of character which will not admit of their spirit being reduced to the duty standard of the present generation.
I am half inclined to believe, however, that old Tagg was gassing when he assured us that some of the foreign visitors to the Court with whom he was ordered to go out fishing used to take a paper of salt with them, to flavour the gentles which they ate by handfuls.
After that, if it be true, some of our English venison feasts fall back into the shade.
But to a yet more gentle subject.

The following verses written by Hook are still reverently recited in the village:

When sultry suns and dusty streets
Proclaim town's winter season,
And rural scenes and cool retreats
Sound something like high treason;
I steal away to shades serene,
Which yet no bard has hit on,
And change the bustling heartless scene
For quietude and Ditton.

Here lawyers, free from legal toils,
And peers released from duty,
Enjoy at once kind Nature's smiles,
And eke the smile of beauty;
Beauty with talent brightly graced,
Whose name must not be written,
The idol of the fane, is placed
Within the shades of Ditton.

Let lofty mansions great men keep
I have no wish to rob ' em
Not courtly Claremont, Esher's steep,
Nor Squire Combe's at Cobham.
Sir Hobhouse has a mansion rare,
A large red house at Whitton;
But Cam with Thames I can't compare,
Nor Whitton class with Ditton.

I'd rather live, like General Moore,
In one of the pavilions *
Which stand upon the other shore,
Than be the king of millions;
For though no subject might arise
To exercise my wit on,
From morn 'till night I'd feast my eyes
By gazing at sweet Ditton.

The mighty queen whom Cydnus bore
In gold and purple floated,
But happier I when near this shore,
Although more humbly boated.
Give me a punt, a rod, a line,
A snug armchair to sit on,
Some well iced punch, and weather fine,
And let me fish at Ditton.

* Alas, one of the great charms of Hampton Court is fled; it is no longer a sanctuary from the sheriff's officer!

The "Swan", snug inn, good fare affords,
As table e'er was put on,
And worthier quite of loftier boards
Its poultry, fish, and mutton;
And while sound wine mine host supplies,
With beer of Meux or Tritton,
Mine hostess with her bright blue eyes
Invites to stay at Ditton.

Here, in a placid waking dream,
I'm free from worldly troubles,
Calm as the rippling silver stream
That in the sunshine bubbles:
And when sweet Eden's blissful bowers
Some abler bard has writ on,
Despairing to transcend his powers,
I'll ditto say for Ditton.

After leaving the Swan, a swift piece of shallow water which runs into the Surrey side at the head of the second ait should be fished with the fly or the beetle for chub, or properly searched for a trout.
There is always one or more on this pretty scour.

The pitches from this to the water gallery of Hampton Court are many, but they have not been named by the fishermen.
In the Lea, the Loddon, & c., every corner and every hole has its nomenclature, and renders the topography of the localities simple in the extreme.
Why cannot the bends and corners of the Thames be thus "christened"? surely there is water enough for that.

Theodore Hook used to say that these spots were called "pitches" because when once found the anglers stick to them with poles.

The two next aits may be passed without remark, and then we come to the far famed, fabulous, and fathomless water gallery hole, close under the rails on the towing path side.
It is a safe refuge for good trout; and on any fine summer evening two or more whoppers may be seen in and about it, dashing upon the baits like policemen after a pickpocket in a crowd.

Hampton Court; Rivers Mole & Ember;

It is caused by the waters of the Mole, which here discharge through a branch into the Thames almost at a right angle - the floods which often come down very heavily having hollowed and eddied it out; but after heavy rains it is thicker than the rest of the Thames, from the like cause.
The greatest depth I could find with the plumb line was 15ft.; but it is said to be 20ft., and of course it is so when the floods render the Thames some 5ft. higher than at present.
It can be easily fished from the bank, and still permit of the angler getting well away from the extreme margin of the campshed and out of sight of the fish.
There is likewise a good eddy off this on the Middlesex side for perch with the paternoster.
A great many of 1lb. to 2lb. are taken every season.

Lord St. Leonards seems to have a horror of anglers.
If a man commences fishing in boat or punt opposite his lawn, he sends a footman forth to pelt the surrounding water with stones; but a friend of mine touching the calf of Jeames with a soft piece of clay from a blow pipe, made, for the time, the non plushed minion howl again.

Hampton Court Bridge

Hampton Court Bridge is twenty three miles one furlong by water from London Bridge.
The new bridge at Hampton Court is a handsome structure as seen from the river, and a great improvement over the old, picturesque, but dangerous wooden one; but when we get upon it we find that it would have been better if the castellated approaches had been kept lower, as they hide the landscape up and down the river.
It will be remembered how little fishing there was formerly from the piles of the old bridge, occasioned by the then shallowness of the stream.
Deep and efficient ballasting has altered all this, and there are now few better places than those recently made around the new structure.
There is, however, no means of angling from the bridge itself, the parapets being too high to work a rod well over them; nor could it be managed with any comfort through the lozenge shaped openings of the iron work.

Mullins, the excellent landlord and admirable cook of the Castle, on the Moulsey side of the bridge, has retired from business life to the seaside, with a well deserved competence, and the hearty wishes of his friends that he may fully enjoy it.
He is succeeded by Mr. Fuller, formerly of the Albion, at Moulsey, of whose capabilities to keep up the name and fame of the Castle report speaks favourably.
Another house has been built and opened close by, called the Caernarvon Castle (F.Thompson); this is far from fair, and as the naming the house could not be compulsory, it looks extremely ugly to an eye accustomed to straight lines in all callings.
The Railway Inn is a good house on the right, and the Albion, now R.Gutteridge, is quiet and respectable.
T.G.Tagg, once junior, the boat builder and fisherman to Her Majesty, lives in a pretty cottage opposite the latter, but is mostly to be found amongst the craft at the entrance to the Mole near the railway station bridge.
The house, however, which I prefer, is farther up on the left after a dead wall is passed.
It is the King's Arms, and is kept by Mr. Thomas Edwards and his sister.
The garden goes down to the river Mole, and all is quiet and charming around it.
A good swim is kept clean for those who like to angle, and the meads, the mill, and the distant red brick with white facings of Hampton Court Palace, are seen through the trees from the windows of this house as well as from the lawn, and form a most delightful and pleasing picture.
The fish to be taken off this are roach, dace, gudgeons, and an occasional jack, and chub or two.
I do not, however, recommend the place alogether for the bit of fishing it affords, but from the quiet, cleanly, and cheerful character of all about it, including the host and hostess, who, however, may have a dinner for eighty or one hundred going on when the reader calls; he must therefore take his chance, and accept some other word in lieu of "quiet" as the case may be.
On the other side the bridge, and nearly opposite the palace barrack gates, is the Mitre Hotel, a more pretentious house than any of the others, in which everything is done well, and the charges are fair if the superiority of the accommodation, and the wines are taken into just consideration.
I can likewise recommend the Greyhound Hotel, opposite the Wilderness gate of Hampton Court Gardens; but I cannot conscientiously speak in favour of the King's Arms, although I have year after year given the house a fair trial.

MOLESEY LOCK

Moulsey Weir is an excellent spot, and many is the noble trout that has left its depths to delight the eyes and adorn the table of the angler or the epicure.
Some little distance below, and just above what was formerly the garden of the celebrated Toy Hotel, there was once a tremendously deep hole well paved with rubbish.
It was a great resort for large fish.
It has, however, been much filled up, and consequently deteriorated, of late years.
A gentleman used to fish this weir with a punt to which a simple apparatus was attached for steadying it, which it did even when moored in the roughest part of the pool.
The fall of the weir is 5ft.
Moulsey lock, says the "Oarsman's Guide", takes some time to get through.
It is free.

From this point to Seething Wells below, and even lower, the stream is strong, particularly towards the Middlesex side.
The height of water in the reach above this lock should be noticed with a view to know when it is possible to get up the back water, and so avoid part of the sharp run in Sunbury Race.
The water should be 2in. or more over the campshed of the lock, when the lock is full, in order to do this with a light boat.

Ash Island; Taggs Island; Duck's Ait;

Just above the lock is the Angler's Retreat, a humble resort with a tumbling bay on the Middlesex side, but it is fished to death, and I have never heard of anything particular being taken - now and then a small trout may be got there and a few chub.

The Hog Hole, which connects the back water and the Hampton Deeps, is famous for the number of its yield of jack.

Garricks Lawn;

Hampton Deeps, just before we come to the church, still keep up an average reputation, of which the Gulls, opposite Garrick's Villa, is undoubtedly the best portion.
The next famous spot is Fishers' Ait, all good angling around it for roach, dace, barbel, & c., but no jack.

Hurst Park Launching; Garrick's Ait; Benn's Ait Hampton Sailing Club; Platt's Eyot;

The ferry across to Moulsey Hurst, where the races are now held, and prize fights used to "come off", is close by us.
Here the Bell Inn offers capital accommodation, and one of the family of the Benns, the fishermen, will provide punt, tackle, and baits if necessary.
There is an hotel - the Red Lion - to the left of this, hidden from our view, and once famous for its tulip beds which were scrupulously kept by its late proprietor, Mr. Lawrence.

Passing on, we reach Pecker's Ait, a noted harbour for chub and jack.

Grand Junction Island;

Near the Vauxhall Grand Junction and West Middlesex Water works are some capital swims, and close to the head of them, as well as off the tail, many perch and jack are taken.
Sunbury Court Island Swan's Rest & Rivermead Islands;

Above the ait is the Cherry Orchard, and from this point up to the White Pile, is an excellent reach of trout water; many trout may be seen breaking the surface on any fine summer evening, but they are wary fellows.
There is a good shallow or two at the head of the ait for the fly.
The water before quoted from the "Oarsman's Guide" is about a mile below Sunbury Lock, where there is a turn on the Surrey bank, or a back water meeting the river again; but the course of the river lies to the Middlesex side, and the water runs very sharp.

This part of the river is called Cane Edge, and the stream from this point up is known as Sunbury Race.
When the water is tolerably high in this reach, boats can go about two furlongs up the back water, and then pass over a gap through which the stream runs from the main river.
By these means the worst part of this piece of hard rowing can be avoided.
In order to know when this can be effected, it has been said the height of the water over the campshed at Moulsey Lock should be observed.

"It is also possible, sometimes", says the 'Oarsman's Guide', "to penetrate still farther up, and come out opposite the weir, but this rarely happens in the boating season."
This, however, is an obvious error, as this back water terminates directly after it touches the lower part of Sunbury, and the weir is above the town, which consists of a long straggling street.

To go back awhile the White Pile at Sunbury is the first of a few posts painted white and fixed in the river, and is justly praised as indicating a barbel swim, in which, some years ago, Bill Benn had extraordinary sport, numbering his takes of barbel by the hundredweight.
He fished it for several days with the ledger, never leaving it, but even sleeping there in his punt to prevent anyone else from obtaining the coveted pitch.
Of course it was fished out at length.

Opposite Lord Kilmorey's, just above the White Pile, is the back water alluded to, which holds numbers of small perch and jack, and at particular seasons is alive with dace and diminutive chub.
From this to the lock the campshed is a fine resort for fish of most kinds.

Sunbury Weir

The stream from Sunbury Weir, to some distance past the church, is a splendid reach for fly fishing, being shallow and rapid, and many trout of enormous calibre have been taken in it spinning; indeed no better water could be desired, but it requires a hole here and there and some large stones as harbour for the trout.
For the want of these it is almost wasted and useless, but good trout are found in the upper and lower waters where the stream deepens.
Mr. Edward Lukyn, the eminent dentist, takes several fine and heavy trout here every season.
He resides opposite the church in a pretty cottage, the balcony of which overhangs the water, and from which heavy fish may be observed entering and leaving a hole beneath the windows.

There is a nice back water on the Sunbury side of the weir; up this stream fish that want to head can always find their way, and in the rough water where it takes its supply from the stream a good trout often lurks.
A takeable jack or two and many perch may be picked up between the lock and this stream.
SUNBURY LOCK
Sunbury Lock Ait;

The fall of Sunbury Weir is four feet.
The lock is free.
The house which best understands the requirements of the angler is the Flower Pot, where beds, & c., may be had, and whose landlord, being himself an angler, will be found well up in all piscatory lore both ancient and modern.
Whittock's Chertsey omnibus, that leaves the Goose and Gridiron at 9.10 a.m., stops at this house, as, indeed it does at most of the angling resorts along the Middlesex side of the Thames; and as it leaves Chertsey somewhat late, it affords a full afternoon's fishing, even at the end of its drive at Halliford, Shepperton, or Chertsey Bridge.
The rail of the Thames Valley likewise takes the angler within a moderate walk of these places, which, if he has not much tackle to carry, and eschews the assistance of a fly, can be easily surmounted.

The weir at Sunbury is, as all Thames anglers know, a very fine one, and those who are prepared to wade its scour, and to throw a large palmer, red or black (I prefer the former), should cross to the opposite corner, to that part of the fall that is dry in summer, and gradually cast downwards, close in until they get opposite, or nearly opposite, the church, and then they may take the direction of the scour as far as they detect the ripple and oily water.

The fishermen at Sunbury are Thomas Fulker and E. Clarke, the latter at the ferry.

Sunbury Railway Station is on the Thames Valley line of the South Western Railway, and full a mile from the Thames.
Fly or flies are generally in attendance to and from the Flower pot, the fare for which is 1s.

From Sunbury Weir up to Walton there are many fine pitches for bream and barbel.
A noted pitch for bream is very near to the end of the side stream which leads down to Sunbury Weir.
An extraordinary hole likewise for bream is on the Middlesex side, nearly opposite James Rogerson the fisherman's cottage, where literally tons of this fish, averaging 2lb., are taken during a season.
This swim is below the wooden bridge which passes over the inner water (Walton Sales), and just opposite the commencement of the first bushes on the Middlesex side in almost midstream; if anything, however, inclined to the meadow bank by 10ft. or 12ft.
The bream are caught by ledgering with lob worms previously well baited with the same.
In the season of 1866 two gentlemen, with Hone the fisherman, of Walton, took upwards of a hundredweight of these fish in three days, some of them weighing 3lb.

Wheatleys Ait;

The following paragraph appears in the Piscatorial Society's Report for 1866:
"The society's first prize taken by Mr. Johnson, with 549lb. of fish, entirely from the Thames, and with a trifling exception at Walton, calls forth the committee's heartiest congratulations and commendations.
This feat evinces an amount of perseverance and skill worthy of all praise."
The exact pitch is, however, somewhat difficult to describe, but as it cannot be fished with any comfort from the bank, it may be well to secure it for a day or two previously.
Almost the exact spot is shown in the photograph of Walton Bridge published by A. Marion, Son, and Co., Soho Square, in the first series of "The Thames", of which too much in praise cannot be said, for it is a work of consummate taste in every particular, and has evidently been inspired by one who possesses an artistic feeling and love of nature in an eminent degree.

It should be borne in mind that the engagement of swims upon the Thames is no longer conducted as formerly, and the presence of a rip hook stuck therein does not insure the pitch.
By this law, which is otherwise an excellent one, a hole may be baited for a succcession of days and nights, and the angler may have the mortification of finding a party fishing it at the very time he is prepared to take advantage of his own labour and forethought.
Amongst the fishermen there is, however, a certain code of honour, and such a circumstance could scarcely occur if these men were alone engaged.
I am not prepared to say that if the angler baited his own swim, and managed his own punt, this vexatious proceeding would not take place, or that a stranger would not select and keep so eligible a sitting, still such occasions, excepting in the full season, are few and far between; and, indeed, at any time a want of courtesy, not to say justice, amongst true anglers, is very exceptional.

Walton Sales, opposite Felix House (the Earl of Tankerville's), is a fine piece of back water, much poached for jack by night lines and ligger fishing.
Many good sized pike are taken when the weed is down, either by live baiting or the gorge; it is, at the best of times, scarcely free enough for spinning, although a few casts may be made made in selected places.

At Sunbury, besides the Flower Pot before mentioned, where Mr. George presides, are the Castle, kept by Mr. Lunn, and the Magpie on the left from town, having the advantage of a garden sloping down to the river, from which the angler can land and keep his punt and tackle under his eye; although this precaution, as far as a prudential step is considered, may be excused, the honest people of Sunbury would be surprised at the suspicion.

In Walton Church is preserved a brank or gossip's bridle.
The gifted scholar and magazine writer, Maginn, lies here without a statuary recognition.

Walton Station, Surrey side, is about two miles from the Thames: Weybridge Station, Surrey side, is about one mile and a half from the river.
At Walton, the Duke's Head and the Crown are the best inns.
We prefer the one on the left hand from the river at the opposite corner of the road leading to London, which, although a house of not much pretension is extensively supported by anglers.

At Weybridge, close to the station on the breezy common, is the Hand and Spear, a turreted inn standing high and admirably appointed in its resources for those needs which trench on an extra amount of comfort, and yet do not verge upon luxury.

The river Wey runs through the valley at the back of this house, and as its landlord possesses a meadow or two, there is little difficulty in getting permission to fish.
There are two other houses in Weybridge, yet closer to the Thames, the Crown and, the King's Arms, both of which have beds, and are well conducted.
And another upon the water's edge, the Lincoln Arms, kept by R. and John Harris, assisted by the active spouse of the latter, of which I have often had occasion to speak in terms of praise.
They are both fishermen, but the elder seldom goes out with gentlemen now, but leaves it to "Little John", so called from his great bulk, to do all the professional out of door part of the business.
They are both men of experience.
There is a good gudgeon swim opposite the Lincoln Arms.

If, however, my worthy brother is in search of a hostelrie for this district of a higher character of cuisine, he should cross over to the Surrey side from Walton to Halliford, where he will find the Ship, better known from the name of its commander "Stone" much enlarged and improved of late years.
The Rosewells and Rogersons, families of fishermen, are close by.

A little higher up still on the Surrey side, is Shepperton, where the Anchor Hotel stands at the corner near the church.
The Anchor leaves little to hope for.
Miss Steers, its landlady, known amongst anglers and oarsmen as "the Countess", possesses the happy tact of pleasing her customers, and is fortunate in having around her a staff well up in their various avocations.
Indeed, I have never heard of a grumble escaping from anyone who has partaken of the excellent catering of this house, in which, although ever treated as a prince, you are not charged as one.

But in speaking of the attractions which beset the angler, and having a fear that those who come to fish may stay to eat and drink, to the detriment of their health and sport, it will be well with, a word of commendation, to introduce an excellent fisherman, J. Perdue, to the notice of my readers.
This man is to be found almost directly opposite the church, but boots at the Anchor knows where to pitch upon him at any time when wanted.

But we linger too long from the stream.

Walton Bridge;

Walton Bridge is twenty seven miles seven furlongs by water from London Bridge.
We pass now under the bridge, the bottom about which is very uneven, large stones having been cast in, both above and below, to render the piers more firm and capable of resisting the heavy current that courses at times through these arches.

Coway, or Causeway Stakes, is a little above; it is here, it is said, the Romans under Julius Cæsar crossed to invade the kingdom of Casevelaunus.
The stakes were put into the river by the Britons to prevent the enemy from crossing, and their site is supposed to be opposite two large oak trees on the Surrey side of the river.
Splendid pitches may be found here in water of eight and ten feet of depth - a depth which, if consistent with that of the time of Julius Caesar, would go far to contravert the notion that the besieging party would adopt this spot for fording, while water so much shallower was to be met with higher up.

Walton Slipway;

A little above the Coway, the Halliford deeps begin.

On our left, and under Oatlands Park, now extensively built upon, is another piece of back water, in which several good jack have been taken, and an occasional perch of a couple of pounds or so.
The lake in Oatlands Park is private property, and cannot compare in any respect, beyond its privacy, with the free stream of the Thames.

Shepperton Old Channel;

Many large perch are caught with ledger and traveller, nearly opposite the cottage of Tom Rosewell, at Halliford, who speaks of it as the best resort of this bold and delicious fish in the Thames.
It certainly has always been considered a good harbour for perch, but whether these deeps surpass those of Marlow, Streatley, Culham, and other noted resorts of the perch, it would be difficult to determine, as every fisherman is more or less wedded to his home.
In some places under remark the plumb does not bottom at 18ft. There are many good pike all along this, but the water cannot be fished in comfort without a punt.
The chub are abundant in a hole about a hundred yards above Stone's Hotel.
George Rosewell took one in 1863, weighing 64lb. At break of day numbers of bream may be seen leaping on the surface of the water in the preserve below Stone's.

We pass the lawn of Mr. Lindsay's house, and observe the Old Deep, east of the creek rail, which runs 240yds. There are some good pike, perch, and roach, to be had for the seeking up the creek in the winter time.

The Upper Deep is now alongside of us, and runs about two hundred yards.
Here is the famous Chalk Hole of this district, which holds some 20ft. of water, besides barbel, bream, and average jack.

D'Oyly Carte Island;
[Guess Jelly Cut Island was an old name for D'Oyly Carte Island - though it used to be Folly Eyot]

Jelly Cut Island, in the occupation of Old Harris, divides the river here, and should be fished with the fly on the Middlesex side.

There are certain rules it may be well for the angler to observe, and amongst those which will prevent great irritation and disappointment is that of the provision of baits before leaving London.
I do not mean live and dead gudgeons, & c., although I include them, so much as worms, gentles, greaves, bran, beetles, and others really difficult to get in a country place, though I do not see why the well paid fisherman should not always have them in stock.
"It is the business of a fisherman to have bait ready for his customers; and with the slightest amount of foresight and management they might easily have plenty always on hand.
The fishermen at Teddington and Hampton Court are seldom without bait, and what they can do others can.
Yet, on the other parts of the Thames, unless the angler charges himself with a parcel which is a nuisance to his fellow travellers, he will have to fish without bait in most instances.

I regret to say that my experience of the fishermen, with one or two, perhaps three, exceptions, is far from favourable.
Civil in most cases they are, but indolence is their prevailing characteristic, if the assumption of a knowledge of the stream far beyond their district does not take the precedence. For instance, I have found scarcely a man who did not profess to show me every inch from London to Lechlade, and who, after quitting his home some four or five miles, lost his memory of even the names of the locks, in a most incomprehensible, if not ludicrous, manner.

Shepperton Ferry; Weybridge Slipway

Shepperton Weir is a very fine fall of water, and in times past yielded enormous trout, which one of my angling acquaintances was wont to allure with salmon flies and tackle.
The bream fishing here is as good as anywhere in the Thames, expert anglers taking them in the most turbulent portions of the foaming waters, much to the contradiction of ancient writers, who have said that bream never frequent other than quiet havens.
I have inquired several times while at this weir after the fate of the grayling turned in some two years since, and I cannot hear of a single fish of that species having been taken as yet.

Following the weir down, most promising water will be found, and a hole of immense depth, scoured out by the discharge of the waters of the Wey, ought to, if it does not, contain large fish.
The great want on the shallows here is some large stones, as harbours for trout, & c.
Their presence could do no harm, as they would be out of the navigation, and the good that would result would be made rapidly manifest.
There are several spots here from whence a coign of vantage for bank fishing may be met with.
Besides the above railway stations there is likewise one on the Thames Valley line, Middlesex side, about three quarters of a mile from the Anchor Inn, from whence flies ply to and fro, fare 1s.

SHEPPERTON LOCK
Thames Court Restaurant & Pub; Pharoah's Island

Shepperton Lock is twenty two miles and three quarters by water from London Bridge.

Off the Hatches used to be an excellent place for pike.
One of 161b. was taken a few years since, and seven to ten fish of an average of from 8lb. to 10lb. was far from an unusual afternoon or morning's work.
But Dimsey Mead, a little higher up, was still better, and the chub there were innumerable.
The Chertsey omnibus will put the angler down within the distance of a field from this favourite water, where, moreover, it is all free, and there exists no interruption from landowners.
And now we come to another bend, where, upon the left hand side of the river, there is roach and chub fishing.
Again, beyond the same side, there are average roach and chub pitches, and past "the Old Bush", and just beyond the entrance to the willow bed, you cannot fail of a few fins, provided always you fish fine and quietly.

We now approach the best trout water of this district, which extends about a mile, composed of shallows and scours.
Take any entrance to a hole hereabout, and you may calculate upon a fair roach swim, and do not leave off until you sight Chertsey bridge; and on the Hill the best dace of this water are still to be caught.

Lord Kilmorey has improved the fall of the Bourne, and removed many bushes on the left, but very judiciously without clearing away the stumps, which still afford shelter to the chub and spawning stations for perch.
Summer snipes breed here.

Dockett Ait

The back water upon our left is termed Dockey Ait.
There used to be loads of jack up there.
and I have taken three and a half brace before breakfast.
But such days are gone.
Those who fish it must have a care of the posts therein.
Near this lives Alfred Todd, a civil and obliging young fellow, who is pursuing the craft of fisherman and puntsman.
He has been highly spoken of by experienced anglers, who assure me that his tact and knowledge are far beyond his years.

Some comparatively fine jack are taken from the wharf, on the Surrey side.
The palings on our left, which divide the wharf from the meadow, indicate two deep holes reachable from the bank.
Immediately over the bridge is the Cricketers, of which Mr Woolgar is the landlord; perhaps as sterling a fisherman's house as any we have noticed, but it confines its provender to chops and steaks and bread and cheese - so that if you wish for better fare than that, you would do well either to take it down with you or order it a day before.

Chertsey is a long straggling place, full of interest to the antiquarian.
The best hotel is an old fashioned house suggestive of the coaching times, the Swan.
The Crown, where host Lovett rules the roast, is another house of excellent fare and goodly comforts.
It is next to the Town Hall, and is the termination of the omnibus route.
There are many other houses of minor fame and pretensions known to their respective London friends, and which are doubtless as fully entitled to mention as those already alluded to.

We have not intentionally passed any one of them over; and therefore, if they possess clean and ample accommodation for two or more anglers, they may feel assured that by forwarding the particulars to "Greville F., Field Office, Strand", their claims to attention shall not be thrown aside.

The Cricketers was almost the last sad scene of poor dear gifted "Ephemera's" existence.

The little river Waverley, which owes its source to that right royal aqueous basin known as Virginia Water, has long since belied the purity of its parentage, and is fast becoming a candidate for an entrance amongst the list of the ditches and sewers of the county of Surrey.
The Waverley, after flowing from the splendid lake spoken of, runs by Trotsworth, skirts St.Ann's hill, leaves Thorpe on its left, and joining the Ottershaw or Chob, forms a natural boundary to Woburn park, and falls into the Thames, just above the Wey, at Weybridge.
This river was a favourite resort a few years since of the angler for bait.
What it is now the visitor who approaches Chertsey town from its present most frequented railway entrance can best describe.

I am happy to say that the Earl Kilmorey, who has recently taken Woburn park, has cleared out that portion of the Waverley which runs through his estate; and as this nobleman has determined to restore the fish to its precincts, if possible, it is presumed that he will not only assist but encourage the authorities in carrying out this most important matter.

With two hundred acres of mead, belonging, I believe, to the parish, even the least informed upon agricultural affairs ought to make a shrewd guess where the proper destination of this sewage should be.
If the authorities do not care for the gradual depreciation in the value of the house property of their town, may they not as farmers, or deriving their material wealth from farmers, be poked into useful activity by the prong of pelf?
The great public good which Lady Holland has effected of late upon her estate at St. Ann's hill, by the formation of walks, the erection of arbours, and the building of a complete picnic house on the very summit of these varied and beautiful grounds, with attendance in summer at the command of visitors, deserves every praise.

Chertsey Bridge; Boathouse Restaurant & Kingfisher @ Chertsey

Chertsey Bridge is thirty two miles one furlong by water from London Bridge.

Chertsey Lock

The weir here is staked, and is reported to be full of small trout, turned in from the artificial breeding troughs which were erected close by.
Above this we find perch, trout, jack, barbel, and splendid chub, the latter more particularly under the ait side.
There are plenty of bank swims around this.
One in particular, both deep and even, where the remains of a bridge are indicated at the entrance of the Abbey river, in the millstream.
Mr. Lacost, the proprietor, is very kind and considerate to those anglers who know how to behave themselves.

M3 Bridge

The next deep water is off "the Rocks" on the Surrey side, on the left just before Lord Lucan's is reached; and again we get a fine pitch at Laleham Burrows.
There are no deeps about Laleham,

Laleham Slipway

but its shallow opposite the ferry was once first rate for dace and small trout.
It is somewhat coquettish in its nature, as far as vegetation is concerned - now free as a school girl, all tidiness and romp; in another season we find it drab and dirt, Whitechapelish and foul; and perhaps the next year coy, but beautiful as a young widow in her weeds.
On the Middlesex shore there are superb bank swims for chub and perch.
The angler should keep well down close to the edge of the water, and if with the Nottingham style of angling so much the more likely of a creel of fish.
There are several pitches now very difficult to indicate from the want of landmarks, and at times a large haul of barbel may be secured.

Beyond this it may be well to pass all the water until Penton Hook is reached, of which too much cannot be said.

Should the angler desire a retired, clean, and economical house, let him inquire for the Castle, in the Addlestone road at Chertsey, where Mr. Matthews, its excellent landlord, will greet him as a fisherman, and contribute to every want he may indulge in consistent with the humble desires of the disciples of old Izaak.

From Laleham and down to Penton Hook there is good bank fishing to be had, and if the angler be prepared with long hip boots he may command, from the Surrey side, many spots of advantage, and swims well adapted for roach and chub.

At Laleham, the best, and, if we mistake not, the only hostelrie worthy mention, is the Horse shoes, kept by the widow of one of the Harrises, but whether of Samuel, John, William, or Frederick, - for they are all, or were all, here as fishermen - we know not.
Galloway, of Chertsey, is a painstaking fisherman; he can bring plenty of valuable credentials to bear out our recommendation of his fitness to teach the young idea how to catch the finny tribe, and indeed he is capable of adding many a wrinkle to the stores of the elder pursuers of the gentle sport.
One of the Keenes is likewise to be found at Chertsey, and is a civil intelligent man.

Between Chertsey and Laleham the water is an open book, in which those that walk along the towingpath can read as they go.

About Chertsey, more particularly the Surrey side, there are many places where the fly in due season can be used with good effect , and bottom fishing may be pursued to the profit and pleasure of the patient angler, the water being mostly deep immediately under the banks, with here and there a sharp run over a gravelly scour.

Penton Hook Lock

A whole chapter might be written upon Penton Hook; even then its beauties and attractions to the angler would not be half told.
There is not a more lovely or sequestered piece of water on the Thames.
Close to London as it is, accessible by the mere crossing of the lock, open at the lower end to boats, it is yet almost a hermit stream, so seldom do you find a soul, much more a punt, within its precincts.
Yet it has every charm of nature, each description of a river's beauty, from the quiet to the grand - for the neighbouring hills, which rise in the air as you sit low in your boat, give majesty to the scene, while all the finish and effect of lake scenery is strikingly apparent in many parts of its course;
a splendid fall is succeeded by rapid and shallow water — here with glittering silvery streaks of light, dark, deep, and sombre - there, reflecting nothing but a broad expanse of terra verte - like shadows of the wild, full, luxuriant forest foliage, and the richest undergrowth upon its banks; its streams now glinting into open, dazzling daylight, and anon into corners as dark as Erebus.
All this, and volumes more of panoramic ecstacy for the eye, in three quarters of a mile ! How fresh and thankful appear the trees as each morning the veils of dew waft aside and impart the notion that a second spring has come; but no! it is August, and renewed life and verdure are daily drawn from the lovely river which laves the knotted and entangled roots.
Even the smaller bushes appear to take a diurnal toilet, and put on a new vernal suit; while the scabious, blue chicory, and large white convolvulus, hawkweed, honeysuckle, and the small blue campanula, make the fields around glad with varied colour, and afford glimpses of the sweetest kind through the branches which adorn the banks:

Glide gently thus, for ever glide,
O Thames, that other bards may see
As lovely visions by thy side
As now, fair river, come to me:
O glide, fair stream, for ever so,
Thy quiet soul on all bestowing,
Till all our minds for ever flow
As thy deep waters now are flowing.

One of the most popular authors of the day in thanking me for pointing out several nooks and corners not generally known around London, writes:
"I found Penton Hook, a divergement of the stream from the main river Thames, a most charming piece of water, surrounded with scenery as truly English as the lover of the poetically picturesque can desire.
Being free from the traffic of the barges, which are saved this detour by a lock which connects the two ends of this bottled shaped hook, it is much frequented by those who love solitude and like to fish amidst the music of birds and the soothing murmur of the rippling waters.

The banks of Penton Hook are very varied in their character, here high with fringes of foliage and large overhanging trees, there equally shut out - or in - by tall reeds and other rank aquatic plants, - anon, low lands afford a peep of the distant country, and throughout the whole of its reach, the eye is refreshed by the grassy green of the island meadow which it surrounds.
At the extreme bend is the opening to the Abbey millstream, and a more delicious bit than this spot presents upon most occasions to the artist, can scarcely be found, even on the Thames.
The bottom, throughout the whole course, is gravelly, and, for so comparatively a short stretch of water, it is more varied in its depth than perhaps any similar length of the parent river; shallows and depths of a formidable nature alternating throughout.

There is some deep and subtle water at the extreme bend of the Hook, which can be covered by a punt or from the opposite bank.

It is here that the old Abbey river, which empties itself at Chertsey, falls in, and the entrance to which, being mostly obscured by trees, often eludes the observation of those to whom the ins and outs of this favoured spot are not intimately known.

The whole length of the Hook appears redolent with trout, and a more appropriate home for the spotted beauties of the waters can scarcely be conceived.

* Indeed, those who might doubt the fitness of some parts of the Thames to produce trout and grayling in perfection, should visit this singularly appropriate horseshoe, or rather bottle, bend, and should the time ever arrive when water is pressed into piscatorial industry and finnyous profits, here will be found one of the main stations for practical purposes.
A fly will reach any part of it from the island its "circumbendibus formes", and if the envied Ferox does not reward the angler's skill, chub of a very heavy weight lie here perdu, and may be tempted with palmer, grub, or beetle, provided always Piscator keeps well out of sight, and brings his utmost tact and patience to bear upon their pursuit; but should Fortune frown with a scaly significance, all around will greet him with smiles, and make up for a heavy basket by the associations of a light heart and contented, because appreciative, mind.

* Yet, strange to add, it has been most disappointing to the angler in this respect, during recent years.

Truss's Island; Staines Railway Bridge

The river from Penton Hook to Staines Bridge, is a steady uniform depth of about 10ft. in the channel, and 4ft. within rod reach of the banks, and some rare pitches are to be found and perch may be taken in respectable numbers from the towpath side.
There are several places where good pitches may be made, and a favourite one is opposite Shoot Over, or Thames Cottage, on the right, and one in particular, about one hundred yards below the cottage, reached easily by a short rod from the bank in 7ft. water, called Crystall's Swim, from an angler of that name taking large quantities of roach there; and a few yards below Shoot Over is Mortimer's " hole for barbel.
Opposite Mr. Hedge's wharf, in 14ft. water, where the old bridge used to stand, and close to the remains of its piles, is a noted swim for barbel.
It was here the great take of old Fletcher occurred some few years since.
He tells me he baited this spot for a week previous to his angler coming down, and they took on one day eight brace of remarkably fine perch, and on the next, fishing from ten until four o'clock, 192 barbel, none under 4lb. a piece.
"The gent took a sack full up to London - not to eat, not he, he wasn't one of that sort - but to show his friends."

A little tributary of the Colne comes out at the corner of Hedge's wharf, up which a trout generally lies of 5lb. to full 8lb. in weight.

Just before we approach the new bridge - which is noticeable as being built of white granite - we pass over a deep with three sunken punts therein, which is a great roach swim, and 8ft. in depth.

We pass a neat little public house, the Pack Horse, with a water front and landing stage, the interior accommodation of which has been a good deal increased of late.
It is much frequented by anglers and oarsmen, and is a clean and remarkably reasonable house with good fare.
The Swan, higher up and on the opposite bank, is a cheerful house, with many reasonable comforts.

Staines Bridge

Staines Bridge is thirty five miles and seven furlongs from London Bridge by water, and the Staines stone, which terminates the jurisdiction of the Conservancy of London, is thirty six miles and one furlong from the same structure.

The division of the counties of Middlesex and Bucks is close here.

Passing Staines Bridge, under which there is excellent barbel fishing.
and turning the head immediately to the right, a spot is seen almost close in shore, 14ft. in depth, and which holds heavy fish.
All the way up to the London stone are good roach and gudgeon pitches, and, after November, capital trolling.

Church Island

Church Ait is here, where there is a pretty bit of back water with plenty of perch.
The renowned Bobby Veres lives up this creek.
The boat freighted by us belongs to him, he charging 30s. per month for its loan; with eighteenpence a week for its keep, & c. a moderate charge for so great a necessity, if not a luxury.
When a man is hired to pull, 5s. per day extra.

London Stone; Holm Island; Runnymede Bridge
Egham Gasworks

In passing the old gasworks at Egham, I examined the banks closely for any outlet, and looked carefully around for the slightest indication of an escape of gas into the Thames, but am happy to say not the merest evidence of its presence showed itself.
Opposite these works there is a piece of back water, in which perch and jack are found in the winter.

There is some fine chub fishing to be had under the boughs opposite Paris's meadow - the Windsor Soap Factory at Egham.
Evening is the best time, with red or black palmer full large, and the white moth later in the night.
A piece of the old channel of the Thames follows, where in winter there is more water than at present, and then average trolling may be had.

Bell's Ait

We now make for Bell's Ait, where a beautiful run for most descriptions of fish presents itself, beneath a high and bare bank, with 4ft. to 5ft. of water close in.
From this right away up to Paris's towpath bridge and creek, is barbel fishing, and off the point of the Ait and the upper opening to the old Thames channel, a pitch may be profitably essayed.
There is nothing particular until

Bell Weir Lock

we get to Bell's Lock, where there are several splendid swims.

Opposite Bell's ferry, and close to the lock (fall 4ft. 9in.), which is thirty eight miles and three furlongs by water from London Bridge, is the Angler's Rest - neat, clean, and homely quarters, with charges suited to the pockets of the middle class fisherman.
The landlord (Dickinson) is civil and obliging, and, should the four extra beds he makes up under his own roof be occupied, he can always get a clean chamber for an angler close at hand.

Hythe End Island

J. Keen, the one armed fisherman, may be met with here, and, although armless, he is known to assist very often in the murder [of] very heavy bags of barbel, his favourite swim being near the weir on the Wraysbury side.
Harry Collins, another civil and experienced puntsman, is likewise within hail, and baits may be found ready at hand.

The most scientific way to fish for barbel is practised here — with roach tackle, by which more sport is obtained, and greater skill required, than by the barge rope and pully hauly system of the ledger.

Having opened the lock with a silver key - the fee being a six pence we are away through scenery of exquisite beauty -

Cooper's Hill

Cooper's Hill and Englefield Green rising high above us, and backing up a landscape in which the ever constant river forms the foreground.

Roach fishing and trolling all along this stretch to the Bells at Ouseley.
Bough - fishing for perch may be gone into and for chub, when the reed and weed are not too heavy.

Runnymede

Runnymede and its racecourse indicate capital swims, and the Chalk Hole, which holds 14ft. of water, is now under our keel.
This hole is opposite the new paraffin works, and should any doubt exist as to its exact whereabouts, the plumb must be used.
There is every likelihood of another attractive hole being found nearer the Wraysbury side, as much ballast is being removed from thence for the foundation of the works in question.
I went ashore here and minutely inspected the tanks, and am still of opinion that little fear need be entertained respecting its effect upon the river, whatever may be the odours that may arise therefrom.
From this the water is of the best the whole of the way up to Ankerwyke and Magna Charta Island.
On the right there is capital angling from the banks, but the land is private, and the residence of Mr. Anderson, a tenant under Mr. Simon Harcourt, who, possessing the privilege of netting, has not, I am told, exercised his right for the last two or three years.
The magnificent trees upon the banks will not fail to arrest the attention of the angler, and not less so the sharp and sudden turns the river takes, affording depths and shallows inexpressibly delightful to the fly or bottom fisher.

We are now off "the Roll", an exceedingly deep hole in a corner near the high road.
It is called "the Roll", " from an upright roller which used to stand there, and against which the tow rope ran, the better to bring the barges round this acute angle of the river, and from this a reach of surpassing loveliness bursts upon the view, which defies description, the lower foliage of the graceful and lofty trees kissing the water, while the upper branches, apparently jealous of those beneath them, strain with pendulous gracefulness to reach the flood, and mix their leaves in the artistic entanglement of their fellows.

Magna Carta Island; Pats Croft Eyot

Amidst this sylvan banquet we get a peep of the bit of mouldy wall behind which the barons made King John make a sign and press the signet down of liberty.

Look out for a clump of firs near the next boathouse, for off there some superb perch have been taken, and near this, where the bank shelves, a few dozen dace may be whipped up with the black gnat or gentle fly.
Here is a fine piece of back water - "Private".
This is succeeded by a sharp stream, which eloquently woos the fly.
The Wraysbury bucks add their share to the landscape, and the pretty women on the lawn of the picturesque cottage, towards whom we look slyly askance, civilise and refine the semi wildness of the scene.
There are famous perch all along the boughs just beyond this cottage and the old Ferry house; but the stream is sadly choked with weed in the autumn, which being, however, a cover for fish, yields its harvest of fins to the rod in due season.

The back water of which I spoke before as "private", ends just opposite the beginning of a well clipped long hedge on the towing path side.
Old Windsor peeps forth, and we have the Bells of Ousley in our eye.
A sign we hail.

Bells of Ousely; Ousely Island; Friary Island

How deep the gloom of the water now! — the tall trees obscuring the sun's rays, and altering the temperature of the air full two degrees.
The old and eccentric landlord of the Bells has gone, and with him the post office, but the newcomers appear to do their best to keep up the reputation of the house.
There is first rate gudgeon fishing off the Bells, and their quantity, although small, appears beyond calculation.
On the Wraysbury side the perch run large, and comparatively abundant.
Near this, on the right bank, a small brook divides the counties of Surrey and Berks.

James Perdue, a skilful fisherman, is to be found at the Old Windsor Ferry.

OLD WINDSOR LOCK

The Fleet - as a portion of the old but not navigable river is termed - is a fine dashing stretch of swift and sparkling water, full of life and vigour.
It enters from the barge river or cut some distance up stream, and runs from side to side of its course, creating on its way many capital deeps and scours.
From its entrance near the old Windsor pound or lock and all along the left hand bank until we get to the Aits, first class fishing of every sort may be pursued from either bank or punt.
There is nothing on the Middlesex side until these aits are reached, and then the localities for sport are reversed, and the right hand side carries the fishing right away up to the weir, there being no swims on the left until the angler gets opposite Anderson's Ditch, and then the two banks may be said to vie with each other in their finny produce.
There are several aits, around and about which holes of a depth from five to eleven and twelve feet may be met with, and fishing therefrom is tolerably good.
There is likewise a piece of water running off from this, termed the "Buck River", which is trouty and likewise holds some excellent chub and dace.

Weir [Old Windsor - well above lock]

The weir is a very pretty and retired spot, and plumbs 12ft., while a corner of some extent offers a sheet of almost quiet water to those who prefer fishing fine and with a light float.
At this weir and around it, a neighbouring inhabitant sank several punts to preserve the river from the net, which was much used in this sequestered place; but the authorities of Eton, from some cause or other, insisting upon their removal, they were raised, and great was the salvage of spinning tackle attached to the tenterhooks with which the punts were thickly studded.

The whole of the Fleet is particularly adapted for trout spinning, but it has likewise a reputation for "stunning" barbel, perch, and roach of a respectable size.
If the boat enters this it will have to be pulled over the weir or return again the same way.

Ham Island; Ham Bridge

There is no fishing in the canal or navigable cut; but when the Fleet is passed and the natural river gained, angling will be met with all along the Home Park; and there are several pitches easily found with the plumb about here; but the plan generally pursued is to drop down with a weight at the stern of the boat, and fish almost every foot of this reach for barbel, chub, and roach.

The Image Swim - so called from a bust on the lawn of the right hospitable Mr. Gordon - is fine for barbel, in 14ft. of water.

Albert Bridge

Albert Bridge, and then Albert Sewer is gained, at the mouth of which large takes of roach are made.

Old Datchet Bridge site
Datchet

Again splendid spinning water is approached, and several pitches of good depth are on and around the spot where the old Datchet Bridge bestrode the stream.
Round and about the site of the old Datchet Bridge, forty one miles and seven furlongs from London by the river, there is 7ft. to 8ft. at low water, and plenty of barbel and perch are therein.

The next place that may not be passed is at the entrance of Newman's Ditch, on our right going up, which is shallow, with but 2ft. or so of water, but few better places for jack are to be met with in the winter, when the weeds are down.
It may be fished, however, for perch in the autumn or even in the summer, if gaps between the vegetation are left, and most excellent sport with a paternoster has thus been insured.

About 300yds. from the site of old Datchet Bridge, on the park side, almost close in, upon a fine shelving bank of gravel, and giving some 7ft. water, is good for barbel and chub.
I have angled here with the noted fisher, Mr. King, of Fulham, and Nottingham George, with singular success for chub, letting the punt drift a few yards down stream from time to time as the chub left off biting, or, what is more probable, as we cleared them off.

Sumptermead Ait; Victoria Bridge

From the Victoria Bridge when the water is perfectly clear, from 100 to 200 barbel may be counted in 5ft. to 6ft. of water.

Three hundred yards from this bridge is the celebrated Hog Hole.
It is a straight stream without any "boiling" water.
Here, where it plumbs 7ft., it is no uncommon lot for two rods to take upwards of lcwt. of barbel in a day, and one or two trout intent on lob worms, generally add to the value of the bag.

Jubilee River outflow; Black Potts Islands

The next home for fish is Blackpotts - formerly Mr. Batchelor's - 100yds. below the South Western Railway bridge.
It gives from 10ft. to 12ft. of water, and is good for barbel, trout, roach, & c.

Black Potts Railway Bridge

The Needles

Our next station is the Needles, a very old and famous place on the Windsor side, opposite an oak tree in the Eton playing fields.
The swim runs on to a rapid sharp stream where it is shallow at the best of times, and the hills are dry in summer.
It was here that the 93lb. trout was killed by George Holland while in company with Mr. King.
Mr. Wallace, of Wandsworth, has this handsome fish stuffed.
Under the oak tree before mentioned is a favourite place of Mr. Woolley's for trout and barbel.
New Works House

New Works House is a deep of 15ft. at dead low water.
Out of this hole, Mr. Randall, the well known singer, took eighty eight barbel in one day.

Charley Tull's Deep

Still keeping to the old river on our right we come to old Charley Tull's Deep (the Rumsey [Romsey] lock keeper), where a rapid shallow runs into 12ft. or 13ft. water, then curls close round by Tull's garden, where there is a fall from the cut when the water is high.

From Tull's up to the bathing place is very rapid and shallow, and may be walked across in "Faggs" [Wellington boots? Guess].
Capital for the fly and spinning for trout.
It is a wonderful sight to see the roach on the gravel in spawning time in an accumulation of many thousands, glistening in the sun like molten silver.
Plenty of chub may be likewise observed of 3lb. and 4lb., and barbel of great size, but it is useless trying for the latter anywhere but in the weir pool.

Romney Weir Pool

At the weir pool there are carp, tench, jack, trout, and barbel.
This weir is in the course of removal some 50yds. lower down.
The most experienced fishermen on the Thames say that the barbel here are as large as any in the Thames, but, since the weir has been "blown", the fishing is not so good.
The depth is 18ft. at low water.

Eton Masters Bathing Place

From off the bank at the master's bathing place (a most perilous place even to the best of swimmers) a good deal of this pool is under command.

ROMNEY LOCK

Windsor Lock [now Romney Lock] is forty three miles five furlongs by water from London Bridge, and Windsor Bridge just three furlongs above the lock.

I would warn the uninitiated angler against the too common and antiquated practice of fishing for roach either at mid- water or a few inches from the bottom.
The bait ought, at the end of the swim, to touch the ground; and therefore, an even surface, free from weeds and other impediments to the uninterrupted passage of the hook down stream, should be selected.
This is done with the plummet, and it is always immeasurably better to select a swim, in which, at the end of the reach of the line, the inclination is slightly upwards - the water shallower than at its commencement - for it is here that the ground - bait is arrested, and the fish have a better chance of securing the choice morsel offered to them upon the hook by its detention when it meets with this shelf.
The angler should provide his own tackle; nor trust to the puntsman for so essential a part of the contribution to the success of his sport.
The rods of the Windsor puntsmen are, however, generally good, and well adapted to the style of angling pursued; but the rods and lines of others are too often lamentably rotten and clumsy, being generally the cast - offs of gentlemen fishermen of the last season, or por- tions thrown aside of the present, and afterwards tied together.
It is a question whether the immense quantities of ground - bait that are thrown in by these puntsmen are not a preventative rather than an encouragement to sport.
We have seen a good sized tub, which contained some 50lb. of bran, bread, and clay, besides a second tub half - filled with soaked greaves, emptied, after being made into balls, and dropped overboard in a few hours; and yet the take of fish has been almost nil - an enormous quantity of bread, & c., to so small a plate of fish! In this way it is not unreasonable to believe the fish are fed to repletion.
Literally, tons of ground bait must be thrown in every season.
And what is the effect? To pave the bottom of the river, more particularly in the preserves, which were doubtless selected for the gravelly and sandy bottoms, with clay, a process in which the fish assist by grubbing the admixture in search of their food, and in lodging the portion of clay into the interstices of the stones of the bed of the river.
If anyone is disposed to doubt the truth of this state- ment, let him place himself upon the bank of the Thames, say off Richmond or Teddington, where ten, fifteen, or twenty punts may be seen pitched at the same time, the fishermen of which are vying with each other in storming the river with balls of ground bait.
Granted then that the roach like a sandy, gravelly, even bottom, and delight therein, to what is this practice tending, but to give a character to those spots frequented by the roach and dace ( and trout ) to which they have the most decided repugnance? Nottingham George's plan in this respect, possesses no such objec- tion, as he uses but little ground - bait of the kind we allude to, and it would be well if the tyro, and even the old Thames angler, who is wedded to notions of an antiquated school, would get into a punt with this intelligent fisherman, if but for a day.
It is really marvellous how men are rooted to prejudices, and there are none more so than the Thames puntsmen, they little recollecting that all things undergo a change.
Although fish have the same appetites, instincts, and fears which they had a hundred years ago, they become more wary as they are sought with the lure - more scared after their escape from the barb of a hook; while it is just possible that there may exist other things of which they are fond, beyond the circumscribed diet offered to them year after year by those who consider that to learn anything but what was given to them with their apprentice articles would be an unnecessary trouble.

Romney Island; Cutler's Ait; Eton; Windsor Bridge

About the old bridge of Windsor is likewise a splendid swim for barbel, in 10ft. of water.
[/] Just above the centre arch of Windsor Bridge, on the town side, is a good pitch for barbel, being 17ft. deep at fair water, but this, of course, depends on the season.

There is a comfortable inn opposite the South Western station, and the South Western Tavern, at the corner of the Datchet Road, has a civil proprietor and good cheer.
Beds are to be had at both, as likewise at the George and the Christopher, Eton, but the New Inn (Dick Goddard), in a square on the Eton side, is generally preferred by anglers, the landlord being a right sterling fellow, and withal, sufficient of that "character" which the followers of the gentle craft love so much.

The freedom of the Watermen's Company ends at Windsor, between which and Yantlet Creek no one, not licensed, may ply on the river.

Windsor is well provided with boats; Searles', Goodman's and Tollady's being just above the bridge.

The fishermen at Windsor are George Holland ( better known as Nottingham George ), George Hall, George Lamb, E.Cannon, and George Plumridge, who, although not a professed fisherman, will man a punt and work the pitches in the absence of anyone else.

Any information in reference to the fishing may be obtained of Mr. Robert Smith, Tackle Maker, Eton Bridge.

George Lamb, of Brocass lane, Eton - an excellent fisherman and an intelligent companion - is now my sculler from Windsor to Maidenhead.
"Will he have his beer and his bread and cheese from the public? "No!" he prefers his own beer which is Marlow brewed.
The beer of the neighbourhood has served him out once or twice during the season while he has been in attendance upon ladies, and "that sort of thing won't do for such as us" observed Lamb plaintively and laying his hand significantly a little below his waistband.
For Windsor and its Castle, Eton and its Schools, vide the guides to those places; I have other fish to fry, an occupation that the sun's heat at this moment would render a sinecure.

But there stands Tollady, the boat-builder, in the shade, who tells us he charges three shillings per day for punt, five shillings for the man, baits six-pence a dozen, and ground bait according to what is used.
I paid six shillings for my boat and ten shillings for George Lamb, exclusive of locks; and cheap enough, for it was a pull indeed - not alone against stream, but through many portions of weed, reed and slimy vegetable rottenness, which tried the might of the strong man before me.
But while it bathed him in a shower bath of perspiration, and blistered his hands as though he had been pulling for the championship and had won it; not a grumble escaped his lips or even a sigh of discontent disturbed the happy serenity of all around.
On, on, he sculled, over every obstacle, a living epitome of the power of an indomitable perseverance upon the obstacles which impede our progress while pushing against the stream of the river of life.

By-the-by, brother anglers, have a care you do not fall into the hands of "Slinging S." the fisherman, as he is termed here.
This character is too good a one for the pen to be dismissed in a line, whether that be the ultimate fate of my hero or otherwise.
I will, therefore, reserve the development of this "king of the story-tellers"; a mild translation of the cognomen by which he is recognised at Eton, for another occasion.
I merely repeat, pay him to keep away from you, if you pay him at all.
I cannot, however, refrain from giving a sample of his style of romance.
"I was pulling up by Surly", said he, "with a gent and a lady.
The lady took an oar, and while we was a-waiting a bit off some rushes, a butterfly flew across the boat, and I wish my feet may stick for ever to this here curb-stone, if a trout of about three pounds three ounces didn't jump clean over the boat from one side to t'other, take the butterfly and leave a few spots of water on the lady's silk dress.
It was a light blue one-no, don't let me tell a lie-a sort of violet-colour.
"This man is said never to have spoken the truth but once, and that was when he said he could not even if it was to save his life.

Fireworks Ait; Brocas

At the chevaux de frise "is a run of excellent water for perch and pike - the Brocass, known all over the world - as Etonians are to be met with everywhere - indicates average water for most descriptions of fish.

Barry Avenue Island; Windsor Railway Bridge; Baths Island;

The boughs along the Dead Water Ait, and opposite the Artists' Clump of Trees, near the railway arch, look, and are, very chubby.
There are barbel swims from the railway up to Clewer Creek.
The ballasting which goes on in these waters without let, fee, or hindrance, anyhow and anywhere, is continually altering the physiological character of the river, but all along the Rushes sport may be reckoned upon, although, mayhap, not as of old.
To the bank fishermen the whole of this reach up to Surly Lock offers peculiar facilities, and numbers of anglers take advantage of the early cheap trains of the Great Western Railway to try their skill in this very likely water, as there is 8ft.to 12ft. of depth in many parts within reach of a fourteen foot rod and a few extra feet of line.

Cuckoo Weir Island; Windsor Slip; Elizabeth Bridge

We pass the Clewer Mill stream, which with its long stretch of head stream are private waters belonging to Mr. Vidler.

All about the river here are fine trout and plenty of them.

Clewer Point, which next succeeds, may be known by the presence of an upright barge roll.
The famous pitch for barbel and perch is somewhat higher upon the Clewer side and is 16ft. deep. The water about this swim is 19ft. deep, in which the best Thames gudgeons are taken, of which fishing only one or two good days were had last season, as they don't bite freely.
"It's the water, sir, the sewer water, that throws them off their feed; it clammies the bottom, and they don't like it" observes George Lamb.

There are people living who recollect a sturgeon being caught at Clewer Point weighing 561b; it was taken in a punt to the Great Park, and thence in a truck to "The Cottage" the favourite snuggery of George IV.
This sturgeon was caught while washing the net, the stupid royal fish having run against it and got entangled.
It was likewise at Clewer Point that a salmon strike was taken in the same king's reign, weighing 36lb.

Swans, swans, everywhere! Twenty of these destructive but graceful birds within sight.

Cook's Weir is past where the Eton boys learn to swim - nothing much up there; and here is Athens, in which the expert diver, after matriculating up yonder, comes to finish his floatable and sinkable education.

The steps indicate a barbel hole on the Berkshire side.

Perpendicular washed away banks with little or no foliage skirt the Thames, and Boveney Lock looms in sight.

BOVENEY LOCK

Just below this lock are the Boveney Deeps, 13ft. by plumb line, full of barbel and perch.

I learn that Nottingham George, of whom Lamb speaks generously and warmly as a fisherman, took a chub 44lb. last season, but that they run from 1lb. to 5lb. in Boveney Weir, in which the gudgeon are likewise very plentiful, and galore of jack, all the way from "Athens "to the "Rushes"> where they are taken from 1lb. to 16lb. weight.
There were great quantities taken last winter.

More dredging! Why not make them pay a fee for the right of ballast, and carry it to the credit of a fund for the good of the river, but in any case, supervise their operation, and make the men take the stuff from where its removal would best educe to the advantage of the stream?

At Boveney Weir there are all sorts of fish - but perch and chub most abound.
The deepest part is 18ft.

Old Stone, the lock-keeper, has been dead some years.
Most readers will recollect this eccentric old man, who in his conversation always associated his avocations with his personal ailments, and whether in reply to a freight of ladies or a boat full of oarsmen who might enquire after his health, would reply, "I weir well, thanks be to God! my health's bin a good deal locked up o' late" and other rejoinders, in which water, piles, and other substantive adjuncts to his avocations were innocently outspoken whether to rich or simple.

Boveney Lock possesses a civil and active lock-keeper, who will get up any time in the night and not make a trouble of it.
"After passing it, turn and look down that beautiful stretch of the upper water, it has a splendid rocky bottom and the plummet still hangs suspended in 14ft. deep.
Around the piles on the left there are many sturdy perch.

Windsor Racecourse Marina; Ruddles Pool, Surly Hall, the Willows

All the way up to Surly Hall, which now peeps around the corner, is attractive water.
Surly Hall is kept by one Harris, who does not belie the pun the nomenclature of the house suggests.
The widow of Duckey Grantham, the celebrated pedestrian, who beat the equally noted Levett some ten years ago, was the best hostess this house ever had.
She well understood an angler's wants, and an Eton boy's fun.
The accommodation has certainly fallen off.

Opposite Grosvenor's Watering-place or Boveney Court, and right in the bushes, is a lagoon, where pike dwell in 8ft. of water.
There is likewise a place on the tow-path side reported as famous for its yield of barbel.

A deep named Ruddle's Pool, between The Willows and Mr. Roger Ekyn's, where the late Mr. Walter of the Times formerly lived, is thought highly of as a perch and pike residence. George Lamb tells me that he was out here some fifteen years ago with Mr. Palk, the chairman of the Committee of the House of Commons, and they had eleven runs in less than two hours without shifting the punt, and they caught nine out of them.
It was about 20ft. deep, but ends with a muddy bottom, the rest being gravel.
He says it is as good as ever for jack and perch, the latter running from 4lb. to 2lb.

"The Willows"is a delightful retirement situated on the Berkshire banks of the Thames, and owes its immediate beauty to the late Mr. Henly Townly Ward.
It was originally", writes a lover of English river scenery, "cold swamp covered with osiers, which, by skilful and effectual drainage, has been converted into a verdant and sloping lawn, replete with rural elegance."
The ornamental ground is connected by a subterraneous passage, with a small farm, called Bullock's Heath; of literal description it will admit but little.

"At the same time a spot where the towers of Windsor Castle are seen to rise in such splendid magnificence from their elevated brow - where the turrets of Eton College are beheld amid its surrounding groves; and where the Thames flows immediately before it; the grandeur of distant prospect in addition to its own native and tranquil beauty, rescued from the morass - is deserving of more than cursory remark.
There are, however, circumstances connected with this villa which cannot be addressed to the eye, but must have reached the hearts of those who were admitted as visitors, and may be surely considered as a superior characteristic of it; for the well-known and constant hospitality which distinguished it, more particularly at the annual aquatic festival, which Majesty so often attended, cannot have been forgotten by Etonians old enough to recall Mr. and Mrs. Townly Ward's graceful amenities.

Windsor Marina

A long stretch of weed now tries the muscles of my sculler's arms, and we are silent for awhile, but not indifferent to the wondrous harbour for fish which surrounds the boat, far above and below her on either side.
"There is worse pulling to come" observes George, but he added, forgetting the labour of the oarsman in the zeal of the angler, "it would bother any net".
More dace are caught at the tails of the weirs than in any other shallows.

Those who can remember old Pollard's Fishery would not know it now, Mr. Wilmer, a courteous and hospitable disciple of Esculapius, having rendered it as pretty a box as any upon the river banks.

Near this was a celebrated barbel hole, but its glory hath departed, it having been thoroughly baited without the slightest result, and there used to be tons here.
Good chub and roach swims from the tow path.

From hence to Monkey Island it is called Water Oakley Reach, and is good for pike, perch, and barbel, and excellent tench and carp.
There are no bream at all up here.

I may mention that I asked all the way up whether a grayling had yet been taken with a fly, and the reply has been ever in the negative.

Long stretch of reed now divides the stream, and appears alive with fish.

Water Oakley Court is on our left.
This is a somewhat pretentious mansion in the frittered cut-up confectionery style of architecture, and is noticeable as being so great a change from the old coal-wharf buildings that formerly stood here.
The gudgeon off this place are large and plentiful.

Down-place House is a plain old port-winey-looking edifice, inhabited by the family of the Harfords for very many years.

"That lady on the lawn near the boat-house is the prettiest sculler on the river as ever I see in my life" remarks Lamb, with the admiration of a connoisseur.
From this to Bray Lock, says the "Oarsman's Guide" is the stiffest piece of water on the Thames.

Queens Eyot

I saw a good many chub between the boat and the bank, by the Queen's Ait, just before we come to Monkey Island.

Bray Marina; York Cut; Summerleaze Footbridge; Monkey Island

Monkey Island is a small ait, situated below Maidenhead Bridge, and near the village of Bray.
A Duke of Marlborough originally improved, planted, and erected two pretty pavilions upon it, and often drove over from Langley Park, where he then resided, to enjoy such piscatorial recreation as this place afforded.
One of the rooms being painted in the Arabesque style, in which monkeys are the predominant figures, the island, from that circumstance received its name.
The house on Monkey Island has fresh tenants, the refreshments good, and the people civil; and a snugger retreat for the angler from the cares of this world for a week or two one would hardly wish than this hotel.
I have every reason to believe that the back water at Monkey Island is and has been much overrated; it is a tolerably clear stream, it is true, but I have scarcely known a trout of above a couple of pounds to work up it.

[The] water opposite the cottage here upon our visit was covered with a description of emmet [ant], upon which the dace and chub were greedily feeding.

A man who had been watching them declared that he saw them rise from the bottom of the water, but I should think it much more probable that a portion of the bank with their nest had given way; but the surmise of the man is worth jotting.
Monkey Island to Bray Lock is all the best of waters, with heavy chub on the right, and it has the reputation of holding very large trout, while plenty of cover insures pike in the winter months.

New Thames Bridge; Pigeonhill Eyot

Bray Mill-tail, Mr.W.Pate owner, is worthy the angler's attention. It is, however, private.

Here are likewise several bushy aits with insect-producing boughs, alluring such whopping chub! A refreshment house of a cleanly and tempting aspect presents itself, supported by the buildings of Briganshawes Farm, kept by one Franklin, and called Amerton or Amedem Bank.

BRAY LOCK
Headpile Eyot

But onwards for the lock and Finnimore its keeper.
There is but little fall at the Bray Weir; it has, nevertheless, an envied character for trout.

Bray Slip


Chapman is the fisherman at Bray.

The "George" a public-house, has beds.
The George Inn , at Bray , just above Windsor, is about to be considerably increased for the benefit of anglers. The reputation of this house is great, and the additional accommodation has been solely induced by the deserved patronage bestowed upon it by the gentlemen frequenters of the Thames.

Bray lives in history from the fact that its worldly vicar changed twice from Romanism to Protestantism to carry out his determination that, "whoever was king, he would live and die Vicar of Bray.
We pass a sewer from the latter village; it looked nasty, but seemed ashamed of itself, and is not very obtrusively visible among the bushes, to which it imparts a luxurious growth of verdure, and the vegetation appears rankly grateful in return.

Here is a nice little bit of back water, and good trout and gudgeon fishing on the Buckinghamshire side.

Another house, the George Inn, beckons us in vain, although Woodhouse, its landlord, keeps it tidy, his creature comforts in good condition, and his charges, if not low, sufficiently reasonable.

The pretty village of Bray, and its well-kept parsonage follow, and old departed Sye Wilder, and Andrews, who has likewise quitted this mundane sphere - two excellent fishermen - rise in their punts to my mental vision, and recall the many happy days, pictured in memory's mellowing glass, I have spent upon the surface of these mirrored waters.

Maidenhead Railway Bridge

The railway bridge - perhaps one of the largest and finest spans of brick architecture in Europe - now crosses the Thames, and may be said to end Bray Reach, an excellent one for jack and perch, while the boughs afford sport nearly all the way up for chub.
A barbel pitch lately discovered, and fast rising into fame, is in this reach about half-way; but there are no landmarks to indicate it.
The depth of water right up is excellent, and may be fished within fourteen or fifteen yards from the tow-path, where it suddenly shallows.
Mr. Bond lets out punts.

Guards Club Island Maidenhead Rowing Club; Blue River Cafe

THERE are two stations close to Maidenhead, but Taplow is generally preferred, as it is nearer to the river.
The inn opposite to the latter is a pleasant little house.

Maidenhead Bridge; Skindles; Bridge Eyot;

Maidenhead is a corporate and market town on the declivity of a hill on the Berkshire side of our river.
It is called Stow Sudlington, and South Arlington, by Leland.
Camden supposes its present name to have been derived from the veneration paid there to the head of some British virgin, of whose virtues or miraculous powers no record is to be found.
In the fourteenth century, the passage over the river was higher up; but after a wooden bridge was built the place began to acquire some degree of consideration.
It is governed by a high steward, mayor and aldermen.

The bridge is a handsome structure of Portland stone, of seven principal and six lesser arches, and was built after a design of Sir Robert Taylor.
The Orkney Arms at the bridge has gained the "enviable distinction" of being an expensive hotel.
It is, therefore, frequented by those who desire exclusiveness, and is spoken of by its patrons as offering excellent quarters, and as possessing a certain smack of the leaven of that old-fashioned and scrupulous attendance so dear to the ancient port-wine school.

All along the osier ait, before reaching Boulter's Lock, there are good sized chub to be met with.

Grass Eyot;

There is nothing particular near Venables' Millstream on the right, excepting just opposite the entrance to it in the main river, for gudgeons.


Perhaps no two views upon the Thames form a greater contrast than the upper and lower prospects.
Upon our north is seen the grand and elevated sweep of the woods of Taplow, Cliefden, and Hedsor, while to the south the Thames flows through one unvaried level, but not, however, destitute of a class of artistic features, in which the tower of Bray Church, the buildings of Monkey Island, the ornate villas under our eye, and the bucks, "and splash of falling water" form salient points.

Below Boulters; Taplow Foot & Cycle Bridge;

Taplow and its glorious panorama of hanging woods now rise majestically upon the view.
There stands the splendid seat of the Duke of Sutherland, from the terraces of which even the great tower of Windsor Castle can be looked down upon;
and there amongst the forest glade is Hedsor, Lord Bolton's;
and here, surrounded with inexpressible beauty, is Mr. Grenfell's;
and yonder, close hugging "Thames' translucent wave" is an umbrageous walk, cool, refreshing, and verse inspiring, whose beechy shaded chalk cliffs, recall many an evening ramble.

How cherished, how tender are these reminiscences!
With what a flood of joyous melancholy do they come pouring back upon the heart!
Taplow was a place of confinement to the Princess Elizabeth, during the reign of her bigoted and tyrannic sister, Mary; and, in a predominating situation in the park, there stood, when I was a boy, a venerable oak, which tradition represented as having been planted by her during the period of her solitary residence at this place; but its then state of decay appeared to suggest a much earlier date for its infant growth by comparing it with the Farlop Oak, and other trees of the same class, whose far greater antiquity has been clearly ascertained.

The walks formed in the hanging woods about Taplow, are of considerable extent; and from buildings judiciously placed in commanding points, or openings tastefully made as inlets to particular objects, the country is viewed in various directions, and the circumstances of it selected into distinct pictures.

From an opening at the termination of the upper walk, what may now be called the mutilated brow of Cliefden is seen across a woody chasm.

In the bottom the Thames divides into two branches, and forms an island, whereon is distinguished Formosa Cottage; beyond are the insulated grounds of Cookham House, the meads of Hedsor, and the rising county of Buckinghamshire.

The lower walk in Taplow woods, though it loses the great expanse of prospect, acquires a substantive charm in the perspective distinctness of its objects.

The extent of horizon is lost, but the partial glimpses of it from particular points, or through selected vistas, which the hand of taste has curiously provided for particular scenes, produces in the mind a more composed delight.

From one shady seat, Windsor Castle appears embedded in foliage; and, from another, Eton College is seen in a similar frame-work of branching verdure.

But this is not all; many circumstances, both natural and accidental, which, from the higher stations, are either overlooked or involved in the wide circumference of prospect, acquire, from the more distinct and insulated view, an individual and interesting importance, and instead of being lost, as it were, in the extent of surface over which the eye hurries with indiscriminating impatience, become predominating features in the chosen landscape.

Ray Mill Island;
Ray and Taplow Mills, for instance, which stretch from the banks of the river to the islands, with their rushing waters; the old lock; the farms and cottages, that are scattered about the nearer part of the country; the rural mansions which grace the shore, with all the picturesque and moving craft of the stream, enliven, vary, and complete the prospect.

Were mine the art, with glowing hand,
The flood of deathless song to pour,
That lyre should call the fairy band
To press, O Thames ! thy willowy shore;
And weave for thee, with spells sublime,
The magic wreath of boldest rhyme;
And consecrate to latest time
The sweetly-changeful melody.

For never yet a nobler theme
Has filled the poet's midnight dream,
Than thy serenely-winding stream
-The stream beloved of liberty.

BOULTERS LOCK

The cheery cry to the lock-keeper, who is ever slow at Boulters, and well he may be with such creaky-cranky gates as he has to touch so gingerly, wakes me up from my dreamy reverie to gaze upon that sweet bit of landscape in which the Messrs. Fuller's cottage and mill at Ray forms "the eye"> and the deeply-wooded cliffs on the one side, the old lock - too, too old - on the other, its picturesque and artistic accessories.

What hoy!-a new public, Ray Mead Hotel, kept by Harman, Neat and snug in appearance, I must know more of you shortly - hoy! - lock! lock!
There he is at last, lank and lazy.
With what a cool methodical want of grace the fellow goes to work!
Work! - twenty minutes by the watch getting through this crazy structure, but the new conservators, with £5000 to spend upon each lock, are working up stream to the rescue of labour and rottenness.

Jubilee River

Here is the prettiest tumbling bay, to our right, on the river.
It forms a crescent, and hides beneath it many a spotted beauty of the stream.

How grand the scenery opens.
How proud that perpendicular bluff, clothed in an array of countless kinds of trees, although opposite in character and in form, all in harmony commingling.
See the summer-house high-perched as eagle's home, with path hidden approach, puzzling, enigma-like, the mind in mazy wonderment of its secret accessibility.
But yet prouder appears the stream, seeming to glide along reluctant to quit a paradise of loveliness, in apparent conscious knowledge that all that is opposed to its purity awaits it ere it reach the sea.

But what of its fish? Well, commendable for both pike and perch right up to Cookham.

Bavins Gulls or Slow Grove Islands; Cliveden Deep; Cliveden House

We pass the entrance to the Cliefden spring, where we were wont, when Sir George Warrener held the house, to land unchallenged to picnic and cool our sparkling Moselle or ale within its icy bosom.

We pass the Cliefden aits, all excellent water, and pull through the reedy impediments which surround us, with no little difficulty, and again a tolerably clear stream, wide and deep, awaits us.

There are several pitches; one opposite the second keeper's lodge, the latter nestling most deliciously beneath the cliff, and another equally good swim in the centre of the channel about fifty yards higher up.
Both are noted for barbel and perch.

Formosa Cottage, a castellated, plain, if not ugly, house, and its really pretty island, are on our larboard bow - it is in the possession of the widow of Sir George Young - and the keeper's cot on our starboard quarter, full of sylvan characteristics; then the ferry, where horses cross, with another exquisite walk beneath the towering bank of trees.

Two streams here divide from the main river at Cookham Bridge.

We peer under the arched foliage and fancy wondrous chub steal up there at night for the black slug or unconscious wee bit frog.
By-the-by what a fatal bait is the baby-frog for chub; it beats all other created things.

The next section appears to relate to Eton and Windsor - maybe just the author's daydream?

I shall never forget the silence of that summer's evening, - the warm gloom around, or the exquisite beauty of the river, with the castle ever and anon looming grand and solemn in the distance.

How my spirit bathed as it were, in the tranquil shadows, as memory's shallop bore me retrospectively through its changeful windings, to the long, long days of June vacations.
How we boys would thread the amorous alders at the water's edge, conjecturing forward, though the present lay like Eden around us; for the future was the sun to which each young heart turned for light! What wild conceits of great, oracular lives ourselves would equal! But let that pass.
Each has gone by, in turn, to humbler fates.
Sometimes we angled, and our trolling gear swung the gray pickerel from his reedy shoals, Beyond a horse-shoe bend, the current's force fell off, precipitous, on the western side.
There plunged the bathers; there I learned to swim, flung far into the stream by one who laughingly watched my gaspings, till my young limbs, half of themselves struck out, and held me up.
Far below a pile-drove dam, from bank to bank, shuts back the waters in a shadowy lake, about a mimic island.
Languidly the chesnuts still infoliate its space, and still the whispering flags are intertwined with whitest water lilies near the marge.
The paper-mill, close by, with murmurous wheel, yet glistens through the branches, while laughing maidens throng the copse at noon.

past, as with careless arms upon the gunwale, I peer through and through the water, and almost see its silvery naiads, from their wavering depths, gleam with strange faces upwards; almost hear sweet voices carol:

"Ah, you all come back! we charm your childhood;
then you roam away, to float on alien waters, like the winds;
but, ah, you all come back, come dreaming back!"

but back to reality at Cookham

Hedsor
COOKHAM LOCK

Thus, unconsciously blending poetry with our prose, we are aroused by our fisherman asking whether he shall open another bottle of Bass No.1 ale? No; it is too strong, too thought-creating, and we are not inclined to muse, thus idly, any longer.

The stream is one of considerable breadth, and hides behind and peeps forth from among the islands which divide it.
Although the view is somewhat inclosed, its area is made up of many objects of great individual beauty, and so contrasted as to form more than one charming picture.

The Thames branches off into three different channels, forming several islands, one of which contains fifty-six acres.


COOKHAM

Cookham is a considerable village, about two miles up the river from Maidenhead-bridge.
Its ivy-mantled church tower, Cookham House with its lofty elms, and several scattered villas, form a very pretty river scene on the Berkshire banks of the stream, opposite the wood-clad, abrupt, and shaggy brow of

The bower of wanton Shrewsbury and Love

and is as rich as foliage can make it.

We are in Cookham Reach, a splendid water for perch, roach, and jack, but you should not go under the bridge, without trying the brilliantly sparkling ale at the Ferry House.

Slip & Ferry Inn; Cookham Bridge
Cookham Nunnery;
Cookham Reach averages 8ft throughout, with a clear gravelly bottom.

Opposite Morley's Mill, between Hedsor and Bourne End (not Bone End, as upon most maps) there are generally a good many punts out in the season.

Bourne End Railway & Footbridge
[The largest chub taken on record was one of 6lb. just opposite Haberley House, below Marlow Railway Bridge [as Bourne End Railway Bridge was known], by Mr. Walker, the well-known proprietor of the Lambeth Shot Manufactory, who, having no objection to fish in any water however well preserved, hermetically closes his own at Horton, on the Colne, to his brother-anglers.]

The sight of the timber railway bridge tells me I am nearing Mrs. Llewellyn's at Abney House, and the Waterman's Arms, where Mrs. Brown, its cleanly and ever attentive landlady will place upon the polished mirrored table a tray of bread, butter, and cheese, and a jug of "barley wine" fit for a king, and a banquet for an angler.

[I heard here a very bad account of the Wycombe stream, which is, as far down as High Wycombe, one of the finest trout streams in England for the size and beauty of its trout, but from this for some miles it is said to be polluted by paper mills beyond conception, my informant telling me that he once rashly sent in a dog, which, stirring up the deposit, caused so loud and palpable a stench that he had fairly to run for it.]

Bourne End; Sailing Club; Spade Oak;

[and just at the end of Spade Oak Reach the greater part is capital perch water, and gives first-rate sport; while Stone House Reach holds some of the largest fish, both trout and pike, in the river Thames.]

Gibraltar Island; Quarry Woods;

[The Point below Marlow, just above the Quarry Wood, is one of the best places for jack, perch, barbel, and roach.
Some little way below this is the Black Hole, which holds 25ft. of water in its middle.

Again, below this, and just above the Chalk Pit, a famous place for all sorts of fish presents itself.

The next pitch is near the rush-bed, and another first-rate swim is below Stone House;]

Taylor Island; A404 Bridge;

Marlow Weir;
MARLOW LOCK

The fishermen [at Marlow] are Thomas Sparkes and Edward Goding who, like the rest about the Thames, are shrewd, knowing fellows, deep in all the mysteries of the craft, and acquainted with every hole whither big fish retire like monks for meditation and good fare.

"In the main", says Thorne, "fishermen are respectable and trustworthy, though they are apt occasionally, like other guides, to play upon the credulity of a confiding stranger, and it must be confessed that they do a little love to tickle the gills of a cute trout".
Some of the clever fishermen are a good deal petted, if not spoilt.
A few are characters, and a good many aim to be humorists; almost all are civil.

Marlow Road Station is full three miles from Marlow Weir by the road, but an omnibus meets the trains, the fare for which is a shilling each passenger.

There are two or three inns along this road, and the Railway Inn, John Jarvis, close to the station, is clean and economical.

[Camden in his "Britannica" traces the etymology of Marlow to the "chalk" called "marle" but marl and chalk are two distinct substances, possessing opposite qualities, and too small a relative quantity of marl is found in the district to warrant the title to the place.
In Domesday Book it is called Merlaw, which appears to signify a mere, or standing water; and this might then be the situation of the place, for near the town are some peat moors in which stags' horns and other animal remains have been found; and these moors Mr. Langley, in his history of the Hundred of Desborough, seems to suppose were standing water at that period.
Neither of these definitions is, however, at all satisfactory.
The manor of Marlow previous to the conquest was in the possession of Alger, Earl of Mercia, and descended to his son, from whom it was taken by King William, and granted to Queen Matilda.
At the period of the survey it was found to be taxed with fifteen hides of land.
Its woods are represented as capable of supplying pannage for a thousand swine; a term which denotes the feeding of that animal upon the mash or fruit of wild forest trees, such as oak, beech, chesnuts, & c., and its fishery produced a thousand eels.]

Marlow may be well termed the paradise of anglers, there being in and around it everything to contribute to his delight.

Marlow Slipway; Compleat Angler;

To those who have not visited the Complete Angler Inn for a few years a great treat is in store, for the place is so marvellously altered, and for the better, that the old visitor will scarcely know it again - so much enlarged, so much improved are its inner and outer comforts.
Indeed it is scarcely possible to suggest any requirement that is not there.
The gardens trim and well kept; the house the pattern of cleanly care and almost fastidious neatness, yet a cleanliness and neatness withal that does not say, as some over-nice interiors do, "I am only for polished boots and dress coats".
No, so far from such being the case, it is the acme of free-and-easiness in his Sunday best;
and what glorious prospects all around, the silken thready bridge thrown across the stream, as it were, by some gigantic engineering spider;
the church, half hidden by the pendent willows;
the lovely toy-like cottages, slipping over mossy lawns into the stream;
the quaint gables of that dear old wharf;
the distant woods and broad expansive meadows;
and that charmingly monotonous and sleep-inducing fall of water at the weir, so close beneath the chamber windows as to make it a wonder how the fisher can shake off the drowsy god and seek so early his darling sport:-

Oh! that such beauty, varying in the light
Of living nature, cannot be portray'd
By words, nor by the pencil's silent skill
But is the property of him alone
Who hath beheld it, noted it with care,
And in his mind recorded it with love.

Mr.G. Rolls, designated by the Rev. Charles Kingsley as the "king of fishers and the prince of gentlemen" lives opposite in that pretty cottage, which he makes one of his wandering homes.
Mr. Rolls has caught salmon from the top of Marlow Weir, and he is still a regular old perch and jack angler, one of his favourite haunts is Mr. Witherington's, at Sonning Mill.

[At the George and Dragon Commercial Inn, near the bridge in Marlow, one James Tilbury will be found, who keeps a public and sets forth manifold attractions for fishing parties.]

But here is the buxom, good-tempered landlady, Mrs. Parslow, to tell me that Robert Shaw, the bailiff to the Marlow and Cookham Angling Protection Society, is ready to add his meed of information to my river stores.
Shaw is an intelligent and reliable officer, who evidently mingles a love for the river with his responsible duties, and it is equally clear that his zeal and worth have obtained for him the respect and consideration of not only the members of the club, but that of the inhabitants of Marlow and its vicinity, who speak of him with praise.
He tells me that Marlow is almost an exceptional town in regard to sewage, as the system of cesspools is still carried on there, and that no offensive drains whatever empty into the Thames.
To my question as to the effect of the drain from the breweries, he says that he thinks that this one does no harm, as bushels of fish may be seen about it.
The fish, however, are certainly not so healthy, they are more tender in the scale than they used to be.
The immense increase in the number of swans keeps the spawn down, and these swans are very fond of the brewery drain, as they there pick up the seed of the hop which is drifted from the vats.
The hop-seed ought to give the fish an appetite.

[---]

The greater portion of the distance offers on the north bank excellent bank fishing, as the banks are high and abrupt, and the water deep close in; indeed, it is doubtful if the whole length of the Thames has better local angling; all down from the hotel to this averages 12ft. in depth.

Mr. Ledger, who is well known as a skilful barbel-fisher, has taken 2cwt. and upwards of this fish out of these swims in a day.
This portion of the river, and far above, is never netted.
There are seventy-five members in the Cookham and Marlow Club, some subscribing five guineas and others a guinea.
[The average of trout taken at Marlow in a season is about forty.]

Marlow Bridge; Bisham Church; Bisham Abbey;

Above Marlow, about half-a-mile up, the fish are very plentiful, and the first places of any note are off Bisham Church and the Abbey, and at Abbey-hill here, where the weeds admit of it, are some capital roach swims; and the jack-fishing from this almost up to Temple Lock is capital in winter.

[isham is a very pleasant village on the Berks banks of the Thames, about two miles from Hurley, and at a lesser distance across the river from Great Marlow in Buckinghamshire.

The Manor House is on the site of the old abbey, and notwithstanding the various alterations it has undergone, may be, in some measure, considered as a part of it.
It appears to have been erected by William Montacute, Earl of Salisbury, 1338.
It is said to have been dedicated, on its first foundation, to our Lord Jesus Christ, and the blessed Virgin his mother; and on the second, to the Virgin only.
At the same time it appears in the records of the reign of Richard II., to be styled the conventual church of the Holy Trinity.
No particular reason appears to account for the various dedications of this religious house previous to 1536, when Henry VIII. confiscated all its possessions to his own use, and afterwards frequently favoured it with a visit.
Queen Elizabeth also, among her many progresses, made a journey thither, and continued to reside there during some weeks.

Bisham church should be visited, as it contains a very sumptuous monument of the family of the Hobys, to whom the abbey was granted by Edward VI.]

The High Bells is famous for jack; and at Black Rags, some mile and a quarter above the Abbey, in 8ft. to 9ft. of water, jack and perch lurk in numbers.
Shaw has taken pike here of 28lb., and while out with Mr. Edwin Lukyn, the eminent dentist, two years since, sixteen jack were taken weighing 68lb. and another take had eleven jack amongst it weighing 60lb.

Temple Mill Island
TEMPLE LOCK
Temple Footbridge; Harleyford Marina; Harleyford Manor

Above Temple Lock, one of the most beautiful reaches on the Thames, is well stocked with fish, despite the use of the net so often applied by Sir William Clayton's household.
[There are some delicious back waters running through the estate of [that] gentleman, but chains and spikes warn the angler that he may not trespass, but as Sir William has a right to do what he "likes with his own", no true sportsman would intrude upon his preserves, or thwart his wish, however exclusive in its effect.]

Dr. Shon, the worthy treasurer to the club, caught a chub 44lb., which he has at his house stuffed; he always fishes for them with a tight line, and considers the loss of a few shillings' worth of gut most amply compensated by the extra sport obtained and skill required to manage this style of angling.

[...]

[Lady Place is another noted swim.
A pike was taken near this some years ago in a flue net, the weight of which was 32¾lb.]

Hurley; Hurley Islands; Hurley Silly Footbridge;Hurley Camping
HURLEY LOCK

At New Lock weir [Hurley Weir], there are said to be hundredweights of jack and perch,

Hurley Winch;

[Higher up is Mr Scott Murray's, at Danesfield, who gives his water up without condition or stint to the angler.]

Campsite;
Frogmill Ayt; Blackboy Island;
Medmenham;

and then Medmenham, a beautiful reach on the Buckingham side, literally teems with fish;
[Bysham Grange, next to Medmenham Abbey, is likewise famous.]

Medmenham Slip;

The Ferry Boat public-house at Medmenham has beds.

Magpie Eyot;
Culham Court;

[---]
and opposite Miss West's, Culham House, a red edifice on the Berks side, are splendid deeps.

Aston Slip

HAMBLEDEN LOCK

The lock-keeper at Hambledon can make up a bed or two, and the opposite bank boasts the Queen's Head public-house, where four or more beds can be had.


Opposite Rose Hill, the seat of Mr. Micklein, a punt may be pitched with every assurance of excellent sport.
A Mr. Bell is in the habit of gudgeon fishing about here; he angles with two hooks, the one set out from the line with a bristle, and this gentleman bags sometimes as many as sixty dozen a day.

Deaf Jack used to say the difficulty was to get one small enough for spinning.

[...]

[...]

[...]

The swims and pitches have, since the flood of 1852, been very considerably altered, but the best are enumerated up to Hambledon Lock.

The tyrant pike, however, seems to be comparatively the most plentiful fish, and it would, perhaps, be better for the trout if the tyrant man would exercise a little more of his murderous cunning over the dominion of this ruthless fish.

The Thames is scarcely anywhere more abundant in beauty than between Marlow and Henley - while the river itself, as if sensible of the superior charms of its banks, lingers as it were in its course - by a greater variety and succession of meanders than it anywhere displays, from its fountain to the sea.

[...]

Between Marlow and Henley the constant succession of scenes of sylvan beauty strikes the gazer dumb with enthralled admiration, and the powers of the pen are displumed before the might of the pencil, which, by its magical attributes tends to excite the refined appetite to visit the original feast of nature as here spread out, and banquet to the full.

Here lofty hills lift up their woody heads,
There its green lap the grassy meadow spreads;
Enclosures here the sylvan scene divide,
There plains extended spread their harvests wide;
Here oaks, their mossy limbs wide-stretching meet,
And form impervious thickets at our feet.
Through aromatic heaps of rip'ning hay
The silver Thames here wins her winding way,
While many a tower, and many a spire between,
Shoots from the groves, and cheers the rural scene.

[...]
Before Culham Court (Miss West's) and on the Buckinghamshire side is Medmedham, with its church, abbey-house, and upland farms.

To the left the eye advances up the enchanting vale of Hambledon, and finds more distant termination in the groves of Fawley.

From the grounds above Culham Court there is a still more commanding view of the windings of the river, with Danesfield (Mr.Scott Murray's) on its shaggy cliff, and the less perceptible mansion of Hurley Place on the Berkshire bank, Hurley Mill is owned by Mr. Holmes

Hambleden Mill; Greenlands;

[There is [likewise] some excellent spinning water near Greenlands ( Mr.Marjoribanks ), and no better place for perch in this district than opposite that gentleman's house, where 25ft.of water may be plumbed on a gravel bottom everywhere.]

Temple Island; [The island seen from the [Henley] bridge in the distance down stream belongs to Mr.Mackenzie, the contractor.
Around and about it there is tidy sport to be had for fish that love heavy water, it being for a long stretch 14ft.to 16ft.deep hereabout.
[...]
[Here, at Fawley, is the island whence the boats start for Henley Bridge in the regatta, which may be considered as the parent of all amateur regattas.
It had its origin in a contest between the two universities, on this reach, in 1829, which excited so much interest as to suggest the idea of its becoming annual.
This was first actually carried out in the regatta, June 14, 1839, since which it has obtained universal popularity.
The river, about this, is strewed with islands, which are often planted with large trees, such as ash and alders.
The smaller islands are called eyots or aits; "these occur everywhere"> says Thorne, sometimes singly, and far apart, and sometimes in clusters, and are almost as various and beautiful as they are numerous.
They are generally planted with osiers, and as they occur in the shallows, are frequently surrounded by rushes, while the willow herb, loose-strife, and similar flowers, encompass them with a belt of brilliant colours.]

Fawley Court;

[While upon [Henley] bridge the eye will naturally rest upon Fawley Court (Edward Mackenzie, Esq.), which is seen here in great advantage, upon the northern bank of the Thames.
The line which marks the boundary between Bucks and Oxon passes across the lawn on which the house stands.
Its history is full of interest - too long to give; but the scholar cannot recall the past without a sense of regret for the irreparable damage done by a body of cavalry in the service of Charles I, which took up its quarters there in the autumn of 1862, for the soldiery, though their officers had commanded the utmost care to be taken of the property, acted in the most ruthless manner.
Of divers writings of consequence, and books which were found in the study, some they tore in pieces, and others they employed to light their tobacco, and others they carried away.
The grounds of Fawley rise rather boldly from the meads, beyond the river, on the Berkshire side; some parts being richly clothed, and others only fringed with wood; while the opposite part of the picture consists of the uplands of Fawley, clad with beeches, in clumps and groves; and the more distant woods of Hambledon.
The church of Fawley is worth a short inland walk, its interior being fitted up with the entire furniture of the chapel at Cannons, the magnificent seat of the Duke of Buckingham, near Edgeware, in Middlesex.
Nor should the parsonage house escape the notice of the artist/angler; for, although not visible from the river, it nestles in a most beautiful and romantic spot, full of the sweetest variety and landscape grace.

Phyllis Court ;

[From Henley to Phylis Court, the perch taken often reach 3lb.in weight and upwards, and the gudgeons are very fine and fleshy, measuring from 5in.to 6in.in length.]

Remenham; Henley Slip; Leander Club; Red Lion Inn;

[Boswell says, in quoting the following, said to be written by Shenstone on a pane of glass in a parlour window of the Red Lion, close to the bridge-

Whoe'er has travelled life's dull round,
Where'er his various tour has been,
May sigh to think how oft he found
His warmest welcome at an inn.

We happened to lie this night at Henley where Shenstone wrote these lines; which I give as they are found in the corrected edition of his works, published after his death.
Johnson said, "There is no private house in which people can enjoy themselves as well as at a capital tavern.
Let there be ever so great plenty of good things, ever so much grandeur, ever so much elegance, ever so much desire that everybody should be easy; in the nature of things it cannot be; there must always be some degree of care and anxiety.
The master of the house is anxious to entertain his guests; the guests are anxious to be agreeable to him; and no man, but a very impudent dog indeed, can as freely command what is in another man's house as if it were his own.
Whereas at a tavern, there is a general freedom from anxiety.
You are sure you are welcome; and the more noise you make, the more trouble you give, the more good things you call for, the welcomer you are.
No servants will attend you with the alacrity which waiters do, who are incited by the prospect of an immediate reward in proportion as they please.
No, sir, there is nothing which has yet been contrived by man by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn."]

Henley Bridge;

Henley Bridge is now sighted.
Its railway station is close to the river.
We at once seek for old Richard Vaughan, a conscientious fisherman, to check what we have already noted, and take up the pulling onward.
Richard Vaughan charges 7s. a day, ground-bait extra, and "expects grub in plenty, but homely".
Henley does not sewer into the river, but still adheres to the cess-pool system.
It is the prevailing notion here that the river is overstocked with fish.
I certainly never saw so many perch upon the feed.
At Henley I always put up at the Catherine Wheel, where Mrs.Mary Eyres attends personally to the comforts of her customers, has ample accommodation, and of the best in every respect for the angler; the house is inland, removed sufficiently from the mists of the river, is extremely cozy and the charges moderate.
The Thames at Henley is 75yds. across, and presents a magnificent sight from the bridge, whether we look up or down the river, which is here 16ft.to 18ft.deep, and affords good gudgeon fishing all the way up stream, marsh, lock and mills, with plenty of perch and jack angling in autumn and winter; the best pike, and I am assured by several that there are many of 20lb.to 30lb.in weight, are found in some deep back waters or lagoons on the left hand side, and monster chub may be taken as heavy as 5lb.with a fly.
All the way up to the reach there are, however, few or no dace.
[Poaching is said, however, to go on about Henley to a frightful extent, but the new conservators are in possession of facts in regard to this, as well as to the doings at other places, that will effectually check such practices immediately the arrangements they have in contemplation are complete.]

The flood in March this year (1867), as great as any which have occurred since 1849, brought down with it immense quantities of jack, roach, perch, & c.

The fishermen at Henley are Richard and Edward Vaughan, William Stone, George Parrott, Edward Woodley, Henry Allum, James Jerome, and Samuel Lambourne.
The latter is one of the best anglers and most obliging men amongst them.
They all officiate as watermen as well as puntsmen.
The tackle, however, that they use is, for the most part, rude and primitive, if not rotten and altogether worthless, especially the rods, which more resemble the letter S than a respectable Farlow.
The best tackle shop is kept by one Rowe, a tobacconist; the next, Clements' toy shop at the corner of Bell Street; there is also another at a barber's, who has got an eye to a business duality; the lines being equally fit for skipping ropes and the hooks for a butcher's shop, albeit they are of the rustiest.

Sometimes accommodation is difficult to get at Henley during the regatta, if so Hambledon Lock House below may afford it, or the Queen's Head close by.

Henley is a market and a corporate town, beautifully situate in the county of Oxford.
The Thames flows before it, and a fine amphitheatre of woody hills rises behind it.
The Chiltern Hills begin here.
Doctor Plot, the historian of Oxfordshire, represents it as the most ancient town in that county, and forms its name from Hen old, and Ley place.
He also supposes it to be the capital of the Ancalites, who revolted to Cæsar, as mentioned in the Commentaries, Bell.Gall.L.5.
It was also called Hanleganz and Hanneburg, in the ancient records of the corporation.
Doctor Gale considers it to be the Calleva or Galleva Attrebatum of Antoninus, and Celeba of Ravennas, on account of a Roman road, running directly from Spinæ or Spene hither, and the Roman coins found about it.
He supposes also that the Attrebates of Ptolemy and Antoninus were the same Iwith the Ancalites of the Romans.
Camden, who flourished in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, relates, that in his time, the inhabitants of this place were principally supported by carrying wood to London in boats, and bringing back corn.
It then had a wooden bridge, which was supposed to have succeeded a very ancient one of stone, whose foundations Leland mentions as visible in shallow seasons.
The latter has been supposed, by some antiquarians, to be the bridge over which, according to Dion Cassius, the Romans passed in pursuit of the Britons, who swam across a lower part of the river; though this fact is contested, and some have insisted that Essex was the scene of this flight of the British forces from the legions of Rome.
The corporation of this town consists of a mayor, aldermen, and burgesses.
The church, close to the Thames, is large, and its low tower of beautiful proportions, built by Cardinal Wolsey, is a distinguished and predominating object from many parts of the river and the surrounding country.
Here is a free school, founded by James I.; another by Lady Periam; and an almshouse, by Longland, Bishop of Lincoln.
The principal trade of the place is in meal, malt, and corn.
The town appears externally especially clean, and there is an air of pleasing, unaffected simplicity and propriety about all in and around it, but dullness reigns throughout.

The principal ornament of Henley is its bridge.
It is built of stone, consisting of five arches, and is an object of uncommon, unpretentious elegance.
This beautiful structure is enriched with sculpture from the chisel of Mrs.Damer.
The masks of the Thame and the Isis, which decorate the consoles of the central arch, are the works of that accomplished lady.
The bridge was finished in the year 1787, but the designer, Mr.Hayward, of Shropshire, did not live to see it began; his remains, however, lie close to his impressive work, in Henley Church, where a monument is erected to his memory.

[...]
[...]
]

Angel on Bridge; Public Landing; Hobbs

Bird Island; Eyot Centre; Rose Toop Boatyard; Salters Landing; Henley RC; Rod Eyot
Marsh Pool is a favourite locality for barbel.

MARSH LOCK

At Marsh Mills there are two tails and two weirs, affording deeps and scours of a most attractive character;
and another stretch of delightful water succeeds, hemmed in on one side with richly fringed chalk cliffs, and expansive meadows on the other.

Park Place; Bolney Island;

This reach is straight for a mile or more, passing Mr.Fuller Maitland's, of Park place, and ending at the celebrated Beggar's Hole, opposite the first ferry from Henley.
The water contains vast numbers of fish, but from its extent and almost uniform depth the great difficulty is to hit upon the swims.
That being achieved, excellent sport may be had.
Having arrived at the ferry, I shouted in vain for the ferryman to confirm or alter a few facts, but he was up at the other of his posts, having a duality of Charon duties to attend to.
This makes it awkward for anglers, who must take a long détour to get again to the river, as ditches and back waters retard his progress; but just opposite the same first ferry there is an almost dead piece of water which 20yds. up, presents a hole "so jolly deep, and a nice friendly stump of a tree to rest the rod on."

Lashbrook;

Opposite Boney [Bolney] Court, Mr.Rogers's, there is good jack, perch, and roach fishing, and, indeed, sport may be reckoned upon right away up to the second ferry.
Here there is a hole with about 25ft.of water which runs with this remarkable depth for at least 50yds.if not 60yds. Perch in great quantities are taken out of it in autumn.

Henley Sailing Club;

Then the roach fisher will find, between the second ferry and Wargrave, opposite Mr.Eagle's, a new house on the Berkshire side, a capital run of some length for roach.
Just above this, and before you get to Captain Hall's snug little cottage this side the George and Dragon, there are several excellent pitches for roach and gudgeon,

Wyatts; George & Dragon;

and from the inn up to the railway bridge many swims for roach, perch, and gudgeon.

The George and Dragon at Wargrave has been increased in size, and offers seven extra beds. The picturesque character of the house has entirely gone; but the cooking is extremely good, and the charges are the most moderate I have met with anywhere.
It is on the banks of the Thames, with lovely views up and down.
The landlady and her daughters are very respectable, and they study with commendable forethought to please their customers in every respect.

Reeves is the fisherman here.
He is of a superior class, with considerable tact and experience.
He should be previously written to, and in that case, if he be disengaged, the angler will find every requisite preparation already undergone.
The son of the landlady of the George and Dragon likewise goes out with anglers, and is a steady skilful fisherman. This reach is a magnificent one for pike, perhaps not so great as it used to be, but still scarcely fallen off sufficiently to deserve its omission from the list of "pike waters" of so high an authority as that of my friend Mr.Cholmondeley Pennell, who passes Henley over in his excellent work, "The Book of the Pike" by a skip from Hurley to Wargrave.

Hennerton Backwater;

There is a piece of back water called The Lake, which taking its rise at Wargrave, runs down to the first ferry.
It is the property of Mr. Rhodes, and affords very fine pike fishing.

Wargrave;

There is likewise another piece of back water of a pikey reputation, the property of Mr. Holmes, to whom a note should be sent by the angler for permission to fish it.
This is just below the railway bridge, and above the inn.
Opposite Wargrave Ait are several large eddies, where, when the water is declining after a flood, but still a little coloured, many large perch are captured.
Wargrave was formerly a considerable market town; it is now no more than a small, and, upon its waterside a pleasant, village.
Some years past it became remarkable for the theatrical exhibitions of the late Earl of Barrymore.
The church contains the monument of Mr.Day, author of "Sandford and Merton"> who was killed here by a fall from his horse.

Shiplake Railway Bridge; R.Loddon
SHIPLAKE LOCK

Shiplake Lock is just above the railway bridge, opposite the two entrances to the Loddon river.
The mill close by is one of the most artistic on the Thames.
Its pool is noted for its pike, but holds few trout.

Phillimores Island;

Now we get to Doctor Phillmore Island, at the tail of which there are plenty of perch of a respectable girth, and jack in due season.
All round the island the fly may be profitably cast for chub and dace.
Phillmore House is on the hill, and about 400yds. above it there is the well known Chalkpit Hole, and the angler can scarcely try a wrong place - making, of course, an exception here and there — all the way to Sonning.
I heard of seventy brace of perch having been taken with two rods at the Chalkpit in a day, and I have myself caught perch there for a short time at a rate which would treble that number.

Shiplake;

Shiplake [village] is on the opposite side the river to Wargrave, a little higher up, and its railway station is reached by a ferry at the George and Dragon, and a short walk across the meadows.
Shiplake is a small, retired village, which has acquired some degree of notoriety from its having possessed for its pious, learned, and exemplary minister, the Rev. Mr.Granger, the most eminent biographical writer of the times in which he lived.
He died in the year 1776, while he was performing the sacramental functions at the altar of his parish church.

Such privilege what saint e'er knew?
To whom such honour shown?
His Saviour's death in rapturous view,
And unperceived his own.

The situation of Shiplake Church is exceedingly picturesque, with its embattled tower, ivy clad and perched on a chalk cliff overhanging a fine bend of the river.
It has seven handsome stained windows from the ruined Church of St.Bertin, at St.Omer, sacked during the first French Revolution, and contains some quaint old carving.
The oldest portion of the Church of St.Andrew, whose image is over the north porch, dates from 1200.
The most remarkable feature is a sculptured arch in the north chancel aisle, the keystone of which bears the arms of the see of Salisbury, which on one side is a representation of Christ blessing the twelve Apostles, and on the other kings and queens crowned.
The brass of Lawrence Fytton, bailiff, of Sonning, bears the date 1434.
Lord Stowell, who died at Early Court, is buried here.
In a house in the upper part of the village, Sydney Smith wrote "Peter Plymley's Letters".
At a house called the Grove, Miss Rich was in the habit of receiving Pitt, Wyndham, Addington, Admiral Villeneuve (who lost the battle of Trafalgar), with many distinguished French émigrés.

Lynch Island; Hallsmead Ait; St Patricks Stream;

One of the entrances - the upper one - to the Loddon, called the Patrick Stream, leaves the Thames between Sonning and Shiplake, then joining the Loddon, enters the Thames again just above Wargrave, with the waters of the former river.
I have known pike of large size to be taken out of the Patrick Stream in the winter.
It is likewise a favourite place for large chub.
A wide piece of water before its meadow bridge is reached from the Thames should be fished with the gorge bait in September or October: it is mostly too weedy to spin.

Great Court; Mill Theatre;

Sonning Mill tails, its weirs and back waters, which are extensive, are amply stored with fish; but they are the private property of Mr.Charles Witherington, one of the newly appointed conservators, from whom permission to angle must first be obtained, this gentleman having asserted his right, and maintained it at law, to the whole of the water accessories to his mill, by the conviction of trespassers.
Mr.Witherington has never been known to refuse any respectable application, provided the water has not been previously engaged by others or friends expected.
The barbel are here in plenty, and prodigious in size; chub large, feeding greedily in season; perch abundant, but trout, dace, and gudgeon scarce; and the jack, more particularly above the mill, run to heavy weights.
My favourite sport here is to wade at the weir scours, or amongst the ins and outs of water running therefrom, with a large red palmer or beetle, and in this way, with a double - handed fly - rod, I have bagged scores of heavy chub.
A pretty stream that runs partly through a garden, contains great quantities of this fish, which by dibbing with a cockchafer or the black slug - found at the sides of hedges in abundance after a shower - or with very small frogs, chub of 21b. to 3lb.weight may be landed to the heart's content.
The pith from the vertebræ of the ox, with ox or sheep brains thrown in well minced as an attraction, and a paste made with these brains and flour to a good consistence, are favourite baits.
Moreover, a minnow or small gudgeon may be spun with success for chub in all the tails with a likely chance for pike and perhaps a trout.

Great House; French Horn; Sonning Bridge;

Sonning is about two miles from Twyford and three from Reading Stations on the main line.
It is one of the most lovely bits of village landscape on the Thames, plentiful as are such sweet pieces of artistic repose.

The inn is the White Hart, close by the bridge, on the Berks side, making up six beds, and affords most excellent accommodation.
The landlord, Edward Lockley, and his family, are very quiet and obliging people, and fully understand the ways and requirements of the angler.
Their charges are fair, and their viands of a wholesome kind and of good quality.

SONNING LOCK

Sadler, the Sonning lock keeper, lets out punts and boats, and attends anglers.
His charge for punt, man, and bait is 6s., exclusive of provisions.
The angler should provide himself with worms and gentles.
Boats are sixpence per hour, those with scarlet mattresses and lounging backs for ladies are one shilling the first hour and sixpence each the subsequent hours.
James Bromley, to be met with over the bridge, is likewise a good fisherman, and probably more legitimately so than Sadler.

Just below Sonning, on the willow tree side, there are hundreds of bait to be taken, with worm, or gentle, if needed.
Breachs Ait; Dreadnought Reach;
There exists no portion of the Thames that requires and demands more patient consideration from the new conservators than that about Reading; but I have no wish to speak of the deplorable state into which this beautiful part of the river was allowed during late years to fall; let bygones be bygones, and hope for a brighter future.

At the extremity of the willow branches, on the Oxfordshire side, opposite the Dreadnought public house, there is a swim about six feet from the bank, where only roach are caught, but these are of a large size, and of a peculiarly deep golden colour, partaking somewhat of the hue of carp.
Large quantities are taken on flush days - that is, when locks are often opened.
This would be a fine reach if not continually netted, but as this right has hitherto been attached to the lease of the Dreadnought, and respectable tenants have now entered on possession, I have every reason to believe that their promise to me, that the water should be in future exclusively preserved for anglers, will be honourably adhered to, and that the landlady will meet with her reward from the increased patronage of the disciples of Walton.
Bait is scarce about Reading.

K&A Canal; Heron Island; View Island

It must either be taken from London or the castnet used on the King's Meadow side of the Kennett, where the Great Western crosses.
There is a swim for gudgeons opposite Mr.Crawshay's farm.
One of the best swims for chub, & c., is at the tail of "The Duel" ait below Little Caversham Lock, where the mill water joins the main river.
It can only be fished from a punt, and then some knowledge as to the exact pitch is absolutely necessary to insure sport.

CAVERSHAM LOCK

[The enclosed letter details various matters from Caversham to Pangbourne. I have edited it into order going upstream. The letter is shown in italics. The original is here]

The following, full of valuable detail, arose during a correspondence which appeared in The Field Journal upon netting at Caversham:

In common with most of your readers, I have derived a lively satisfaction from the perusal of Greville F.'s letters on the above subject.
That he should be acquainted with the subject in its entirety, and not dependent on others for his information, was hardly to be looked for, and hence arises the necessity of supplementing his remarks when deficient in fullness, and of supplying incidental detail, which must obviously be unknown to the cursory observer.

The lock pools at Caversham are owned by Mr.Champion,

while the waters from there to the Sonning Oaks are the property of Mr.Crawshay on the Oxfordshire side, and from the Kennett's mouth from the same point on the Berkshire side belong to Lord Sidmouth.
Mr.Crawshay's water is never netted, but Lord Sidmouth's has this year been the subject of exceptional bad usage.

So far then as fair netting is concerned, we have little or nothing to complain of; but there is a far heavier grievance which truth compels me to mention.
The town of Reading is infested with fish poachers, and as there is not a semblance of a keeper on the waters, they reign unmolested.
Their mode of action is as follows: The moment a fresh comes in the river, and the water gets discoloured, every fish of prey leaves the streams and seeks the shelter of the sods and flams.
Knowing this, the poachers take a fine meshed eight yard flue, and, attaching a cord to the further extremity, shove it gently into the stream by the aid of a light fir pole, one man on the shore retaining hold of the cord, while another keeps the net at its full tension by means of the pole.
They then swim this net down stream quietly in front of each sod or flam, while a third man thrusts another long pole some three feet in advance of the net, through any place which may seem capable of holding a fish.
Now, as fish invariably lie with their heads up stream, the result is obvious.
The moment a fish feels the jar of the pole, he darts both up and outwards, and, of course, meets the descending flue; if a large one, the net is at once drawn in and the fish removed - a process which scarcely occupies a minute; if a small one, the net is allowed to continue its swim, and so on, toties quoties.
Your readers may form some estimate of the damage done by this small net, when I tell them that I have personally seen five consecutive parties march along the Caversham road, with poles and net fully displayed on their shoulders, on the same evening.
I do not hesitate to affirm that these small nets will in one night of flood time kill ten times the amount of valuable fish that all the legitimate netting in the above district can possibly do in a week.
Still, for all this, there is capital fishing to be had at Caversham.
But there are no local adepts in the art; there is no one who can handle a punt like a man, and the lack of custom is such that ground and other bait are never kept in store.
The place, like a dog, has got a bad reputation, and is contemptuously but unjustly disregarded.
The remedy seems simple and obvious.
Let the Mayor of Reading, whoever he may be, propose to his corporation that they should, as an accessory to their town, rent the fishing of the waters which I have above described, and give instructions to his police to lay an embargo on the nets going over Caversham bridge, or the Kennett's mouth (both of which are within the borough), and the whole poaching system would be nipped in the bud.
The water could, in most cases, be had for the gift; the cost of preservation would be nil; and the benefit to the town would soon be manifest in the increased number of those who like to combine a healthy residence with a chance of recreation, at a moderate expense.

The netting above alluded to has given a bad angling repute to the place; but as it is the determination of the authorities to suppress, by every means in their power, all illegal spoliation, the Caversham waters, from their great natural productiveness, may, if left alone but for a short period, become almost as full of fish as anywhere else in the Thames.

Reading Bridge; Christchurch Bridge; Fry's Island; Piper's Island

There is a notice in the parlour of the White Hart on Caversham Bridge, "To Fishermen" which states that a punt, tackle, baits, & c., are always ready, signed "Peter B. Mattam, Fisherman".
I would say more than one word in praise of this singularly happily situated little inn, the White Hart.
The house is perched between the two bridges, and its rooms command views on either side, exquisitely lovely, and of the purest English character.
Everything within appears clean and neat, and a parlour level with the bridge, in which are some stuffed fish of the landlord's catching (who, as his cheerful little wife has it, "would, I verily believe, live and die on the water a-fishing") is especially desirable, from the landscapes observable from its windows.
I hear that Mrs.Bidett is an excellent cook; her charges are moderate and that both herself and her no less good tempered husband take every pains to please their visitors.
The house makes up three beds.

Caversham Bridge

The reach of water from Caversham Bridge to the Maple-Durham Lock pool, is, in my opinion, far the best of the whole river Thames.

"The Moderation" beer shop.
Before the angler arrives at the bridge from the railway, he might do worse than look up over on the left, whereon is written,

Let moderation be your guide,
Nor ever from its precepts slide.
Take the good things of life and use 'em
With thankful heart, and not abuse 'em.
Some men to vile excesses stray,
Then sign a pledge to mend their way.
Be thou to keeping more inclined
Which humblest sought, the humblest find.
Then water for your cleansing take,
But liquor for your stomach's sake;
And recommend to all the nation
Your temperance and moderation.

From Caversham Pound up to Taylor's Ayot the fishing belongs to Mr.Blackall Simonds on the Oxfordshire side, that on the Berkshire side being vested in the Crown down to the mouth of the Kennett.
Mr.Simonds's water is let to Piper, the boat builder on Caversham Bridge, while the rights of the Crown are leased to a Mr.Clark, who has taken them with a view entirely to angling, and never knowingly permits a net to enter his water.

Reading Slip; St Mary's Island; Scours Slip

In the Norcott Scours, near the Roebuck, a favourite inn with the Reading folk, there are two or three excellent lay-byes for jack and perch, and swims in plenty for roach and gudgeon.
The water is said to be well preserved, and its depth is 7ft.in places, with holes and shallows here and there.

Poplar & Appletree Island

From the bottom of Taylor's Ayot up to the Roebuck Inn, the water becomes considerably shallower, and comprises every variety of character; and it is to this water that Champ and the Pangbourne fishermen are in the habit of bringing their best customers.
The right to net this water, as also to the eel fishery below, is in Mr.Braham (the son of the great tenor), who occasionally exercises it, but by no means so as to be detrimental to the fishing, as the catches made by the Messrs.J., of Reading, when they and Champ fish these waters together, would fully testify.

Roebuck Inn

From the tail of the eyot opposite the Roebuck Inn to the mouth of the pool below Mapledurham Lock, is first class water for large trout, jack, chub, and perch; but the right of netting it is leased by Mr.Blunt to the Mapledurham lockkeeper Shepheard, and is exercised by him very freely.
This does not, however, stop its being good angling water, for the stream being very rapid, and running over gravel, with occasional aids, causes the fish from the lower deep to constantly stive up, while it renders at the same time the process of netting anything but easy.

Purley

Mapledurham House; Mapledurham Mill; Mapledurham Church

The Mapledurham Lock pool, which forms no part of a back or mill stream, and over which, previous to the canalisation by means of locks, the Queen's highway must necessarily have run, is now claimed exclusively by Michael Blunt, Esq., of Mapledurham House, as his own private fishery.
This claim on the part of the public, I most utterly and entirely deny;
but, should a stranger row his boat within the charmed precinct, and attempt to fish, Shepheard, the lockman, will at once put off from the Round House, and continue to row and splash about him. In this Shepheard only does what he is paid to do; but how, for this last twenty years, he has escaped with a whole skin and a dry shirt, is a mystery beyond the powers of my solution.

MAPLEDURHAM LOCK

From Maple-Durham to the farm at Hardwick House is capital open spinning water; gudgeons and roach abound, and perch are to be picked up.

Then, from Maple-Durham to Pangbourne, the whole length and breadth of the river is eminent for large jack, perch, and ponderous roach - more particularly for the latter when the water is a little coloured.
The perch feed here until February.

[Otter] Island; Hardwick House

Whitchurch Bridge

WHITCHURCH LOCK & Pangbourne Village

Pangbourne is another of those pearls of English landscape which our river threads; no sweeter spot is within many miles.
The Thames seems especially fond of disporting itself here, and loth indeed to leave; it loiters in the great depths of the pools, creeps slyly under the banks, frolics as a kitten after its tail in the eddies, and then dashes hurriedly off beneath the far stretching pretty wooden bridge, as if to make up for time truantly lost.

John Champ is my man at Pangbourne.
His name is above that cottage window where all within bespeaks wifely care and cleanliness.
Champ, besides being a fisherman, lets a part of his rustic dwelling to anglers.
There are two beds and a sitting room, for which the charge is 25s.6d. a week, or 17s. or 18s. for one bed and sitting room, according to the attendance and etceteras required.
But these snug and cozy quarters are generally occupied.

There is a second which has bedrooms to let, kept by one Norris, from the threshold of which fish may be likewise seen rising.

The weir pool flows up to the campshed, at the foot of the gardens of these cottages, and there is ample space to sit and fish in 10ft.to 12ft.water, for at least half-a-dozen anglers, and yet be within rod touch of your door.
The deepest part of the pool is 25ft.I have seen the barbel rolling over each other in apparently the most uncomfortable disorder, and those that have slept close to the water tell me that during a warm night there is a constant succession of heavy splashes heard distinctly above the roar of the fall.
As many as 150 trout have been taken out of this pool in a season, and should the visitor doubt that there are not numbers remaining, Champ will put him on the middle lock, and there he may sit and watch the rascals dashing about amongst the minute fry of the roach, and helping themselves in the most gluttonous style to this whitebait.
Not a minute, indeed, elapses without one, and sometimes four or five at a time, rushing into the shoals of tiny fish with gaping jaws, and bolting the helpless little creatures.
But you may spin a minnow upon these occasions amongst the trout in vain, and the fry they love so well, is too tender and delicate for the hook.

Swan Inn Pangbourne

The Swan, close to the weirs, is a capital house, and Mrs.Mary Ann Ashley, its hostess, will make you right welcome and comfortable if you do not extend your orders beyond bread, cheese, and butter, the best of beer, and a glass of grog.
There are no dinners to be had at the Swan, nor does it pluck its feathers for strange bedfellows.

If these things are needed, there are two other houses in Pangbourne, of which I have never heard a complaint; but I prefer crossing the bridge into Whitchurch, and there the son and daughter of Mrs.Ashley possess a remarkably clean hostelrie, the Bridge House, where spotless dimity and lavender sheets have afforded me many a night of enviable repose, after an indulgence in good and moderate fare.

The Pang stream, which is full of trout, more particularly near Tidmarsh, enters at Pangbourne; but it is private property, and held by --- Breadon, Esq.

Pangbourne Bridge has the extraordinary notice thereon that a fine of £5 will be inflicted upon anyone angling therefrom!

Pangbourne has its claims upon the antiquarian, being mentioned in the Domesday Book as then held by Miles Crispin, of William the Conqueror.
Its manor and church were afterwards granted to the Abbey of Reading, as appears from the confirmation of the charter of Henry II., its founder, by Hubert, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Robert, Bishop of Sarum.
It afterwards formed a part of the great possessions of Edward, Duke of Somerset, who was executed in the last year of Edward VI.; and after various successive grants, & c., this manor and estate were finally conveyed, in the year 1671, to John Breadon, Esq., whose descendant is the present possessor of them.

The village of Whitchurch on the opposite bank has no other distinction than that of having been the residence of the celebrated grammarian and mathematician, Doctor Wallis, one of the professors of Gresham College, and to whose work on the English language all subsequent writers on that interesting and important subject, either have, or ought to have, acknowledged their obligations.

Hartswood Reach; Basildon Ferry Site

[from the letter started at Caversham] Again, at Hampton Ferry shoals of perch may be seen on the rove.
Above the ferry the water gets shallower, and is good for gudgeon and trout.

Gatehampton Railway Bridge; Goring Gap Boat Club

Just through the railway bridge near Basildon a grotto formerly stood, but I could find little or no trace of it, although the house close upon its site is called by that name.
The disposal of shells in grottoes was, at one time, a fashion if not a rage, and there are, or were until lately, fine examples of these objects in the grounds of Stourhead, Oaklands, Pain's Hill, and Park Place, but the shell room thus arranged for ornament, whether above or below the surface of the earth, has long ceased to be classed amongst subjects entitled to the distinction of pure taste.
At one time the grotto engaged the attention of many of our poets and fugitive verse writers, doubtless from the associations of coolness and seclusion which these retreats in ornamental grounds afforded to the studious and contemplative, as well as for other reasons equally endearing to the romantic mind.


Goring Gap
Goring Bridge

The bridge was built in lieu of a ferry, and the right of carriage across the Thames extends up and down for some distance.
A good story is told of the tollgate keeper, a woman of great nerve and determination, whose house is placed on the bridge, halfway from either end.
Some bathers were observed by her from her elevated perch, crossing and recrossing the stream, and carefully counting the number of times they did this, she dropped quietly round upon them as they were going to renew their clothes, and demanded as many pence as they had made aquatic excursions to and fro, between the counties of Oxon and Berks.
Nor would she allow the nude trespassers upon her rights the use of their habiliments until they had performed another dive - this time into the pockets of their small clothes to ransom themselves from so novel a bondage.
The scene would make a fine subject for an historical painter.
I fancy I must induce young Tolladay to undertake it.
It is but fair to state that the good woman denies this soft impeachment of female bravery.

GORING LOCK
Swan Inn Streatley

Goring and Streatley are two exquisite villages, parted only by a picturesque bridge.
The greater portion of the water between Pangbourne and Wallingford road is under the surveillance of the keepers of the Streatley, Goring, Basildon, and Stoke Angling Association, of which Cornelius Saunders, the proprietor of the Swan Inn at Streatley - the head - quarters of the club - and William Cox, of Moulesford, are water bailiffs; John Rush, jun., of Streatley the assistant bailiff; and Mr.Thomas Keating, the honorary secretary.

Streatley may be fitly termed the artist angler's home, so full is it and its surroundings of all which constitute the picturesque.
The Swan Inn, upon the margin of the Thames, is the beau ideal of a rustic fishing public house, in which the apparent litter to some eyes, of boats, bucks, bottles and all sorts of oddments, would appear untidy, but to the lover of the carelessly graphic it conveys an indescribable charm.
The thatched summer house, quaint in shape and character, its clumsy windows once in some domestic walls; tipsy weather-cock and benten vane; the church tower peeping over the inn as if to reprove an excess of ale; the flag staff upon the much worn lawn; its artistic landing stage and camp - shed and straw out - houses, fences and piggeries, all combine to afford in a small space the many coveted attributes which should accompany trellis panes, old punts, rushes, withes, and the silent stream.
Add to these a background of high hills and hanging woods, and the easel will scarcely cry for mills, locks, buck weirs, long stretching bridges, and charming groups of waggons and rustic figures to make up many most delightful tableaux of landscape art.
They are, however, all here.
The Swan Inn is generally fully occupied.
No less than seven anglers sought a bed there the first day I was down, and had to look elsewhere.

But the angler need not go far or fare worse.
The Bull Inn appropriately protects the inland and agricultural end of the "street" as does the Swan the river and piscatorial entrance.
The Bull Inn is approached by a gradual ascent of some third of a mile, and is well situated above the mists of the Thames.
Here Mrs.Gardener will greet the weary, and, in the words of a lady who has resided there for some while during the summer: "you will find her dairy the pink of cleanliness, her cream beautiful, and her butter lovely, as she keeps cows in rich and luxuriant meadows."
This description is, however, perhaps eclipsed by an angler's recommendation:
"You only tell Mrs.Gardener to send a hot lunch or dinner down to the punt, that's all! kidney pudding, roast duck, cherry tart, everything reeking hot too, with the gravy kept deliciously warm in a jug, surrounded with napkins.
Oh it's very jolly!"
Then there are invalids who speak with grateful feelings of the rum-and-milk they have imbibed, and, indeed, praises fall from all I have met who have known the house.
To Mrs.Gardener's, therefore, I went, and found her a very nice tight little body, extremely obliging without any fussiness.
She makes up seven beds, and if they are all like the one I had, I do not wonder at the satisfaction the Bull Inn has invariably given.
The rod and line suspending hooks upon both sides of the ceiling beam in the parlour, show that the house sets itself out for the gentle craft; and there are quoit grounds and other games for those who care for them.
The charges were moderate, and the fare was excellent.

The chalk downs, sprinkled with yews and junipers, rise abruptly at the back on the south.
From Green Hill there is an exquisite panorama.
Unwell Wood, on a spur of the hills, is celebrated for its orchises, as the down is for its excellent coursing matches.
In these woods, also, is found the Convallaria multiflora, or Solomon's seal, growing wild.
It may not be generally known, that the root of this plant, scraped and placed between two pieces of linen, will, if applied at once, stop discoloration generally consequent upon a blow on the eye.

Bait, if gudgeon of any size should be required, should be taken from London.
I saw two or three heavy chub, say 3lb. to 3½lb., off Goring Bridge, and some handsome ones were taken with the fly during my stay.

The mills at Streatley are in the possession of Mr.J.C.Strange, a most obliging and worthy fellow, who sets an excellent example of courtesy to his men, which they follow in a manner most praiseworthy.


Streatley was once a convent of the Dominican Order in this village.
It is situated on the Roman road called Ickleton Street, or Ickleton Way, which, coming from Bedfordshire, crosses the Thames by a ford.
Another ancient road, called the Ridge Way, supposed to be Roman, enters the county from Wiltshire and passes near Uffington, Wantage, East Hendred, Upton, and Blewberry, to Streatley.

[In] Goring, about 100yds. up the village is the "Miller of Mansfield" which has beds.

A melancholy accident occurred in 1674, when sixty persons were drowned in the lock in returning from Goring Feast.
The accident is described in a rare tract called "Sad and Deplorable News from Oxfordsheir and Barksheir".

It was but the other day, that old John Rush, toddling by the help of a stick around and about his favourite haunts, to which he had been attached as a fisherman nearly seventy years, thus bespake him,
"Lawk, sir! it'll never be the same river again!
The drainage of the land up headway, the tapping of the stream for companies like, and then, no navigation! It can't be, never.
Why, I used to be ashamed of the quantity the gentlemen used to catch of roach then, all the summer round, and now we has to wait for them coming on the feed ever so late, and when they does we get one where we used to get ten.
Pike, sir? why fourteen or sixteen a day for one rod was thought nothing of.
And all under 2lb.chucked in.
In old times we would have a freshet or a flood, and about four days arter a letter already written would go up to a gent and down he would come, perhaps with a friend or two, and it's oudacious the lots we used to take of almost all sorts of fish; look at that ere river now!
I am fairly took back with it, not a wag of water - not a ripple in the air - it's got no life in it.
Howsomever, it's full of fish, sir, full as it can be - too many indeed.

The 'sociation water begins, sir, about a mile down below this here bridge (Streatley) and the place is called Grote Hole.
It is 5ft.6in.deep for half a mile, then shallow over Hollies where there is sights of jack, for about 400yds., in 4ft.of water.
But the weeds are dreadful of late years, quite cantankerous like, it's the sewage and no navigation.
Burgess Hole, arter the name of the parson who lived opposite there, has a shallow at the head and tail of it which is good for trout, it is about a quarter of a mile down.
The bottom may be a little slivery here and there, but otherwise good and gravelly.
Then from Hollies to Streatley, plenty of jack, perch, and roach, and the water 5ft.on the average in the Mill Pool, Buck Pool, and Lock Pool, all private property, belonging to the 'sociation.
There is plenty of trout.
Most of the farmers have come to an arrangement only to allow the members to fish from the banks - of course cannot stop punts - except on private waters.
The club was founded, sir, in 1850, and we have had some of the best anglers in England belonging to it.
I do think others who fishes it ought to send a donation or some'at, as they has all the benefit of its being watched both day and night.

The lock here, sir, is in good order, but the Pound Lock is vastly bad, but this was built afore my recollection.
That's Mr.Arnold's the magistrate's house you see on the Bucks side.

Above the bridge, exactly opposite the Swan, called Saunders's Head, is 6ft.of water, and good for all sorts of fish.

The gudgeons, sir, are queer creatures, they be; last year they was large, and this year they be small, and next year you see, sir, perhaps I sharnt be here (poor old Rush, he was indeed prophetic) - they'll be large again; every other year it is so.
I have noticed it for more than twenty years.
We haven't many barbel just about here.
Perch are in scores.
The largest pike last year was only 14lb.- no, it's not like it used to was!
Opposite the Swan is an ait, and behind this is the Lock Pool, and from this to Cleve is 9ft.or 10ft.of water, all excellent the whole quarter of a mile.

CLEEVE LOCK

The Lockhouse at Cleve makes up a bed and sitting room, and the dame is cleanly, civil, and obliging.

[John Rush continues] There is a back or rather mill stream at Cleve, but it is much netted by John Pitman, the farmer and proprietor, who kills the jack and other coarse fish, and preserves the trout.
The water that supplies this mill falls into the head some two hundred yards above.

From Cleve to [Moulsford] (Wallingford Road) the water is generally wide and very deep.
At Dunsford noted pitches from the bank for carp, perch, and barbel, the latter being often taken of 13lb.and 14lb.weight.
What I know and tell you, sir, mind, I help to catch.
The perch I have taken run from 1lb.to 3lb.
Here is a back water of about two acres, most famous for jack.
No boats can get in, 'cept by members; a gate's slap across the entance with a lock on it.
No part of it can be got at by bank.
The American weed has a'most spoilt this place.

Leatherne Bottel

The Leather Bottle or Spring House Ferry is just above Mr.Weeden's and under the chalk cliff at Moulsford, on the Bucks side.

Beetle & Wedge

The Beetle and Wedge at Moulsford, kept by Donald Clarke.
The accommodation is good, but I can only speak as far as bread and cheese, butter and ale are concerned.
Many picnic parties borrow a room here, and bread, cheese, butter, plates, knives and forks, etc, are provided at the moderate charge of 6d. a head.
The house is cleanly, the landlord a bit of a character, and all are civil, while the surroundings are picturesque.

The Railway Inn at [Moulsford] (the Wallingford Road) is the best hostlery for the angler in the district of [Old] Wallingford Lock.

South Stoke Slipway; Moulsford Boatyard & Slip

Moulsford Railway Bridge

[John Rush continues] From Dunsford to [Moulsford Railway] bridge it is from 8ft.to 10ft.of water, first - rate for jack, perch, and roach.
No gudgeons up there except a little place by the railway arch.
The average size of roach is 1lb., cannot get one 2lb.
Mr.Broadway, of Pangbourne, has offered a sovereign for one at 2lb., and we often thinks we've got it, but it won't turn the scale.
The way for roach is to bait a quiet eddy with lobs after a flood.
Just through the railway bridge amongst the aits there is good fishing.

The group of aits just above the railway bridge gives harbour to many jack, and is a very pretty spot; perch are likewise seen of goodly size in the holes.
At the spur of the upper island, on the right, there is a swim for roach, chub, and gudgeons.
In this reach, to the lock, the water is at times very low, but it does not follow that there should not be fish in it, as they probably work up from the deeps below Moulsford, & c.
It bears, however, the worst of angling reputations.
There were few or no fish to be observed, and little evidence of their existence; but I was assured when I arrived at Wallingford, by credible persons, that two anglers the week before - fishing opposite Dr. Arnold's, not far from Little Stoke Ferry, with John Whiteman, the puntsman at the lock - caught twenty three dozen, twenty one dozen, and seventeen dozen of roach in three consecutive days, the place having been previously well baited.
The fish weighed from ¾lb.to 1lb.each; yet of this I ought to have heard from Whiteman himself, as I ginger beered at his cottage and inquired about the fishing, and his reply, and that of his son was, "Only a few jacks, a few roaches, a few perches, a few chubses, and such like.
It may have been that, as it was feeding time with the family, and all their mouths were full of bacon and greens, the three days take was of too large a character to get a place among the jaws full of edibles.

Papist Way Slip; Mongewell

CHALMORE (OLD WALLINGFORD LOCK) now removed

John Whiteman nets and trimmers at Wallingford Lock [Chalmore Lock].
What do they do with the fish? Why, sir, raffles 'em at the beerhouses, and sometimes when they are full of spawn, too.
We has no swans, they couldn't live here."

The lock here is not used, and the up and down water is flush.

From this to Wallingford Bridge there is an apparently good run for pike, and plenty of cover, with rush beds and aits, but it is horribly, disgustingly foul.
From the pound which runs parallel with the river and carries deep water, perhaps a few perch and roach may be taken.
I did not observe the large net which generally flaunts here.

Winterbrook Bridge

Wallingford Bridge

Padsey Brook, upon which there are two or three mills, but almost dry in droughty summers, falls into the Thames at Wallingford.

Wallingford is of great antiquity.
Lysons and other antiquarians suppose that there was a town here in the time of the Romans, the name of which is lost; and they ascribe the origin of the present name either to an ancient British word guallen or the Latin vallum, each signifying a fortified position and the ford over the river; thus making Guallen Ford or Vallum Ford.
The town was destroyed by the Danes in 1006, but it appears to have been rebuilt in 1013.
Leland, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, describes it as sore yn ruine.
Camden, who wrote somewhat later, says that "Its size and magnificence used to amaze me when I came hither from Oxford."
In 1652 orders were issued for the demolition of the castle, the inhabitants of the county having also petitioned for this object.
Think of the inhabitants of the county of Berks petitioning in 1867 for the demolition of Windsor Castle!
It appears from a document quoted by Lysons in the "History of Berkshire"> that in the thirteenth century a native of Wallingford, guilty of any offence which rendered him liable to capital punishment, might have the option, either of having his eyes put out, or being otherwise mutilated in his person, instead of being put to death.
The present bridge at Wallingford was built in 1809.
The former bridge was considered the oldest on the Thames, and consisted of nineteen arches and four drawbridges, the whole 300yds. in length; but the structure was so much injured by a great flood that it was obliged to be taken down.
Wallingford contains three churches: St.Mary's, a handsome edifice with an embattled tower and pinnacles, on the top of which is an armed knight on horseback, said to represent King Stephen; St.Leonards, a very ancient edifice; and St.Peter's.
The Lamb is the best inn here.
The landlord (Taplin) will be recognised as an accomplished whip, having driven in the "good old times".
The landlady follows suit, and if not so great in the whip, is well up in caps of ye period of George I., ample and matronly.
The cooking is special, the eye of the hostess being seldom off the grate; but as for the meat teas - they are an institution!
One wrinkle is all that is requisite - leave everything to the landlady, and you will find that she has anticipated your wishes.
There ought to be something good at Wallingford for the fishing is anything but recommendable.
Should Whiteman be engaged, Toby Gunston, fisherman and stonemason, would prove an apt puntsman.
He is to be heard of at the Town Arms, close to the bridge, on the Wallingford side.
The Town Arms is as clean as careful housekeeping can make it, with plenty of cheap and good accommodation for anglers.
I was pleased to find Seymour, who all anglers will recall as the obliging landlord of the George, at Pangbourne, installed here.

Boathouse Wallingford

From hence to Bensington [Benson Lock], the river does not appear to improve one jot, and it fully bears out the unfavourable description given of it by Francis Francis, in his "Angler's Register".

BENSON LOCK

Benson Waterfront Slipway Cafe; Rush Court Landing

Having passed Benson Lock end and its public, there was little to observe

Shillingford Bridge; Shillingford Hotel

until I reached Shillingford Bridge, where we pulled up at the Swan Inn, on the Berks side, and read a half obliterated notice on its walls, that the 'water here is preserved'.
This water, I am told, has not been netted for years.

Shillingford

There is one place - the Barbel Hole - just beyond the second bend above Shillingford village, which is about 25ft.in depth.
The bends are very fine and bold the whole way up, with here and there a "flam" as the coverts for pike are termed in this country; banks steep, with water close up The preserved water extends a mile above and a mile below Shillingford Bridge.
In a hole just above the ferry, on the right hand side, close to the first gate, in an eddy of 13ft of water, we could see some dozens of perch of from ½lb. to 1lb. in weight.
Very deep bank fishing now under hand for a long way.
After passing a clump of four elm trees, "so close together and yet so lonely" and a white gate on the high road, there is a ditch, and opposite this an excellent gudgeon swim.
This swim can be reached from the meadow.
Then, opposite the first gate, on the towpath, on Hog Common is a famous hole for perch; here I found Tom Wells, of Brightwell, Bucks, with a little boy, having incredible sport.
He ground baits with the vegetable contents of a slaughtered bullock, mixed with meal, bran, clay, & c., and worms punctiliously scoured for a month or so, and fishes with a small bulleted float with the line full a yard upon the bottom.

R.Thame

We now pass the entrance to the Thame, opposite Wittenham Wood, which river runs up on the right to Dorchester, and appears a lovely piece of water for jack and chub.
Carp and tench are plentiful here.
Gudgeon swims under pollards to the left for more than a quarter of a mile, and then after a long reach of heavy, piscatorially rich water, a sharp angle to the right carries us under the tower of the church and orchards of Little Wittenham.

Wittenham Clumps
DAYS LOCK

This is termed Day's Lock.
It has two weirs and pools of a very attractive character, but their fame for fish is not very great, excepting for perch, which are taken at times in numbers both above and below.
There is likewise a back water which places the very pretty lock house and its grounds on an island.
The scenery around is exquisite in the extreme, and being so far out of the reach of rail or coach, is as sequestered as a hermit angler could wish.

Burcot
Clifton Hampden; Clifton Hampden Church
Clifton Hampden Bridge

Near the new bridge built by the Rev.Mr.Gibbs, and which superseded the ferry, is a public house, the "Three Horse Shoes" the landlord of which would ... undertake an especial commission in the same way if a letter was previously sent to him.
This house is respectable, and is frequented by many of the best anglers from Oxford.

Barley Mow Inn
Long Wittenham

Long Wittenham, from several peculiarities of interest, including the angling attractions of "Clifton Pool" demands especial mention, it possessing a weir of a goodly depth of water, sharp bends and deep elbows, and a swift stream here and there.
It is likewise picturesque in its character, and not being accessible to the general traffic, or even to a private boat without some difficulty, superadds to the angler, or the artist, the charm of privacy and exclusiveness.
The Rev.J.C.Clutterbuck, one of the new conservators who takes a sincere and active interest in the welfare of the Thames, resides at Long Wittenham.
I went ashore to look at the accommodation afforded by the very cleanly Vine Cottage Inn, where the angler will find excellent although modest fare.
I am told that Mr.Hayward, the farmer, is the proprietor of the water.
It certainly looks most admirably adapted for the breeding of fish, and I should think that some portions of it would be inaccessible to almost any attempt of the poacher.
It is noted for its large barbel and heavy perch.
The netting here is but slight, if any.
A person of the name of Hayward will willingly attend upon an angler or two.
He is a good puntsman, knows the best pitches, and may be depended upon to bait a hole or so for a night or more previous to angling.
He is generally to be found at one of Tames', the blacksmith's, shops.

CLIFTON LOCK

There is a very fine piece of the old Thames between Clifton Lock and Appleford railway bridge.

Appleford Railway Bridge
Sutton Courtenay
Sutton Bridge

From Sutton Bridge, Culham Cut (three quarters of a mile long) and Culham Lock, right away to Abingdon Bridge, more particularly in the Wilsom Reach, there is a good deal of deep water, the. characteristics of which are those previously attached to Henley.

CULHAM LOCK

Culham station (Abingdon Branch) is above Abingdon, although the village of Culham, in relation to the river, is below that town.

Just below Culham Lock is one of the deepest holes in the Thames.
There is said to be, or was said to be some years since, a pike of fabulous proportions in this "bottomless pool".
Boats are to be let.
Near Culham Lock there is a private piece of water the ownership of which is attributed to Captain Peachell.

At Culham Lock a pretty little stream enters, which runs - or, rather, does so when water is plentiful - almost parallel with the towpath, and shows some likely holes for pike and chub.
There are three of these streams fed, when the river is high, by tumbling bays crossing the horseroad.
They should all be industriously searched, if approachable, in the winter.
After the last of these bye streams is passed, a meadow affords, for about 100yds. on the right, a concave bend of magnificent swims of considerable depth, a clear bottom, and in which, if the observer be quiet, perch, roach, and very large chub may be seen.
These swims would be under the tip of even a 12ft. rod from the bank.
They are certainly the finest localities for roach fishing, if appearances may be relied upon, which I have yet examined.
Opposite, on the left bank of the Thames, a ditch of 8ft. and 10ft. deep runs for a long distance, and when free from weeds cannot fail to arrest the troller's attention.
Again on the left, under the alder bushes and near the poplars this side the horse ferry, are three noted holes for monster chub.
The fish were again swarming, and although the heat was intense, as that which very nearly fried the brains of Sancho Panza, the perch, jack, and chub, were dashing amongst the devoted fry in hot pursuit.
Just above this is a nice scour for dace, where an angler was picking them out with a black gnat, armed with a gentle, at every four or five throws in an exceedingly skilful and elegant manner.
I went ashore at this spot to look at the head of one of the three streams before alluded to, and only again recur to the subject to give the pedestrian warning against trusting to the footbridges or their rails, as they are in the most scandalous stage of rottenness.
One of them very nearly cost me a ducking, and is certainly a worthy assistant to cross a tumbling bay.
The surroundings of the last stream head are, however, in excellent condition; the entrance to it is very pikey, but the dozens of hoop nets hanging to dry in the withes is a caution.

Culham Cut Footbridge; Culham Reach

The scenery on both sides continues flat, but all the way up to Newnham Railway Bridge the roots of the bushes which margin the meadows and river's edge exhibit extraordinary depths of water under banks much washed away.
The stunted trees, moreover, offer capital hiding quarters for the fisher, who, with a minnow or lob worm would doubtless meet with many an electric elbow shock.

Old Culham Bridge

A tolerably extensive wharf at the extremity of the town communicates with the Thames, and the New Cut, which, forming a small curve, joins the main river a little below Culham Bridge.

Andersey Island Abingdon Slip

A back water on the left feeds the Abbey Mill stream, belonging to Mr. T. Sharps, passing under one of the Abingdon stone bridges, and joins the main river above, appears full of fish of most sorts.

The Ock stream falls into the Thames a little below Abingdon.
It rises near Faringdon, touches Hatford, Stanford-in-the-Vale, Charney Basset, Lyford, Garford, and Noah's Ark.
A branch comes from Wantage and Vale of White Horse.
It possesses pike of a large size, perch, gudgeon, roach, dace, chub, and cray fish, and it ought to boast of fine trout, and would, if properly looked after.

Nags Head Island Abingdon

Abingdon is situated on the Berkshire side of the Thames.
It can boast a very remote antiquity.
Camden conjectures that synods were held here as early as the year 742; and an anonymous writer observes, "that it was in ancient times a famous city, goodly to behold, full of riches, encompassed with very fruitful fields, green meadows, spacious pastures and flocks of cattle abounding with milk.
Here the king kept his court, and hither the people resorted while consultations were depending about the greatest and most weighty affairs in the kingdom.
Ciss, a king of the West Saxons, built a spacious abbey here about the year 675, when the place assumed the name of Abandun, or Abbey's Town.
This religious house, however, was soon destroyed by the Danes; but by the liberality of King Edgar, and the activity of the Norman abbots, it recovered its magnificence, and rivalled in wealth and grandeur the first abbeys in the kingdom.

William the Conqueror resided here for some time, and in this abbey his son Henry received his education.
Ambrose Kates, fisherman and fiddler, claims to be the oldest puntsman at Abingdon and its neighbourhood, and lives in West street, Helen street.
Kates always locks up his punts, because the boys terrify 'em so.
He says, likewise, that for 7s. a day he will find punt, ground bait, worms, boiled wheat and malt, wherewith to take the largest roach, but will "not answer for gentles, as they are scarce at times, and he must have something to eat and drink extra".
There are two other fishermen of experience, one James Short, commonly known as "Splash" and Sam Taylor.

There is a handsome town hall and two parish churches: one of them possesses a lofty spire, which is a kind of landmark to a very extended distance of circumjacent country.

Abingdon Bridge

The abbey was the principal support of the town till the reign of Henry V., by whom a bridge was constructed over the Thames at Culham, and another at Burford, across the river Ouse.
From that time Abingdon acquired so much additional traffic as to rank among the first towns in the county.
The building of these bridges, in 1416, was evidently under the immediate order of the king, as appears from the following Latin distich, formerly inscribed on a window in the Church of St.Helen, within the place:

Henricus Quintus, quarto fundaverat anno,
Rex, pontem Burford super undas atque Culhamford.

The main river exhibits immense shoals of roach, far too many indeed for the welfare of so thick a community, and were half of them taken, with a rod and line of course, I should soon be able to give a better account of their weight, which seldom reaches more than a pound The perch are prolific, running from 1lb. to 14lb.
Chub and pike plentiful, and trout scarce, but Kates has known trout taken in hoop nets at night of enormous weight.
There are two small drains from the town, where vast numbers of coarse fish may be seen, and where it is not unusual to take a bushel, at night, by a single throw of the cast net.

There is now a railway station at Abingdon.
The best resort for fishermen is at the Anchor (Phipps's), where beds may be had, but there are many good commercial inns close by in the town.
The scours for dace are many, and that fish, here, is of a handsome shape and weight.
The bottom is marly above, and the roach are countless everywhere on shallows, amongst weeds, and in holes.
Off a summer house surmounting a crumbling stone wall, the movements of the boat disturbed a shoal which positively tired the eye, being 6ft. deep and were some minutes in passing.
Saw several small jack and perch on the feed.
There is a splendid scour just above an al fresco bathing place by the bank used by the Abingdon boys, which reaches up to Blake's Pool, with well washed sandy bottom, covered with gudgeons, but not of a large size.
The pool is about 20ft. deep, with a pretty "The grounds are private", and belong to Squire Phillips, at Culham.

Abbey Meadow Island
ABINGDON LOCK

At Abingdon Lock, or Blake's Pool, as some term it, there is excellent fly fishing for chub, and bottom fishing for barbel.
In fact, the latter fish abounds in this district, and of a great size.
The roach appear firm in scale when in season, and do not show that limpness I have before remarked upon elsewhere.
An angler told me he had seen several pike taken out of this water of 18lb.
, and that pike of from 4lb. to 5lb. are legion about here.
Indeed, the bank fishing appears to be remarkably good at Abingdon.

Swift Ditch Entrance

A small lagoon, just before the railway bridge on our right, is a well known cover for pike.

Nuneham Railway Bridge

Passing beneath the railway bridge the hanging woods of Newnham Park (Mr. Harcourt's) burst most unexpectedly upon the delighted vision.

Lock Wood Island

The water was alive with fish, and chub were eagerly darting about after the insects falling from the fine oaks which extend "their sheltering canopy of pendent boughs" some distance over the stream.
We disturbed moorhens at every stroke of the oar; a good evidence of the general seclusion and repose of this exquisitely enchanting stretch of water.
Here is Newnham Bridge, the cottages and grounds; to the latter admission is granted to picnicians on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Nuneham Park

Newnham is undoubtedly the finest gem in the diadem of

Thames, the most lov'd of all the ocean's sons

and needs little excuse for dwelling, for a while, upon our oars to gather a scrap or two from our own notes and the admiring remarks of others.

The park is a noble domain, containing twelve hundred acres, and is finely varied with wood and forest scenery.
The home park is broken into waving lawns, entwined by single rows of trees, and occasional groups of them of various size and figure.
Thick woods form the general boundary, and where they offer an opening, prospects appear which have the contrasted charms of distance, grandeur, and beauty.
On the eastern side the view, is broken into two by the hills of Wittenham, at the distance of about five miles, to the right of which the country opens to the extreme parts of Berkshire, which border on Hampshire.
On the left there is a broad expanse of cultivated country, terminated by the hills that form the hithermost boundary of the county of Buckingham.
To the south the horizon is varied by the long range of hills, which rise above the vale of the White Horse.
To the west the park falls in thick wood or open groves towards the Thames; and, on the north, it is bounded by the village of Newnham Courtney.

The garden may be considered the pride of Newnham.
It contains forty acres; its command of country is very comprehensive, and the inlets of park scenery give an artificial extent to its beauties.
The foreground from the house is a small lawn, or rather large knoll of a triangular form, which, however, softens off into the glades on either side, so as to be totally devoid of formality.
To the right it sinks to rise again, after an easy bend, to another knoll of corresponding acclivity, but different form, and crowned with thicker shade.
It falls more gently to the left, and continues in a succession of various undulating surface, to the rising woodlands of the park.
From the centre of this spot, a very extensive and delightful prospect presents itself which is broken into two separate pictures by a group of fine elms on the projecting point of the lawn.
On the right, the eye forced onwards by a grove to the north, glances over a charming glade, and is first caught by a long reach of the Thames, somewhat interrupted by trees, which flows at the distance of about a quarter of a mile through the meadows in the bottom.
It then passes over several gleamy snatches of the river as it meanders on in various directions towards Oxford, whose towers, domes, and spires, compose a very superb object.
The more elevated part of Blenheim is seen beyond it, and the eye, returning over the dark mass of the distant woods in Berkshire, and the fertile intervening country, completes its view of the right - hand picture.
Its companion on the left comprehends a larger foreground, from whence the view, after passing a broad, indented sweep of lawn, slightly broken by a clump of birches, rises to the verdant prominence that supports the venerable pile of Carfax, with the majestic oaks in which it is embosomed, and then stretches on to the park wood, beneath whose impending shade the Thames takes its course towards Abingdon, and after one lingering meander is seen no more.

The nearer part of the wood bounds one side of the prospect; but the extreme line of it, inclining gradually to the Thames, lets in the blue hills of Berkshire, which, ranging on to join those of Wiltshire, above the White Horse Vale, are at length lost in the azure of a very distant horizon.
Faringdon Hill, with the tuft of trees that crowns it, is distinctly seen at the distance of eighteen miles, and the enraptured gaze returning over the rich intermediate level, is relieved from its luxuriant sameness by the airy spire of Abingdon.
Such are the two distinct pictures which are divided by the central group of elms, in the front of which they are both united.
The greater prominence of this spot not only embraces more of the northern meadows, glades, and woods of Newnham, but brings a variety of new objects into the view.

The village of Heddington, situate on a range of high ground, at the distance of five miles, forms a pleasing boundary to the north which falls gradually down to Oxford.
Here, also, Ifley Church Tower, on its high bank of the river, more sensibly unites with the towers of the city, and thus, by lengthening its form, aggrandises its character.
The objects of the prospects are here more in determined contrast; the variety is increased, and the Thames is seen in all the molten silver-like beauty with which it flows from Oxford, in its fine long reaches as it passes before these grounds, and in the grand and noble sweep beneath the park wood, when it takes its leave of them.

But it is quite impossible to give anything like a just description of the many charming views with which the visitor to Newnham finds himself surrounded.
From a verdant prominence where an urn is erected to the memory of William Whitehead, Poet Laureat, the prospect, screened by the plantation immediately to the right, likewise pushes on through a broad savanna to Oxford.

Before it is Radley, once the seat of Admiral Bowyer, on the Berkshire side of the river, rising from its groves, with the woods beyond it, and the intervening valley watered by the Thames.

Towards Abingdon, the spire of whose church is alone visible, the prospect is broken by a foreground of scattered trees, hanging down the lawn.

To the left the ground falls abruptly into a glen in the park, but immediately rises into an irregular extensive brow, covered with oaks; which are so thick as to form a waving mass of foliage, in the distant view of them, and yet so distinct as, on a near approach, to disclose the verdure which they shade, and the individual beauty they possess.

"The character of the spot" says a graphic writer, "around Whitehead's urn, considered in an insulated state, is pensive elegance; while its sober charms are elevated by the grand expanse of prospect before it, the solemn, sylvan beauty of the grove beside it, and the venerable form of Carfax, on a projecting swell above it."

This grove is beyond the boundary of the garden, and it is of too much importance in the general scenery not to attempt to give some account of the interesting circumstances connected with it.

Grandeur belongs to a wood, beauty is the characteristic of a grove, and this spot possesses both.
It contains a large assemblage of the finest oaks, covering a deep, indented, and extensive brow, sinking into glens, or rising into knolls, in which every individual tree retains much of its own peculiar beauty, and transfers whatever it loses from itself, to the superior character of the whole.

Old Carfax, on a bold prominence, at the extent of it, aids the awful character of the place, and appears to surpass in age the venerable trees that shade it.

This curious building bears the record of its own history, in the following inscription: This building, called Carfax, erected for a conduit at Oxford, by Otho Nicholson, in the year of our Lord 1590, and taken down in the year 1787 to enlarge the High street, was presented by the University to George Simon, Earl of Harcourt, who caused it to be placed here.

The general character of Newnham is elegant grandeur.
Its predominant feature is variety of surface.
It contains that charming arrangement of pleasing parts which constitutes beauty, with a splendid inlet of country and a bold display of its own scenes which may be said to compose grandeur.
The ample space is divided in a number of successive parts, everywhere various everywhere consistent, and no where licentious.
Object succeeds to object, naturally and pleasingly, or, which is the same thing, there are seen different views of the same object.
The several beauties appear in natural succession, and the succession is never lost in the divisions.
The vast expanse of open country is frequently divided into separate pictures, but never subdivided into diminutive parts.
The uniformity of the grand prospect is occasionally diversified, but the diversification never diminishes its greatness.
The forms of the swells, slopes and valleys are everywhere graceful, and the groves on the declivities are rich and elegant.
The correspondence of the parts does not produce sameness, and in their contrast there is neither abruptness nor singularity.
The woods are extensive; beautiful in themselves, and are ennobled by the Thames, which flows beneath them.
The meadows refreshed by the glinting stream are here and there enlivened by single trees, or groups of them, just sufficient to break the long level of coarser verdure, and to make them harmonise with the highly embellished ground above them.
The whole is a place of the first order.
Nature gave the outline, and taste has completed the picture.
The poet Mason assisted Lord Harcourt in the arrangement of this unrivalled spot.

After we pass the little bridge and cottage, a piece of water succeeds to the left, all bends, like a dying earth worm in its writhing agony, and about half way up this the river runs with great weight against a campshed just past the first towgate, where barbel of formidable size are taken.

At the head of Newnham Ait there is a quiet shallow, upon which chub and dace were rising in a way I have scarcely ever seen.
From this past Newnham House the river is nearly straight, and presents few salient features of interest to the angler beyond its general uniform depth, of about 12ft. to 14ft., and therefore doubtless excellent throughout, both for trolling and spinning, and the swims that may probably be made by perseveringly ground baiting.
In the wane of summer it is, however, generally choked with coarse vegetation, and foul at the bottom, the slowness of the stream when water is scarce not being sufficient to carry off its natural accumulations.

An old and solitary tree, with a rail by the side of it on Newnham's banks, and almost opposite the towpath bridge, holds a large number of perch, roach, and chub; and well under the roots we saw the movement of the fins and tails of several heavy barbel.
A back water under the towbridge mentioned, contains small jack, and a lagoon, from which we started two large pike, is exactly opposite the homestead at the upper end of the park.
Now a swifter stream follows, and the canal like banks of the river are dull, but jacky.
Then the water gets low and rush fringed for a couple of miles, passing Radley common.

It is said, by the most experienced anglers of this neighbourhood, that after a flash or freshet of water, there is not a better reach for sport in the district, more particularly if a punt be used, and the weeds searched, here and there.
If this be the case, the water, if left alone by the net, would be of the most surprising description, for it is a notorious fact that it has been, if not that it still is, most cruelly skinned by the Beasleys, the well known Oxford otters, who are said to go halves with the farmer and present lessee, who holds the power to net it.

I can well recall the time when this reach was famous for its enormous pike, but now, despite the opinions to the contrary, I do not think there are many above 4lb., if that, which have escaped the destructive engines so constantly at work, to the wholesale detriment of a water which appears to be made on purpose for the generation and increase of fish.

Radley Boats

We now approach Sandford Mill, the tail of which, when free from the influence of the poisonous bleach, is good for most fish.

SANDFORD LOCK
Sandford Lasher

There are some private waters here upon our left.

Kings Arms
At Sandford Lock is the King's Arms Inn and the Royal Oak.

Rose Island

Kennington Island is a sweetly pretty spot with its neat and trim little inn, the Swan.
But the evening, both of the day and of our work, is closing, and we scull by it with a glance at its well arranged pleasure grounds, rustic bridges, and curtained gondola like boats, catching on our way a view of a bridge of some importance, lately thrown over from the island to Heyford Hill, the residence of Captain Fane, the adjutant of the 2nd Oxon.


Kennington Railway Bridge

Another canal shaped portion of the river follows, and the Thame Branch of the Great Western Railway, with a long, low, and diagonal wooden bridge passing at an angle beneath it, leads up a back water to the well known weirs, which, besides being a resort for pigeon matchers, & c., is the headquarters of an angling society, commanding about two miles of water.

Isis Bridge
Iffley Mill

Again more canally water and the picturesque mill at Ifley, with the tall nodding poplars mottling its grey sides and quaint gables with frittering shadows; the well wooded banks of Iffley village,

IFFLEY LOCK

and then the locks and mill belonging to Mr.J.Walker.

Above this is a pool rank and muddy, by the spot where once the bathing place stood.

Isis Inn

The Isis tavern should not be passed without a taste of its malt in the pewter, nor should, in its turn, the inn kept by one of the Salters, the boatbuilders, which is on our left.

Boat House Island

[ NOTE MANY OXFORD LINKS LEFT OUT ...]

And now we are on the far famed aquatic Oxford race course, the which is said to harbour fish galore beneath its depths, and to fill large baskets, especially from the "Kidneys" to the Cherwell river, when the bustle of the rowing season is over, and winter's frosts have levelled the vegetable hiding places of the piscatory genus.

"Christ Church Meadow
Salters

The Salters have always boats in readiness for excursions down the river, at the following charges, including cartage back to Oxford, and care of boat if left at their boathouse, the Feathers' Tavern, Wandsworth, viz:
eight oar £5.10s; four oar £3.10s.; pair £2; pair oared gig £2.10s.; sculling pair gig 30s.; funny for one person 30s.
an extra charge if taken below Wandsworth.