~ J\ i '^eOE^L UNIVERSITY LIBEARY^^B 0) ^^r" ^.^ ' m This bookl^mot to>6 taken ^ I ^' m from i the Rei^^fi^|loom. m ((©) WHEN D(^#\WITH, RETURN AT ONCE TO M ^^^'^ I SHELF Ji/ J- \^Jf I ^i'^^; BOUGHT WITH THB INCOME PROM THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF 1S91 U.'ia.faio lh.UL.. """•'' SH 439.P4lT887 '''"^^ ''ifllllllJS™™,?'"''''"""^ "o"! other 3 1924 003 714 254 The original of tliis book is in tlie Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http ://www. arch i ve . o rg/detai Is/cu31 92400371 4254 %^c '^abminion JLxhxar^ OF SPORTS AND PASTIMES EDITED BY HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF BEAUFORT, K.G. ASSISTED BY ALFRED E. T. WATSON FISHING {SALMON AND TROUT) / PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO.j NEW-STREET SQUARE LONDON ** *p»r If ^ DONALD IS TOG\ LATE FISH TNG A BY H. CHOLMONDELEY-PENNELL LATE HER MAJESTY'S INSPECTOR OF SEA FISHERIES Atillioy of * Tlie Modern Praciical Angler' ' The Sporting Fish of Greot Britain' 'Modern hnprffvements in Fishing Tackle and Fish-liooks' etc. WITH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM OTHER AUTHORS SALMON AND TROUT (fift^ #biticin, rifrjscb- WITH NUMEROUS ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS AND DIAGRAMS LONDON LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 1889 A II rights reserved DEDICA TION H.R.H. THE PRINCE OF WALES. Badminton ; October 1885 Having received permission to dedicate these volumes, the Badminton Library of Sports and Pastimes, to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, I do so feeling that I am dedicating them to one of the best and keenest sportsmen of our time. I can say, from personal observation, that there is no man who can extricate himself from a bustling and pushing crowd of horsemen, when a fox breaks covert, more dexterously and quickly than His Royal Highness ; and that when hounds run hard over a big country, no man can take a line of his own and live with them better. Also, when the wind has been blowing hard, often have I seen His Royal Highness knocking over driven grouse and partridges and high-rocketing pheasants in first-rate vi DEDICATION. workmanlike style. He is held to be a good yachtsman, and as Commodore of the Royal Yacht Squadron is looked up to by those who love that pleasant and exhilarating pastime. His encouragement of racing is well known, and his attendance at the University, Public School, and other important Matches testifies to his being, like most English gentlemen, fond of all manly sports. I consider it a great privilege to be allowed to dedicate these volumes to so eminent a sportsman as His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, and I do so with sincere feelings of respect and esteem and loyal devotion, BEAUFORT. iy-V"./^" BADMINTON. PREFACE. A FEW LINES only are necessary to explain the object with which these volumes are put forth. There is no modern encyclopaedia to which the inexperienced man, who seeks guidance in the practice of the various British Sports and Pastimes, can turn for information. Some books there are on Hunting, some on Racing, some on Lawn Tennis, some on Fishing, and so on ; but one Library, or succession of volumes, which treats of the Sports and Pastimes indulged in by Englishmen—and women—is wanting. The Badminton Library is offered to supply the want. Of the imperfections which must be found in the execution of such a design we are con- viii PREFACE. scious. Experts often differ. But this we may say, that those who are seeking for knowledge on any of the subjects dealt with will find the results of many years' experience written by men who are in every case adepts at the Sport or Pastime of which they write. It is to point the way to success to those who are ignorant of the sciences they aspire to master, and who have no friend to help or coach them, that these volumes are written. To those who have worked hard to place simply and clearly before the reader that which he will find within, the best thanks of the Editor are due. That it has been no slight labour to supervise all that has been written he must acknowledge ; but it has been a labour of love, and very much lightened by the courtesy of the Publisher, by the unflinching, indefatigable assistance of the Sub- Editor, and by the intelligent and able arrangement of each subject by the various writers, who are so thoroughly masters of the subjects of which they treat. The reward we all hope to reap is that our -work may prove useful to this and future generations. THE EDITOR. '; PREFATORY NOTE. Probably few persons who visited the late International Fisheries Exhibition in South Kensington could fail to have been struck by the multiplicity, and, to the un- initiated, complexity of the engines and appliances used in the capture of fish. The observation applies even more to the 'angler'—a generic term that I have a special objection to, by the way, but let us say to the fisherman who uses a rod—than to the ' fisherman proper, whose weapons are net and hand-line, and who 'occupies his business in great waters.' In consequence of the growing artfulness of man or of fish, or both, angling has come to be nearly as wide a field for the specialist as doctoring. Each different branch has its own professors, practitioners, and students and its gospel as preached by apostles, differing often widely from one another, and perhaps eventually break- ing away altogether from old tradition and founding a cult of their own. Thus the late Mr. W. C. Stewart, a ' lawyer of Edinburgh and a famous fisher ' of the North, may probably be called the apostle of up-stream fly- X PREFATORY NOTE. fishing, as contrasted with the time-honoured plan of fishing 'down:' fishing, that is, with the flies below rather than above the angler's stand-point. Not that I mean to assert that Mr. Stewart was by any means the first to preach the new doctrine, still less the first to ' practise it, but that he was the first to formularise ' it, to give it consistency and shape, and to bring it prominently it before the angling world. And even then—and is a good illustration of the ' specialism ' referred to— his book was (statedly) confined to one branch of one kind ' of angling for one species of fish : The Art of Trout Fishing, more particularly applied to Clear Water.* It might have been added ' and in streams and rivers north of the Tweed,' for I believe there is not a word in the book about the rivers or lakes of England, Ireland, or Wales, or how to catch trout in them. I say this in no disparagement of the author or his capital book, but only to illustrate the complexity and ' elaborateness ' at which the art of angling has arrived. So far from disparaging, it is probable, on the contrary, that if all writers on fishing had the modesty to confine themselves, as Mr. Stewart did, to subjects they were really personally acquainted with, the gentle art would not be afflicted with a literature containing a greater amount of undiluted bosh—to say nothing of downright 'cribbing'—than probably any printed matter of equal bulk in existence. We want a few more ' Gilbert Whites of Selborne' amongst our angling authors. Poor Stewart ! he was a fine fisherman and a right good com- panion, and pleasant days we fly-fished side by side, with —' PREFATORY NOTE. xl another famous angler (and politician), alas ! no more the Johnson of Scotland, as he was well called—I mean Alex. Russel, Editor of the Scotsman, and author of the book of 'The Salmon.' He and Stewart were two of the finest fishermen that it has ever been my lot to know, and I loved them both well—for 'like and difference,' as Mrs. Browning puts it—though Stewart was very wroth with me afterwards and devoted a whole pamphlet to my annihilation, pugnacious ' moss- trooping Scot' as he was. No reason that, how- ever, why I should not write his epitaph in the Field when he died . I'd give the lands of Deloraine Stout Musgrave were alive again ! . But, some one asks 'Why do you not practise what you preach ? You eulogise monographs, and you write books yourself which embrace every variety of angling and " fishey lore " from bait-breeding to salmon- catching.' Dear critic (forgive the adjective when perhaps you ' are in the very act of sharpening your scalping-knife '), I do nothing of the sort ; and though it is true I have 'graduated' in most kinds of fishing, from sticklebacks upwards, there are many subjects germane to angling, such as fish-rearing—both of Salmonidcz and ' coarse fish—fish-acclimatisation, and several special depart- ments of angling itself, where I have need to learn rather than to pretend to teach. Consequently I have thought myself fortunate to be able to secure for these xii PREFATORY NOTE. pages the very kind assistance of the eminent and scientific gentlemen who write in regard to such special subjects with equal felicitousness and authority. Thus the volumes of the Badminton Library confided to me by the Editor and publishers will not lose either in completeness or trustworthiness by my shortcomings. Frankly, however, this is not the only reason why I have sought the able co-operation of Major John P. Traherne, Mr. Henry R. Francis, Mr. H. S. Hall, and Mr.