Baily's magazine of sports and pastimes
Gilbey, Tresham, 1862-
m f J'>VH ,. ^f>?i:?!>Ji'iJ«n}i'iK?Ir 1 I ■■mi .'f • M'•.ni".^.' w^r.nnKfb'iKH?' ■ .j,..<v:C s^,i SiiKBigv;^^^ BAILY'S MAGAZINE OF SPORTS AND PASTIMES. VOLUME THE THIRTY-FOURTH. LONDON: A, H. BAILY & CO., C O R N H 1 L L. 1879. Gl/ / LONDON PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFOKD STREET AND CHARING CROSS. C^.?'~ L. iO^Jy '-1>JA , ^W Ji-ll .. JC-iivJi ^Li 11 CONTENTS OF VOLUME XXXIV. Viscount Doneraile : a Biography, i. Kussley Revisited, 2, The Great Lake Trout Interviewed, 9. Gleanings from the Grass, 18. The Revival of the Boxhill Coach, 27. Racing in Red Coats, 34. Tire Cobham Menu, 38. Cricket, 40, 99, 15S, 223. Yachting and Rowing, 48, 107, 168, 232, 297. ' Our Van,' 50, iii, 174, 237, 298, 340, 413. The Earl of Rosslyn : a Biography, 63. Owen Swift, 64. Summer Scarlet, 69. Some Notes on Coarse-Fish Angling, 76. Gossip about Poachers and Poaching, 81. The Driving Clubs, 90. Mr. H. W, Eaton, M.P. : a Biography, 125. Rara Avis, 126. The 'Evening Standard' on Owen Swift, 128. Fishing Stations on the Thames, 130. How the Grouse have Wintered, 140. Baron Lionel de Rothschild, 146. The Grace Testimonial, 150. A Day with the Pytchley in 1900, 151. ' Pons Asinorum,' 155. Mr. R. Oswald, of Auchincruive : a Biography, 187. Changing Pastures, 18S. Our Sport upon the Sea, 196. Sport at Rugby School, 204. iv CONTENTS. Four Years of Road Work, 308. The Irish Wolf-IIoiiml, aiS. The Karl of Ellesmere : a Biography, 249. The Jests of John Warde, Esq., 250. The Past Salmon Season : the Disease, 252. Cub-Hunting in Meath, 258. ' De Scnectiitc,' 26;?. A Dead Sell, 271. Jamaica Jottings, 278, 334. The Old Dover Road, 284. Tom Stretcher buys more Dogs, 292. The Duke of Grafton : a Biography, 311. A PI ague-Spot in our Racing System, 312. A Gossip about the Grouse Family, 318. ' Nullum Tetigit quod non Ornavit,' 325. ' Kaffir Land,' 338. Hunting List of Hounds, their Masters, Huntsmen, "Whips, Kennels, &c., 355. Mr. Longman: a Biography, 373. • Every Inch a King,' 374. The Scottish Deer Forests, 377. A Battered Portmanteau, 384. Deer-coursing in Parks, 391. Arscott of Tetcote, 399. John Fricker, 401. Cricket : the School Averages, 402. LISTOFPLATES. Title-page — John Fricker. Viscount Doneraile .  . „ 24-; Mr. H. W. Eaton, M.P. . „ 125 | The Duke of Grafton . . „ 311 Mr. A. H. Longman, page 373. BAILY'S Monthly Magazine of Sports, and Pastimes. No. 232. JUNE, 1879. Vol. XXXIV. Embellished with a Portrait of Viscount Donekaile, CONTENTS. SPORTING DIARY FOR THE MONTH. PAGE VISCOUNT DONERAILE : A BIOGRAPHY ..... I RUSSLEY REVISITED ........ 2 THE GREAT LAKE TROUT INTERVIEWED .... 9 GLEANINGS FROM THE GRASS ...... 18 THE REVIVAL OF THE BOXHILL COACH .... 27 RACING IN RED-COATS ....... 34 THE COBHAM MENU ........ 38 CRICKET .......... 40 YACHTING AND ROWING ....... 48 ' OUR VAN '......... 50 LONDON: A. H. BAILY & Co., CORNIilLL. 1879. DIARY FOR JUNE, 1879. M. D. w. D. OCCURRENCES. M Tu W Th 9 10 II 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 M Tu W Th F S M Tu W Th F M Tu W Th F S M Whit Sunday. Islington Horse Show. Croydon, Kempton Park, and Redcar Races. North v. South, at Lord's. [chaster Races. Islington Horse Show. Croydon, Kempton Park, and Man- Islington Horse Show. Manchester and Wye Races. Islington Horse Show. Manchester and Sandown Park Races. M.C.C. 1', Oxford University, at Oxford. Islington Horse Show (last day). Manchester, Sandown Park, and Hawick Races. Alexandra Park Races. Sale of Yearlings at Marden Deer Park. Trinity Sunday. Middlesex v. Gloucestershire, at Lord's, Ascot Races. Ascot and Beverley Races. Ascot Races. Gold Cup Day. M.C.C. Ascot Races. Cobham Stud Company's Yearling Sale. First Sunday after Trinity. M.C.C. 1'. Notts, at Lord's. Windsor Races. Windsor and Newton Races. Hampton Court and Newton Races. Peterborough Hampton Court and Newton Races. Kent, at Lord's. [Show. Hound Second Sunday after Trinity. M.C.C. V. Cambridge University, at Lord's. Newcastle, Curragh, and Odiham Races. Newcastle and Bibury Races. Newcastle and Stockbridge Races. M.C.C. v. Oxford Uni- Stockbridge Races. [versity, at Lord's. Third Sunday after Trinity. Oxford 1;. Cambridge, at Lord's. [at Kilburn. Royal Agricultural Society, j£^^9U>^<>9P.^ BAILY'S MONTHLY MAGAZINE OF SPORTS AND PASTIMES. THE VISCOUNT DONERAILE. Of Norman blood and knightly fame, the St. Legers, though now Irish by settlement, flourished for many generations in the county of Kent, where their ancestor, Sir Robert St. Leger, a companion in arms of the Conqueror, and v/hose name is to be found on the Roll of Battell Abbey, first fixed his abode. It was in the year 1537 ^^^^ ^'^ Anthony St. Leger, K.G., appointed by Henry VIII. one of the Commissioners of Crown Lands, and subsequently made Lord Deputy, went to Ireland, and from that time, though a branch of the family still remained at Ulcombe, in Kent, the fortunes of the St. Legers may be said to have been bound up with those of the country of their adoption. More than once ennobled (they were Barons Kilmeden and Viscounts Doneraile in the com- mencement of the last century, these titles becoming extinct in 1767, to be revived ten years later), they have been now for some generations settled in the county of Cork, and the subject of our present sketch is the fourth Viscount of the new creation. Lord Doneraile, who was born in 18 18, and succeeded his father in 1854, is a representative peer of Ireland. He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, from whence he studied hunting with Drake's, the Heythrop, and the V.W.H. ; his first ownership of hounds had however been before he left Eton, as he had a pack of beagles, which he hunted on foot in the moors near Doneraile. In 1847 he became Master of the Duhallow Hounds, then the property of Mr. R. Delacorn. He resigned in 185 1 ; then in 1854 again became Master on the retirement of Mr. J. Courteney, and having worked up the country from two days a week to four, sold his hounds after nine years, retaining only a few favourite bitches. He then went into the Belvoir country ; but, on the retirement of Lord Henry Bentinck, took the Burton, which he held for two years, until Mr. Chaplin consented to take the reigns of government. Lord Doneraile returned to Ireland, where the progeny of his old favourites were at work, and hunted it until 1874, when arose a quarrel which ended in the virtual division of the country. Lord Doneraile VOL. XXXIV. NO. 232. B 2 4^ 2 RUSSLEY REVISITED. [JunC, retaining his hounds and his side of the country, whilst the Duhallow Club bought Lord Shannon's dog pack, and hunted the other division. He has always been a purist in hound-breeding, and pins his faith on Belvoir, Brocklesby, and Grove, his own hounds being identical with Lord Henry Bentinck's. As a rider, until of late years crippled by rheumatism, he was always with his hounds, and he has had his share of what was going on in the way of fishing and shooting. Lord Doneraile, who married in 1851 the only daughter of Mr. Lenox-Conyngham, is Hon. Colonel of the North Cork Militia, and resides chiefly on his estates, fulfilling the duties and following the occupation of a country gentleman. RUSSLEY REVISITED. The blackthorn blossoms lingering yet, like a melancholy ghost, among the livelier greens of bursting coppice and burgeoning thicket, seemed to prolong the agony of a six-months' winter ; their snowy petals set on stems of ebony being further suggestive of the black nor'-easter sweeping hill and plain, and ever and anon scattering from its ' urns of silent snow ' a fleecy offering to the hibernal king. Waters ran darkling instead of sparkling, the scanty herbage of low- lying meadows offered concealment neither to foraging rook nor browsing rabbit, and pewits whirled aloft in short uneasy flights, as if to catch the sight or scent of Spring, still delaying her triumphal march through the land. Fitful watery gleams sped here and there over upland breadths of corn ' yellow as a kite's claw,' over pastures sere and grey beneath the influence of parching frost and drying wind, over flocks sheltering in wattled folds, over cattle * huddled on * the lea,' and over pinched representatives of the agricultural interest shivering in the inexorable blast. Bleaker still on the horizon rise the breezy downland ridges, dotted at intervals with clumps, and rings, and crowns of wood ; while overhead dark slaty clouds press onward in grim procession, their ranks broken here and there with patches of pale, cold blue, the ' shadow streaks of ' rain ' hovering on their flanks, and the searching blast driving all alike before it. We think on the horror of distant Newmarket Heath with a shudder, deeming it better to be whirled along the Kennett Valley with the prospect of a ten-miles drive before us, but with the certainty of a hearty welcome at the end of it, and of a sight vouchsafed only to the favoured, and to be remembered, and thought of, and dreamt of by those in whom the home and inner life of the high-mettled racer perchance awakes more interest than when, caparisoned for war, he neighs his challenge to the foe, and draws crowds to his toilet held in birdcage, or palisaded inclosure, on windy hill or stretching plain, or beneath the ' trysting tree ' in the paddock's retirement. Familiar places, suggestive of sport and its surroundings, fly past on either side as the * newspaper train ' glides 1879-] RUSSLEY REVISITED. 3 into the heart of Berkshire. Racine in the King's Meadow at the town sacred to biscuits and bigotry may be only a pleasing recollec- tion of the past, when the neighbouring stables despatched their con- tingents of platers to try and earn a year's keep at Reading, when in its weighing-room might be seen the silks of Merry, Crawfurd, Ailes- bury, Cartwright, Sucton, and others with training quarters close at hand. Alec Taylor's good-humoured visage peering out of the carriage- window as we quit the iron way at Hungerford infuses yet another spice of sport into the ingredients of the pudding we are serving up for the delectation of ' Baily's ' June readers ; and there is a satisfied and knowing look upon the face of our Jehu, under orders for * Russley,' indicating that such expeditions are not unknown to him or his cattle. The old-fashioned hostelry is a sort of ' Angler's * Retreat,' on which dear old Izaak might have worthily, as well as wordily, dilated ; but it is hardly the sort of day made to order for followers of the gentle craft, with its gusty squalls of bitter east wind and leaden skies reflected in troubled waters — times when no decent fly or trout would care to be seen abroad, driving sulky wiclders of the rod into winter quarters by glowing hearths and cheery ingles, deep in the study of a sporting daily almost a week old, or of a monthly magazine hailing from Cornhill, * embellished with portrait ' of the local sporting squire or lord, and with an odour of antiquity clinging to its green cover. But the road is before us, and still the atmosphere is full of sporting facts and fancies, rising thicker and faster as yon rolling downs, long looming in the distance, become part 4 RUSSLEY REVISITED. FJ""^* and parcel of the landscape on cither hand. Have wc not heard and read of Chilton in * Reports from Training Quarters,' and of what, save of racing, as those snug paddocks suggestive sloping towards the south, with hovels built in pairs, and though now apparently untenanted, erst haunted by sleek well-to-do matrons and ragged, graceless foals ? At every turn wc might expect to encounter a yearling string, just getting used to the 'leading' process, dancing and caracolling on their way to the broad pastures below, and eager to be off for a canter preliminary to the idle hours of a summer's day : or the * father of the faithful' himself might turn the corner of yonder bowery lane, thoughtfully champing his bit, and slyly waiting the opportunity of a plunge and a kick as the trap comes rattling past. Still more landmarks of turf history arise as we follow the river winding through its wooded valley ; on the opposite side of which lies Littlecote, a long grey tenement of other days, with outbuildings clustering round it, like some fairy palace of the woods ; rich water- meadows in the foreground depastured by many a bleating black- faced flock, and slopes behind with long-drawn avenues of elm and beech echoing to the dreamy cawing of rooks. Here, glancing at the birthplace of Wild Dayrell, we may follow in imagination the ' Druid's ' narrative of the manner of his foaling, of how the butler wheeled in a barrow to his box the future Derby winner, and of signs and portents which heralded the throes of stately Ellen Middleton, But half an hour longer, and ' Willy' Sherwood, who wore the red and green stripes in the ever-memorable Derby of 1854, bids us courteous welcome to an inspection of the Russley cracks, in the self-same yard as that from which the sherry-bay ' Isles ' went forth to meet his conqueror Wild Dayrell at Epsom, the latter for long his 'dangerous neighbour' at Ashdown Park under the tutorship of Jack Sheppard — a lawless pair in name, though not by nature. But we anticipate a trifle, and must take our reader along pleasant Berkshire lanes, past thriving homesteads, and through straggling villages with grand square-built church towers, sentinels of the plain, before striking into bleak downland roads towards the Mecca of our pilgrimage. We seem to leave habitation, not to speak of civilisa- tion, behind us at Aldbourne, whence our way' lies along the 'bases ' of the hills ' themselves, with farmhouses here and there ' sown in 'the wrinkles' of the huge grassy mounds, belts of plantation affording scant shelter to the flocks, so frequently ' changing ' pastures ' in true David Cox style, with the shepherd on his white pony bringing up the rear. Times have altered vastly for the better since the dark ages of the Turf, when training was reckoned as one of the ' black arts,' and its l879«] RUSSLEY REVISITED. 5 professors, if not charlatans, at any rate full of low cunning and bru- tality, which have disappeared since mystery and ignorance (inevitable associates) yielded before the softening influences the 'sweeter ' manners and purer laws ' which now sway the racing community. In fact we hardly know where the controllers of such vast and important establishments as Russley can be said to ' draw the line ' against visitors desirous of satisfying their curiosity, and that which was formerly scouted as intrusion and espionage is now, thanks to a sensible change of front in the ' stable mind,' rather courted than discouraged. Even during the few last years, the dread of amateur touting has well-nigh disappeared, and the stranger with the shadow of a pretence, or the merest apology for an introduction, may pene- trate into places once held as sacred as the temenos of a Greek temple, and see sights and hear sounds formerly religiously kept from eyes and ears profane. The pith is now gone of the story, which told how, when a swaggering novice had a lew selling platers in training at one of our largest and most powerful establishments, its affable and obliging director could put up with the prying and inquisitive proclivities of his new employer only up to a certain point. ' He may see what he likes, and ask what he likes,' the trainer is reported to have said, ' but him, I am not going to ' have him feeling the legs of my Derby horses !' Even this last restriction would seem to have vanished now, when noblemen and gentlemen throw open their stable doors to emissaries from the public, and rather court the inspection of commissioners, as well versed in veterinary knowledge as in breeding and racing lore, and looked up to as ' friends, philosophers, and guides ' by those interested, from whatever motives, in the progress and condition of the cracks of the day. The ' gude man's awa,' when we call a halt at the garden gate of the familiar home which has known the going forth and coming in of thoroughbreds for so many years, but 'tis a far cry to ' Weather- ' cock Hill,' and a short stroll down the avenue, clanging with rooks, and with emerald buds standing out in bright relief from dark trunks and branches of limes, brings us within eye-shot of the squadron homeward bound, the long line of bays and browns, blacks and ches- nuts, with a grey by way of contrast and variety, debouching from the downland road, with the head lad in the van, and the rear brought up by the commander-in-chief of this equine army and his faithful aide-de-camp. What more glorious or interesting sight, than that of two score nags of the finest blood in England, well looking as well bred, and most with ' distinguished services ' recorded in their favour, filing down the branching vista, in the prime of ' English May,' to the refrain of jockey-boy carol, or to the accompaniment of throstle and mavis from their retreats in dusky yew, or ' dry-tongued ' laurel ? A cheery 'good morning' from the chief and his staff, and the names of a few of the ' rear guard ' are rattled off for our benefit, among them the ' grandest two year old in England,' Cobham bred, and another whose name has been in many mouths 6 RUSSLEV REVISITED. [June, before and since the clans mustered upon windy Carholmc for the opening of a new turf campaign. The racing histories of most are written in our minds, and wc may conjecture of a glorious future for more than one of those who have yet to sport the Westminster ycllow-and-blacic, or the Rosebery hoops, when ripe and ready for •■silk.' Yonder strides along the chcsnut cynosure of touting eyes on many a windy ridge, as he follows first one and then another of the professional staff of the Russley college of preceptors past ' one ' o'clock bush,' or leaves the schoolmaster behind as he breasts the last incline, which has found out so many weak spots in candidates for racing honours in the 'previous examination' on Weathercock Hill. But the parade is dismissed to * stables,' and while the attendant sprites are busy sponging and drying and brushing, and executing all manner of diamond and other devices on the lustrous quarters of their charges (in true Whitewall fashion), let us accept the invitation given for half an hour's rest and chat in the snug parlour, from the walls of which look down many mementoes of ' past grand masters ' of Russley, tokens of high appreciation for zealous services rendered to former employers, and more than one trophy inscribed with names of warrior steeds and their deeds imperishably blazoned in the archives of the famous Berkshire stable. Likenesses of Lord and Lady Stamford suggest pleasing recollections of days of youthful service spent beneath the blue-and-black banner of Envilie ; the late owner of Doncaster and Marie Stuart smiles grim but satisfied approval from his frame by the fireplace, and a new and prosperous era in the fortunes of the house is marked by portraits of the Duke and Earl now masters of its destinies, the latter well matched by a face and figure familiar to followers of ' the Baron ' in the palmy days of the blue-and-yellow of Mentmore. And of what is our talk during the half-hour sacred to mysterious rites of stable preparation preluding a second inspection of its contents, but of ' racing past * and future ' — the latter subject diplomatically approached and deli- cately handled — of breeding and feeding the rising generation of aspirants to racing fame, of the teachings of old experience in stable management and training economy, and of the multitudinous topics which the atmosphere of the place suggests. Sporting novelists and dramatic delineators have represented the trainer as a cross between Mephistopheles and Sapphira ; but here everything tends to dispel the vulgar illusion, so courteously are we encouraged to satisfy the curiosity naturally engendered by a visit to the most famous of training quarters, a veritable Whitewall of the South, and representative establishment of its kind in England. Our youthful bump of veneration was invariably much exercised at the sight of that exquisitely sanded doorway in Piccadilly, opening up a straw-bed^vista, of which not a grain nor stalk was out of place, and such path and yards we fondly deemed only fit to be trodden by the speckless butcher boots of its trim proprietor ; but what are these when compared with a Russley stable interior, fit only for 1879-] RUSSLEY REVISITED. 7 reproduction by a Herring, swept, garnished, and polished up to the essence of neatness, and with the name of the occupant of each box opening upon the main avenue inscribed (together with its owner's initials) in the sawdust strewed upon its threshold ? Was there ever a braver sight than this midday ' stables,' after all has been made tight and trim, with coats polished like mirrors, and each lad (himself a model of neatness and a paragon of civility) at his horse's head? You might eat every meal off wooden compartments and clinkered floor, to say nothing of the mangers ; and nought seems out of place but the intruder upon the domestic homes of these, of whom (to parody Scott's lines) it may be said : — Sixty steeds of name and fame Fed in the stalls at Russley Park, Sixty lads as their henchmen came, Tending the stable from morn till dark ; and we see as much order, regularity, and smartness as in a well- appointed troop of cavalry, the captain of which takes a pride in the welfare of man and horse alike. The director-general of so gigantic an establishment as that presided over by Robert of Russley must needs be a strict disciplinarian, and a searcher into the minutiae of stable economy, not with other people's eyes, but with his own ; and it is by administrative ability no less than by practical knowledge of and experience in his calling that the trainer can command and retain patronage similar to that which was accorded in old days to the wizard of Malton, and has now been worthily attracted to his young fellow-townsman in the heart of the Berkshire Downs. It is pleasant to recognise old friends with ' historic ' names, and to renew acquaintances with those having yet a reputation to make, many of whom we have watched in leading-strings as they circled the sale-ring as yearlings ; the while, as from a Woolwich infant, came the heavy bids thick and fast, carrying a weight of metal bound to tell in the end against fainter hearts and shorter purses. Over this chesnut daughter of Blair Athol men fought at Cobham, and from the same nursery of thoroughbreds came also the tall bay with an unmistakable ' Wild Oats ' cut about him ; while yet another Surrey sire is well represented by the namesake of a bloody duke, and may victories, as decisive as Culloden, be in store for the sturdy chesnut. The lengthiest and biggest Rosicrucian we have yet set eyes on hails from a quiet Kentish hamlet not a hundred miles from London ; and the sharp-actioned wiry bay, who has the credit of being able to use his white feet to a pretty tune, claims descent from a certain Forest King, whose lair we descried in our journey outward bound. The strapping chesnut boasting heraldic nomen- clature, and the brace of youthful prodigies with names ending in ' caster,' we do not need to be told are descendants of the mightiest Derby and Cup winner of modern days, and are all three Eaton bred, as well as others we encounter in stall and box elsewhere. A thick-set chesnut four-year-old by Thormanby set us thinking that 8 RUSSLEY REVISITED. [JuflC, there must be more in him than ever yet came out of him ; but neither a flat-sided Roman Emperor, with the nose of the race, nor a dainty Httle nag of the true Sweetmeat contour and colour, are a patch upon this year's big winner at Lincoln, strong as a castle, ripe as a peach, and bright as a star, and not nearly done with yet. There ' poses ' the handsomest horse in England yet, despite the fact that he has redeemed not even a tithe of the highest bid ever yet given for yearling; and close by stands the superbly quartered filly thrown in to the above bargain for her racing career, a bread-winner past and yet to be for the stable, and ready to show her heels to many a squandered field up the hill in which she revels. The brown three-year-old, cast in hunter mould, boasts a des- cent identical with that of The Colonel, and might even emulate his deeds, though not perhaps in the yellow and black of Gros- venor; and one by one, like kings before the vision of Macbeth, are presented to us winners in esse and, we hope, {71 posse^ from the counterfeit presentment of Cremorne down to the latest girl- graduate in Turf honours, one of Rosicrucian's handsomest daughters. Another glance at the ' finest two-year-old in England ' in her box, and we are spirited away to yards and quadrangles well-ordered as the first, paying our respects in passing to the wiry Carnival filly, true daughter of the flying 'Molly,' and knowing her way as well as her mother over the Epsom half-mile ; looking in upon a ' foreigner of ' distinction,' lately added to the Russley collection, and likely to repay a heavy ' claim ' speedily and with interest ; until we pull up short in the ante-chamber of the great ' Chief himself, concerning whom so much has been talked, and written, and argued, from the remote back end of last racing season up to this 28th of May, which must decide the big chesnut's fate in the great race of the year. And inasmuch as his fate hangs in the balance during the time these sheets are taking the colour of our thoughts on this Derby morn, at the demand of the most inexorable of printer's devils, what need for us to dilate upon his make and shape, or to dive deeply into the composition of his pedigree table, seeing that by the time ' Baily ' puts forth his green leaves in the leafy month, the whole world will have had the opportunity of seeing, and noticing, and forming judg- ments for themselves concerning him, and when the causes of his success or failure shall have been canvassed with all that minuteness of detail and result of accurate observation upon which a horse-loving community especially prides itself? Rather be it for us, as the first beaded bubble touches our lips, to drink success to owner, trainer, and horse, not unmindful of the memories which ' link us yet ' with a glorious past, now taking the shape of the gallant chesnuts, hero and heroine of 1873, seemingly stepping out of their frames in search of fresh fields of renown ; now reviving afresh with Hampton, the best and bravest ' little un ' of modern days, and freshened up by the sight of souvenirs of many and various kinds, proffered by all orders and degrees of men to the presiding genius of Russley, in token of triumphs achieved, of favours conferred, and of friendships formed in l879'] THE GREAT LAKE TROUT INTERVIEWED. Amphion. THE GREAT LAKE TROUT INTERVIEWED. Having promised the editor of ' Baily ' to provide for the readers of his magazine a sketch of the great lake trout of Loch Awe and its habitat^ as well as to give some ideas of how it may be captured, I now proceed to acquit myself of that obligation. Holding that a magazine article, even of such a humble kind as I am able to write, should be as much as possible in the nature of a work of art — in other words, that it ought to be, in the first place informing, in the second place, when not incongruous to the subject, lively or amusing, and in the third place, that there should be some little dash of philosophy in it, I endeavoured to supplement my own knowledge of the subject, id est,, the ' Great Lake Trout,' with the knowledge of other people ; but in that endeavour I failed, any information obtained being of a very perfunctory kind. Nothing, in my poor opinion, is more disappointing than the natural-history treatises which have been written on and about fish ; they only whet, they never satisfy, the appetite for information. I have my ' Yarrell ' and my ' Couch ' at my fingers' ends ; but, even putting what I know myself of the great lake trout of Loch Awe and other lochs to their infor- mation, the sum of the whole is rather bald ; nor are we much helped by other writers about this minor monster of the deep. Some of those who write about Salino fcrox are so gratified at having captured one or two of these piscine giants that they have either no leisure, or else lack the ability, to tell us more than that they have 10 THE CREAT LAKE TROUT INTERVIEWED. [ J^nc, hooked a few fish. In such narratives a great deal is usually said about how they did it, which is more or less — generally less — informing ; about the wise observations they addressed to their boatman, and the pawky replies made to them by that useful func- tionary, who, as a general rule, is not given to flattery even when a more than usually clever capture is accomplished. ' But where is Loch Awe ? ' methinks I hear some reader of Baily ' ask. ' Is' it in Scotland, and, if so, what part, and how am I to reach ' it ? ' Yes, Loch Awe is in Scotland, in the picturesque land of the Argylls. And as ' Murray ' some years ago recognised the land of ' the mountain and the flood/ and made it the subject of one of his red-covered guides, there is no longer any excuse for that ignorance of Scotland, its scenery and its people, which was thought to prevail before the great bibliopole of Albemarle Street shone upon it his literary lamp. Scan your map and you will sec, running parallel with Loch Fyne, beginning as I may say at the end of the Sound of Jura, a long and sinuous strip of blue — that is the home of the great lake trout. On the map — I have been looking over the one attached to the excellent ' Sportsman's Guide ' of Mr. Lyall — the surface of Loch Awe appears quite inconsiderable, but for all that it is a tolerably big expanse of water, over thirty-five miles long and on the average two miles in breadth. At the north end it is three miles broad, and there the surrounding scenery is grand in the extreme. As the proverb hath it, 'it is a far cry to Loch Ow,' but supposing a tourist or angler to have arrived in Glasgow, he is then within an easy distance of Dalmally, which can now be reached by railway. Let me just interpolate here that, when a tourist is at Glasgow, he is on the very threshold of the Highlands, almost within sight of some of the finest pictures which the divine brush has created. Within a period of some four or five hours after leaving the city of St. Mungo and Bailie Nicol Jarvie, the traveller may be in the heart of the Highlands — may be climbing the Cobbler at the head of Loch Long, or sailing amid the charming islands of Loch Lomond. From Glasgow to the most distant lochs and mountains : from the smoke and noise of a vast seat of population, to the heathery solitudes of Inverness or Ross, is little more than a day's journey ; from St. Enoch Square to the top of high Goatfell or the quiet repose of Glen Sannox is but the distance of half a day. * God made the ' country and man made the town ; ' who, then, would linger amid the ceaseless whirl of machinery and the clang of hammers, when iSyg-] THE GREAT LAKE TROUT INTERVIEWED. II in an hour or two he could bathe his body in the limpid waters of Loch Lomond, or inhale the health-giving ozone of the Highland mountains — who indeed but those whom fate compels ? Assuming, as I shall venture to do, that persons coming from a distance in search of the far-famed fish of Loch Awe will desire to reach their destination by the most varied and picturesque route, I recommend them to go by the ' lona ' steamboat, which in the season leaves the Broomielaw every morning at seven o'clock and carries the spell-bound traveller vid the Kyles of Bute to Ardrishaig. By this means the tourist or angler will see the beautiful scenery of the river Clyde to perfection, and if he is not already cognisant of the fact, he will soon discover that the Clyde is the finest pleasure river in Europe ; only those who have never seen the Clyde fly into raptures about the Rhine. Having experience of both, my verdict must be in favour of the Scottish stream, and, being an Englishman born, I think it an impartial judgment. The river is studded far and near along its shores with the pleasant habitations of men who throughout the summer season make it their hobby to hurry to the water — Glasgow merchants and shopkeepers, who convert a pleasure into a toil by a daily rush to and from business ; and on either side of the water may be seen their picturesque dwelling-places nestling in sunny nooks on green hill-sides, with glimpses of the mist-wreathed mountains of the western highlands as a background to the scene. A lady writer of half a century ago, when the banks of the Clyde were less densely populated than they are to-day, wrote of the white cottages as being ' dropped here and there liked poached eggs upon ' spinach ! ' Now, there are water-side towns every icw miles, and the going to and fro of many steamboats adds a lively feature to the scene. It is not my intention to dictate to the tourist or travelling angler the exact amount of admiration he should bestow on what he sees as he sails along in the Tona,' but if the immediate fore- ground were removed on the Dumbarton side he might feast his eyes on beauties of nature which men have come from afar to gaze upon, the ' land of the Lennox,' ' the country of the McGregor.' The home that was, of ' Rob Roy,' is not far off, and on the other side of the Clyde, below Greenock, is that land which the classic pen of Robert Burns has celebrated, and where many of his finest poems and songs were written. I need say nothing more of the ' lona,' having already introduced that far-famed vessel to the notice of the readers of 'Baily's Magazine.' Nowhere but on the Clyde can such a medium of travel be found ; she is a palace of a steamboat, with culinary resources which would put those of some of our clubs to the blush, and she is only excelled by that other grand boat of the same company which has recently been placed on the Clyde by the same owners, the ' Columba.' The traveller will note with wonder as he leaves the great citv that the Clyde, famed a hundred years ago for the purity of its water, its fine salmon and large trout, has been turned into a common sewer. There arc still a ^qw salmon in the river, but the 12 THE GREAT LAKE TROUT INTERVIEWED. [June, filth of Glasgow is a barrier to their increase. * Down the water ' in the various sea lochs there is good sport for summer anglers, and sea fishing is no bad pastime. But we linger too much by the way ; let us at once to our home on Loch Awe by coach from Ardrishaig, on Loch Fyne to Ford, thence by the steamer on the loch to any place we please. There arc good hotels on various parts of the loch, upon which all men are free to fish without question. At Dalmally, if he arrives by rail, the angler may sojourn under the shadow of the mighty Ben Cruachan,and be served with turtle on fine linen in a banqueting-hall among ninety- and-nine other travellers ; in the morning as he looks from his window, he can ' ravish his delighted eyes with the glad greeneries ' of gorgeous scenery,' whilst his ears may attune themselves to the melody of falling waters and the sublime voices of nature. Of creature comforts I shall not speak ; the traveller, so far as the commissariat department is concerned, may fancy himself within hail of Leadenhall Street and Covent Garden. To-day, ' all the * comforts of the Salt-market' are vouchsafed to tourists in even remote parts of the Highlands. Could Johnson and Boswell rise from their graves and once more gaze upon the scenes of their travels, how great would be their astonishment ! Two seasons ago, I counted five different brands of champagne on the wine-card of a Highland inn. Communication with the great cities of the lowlands is now so frequent and so easy that all the luxuries of the season may be looked for at either Oban or Dalmally, and in much humbler hotels as well. Good Scottish fare — cockie-leekie and haggis to wit — may be obtained everywhere ; and the ubiquitous John Forrester of Glasgow would undertake, on receiving twenty- four hours' notice, to serve a veritable banquet on any of the twenty-four islands of Loch Awe, and detail a couple of his French cJiefs for the occasion, nor would the menu be wanting in any of the essentials of the choicest dinner of the period. There is a choice of houses of entertainment on Loch Awe, in all of which may be found well-ventilated rooms, soft beds, and wholesome fare with moderate charges to boot ; but, as this article has no covert design of puffing, I refrain from all mention of names as being invidious. Now for the fish which has brought us so far from home. It is more than twenty years ago since I first interviewed the trout of Loch Awe and saw a monster specimen of Salino ferox. At the date I have indicated fewer people fished in that Loch than are to be found there at the present day. When first I went to the neighbourhood it was to pass a week amid the fine scenery of the district in the company of some artist friends. We had our tent, and encamped on the shores of the lake, living a rough but happy life, having with us ' Shakspeare ' and the ' Noctes Ambrosianae ' of Chris- l879«] THE GREAT LAKE TROUT INTERVIEWED. I3 topher North and his friends Timothy Tickler and * the Shepherd,' James Hogg of Ettrick, the author of The Queen's Wake.' These were joyous days. Strangers in the neighbourhood were then com- paratively rare. One or two Glasgow merchants and professional men came occasionally for a Saturday and Sunday sojourn, but as a rule there was not, a quarter of a century ago, one person angling on the loch for ten or twelve that may be seen to-day, and still, especially in the early season, it is, as one may say, a scene of solitude where ' the silence is eloquent in the morning.' It was my friend John Gamgee, a Yorkshireman — in vulgar parlance a Huddersfield bagman — who first told me of the great lake trout as being a special fact for anglers. Being in the cloth trade, Gamgee used to come pretty frequently to Edinburgh and other parts of Scotland, and one Friday forenoon late in the month of May, as I was coming from the University, my cheerful friend thus accosted me : ' Man,' he said, * to-morrow you will have a holiday — extend it ' till Tuesday, and we'll run on to Loch Awe and have a day with ' the trout. I will show you, if we are fortunate, something ' wonderful in that line — the biggest thing of the kind you ever saw — * nothing, 1 assure you, at Kinross ' (Loch Leven) ' at all like it. ' I used to try only for commoners ; once I took a salmon by a ' fluke, a pretty fish too, it weighed ten pounds, I do believe. One ' day while trolling with two rods pretty much as usual, the day * being, I remember, soft and balmy, with huge clouds being slowly * driven over the water by a moderate south-west wind heavily suf- ' fused with wet. I was expecting nothing particular, but sat * listening to one of Sandy's stories about " the old family," when * I felt a terrific rush at one of my baits by something of tremendous * size — I couldn't say what, because I saw nothing ; but Sandy, with * a quicker eye, had discerned what had occurred. " It's a fisJi^ man ! ' "Lord, what a size she is! Did your honour no saw her, sir, as * " she did plunge up ?" I certainly did not, nor could I understand 14 THE GREAT LAKE TROUT INTERVIEWED. fJ""^? the boatman's italics, " it's a fish /" It was fish which I had gone for, and undoubtedly it was a fish that had made all the row. Sandy was equal to the occasion, however ; in a moment or two he had told me it was no common trout I had to battle with, but just a fccros, and a big one too. It was what Cobden would have called "a work of great pith and moment" to capture that fish and get it into the boat, but in the end we managed to do it. Had it not been a greedy monster suffering from the pangs of hunger we must have lost it, for somehow or another it twice freed itself from the bait and again seized it with a rush which reminded me forcibly of a finish for the Derby that I had seen a year or two previously (in Wild Dayrell's year, I think) ; it was such a rush as only a Loch Awe trout can make ; you have nothing like it cither on your Tweed or Tay, and as for your far-famed Loch Levcn two-pounders, they are not in the hunt, as you will admit when you experience the sensation of handling one, with \\\q. fcrox of the place we are going to. It took Sandy and I fully an hour to secure that fish, and when the work was over I was not a little proud of the feat, as the beggar dodged and danced about like a scaly demon till I was nearly tired out — now pretending to give in, then dashing away with another Derby rush, till I thought — although it must be admitted my man pulled his very hardest, and managed his boat with wondrous skill — he would snap the line and escape. At length I got him within reach, but even then I believe he might have given us more trouble had Sandy not given him an accidental stroke with his oar, which did the deed. That specimen of x\\Q fcrox weighed eighteen pounds.* It was the first I had seen, and I was as proud of it as if I had taken a seventy-pound line in the legitimate way of my business from a Glasgow clothier. l879'] '^"^ GREAT LAKE TROUT INTERVIEWED. I5 made a better figure at the breakfast table ; they averaged, the twenty which we captured on Saturday evening, about half a pound each, and were excellent. On Sunday we enjoyed a sail to Ellen's Island, but were not, of course, allowed to fish any ; to fish on ' the Lord's day ' in Scotland is a crime of the deepest dye ; but, since the time I am writing about, I did upon one occasion handle the rod on a Sunday, when I caught a fine dish of trout. On the banks of Loch Awe all that fine Sabbath day we lazied about and listened to traditions of the place, to the story of Ellen, the daughter of Sir James McNaughton, v/ho was the first person buried on the island ; her father was governor of the Castle of Fruichland, and the unfortunate lady was drowned in the loch. There are a hundred romantic stories of love, chivalry, romance, and war, connected with Loch Awe and its twenty-four islands, but it is not at present my cue to tell these tales over again. Sandy's little daughter recited to us in the boat a bit of Ossian, which tells the tradition of the lake. As it is not long I venture to reproduce it for the benefit of English readers : — ' Bera the aged dwelt in the cave of a rock. She was the daughter of Griannan ' the sage. Long was the line of her fathers, and she was the last of her race. ' Large and fertile were her possessions : hers the beautiful vales below, and ' hers the cattle which roamed on the hills around. To Bera was committed ' the charge of that awful spring, which by the appointment of fate was to prove ' so fital to the inheritance of her father's and to her father's race. Before the ' sun should withdraw his beams, she was to cover the spring with a stone, on ' which sacred and mysterious characters were impressed. One night this was ' forgotten by the unhappy Bera. Overcome with the heat and chase of the day, ' she was seized with sleep before the usual time of rest. The confined waters ' of the mountains burst forth into the plains below, covering that large expanse ' now known by the name of the " Lake of Awe." The third morning Bera ' awoke from her sleep. She went to remove the stone from the spring ; but ' behold no stone was there ! She looked to the inheritance of her tribe : she ' shrieked ! The mountain shook from its base ! flcr spirit retired to the ' ghosts of her fathers in their liglit and airy halls.' Early in the morning of Monday, before five o'clock, we were again at work, and found we had been rewarded, the two of us — Sanders and his son doing the pulling — when we ceased at about half past nine o'clock, with twenty-seven very sizeable trout, that we made a point of carrying home with us to ' Auld Reekie,' some of which were much relished by a then prominent member of the Senatus Academicus, now, alas ! no more. My next fishing visit to Loch Awe occurred a few years later, and was very successful, as I succeeded, in the course of two long June days, in capturing so many as three remarkable specimens, and in losing two other fish, all of them fcrox^ one of them indeed a veritable giant, weighing a {kiw ounces more than sixteen pounds ! It is not so easy as some will imagine to describe how this work was accomplished, or the miles upon miles of hard pulling that was undergone before my labours were finished. There are said to be VOL. XXXIV. — NO. 232. c l6 IHK GRFAT LAKE TROUT INTERVIEWED. [!""€, on Loch Awe certain places which are the particular haunts of the great trout, but it was my misfortune, whenever these places were visited, never to find any of the fish at home. After sailing and fishing from four a.m. to about seven, varying the ground at a rate that was pairTful to the boatmen, the well-known rush was heard, and a greedy fish was at length secured ; one of the men asserted, from the noise, that he was a big one, and he proved to be correct ; the trout when brought to scale weighing a little over seventeen pounds. It was an artificial minnow that was the death of that gentleman, who gave my men, as well as myself, some trouble before he received the coup de grdce. As Mr. St. John so well says in one of his chapters of 'Sport ' in the Highlands' : 'A twenty-pound Salnio ferox is no ignoble ' foe to contend with, and when you have him at the end of a common ' fishing-line he appears to have the strength of a whale.' So thought I as 1 strained every nerve to secure my giant on the occasion referred to. What would some of your gentle London anglers — men who sit for half a day in a punt, happy in the reward of half a dozen gudgeon — say if they had to tackle a fifteen-pound ferox ? ' My conscience !' as Bailie Nicol Jarvie used to exclaim, but they would have a time of it ! The next one was less troublesome, and also much smaller, but still a fine fish ; it weighed nine pounds, and likewise fell a victim to a minnow. 