ciently provocative of excitement, and the desire to avenge their losses to make any trouble in the fulfilment seem small.

It may seem strange to many, as it did to me, that foxhounds should chase one of their own breed, but the fact remains that they did so.*

*The occurrence above related is really a fact, and caused a great deal of excitement in the neighbourhood at the time. My account of it is taken from good authority, and I have since had it confirmed in every particular by eye-witnesses of the hunt. The article first appeared in "London Society," and was copied in the local papers, so that if I had failed in telling the tale as it was told to me, I should soon have met with contradiction. The dog is stuffed, and I believe may be seen at an inn at Llandrillo.-G. C. D.

XI.

VIRNIEWSIDE

VIRNIEWSIDE has seen some of my best remembered wanderings. To me the Virniew is one of the most attractive of rivers. Never, in all its course, so boisterous as its neighbour, the sacred Dee, you are not overwhelmed by the roar with which the latter deadens your angling faculties, and absorbs you in oblivious reverie as you stand gazing at the tumultuously rushing water.

My first acquaintance with it commenced when I was about thirteen years old. A friend and I came upon it at its source, after a toilsome walk over the hills from Bala. It was a terribly hot day. We had lost our way more than once, and had been chevied by a diminutive black bull of exceedingly fierce aspect and savage disposition. After our troubles it was

delicious to come upon the tiny, lucid stream, and follow it down all the way to Llanwddyn, never losing the sound of its cheerful murmur. The inn we stayed

at I forget the name is endeared to my memory by the excellent provender set before us, and the moderateness of the charges. After our meal we visited the stream, here of a good size, and flowing for some distance through very boggy land. The trout were numerous and large, and, from what I hear, have not deteriorated since. Few people seem to ascend so high, and I believe the place is comparatively free from the crowd of Lancashire anglers, who literally swarm on Virniewside at Easter. It was at this place that an eminent solicitor of my acquaintance went poaching-in all innocence, though, for he was no angler. Perched astride the shoulders of a Welshman who knew the bog, none of his clients would have recognized their staid adviser, as he eagerly watched the operations of a gang of netters sweeping the stream. With his fingers clenched in the red hair of his twofooted steed, our friend tracked the trout to their holes, and was with difficulty restrained from taking a header after a three-pounder that threatened to elude the nets.

From Llanwddyn to Meifod we have twenty miles or more of good trout-water. With this part I am but

little acquainted. Above Meifod the river is increased by the accession of the Banw, by some called the true Virniew. For exactness, I ought here to state that the name of the river is properly spelt "Vyrnwy," but I prefer following the English style, which gives a better idea to a "Sassenach" of the pronunciation. Below Meifod are still some good trout reaches, but the pike are gaining an ascendancy which seriously interferes with the welfare of the red-spotted gentlemen. I heard of a Manchester man taking an enormous number of small jack with the minnow one Easter week. As far as I can see, there are no very large

ones.

Above Pontyscowrhyd weir are some excellent deeps and back-waters for pike, and some good ground for wildfowl. A few winters ago I shot a bird here which was wholly new to me, being, I believe, rare so far north. I had to retrieve it myself off some rotten ice, over which I had to crawl at full length. It was a fine specimen of the water-rail. It was here also that a friend of mine got bogged, and had to be hauled out with ropes, minus his wading boots. A little lower down, I once counted more than twenty salmon on one ford, and picked up half as many lying dead on the banks. This is not an uncommon sight on the Virniew. On the first day of the season, and

a few days after this, I saw the river netted for a considerable distance above and below this ford, and not a single fish of any kind was caught. The next fishing station is Llansaintffraid, and for a long way above the weir are deep stretches of water, that just above the mill being particularly deep.

I believe this water holds plenty of pike, though I never had much sport in it myself. The last time I was there, not very recently, the water was dotted with trimmers quite allowable, perhaps, when the object is to thin the pike and preserve the trout, but, nevertheless, not at all pleasant to any one who carries a trolling rod. From Llansaintffraid to the mouth of the river Tanat I have always had my best sport with the pike. There are two spots where I rarely failed to have a run-one just opposite the first bush going up-stream from, and on the same side as, the Tanat, and just where the deep begins to tail off into a rapid; and the other about eighty yards higher, where some sunken trees project into the stream. It was a little above this last spot that nine of the largest perch I ever saw were caught by a fellow-angler, one bright, hot summer's afternoon, when the water was perfectly clear. The shoal of fish slowly circled round the bait, and cunning Griffith guided the worm accommodatingly to the noses of the largest.