SPORT fishing in Dartford Creek, and there are still ponds in the neighbourhood of Dart- ford holding carp, roach, perch, and bream, many of which run to a good size. The lake at the Phoenix Paper Mills contains bream, and visitors to the district can com- bine angling for trout and roach in the Darent between Crayford and Dartford with a visit to the water referred to. Per- mission can usually be obtained. The Hythe Military Canal is a favourite resort with many anglers. It contains roach, rudd, tench, perch, carp, pike, and eels ; and the bream and tench fishing is often marked by excellent sport in June, July, and August. Not a few anglers, particularly club fishers from London, pursue their sport by night in the warm months, and at times are rewarded with heavy bags of bream, tench, and eels. Near Hythe a member of the South West Piscatorials, Battersea, early in the summer of 1906 caught more tench one night than he could conveniently carry to the station — viz., 124 lb. The fish taken numbered fifty-eight, and in the evening they were on view at the angler's club in London. Tickets (l/. a day) are required by anglers in this district, and are to be obtained at the Swan Inn at Hythe. In the autumn and winter the canal furnishes sport for pike anglers, live-baiting and spinning both proving success- ful. One of the best reaches for pike is to be found at Ham Street. Many good pike have been taken here, and Mr. L. J. Weston, a member of the Hastings Angling Association, in the autumn of 1906 killed a 20 lb. fish. The water in the canal is rather shallow in many parts, and the finest tackle that can safely be used is to be preferred. Anglers may be interested to learn that it is to the French that they must be grateful for the existence of the Hythe canal. Mr. Beavan in his book ' Fishes I have Known ' tells us that during our tremendous struggle with the French in the early years of the last century, certain precautious were taken by the military authorities, in anticipation of a descent upon the south coast by our gallant foes. A chain of martello towers was one feature ; a fresh-water canal between S.ind- gate and Appledore was another. Mr. Beavan's fishing experiences in the canal were not par- ticularly happy. The waterway [he says] has always been attractive to boating men and also to anglers, as it is reputed to be not only well stocked with roach, bream, and perch, but to contain a few pike. For the sum of, I think, two shillings per week, leave and licence is granted to angle for any of the above fish, but leave and licence is also granted to rowing boats on the canal, and so shallow is it, as a rule, that the oar-blades churn up the mud at each stroke. As the trippers in their gondolas pass the wretched angler on the bank, spoiling his ' swim ' and sending his float out of sight, unparliamentary language is provoked, and the proverbial ' gentleness ' of Izaak Walton's art is belied. But Mr. Beavan must have been singularly unlucky, and the big catch referred to above has been made since he drew so mournful a picture of Hythe and its canal. Probably the most remarkable fish ever taken in Kentish waters is that which is referred to in the following paragraph which appeared in The Globe, 26 September 1904 : ' The Press Association says that a novel capture has been made in the river Medway at Rochester. A man named Buckingham went to witness the launch of a barge, and noticing a fish leap from the water and fly along the surface, he struck at it with his walking stick, with the result that he was able to capture it. It proved to be a fine specimen of the flying-fish, measuring fifteen inches in length. The wing-fins are very promi- nent. It is most unusual for so tropical a fish to come to our chilly shores.' Stray pilot fish have been captured in Ramsgate Harbour, probably following a ship.i CRICKET No county has a greater cricket history than Kent. As Lord Harris observed in his preface to the History of Kent County Cricket (Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1907), which must be the standard work on the subject, ' Kent has probably put good elevens into the field over a longer period than any other county.' Research shows that the earliest recorded match played within ' the garden of England ' was at Mailing in 1705, when eleven gentle- men of the west part of the county of Kent opposed as many of Chatham for eleven guineas a man. In 1723 the championship had already apparently come thither, for in that year the Earl of Oxford speaks of ' the sport of cricket, which of all the people of England the Kentish folk are most renowned for, and of all the Kentish men the men of Dart- ford lay claim to the greatest excellence.' In the match between the Prince of Wales Arthur H. Beavan, Fishes I have Known, 83. 509
