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A fierce battle is said to have raged on the banks of the Kennet between West Saxons and Danes, where now anglers whip the stream for the fat trout that this part of Kennet breeds. The historic Bear Inn was the lodging of William of Orange on the night of December 6, 1688, when he received the messengers of James II. Hungerford Church is now of small interest.
He now made offer of the second daughter of Spain to Prince Charles; and, that he might render the temptation irresistible to the necessitous monarch, he gave hopes of an immense fortune, which should attend the princess. * Kennet, p 703, 748 Rushworth, vol. i. p. 2. La Boderie, vol. ii. p. 30. v Franklyn, p, 71.
* Journ. 2d, 11th December; 5th March, 1606. Parliament. Hist. vol. v. p. 247. Kennet, p. 681. But the business which chiefly occupied the commons during this session, was the abolition of wardships and purveyance; prerogatives which had been more or less touched on every session during the whole reign of James.
v Franklyn, p. 80. Rushworth, vol. i. p. 89. Kennet, p. 769. Meanwhile Gregory XV., who granted the dispensation, died; and Urban VIII. was chosen in his place.
To such a fisherman, the tale of Mr. *, of Ramsbury, who is said to have killed in one day in his own streams on Kennet, seventy-six trout, all above a pound, sounds like a traveller's imagination: yet the fact is, I believe, accurately true. This, however, is an extraordinary case upon an extraordinary stream. And now comes another and an important question.
The fabric of a chantry chapel at the other end of the village dates from 1334, but it was much altered in externals in the early eighteenth century, when it was turned into a school. The Bath-London road that we have travelled from Marlborough now approaches the most beautiful stretches of the Kennet, lined with fine parklands on the gentle northern slopes of the valley.
Though there may be respectable angling for accomplished artists thereabouts in late April and May, the true sport does not begin till the May-fly comes in, which he generally does in June. Then the Kennet is a lovely and seductive spectacle to the angler.
All the northern part of the county the Thames valley and Vale of White Horse, and the hill-district which separates these from the Vale of Kennet was at that time pierced only by cross-country roads, and remained during the pre-railroad era one of the most primitive districts of the West of England.
* Parl. Hist. vol. v. p. 484. Kennet, p. 749. It was not from his negotiations with the emperor or the duke of Bavaria, that James expected any success in his project of restoring the palatine: his eyes were entirely turned towards Spain; and if he could effect his son's marriage with the infanta, he doubted not but that, after so intimate a conjunction, this other point could easily be obtained.
Guns, dogs, traps set under water so as not to be scented; all modes of attack are pressed into the service, and it is not often that he escapes. When traces of an otter were found, a little while since, in the Kennet he had left his mark on the back of a trout the fact was recorded with as much anxiety as if a veritable wolf had appeared.
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