Page:Notes on the Anti-Corn Law Struggle.djvu/229

 The words used in the letter are "there is what is called a fisher's path from the source to the mouth of the river, and this gives a manifest right of way from time immemorial to the angler." The note I made at the time is this: "An objection to a fisher's path is that when all the population of a populous town have access to this 'fisher's path,' when the path approaches very near to the landowner's mansion or dwelling-house, the owner or landholder has surely a right to demand that the law shall protect his privacy against invasion. I know several cases where a trout or salmon stream runs through a private park in which is the owner's mansion-house. If the 'fisher's path' doctrine be law there is an end to all privacy in the life of any one who has a trout stream running through his park. And a blessing is thus, by this 'fisher's path' theory, turned into a curse.

At the same time it must be observed that within the last half century the landholders have become much more strict than they were before in prohibiting angling even for trout, to say nothing of salmon; and their proceedings in that matter, added to their game preservation being destructive of the small crops of the peasant tenants, of which an account written from personal observation will