either
to contradict or affirm this statement. I simply offer it.

It is an ancient place, Streatley, dating back, like most river-side
towns and villages, to British and Saxon times. Goring is not nearly so
pretty a little spot to stop at as Streatley, if you have your choice;
but it is passing fair enough in its way, and is nearer the railway in
case you want to slip off without paying your hotel bill.

CHAPTER XVII.

Washing day.--Fish and fishers.--On the art of angling.--A conscientious
fly-fisher.--A fishy story.

[Picture: Washing line] We stayed two days at Streatley, and got our
clothes washed. We had tried washing them ourselves, in the river, under
George's superintendence, and it had been a failure. Indeed, it had been
more than a failure, because we were worse off after we had washed our
clothes than we were before. Before we had washed them, they had been
very, very dirty, it is true; but they were just wearable. _After_ we
had washed them--well, the river between Reading and Henley was much
cleaner, after we had washed our clothes in it, than it was before. All
the dirt contained in the river between Reading and Henley, we collected,
during that wash, and worked it into our clothes.

The washerwoman at Streatley said she felt she owed it to herself to
charge us just three times the usual prices for that wash. She said it
had not been like washing, it had been more in the nature of excavating.

We paid the bill without a murmur.

The neighbourhood of Streatley and Goring is a great fishing centre.
There is some excellent fishing to be had here. The river abounds in
pike, roach, dace, gudgeon, and eels, just here; and you can sit and fish
for them all day.

Some people do. They never catch them. I never knew anybody catch
anything, up the Thames, except minnows and dead cats, but that has
nothing to do, of course, with fishing! The local fisherman's guide
doesn't say a word about catching anything. All it says is the place is
"a good station for fishing;" and, from what I have seen of the district,
I am quite prepared to bear out this statement.

There is no spot in the world where you can get more fishing, or where
you can fish for a longer period. Some fishermen come here and fish for
a day, and others stop and fish for a month. You can hang on and fish
for a year, if you want to: it will be all the same.

The _Angler's Guide to the Thames_ says that "jack and perch are a