THE WASHLANDERS: TALES OF THE WILDFOWLERS, SHEPHERDS and EEL CATCHERS OF THE NENE WASHES. By Phil Gray.

1990 1st edition. 4to (177 x 232mm). Ppviii,184. B/w photographs, illustrations, end-paper maps. Green boards, spine titled in gilt.

Tales of wildfowling, fishing and skating on the Nene Washes. "The Nene Washes, formed as part of a plan to improve the drainage of the Fens in the early eighteenth century, provide a home for geese and other wildfowl as well as grazing for cattle. Today the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds owns much of Whittlesey Wash; in earlier days the land was the haunt of wildfowlers and eel fishermen. It is these wildfowlers and fishermen, who found both their livelihood and their sport in this wild waste of reeds and tall grasses, that are the subject of Phil Gray's book. They were men who were always opposed to anything that might curtail either their business or their sport, and in the old days things were apt to become quite lively whenever their interests were at stake. Many of these stories of shooting and fishing are told in the words of men like George "Wigger" Hailstone, Bert Weldon and Bill Benstead, who remember going in search of wildfowl on the flooded washes in their gunpunts in days when a good shot with the big gun might result in a hamper of plovers or duck going off to Leadenhall Market. Rough fellows they were, but they loved their sport and they loved the washlands."