A Summer On The Test

By John Waller Hills and Norman Wilkinson, (Artist)

London: Philip Alan & Co., 1924. First Edition Deluxe. 4to. pp. [xiii], [1 leaf], 198pp., [1 leaf]. 12 drypoints by Norman Wilkinson including frontis; with all captioned tissue guards; printer’s device at end. Uncut in publisher’s cloth, bright gilt titles on un-faded spine. First Edition, one of 300 numbered copies signed by the Author, John Hills and this being #59 of 300 copies of the Limited Edition. Scarce. A Classic work in excellent condition.

No author has surpassed this description of classic chalk stream fishing, and very few authors knew half as much about the history of their sport as J.W. Hills. Summer on the Test as he describes it, seems like a fabulous vision from the golden age of fly fishing. Of all the rivers which have been subject to decline and deterioration, the Test must rank near the top. In the 1920s, the river ran crystal clear through the buttercup meadows and brown trout were there in profusion. Now, those days seem impossible to recover. This book enables us to make an estimate of what it was once like, and what we have lost. The heart of this extraordinary book is an account of a season on the Test, a season into which is compressed a lifetime of well-observed experiences while trying to put a Sherry Spinner or a Houghton Ruby into the mouth of a fat, wise Hampshire trout.— Chris Camuto (Gray’s Sporting Journal Sept ‘97)