Pisc. Believe me, no: and such as are intimately acquainted with that gentleman, know him to be a man who will not endure to be treated like a stranger. So that his acceptation of my poor entertainments, has ever been a pure effect of his own humility and good nature, and nothing else. But, sir, we are now going down the Spittle Hill' into the town, and therefore let me importune you suddenly to resolve, and most earnestly not to deny me.

Viat. In truth, sir, I am so overcome by your bounty, that I find I cannot; but must render myself wholly to be disposed by you.

Pisc. Why that's heartily and kindly spoken, and I as heartily thank you: and, being you have abandoned yourself to my conduct, we will only call and drink a glass on horseback at the Talbot, and away.

Viat. I attend you. But what pretty river is this, that runs under this stone bridge? Has it a name?

Pisc. Yes, 'tis called Henmore, and has in it both trout and grayling; but you will meet with one or two better And so soon as we are past through the town, I will endeavour, by such discourse as best likes you, to pass away the time till you come to your ill quarters.

anon.

Viat. We can talk of nothing with which I shall be more delighted, than of rivers and angling.

Pisc. Let those be the subjects then. But we are now come to the Talbot.3 What will you drink, sir, ale or

wine ?

1 "Before entering Ashbourn, we took the old road (to the left of the turnpike) down Spittle Hill, which was discontinued about four years since, for the present improved one. The view from this hill is highly picturesque, the town below, and the hill of Thorpe-cloud, &c., forming the vicinity of Dove Dale, make such a composition as I have seen from the hands of Gaspar Poussin."-Alexander's Journey, Sept. 9, 1815.

2 At that time it was commonly so called, because it flowed through Henmoor; but its proper name is Schoo Brook. See a singular contest regarding the right of fishing in this brook, as reported in Burrows, 2279. Richard Hayne, Esq. of Ashborn v. Uriah Corden, Esq. of Clifton.-H. It has now neither trout nor grayling in it, and is a mere ditch of running water, in which the boys of Ashbourn commence their angling career by fishing for minnows.-ED.

3 The Talbot stood in the market-place, and was the first hostelry in the town. About the year 1705, a wing of the building being divided off for a private dwelling, the far-famed inn was reduced to an inferior pot-house;

Viat. Nay, I am for the country liquor, Derbyshire ale, if you please; for a man should not, methinks, come from London to drink wine in the Peak.

Pisc. You are in the right: and yet, let me tell you, you may drink worse French wine in many taverns in London, than they have sometimes at this house. What, ho! bring us a flagon of your best ale. And now, sir, my service to you, a good health to the honest gentleman you know of; and you are welcome into the Peak.

Viat. I thank you, sir, and present you my service again, and to all the honest brothers of the angle.

Pisc. I'll pledge you, sir: so, there's for your ale, and farewell. Come, sir, let us be going: for the sun grows low, and I would have you look about you as you ride; for you will see an odd country, and sights that will seem strange to you.

and it was totally demolished in 1786.-H. [The present handsome structure was erected on its site by Mr. Langdale.]

Pisc. junior. So, sir, now we have got to the top of the hill out of town, look about you, and tell me how you like the country.

Viat. Bless me! what mountains are here! Are we not in Wales?

Pisc. No, but in almost as mountainous a country; and yet these hills, though high, bleak, and craggy, breed and feed good beef and mutton above ground, and afford good store of lead within.

Viat. They had need of all these commodities to make amends for the ill landscape: but I hope our way does not lie over any of these, for I dread a precipice.

Pisc. Believe me, but it does, and down one especially, that will appear a little terrible to a stranger; though the way is passable enough, and so passable, that we, who are natives of these mountains, and acquainted with them, disdain to alight.

Viat. I hope though, that a foreigner is privileged to use his own discretion, and that I may have the liberty to entrust

my neck to the fidelity of my own feet, rather than to those of my horse: for I have no more at home.

Pisc. 'Twere hard else. But in the meantime, I think 'twere best, while this way is pretty even, to mend our pace, that we may be past that hill I speak of, to the end your apprehension may not be doubled for want of light to discern the easiness of the descent.

Viat. I am willing to put forward as fast as my beast will give me leave; though I fear nothing in your company. But what pretty river is this we are going into?

Pisc. Why this, sir, is called Bentley brook,' and is full of very good trout and grayling; but so encumbered with wood in many places, as is troublesome to an angler.

Viat. Here are the prettiest rivers, and the most of them in this country that ever I saw : do you know how many

you have in the country?

Pisc. I know them all, and they were not hard to reckon, were it worth the trouble: but the most considerable of them I will presently name you. And to begin where we now are, for you must know we are now upon the very skirts of Derbyshire; we have, first, the river Dove, that we shall come to by and by, which divides the two counties of Derby and Stafford, for many miles together; and is so

2

1 A narrow swift stream two miles beyond Ashbourn, on the old road : still pretty well supplied with trout and grayling.-ED.

2 Mr. Rhodes, in his elegant work entitled "Peak Scenery," says, that the river Dove is one of "the most beautiful streams that ever gave a charm to landscape; and that whilst passing along the first, and least picturesque divisions of the dale, the ear is soothed with its murmurings, and the eye delighted with the brilliancy of its waters. In some places it flows smoothly and solemnly along, but never slowly; in others, its motion is rapid, impetuous, and even turbulent. The ash, the hazel, the slender osier, and the graceful birch, hung with honeysuckles and wild roses, dip their pensile branches in the stream, and break its surface into beauteous ripples. Huge fragments of stone, toppled from the rocks above, and partly covered with moss and plants that haunt and love the water, divide the stream into many currents; round these it circles in innumerable eddies, which give life and motion to a great variety of aquatic plants that grow in the bed of the river. Occasionally large stones are thrown across the stream, and interrupt its progress; over and among these it rushes rapidly into the pool below, forming, in its frequent falls, a series of fairy cascades, about which it foams and sparkles with a beauty and brilliancy peculiar to this lively and romantic river."-ED.

called from the swiftness of its current,' and that swiftness occasioned by the declivity of its course, and by being so straitened in that course betwixt the rocks; by which, and those very high ones, it is hereabout, for four or five miles, confined into a very narrow stream. A river that, from a contemptible fountain, which I can cover with my hat, by the confluence of other rivers, rivulets, brooks, and rills, is swelled, before it falls into Trent, a little below Egginton, where it loses the name,-to such a breadth and depth, as to be in most places navigable, were not the passage frequently interrupted with fords and wears: and has as fertile banks as any river in England, none excepted. And this river, from its head, for a mile or two, is a black water, as all the rest of the Derbyshire rivers of note originally are; for they all spring from the mosses, but is in a few miles travel so clarified, by the addition of several clear, and very great springs, bigger than itself, which gush out of the lime-stone rocks, that before it comes to my house, which is but six or seven miles from its source, you will find it one of the purest crystalline streams you have seen.

2

Viat. Does Trent spring in these parts ??

Pisc. Yes, in these parts; not in this county, but somewhere towards the upper end of Staffordshire, I think not far from a place called Trentham; and thence runs down

1 Sir Oswald Moseley says: "The Dove was so called from the British word 'dwfr' (water); and the Derwent, from 'dwfr' and 'gwin' (white); i. e., white water."

2 Between Beresford Hall and Ashbourn lies Dove Dale, whose crested clifts and swift torrents are again noticed by Mr. Cotton in his "Wonders of the Peak." Through this singularly deep valley the Dove runs for about two miles, changing its course, its motion, and its appearance perpetually; never less than ten, and rarely so many as twenty yards in width; making a continued noise by rolling over or falling among loose stones. The rocks which form its sides are heaved up in enormous piles, sometimes connected with each other and sometimes detached; some perforated in natural cavities, others adorned with foliage; with here and there a tall rock, having nothing to relieve the bareness of its appearance but a mountain-ash flourishing at the top. The grandeur of its scenery is probably unrivalled in England.-ELLIS. In opposition to this, Mr. Rennie says, "it is utterly ridiculous to talk of the 'grandeur' of Dove Dale. My impression, on visiting it in 1817, was, that it is prettily romantic-on so small a scale, that it might almost be artificially imitated."