216 SALMONIA. 



some rushes in your basket ; we shall at least 

 be able to send a dish of grayling to the pa- 

 tron of our sport at Downton. 



NOON. 



Hal. — Well, gentlemen, I hope you have 

 been successful. 



PoiET. — We have had good sport; but I 

 have been for some time reposing on this 

 bank, and admiring the scene below. How 

 fine are these woods ! How beautiful these 

 banks ! the hills in the distance approach to 

 the character of mountains ; and the pre- 

 cipitous cliff, which forms the summit of that 

 distant elevation, looks like a diluvian monu- 

 ment, and as if it had been bared and torn 

 by a deluge, which it had stemmed. 



Hal. — It is one of the Clee hills, and its 

 termination is basaltic, and such rocks usually 

 assume such forms. But though this spot is 

 beautiful, to-morrow I hope to show you a 

 more exquisite landscape, — cliffs and woods, 

 and gushing waters, of a character still more 

 romantic. We will return to our inn by a 

 shorter road ; but tell me, have you caught a 



