A MANOR HOUSE IN DEER LAND. 209 



The rivers of Somerset have stony bottoms, 

 so that the eels can be seen moving about 

 like black snakes. They glide over the stones 

 at the bottom, exactly as a snake glides over 

 the surface of the ground, and when still 

 remain in a sinuous form. Trout swim over 

 and past them. All their motions can be 

 watched, while in the brooks and streams 

 of other counties, where the bottom is of mud 

 or dark sandy loam, they are rarely seen. 

 There they seem to move through the mud, 

 or its dark colour conceals them. Getting 

 into the water, men move the stones till 

 they find an eel, and then thrust a fork 

 through it, the only way to hold it. 



Some distance up the streamlet in a coombe, 

 wooded each side to a great height, are 

 three trout ponds. Ferns grow green and 

 thick where the water falls over the hatch, 

 and by the shore flourishes the tall reed-mace 

 (so rarely distinguished from the lesser bul- 



