DEDICATORY LETTER 

 TO MY DAUGHTER AND MY GRANDDAUGHTER 



/T was with you, my ALICE, that I had many a 

 pleasant ramble in the woods and over the rocks 

 which encompass the winding " Dove " ; with you I 

 climbed up steep Thorpe Cloud, and scrambled over 

 Bunster ; with you I caught glimpses of the sweetly 

 flowing " Wye" at Haddon Hall and Row s ley ; and it 

 was with you, that together we explored its sources and 

 encountered its noxious fumes at Buxton ; and as for you, 

 my little LORN A, this small book, if it serves no other 

 purpose, may serve to remind you, when you grow older, 

 ihat once upon a time, when you were not yet three years 

 M, you romped with your old grandfather and the good 

 dog " Rattler" on the green grass under the apple-trees ; 

 rode with him on the donkeys ; and fished with him in 

 the river ! flow you, like another amateur angler, were 

 fully equipped with his walking-stick for your rod, two 

 yards of twine for your line, a pin for your hook, and a 

 battered metal minnow for your fish ! How you laughed 

 and crowed as you threw your line into the water, and 

 how gleefully you landed your little tin " tout ! " To 

 you, my daughter, who sympathized with my disasters 

 and laughed at my adventures, and so encouraged me to 

 -write and print these letters ; and to you, my smallest of 

 piscators, I dedicate this little volume, in remembrance 

 of our pleasant holidays in Dove Dale. 



E. M. 

 LONDON, 

 September n//r, 1884. 



