DAYS IN DOVE DALE 37 



my beauties before their eyes, I need not 

 relate. Two hours after my trout had been 

 disporting themselves in " The Dove " were 

 they placed before me at dinner, cooked in 

 the way they only know how at " The Izaak." 



I have tasted trout from all parts many a 

 time, but never before have I tasted anything 

 to equal the delicate, delicious flavour of these 

 of my own catching. 1 I must say that the 



1 The flavour of " Dove " trout is noted far and wide, 

 and presents, in this respect, a remarkable contrast to 

 that of the trout in the neighbouring 'i Manifold," which 

 cannot be compared with it for sweetness and delicacy 

 the latter has a somewhat earthy taste, probably derived 

 from the long underground course of that river. What 

 says our old friend Charles Cotton ? 



" Pise. And now, sir, what think you of our river 

 'Dove?' 



" Viat. I think it to be the best trout river in 

 England ; and am so far in love with it, that if it were 

 mine, and that I could keep it to myself, I would not 

 exchange that water for all the land it runs over, to be 

 totally debarred from it. 



"Pise. That compliment to the river speaks you a 

 true lover of the art of angling. . . . And now, sir, I 

 will dress you this dish of fish for your dinner. . . . Now, 

 sir, what say you ? am I a tolerable cook, or no ? 



" Viat. So good a one that I did never eat so good 

 fish in my life. This fish is infinitely better than any I 

 ever tasted of the kind in my life. 5 Tis quite another 

 thing than our trouts about London." 



