DOVE DALE REVISITED III 



Thursday, October 2nd. This was also a 

 cold and windy day. The Master, the Parson, 

 the Major, the Doctor, the Doctor's wife, and 

 the Poet went forth to fish, full as usual of 

 bright hope, some to the Manifold, others to 

 the Dove. To the latter went I, and my fidus 

 Achates, the landlord, went with me, he in 

 waders, I only in my knee boots. I found 

 myself in much the same predicament as 

 Painter in the following scene : 



"Painter. Halt, good sir; you do not expect 

 me to walk into the river ! 



"Angler. If you are resolved against it here 

 you may stay ; for you see how the river washes 

 the very basement of this perpendicular rock, 

 and climb you cannot. Come, sir, follow me 

 bravely, it is but * a spit and a stride ' ; or I'll 

 carry you pick-back." The River Dove. 



We wanted to cross the river at a certain 

 point, and as it was a long way up to the 

 bridge, he made nothing of taking me on his 

 back, and, like Friar Tuck and Robin Hood 

 crossing the river, we must have made a pretty 

 picture, had one of our young ladies chanced 

 to have been there with her Kodak. He 

 landed me safely. 



