DOVE DALE REVISITED 113 



again. I fished for a grayling, and again I 

 hooked what turned out to be a beautiful trout ; 

 and so it was all the time ; we could catch 

 nothing but pesky trout, when we wanted 

 grayling. 



Sir Humphry Davy was fishing in the Teme 

 near Leintwardine, in the month of October, 

 when the following conversation occurs : 



" Poiet. I have basketed (to coin a word) 

 three trouts and six graylings. 



" Phys. And I have taken seven graylings. I 

 caught trout likewise, but not considering them 

 in proper season I returned them to the river." 

 Salmonia. 



In those early days of the nineteenth century 

 probably about 1825 the angler was a law 

 unto himself as regards close time, and the fore- 

 going conversation shows how that moral law 

 operated one " baskets " his trout, and the 

 other returns his to the river. 



F. C. Hofland, writing in 1839 in reference 

 to Dove Dale, says : 



" Thirty years since, in company with two 

 brother artists and anglers, I enjoyed in this 

 enchanting valley some of the happiest days of 

 my life. . . . We sallied forth every morning, 



8 



