114 DOVE DALE REVISITED 



carrying with us provisions for the day, and two 

 or three bottles of Mr. Wood's brisk, light 

 bottled ale, together with our fishing tackle and 

 sketching apparatus, and there we spent eight 

 successive days (Sunday excepted) in alternately 

 sketching, painting, fishing, and rabbit-shooting. 

 We generally broke our meal at one o'clock in 

 the day, either at Reynard's Hall, a picturesque 

 cave in the rocks, or under the shade of the 

 alder trees. ... At this period (circa 1809) 

 fishing in Dove Dale was as free as it had 

 formerly been to our father Walton and his 

 disciples, but the water is now strictly preserved 

 by Jesse Watts Russel, Esq., of Ham Hall." 

 Angler's Manual, 1839. 



Friday, October 3rd, was as usual a very bad 

 day. I did not fish, but took a walk with my 

 landlord to see Ham Hall and the lovely scenery 

 surrounding it. 



The village of Ham is well worth seeing. It 

 is, as Walton says of one of his Lea scenes, 

 " too pretty to look on but only on holidays." 

 We saw it on a damp, cloudy day it was not 

 brightened up by a solitary glimpse of sunshine ; 

 but even under such disadvantages it has a 

 most attractive appearance. In the midst of 

 the village stands a very beautiful cross, erected 



