124 DOVE DALE REVISITED 



Mine host accompanied me this day up 

 the Dale. The Master had preceeded us ; 

 he had the key of the iron gate, and when 

 he got through he carefully locked it, to 

 keep out excursionists, as he said, and put 

 the key in his pocket. He assumed that 

 we had a duplicate key, which we had not. 

 What could we do ? Here we had to face 

 that iron gate again, as I had done in the 

 olden time. My friend, a giant in strength, 

 strove with all his might to lift that great iron 

 gate off its hinges, but it was not to be done. 

 There was nothing for it but to climb over or 

 to wade round the end of the wall in water 

 almost up to my chin. To climb over the 

 gate itself is impossible, but on the left of it 

 and between it and the precipitous rock is a 

 stone wall (as seen in the picture), and it is 

 surmounted by a frieze of iron spikes six inches 

 long. " Stone walls do not a prison make " 

 for such adventurers as we are, nor are we 

 inclined to regard iron bars as a cage. The 

 landlord scrambled over the spikes and I 

 followed. We landed safe, and we fished 

 away up the Dale. I caught a brace of 

 very fine trout by a mighty long cast at the 



