138 DOVE DALE REVISITED 



The scene is altered now; the neglect I noticed 

 then seems to have been perpetuated, but there 

 is now an indication of a revival. 



Next on our pilgrimage down Beresford Dale 

 we came upon Pike Pool. The Pike stands in 

 the midst of its pool, more covered with moSs, 

 and its head now overshadowed by the branches 

 of trees which at the time of my last visit were 

 not so prominent. 



On the Staffordshire side, high up among 

 the rocks, is a cleft called Cotton's Cave, 

 and not far away is " Lover's Leap," a sheer 

 and awful precipice much grander than that 

 in Dove Dale. On the top of it is what 

 was once, perhaps, a garden where the two 

 anglers sat and smoked their pipes (so says 

 Mr. Sheldon). 



In the fifth edition of "The Compleat Angler" 

 it was delightful to find the following paragraph 

 written by Izaak Walton himself in a marginal 

 note to Cotton's volume : 



" It is a rock in the fashion of a spire steeple, 

 and almost as big. It stands in the midst of 

 the river Dove, and not far from Mr. Cotton's 

 house, below which place this delicate river 

 takes a swift career betwixt many mighty rocks. 



