THE RIVER-SIDE. 45 



Otter. Perhaps you are right, but you judge only 

 with the pictorial eye. I am taken with both, and 

 admire each the more for the contrast's sake. It 

 is so also in regard to those hills. One is huge and 

 uniform, coated with heath and verdure ; knolls, 

 pleasant, pastoral, and sunny, scattered over it ; its 

 summit round, smooth, and shining ; its base thick 

 and sovereign-like. The other is a mere rock, of more 

 contracted dimensions ; but still vast, having the 

 forehead of a Gorgon ; scarred with ravines ; and on 

 its side, a torrent of shivered granites, arrested 

 singularly in their descent. Altogether, indeed, it is a 

 motley but pleasant scene. 



Hackle. It is so, and under skilful hands might 

 form a lovely sketch. This river is the spirit of the 

 picture ; it glides into it and out of it with a dream- 

 like imperceptibility ; here sunned and sparkling, 

 there shaded and sombre. I admire much the long, 

 still, shadowy pool, situated under yonder cliff, on 

 which you may discern the grey and ivied battle- 

 ments of a feudal castle. 



Otter. I have killed ofttimes a good salmon at the 

 upper part of it, where there are two or three choice 

 eddies, and a delectable stream. At this moment I 

 perceive two fishers, not of the worthiest sort, busily 

 employed in harrowing it with the double rod. 



Leister. Let us up and put an end to their sport, if 

 this nefarious manner of angling can so be termed. 



Gaff. You advise well. They deserve a severe 



