Out of the Chalk. 83 



the Royal Exchange as this quiet old-fashioned little town, 

 which the railway has never yet invaded. The great chest- 

 nut tree and the antique brick bridge, the old church and 

 the rookery, are pictures upon which the eye never wearies 

 of resting, and the country around, rising boldly into sweep- 

 ing downs, is full of lovely prospects, very varying in 

 character, but always grateful to the observer who appre- 

 ciates Nature in her soberer and more contented moods. 



In the mill stream, above the hotel water, there are stores 

 of trout which no man is permitted to disturb. At the head 

 of this stream there stands a great white mill that supplies 

 the town with the music of rushing water, which issues with 

 great velocity from the wheelhouse, gallops along by the side 

 of the road, disappears under the roadway, and comes into 

 view again considerably sobered down ; thence it flows in 

 tranquil ripples through the hotel garden, through private 

 fields where it is heavily fringed with trees, and by-and-by 

 it meanders prettily through half a mile of meadow land 

 which also belongs to the hotel fishery. 



Fortunately for the Lion water, the intervening section 

 between the bottom of the lawn and the end of the private 

 fields is carefully preserved, and so overhung with trees that 

 many of the fish can defy the angler. The trout, following 

 their natural instincts, work their way up stream, and so 

 come within the fair range of the hotel angler. As for the 

 little millstream beyond the bridge, though it is less than a 

 hundred yards long, it literally swarms with large well-fed 

 fish ; they are one of the sights of the place, and are so used 

 to the profane eye of the public that they bear it with philo- 

 sophic equanimity. At the lower end a notice-board is 

 affixed to the wall, requesting the passer-by not to feed the 

 trout. You may look over the iron railing and see three or 

 four heavy specimens directly beneath you, while close to 



