108 ANGLING. 



delightful localities., which, cannot fail to inspire the contemplative 

 angler with the most lively emotions. When this stream has been 

 flooded by rains, we have seen large trouttakenout of it with minnows. 

 The river Dove is the great object of attraction among anglers 

 who visit this part of the kingdom. Its beantifnl scenery and fishing 

 capabilities make it a stream of more than usual interest. It was 

 here that Walton and Cotton iised to sojourn, when they now and 

 then left the smoke and turmoil of London and its suburban loca- 

 lities for their northern travels. ^ To go to Derbyshire two hundred 

 years ago, was no small or insignificant enterprise. These well- 

 known anglers of past times have celebrated the Dove in the 

 following lines : 



" Such streams Rome's yellow < Tiber cannot show, 

 The Iberian Tagus, or Ligurian Po ; 

 The Meuse, the Danube, and the Rhine, 

 Are puddle-waters all, compared with thine. 

 The Loire's pure streams yet too polluted are, 

 With thine much purer to compare ; 

 The rapid Garonne and the winding Seine 



Are both too mean. 



Eeloyed Dove, with thee 



To vie priority. 



Nay, Tame and Isis, when conjoined, submit, 

 And lay their trophies at thy silver feet." 



The Dove springs out of the mountain-range in the north-western 

 border of the county of Derby ; and from its rise to where it falls 

 into the Trent, it forms the boundary line between this county and 

 Staffordshire. The fishing in the Dove is first-rate ; not that the 

 trout are very large, but they are commonly of a fair size, and the 

 spprt is of that even and exhilarating character that most anglers 

 enjoy it much. Everything about the locality inspires pleasure. 

 The tackle required must be of the finest kind for the waters run 

 clear, and the high banks on each side screen the streams from the 

 influence of the wind. 



Dove Dale has been, from time immemorial, a subject of admira- 

 tion and eulogy among all classes of tourists. " If we enter the 

 Dale by the north of Thorpe Cloud, a lofty hill, with an interest- 

 ing-looking village at its base we shall obtain some delightful 

 views of the county. There is a singular character of wild sim 

 plicity about it which makes a deep impression on the feelings, and 

 brings up to the surface the contemplative and reflective powers 

 those vague and shadowy abstractions which most men have of 

 vacuity and chaos. We stand and gaze, almost without the faculty 

 of either utterance or active thought. After, however, the first 

 sensations have passed away, we begin to scan the landscape as if 

 it were by piecemeal, and to detect and define the individual 

 beauties of which the whole is composed. The eye fixes itself upon 



