THE NOJ1TH OF ENGLAND. Ill 



"The meads are decked by Flora's hand, 



Her gifts perfume the gale, 

 Aiid Bacchus dyes with magic wand 

 The floods of Ribblesdale. 



" The sweet though fatal power of love, 



Which sighing swains bewail, 

 No witching beauties ere could prove 

 Like those of Ribblesdale. 



ct TVas here the gallant feats befell 



Which fill the poet's tale ; 



For all the deeds romances tell 



Were done in Ribblesdale. 



"Be court or city other's lot 



While angling scenes I hail; 

 Be mine, in some sequestered spot, 

 The charms of Eibblesdale." 



The most highly esteemed spots of the Ribble for comfortable 

 trout-fishing, are from Clitheroe to the town of Settle. The 

 county is open and pleasant. 



There are fine streams for fly, in the higher sections of the 

 Wharf e; and the minnow after a flood is a deadly bait. This 

 river rises out of the mountainous parts of the county near Mar- 

 dale Moor, and enters the Ouse a short distance above Selby. 

 For several miles after it leaves its first springs, the streams are 

 very fine and numerous, and are beautifully constructed by the 

 hand of nature herself, for the facilities of easj; and comfortable fly- 

 fishing. Large trout are occasionally met with ; but the general 

 run of the Wharf dale fish are below the average of the trout com- 

 monly obtained in many of the rivers of the south of England. 

 Care should be taken not to fish with flies of too large a size ; and 

 anglers will find that the palmers, both red and black, are well 

 suited to these waters. 



The Swale is a good stream. It springs from lofty hills in the 

 vicinity of Kirby-Stephen, in Westmoreland. Catterick Bridge is 

 an excellent fishing station on the river ; where everything that 

 can render travelling comfortable can be readily and reasonably 

 obtained. Ten or twelve dozen of fish are no uncommon day's 

 work, when the waters are in full trim in this neighbourhood. 

 The same kinds of flies that answer for the Wharfe, will do here. 



There are only two rivers in the county of Durham of any 

 great fishing repute, the Tees, and the Wear. The first enters the 

 sea at Stockton, and the latter at Sunderland. They each have a 

 range of fly-fishing water of full forty miles. The Tees, in its 

 higher sections, floors through a moorish and wild district called 



