8o THE TROUT ARE RISING 



Shrewsbury, where Tern joins Severn. Few 

 pedestrians pass over that bridge at Market Dray- 

 ton without proving the soundness of the second 

 of the two well-known objects of bridge-building, 

 which are : (i) for getting across rivers ; (2) for 

 pausing and looking over parapets at the water 

 to see if the trout are rising. 



Matters important in the history of Old Eng- 

 land have been enacted by and near Ternside ; 

 and through the generations Staffordshire and 

 Shropshire men from these parts have gone over- 

 seas to some purpose. <( Clay lies still, but 

 blood's a rover." 



L Seneca advised : " Where a spring rises, or 

 a river flows, there should we build altars and 

 offer sacrifices." If you want to build an altar or 

 offer sacrifices at the source of the Tern, you will 

 have to go into Staffordshire, to a spot called 

 Blackbrook, near Maer, a few miles from New- 

 castle- under - Lyme. Hereabouts the coaches 

 used to run, Whitmore way. The Black Brook 

 meanders until, widening, it becomes the Tern. 

 One of the places of note in this district is Wil- 

 loughbridge Wells, at the lawn-foot of which is a 

 wishing-well, enclosed within four short, weather- 

 seasoned walls. Here you see crystal-clear water, 

 which used to be highly esteemed for medicinal 

 value. In the large pool here a few years ago 

 the American brooktrout, Salmo Jontinalh^ which 

 is not common in England, lived and flourished, 

 as it well might in such cold pure waters. 



A little further on, the Tern expands until it 



