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adjacent meadows. This has given occasion 

 to this proverb : 



* In April, Dove's flood 

 Is worth a king's good !' 



"These floods are, however, sometimes so 

 sudden, that the waters have been known to 

 rise and fall again in the course of a day, 

 carrying down their channel flocks of sheep 

 and herds of cattle. Such inundations are 

 caused by what are termed f shots of water,' 

 which the Dove often receives in its course 

 through the mountains. Cotton, whose verses 

 seldom rise to any very elevated strain of 

 sentiment, has, in his quaint poem on the 

 Wonders of the Peak, the following lines on 

 the Dove, which constitute its most beautiful 

 passage :* 



Thy murmurs, Dove, 



Pleasing to lovers, or men fall'n in love, 



With thy bright beauties, and thy fair blue eyes, 



Wound like a Parthian, while the shooter flies. 



Of all fair Thetis' daughters none so bright, 



So pleasant to the taste none to the sight 



None yields the gentle angler such delight : 



To which the bounty of her stream is such, 



As only with a swift and transient touch, 



T' enrich her barren borders as she glides, 



And force sweet flowers from their marble sides.' " 



* This criticism is Mr. Glover's not ours. See Glover's 

 8vo. edition, vol. 1, part 1, page 36. 



