242 



arrangement, with the exception of one room, 

 is the same as in the time of Cotton. There 

 are some handsome plantations laid out around 

 it. Cotton's fishing-house was repaired about 

 three years ago, and is now nearly in the same 

 state as when the original constructor of it 

 described it. All those repairs and improve- 

 ments are owing to the good taste of the actual 

 owner, the Marquis of Beresford. Beresford- 

 hall is about three miles and a half from 

 Mill-dale, and there is very good fishing in the 

 different parts of the river between those two 

 places. The scenery of the portion of the river 

 just described, that is, from Dove-head to 

 Mill-dale, is somewhat monotonous. It is 

 wild, bleak, and betokens barrenness, and the 

 river, in its course, during this distance, flows 

 between steep hills, that have scarcely a tree 

 or plant to break the cheerless sameness of 

 their surface. At Mill-dale, on the Stafford- 

 shire side, are a few miserable houses, forming 

 a sort of village, or hamlet, on the margin of 

 the river, close under perpendicular cliffs of 

 great height, and as wildly situated as the 

 greatest lover of the extreme picturesque could 

 desire. Few mere visitors penetrate the Dale 

 so far north as this collection of huts, but 

 anglers ought ; and if they inquire for an old 

 and unfortunate brother of the angle, called 



