38 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



thank you ; and being you have abandoned yourself to my con- 

 duct, we will only call and drink a glass on horseback at the 

 Talbot, and away. 



ViAT. T attend you : but what pretty river is this, that runs 

 under this stone bridge ? Has it a name ? 



Pisc. Yes, it is called Henmore,* and has in it both trout and 

 grayling ; but you will meet with one or two better anon. And 

 so soon as we are past through the town, I will endeavor, by such 

 discourse as best likes you, to pass away the time till you come 

 to your ill quarters. 



ViAT. We can talk of nothing with which I shall be more 

 delighted than of rivers and angling. 



Pisc. Let those be the subjects, then : but we are now come 

 to the Talbot rf what will you drink, Sir ; ale, or wine ? 



ViAT. Nay, I am for the country liquor, Derbyshire ale, if 

 you please ; for a man should not, methinks, come from London 

 to drink wine in the Peak. 



Pisc. You are in the right ; and yet, let me tell you, you may 

 drink worse French wine in many taverns in London, than they 

 have sometimes at this house. What, ho ! bring us a flagon of 

 your best ale : and now. Sir, my service to you, a good health to 

 the honest gentleman you know of, and you are welcome into the 

 Peak. 



• At that time it was commonly called Henmore, because it flowed 

 through Henmoor ; but its proper name is Schoo-brook. See a singular 

 contest for the right of fishing in this brook, as reported in Burrows, 2279 : 

 Richard Hayne, Esq., of Ashbourne vs. Uriah Cordon, Esq., of Clifton. — 

 Bagster. 



According to Shipley and Fitzgibbon, True Treatise on the Art of Fly- 

 Fishing, Trolling, &fc., as Practised in the Dove, Sfc., London, 1&3S, this 

 '• pretty little brook, now called Cotnpton-brook, and formerly the Schoo 

 or Henmore, and, in times gone by, celebrated for the excellent quality of 

 its trout, runs irregularly on the south of the town." — ^m. Ed. 



t The Inn stood in the market-place, and till about sixty years since 

 was the first Inn at Ashbourn. About that time, a wing was divided off 

 for a private dwelling, and the far-famed Talbot reduced to an inferior pot- 

 house, and continued thus degraded until the year 1786, when it was to- 

 tally demolished by Mr. Langdale, then a builder in that town, who erected 

 a very handsome structure on the site. — Sir Harris JVicholas. 



