40 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



CHAPTER II. 



PiscATOR. So, Sir, now we have got to the top of the hill out 

 of town, look about you, and tell me how you like the country. 



ViAT. Bless me, what mountains are here !* Are we not in 

 Wales ? 



Pisc. No, but in almost as mountainous a country ; and yet 

 these hills, though high, bleak, and craggy, breed and feed good 

 beef and mutton above ground, and afford good store of lead 

 within. 



ViAT. They had need of all those commodities to make amends 

 for the ill landscape : but I hope our way does not lie over any 

 of these ; for I dread a precipice. 



Pisc. Believe me, but it does, and down one especially that 

 will appear a little terrible to a stranger ; though the way is 

 passable enough, and so passable, that we, who are natives of 

 these mountains, and acquainted with them, disdain to alight. 



ViAT. I hope, though, that a foreigner is privileged to use his 

 own discretion, and that I may have the liberty to intrust my 

 neck to the fidelity of my own feet, rather than to those of my 

 horse ; for I have no more at home. 



Pisc. It were hard else. But in the meantime I think it were 

 best, while this way is pretty even, to mend our pace, that we 

 may be past that liill I speak of, to the end your apprehension 

 may not be doubled for want of light to discern the easiness of 

 the descent. 



ViAT. I am willing to put forward as fast as my beast will 

 give me leave ; though I fear nothing in your company. But 

 what pretty river is this we are going into ? 



* The American reader will remember that what he would call only a 

 hill, makes a respectable mountain in England, especially to an Essex man, 

 as Viator was. — Am. Ed. 



