THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 49 



Pisc. Come, Sir, now we are up the hill, and now how do you ? 



ViAT. Why, very well, I humbly thank you. Sir, and warm 

 enough, I assure you. What have we here, a church ? As I'm 

 an honest man, a very pretty church !* Have you churches in 

 this country, Sir ? 



Pisc. You see we have : but had you seen none, why should 

 you make that doubt. Sir ? 



ViAT. Why, if you will not be angry, I'll tell you : I thought 

 myself a stage or two beyond Christendom. 



Pisc. Come, come, we'll reconcile you to our country before 

 we part with you, if showing you good sport with angling will 

 do it. 



ViAT. My respect to you, and that together, may do much, 

 Sir ; otherwise, to be plain with you, I do not find myself much 

 inclined that way. 



Pisc. Well, Sir, your raillery upon our mountains has brought 

 us almost home ; and look you where the same river of Dove 

 has again met usf to bid you welcome, and to invite you to a dish 

 of trouts to-morrow. 



ViAT. Is this the same we saw at the foot of Penmen-Maure ? 

 It is a much finer river here. 



Pisc. It will appear yet much finer to-morrow. But look you, 

 Sir, here appears the house that is now like to be your inn, for 

 want of a better. 



* The church here spoken of is that at Alstonefield, a parish in the 

 north division of the Hundred of Totmanslow, county of Stafford. It is 

 dedicated to wSt. Peter, and stands five miles N.N.W. from Ashbourn. — 

 Carlile. 



t " On entering Dovedale (from the South) it is impossible not to be 

 struck with the almost instantaneous change of scenery, so different from 

 the surrounding country. Here, instead of the brown heath or the rich 

 cultivated meadow, rocks abrupt and vast, their grey sides harmonized by 

 mosses, lichens, and yew trees, their tops, sprinkled with mountain ash, 

 rise on each side. The mountains that enclose this narrow dell rise very 

 precipitous, and bear on their sides fragments of rock that, at a distance, 

 look like the remains of some ruined castle. After proceeding a little 

 way, a deep and narrow valley presents itself, into whose recesses the eye 

 is prevented from penetrating, by the winding course it pursues and the 

 shutting in of its precipices, which fold into each other and preclude all 

 distant view. — Davies. 



PART II. 3 



