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there are not certainly more than six or eight 

 good and open spots from its source to its 

 month, a distance of nearly twenty miles. Its 

 banks for a great distance rise precipitately to 

 the height of two hundred feet above the bed 

 of the river ; composed of bold and rugged 

 rocks, and covered with the oak and the 

 mountain-ash. There is some of the finest 

 river scenery in England along its banks ; and 

 it was a favourite angling -spot of the cele- 

 brated poet Akenside, who composed a great 

 part of his immortal work, " The Pleasures of 

 Imagination, " in these sublime and retired 

 privacies; and he often bears witness to the 

 outpourings of his lofty and poetic muse 



"On solitary Wansbeck's rocky bed." 



A short distance above the town of Morpeth 

 the river is divided into two branches, at Mit- 

 ford Castle ; some of the remains of which are 

 still preserved, bearing the date of the eleventh 

 century. The trout in these separate branches 

 are different from each other in colour, quality, 

 and size. The one branch is called the south, 

 and the other the north river. The south is the 

 better stream, both for quantity and size of fish ; 

 but portions of it are preserved, and this 

 materially curtails the range of fishable ground. 



