SOMERSETSHIRE COOMBS 



A WHIT-MONDAY FISHING 



MOUNTAIN, sea, and stream are the natural features 

 which most invite tired men from town ; and for our 

 part we could never understand where lay the difficulty 

 of choice. The human fancy which saw in every 

 stream the intelligible form of a god, a nymph, or a 

 saint, will not be lightly blamed. There are rivers in 

 England to suit every mood of man, and suggest every 

 impulse whether of melancholy, merriment, or repose. 

 But no one would consciously choose a sad stream as the 

 scene of a sojourn, however short, upon its banks. The 

 sight of the 



"full-fed river winding slow 

 By herds upon an endless plain ; 

 The ragged rims of thunder, brooding low, 

 With shadow-streaks of rain," 



is apt to breed melancholy and depression, as it did in 

 the Soul which owned the " Palace of Art." Nor do 

 we love best, even as the companions of a day, those 



