27O THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [PART Ii. 



Pise. And all this in a strange river, and with a fly of your 

 own making ! Why, what a dangerous man are you ! 



VIAT. I, Sir, but who taught me ? and as Damcetas says by 

 his man Doras, so you may say by me, 



" If my man such praises have, 

 What then have I, that taught the knave ? " 



But what have we got here? A rock springing up in the 

 middle of the river ! this is one of the oddest sights that ever I 

 saw. 



Pise. Why, Sir, from that Pike,* that you see standing up 

 there distant from the rock, this is called Pike-Pool. And 

 young Mr. Izaak Walton was so pleased with it, as to draw it 

 in landscape in black and white, in a blank book I have at 

 home; as he has done several prospects of my house also, 

 which I keep for a memorial of his favor, and will show you, 

 when we come up to dinner. 



VIAT. Has young Master Izaak Walton been here too ? 



Pise. Yes, marry has he, Sir, and that again, and again too ; 

 and in France since, and at Rome, and at Venice, and I can't 

 tell where ; but I intend to ask him a great many hard ques- 

 tions so soon as I can see him, which will be, God willing, 

 next month. In the mean time, Sir, to come to this fine 

 stream at the head of this great pool, you must venture over 

 these slippery, cobbling stones. Believe me, Sir, there you 

 were nimble, or else you had been down ! But now you are got 

 over, look to yourself; for, on my word, if a fish rise here, he 



*'T is a rock in the fashion of a spire-steeple, and almost as big. It stands 

 in the midst of the river Dove and not far from Mr. Cotton's house ; below 

 which place this delicate river takes a swift career betwixt many mighty 

 rocks, much higher and bigger than St. Paul's Church, before 't was burnt. 

 And this Dove, being opposed by one of the highest of them, has at last 

 forced itself a way through it ; and, after a mile's concealment, appears again 

 with more glory and beauty than before that opposition, running through the 

 most pleasant valleys and most fruitful meadows that this nation can justly 

 boast of. 



