THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 253 



be, neither, because it carries that name from its very foun- 

 tain, before any other rivers fall into it : others derive it 

 from thirty several sorts of fish that breed there and that 

 is the most likely derivation : but be it how it will, it is 

 doubtless one of the finest rivers in the world, and the most 

 abounding with excellent salmon, and all sorts of delicate fish.* 



YIAT. Pardon me, sir, for tempting you into this digres- 

 sion ; and then proceed to your other rivers, for I am mightily 

 delighted with this discourse. 



Pise. It was no interruption, but a very seasonable ques- 

 tion : for Trent is not only one of our Derbyshire rivers, but 

 the chief of them, and into which all the rest pay the tribute 

 of their names, which I had, perhaps, forgot to insist upon, 

 being got to the other end of the county, had you not awoke 

 my memory. But I will now proceed. And the next river 

 of note, for I will take them as they lie eastward from us, is 

 the river Wye ; I say of note, for we have two lesser betwixt 

 us and it, namely, Lathkin and Bradford ; of which Lathkiri 

 is, by many degrees, the purest and most transparent stream 

 that I ever yet saw, either at home or abroad, and breeds, it 

 is said, the reddest and the best trouts in England : but 

 neither of these are to be reputed rivers, being no better than 

 great springs. The river Wye, then, has its source near unto 

 Buxton, a town some ten miles hence, famous for a warm 

 bath, and which you are to ride through in your way to Man- 

 chester ; a black water, too, at the fountain, but, by the same 

 reason with Dove, becomes very soon a most delicate, clear 

 river, and breeds admirable trout and grayling, reputed by 

 those who, by living upon its banks, are partial to it, the best 



* There are no salmon in the Trent, now, and not many trout and grayling. 

 Its trout, though few, grow to a large size, sometimes, but very rarely as large 

 as those of the Thames. It is an excellent river for pike, perch, barbel, chub, 

 and other coarse fish. I do not think it produces thirty different sorts offish. 

 Many think the contrary, but have not specifically named them. Others 

 maintain that it derives its name from having thirty (trente) tributaries, and 

 agree that Milton's distich, in his well-known description of English rivers, 

 should be read 



" Or Trent, who like an earth-born giant, spreads 

 Its thirty arms along the indented meads," 



instead of thirsty, the usual reading. I am inclined to think that thirsty is a 

 graphical, or typographical error that Milton wrote thirty, and was thinking, 

 when he did so, of the earth-born (son of Ccelus and Terra) giant, Briareus, and 

 his hundred arms. Walton inclines to the opinion that the Trent derives its 

 name from thirty different sorts offish found in it, and not because it is said to 

 have thirty tributaries. Milton, whether he wrote thirsty or thirty, did not 

 think so, nor do I either. ED. 



