390 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



very narrow stream ; a river that from a contemptible foun- 

 tain, which I can cover with my hat, by the confluence of 

 other rivers, rivulets, brooks, and rills, is swelled, before it 

 falls into Trent, a little below Eggington, where it loses the 

 name, to such a breadth and depth as to be in most places 

 navigable, were not the passage frequently interrupted with 

 fords and weirs ; and has as fertile banks as any river in 

 England, none excepted. And this river, from its head for a 

 mile or two, is a black water, as all the rest of the Derby- 

 shire rivers of note originally are, for they all spring from 

 the mosses ; but is in a few miles' travel so clarified by the 

 addition of several clear and very great springs, bigger than 

 itself, which gush out of the limestone rocks, that before it 

 comes to my house, which is but six or seven miles from its 

 source, you will find it one of the purest crystalline streams 

 you have seen. 



VlAT. Does Trent spring in these parts ? 



PlSC. Yes, in these parts ; not in this county, but some- 

 where towards the upper end of Staffordshire, I think not 

 far from a place called Trentham ; and thence runs down, 

 not far from Stafford, to Wolsly Bridge, and washing the 

 skirts and purlieus of the forest of Needwood, runs down to 

 Burton in the same county ; thence it comes into this, where 

 we now are, and running by Swarkston and Dunnington, 

 receives Derwent at Wildon, and so to Nottingham ; thence 

 to Newark, and, by Gainsborough, to Kingston-upon-Hull, 

 diere it takes the name of H umber, and thence falls into 

 the sea ; but that the map will best inform you. 



VlAT. Know you whence this river Trent derives its 

 name ? 



PlSC. No, indeed ; and yet I have heard it often discoursed 



