216 SALMONIA. 



some rushes in your basket; we shall at least 

 be able to send a dish of grayling to the pa- 

 tron of our sport at Downton. 



NOON. 



HAL. Well, gentlemen, I hope you have 

 been successful. 



POIET. We have had good sport; but I 

 have been for some time reposing on this 

 bank, and admiring the scene below. How 

 fine are these woods ! How beautiful these 

 banks ! the hills in the distance approach to 

 the character of mountains; and the pre- 

 cipitous cliff, which forms the summit of that 

 distant elevation, looks like a diluvian monu- 

 ment, and as if it had been bared and torn 

 by a deluge, which it had stemmed. 



HAL. It is one of the Clee hills, and its 

 termination is basaltic, and such rocks usually 

 assume such forms. But though this spot is 

 beautiful, to-morrow I hope to show you a 

 more exquisite landscape, cliffs and woods, 

 and gushing waters, of a character still more 

 romantic. We will return to our inn by a 

 shorter road ; but tell me, have you caught a 



