14 DOVE DALE REVISITED 



near Leintwardine, in the month of October, 

 when the following conversation occurs : 



"Poiet. I have basketed (to coin a word) 

 three trouts and six graylings. 



"Phys. And I have taken seven graylings. I 

 caught trout likewise, but not considering them 

 in proper season I returned them to the river." 

 Salmonia. 



In those early days of the nineteenth century 

 probably about 1825 the angler was a law 

 unto himself as regards close time, and the fore- 

 going conversation shows how that moral law 

 operated one "baskets" his trout, and the 

 other returns his to the river. 



F. C. Hofland, writing in 1839 in reference 

 to Dove Dale, says : 



"Thirty years since, in company with two 

 brother artists and anglers, I enjoyed in this 

 enchanting valley some of the happiest days of 

 my life. . . . We sallied forth every morning, 

 carrying with us provisions for the day, and two 

 or three bottles of Mr. Wood's brisk, light 

 bottled ale, together with our fishing tackle and 

 sketching apparatus, and there we spent eight 

 successive days (Sunday excepted) in alternately 

 sketching, painting, fishing and rabbit-shooting. 

 We generally broke our meal at one o'clock in 

 the day, either at Reynard's Hall, a picturesque 

 cave in the rocks, or under the shade of the 



