DOVE DALE REVISITED 37 



The scene is altered now; the neglect I 

 noticed then seems to have been perpetuated, 

 but there is now an indication of a revival. 



Next on our pilgrimage down Beresford Dale 

 we came upon Pike Pool. The Pike stands in 

 the midst of its pool, more covered with moss, 

 and its head now overshadowed by the branches 

 of trees which at the time of my last visit were 

 not so prominent. 



On the Staffordshire side, high up among the 

 rocks, is a cleft called Cotton's Cave, and not 

 far away is " Lovers' Leap," a sheer and awful 

 precipice much grander than that in Dove 

 Dale. On the top of it is what was once, 

 perhaps, a garden where the two anglers sat and 

 smoked their pipes (so says Mr. Sheldon). 



In the fifth edition of " The Compleat Angler " 

 it was delightful to find the following paragraph 

 written by Izaak Walton himself in a marginal 

 note to Cotton's volume : 



" It 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 it was burnt." 



