368 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [PART IT. 



called from the swiftness of its current, 1 and that swiftness 

 occasioned by the declivity of its course, and by being so 

 straitened in that course betwixt the rocks ; by which, and 

 those very high ones, it is hereabout, for four or five miles, 

 confined into a very narrow stream. A river that, from a 

 contemptible fountain, 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 

 Egginton, 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 wears : 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 Derbyshire rivers of note origi- 

 nally 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 lime-stone 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. 



Viat. Does Trent spring in these parts ? 2 



Pise. 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 



1 Sir Oswald Moseley says : "The Dove was so called from the British 

 word ' dwfr ' (water) ; and the Derwent, from ' dwfr ' and ' gwin ' (white) ; 

 i. e. t white water." 



2 Between Beresford Hall and Ashbourn lies Dove Dale, whose crested 

 clifts and swift torrents are again noticed by Mr. Cotton in his " Wonders 

 of the Peak." Through this singularly deep valley the Dove runs for 

 about two miles, changing its course, its motion, and its appearance per- 

 petually ; never less than ten, and rarely so many as twenty yards in width ; 

 making a continued noise by rolling over or falling among loose stones. 

 The rocks which form its sides are heaved up in enormous piles, sometimes 

 connected with each other and sometimes detached ; some perforated in 

 natural cavities, others adorned with foliage ; with here and there a tall 

 rock, having nothing to relieve the bareness of its appearance but a moun- 

 tain-ash flourishing at the top. The grandeur of its scenery is probably 

 unrivalled in England. ELLIS. In opposition to this, Mr. Rennie says, 

 "it is utterly ridiculous to talk of the 'grandeur' of Dove Dale. My 

 impression, on visiting it in 1817, was, that it is prettily romantic on so 

 small a scale, that it might almost be artificially imitated." 



