DOWN THE BECK 31 



sea-blue bird of March." And later on, the cuckoo 

 is first heard down this glade, gleefully " telling her 

 name to all the hills," till June renders her hoarse, 

 and the clear note becomes " Cuck-cuckoo ! Cuck- 

 cuck-cuckoo S " and endless is the harsh iteration if 

 another of her family answer the challenge. Peer- 

 ing carefully round a thicket, too, may be seen the 

 waterhen, proudly tempting her black brood to cross 

 the stream for the first time ; or haply a wild duck, 

 that has sat on her eggs till the angler's foot almost 

 touches her, flaps suddenly her wings, and skims 

 under the overhanging alders. If the fisherman 

 be an observant lover of nature, these and the like 

 country sights and sounds will bring him great 

 contentment even though he take no fish. And 

 so speaks Dame Juliana Berners, in her " Treatyse 

 of Fysshynge with an Angle " — one of the quaintest 

 productions of early English literature: — "Atte 

 the best he hath his holsom walk and merry at his 

 ease, a swete ayre of the swete savoure of the meede 

 flowres : that makyth hym hungry. He hereth the 

 melodyous armony of fowles. He seeth the yonge 

 swannes, heerons, duckes, cotes, and many other 

 foules wyth theyr brodes. And yf the angler take 

 fysshe, surely thenne is there noo man merier than 

 he is in his spyryte." 



Down this beck an artistic eye will find many a 



