Chap. II. 



228 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part II. 



Viator. I thank you, Sir, and present you my service again, ' 



and to all the honest brothers of the angle. 



PiSCATOR. I'll pledge you, Sir: so, there's for your ale, and 

 farewell. Come, Sir, let's be going, for the sun grows low, and S 

 I would have you look about you as you ride : for you will see an 

 odd country, and sights that will seem strange to you. 



PiSCATOR. So, Sir, now we are got to the top of the hill out 

 of town, look about you, and tell me how you like 

 the country. 



Viator, Bless me ! what mountains are here ! are we not in 

 Wales ? 



PiSCATOR. No, but in almost as mountainous a country ; and 

 yet these hills, though high, bleak, and craggy, breed and feed 

 good beef and mutton above ground, and afford good store of lead 

 within. 



Viator. They had need of all those commodities to make 

 amends for the ill landscape : but I hope our way does not lie 

 over any of these, for I dread a precipice. 



PiSCATOR. BeUeve me, but it does ; and down one, especially, 

 that will appear a little terrible to a stranger ; though the way is 

 passable enough, and so passable that we who are natives of these 

 mountains, and acquainted with them, disdain to alight. 



Viator. I hope, though, that a foreigner is privileged to 

 use his own discretion, and that I may have the liberty to intrust 

 my neck to the fidelity of my own feet, rather than to those of my 

 horse, for I have no more at home. 



PiSCATOR. 'Twere hard else. But in the meantime, I think 

 'twere best, while this way is pretty even, to mend our pace, that 

 we may be past that hill I speak of, to the end your apprehension 

 may not be doubled for want of light to discern the easiness of the 

 descent. 



Viator. I am willing to put forward as fast as my beast will 

 give me leave, though I fear nothing in your company. But 

 what pretty river is this we are going into ? 



PiSCATOR. Why this, Sir, is called Bentley brook,* and is full 

 of very good Trout and Grayling, but so encumbered with wood 

 in many places as is troublesome to an angler. 



Viator. Here are the prettiest rivers, and the most of them, 

 in this country that ever I saw : do you know how many you 



have in the country ? 



I 



* a narrow swift stream, two miles beyond Ashbourn, in the present higliroad, but J 



considerably nearer to it in tlie old road. I 



