WHARFEDALE. 119 



it be any gratification to know that long before the 

 Conquest the manor hereabouts was given to the Arch- 

 bishops of York, open that red-covered book on the coffee- 

 room table, and you will see the details in black and 

 white. 



I remember reading somewhere in'a treatise on grayling 

 that the fish was introduced into the country by monks 

 when England was undisguisedly — to coin a word, and of 

 course without offence to any creature — a monkery, and 

 that the good St. Ambrose was particularly fond of the 

 grayling. The saint in that case knew what was good for 

 himself. This thought occurred to me on glancing at the 

 guide-book literature of the coffee-room, and I then further 

 remembered how the saints and S^abbots and holy friars 

 invariably pitched their abodes neai a river of great fish- 

 producing capabilities, and how they often supplemented 

 the stream with ponds and stews for the more ready and 

 certain supply of their larders. It is generally conceded 

 that the grayling, not being indigenous to EngUsh streams, 

 must have been imported from the Continent, probably 

 from Germany, and the monks might as reasonably be 

 credited with the importation as any other class of 

 men, 



I should have remained longer at Otley had I not on the 

 very first day encountered a hair of the dog that had bitten 

 me at Bradford. A learned Dryasdust, full of archseology, 

 having remembered my face at the sections, fancied my 

 pleasure would be consulted by giving me relief " in kind," 

 wherefore the worthy gentleman forthwith pursued me re- 

 lentlessly with his facts and fancies, which were, truth to 

 tell, a pretty equally mixed assortment. He told me that 



