liv 



DESCRIPTIVE CHAPTERS. 



the great portals of the glen. We saw it when the river was in 

 half-flood from the rains of the past two days, but it must be grander 

 far when the famous salmon-river rushes down in the full impetus 

 of a vast " spate." 



From this point the road follows a snaky course, though well 

 graded and well cared for, like almost all the frequented roads in .the 

 county. For three or four miles we drove along an almost continuous 

 avenue of grand old timber-trees to near Chesthill (pronounced Ches- 

 sel). The road usually runs at a considerable height above the river, 

 but now and then dips till it nearly touches the immediate river- 

 bank. Through this grand gorge endless successions of salmon-pools, 

 sparkling broken water or gleaming shallow, and flats of lovely 

 trouting water, succeed one another, causing strange emotions to the 

 experienced angler. I remember I was once strongly advised to fish 

 this river for trout above Chesthill, but some other fairie-land of 

 fishing led my steps elsewhere. And indeed, as I looked upon these 

 waters for the first time, I could not repress the regretful feeling 

 that I had missed my opportunity. 



Above Chesthill once more the valley opens out in circular or 

 oval shape, and fine fertile haughs again occupy the agricultural 

 spaces between the guarding hills. Here Oystercatchers call and 

 practise their fine aerial evolutions. At a point of the road there is 

 a strikingly fine combination of scenery. The wide haugh at its 

 upper extremity is again cut across by a barrier apparently of rugged 

 ridge, and tors and heathery or coppice-covered " mealls." The river 

 — ever lovely — with a birch and ash-clad islet, forms the immediate 

 foreground, and numerous ridges and knolls and " mealls," and the 

 high and steep glensides, give many points of intermediate dis- 

 tances and perspectives — all compressible into the canvas of a 

 painter or the focus of a camera. A gleam of sunshine lights up 

 the silvery stream as it battles onward through all its curves and 

 beauty-settings. The intersecting ridge this forenoon really formed 

 the middle distance, but when we returned down the valley in the 

 evening we were obliged to be content with it as the limit of our 

 vision, except for transient gleams of sunlight, or white, sun-spangled 

 showers against a dark and gloomy cloud that obscured the further 

 recesses of the upper glen. 



From another point d'appui, looking doivn over the same stretch 



