I think him so good a fish, as to be little inferior to the best Trout that ever I tasted in my life.

VIAT. Here's another skip-jack; and I have raised five or six more at least whilst you were speaking: Well, go thy way little Dove! thou art the finest river that ever I saw, and the fullest of fish. Indeed, Sir, I like it so well, that I am afraid you will be troubled with me once a-year, so long as we two live.

PISC. I am afraid I shall not, Sir: but were you once here a May or a June, if good sport would tempt you, I should then expect you would sometimes see me ; for you would then say it were a fine river indeed, if you had once seen the sport at the height.

VIAT. Which I will do, if I live, and that you please to give me leave. There was one; and there

another.

PISC. And all this in a strange river, and with a fly of your own making! Why what a dangerous man are you!

VIAT. I, Sir, but who taught me ? and as Damætas says by his man Dorus, so you may say by me:

If my man such praises have,

What then have I, that taught the knave?

But what have we got here? A rock springing up in the middle of the river! this is one of the oddest sights that ever I saw.

'Tis a rock in

the fashion of a

Pisc. Why, Sir, from that Pike,*

spire-steeple, and that you see standing up there dis

almost as big.

tant from the rock, this is called

It stands in the
midst of the River Pike-Pool.

And young Mr. Izaak and not Walton was so pleased with it, as to far from Mr. Cot

Dove;

ton's house; below draw it in landscape in black and which place this white, in a blank book I have at

delicate river

takes a swift ca

reer betwixt many mighty rocks,

home; as he has done several prospects of my house also, which I

much higher and keep for a memorial of his favour, bigger than St.

Paul's church, be- and will shew you, when we come fore 'twas burnt. up to dinner.

And this Dove

being opposed by one of the highest of them, has, at last, forced itself a way through it; and after a mile's concealment, appears again with more glory and beauty than before that opposition ; running through the most pleasant valleys and most fruitful meadows, that this nation can justly boast of.

VIAT. Has young Master Izaak Walton been here too?

Pisc. Yes, marry has he, Sir, and that again, and again too; and in France since, and at Rome, and at Venice, and I can't tell where: but I intend to ask him a great many hard questions so soon as I can see him, which will be, God willing, next month. In the mean time, Sir, to come to this fine stream at the head of this great pool, you must venture over these slippery, cobbling stones. Believe me, Sir, there you were nimble, or else you had been down! But now you are got over, look to yourself; for, on my word, if a fish rise here, he is like to be such a one as will endanger your tackle. How now!

VIAT. I think you have such command here over the fishes, that you can raise them by your word, as they say conjurors can do spirits, and afterward make them do what you bid them; for here's a Trout has taken my fly; I had rather have lost a crown. What luck's this! he was a lovely fish, and turned up a side like a salmon !

PISC. O Sir, this is a war where you sometimes win, and must sometimes expect to lose. Never concern yourself for the loss of your fly; for ten to one I teach you to make a better. Who's that

calls?

SERVANT. Sir, will it please you to come to dinner? PISC. We come. You hear, Sir, we are called: and now take your choice, whether you will climb this steep hill before you, from the top of which you will go directly into the house, or back again over these stepping-stones, and about by the bridge.

VIAT. Nay, sure the nearest way is best; at least my stomach tells me so and I am now so well acquainted with your rocks, that I fear them

not.

PISC. Come, then, follow me: and so soon as we have dined, we will down again to the little house, where I will begin at the place I left off about flyfishing, and read you another lecture; for I have a great deal more to say upon that subject.

VIAT. The more the better; I could never have met with a more obliging master, my first