Then hurrah! jolly anglers, for burn and for river. 
    The songs of the birds and the lowing of kine: 
  The voice of the river shall soothe us for ever,
    Then here’s to the toast, boys—­“The rod and the line!”

[Illustration:  TISSINGTON HALL, GATEWAY.]

We walked in the darkness for about six miles thinking all the time of Dovedale, which we knew was running parallel with our road at about two miles’ distance.  When we reached Tissington, about three miles from Ashbourne, the night had become lighter, and there ought to have been a considerable section of the moon visible if the sky had been clear.  Here we came to quite a considerable number of trees, but the village must have been somewhere in the rear of them.  Well-dressing was a custom common in Derbyshire, and also on a much smaller scale in some of the neighbouring counties; but this village of Tissington was specially noted in this respect, for it contained five wells, all of which had to be dressed.  As the dressers of the different wells vied with each other which should have the best show, the children and young people had a busy time in collecting the flowers, plants, buds, and ferns necessary to form the display.  The festival was held on Holy Thursday, and was preceded with a service in the church followed by one at each of the wells, and if the weather was fine, hundreds of visitors assembled to criticise the work at the different wells.  The origin of well-dressing is unknown, but it is certainly of remote antiquity, probably dating back to pagan times.  That at Tissington was supposed to have developed at the time of the Black Plague in the fourteenth century, when, although it decimated many villages in the neighbourhood, it missed Tissington altogether—­because, it was supposed, of the purity of the waters.  But the origin of well-dressing must have been of much greater antiquity:  the custom no doubt had its beginnings as an expression of praise to God from whom all blessings flow.  The old proverb, “We never know the value of water till the well runs dry,” is singularly appropriate in the hilly districts of Derbyshire, where not only the wells, but the rivers also have been known to dry up, and when the spring comes and brings the flowers, what could be more natural than to thank the Almighty who sends the rain and the water, without which they could not grow.

[Illustration:  TISSINGTON CHURCH.]

We were sorry to have missed our walk down Dove Dale, but it was all for the best, as we should again have been caught in the dark there, and perhaps I should have injured my foot again, as the path along the Dale was difficult to negotiate even in the daylight.  In any case we were pleased when we reached Ashbourne, where we had no difficulty in finding our hotel, for the signboard of the “Green Man” reached over our heads from one side of the main street to the other.

(Distance walked twenty-six and a half miles.)