Handbook to the Severn Valley Railway | Page 6

refresh and please. Wandering at its own sweet will, the river here goes freely on its way, bubbling and brawling at the fords, gathering itself up into deep, dark lakes carved out of the softer rocks over which it flows, or dividing to embrace some willow-covered island in its course. Between Arley and Bewdley it is well stocked with grayling, dace, and that king of Severn fish, the salmon which is often taken hero; also with that "queen of fresh-water fish" the carp, speaking of which an old distich says:--
"Hops and turkeys, carps and beer, Came into England all in one year."
Like pike, they are long-lived; referring to which, Ben Jonson says:--
"Fat, aged carps, that run into thy net, And pikes, now weary their own kind to eat."
During the winter months carp are caught in broad, quiet parts of the river; in summer, in holes and reaches, under hollow banks, and near beds of weeds or flags. All kinds of bait are recommended, but a well-scoured worm is often best.
[Crap: 16.jpg]

HIGHLEY,
Or Higley, as it is commonly called, is two and a half miles from Arley. The village is situated high upon the hill, and consists of scattered cottages, with a sprinkling of goodly houses, some half timbered, after the quaint fashion of former times. The church has an ancient chancel window, and in the graveyard is an old cross, elaborately carved in freestone, a material found very extensively in the neighbourhood. Highley was an old Saxon manor, which, with Chetton, belonged to the widow of Leofric--Godiva, of Coventry celebrity. Kinlet, four miles distant, occupies a picturesque eminence of a horse-shoe form; the church is an ancient structure, containing noble altar tombs, one of which has a rich canopy, with the figure of a knight and lady kneeling.

HAMPTON'S LOADE.
Lode was a Saxon term for ford, and the name here, as elsewhere, denotes an ancient passage of the Severn. In this case, it was one by which the inhabitants of Highley, Billingsley, and Chelmarsh formerly passed to Quatt and Alveley. A ferry has long been substituted, but the old load still winds along the hillside, past an old stone cross, in the direction of Alveley, an old Saxon manor. The tall grey tower of the old church is seen from the line, occupying a high position on the right. The building is an ancient and interesting structure, with many Norman features, and is greatly admired by antiquarians. Judging from the materials used in older portions of the building, the first church would appear to have been built of travertine. Above Hampton's Loade, the wooded heights of Dudmaston and of Quatford, with the red towers of Quatford Castle, come into view; but a deviation of the line, and a deep cutting through the Knoll Sands, prevent more than a passing glimpse. Quat is an old British word for wood, and refers to a wide stretch of woodland once included in the great Morfe Forest; and ford to an adjoining passage of the river--one, half a mile higher up, being still called Danes' Ford. On a bluff headland, rising perpendicularly 100 feet above the Severn, close by, the hardy Northerners, who thus left their name in connection with the Severn, established themselves in 896, when driven by Alfred from the Thames; and on the same projecting rock, defended on the land side by a trench cut in the solid sandstone, Roger de Montgomery afterwards built himself a house.
And tradition adds that, in consequence of a vow made by his second wife, Adeliza, the church close by was built upon the borders of the forest, then the favourite hunting-ground of the Norman earl. The church, like other neighbouring structures of ancient date, was built of tuffa, or travertine, a material found in the beds of brooks in the district, and portions of the chancel, including its fine Norman arch and pillars, are still composed of the same. Among old endowments of the church, is one, from a source unknown, of a piece of land, the proceeds of which defray the expense of ferrying persons attending church across the Severn.
The old man at the ferry is a fisherman, who knows well where to get "a rise" of trout, or to hook a grayling, and where to look for pike, or perch, or gudgeon.
[Perch and Gudgeon: 18.jpg]
In the parish of Quatford is Eardington, celebrated for the manufacture of iron for guns, wire, and horse nails; and parochially and manorially combined with Eardington is the More, the ancient tenure of which indicates the manufacture of iron here at a very early period. By it the tenant was required to appear yearly in the Exchequer, with a hazel rod of a year's growth, and two knives, the treasurer and barons being present. The tenant was to attempt to sever