Our pub the Dolphin serves a fine beer, brewed by Otter Brewery; the water to make the beer comes from the river of that name, so i was delighted to find it praised in a sonnet by Coleridge. No doubt he would have enjoyed a pint of Otter Ale!
Dear native brook! wild streamlet of the West!
How many various-fated years have passed,
What happy and what mournful hours, since last
I skimmed the smooth thin stone along thy breast,
Numbering its light leaps! Yet so deep impressed
Sink the sweet scenes of childhood, that mine eyes
I never shut amid the sunny ray,
But straight with all their tints thy waters rise,
Thy crossing plank, thy marge with willows grey,
And bedded sand that, veined with various dyes,
Gleamed through thy bright transparence! On my way,
Visions of childhood! oft have ye beguiled
Lone manhood’s cares, yet waking fondest sighs:
Ah! that once more I were a careless child!
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Lois Elsden 