THE COOKERY OF THE SALMON 207 



Humphry's science made him an intelligent gourmet, 

 his views on the liquor question were sadly heterodox. 

 The party of Southerners had gone through a day 

 of tremendous exertion in the bracing air of Loch 

 Maree. Honest Ornither, satiated with the salmon 

 and having neglected to correct it with a quaich of 

 mountain dew, moves for another bottle of claret, 

 modestly remarking that a pint a man is not too much. 

 Whereupon Halieus is down on him like a hammer. 

 'You have made me president, and I forbid it. A 

 half-pint of wine for young men in perfect health is 

 enough.' The force of asceticism could hardly have 

 gone farther, in such seducing circumstances. A well- 

 spent day, bodies slightly fagged, sociable company, 

 and a long evening to kill. So might St. Simeon 

 Stylites have spoken had he stepped down from his 

 column to take a day's fishing in the Nile and then 

 invited some clerical friends to a frugal supper. 



Naturally Wilson's gorge was roused by the pas- 

 sage. The convives of the imaginary revels at 

 Ambrose's might have pledged each other in Odin's 

 bottomless horn, and the salmon at their feasts was 

 always, in the words of Morris's drinking song, 'a 

 reason fair ' for a caulker. The Shepherd once de- 

 clared that, though men of good and even great appe- 

 tites, they were neither gluttons nor wine-bibbers, 



