22 4 



CHAPTEE XIV. 



THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF WANDLE-WEIR AND 

 HEEL-BROKE. 



I TAKE it for granted, gentlemen (commenced Mr. 

 Wandle-weir as spokesman on the occasion), that you 

 are already made acquainted with the result of our 

 rod operations up to the end of July last. My friend 

 Herl-broke, if I remember rightly, addressed a com- 

 munication to your honourable club, under the inten- 

 tion of regaling his brother members with a spice of 

 our doings and sufferings on certain angling stations, 

 north of the Tay. Our chief matters of complaint, 

 should you recollect, were the dryness of the season, 

 want of winds, and the incessant torment we met with 

 from hordes of gad-flies, which haunted our steps with 

 provoking pertinacity along the water's-edge. From a 

 combination of maladies so unlocked for, it was natural 

 for us to determine our escape. Measures accord- 

 ingly were taken for a retreat homewards, and our 

 journey had actually commenced, when down pops 



