i8o Ifctn08 of tbe 1Rot>, IRifle, anfc <3un 



A local hero named the King of the Drovers, moved 

 by admiration of the peculiar proportions of this king of 

 the cairds, felt a great desire to come into closer relations 

 with the stranger. He was soon gratified. A meeting 

 was arranged, in order to try whether the son of the 

 mountain or the son of the plain were the better man 

 in wrestling, leaping, running, and drinking ; and in all 

 of these manly exercises the great drover, probably for 

 the first time, found himself more than matched." 



Mrs. Wilson, slender and delicate Englishwoman 

 though she was, tramped like a hardy Scotswoman to 

 the manner born. On one occasion she walked twenty- 

 five miles in a single day. Between July 5th and 

 August 26th they covered 350 miles on foot, "sojourning 

 in divers glens from Sabbath unto Sabbath, fishing, 

 eating, and staring." Of the sport he had John 

 Wilson says: "I killed in the Highlands 170 dozen 

 of trout. One day 19^ dozen, another 7 dozen. I, 

 one morning, killed ten trouts that weighed 9 Ibs. In 

 Loch Awe in three days I killed 76 Ibs. of fish all with 

 the fly. The folks were astonished." If they were 

 astonished at that, I wonder what they would have 

 thought of Dr. Robertson's great feat in the August of 

 1833 at Ballater, where in a single day he killed in a 

 small loch adjoining the stream thirty-six dozen of 

 trout, weighing close on 250 Ibs. ! 



On their return to Edinburgh John Wilson and his 

 wife were the " lions of the season." Everyone expected 

 that Mrs. Wilson's beautiful complexion would be totally 

 ruined by exposure to wind and sun and rain. But at 

 her first party old Mrs. Mure, of Caldwell, after 



