432 Ifcinss of tfoe 1Ro&, IRifle, an& Gun 



Wight of Kipper Hall and Crago'er, took the Mertoun 

 water at a rent double or treble of theirs, and engaged 

 Haliburton at a guinea a week to leave Dryburgh and 

 become his fisherman attendant at Mertoun. John 

 hesitated a little on this, as he had succeeded so well in 

 Dryburgh as to have saved 60 in the few years he had 

 been there. But with a blaze of generous appearances 

 Scrope prevailed, and John left Dryburgh (where through 

 his advice George Johnstone succeeded him) and went 

 to the Mertoun water with Mr. Scrope, whose first seven 

 or ten years of regular training on the Tweed here, was 

 under Haliburton's regular tuition. John regularly 

 dressed his standard flies, and every day directed their 

 particular application, carried him for some seasons out 

 and in to the boat on his back over the shallows every 

 time a fish was hooked, before either of the two had 

 contrived that I should make him light leather boots, 

 which he could find comfortable in which to wade dry. 



In fine fishing days he used to keep two rods in the 

 boat, with an extra rower. He pleased himself by 

 hooking the fish, when he handed the rod to Haliburton 

 to wade ashore with it, there to run and kill the fish, 

 while he should angle for another, in order to see what 

 number he could be said to murder in a given time ; for, 

 of course, the main manager and worker in this case, as 

 frequently in similar cases (even in the taking of towns 

 and kingdoms) stood only as a nameless auxiliary : all 

 this while Haliburton and I happened to keep in such 

 friendly intimacy that we generally agreed to the most 

 minute speck of tip, spot, shade, and spreckle in hair, 

 wool, and feather, in the dressing of hooks." 



