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there met, and was introduced by the rubicund John 

 to, a tall, not to say gaunt, gentleman, who was the 

 most famous of the Hampshire trout fishers, none other 

 than Marryat himself. This was the beginning of a 

 close, life-long friendship between the two men. Hal- 

 ford was at all times most grateful to any helper, and 

 never failed freely to acknowledge assistance received. 

 Whether he took advice proffered or not was another 

 matter ; he sometimes did it all the same, but he was 

 always grateful. Words would fail to describe his 

 appreciation of such co-workers as Marryat at the 

 beginning, and Williamson at the end of the labours 

 which are embodied in the series of books which pre- 

 ceded the Autobiography. They were co-workers in 

 everything ; hard workers, too. I have heard men 

 lightly joke about these worthies going about the mea- 

 dows with a bug-net and lifting individual ephemerals 

 from the surface of the stream. Let those laugh that 

 win. It meant collecting hundreds of tiny insects, 

 selecting the fittest, preparing, preserving, and mount- 

 ing them. It meant the endless autopsy of fish and 

 the patient searching of their entrails. To stand by 

 while Halford and Marryat with their scissors, forceps, 

 and whatnot laid out the contents of a trout's stomach, 

 and bent low in separating and identifying the items, 

 putting what were worthy of it under a microscope, 

 and proceeding all the while as if the round 1 world 

 offered no other pursuit half so worthy of concentrated 

 attention, was most fascinating. Many a time was I 

 a spectator I fear sometimes an irreverent one of this 

 ritual, but always privileged and welcome ; always, of 

 course, sympathetic, and always in a way envious of 

 the qualities of mind and extraordinary knowledge 

 which made the whole work a labour of love to 

 them. 



