154 LIN S IN PLEASANT PLACES 



It so fell out that two days after the meeting in John 

 Hammond's shop the parties met at Houghton, and 

 the first of many foregatherings took place that day 

 in the well-remembered Sheep-bridge hut Marryat, 

 Francis, Carlisle (" South- West "), and Halford. Hal- 

 ford had rooms in the neighbourhood, and, in his own 

 words, there this historical quartette would " hold 

 triangular fishing colloquies," " South-West " having 

 his home up the river at Stockport. Francis was the 

 first of the trio to fall out, his last casts being on his 

 beloved Sheep-bridge shallow. Halford's quarters were 

 now at the mill at Houghton, and it was my privilege 

 to take Francis Francis's vacant place there, as also in 

 another place. 



What ambrosial nights we had in the homely mill- 

 house after untiring days with our rods ! It was there 

 that I insisted upon my host becoming a contributor to 

 the Field, and he required considerable persuasion. 

 Indeed, the suggestion roused him into one of his dog- 

 matic disputations, and he held on tenaciously, till, 

 taking up my bedroom candle, I said, " Well, I'm off to 

 bed. You've got my opinion and my advice, and, if 

 you don't write that article you are a so-and-so. Good 

 night, old chap, sleep on it." Next morning I was 

 taking my ante-breakfast pipe on a cartwheel in the 

 shed outside, and listening to the diapason of the mill, 

 when Halford came out. " All right, sonny," he said, 

 " I'll try it, but candidly I ha'e ma doots." This was 

 how the first " Detached Badger " article came to 

 appear in the Field. Walsh, the famous " Stonehenge," 

 was editor of the paper then, and he stuck for a while 

 at the pseudonym which Halford chose. But he was 

 the best fellow in the world, and very soon good- 

 humouredly gave in and left it to me. Walsh, never- 

 theless, would always rnake merry over that signature, 



