124 ON SURREY HILLS. 



belongs to " Soldier Will," as he was always called. 

 Like myself, he had a taste for wild life : his proclivi- 

 ties took him into many a secluded spot, and in such 

 we often came across one another. 



Picture to yourself a tall spare figure, over six feet 

 high, with a nose that was markedly hooked. A pair 

 of keen grey eyes peered out from under bushy eye- 

 brows ; his face, in spite of nose and eyebrows, was a 

 decidedly laughing one : the expression of his mouth 

 was continually contradicting that of his upper fea- 

 tures. He wore a long grey coat which reached well 

 below his knees, summer and winter the same long 

 coat : the only difference he ever made in his toilet 

 was that in winter he was closely buttoned up to his 

 chin, whereas in summer that grey garment was 

 allowed to fly open. His slouched felt hat was also 

 grey, the brim of it always pulled well over the eyes. 

 Having been wounded in action, he had a limping 

 gait ; and he never was seen out of doors without his 

 fishing-rod and his stout ash stick. He had always 

 fished, he would tell me, both at home and abroad, 

 whenever he could get the chance ; and fish he still 

 would, so long as he could get about at all. Where 

 was the harm of fair fishing with rod and line ? he 



