418 MEMOIR OF JOHN WILSON. 



"I intend publishing my address in Blackwood's next number, 

 properly corrected, along with all the others ; and, if you can find 

 a place for it in the Herald, I wish you would, for I wish the peo- 

 ple in the country to see it, if they choose, in right form. Speakers 

 are at the mercy of the first reporter, and at the mercy of circum- 

 stances. 



" I am not without hopes of seeing you at Dumfries this month— 

 or early next. 'Twas a glorious gathering. Yours affectionately, 



"John Wilson." 



My father was always glad to escape from Edinburgh during the 

 summer, but latterly he required other inducement than the "rod" 

 to take him from home ; a solitary " cast" was losing its charm, and 

 he now liked to find companions to saunter with him by loch and 

 stream. This summer his old friend, Dr. Blair, had been visiting 

 him, and was easily prevailed on to take a ramble to the Dochart 

 before returning south. The following letter to his daughter Jane 

 (limbs or "Crumbs"), tells of his own sport and of the Wizard's 

 walks : — 



"LtriB, Sunday, June 1, 1845. 



" Dear Chuhbs : — We arrived at Luib (pronounced Libe) on the 

 Dochart, foot of Benmore, on Tuesday afternoon at three o'clock, 

 via Loch Lomond and Glenfalloch. We soon found ourselves en- 

 sconced in a snug parlor looking into a pretty garden, and in every 

 way comfortable. Our bedroom is double-bedded — small ; but such 

 beds I have not slept in for one hundred years. Since our arrival 

 till this hour there has not been above twenty drops of rain, and 

 the river (the Dochart) has not been known so low by the oldest 

 inhabitant, who is the landlord — aged eighty-five — deaf and lame — 

 but hearty and peart. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Satur- 

 day, after breakfast, I walked three miles up the river, Avhich flows 

 past the inn, and fished down, killing each day with midges about 

 three dozen good trout, like herrings, of course, and about ten 

 dozen of fry — a few of about a pound ; none larger. The natives 

 are astonished at my skill, as in such weather fish were never caught 

 before. The Wizard* disappears in the morning, and returns to 

 dinner about six. On Thursday he left Luib about nine, and re- 

 turned at half-past seven, having been over a range of mountains 



* Dr. Alexander Blair. 





