i/2 AN ANGLER'S RAMBLES 



When I look back upon these nocturnal ploys, I feel unwilling 

 to regard them as subjects of extreme censure ; they are but 

 passages in schoolboy life, on which the most rigid moralist 

 could scarcely venture to frown ; and the recollection of them is 

 treasured up, on my part, with a kind of fond regret, very different 

 from that with which the remembrance of follies or culpable 

 actions is usually consorted. 



The execution done on these occasions was just sufficient to 

 keep up one's interest in the sport. Four or five trout a-piece 

 were regarded as a fair average take, but among them a fifteen- 

 inch walloper, the martyr to minnow-feeding propensities, fre- 

 quently held place. The excitement to persevere, however, was 

 not derived solely from our own successes. Now and then, 

 shortly after dawn, it so happened that we were brought into 

 contact with a master of the art the king-fisher, as he might appro- 

 priately have been termed, of Tyne in those days by name Rob 

 Ralston, and by profession the village barber. Rob was to Tyne 

 what Bill Rawson was to the Water of Leith, the best conjuror 

 of trout in the county, and as neat a dresser of midge-flies as 

 ever twirled the nippers. Stewart's patterns, now held in such 

 esteem, are simply revivals of the old Lothian persuaders, and 

 have no more claim to originality of design than has his method 

 of worm-fishing. To whom the merit of producing them belongs 

 I do not pretend to say, but they were certainly in vogue at the 

 time I speak of, forty years ago and upwards. An easterly wind 

 occurring in May or June and no other wind so effectually roused 

 into action the still stretches of Tyne was sure to bring Rob, 

 armed and eager for onslaught, to the river-side. It became to 

 us quite a treat to watch him on such an occasion ; how well he 

 seemed to apprehend the beat he was engaged on, and dexter- 

 ously brought it to account, a treat, heightened not a little by 

 his personal appearance, which was none of the most com- 

 manding. 



