Salmon Fishing. 115 



with money to spend "ad libitum"; and the 

 world at his feet, with the inexhaustible dose of 

 adulation it is never backward in proffering to 

 one so highly favoured ; no one could be more 

 gentlemanly in his bearing, or less pretentious 

 (to use a familiar word now). Though con- 

 strained to decline joining him in a social rubber, 

 he often requested me to do, he was one I could 

 not forbear liking, from the first time I accosted 

 him in the road, to the last word I exchanged 

 with him when I left Gweedore. 



Day after day the trio went out with their 

 rods to flog the sides of the patient Clady to 

 their hearts' content, though I did not see, 

 or hear, with much success. One memorable 

 morning, it had been determined by them to 

 rise at day-break, and fish the river down inch 

 by inch, to try and give Clericus a lesson that 

 they could kill a salmon in it, as well as he. 

 The first intimation I had of this stern deter- 

 mination of theirs was to find myself disturbed 

 out of my sleep at three o'clock by one of the 



