CHARTER IX 

 NIL DESPERANDUM 



WHAT fisherman will ever forget the long drought 

 of the autumn of 1894? While yachtsmen, 

 ladies, farmers, labourers, and hotel-keepers were 

 blessing the unwonted and continuous sunshine 

 which prevailed from August 18 to October 25, 

 one universal cry of lamentation and anguish 

 poured from the lips of unfortunates by the banks 

 of every Highland stream, from Thurso to Tweed, 

 as they tapped the aneroids which declined to 

 fall, and watched in vain morning and night 

 for the clouds that never came. It was rumoured 

 I do not know with what truth that one 

 angler, who rented the best stretch of a cele- 

 brated river, at a total cost of little less than 

 1000 for the season, only secured one small 

 grilse in over ten weeks ; and this was but an 

 exaggerated sample of the meagre nature of the 

 harvest reaped by hundreds. Yet it was at the 

 very close of this period, when springs were 

 dry which had never " given out " during the 

 memory of the oldest inhabitant, and when it 

 was almost impossible in the wettest district of 



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