XVII. 



A KING AMONG ANGLERS. 



WILSON settled at Elleray immediately upon the 

 close of his brilliant career at Oxford. He seems 

 to have sought out this spot as one in which his 

 whole pure animalism could have full play. And 

 truly he found a fitting environment for a noble 

 mind. Elleray hangs upon one of the slopes of 

 Windermere, and commands a prospect which 

 is perhaps without a parallel in Britain. Im- 

 mediately below lies the river-lake ; the rich fore- 

 grounds are of quiet, exquisite beauty ; at the 

 head of the valley the great mountains lock in 

 the landscape ; and finally there is the sense of 

 aerial sublimity which every one has felt who has 

 stood by the cottage. Elleray was literally a 

 cottage when Wilson found it lichen-covered and 

 overhung by a fine old sycamore. He loved this 

 tree, and in his writings frequently alludes to 

 it : " Never in this well-wooded world, not even 

 in the days of the Druids, could there have been 



