XVII. 
A KING AMONG ANGLERS. 
Witson 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 
aérial 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 
