142 BRITISH SPORTING FISHES. 
as nivver man hed.” Then he describes a 
merry night at Wastdale, and how, upon the 
parson coming in, “North” made a song about 
him. ‘He med it reight off o’ t’ stick end. He 
began wi’ t’ parson first, then he gat t’ Pope, 
an’ then he turned it t’ devil. T’ parson was 
quite astonished, an’ rayder vex’t an’ all, but at 
last he burst out laughin’ wi t’ rest. He was 
like. Naabody could stand it.” 
fond of attending the country balls in the Lake 
Wilson was 
District, and especially such as were patronised 
by a Miss Jane Penny. This lady was “the 
anchor,” as he expressed it, without whom “he 
should keep beating about the great sea of life 
to very little purpose.” 
Wilson’s love of angling went with him to 
the end. How touching is this picture, drawn 
by his daughter, when only a few days remained 
to him on earth! Although broken in body, 
his spirit went back to the mountain streams 
whence he had so often drawn the pink-spotted 
trout : ‘‘ Certain it was the ‘mearns’ came among 
those waking dreams, and then he gathered 
around him, when the spring mornings brought 
gay jets of sunshine into the little room where 
he lay, the relics of a youthful passion, one that 
with him never grew old. It was an affecting 
sight to see him busy, nay, quite absorbed, with 
