his friend for hours together, criticise his style of
fishing, and give advice; naturally, after a time, if you are nervous,
you are certain of one thing only: that you are the king of asses, and
had better imitate the immortal colonel who hurled his book of salmon
flies into the pool shouting "Here, take the bally lot." The droll
thing was that Halford never dreamed that his chum was put out by his
good intentions, or that the victim's feeble smiles were but a mask for
nerve-flutters.

One hot day I was over-tired and nakedly accomplished everything that
was wrong; the backward cast caught buttercups and daisies, the forward
throw fouled the sedges, the underhand cut landed line and cast in a
heap on the water, the fish was put down, the whole shallow scared.
Halford stood behind amiably commenting upon the bungling operations,
and then I uprose from a painful knee and delivered myself of remarks.
Well; yes, I let myself go, and let _him_ "have it." The amazement of
Halford; his contrition; the colour that spread over his countenance
(you will remember how prettily he could blush with that complexion of
his, delicate as a woman in his last days); these sufficiently told me
that he had not the ghost of an idea of the perturbation that had been
seething in me. It took him the rest of the week to cease regretting
that he had been so unobservant, and never again during the remaining
eight-and-twenty years that we fished together at different times and
in divers places did he once depart from his resolve "never to do so no
more." During our long and happy acquaintance that was the only cloud
flitting over the sunshine of our friendship, and it was one of my
making.

After Houghton there was a farmhouse at Headbourne Worthy, and a
season's fishing in the Itchen, and later Halford fished a good deal
below Winchester, where Cooke, Daniels, and Williamson had private
waters. But after Houghton the most notable preserve to be mentioned
was the Ramsbury water on the Kennet. The inspiration of "Making a
Fishery" came from that, for the four friends who leased the
water--Basil Field, Orchardson, R.A., N. Lloyd, and Halford--earnestly
addressed themselves to the reformation of a fishery that had become
depreciated. They spent much money, and carried out operations with a
lavish hand for four seasons. The story has been fully narrated by
Halford, and the conclusion (p. 217, _Autobiography_) is in these
words:--"We had perha