UC-NRLF 
 
 271 734 
 
GENERAL 
 LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY Of 
 CALIFORNIA 
 
 er 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
o 
 
 o 
 
ANGLING 
 
 REMINISCENCES. 
 
 BY 
 
 THOMAS TOD STODDART, ESQ. 
 
 AUTHOR OF THE DEATH-WAKE," " THE SCOTTISH 
 ANGLER," &c. 
 
 
 EDINBURGH: 
 THE EDINBURGH PRINTING & PUBLISHING CO. 
 
 J^ SMITH AND SON, GLASGOW ; A. BROWN AND CO. ABERDEEN. 
 
 LONDON : SMITH AND ORR, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 
 MDCCCXXXVII. 
 
 Jl 
 
EDINBURGH PRINTING COMPANY. 
 
JACK LEISTEE, 
 
 C ..... ANGLING FRATERNITY, 
 
 of 
 
 AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED. 
 
 M816507 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THESE Sketches aspire to little more than 
 a delineation of such occurrences as are 
 naturally met with by lovers of the gentle 
 craft. They are endued by the author 
 with a colloquial form and texture, chiefly 
 because he is of opinion that, so habited, 
 they accord better with the spirit of the 
 subject to which they refer. Had it been 
 otherwise, he should not have obtruded 
 upon a mode of composition already pre- 
 occupied by the patriarch Walton, Sir 
 Humphrey Davy, and others. Further 
 
Vlll PREFACE. 
 
 apology, however, he deems unnecessary, 
 as he is not aware, throughout the follow- 
 ing chapters, of having laid himself open 
 to any censure as a plagiarist. 
 
 The dramatis personce of his dialogue 
 are, it may be stated, generally fictitious, 
 although, as in most works of a similar 
 nature, not altogether without their ori- 
 ginals. It merits, however, no enquiry 
 who these are, and the author disclaims 
 all intention of throwing any light upon 
 the subject. 
 
 To lovers of stream-side scenery, it has 
 been attempted to render this volume 
 acceptable, without the introduction of 
 local details and methodical surveys. 
 The design of the writer to embody cer- 
 tain ANGLING REMINISCENCES would be 
 very inefficiently accomplished, were he 
 to occupy the area of this small work 
 

 PREFACE. 
 
 with matters such as these. Accordingly, 
 he has refrained from doing so as much 
 as possible, without, it is to be hoped, 
 impairing any of the interest which a 
 friendly reader might otherwise have dis- 
 covered in the following chapters. 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 
 
 OUR venerable fraternity is at length dissolved! 
 ' Tis strange, yet true. What fault had nature to 
 find with us, save that we had lived our time? 
 There was no unhealthiness or defection in our 
 members no pinings or frailties. We were, in 
 heart, purpose, and intent, compact as ever. Alas! 
 how freakish is fortune, leading us into treasons 
 after happiness, and upsetting them with her finger- 
 touch! The Angling Club at C h is dis- 
 solved! All its kind-humoured contentions and 
 merry assemblings, the schemes concerted for its 
 longevity, ay, and the friendships it was wont to 
 form, are out of being! One might naturally ex- 
 pect a reason for this breaking-up of interests. If 
 
2 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 there were any, we never could discover it. It lay 
 too deep in philosophy for our line and plummet. 
 
 ' ' Tis wiser oft 
 
 To leave the sources of our ills unprobed." 
 
 The Angling Club at C h! we are entitled 
 
 to talk of it. It was formed originally under the 
 auspices of our own great-grandfather. The arm- 
 chair, in which sate our president, was once his. After 
 the old man's death, it was conveyed to our hall, 
 and stood on a sort of low throne at one end of the 
 apartment, surrounded with various implements be- 
 longing to our craft rods, panniers, fishing-spears, 
 &c. 
 
 Pardon, reader, a long digression. We have a 
 natural wish to say something of the ponderous 
 arm-chair and its revered possessor. How rich in 
 associations was that worm-eaten piece of furniture ! 
 Its quaint devices, carved in sable wood, proclaimed 
 it the masterpiece of some mouldered artizan, three 
 centuries ago ; the cushion of crimson velvet, worn 
 and faded ; its lofty Gothic architecture, with gilded 
 figures, Cupids and cherubim all connected its 
 history with the days of old. 
 
 Alas ! the solemn heir-loom is no more ! It fell 
 by degrees from the hands of our club into those of 
 a private individual, and at length settled itself for 
 three long years in the back warehouse of a common 
 pawnbroker. There we detected, but did not purchase 
 it. No ! it was already profaned by the desecrating 
 gaze of the many the auctioneer had placed his 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 3 
 
 unhallowed hands upon the once-honoured relic. 
 The heir-loom of our club is indeed no more. We 
 made enquiries after its fate, and found that the 
 crazy fabric had given way under the sirloin of a 
 bloated magistrate. Fire, the devourer, has in all 
 probability consumed the craft of its ponderous 
 framework the massive limbs, with their relief of 
 gorgeous imagery. 
 
 But the old, thin-haired man, its occupant, have 
 we forgotten him ? Not so. Well we recollect the 
 spare bending figure of our Saturn the visage with 
 its lustreless eyeballs, wrinkled cheek, and thin, 
 sharp nose. Well we recollect the lofty, solemn 
 forehead, which Time had reverenced. It was a 
 feature of much dignity in our aged ancestor, and 
 contrasted strongly with the other sunken and al- 
 tered pertinents of his countenance. The freshness 
 of youth, which had deserted them, remained with 
 it. Care, whose witchcraft tells sadly upon the 
 brows of some men, laurelled though these be, 
 across his had laid not a finger. That forehead ! 
 We speculate upon it even to this day. It was a 
 portion of the genius of the past. Under its shell 
 had been organized the fabrics of a master intellect ; 
 fancy and reason had laboured at the forge below its 
 cavern. But it was of the past! The argument 
 was over the effect had perished with its cause. 
 It was of the past! The subtle thought the splen- 
 did conception the wit, eloquence, and poetry, 
 were each of the past ! 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 Our great-grandfather had been what is termed 
 a remarkable man, but by an omission on the part 
 of his contemporaries, and perhaps through his own 
 indifference, the comments upon his history are 
 exceedingly rare. He must, however, we feel in- 
 wardly satisfied, besides a worthy angler, have been 
 a great man, although neither wealth nor titles 
 formed part of his acquirements. The inference is 
 drawn by us, we know not from what quarter ; it 
 may be, indeed, that the old arm-chair had some 
 hand in eliciting it. This, notwithstanding, is cer- 
 tain, that great as our ancestor had been, he had 
 met with very uncharitable treatment from the 
 world ; for, although reputedly a voluminous author, 
 we had never the good fortune to stumble upon 
 more than a single tract, De Fluminibus Scoticis, 
 avowedly of his composition, and only once found 
 we mention of his name in a very old newspaper, 
 as the inventor of a wonderful salmon fly. The 
 insignificance of these discoveries nettled us not a 
 little, but we consoled ourselves by the recollection, 
 that the worthiest frequently pass without reward, 
 and that the humours of critics are oftimes lament- 
 ably touchy and capricious. Our great-grandfather 
 was still in our eyes a prodigy, obscured by a cloud 
 in its zenith, but revealed on its horizon, ere it set, 
 to a few privileged, consecrated gazers. 
 
 Thy second infancy, old man ! was to us a solemn 
 lesson from Nature's volume an instructive me- 
 mento reared up in our presence, to check the exu- 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 5 
 
 berance of our early follies, and bedim the dazzling 
 visions of our boyish enthusiasm. Tenant of the 
 ancient chair ! thou art before us, fixed thereto like 
 a carved allegory ; thy shrunken limbs swathed in 
 rinds of flannel to ward off the chilling frosts, with 
 which, from the hand of Time, old age is assailed I 
 Vain precaution ! strengthless defence ! thou shiver- 
 est even at thy fireside ; the tale of thy heart is al- 
 most at a close ; its passions are over ; the pulse 
 throbs slowly away. Thy mind wanders, old man ! 
 Conning over the archives of its eventful history, 
 thou talkest like a dreamer. What connection have 
 these disjointed thoughts with the business of to- 
 day? They loiter far behind it, and are dark as 
 prophecy. Yet, in reverence to the tones of the 
 dying oracle, we listen, our own interpreter. Dote 
 not they to thy children's children, entering into 
 their hearts like counsel from a gravestone? 
 
 Our ancestor was beyond, in age, his garrulous 
 and whimsy days his prate, the prate of four- 
 score, had ceased. He was a century old, and the 
 very wishes of humanity were cancelled from his 
 heart. All the obstinacy of a polemic temperament 
 lay subdued within him he had become like a 
 willow in the hand of nature. Had we placed him 
 in his coffin, he would scarcely have discovered it ; 
 but as yet, he looked more to advantage in the 
 old massive arm-chair; it suited him like a part of 
 his own wardrobe. The long, blue, silk dressing- 
 gown, contrasted well with its crimson velvet, 
 
O ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 and the small pendant cup which confined his 
 scanty locks was self and same with the latter ma- 
 terial. 
 
 Our great-grandfather did not live on air. He 
 required to be fed, and sometimes we marvelled at 
 the appetite of the old man ; he ate like a boy in 
 his teens, and swallowed his wine-gruel with won- 
 derful avidity. But it was a mechanical appetite 
 after all the palate was gone, and the functions 
 of the stomach at a stand. Had you offered him 
 gravel, he would have gaped for it, and exerted 
 his gums upon pease-straw. The exercise of eating, 
 however, sustained him ; his jaw-bones kept him 
 alive. 
 
 Very old men necessarily lose many of their 
 faculties, and our ancestor was in a manner both 
 deaf and blind. He heard and saw, however, by 
 fits ; and frequently would nod to an angling ac- 
 quaintance, and such only, in an automaton fashion, 
 without offering a single sign of further recognition. 
 To some, it seemed strange how suddenly he could 
 relapse into a state of the most absolute indifference, 
 erecting himself slightly in his chair, and fixing his 
 rigid eyeballs upon the opposite side of the apart- 
 ment. Now, that we recollect, he breathed his last in 
 this very position. We were sitting along with him, 
 engaged in the perusal of an amusing book, and 
 ever and anon casting our eyes towards the venerable 
 chair which he occupied, little suspecting how 
 silently within its confines death was at work, when 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 7 
 
 a slight deviation from the perpendicular attitude, 
 usual to the aged man, happened to attract our at- 
 tention, and we rose up with a view to arrange the 
 various cushions by which he was commonly sup- 
 ported during his last infirmity. Alas! our ancestor 
 was already no more ! The patriarchal spirit had 
 departed out of him ; we were busying ourselves 
 with a stiff, uncomplying corse. 
 
 Is there any virtue in the blenched lock of an 
 old man's hair ? We preserve it sacred in our 
 bureau ; it is mingled with a young girl's tresses, 
 the offering of one who is also at rest for ever ! No, 
 not for ever ! The grave will unentomb its saints, 
 and the infant lead forth the ancient. Our great- 
 grandfather slept for some years in the family vault 
 
 below St L 's church ; his ashes were at length 
 
 disturbed by certain repairs of the building taking 
 place. We have never discovered to what spot 
 they happened to be removed, being abroad at the 
 time of their resurrection ; and who, alas ! exists, 
 ourselves excepted, to attach any interest to those 
 violated remains ? 
 
 But enough: Our ancestor was the founder of our 
 club, aye, and a good angler to boot, of the old 
 horse-hair school. W"e have some of his flies in 
 our possession. They are so mis-shapen by moths 
 that we can form no opinion of their pristine virtues. 
 The wires are ponderous and clumsy, but in the 
 main exquisitely tempered. 
 
 OF the exact year when the original fraternity at 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 C h was first instituted, there is no authentic 
 
 record ; neither have we discovered any documents 
 leading us to suppose, that a narration of its pro- 
 ceedings was entrusted to the management of a 
 secretary, until very lately before its dissolution. 
 Our grandfather, who, along with our older ances- 
 tor, was a keen and competent angler, introduced 
 us into the club, when only ten years of age ; the 
 chief requisition being, that the entrant should have 
 slain a salmon on Tweedside. This feat we actually 
 did accomplish at that early period of our boyhood, 
 although (we make the confession without a blush) 
 after the fish had been fixed and exhausted by the 
 tackle of our grandsire, who good-naturedly con- 
 ceded to us the triumph of hauling it ashore. 
 
 The club, at the time of our admission, consisted 
 of a circle of greybeards, several of them octogen- 
 arians, and none under sixty years of age. Its 
 numbers, as far as we recollect, were about seven or 
 eight, all jovial fellows, full of humour, and of -the 
 right cast. These were principally country lairds, 
 having no fixed profession, but independent with 
 regard to circumstances. 
 
 The most prominent of them, next to my grand- 
 father, who, as senior member, held the situation of 
 president, was one Sir Amalek All-gab, a large, 
 portly, broad-shouldered man, with a very simple 
 and good-natured countenance, which, to our boy- 
 ish eyes, appeared monstrously out of character 
 with his person. Sir Amalek was the last of the 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 9 
 
 line of All-gabs, a family of good repute and cre- 
 ditable antiquity. We are not informed who was 
 the first baronet of that name, or upon what occa- 
 sion the title was conferred. The entailed estate, 
 however, dependent upon it, was by no means large; 
 and were not Sir Amalek a bachelor, and in some 
 respects a thrifty one to boot, the world, that is, all 
 who knew him, might have reckoned his circum- 
 stances to be distressingly narrow. As it was, there 
 was no reason to form any opinions about the mat- 
 ter ; the baronet being a firm adherent to celibacy, 
 and parsimoniously renouncing a whole catalogue of 
 small comforts, under the titles of equipage, liveries, 
 fox-hounds, horses, and champagne. 
 
 That Sir Amalek was a doughty angler, no mem. 
 ber of the C h club, save ourselves, ever dis- 
 puted. He was accustomed to talk them all into a 
 sort of belief of his prowess; and the strong impres- 
 sion which his narrations made upon our boyish mind, 
 immediately after our admission into the club, de- 
 termined us to watch out an early opportunity of 
 beholding some of those wonderful feats we had 
 heard vaunted of by the worthy baronet. Right 
 fortunate we were in pitching upon one among the 
 very seldom occasions, when Sir Amalek thought 
 proper to set up his standard of war against the 
 finny tribes; right fortunate we were in beholding 
 his huge brawny person, armed with an eight yard 
 measure, denominated his fishing-rod, which (al- 
 though even to wield it was quite impracticable for 
 
10 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 a man of mere ordinary strength) was, to use the 
 baronet's own expression, as a child's whip in his 
 hands; right fortunate, of a truth, we were in be- 
 holding him, with a determined air, stride down to 
 the water-edge, draw forth his tackle, and fixing a 
 huge salmon fly at the end of his line, hitch it over 
 the surface of a deep, transparent pool, where, by 
 a certain movement of the angler's wrists, it per- 
 formed for the space of half a minute a kind of 
 rotatory dance, and was drawn back again to be 
 relieved by a similar insect of more reduced dimen- 
 sions, whose pas-seul being unable likewise to at- 
 tract the notice either of trout or salmon, a third 
 such monster was brought forth and introduced 
 upon the self-same stage. All these expedients, 
 however, failing, the baronet betook himself to par- 
 catching, and actually managed to draw in two or 
 three unfortunate wretches, whose butchery seemed 
 to afford mighty satisfaction to their captor, and 
 ended for that day the exploits of the renowned Sir 
 Amalek All-gab. Of course, while spectators of 
 this ludicrous scene, we adopted the precaution of 
 remaining concealed. The presence of a dog over- 
 looking his operations, would have no doubt occa- 
 sioned a precipitate retreat on the part of this 
 modest angler. 
 
 We have made mention of Sir Amalek foremost, 
 not as a specimen of the science and accomplish- 
 ments under display by the old and long defunct 
 faternity at C h, but chiefly because he was 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 11 
 
 in some degree looked up to by the club itself as its 
 leading member. He had the talk of three ordinary 
 tongues; and that, combined with his humour, 
 which was infinite, gave him unlimited sway over 
 those with whom he chanced to associate. Even 
 our grandsire, who was wont to exhibit a tolerable 
 proportion of stiff pride, couched a little under the 
 affability of Sir Amalek, and was known more than 
 once to be driven from a favourite position by the 
 torrents of wit and persuasion let loose by the 
 baronet. 
 
 Our recollections, however, of these times and 
 matters are very bare, owing to which circumstance, 
 we are compelled to be brief in our delineations of 
 the other members belonging to the old fraternity. 
 The president, our grandsire, bore a striking re- 
 semblance, both in feature and character, to his 
 ancestor. As an angler, he excelled not only the 
 rest of the club, but every Borderer and Briton 
 that ever came into competition with him. 'Tis 
 vulgarly rumoured, in the district where he resided, 
 that the fish in a neighbouring stream held holiday 
 on the day of his burial, and testified their exulta- 
 tion by leaping all at once out of the water while 
 his coffin was in the act of being lowered. He died 
 very shortly after his father, aged eighty- one, in 
 consequence of a severe internal contusion, received 
 while out at a black-fishing. 
 
 Of the other ancients composing this venerable 
 fraternity, we remember only the names of four. 
 
12 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 There was Andy Ged-grapple, laird of the Seggy- 
 mere Burn, a short, one-eyed, red-faced man, with 
 brains enough to serve a sleeping philosopher. Two 
 things could Andy accomplish; he could catch pike, 
 and drink whisky-toddy, and further he presumed 
 not to attempt. 
 
 After him, there was Bauldy Brig-stanes of the 
 Chucky-holm, a sensible, kind-natured, old gentle- 
 man, and a keen good angler withal. We ever 
 looked up with great regard to Mr Brig-stanes, and 
 entertain even to this day a strong respect for his 
 memory. Many were the instructions we derived 
 from him as to the management of our line. Alas ! 
 he fell a martyr to his favourite occupation, and was 
 drowned at the age of seventy-one, while attempt- 
 ing, rod in hand, to cross a swollen ford on the 
 Clyde, near Biggar. 
 
 Next to the laird of Chucky-holm, we have a 
 faint recollection of one Watty Braw-breeks, brother 
 to the laird of Buskan'-ben. Watty was a sports- 
 man-general, and member of all associations from the 
 
 fraternity at C h down to the Eat and Badger 
 
 Club in the ancient town of Hawick. He seldom, 
 however, took his seat with the divan over which 
 my grandfather presided ; its proceedings were 
 not altogether congenial to his unsettled taste, and 
 he seemed to prefer an otter or fox hunt, where all 
 was bustle and activity, to the more solitary em- 
 ployments of our craft. However, we have heard 
 it said, that, when the whim was on him, he gene- 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 13 
 
 rally displayed a knack at getting fish, which occa- 
 sioned even the president to look wonder-struck. 
 Watty died on his bed, at the good old age of 
 eighty-three; and as he was every-body's man, no- 
 body missed or regretted him. 
 
 The last member of the old club our recollection 
 leads us to, and we are often puzzled to comprehend 
 why we have forgotten the others, was Mr Gilbert 
 Guddle of the Brosy-beck Ha'. Mr Guddle was a 
 round, squat, bolus-bellied man, with short, thick 
 stumps, and a most brotherly pair of knees ; his 
 phiz was turnip-shaped, and of a pewter colour 
 about the chin. 'Twas a farce to suspect this gen- 
 tleman of being an angler, and yet he was not with- 
 out his merits as a killer of fish, although we have 
 heard it hinted that the means he adopted for their 
 destruction were not in all respects the most hon- 
 est; nor did Mr Guddle pretend to any secrecy 
 about the matter, but rather prided himself upon 
 his skill in jerking out trout with his hands from 
 under the banks of small streams. The pock-net, 
 too, was a favourite with him, although employed, 
 we suspect, more for the purpose of furnishing a 
 dish for his table (for he possessed an extraordinary 
 and insatiable twist) than of affording him any 
 measure of amusement. Mr Gilbert, more fami- 
 liarly termed Gibby of the Beck, was in his way a 
 kind of humorist, and his visage being at all times 
 a droll one, he was enabled, by the smallest contor- 
 tion of his features, to create a laugh, or, at any rate, 
 
14 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 to give a very ludicrous effect to all attempts at 
 seriousness on the part of those with whom he hap- 
 pened to be consorted. Mr Guddle died of apoplexy 
 in the seventy-third year of his age. A most erro- 
 neous report was, however, circulated, that being 
 bitten by a water-rat while engaged in ransacking a 
 small burn close to Brosy-beck Ha', he was seized 
 with hydrophobia a few days after. This statement, 
 we aver, upon the authority of his medical attend- 
 ant, to be totally incorrect. 
 
 Such is the amount of all our recollections with 
 
 regard to the pristine fraternity at C h. Alas, 
 
 all its patriarchs have returned to their fathers! 
 Ged-grapple was shot dead by an exciseman, hav- 
 ing resisted the seizure of some illegal spirits which 
 he had in his possession ; and Sir Amalek All-gab 
 cleared a road into his coffin by cutting his own 
 throat, which it seems he was not allowed to make 
 unlimited use of during a contested election. As 
 for the other members, having forgotten their 
 names, we have also forgotten their fates. Should 
 there be one alive, from our heart we compassion- 
 ate him. But why, when old men have no affections 
 like the young when their remembrances are 
 closely sealed up, and ours open afresh, we some- 
 times know not wherefore when how unlike us ! 
 they look upon the world without anxiety, and their 
 fears of parting from it are all time-subdued ? Pity 
 them ! Ay ! nevertheless we do, even because they 
 are so deserted by the glad springs of feeling, be- 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 15 
 
 cause, 'mid their freedom from sorrows, they are 
 deprived alike of their joys. 
 
 At the period of our introduction to this assem- 
 bly of ancients, it was evidently the purpose of our 
 grandsire, in conjunction with the other wise mem- 
 bers belonging to the C h Angling Club, to 
 
 provide against the chances of its extinction by 
 drafting into it as many young recruits as they 
 possibly could muster. Accordingly, a week had 
 scarcely elapsed after our admission, when two 
 other candidates were proposed to the fraternity, 
 viz. Messrs Leister and Otter. These young gen- 
 tlemen were about the same age as ourselves. They 
 had both completed the ordeal of killing a Tweed 
 salmon, and we believe in a more honest fashion 
 than we did. 
 
 Before enlarging upon their respective qualities, 
 we find ourselves compelled to take some notice of 
 the singular plan of reinforcement adopted by the 
 old members of the Angling Club. When formed 
 under the direction of our great-grandsire, the fra- 
 ternity consisted of twenty-five members, including 
 the president. To these it seems, by a standing 
 rule, no addition on any account was to be made, 
 and should a vacancy by demise, expulsion, or re- 
 signation, occur, it was not to be filled up without 
 the entire consent of the whole remaining members* 
 
 It so chanced, that among these primitive bro- 
 thers of the craft was one Simon Cockle-pate, a 
 self-willed, obstinate, and opinionative bully, whose 
 
16 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 whole delight it was to destroy the unanimity of the 
 club, by preventing with his vote, on every occa- 
 sion, the execution of its wishes. 1 In vain were 
 appeals made to him by the various members; he in- 
 sisted upon his privilege of marring their intentions 
 when he thought proper ; and being threatened with 
 expulsion, made use of certain gestures, which gave 
 the club to understand that his enmity was by 
 no means to be disregarded. Therefore it was 
 that the peace-loving and irresolute fraternity at 
 C h made up their minds to endure what with- 
 out peril they could not prevent therefore it was 
 that their numbers gradually dwindled away, it 
 being the pleasure of Mr Cockle-pate to oppose 
 every attempt to replenish them. 
 
 At length, however, after a protracted dictator- 
 ship, this foe to good fellowship walked off the stage 
 of life, and it was thought necessary, on the part of 
 the club, to take immediate measures for effecting 
 its own revival. To introduce, however, a bevy of 
 middle-aged anglers, even were they able to accom- 
 plish such an object, would be at once to relinquish 
 their own ground, and change the whole nature of 
 the establishment. Ancients like themselves they 
 never dreamt of; they designed to give perpetuity 
 to their club ; and as a first step towards the mea- 
 sure, we were hauled in, then Jack Leister and 
 Tom Otter, all of us mere infants, just breeched. 
 The lovings of a senile heart, it may be remarked, 
 are ever with the young. Old men lose regard for 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 17 
 
 the generation that immediately follows them, and 
 stretch what remains of their affections towards 
 their children's children. 
 
 Of ourselves (we refer to a period long after the 
 
 extinction of the old Angling Club at C h) 
 
 modesty requires us to say nothing. We could 
 throw a fly, it is true, with some address, and al- 
 ways possessed the art of making our pannier ap- 
 pear respectable. Our abilities, however, sunk into 
 insignificance when brought into comparison with 
 the matured skill of our friend Jack Leister. No 
 one could command a line with less effort or better 
 effect. His flies dropt upon the water with most 
 exquisite gentleness. He had a mode of projecting 
 them, when angling below trees, which we never 
 saw practised by any one else. After describing a 
 quarter circle rapidly on either side of him, at a 
 yard's height from the ground, so that he kept free 
 from any intervention of the upper branches, he re- 
 covered his line in such a manner, that it proceeded 
 directly from his rod across the stream towards the 
 very spot which he intended it to traverse. We 
 could never thoroughly understand the principle 
 upon which this effect was obtained, no propelling 
 force being employed from behind. 
 
 While angling for salmon also, Leister adopted 
 a method, which, without doubt, materially in- 
 creased the length of his cast. He had a custom 
 of drawing in a considerable portion of the line by 
 means of his hand, and allowing it to dart out 
 
 B 
 
18 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 with the rest, when in the act of throwing. We 
 have heard him remark that he gained above a 
 fathom of water by this system, but we never had 
 the inclination, or perhaps the necessity, to adopt 
 it ourselves. 
 
 The tackle of Jack Leister was of a first-rate 
 description ; he prided himself greatly upon his in- 
 genuity in fabricating flies, and he always kept an 
 excellent selection of gut. He likewise made his 
 own rods, and we have seldom handled better wands. 
 The butt-piece was generally constructed of choice 
 fir, and the upper half (for they were of the tie sort, 
 and in two parts only) fashioned of hickory wood. 
 In the grasp, they were light as a riding whip, and 
 so handy, a very infant might brandish them. They 
 managed the line as if it were wild-fire, and, over 
 an impetuous and fresh-run fish, possessed almost 
 incredible power. Their spring was at the same 
 moment strong and facile : they bent to a strug- 
 gling par, but resumed their arrowy straightness 
 with a tired salmon. 
 
 The fly-collection of our friend Leister showed 
 him to be a disciple of the old English school. He 
 was marvellously fond of variety, and sported at 
 least fifty sorts and sizes of insects. The smallest 
 shadow of difference in the wing, dribling, or 
 hackle, was to him of the greatest consequence. He 
 had a mortal aversion to the plain brown palmer, 
 one of the most killing lures we are acquainted with, 
 and his partiality to tinsel was somewhat extrava- 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 19 
 
 gant. We have seen salmon flies of his which were 
 literally covered with glitter; others, likewise, he 
 fabricated in the Irish style, with a redundancy of 
 the golden pheasant feather under the outer wing, 
 and, to say the truth, they proved in his hands 
 remarkably successful. He once recommended 
 to us a small hook, with a light, blue silk body, 
 which he affirmed would prove very deadly on the 
 salmon species in large, clear waters, during the 
 summer months. We never used it, not because 
 we doubted its efficacy, but our experimenting 
 moods are entirely worn off, or, like all anglers, we 
 look upon innovations with a sort of horror. 
 
 Leister, when angling, was accustomed to vary 
 his flies every half-hour, and in the case of a salmon 
 refusing the hook, he would run over his whole 
 stock in endeavouring a second time to bring it to 
 the surface. This is not an uncommon practice 
 with some, who, upon raising a fish, have recourse 
 with as much speed as possible to a new and totally 
 different fly. Others, again, recur to the one in 
 use, but refrain from recasting the line until suffi- 
 cient rest has been allowed to the fish. 
 
 Among the members of our modern fraternity, 
 Leister found a powerful rival in the person of Tom 
 Otter. Tom, however, did not equal him as a fly- 
 fisher, but in the management of the minnow was 
 greatly his superior. He had a way of attaching 
 his bait, which gave it a particularly captivating 
 appearance. Under his management, it span with 
 
20 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 unparalleled activity, and probed into the very haunts 
 of the largest trout. His most eminent feats, in- 
 deed, were accomplished with the par-tail, and he 
 gloried not a little in recounting them. 
 
 We remember well his description of the capture 
 of a large salmon with this lure. He happened to 
 be trolling in the narrow well- known gorge, im- 
 mediately below Yair bridge, and while in the act 
 of drawing the bait ashore, he observed behind it a 
 slight convulsion of the water, accompanied by one 
 of those momentary gleams, which none but a prac- 
 tised eye can detect as proceeding from the flank of 
 a heavy fish. Tom immediately proceeded several 
 yards higher up the pool, and commenced angling 
 down and across, towards the spot where these indi- 
 cations took place. The salmon again rose, and 
 fortunately, by allowing the bait to run until gorged, 
 he succeeded in hooking it. No sooner was this 
 accomplished, than it commenced its long, steady 
 dart, almost on the surface of the water, terminating 
 it with a sudden plunge, which threatened to snap 
 both rod and tackle. The struggle of the fish to 
 escape proved; however, unsuccessful, and only 
 served to strengthen the hold of its enemy. But 
 still there was no appearance of exhaustion about 
 it. It turned (to use Tom's own expression) like 
 a philosopher, and leisurely walked up the stream, 
 as if meditating upon the three Fates. Suddenly, 
 however, it coursed in a new direction, exerting at 
 the same time its whole energies in order to get 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 21 
 
 rid of its tormentor, lashing with its tail at the 
 line, and plunging about with considerable violence. 
 A long rapid run succeeded to these fruitless ma- 
 noeuvres, and Otter had to use his legs to some pur- 
 pose, in order to save his line, which birred off the 
 reel like a string of lightning. Forthwith the fish 
 once more turned; its broad, huge snout, stemming 
 the tipper current, and the tail flapping heavily at 
 intervals ; but down again it sunk upon a bed of 
 rock, like a dead, heavy immoveable mass. This 
 was no novel occurrence to Otter; but, as he was 
 not willing to allow the somewhat exhausted fish in 
 any degree to recruit itself, he commenced tossing 
 in large pebbles close to the spot where he judged 
 it lay. In this he was not so speedily successful as 
 he anticipated, for the subtlety of the fish, and per- 
 haps its state of fatigue, retained it at the bottom, 
 in spite of his utmost endeavours to effect a start. 
 At length, however, off it went like a race- horse, 
 making its way along several pools in succession. 
 Otter followed in the rear, at one time immersed 
 waist-deep in the current, at another steering his 
 course close to the margin, under the row of tall, 
 green trees, which overshadow that part of Tweed. 
 Here, as it happened, he was confronted by a brother 
 angler, engaged like himself with a fast salmon. 
 Unable to control the exertions of his own fish, Tom 
 felt at a loss how to avoid running foul of the long, 
 deep line to which the other struggler was attached. 
 A collision was evident, more especially as the va- 
 
22 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 garies of the latter, a newly hooked grilse, prevented 
 any amicable crossing of rods, such as is generally 
 adopted on similar occasions. Besides, the other 
 angler seemed determined to keep his ground, and 
 preserve the full altitude of his rod, although Otter's 
 run of line was considerably the longer. The spot 
 where this fellow, a surly poacher from the neigh- 
 bourhood of Hawick, happened to stand, was a 
 small ledge of rock running into a deep, dangerous 
 eddy of water. Although requested by Otter to 
 alter his position and lower his rod, both of which 
 he might have done without the slightest risk of 
 losing the fish, he notwithstanding thought proper 
 to remain obstinately immoveable. Time, however, 
 was not to be thrown aside, the line of our worthy 
 friend being pretty far spent, and the salmon in no 
 mood to be thwarted. Accordingly, enraged at the 
 hinderance offered by the sulky and determined rustic, 
 Otter in rather angry terms ordered him a second 
 time to move out of his way. This demand not 
 being complied with, our incensed angler took it at 
 once into his head to trip up the fellow's heels, in such 
 a manner that he popped directly into the river, 
 and commenced floundering for his life in the midst 
 of the rapid current. There arose a. sort of dilemma 
 to our friend, who was forthwith called upon to 
 hesitate betwixt the poacher and the salmon; and 
 really, thought he, if to save the one I must relin- 
 quish the other, it is no gain to me. Accordingly, he 
 continued at his fish, notwithstanding the impreca- 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 23 
 
 tions of the drowning man. These, however, were 
 becoming every moment less vehement. The force 
 of the stream had swept him forwards to a consider- 
 able distance, and he was about to sink altogether, 
 when luckily Tom Otter landed his salmon, a thirty 
 pounder, gave it a few smart, killing raps on* the 
 head, and hurried to the assistance of the exhausted 
 sufferer. He was not long in rescuing him, the 
 part of the pool to which the poacher had been 
 carried being, although deep, smooth and safe for 
 an expert, venturous swimmer, such as Otter was. 
 The grilse, however, had made its escape, after 
 having broken the line to which it was attached, 
 and the rod likewise of the deserving boor was 
 somewhat injured. Of course, Tom swallowed his 
 curses with excellent humour, bowing profoundly 
 in acknowledgment of the mortified angler's good 
 wishes, and offering him the fins of his huge salmon 
 as a recompence for all loss and damage sustained 
 in his perilous voyage down the Tweed. He then 
 shouldered his fish, and trudged off to another pool, 
 with a snatch of an old ballad in his mouth. 
 
 Otter's attachment to Tweedside was altogether 
 uncommon. The river to him seemed hallowed 
 water. He revered its banks and channels, its tri- 
 butaries, from their very sources, and all belonging 
 to it. With respect to other streams, he was wholly 
 indifferent. He depreciated, above all, the rivers 
 in the north of Scotland, where he happened to 
 sojourn for some months; and although achieving 
 
24 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 among them several angling feats, he was accustomed 
 to talk of these with great contempt. This was a 
 prejudice on his part, the foundation for which we 
 could never entirely comprehend, as we know of a 
 truth that he was wont to capture most extraordinary 
 loads of fish in a certain Highland water, surpass- 
 ing by far any that he ever dislodged from the 
 pools of Tweed. But his skill, remarked he, when 
 alluding to his northern campaign, was not put to 
 the test. An urchin unbreeched, without a shred 
 of sagacity, could achieve equal triumphs over the 
 finny tribe, and he was not willing to be reduced to 
 a par with any such. 
 
 We check all inclination to marshal off before 
 the reader the various other members composing our 
 late fraternity. Their merits as anglers are unfolded 
 in the records of their communings by the stream- 
 side and at the feast table. Why enter into dull 
 details concerning them? They will speak out 
 honestly for themselves. Ah! Doctor, and ye 
 merry-men all Bill, Tim, Tom, and Harry have 
 ye fled? Are there to be no more humorous meet- 
 ings amongst us? Are we defunct indeed? Had we 
 no projects to complete ? no contemplated happi- 
 nesses yet to enjoy? But be it so! We built up a 
 palace with smoke, and where is it ? 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE RIVER-SIDE. 
 
 TOM OTTER AND BILL MAY-FLY. 
 
 Otter. Thou hast an enviable wand, May-fly, and 
 goodly gear ; an* thou dost not tempt a fin with 
 these flies of thine, thou art no angler. 
 
 May. Ay! my rod is a fair one a neat piece of 
 wood, I must confess ; it is light and taper as a 
 water-rush, bends to a breath, but is strong in the 
 marrow as an oak-post ; yet, as for my tackle, 
 though it looks tempting, and is wrought seem- 
 ingly by subtle and fantastic fingers, may I be 
 thrice soused if it will raise even a minnow. 
 
 Otter. No marvel indeed ! thou art whipping at the 
 water like a boatswain's mate, and makest a perfect 
 maelstrom on the surface! Think you that fish 
 will be curious to look at thy flies 'mid such a tem- 
 pest? Let the line fall more gently, and keep from 
 
26 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 the edge a pace or two ; the best of the pool is where 
 the shadow lies ; throw across, and take a curve with 
 thy cast down the stream. That was but a par, and 
 no monster, as thou seemest to think, by that start 
 of thine. 
 
 May. I pricked him. But ha! did you see that? 
 I have lost both flies; he jerked them off like a pick- 
 pocket. What a prime fellow he was! 
 
 Otter. By no means only another par; but you 
 struck at him too forcibly. There, you see, he leaps 
 about with your hooks like a ballet-dancer. But % 
 arm again, put on this red professor for a trail-fly, 
 and a hare-lug bobber ; one of these black hackles 
 will suit as well ; you can try either or both, as it 
 pleases you. Be sure to fasten neatly, and tie a 
 firm knot; chop off with your penknife the useless 
 extremities of the gut upon your nail, but not too 
 closely. Now, allow your line to soak a moment 
 at the edge, and set too. I will angle with min- 
 nows over the pools already fished. But there! you 
 have got hold of a good trout, a half-pounder at 
 the least. Don't let the line run if you wish to take 
 him, but keep it tight to his mouth, and haul down 
 with the current. 
 
 May. He is gone also, and bids me good-bye. It 
 provokes one to break his rod, and forswear angling 
 for ever. 
 
 Otter. Have patience, Bill, have patience; thou 
 must not hope to be a conjuror in the craft all at 
 once. Time will make thee an able hand if thou 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 2? 
 
 perseverest. Keep up heart, my boy, and don't get 
 into ill-humour with thy flies; they are as pretty 
 Limericks as I ever set eyes upon, and well barbed 
 to boot. Only, when thou takest in a good trout, 
 keep a hand from the line, and allow the rod itself 
 to do the office, otherwise the fish and you must 
 part company. Here comes one of our fraternity 
 honest Jack Leister, or I mistake a worthy 
 angler as ever breathed, and a salmon on his 
 shoulders. Well, Jack, where got ye that fish ? 
 
 Enter LEISTER. 
 
 Leister. In the cauldron pool, immediately under 
 the large cradle-shaped stone, where one who can 
 manage his fly nicely may raise a fellow almost 
 every day of the year, when the water is in humour. 
 But how, Otter, are you and May-fly engaged at 
 catching minnows, and such a prime breeze on the 
 river ? Look you, there is an old, wily trout feed- 
 ing below yonder bank ; my fly is a salmon one, and 
 would only frighten the rascal ; a grey midge were 
 his surest poison he would suck it in eagerly, I 
 warrant you. Lend me your rod, Bill ; this red 
 professor will do the deed notwithstanding. Now, 
 I have him fast ! He is a fox of a fish, and would 
 take himself into cover among the ash roots. See 
 how he pushes toward the bottom with his strong, 
 subtle snout, and attempts to saw through his fet- 
 ters. I must use my bit more powerfully, although 
 at the risk of losing him. Ha! he feels the barb, 
 
28 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 and moves out into deep, unobstructive water; but 
 he is not nearly exhausted, as you may see by that 
 fling of his. 
 
 May. 'Tis right vigorous and methodical, and had 
 nigh proved a swamper. Saw you not how he 
 aimed with his broad tail at the line, or rather threw 
 himself plump upon it, in order to try its strength? 
 
 Leister. He did so, and might have succeeded 
 in breaking it, had I riot been aware of his design, 
 and kept in readiness for it by slackening the reins. 
 But now he confesses himself baffled ; his efforts to 
 escape become weaker ; he turns in three or four 
 directions, and is scarcely able to face the current. 
 I have wheeled his head round, and lead him cau- 
 tiously along with the stream ; and here he comes 
 to land ; run, Bill, and secure him. 
 
 Otter. A goodly fish, but somewhat big-pated 
 and black, I have seen trout more to my fancy ; 
 but this is an old boy, and tough-leathered. 
 
 Leister. He measures in length about nineteen 
 inches, and weighs short of two pounds. Ha ! look 
 you what the lean, gluttonous cannibal has dis- 
 gorged ! one of his own species, entire and fresh ; 
 another, half-digested ; two small eels; and a singu- 
 lar concoction of worms, beetles, and leeches. A 
 hearty meal has he made of them, as you may no- 
 tice. Lay him in your creel, May-fly, we shall do 
 likewise in part upon him. And now, take the 
 trouting-rod, and angle carefully over the next 
 pool; there be some prowlers out scanning the 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 29 
 
 surface for food. Throw a long, light line, and 
 carry your flies clear of yonder bush, bringing 
 them in on this side of the rapid water, and allow- 
 ing the trailler to sink a little, while you move 
 them slowly towards you. Strike there is a fish ! 
 
 Otter. No less than a couple, and both at your 
 beck; but they are par, small, weak and trashy. 
 Throw them in again, Bill. 
 
 May. Why so ? Are they not somewhat, and of 
 manifest account ? They will swell the contents of 
 my creel to boot. I will e'en retain them. 
 
 Leister. As you chose, but do not magnify their 
 dimensions alarmingly, lest the truth creep out in 
 the end. I have known some anglers who turn 
 minnows into whales by the magic of a bounce; 
 others that have the knack of multiplying one into 
 a dozen, and so forth. It is wiser, however, to be 
 honest in such matters at the first. The braggart, 
 after a stroke or two, is soon detected, and loses 
 generally all his credit at once. Did you ever hear 
 of Rory, the black liar ? 
 
 May. A strong epithet ! 
 
 Leister. It is a Gaelic one, given to a poor 
 wretch who lives in one of the most miserable of 
 Highland villages in the north of Scotland. This 
 man's mother was a coiner of scandalous stories for 
 the district. Her mouth was eternally foaming 
 falsehoods and exciting mischief. She ruined more 
 reputations with her tongue than an army of cold- 
 blooded villains, giving rise, besides, to petty feuds 
 
30 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 and disasters without reckoning. Her darling 
 Rory is a born drunkard, and inherits so strongly 
 his mother's propensities, that all who dwell in the 
 neighbourhood abhor his very presence. Nature 
 has aptly twisted his shape and features so as to re- 
 semble his words. He is the incarnation of false- 
 hood, and yet, strange to say, an angler; but, mark 
 me, a desperately bad one the mere murderer of 
 other men's sport. He rakes and harrows the best 
 pools with nets and other destructive engines, in 
 order to obtain fish, disposing of these as fresh and 
 clean when in their worst and stalest condition. His 
 braggadocio is staringly large, but too common- 
 place to be amusing; there are no jokes in the 
 heart of it ; it is one concoction and tissue of abso- 
 lute and unredeemed falsehood. It has, however, 
 a plot and manner, a minuteness and dramatic pro- 
 gression about it, somewhat imposing. Rory is 
 too artful not to embellish the deception ; he gilds 
 the bolus before he asks you to swallow it. 
 
 I once met him, and not at the time knowing my 
 man, was led to ask him concerning some hill 
 lochs which I fancied to exist in the neighbour- 
 hood of the village where he lived. He mentioned 
 the names of several, and of one in particular, where 
 he asserted he had often killed trout of an enormous 
 weight ; moreover, he described its size, situation, 
 and curiosities gave me an idea of where it lay, 
 and induced me, without much ado, to go in search 
 of it, the distance being a mere trifle, and no guide 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 31 
 
 required. Off I set, and soon arrived at an emi- 
 nence from which I was to overlook the promised 
 sheet of water but where was it ? I beheld nothing 
 but a wide stretch of heather, and two or three in- 
 dividuals on its surface cutting moss for fuel. In- 
 quiring of them where the spot lay, they one and 
 all seemed astonished at my query, declared they 
 knew nothing of its existence, and demanded from 
 whom I had received my information. On de- 
 scribing the personal appearance of the man, they 
 broke out into a sort of chuckle, exclaiming, " It 
 was Rory the black liar!" 
 
 May. And did you chastise the dog ? 
 
 Leister. It would need good leather to take skin 
 from the devil ! But, look you, what a lovely trout 
 Tom Otter is in the act of landing. 
 
 Otter. I have him hooked with my minnow- 
 tackle, and in such a prime stream, no wonder 
 the fish is a good one ; see what a breadth he has, 
 and how unlike the large-headed monster captured 
 a few minutes ago. He wants five inches of its 
 length, and weighs notwithstanding an additional 
 half-pound. He is in miniature what I once took 
 
 in Loch ; but I must get him paired 
 
 speedily from the same pool, and with a fresh bait. 
 Choose me a minnow, May-fly, out of the pitcher. 
 
 May. Here is a large one, and coloured like a 
 rainbow. 
 
 Otter. Toss it away ! Thou art no judge of a 
 dainty bait. I want a small, silvery, spruce-look- 
 
32 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 ing fellow, with a lively eye, and smooth fore- 
 head. 
 
 May. I have fingered out the very imp ; but he 
 is slippery as a pig's-tail, and has fallen somewhere 
 among the grass. Ha ! here he is, dancing about 
 with the spirit of a mountebank. 
 
 Otter. I have fastened him to my wish, and he 
 turns admirably. I saw a fish follow to the water's 
 edge ; and there again ! the same sly prowler ; but 
 he has seen me, and slinks off. Heaven forgive 
 him ! 
 
 Leister. He was no doubt a thunderer, Tom, his 
 escape annoys you so terribly. 
 
 Otter. And well it might ; for a goodlier trout 
 never showed fin, even to old Isaac himself; no, 
 nor inhabits black Styx, nor Lethe, with its lau- 
 danum-running streams; but he shall die to night! 
 His haunt is under that tuft of rushes, and a par- 
 tail will spring him an hour or so after sunset, else 
 the skill is out of Otter's right hand. 
 
 May. Bravo ! thou art a threatful arid dangerous 
 man, and wilt extirpate the whole race of giants. 
 Methinks I espy Timothy Gaff wending down the 
 hill to join us. 
 
 Leister. Thou art right, Bill ; and who are with 
 him but our skeleton-shaped friend, Harry Hackle, 
 and worthy Doctor Swiveltop ! Are they not ang- 
 ling dons of the first-water, tastefully rigged out 
 in modish apparel ? Yet Harry is a genuine 
 sportsman, and throws a fly with wonderful neat- 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 33 
 
 / 
 
 ness and precision. The Doctor himself is no bad 
 hand at the par-tail and minnow, but prides himself 
 over-much upon his novel contrivances in the way 
 of tackle. He angles upon a system, and his system 
 is not exactly the true one ; for it seldom manages 
 the capture of above half-a-dozen good trout, and 
 a couple of small pike. Gaff is, without question, 
 the best angler of the three ; that is to say, he kills 
 more fish in the same space of time than either, or 
 perhaps both, of the others. There is nothing, how- 
 ever, extraordinary in his manner of going to work. 
 The secret of his success lies in his being able at a 
 glance to discern the best water ; he seldom flings 
 away a throw ; but angles a good deal too rapidly 
 for my taste, striding on before one, and picking up 
 the choicest fish without stay or compunction. 
 
 May. We can bind him to a tree, should he in- 
 tend the same trick at present. 
 
 Otter. Fortunately, he is without rod, and must 
 act the mere spectator of our exploits, which are not 
 likely to be wonderful, seeing that the breeze is low 
 and the sun strong But how fares it with our gal- 
 lant friends, Harry Hackle, Timothy Gaff, and Doc- 
 tor Nathan Swiveltop ? 
 
 Enter GAIT, HACKLE, and SWIVELTOP. 
 Hackle. Right heartily. We are fresh from the 
 city, and armed at all points with health and hu- 
 mour. Are fish astir to-day, and what wonders 
 have been enacted among them ? You have killed 
 
 c 
 
34 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 an angel of a salmon, Leister; he weighs nine 
 pounds at the least, and is broad, thick, and clean- 
 run. Some of these trout are to be talked of re-, 
 verently, and ought to have given glorious sport. 
 We must lie upon our oars until to-morrow, and 
 then 
 
 May. An ominous and prophetic pause! By the 
 ghost of old Isaac ! Hackle, you intend to level us 
 into mere nothings to take the conceit out of us 
 in a twinkling ; but no, old boy ! 
 
 Hackle. Ah ! Bill, we had almost forgotten thee. 
 Thou art the newest top-piece of our divining rod, 
 and mayest, in a season or twain, work miracles ; 
 at present, go catch gudgeons ; thy cunning may 
 achieve thus far. They are a silly, quickly-gulled 
 manner of fish ; a thread and crooked pin may fill 
 thee a hatful. 
 
 May. Were it thy hat, Hackle, the wisdom I 
 should drop into it were weightier than it has con- 
 tained hitherto. But, seeing thou fanciest thyself 
 to have some trouting wit, I am willing to back 
 Leister against thee for three songs and a supper, 
 to be paid nightly to all present after each successive 
 combat, during our stay. 
 
 Hackle. Not agreed to, Bill. Fortune is no 
 friend of mine. 
 
 May. This salmon afears thee, Hackle ; thou hast 
 a doubt of thyself more than of Fortune. We shall 
 have our song and supper notwithstanding. What 
 say you, Timothy? 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 35 
 
 Gaff. So be it, Bill. But this meadow is sweet 
 and fragrant. What hinders us, now that the air is 
 hot and the fish dull, to seat ourselves awhile on 
 the grass? Hollo! Doctor, thou must keep to our 
 company, and not probe the water against all usage. 
 There is nothing to be made out of it at present. 
 
 Swivel. Indeed, sagacious sir!' This nibble re- 
 futes thee at the outset; look, what a masterly tug! 
 and there again! my line is forced out. I have him. 
 
 Gaff. An eel, Doctor. Ha! ha! 
 
 Swivel. No bad fish, 'Master Timothy ; nay, the 
 very pick of dainties to those who are men of dis- 
 cernment. 
 
 Gaff. Such as thyself, for instance. But the ugly 
 rascal has gorged thy hook to his centre ; bisect 
 him if thou art wise, and uprip his catacombs-: 
 
 Swivel. As you say, Tim ; we shall unfold our 
 lancets, and lay on among his vitals. 
 
 Gaff. His vitals, Doctor the vitals of an eel! 
 Thou must needs shred him into morsels ere thou 
 findest them. 
 
 Leister. Barbarous and inhuman talk! unwor- 
 thy of anglers and of a refined age ! Gaff and 
 Swiveltop, you are twain unnaturally savage souls. 
 Dash at once the poor, lingering reptile against the 
 ground ; it will put an end to its sufferings, and save 
 us the pain of listening to your abhorrent and dam- 
 nable schemes. 
 
 Swivel. O rare sentimentalist! Know you not 
 that eels are heretics, and we the inquisition ? But 
 
36 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 your counsel shall be followed to the letter. See 
 what a lovely paralysis it has effected ; the crea- 
 ture is stone dead ; and now I shall creel him up 
 for burial, and join your group. Ha! Hackle ! you 
 are sketching. A cottage, a tree, a hill, arid a river, 
 all indispensable objects in a taking landscape. 
 
 Hackle. Moreover, I shall not forget Doctor 
 Swiveltop in the foreground butchering eels ; it will 
 finely relieve the other ingredients of the scene, and 
 add wonderfully to its general effect. 
 
 Otter. You say justly ; the Doctor's person would 
 help to dignify the subject; and yet, in sooth, there 
 is much to admire on all sides of us. Yon group 
 of elms might be chosen as the bath-guardians of 
 Diana, they are so leafy and patriarchal. What 
 stems several of them possess! gnarled and warted 
 over from the root upward; their shadows too are 
 entirely pagan. One could imagine Night herself 
 to issue out, like a vampire, from under those so- 
 lemn hangings. No pencil can do them justice. 
 They defy, with their brandished arms, all the 
 trickery of art. 
 
 Hackle. J Tis a venerable group, but heavy, umbra- 
 geous, and too closely massed for pencil- work; it 
 wants meaning and variety, and resembles a square 
 thunder-cloud. I dislike it uncommonly, and would 
 rather yon solitary and disfigured oak, blast-worn 
 and thin-mantled as it is a forest-outcast, cleft a- 
 thwart the chest its muscles, aye, its heart laid bare, 
 but still existing existing as if in the teeth of nature. 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 37 
 
 Otter. Perhaps you are right, but you judge 
 only with the pictorial eye. I am taken with both, 
 arid admire each the more for the contrast's sake. 
 It is so also in regard to those hills. One is huge 
 and uniform, coated with heath and verdure ; knolls, 
 pleasant, pastoral, and sunny, scattered over it ; its 
 summit round, smooth, and shining ; its base thick 
 and sovereign like. The other is a mere rock, of 
 more contracted dimensions; but still vast, having 
 the forehead of a Gorgon ; scarred with ravines ; 
 and on its side, a torrent of shivered granites, ar- 
 rested singularly in their descent. Altogether, in- 
 deed, it is a motley but pleasant scene. 
 
 Hackle. It is so, and under skilful hands might 
 form a lovely sketch. This river is the spirit of the 
 picture ; it glides into it and out of it with a dream- 
 like imperceptibility ; here sunned and sparkling, 
 there shaded and sombre. I admire much the long, 
 still, shadowy pool, situated under yonder cliff, on 
 which you may discern the grey and ivied battle- 
 ments of a feudal castle. 
 
 Otter. I have killed oftimes a good salmon at 
 the upper part of it, where there are two or three 
 choice eddies, and a delectable stream. At this 
 moment I perceive two fishers, not of the worthiest 
 sort, busily employed in harrowing it with the 
 double rod. 
 
 Leister. Let us up and put an end to their sport, 
 if this nefarious manner of angling can so be termed. 
 
 Gaff. You advise well. They deserve a severe 
 
38 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 drubbing, and a bellyful besides of river water ; at 
 any rate, we shall give them a screed of our opi- 
 nion, and compel their compliance into the bargain. 
 
 May. Nay, now, we had better delay our inter- 
 ference; it will gain us nothing but ill-will and a 
 grudge. These rascals never forgive what they 
 imagine to be an insult, and are in nowise particu- 
 lar about the manner of their revenge. What say 
 you, Doctor? 
 
 Swivel. Why, stand up for our rights, to be sure. 
 Can we hit upon a better plan than to march up 
 at once in two bodies to their shoe points, and, 
 without even a good-morrow, commence stretching 
 a series of cross-lines in front of them ? It nettles a 
 man stylishly to be foiled with his own weapon ! 
 
 Leister. Good, Doctor ; the expedient is an ad- 
 mirable one. Hackle, yourself, and I, will ford the 
 river ; while Otter, May-fly, and Tim Gaff, assail 
 them on this side of it. 
 
 Swivel. Moreover, let us hang out instead of 
 tackle an array of scares, in the shape of crow- 
 feathers ; they are to be found, I have no doubt, 
 in great plenty under yonder rookery in the elm- 
 grove. 
 
 Otter. Excellent, Doctor; thou hast the knack 
 of scheming well ; so we shall e'en lend thee a hand, 
 in order to take the devil destructive out of these 
 rascals. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 ANOTHER PART OF THE RIVER. 
 
 Enter Two POACHERS. 
 
 1st Poacher. Haud up your wand a bit, Watty; 
 ye're playin' the deil wi' us a'thegither. What gars 
 ye wark the flees in that fashion ? 
 
 2d Poacher. Faith ! man, it's no sae easy ma- 
 nagin* them as ye think ; there's a muckle troot on 
 the near end o' the line. 
 
 1st Poacher. Tak him in, then, an' dinna spoil 
 the lave o' the water; there's twa fathom to ye, and 
 be canny. Gie these bits o' par a yerk into your 
 creel, and fasten on a hantle sawmon flees ; there's 
 a gude chance o* a fish amang thae rocks. It was 
 just here we hookit the thirty punder last Martin- 
 mas. Ye'll mind hoo it bang up wi' its muckle 
 head to the yallow flee, and awa, when it fand itseP 
 grippit, to yon stane, and there it lay, like a clod, 
 
40 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 as if it hadna sense or motion, till we stirred it 
 up wi j a ring o' hard airn, and doon again it darted, 
 amaist on the tap o' the water, its braid tail stickin' 
 oot ahiwt, an' noo and then giein' a sair and wrathfu* 
 wallop ! There's the very spot whare we landed 
 the cratur; an' no easy wark, as ye ken, it was; for 
 1 had lost the handle o' my gaff, and couldna get 
 Jock Anison to strike the huik intil it, as he micht 
 hae dune. We made a famous catch o't that day, 
 forbye what the twa grilses fetched Sax-and-twenty 
 shillings, hard money, atween the pair o ? us ! But 
 what gran' callants are these haudin' up in this direc- 
 tion ? I wish they mayna spoil our water amang 
 them. 
 
 2d Poacher. The deil's in the chaps, wi' their 
 strings o' craw -feathers, and ither sic nonsense ! 
 They're gane clean witless. Hollo you! what gars 
 ye hinder ither folk's sport in siccan a fashion? Is 
 this like respectable gentry, to gang direct up to the 
 very front o' twa honest men, an' commence fricht- 
 ening the fish frae their presence ? Awa wi' ye, 
 gin ye be wise, an' dinna brak the temper o' Wat 
 Waddell. 
 
 Enter LEISTER, OTTER, MAY-FLY, SWIVELTOP, HACKLE, 
 and GAFF, on either side of the river. 
 
 Swivel. Fish rise well, gentlemen crow's feather 
 capital! Strike, Tim! What a huge fellow! a 
 sturgeon ! Ha ! you missed him ; never mind. 
 There again a mere minnikin. Shake him ofF^ 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 41 
 
 Tim; that's good. Hurra! a mermaid! Give line, 
 Tim. Softly, boy, softly, lest you tear the lip ver- 
 milion, and mutilate the peachy complexion. What 
 a rare creature she is ! How she astonishes these 
 natives behind us with her languishing sky-blue 
 eyes, and light amber hair ! By the shade of Tobit! 
 we shall capture her, and feasten therewith the 
 palate of regal epicures ! Ha! saw you that bosom 
 with its twain huge semi-pearls ? How it rose up 
 luringly from the pool, and then vanished? Again! 
 and such a face of sorrow and superhuman anger 
 I never beheld. Her tresses are all dishevelled, her 
 features mangled ; and now, she dives down to her 
 rocks of coral, and, lute in hand, performs her death- 
 dirge. Hold tight, Tim, and keep her head down 
 with the stream. 
 
 Hackle. Good, Doctor; the achievement is won- 
 derful. There is witchcraft in these crow-feathers 
 of yours most astonishing! Let this honest man 
 have a peep at your tackle. We may entrust him 
 with the secret. 
 
 Swivel. Not for worlds ! I pray thee, keep the 
 clown at a distance. It becomes us not to counte- 
 nance his curiosity. Who or what is he, that the 
 renowned inventor of the mermaid-fly should suc- 
 cumb to instruct him ? Were he a brother of the 
 craft, like thyself, honest Hackle, one might be re- 
 duced to tolerate his intrusion. But not so, my 
 ancient chum ; he wants the distinctionary charac- 
 
42 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 teristics of our worthy fraternity. He is a base, 
 bungling water-raker, and no angler. 
 
 2d Poacher. I'd gie a croon-piece for a grip o' 
 ane o' your throttles, ye senseless pewter-heids. 
 What richt hae you, I ax, to stap in afore ane, and 
 steir up the pride o' the water wi' your nonsense in 
 this wise ? It's a shame till ye to be plaguin' the 
 like o' us ; and ye'Il repent it, I'se warrant ye ! 
 
 Hackle. Thou art bold, friend, and somewhat 
 saucy ; see you not we are double-rod fishers, like 
 thyself fair dealers after a kind. Come, let thy 
 wrath cool, and be wise ; shut up the sluice-gates 
 of revenge, else shall we spare thee a ducking. 
 Nay, now, look not to thy fellow across the river ; 
 there be enough at his elbow to keep him in trim; 
 and mind, when angling in future, you leave some 
 chance of success to those behind you. 
 
 Leister. This is like preaching to the devil, 
 Hackle ; but the rascals slink off to perpetrate 
 their iniquities somewhere else. Well do I recol- 
 lect the physiognomy of one of them. He is an 
 arrant desperado a natural mischief-maker. His 
 respect for the game-laws is like that of a buzzard- 
 hawk. A grey-hen on her eggs is not safe in his 
 presence. He would unshell the very chicks, in 
 order to satiate his sanguinary lust ! I have seen 
 him with a pannier-full of birds slung across his 
 shoulders, none of them feather-soiled, but all noosed 
 and netted from the choicest coppices and corn- 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 43 
 
 fields of the district. He has the various calls by 
 rote and instinct, and can lure, almost to his arm's- 
 reach, a harem of moor-hens. He is the pink and 
 paramount of poachers an apt and dead shot a 
 tasteful dog-breaker, sinewed like the hill-fox, with 
 somewhat also of its sneaking and cowardly dispo- 
 sitions. When challenged, he exhibits his gun in 
 such a manner as effectually to keep at bay the in- 
 dividual attempting to capture him. How he has 
 managed so long to escape the handcuffs, is to me 
 a matter of wonder ; for the villain would halt at 
 nothing, and has no more compunction or sensi- 
 bility than a tiger-cat. In fact, without allowing 
 an over-sufficiency of credit, I have reason to give 
 some faith to the report of certain sable delinquen- 
 cies, which, if committed by him, display in its true 
 colours the vindictive nature of the vagabond. 
 
 Swivel. There is a prank in his pate at present, 
 or I much mistake. See you, he fords the water, 
 in order to join his vinegar- visaged companion. 
 That the twain are holding war-council, you may 
 divine from their gestures. Let us across also, and 
 increase our forces on the opposite bank. Two such 
 able-bodied scoundrels might drub the breath out 
 of them ere our column come into action. 
 
 Leister. No fear. They will fight it stoutly; 
 and yet, to keep off mischief, we may as well be at 
 hand. Such vagabonds are in nowise particular 
 about their mode of attack, and will not hesitate to 
 use sturdier weapons than their mere fists. 
 
44 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 Swivel. As you say ; the knobs metallic of these 
 ponderous clogs of theirs might fell a buffalo. I 
 had rather be pawed upon with the hoof of a met- 
 tlesome stallion than risk my bones so unsatisfac- 
 torily. The dogs are giving signals to some one. 
 Hollo, Otter! keep a look-out to the right. There 
 is need of a sharp eye. 
 
 Otter. And no lack of one, Doctor. I take the 
 heart out of your hint. 
 
 Hackle. Methinks these ugly customers are well 
 backed", however ; there be no less than five or six 
 others advancing to join them. Such a band of rag- 
 gamuffins ! Satan-visaged rascals! They would 
 make the tread-mill go round merrily. 
 
 Swivel. One hath a cock in his eye, and is sinister 
 as a lean raven ; another hath the shoulders of a 
 Milo, and sports a pair of huge Erebean whiskers : 
 he is the don of the crew, and in time of despera- 
 tion might wrench off a man's head with his mouth. 
 I marvel how he manages to find food for such a 
 magnificent semi-globe. 
 
 Leister. A pennyworth would preserve him. 
 Being an exciseman, he subsists entirely by 
 drink. 
 
 Swivel. An exciseman and a poacher and a 
 drunkard! 
 
 Leister. Ay, Doctor ! Thou art not lessoned in 
 these matters. Thou knowest little of the excise 
 in Scotland. It has proved the curse and canker- 
 worm of our country : its influences have deranged 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 45 
 
 the entire community. Instead of promoting social 
 order and happiness, or of furthering the cause of 
 virtue, they have only served to create misery and 
 oppression, and withal to encourage the increase of 
 crime. Our Elysian soil, from which root to root, 
 morality and religion, were wont to spring, has been 
 impregnated, out of the storehold of this baneful 
 system, with the seeds of contention, profligacy, 
 and harm! Who, in fact, are most of the dirty- 
 jobbers employed in its service, but a set of /worth- 
 less miscreants, and reduced debauchees men, of 
 course, who have few pretensions to principle, and 
 fewer still to those golden charities of the heart, 
 those tendrils of our natural philanthropy, which 
 have adorned the virtuous in all ages? What such 
 creatures effect in the way of contaminating an 
 unguarded people is almost incredible. Disposed 
 of in an artificial manner through every item in the 
 land, they enforce their several examples beyond 
 the reach of control. Achieving nothing but cor- 
 ruption of principle, and the unfrequent demolition 
 of a few whisky stills, they are in corned, notwith- 
 standing, with large and lavish emoluments. The 
 public gain nothing but detriment at their hands; 
 and yet the public it is by whom they are pampered 
 up. Every one knows how the poet Burns felt his 
 situation among them how he abhorred the com- 
 pany necessity had compelled him to mingle with ! 
 Since his time, they have grown worse and worse, 
 and, strange to say, although cursed by him from 
 
46 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 his very heart, glory in the fact that he was forced 
 to be one of themselves. Forced he was, indeed ! 
 To select, willingly, the outcast bread of an excise- 
 man, is to abandon for ever all principle, all feeling, 
 and all hopes of redemption to come ! 
 
 Swivel. This is a tirade, Jack a right impetuous 
 volley of words ! But see these worthies are charg- 
 ing down upon our comrades ; we must ford the 
 stream and unite forces. 
 
 Exeunt. 
 
 Another Part of the River. 
 
 Enter LEISTER, OTTER, MAY-FLY, fyc. fyc.; also POACHERS. 
 
 Gaff. They love not our appearance, methinks, 
 and will move off after all. 
 
 May. I trust not. Let us force the shy humour 
 out of them should they flinch. Are they not more 
 in number than we are, abler-bodied and stronger- 
 sinewed, having fists like rough iron cased in harness- 
 leather? Why then not encounter us ? Ha! they 
 advance like men and heroes ! How now ? What 
 need ye, my honest fellows, that ye beat up our 
 intrenchments so unceremoniously ? Are ye on a 
 pilgrimage, and want food? Are ye traffickers, 
 and have wares to dispose of? Foot-pads haply? 
 Nay, look not so wisely ignorant, so lost-like. 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 47 
 
 Maybe we can aid you in your perplexity. Come, 
 be talkative ; unlock your jaw-bones, and let run 
 the reels of your discourse. 
 
 1st Poacher. We'll tak the jaw oot o' you first, 
 Maister Muckle-gab. There's naethin' like a richt 
 lesson for you gentry. Sae haud till them, Wat, 
 and let them ken it. 
 
 2d Poacher. That we will, there's nae mistakin'. 
 Come on, chaps. 
 
 3d Poacher. Losh ! sic a clooter as I hae gotten 
 frae this lang chiel! It has amaist dang in the 
 neb o' me ! His neive's like a perfect sledge-ham- 
 mer. I canna stand till't ony langer. 
 
 1st Poacher. Ye're no gaun' to cut, Rab, ye 
 white-livered loon ? Back, if ye're wise, or ye need- 
 na peril a sicht o' your shadow for thae three 
 twalmonths. Wat, man, can ye no tak' the spunk 
 oot o' that sma' weasel-lookin' callant ? 
 
 2d Poacher. Faith, Jock, it's kittlish wark gettin' 
 a grip o' him ; he's like the tail o' a moss-ether, gye 
 an' ill to haud, forbye the stang. Deil tak him ! if 
 the varmint hasna driven twa o' my foreteeth doon 
 my thrapple. It's waesome to par.t wi' sic auld 
 freends. 
 
 1st Poacher. Get his head doon aneath your 
 oxter, and lay it intill him like the very mischief. 
 
 2d Poacher. Easier said than dune ; it's ill seein* 
 through a patch o' blue waifers; my barrel ee's 
 naethin' better at present. But what's the gauger 
 aboot ? 
 
48 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 1st Poacher. Ax himsel; he seems hard put 
 to't. The four half mutchkins hae spoilt him 
 a'thegither. There's a muckle chap there has got 
 him clear under, and he's no sma' beer. 
 
 4th Poacher. It's time for us to be aff, callants ! 
 I'm a' a clod o' sairs. They're no canny customers 
 thae gentry. 
 
 2d Poacher. Geordie's in the richt ; it's nae fun 
 gettin' lickit like a wheen bairns. Tak to your 
 legs, Jock, an' leeve the exceeseman ; he's no worth 
 a bodle at rinnin' ! 
 
 Exeunt POACHERS. 
 
 Swivel. Nobly done, my hearties! We've doc- 
 tored them in style, my river militia-men ! But 
 what carcass is this on the field ? The black 
 whiskered gauger, I declare. Vulnerable after all, 
 old boy ? Are there cracks and fissures in the hide 
 of such a rhinoceros ? How he grunts, like the 
 mandarin of a boar-stye I We must pommel him 
 up again; he is only semi-thrashed, and can spare 
 half a stone additional of ruby blood. Run, May- 
 fly, and fetch a capful of river water; there is no 
 restorative like a good sousing! 
 
 May* Beyond all compare, it is the best of 
 soberers, if largely administered. Methinks I espy 
 a tub not far from this, belonging to some washer- 
 woman, which should answer dashingly. Gaff and 
 I will run for it. 
 
 Exeunt GAFF and MAY-FLY. 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 49 
 
 Swivel. Do so. And how reckon we our wounds, 
 comrades, after this desperate affair? Any mal- 
 advertences or sanguinary effusions ? any dental 
 infractions "or dislocations of the ossa? the nasal 
 arches uninjured, and no tendons divided ? Thou 
 hast a curtain on thy left eye, Leister, I note; 
 and ho ! Harry Hackle, thou art lame as a modern 
 hexameter; and thou, Tom Otter! But there is 
 nothing like it, boys. 
 
 Hackle. Amen, Doctor! We have come off 
 swimmingly; save the hoof-mark of that drunken 
 behemoth,*! am skatheless as ever. It were better 
 to be maimed outright with an oaken cudgel, than 
 have such a monstrous piece of ordnance as a 
 ganger's leg driven athwart our shins ! 
 
 Swivel. Revenge, Harry, acts as a sweet salve. 
 Here come Gaff and May-fly to retaliate for thee. 
 We will of a truth cool the dog's forehead with thi 
 surcharge of the element ; and, O ye tritons and 
 river-amphitrites, bear a hand! How cozily the 
 rascal lies ; his huge bluster-ball of a skull half sunk 
 in moss. He hath a touch of the Russian autocrat 
 in his countenance. 'Tis a pity he is not a tyrant, 
 and we patriots how neatly we could massacre 
 him! 
 
 Leister. Shame, Doctor ; you have not the heart 
 of a Turk. 
 
 Swivel. Towards this excise-bear, that I have, 
 Jack. We shall jerk off our thunder-plump athwart 
 
50 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 his muzzle. Bring the pitcher to this side, and be 
 ready to start, boys. Now for it ! 
 
 SWIVELTOP and MAY-FLY empty the 
 water-tub on the GAUGER. 
 
 Exciseman. Ugh! d n it! What the mis- 
 chiefs here? blast them! Wat, Rab, ye deil's 
 taed-eaters! whar hae ye gane, ye gude for nae- 
 things? Ugh! Ye'll get it, as shure 's I'm a born 
 man. Ugh! ugh! 
 
 Exeunt. 
 
 Another Part of the River. 
 
 Enter LEISTER and OTTER. 
 
 Otter. The evening is a delicious one. How 
 lightly across our favourite pool steals the dew- 
 winged zephyr! The late shower seems just to 
 have ambered the water, and no more. It is in the 
 loveliest of trims. Not a trout keeps its shelter, 
 save two or three of the largest, and these also will 
 soon be astir after their food. I prefer much the 
 arching boughs of this oak-tree to the coffin of a 
 room we have just left, with all its roaring jollity 
 and good-fellowship. 
 
 Leister. Ay, Tom, 'tis the winning side of the 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 51 
 
 contrast, and so would even our friend, the Doctor, 
 allow, could we have prevailed upon him to quit 
 his close quarters for the fresh, kind air of heaven, 
 the fading landscape, and another bout at the river. 
 But let us put our tackle in readiness. I have an 
 eye after that calm, deep bend, a short way before 
 us, and shall first give it a trial with small moth 
 flies, and, when it becomes darker, use my famous 
 black beetle. 
 
 Otter. Your famous black beetle, Jack ! Let 
 me see it. 
 
 Leister. Here it is : merely a large ebon hackle, 
 twisted round a strong hook, and winged with raven 
 feather. 
 
 Otter. As you say. But, I presume, you find it 
 killing on occasions ? 
 
 Leister. Always during calm summer nights. 
 It takes the cunning out of an old trout amazingly. 
 These small moth-hooks are poor killers in compari- 
 son. However, as it is still twilight, I shall give 
 them the prior chance. You intend to confine your- 
 self to the minnow? 
 
 Otter. I do ; and a dozen of the sweetest, sil- 
 very-sided little spinners have I gotten. They will 
 be the death of an equal number of goodly trout, or 
 I mistake my skill. Look you how transcendent- 
 ly this one is baited ; it will run to perfection. 
 
 Leister. These water-coots destroy one's patience ; 
 what a lovely cast this had been, were it not broken 
 up by the flight of that bird. I noticed a large 
 
52 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 trout feeding on the way of its trail, and now it has 
 retired to the bottom, and probably will not rise 
 again for some time. There goes another of the 
 plagues ! I wish it were in a pike's mouth, or had 
 an ounce of lead under its wing. Bats, too ! One 
 might suppose himself angling in Lake Avernus, 
 with a cloudful of hobgoblins on each side of him! 
 These leather-winged imps are wonderfully taken 
 with my line and flies. I have caught one of them! 
 a curious little creature, having the face of a vir- 
 tuoso or relic-gatherer, with a spark or two of more 
 sagacity about him. He has swallowed the hook, 
 and as I cannot extricate it easily, must needs put 
 an end to his sufferings by placing my foot upon 
 him. 
 
 Otter. 'Tis a pity to do so, and not rather set 
 him at large. Such a small piece of wire may work 
 no harm to his vitals, should you allow it to remain. 
 Divide the gut close to his teeth. There he goes, 
 straight to the old oak-tree where his lodge is, in 
 the caverned arm-pit of a shadowy bough 
 
 Leister. To die of indigestion. But see, Tom, 
 a trout followed your minnow to the surface ; you 
 might have fixed him too, had your eyes been where 
 they ought, and your swivels in motion. 
 
 Otter. Perhaps he will thrust at it again ; hunger 
 gives courage to some creatures. Am I not right ? 
 I have him beautifully bridled, and will lead him 
 round this alder bush into a cove or bay. Seize 
 him, Jack, with your hand, and let him smell our 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 53 
 
 atmosphere. Hold ! he is too strong yet, and may 
 escape. 
 
 Leister. I have my fingers round his body, like 
 so many lassoes, and a plump handful he is. But 
 it is now dark enough for my beetle fly; and there 
 are three tempting holes not far off, where I intend 
 to dip it. One of them is quite palace-ground for 
 a kingly fish ! There is a sort of still eddy in it, 
 and, on the near side, a gathering of white froth, 
 stretching to the bank itself. Under this lies a man's 
 depth and more of water, at the bottom of which are 
 several old trunks and tree-roots, full of fissures and 
 hiding-places. I have frequently seen the lips of a 
 goodly fly-sucker kissing the surface thereabout, 
 and hope to tempt him towards me ere long. The 
 hero is on the feed at this moment you may 
 notice his air-bell scattered up and down. I have 
 hold of him, Tom! egad, I have. He is a noble 
 fish, and would run a cable. 
 
 Otter. Bravo ! Jack, be sparing of your line not- 
 withstanding. These dead roots, should they catch, 
 will play the mischief witn it. He makes for them 
 to a certainty. Shew him the strength of your 
 tackle ; you may do so without dread of its giving 
 way. Now he turns, and takes a cruise towards 
 the opposite bank. Humour him, and allow the 
 reel to move more readily ; again, work your wind- 
 lass, and haul in. 
 
 Leister. He is scarcely exhausted, and still keeps 
 on the poise ; but I have the upper hand of him 
 
54 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 beyond doubt, and can teach him the four cardinal 
 points with a few twists of my arm. You see now 
 how submissively he comes to land, and turns his 
 broad, starry-side uppermost upon the channel. 
 Four pounds and a half is his weight, barring three 
 ounces, arid a lovelier trout seldom kissed the 
 shore. 
 
 Otter. We must have him at supper an hour 
 hence. That black beetle of yours, Leister, is a 
 witch! I have twirled a minnow over this hole 
 fifty times, and not shaken a single fin. It will be 
 long ere it get another such resident as this! What 
 an ogre the fellow must have been to travelling par 
 and the young wanderers of its own species ! How 
 startled they would be when he dashed after them, 
 with his grim jaws horribly expanded! Methinks 
 I behold the swarms floundering on these shallows 
 opposite, earnest to escape from the inexorable can- 
 nibal. It is not a straggler he seizes, but the plumpest 
 and foremost of the shoal a nimble, silver-sided 
 water-pet, which one would have imagined could 
 beat him hollow in the chase. But my rod is idle, 
 and time flies. I shall only beat down this pool 
 with my minnow, and give over. 
 
 Leister. It is almost time to do so. This dew is 
 falling to some purpose, and I have no wish to be 
 drenched altogether. What animal is that moving 
 among these rushes? You hear it, Tom? 
 
 Otter. Ay, Jack ; it is an otter, or I mistake. 
 He is at some distance from the water, and had we 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 55 
 
 cudgels and were active enough, we might inter- 
 cept his retreat, and add the marauder to our 
 spoils. 
 
 Leister. There is no want of weapons; let us 
 wrench up a couple of stakes out of this old paling 
 and set upon him. I have a spear on the butt-end 
 of my rod, which might pierce the corslet of a 
 rhinoceros. 
 
 Otter. Hist ! He will notice us, and contrive to 
 escape. Steal you softly with me along the margin 
 of the river, so as to be able to rush directly up 
 towards the spot where we now perceive him. He 
 is occupied, methinks, with the carcase of a large 
 salmon or pike ; and, if we act cautiously, will not 
 suspect our approach until fairly attacked. Deal 
 your bitterest blows upon his pate, and give no 
 quarter. This way, Jack. 
 
 Leister. The fellow defends himself like a hero, 
 and would fain have a hold of my leg. Beshrew 
 me ! if he hasn't chopped this cudgel in style. Those 
 teeth of his might champ iron, and I had as lief have 
 it mutilated under the spokes of a mill-wheel as 
 trust a limb of mine within his jaw-vice. You hit 
 him cleverly, Tom, and have fractured his helmet. 
 
 Otter. So methinks, the creature sprawls like a 
 riddled Frenchman! Another tap, gently dealt, 
 will demolish him. 
 
 Leister. He is dead as his grandsire of the ark ! 
 Saw you ever so stuffed and oily a carcase ? such 
 a bon-vivant of a brute ? He hath a touch of the 
 
56 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 alderman under his jacket a blown, pulpy, and 
 dropsical aspect about him, that renders it more the 
 marvel how he could display such activity, and suffer 
 so many hard licks as he did. Well the glutton 
 knew what are the choicest morsels on a clean-run 
 salmon ! Look you how this noble fish has been 
 dealt with ! All the epicure bits torn scientifically 
 out. What a gap there is betwixt the pectoral and 
 vental fin, and round the shoulders also ! See what 
 gobs have been extracted ! 
 
 Otter. Ay, Jack, well may all honest anglers 
 applaud us for the service we have done them in 
 destroying this river-tyrant and unconscionable 
 glutton ! But we must bind his legs together, and 
 carry him shoulder-high over one of these stakes ; 
 he will astonish bravely our fraternity at the inn, 
 and extract a fling of ecstacy from the worthy Doc- 
 tor. It is high time for us to march, and we are 
 laden, like kings, triumphant. 
 
 Exeunt* 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ROOM IN THE INN AT 
 
 MAY-FLY, SWIVELTOP, GAFF, and HACKLE. 
 
 Swivel. 'Tis a craze, Bill, a very craze, this out- 
 of-door humour of Otter's and Jack Leister. 
 I abhor night angling! 'Tis a chill, comfortless 
 business, suited to savage likings and the blood of 
 brutes. How much more befitting is it, and con- 
 genial to our natures, to mete out the evening to- 
 gether in social converse, coloured and improved by 
 the influences of the circling toddy jug ! 
 
 May. As you say, Doctor. I envy not, nor yet 
 greatly compassionate them; they will capture only 
 an ague-touch or dew-fever. No trout itself would 
 venture abroad at hours so unseasonable as this! 
 'Tis a craze altogether, as you say. 
 
 Swivel. Ay! Bill, truly so. Fill up your glasses, 
 my boys there is no peril in this good liquor ! I 
 
58 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 hate all moping and owlishness, and measure my 
 attachments according to the latitude of a Christian 
 countenance. Come, take a provoker to mirth, 
 honest Timothy; and thou, Hackle, is thy palate 
 out of humour, man, or hath the sober fit seized 
 thee? Drink! Bah! this world will run to wreck 
 for sheer want of jollity! 'Tis fancied becoming, 
 now-a-days, to wear the visage of a death's-head, 
 and look apostolically demure and Santon-like to 
 whine and grunt over God's mercies, and use weak 
 water to deluge our wits withal ! Some men seem 
 born only to see their coffins made, and deal ice 
 among their fellows. We have none of the rare, 
 old, Bacchanal souls among us the prime wits of 
 three gone centuries ! Alas, no ! they are run out 
 and become extinct. Where is the twinkling humour 
 of the eye, that we remember our grandfathers to 
 have had the right comic setting of the mouth, 
 and puckering of the cheeks? Where is the tongue 
 always agog the droll gait and gesture the end- 
 less fund and wallet-store of rich and racy anec- 
 dote, snatch and stave, jest and merriment? Oh! 
 your modern men do and dare nothing ! They can 
 mimic no better than elephants, and when they 
 laugh, 'tis after the fashion of hyenas ; they white- 
 wash their faces, deeming it sage-like to look pale 
 and spectral ; they are cold, cautious, narrow, and 
 knavish full of glooms, frets and heart-aches, galled 
 livers and consumptions. Out on them that cannot 
 find flowers and honey on the field of life, but must 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 59 
 
 needs exhume its bitter roots, wherewith to feed 
 their melancholy! 
 
 Hackle. Your satire, Doctor, is wickedly over- 
 charged : There be fires and faces merry as ever, 
 in our free, glad homes hearts light and innocent, 
 that need not the goading impulse of strong drinks 
 in order to stir them up that call not to aid the 
 blands of novelty, but are alway buoyant, alvvay in 
 time to joyous measures. 
 
 Swivel. I know it, Hackle ; but over their cups 
 men are no hypocrites. See the wariest of them 
 reveal themselves ; they betray their characters, and 
 open up their schemes ; they let out the issues of 
 frail humanity ! Here it was that Shakspeare took 
 lessons in the study of mankind ; here true philoso- 
 phy is taught, and not in abstract spheres, in grave, 
 solemn circles, nor in wildernesses, nor in garrets. 
 Over the cup, my boys, more glorious things have 
 been uttered than are written in immortal books ; 
 the walls of the senate-house have been put to 
 shame by the eloquence displayed in corners at the 
 feast-table ! Yet, mark me, Hackle, I cry not up 
 the drunkard who extinguishes reason ; I cry not 
 up that excessive indulgence, which takes the curb 
 off our passions, and allows an impress to the domi- 
 nant powers of darkness ; moderation, boys, mode- 
 ration in all things ! 
 
 May. Eh ! Doctor, and thyself as the example, 
 most abstemious Swiveltop? By the bye, Gaff 
 yonder is sound asleep, and there is some inclina- 
 
60 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 tion to nod in my own brain-holder. We must be 
 early astir to-morrow, in order to have anything 
 like sport. I intend starting for the river about 
 sunrise. 
 
 Swivel. One might suppose, Bill, from the way 
 you talk, that you were really an angler, instead of 
 which you can manage your rod no better than a 
 tailor's needle. Come, recount thy feats, give us 
 the pick of thy miracles, that we may canonize 
 thee ! Preach of thy ten-pounders and thirty- 
 pounders thy salmones feroces, erioces et truttce 
 thy silver-edged hackles, and green gooseberry 
 ephemerae thy genuine O'Shaughnessys and taper 
 Chevaliers thy complex multipliers and witch- 
 hair casting lines thy baits and surfeit-worms, 
 red coral roe, and pearl minnows ; be large in thy 
 discourse, and learned withal, as if the matter were 
 well digested and intimate to thee ; make thy notes, 
 strictures, and digressions ; muster up thy forces, 
 Bill, and tilt at all usage and observance. 
 
 May. O facetious Swiveltop ! thou art the king 
 of wits ; thy tongue waggeth as if set in motion by 
 the wind, and not through rational impulse, like the 
 tongues of other men : Thou art a human bell, 
 tinkling without chime or music ! Where be the 
 brains that should occupy thy hollow head-piece 
 those orts of matter that symbolize the mind ? 
 Hast thou an eik or pertinent thereof? Wits, like 
 thee, should be whipped for fools. 
 
 Swivel. Better than being hanged for knaves, 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 61 
 
 Bill but here come Leister and Otter. Arouse 
 thee, Tirn, and let us give noble greeting to these 
 night-birds. I engage to swallow the whole host 
 of their spoils, were it even ten finger-loads. 
 
 Enter OTTER and LEISTER. 
 
 May. Thou wilt have a dainty supper, Doctor. 
 A dead dog ! by the eye of the Cyclops ! 
 
 Leister. O wise Bill ! most sapient May-fly ! 
 
 May. Is it not a cur, masters ? 
 
 Swivel. Bah ! Bill, art thou a hedgehog ? 'tis 
 an otter, man ! The Tritons have had sport rare 
 sport. Egad ! boys, ye are in the eyeball of For- 
 tune ; she is your mistress. Fish too, and oh ! 
 Gaff, pull the blanket from thy temples, and have 
 a peep at this trout ! Saw you, Hackle, ever such 
 a fly-sucker ? he is the Ammon among those other 
 fishes, and seems as if he had sailed down Niagara, 
 or was lessoned into prodigiousness among the wa- 
 ters of the Mississippi ! I love the sight of him. 
 'Tis a heart-stirrer, and causes jealousy. I am in 
 humour to massacre ye both, because of your noc- 
 turnal achievements. More whisky, Meg! It be- 
 comes us to drown our vexation, and you, mighty 
 twain, to demolish before birth the effects of the 
 night air. This brute must be stuffed and incased ; 
 'twill form a befitting ornament to the walls of our 
 Club-hall, and will match magnificently with our 
 gorgeous specimen of the Loch- A we trout, weigh- 
 ing two stone, and altogether without a parallel in 
 
62 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 the united kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland. 
 But, fill your tumblers and ho ! Meg, cook this 
 fellow of a fish in the style we love, and fetch him 
 in smoking, like a Dutchman, and girdled with vi- 
 ands victuals, I mean meats, rural and urban, of 
 all kinds and flavours, to suit all palates, likings, 
 and opinions. You have knocked the dormouse 
 out of Gaff's pate, and pricked up our jaded selves 
 once more. Skulk not, Bill ; and thou, Hackle, 
 top off thy freezing dregs, and fill anew to our wor- 
 thy and scientific brothers of the angle Tom Otter 
 and Jack Leister ! Hurra ! 
 
 Otter. I would, Doctor, thou wert a salmon, with 
 one of my black barbs run through the tough gris- 
 tles of thy tongue. The capers of the kangaroo 
 were not so nimble as thine would be. How thou 
 would'st bound from the surface, and dart indignant 
 through the water a run of forty fathoms ! no- 
 thing less could I allow thee in a broad river like 
 the Tweed. 
 
 Gaff. Let me tell thee, Tom, thou would'st find 
 him ill to manage with seven such lengths of line. 
 No common fish 'twould be which had the Doctor's 
 mettle to assist it, leaving his cunning entirely out 
 of the question. He would shake the best rod to 
 shivers, and take the sinew out of your ablest horse- 
 hair, almost ere your eye caught the sparkle of his 
 broad flank, or the jut of his dorsal fin. 
 
 Swivel. Ay! ay! Tim, thou art right. Make 
 a salmon of me, Master Otter! Shew thyself a 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 63 
 
 Christian in thy wishes. Of a verity, would it re- 
 joice thee to have me under thy beak, my jaw torn 
 up with thy torture-iron my nerves straightened, 
 and hot with agony my frame striving against 
 exhaustion, and yet weaker becoming, and weaker, 
 until the power and the spirit within it were both 
 vanquished, and it floated into thy very grasp, only 
 to receive its cruel death-stroke at those unsparing 
 hands. Oh ! wretch, pitiless and unfeeling, insen- 
 sate as marble, cold as lead ! 
 
 Otter. A truce, worthy Doctor, a truce ! Thou 
 art bitter in thy usage of words, like a certain par- 
 son I know of, who wars eloquently by mouth, and 
 abuses his hearers, right and left, without check or 
 reason. Give us a stave, Hackle, and help to re- 
 store the Doctor's gopd humour. 
 
 [HACKLE sings."] 
 
 n\zm to it!) we tlje gj)rmfl=tttre blantr, 
 
 i. 
 
 Bless with me the spring-tide bland, 
 
 All ye anglers of the valley ! 
 Wave aloof the slender wand, 
 
 And around the oak-tree rally. 
 
 II. 
 Bless the birds, that all along 
 
 Send us such a cheerful greeting ; 
 To those measures of kind song 
 
 Joyously our hearts are beating. 
 
64 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 III. 
 Fleeted now the winter snow 
 
 From the forehead of the mountains, 
 And the mild, sweet waters flow 
 
 Freshly through their several fountains. 
 
 IV. 
 In the secret of the sod, 
 
 Moss and primrose lie together ; 
 But the wild bee shoots abroad, 
 
 Fonder of the April heather. 
 
 V. 
 Fresh and free the breezes blow, 
 
 And the amber stream runs gaily. 
 Forth, and warble as ye go, 
 
 All ye anglers of the valley ! 
 
 May. Finely touched off, Harry. I envy thine 
 ear and throat ; they are replete with melody 
 beyond all compare. What swells, cadences, and 
 quavers ! Such a sea of music as thou hast within 
 thee ! 
 
 Swivel. Take the velvet off that tongue of thine, 
 Master May-fly, and give us a peep of the pike's 
 tooth. Art thou a judge in music, Bill? J Tis 
 strange, of a verity thou, May-fly, who hast 
 neither wit nor reason, head nor heart, the voice 
 of a dormouse, nor the ear of a landrail ! A judge 
 in music! Oh! 'tis of dolorous ditties, such as 
 bedesmen chant, of nasal drones and tooth-sawing 
 discords, of rookery airs and toad symphonies 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 65 
 
 caws, croaks, mews, brays and caterwaulings ; 
 but not of music, Bill not of those charmed intri- 
 cacies of sound those tones that soothe, and some- 
 times agonize those avulsions from angel voices, 
 flung in among the fractured tongues at Babel's 
 tower ; not of these, Bill ? 
 
 May. Mayhap of these, Doctor, I can discourse 
 to thee on the. soul of the matter ; but it is heavy 
 and hackneyed to talk of crotchets and semibreves, 
 as do your catgut men and the small school-girls of 
 the day. There is no cunning in the modern science 
 of music, more than in our modern poetry. It hath 
 lost its Memnonian magic ; 'tis fallen and tricked 
 out with harlotry. What was chaste, energetic, and 
 solemn, has become tainted, feeble, redundant, and 
 grotesque. It runs not in its natural channel, but 
 is cooped up within angular sluice-beds, and marred 
 by the introduction of ill-judged embellishments. 
 'Tis music only to the depraved ear and the unfeel- 
 ing heart. What are the songs of Italy, sung as 
 they are by the donnas of the scenic board, but a 
 replication of squalls arid quavers, infinitely more 
 annoying than the gibberish of crones and the 
 yelling of jackals ? 
 
 Swivel. Good, Bill ; thou art right, though har- 
 pies thrust a bodkin through thy tongue. I am in 
 humour to love thee for this heterodoxy of thine. 
 'Tis sheer diablerie our modern music diablerie 
 and madness. Fiddlers, pianists, flutists, harpers, 
 
66 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 guitarists, organists, bellmen and bagpipers all are 
 mad ; and so, too, are your glee-singers and stage- 
 vocalists your choristers and anthem-boys your 
 lion-throated men and rat-throated females. They 
 deem the lungs to be the throne of the intellect, 
 and reduce humanity to a level with cage-birds ! 
 
 Leister. Hold, infatuated barbarian, despiser of 
 the usages of social life ! Thou hast an ear of iron 
 and a heart of the same metal. O that I could 
 wring thee as a sponge, or melt thee like lead at 
 the forge! What! have the tears never issued 
 from under those eyebrows when a dulcet melody 
 stole into thy presence a gush of sad, kind sounds, 
 like the shaking of flowers or the blending of sum- 
 mer rainbows? Have thy thoughts never been 
 drawn from their dull, ordinary channels, by the 
 notes of a sweet air awakened, whether on minstrel's 
 instrument, or flowing through the lips of some 
 loved enchantress ? What ! do not the martial and 
 naval anthems of Old England arouse the patriotic 
 spirit within thee ? or art thou charmed never, nor 
 yet subdued by the likenesses of joy, truth, and 
 sorrow, embodied in our national harmonies ? Art 
 thou deaf as the adder, Doctor, and perverse as the 
 he-bear ? 
 
 Swivel. Go on, go on, I pray thee nay, go on, 
 go on, Jack do not draw up so hastily ! 7 Tis a 
 prime gallop thou art at. Scarcely can I eye thee, 
 but thou art past my post, Master Leister, and con- 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 6? 
 
 tendest with thyself alone. Spake I against thy 
 dictum, Jack? Not in any wise. I decried no 
 measure of that natural and soul-stirring music 
 thou art propping so vigorously. 'Tis the core of 
 what I venerate, and shame be to the man who 
 injures or assails it ! No, Jack, 'twas to the modern 
 innovations I directed my enmity to the mystical 
 machines which fabricate our popular combinations 
 of notes and quavers to the German <and Italian 
 natures which are grafted upon our orchestras, and 
 have drunk up the sap and spirit of what is na- 
 tionally ours. The taste is low fallen, indeed 
 which prefers to the artless simplicity of olden 
 music the corrupt and insipid substitutes so infa- 
 tuatedly cherished by the amateurs of the day. 
 But thy song, Jack thy stave and, mind thee, 
 no extra flourishes or off- shews. 
 
 [LEISTER sings.'] 
 
 Sing, sweet thrushes, forth and sing ! 
 
 Meet the morn upon the lea ; 
 Are the emeralds of spring 
 
 On the anglers' try sting- tree ? 
 Tell, sweet thrushes, tell to me, 
 Are there buds on our willow tree ? 
 
 Buds and birds on the trysting-tree ? 
 
68 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 II. 
 Sing, sweet thrushes, forth and sing ! 
 
 Have you met the honey-bee, 
 Circling upon rapid wing 
 
 Round the anglers' trysting-tree ? 
 Up, sweet th rushes, up and see ; 
 Are there bees at our willow tree ? 
 
 Birds and bees at the trysting-tree ? 
 
 III. 
 Sing, sweet thrushes, forth and sing ! 
 
 Are the fountains gushing free ? 
 Is the south wind wandering 
 
 Thro' the anglers' trysting-tree ? 
 Up, sweet thrushes, tell to me, 
 Is the wind at our willow tree? 
 
 Wind or calm at the trysting-tree ? 
 
 IV. 
 Sing, sweet thrushes, up and sing ! 
 
 Wile us, with a merry glee, 
 To the flowery haunts of spring 
 
 To the anglers' trysting-tree ! 
 Tell, sweet thrushes, tell to me, 
 Are there flowers 'neath our willow tree ? 
 
 Spring and flowers at the trysting-tree ? 
 
 Otter. ' Tis a pity we have so meagre a fund of 
 good angling songs. Most of our modern poets 
 are, or have been, brethren of the streams; and 
 yet who among them has ventured to weave us a 
 melody in honour of his favourite craft? Scott, 
 Burns, Wilson, Wordsworth, and the Ettrick Shep- 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 69 
 
 herd, all of them well and devotedly loved our 
 pastime. It matters nothing to us! They have 
 left of their attachment no relic in immortal rhymes. 
 We marvel, but do not upbraid them. They have 
 written on loftier themes, and sought therefore a 
 loftier meed of honour than the discourse of a few 
 wandering anglers could possibly confer. 
 
 Hackle. You say truly. Man was their study 
 man, under the dominion of nature and his own 
 fellow-creatures man, with his heart, and its 
 world of conflicting passions man that drops from 
 the womb into the cradle, and, springing from 
 thence, gathers, with the winds, power and know- 
 ledge, until the star of independence settles upon 
 his forehead, and he shivers with one strong impulse 
 all derogatory bonds, shewing himself what he is, a 
 son of his Maker, in frame and intellect equal to 
 any king. ' Tis a theme exhaustless and illimitable, 
 as it is to reckon and compute the surges of the 
 sea; they change in number, feature, body and 
 altitude, in sound and in transparency; so do men. 
 The matter is not worn out, as some small critics 
 happen to imagine, who, to appear sagacious, as- 
 sume a knowledge of human nature, even the tithe 
 of whose workings is to them an incomprehensible 
 hieroglyph. Have they the key of a single heart, 
 among the plotting, careworn, joyous, jealous, and 
 distressful numbers, that throbs along the highway 
 of life? Can they lay bare the actuating motives 
 for a solitary deed, performed by any being ? They 
 
70 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 may infer, but they cannot divulge : inferences are 
 not truth. 
 
 May. Hold, Harry, and prate within limit. Wilt 
 thou strangle us at feast-time with thy dry logic 
 and dusty philosophy ? Is't not better, think you, 
 to make a book on't, which the dull may read at 
 pleasure, than force it adown our throats against all 
 inclination? But now another song; I love thy 
 snatches marvellously; they reach to my inner man, 
 and stir the pith of my nature. 
 
 Hackle. Strike up thyself, Bill come to light 
 with a love-lilt. 
 
 May. I, Master Hackle! warble forsooth! 
 Heard you Doctor Swiveltop opining concerning 
 me? 
 
 Swivel. Spilt words, Bill; we revoke them with 
 good-will. Truly, May-fly, thou art the ablest of 
 able performers, albeit, like other great men, 
 sprinkled with conceit of thyself. Nay, man, I 
 miscalled thee not, save with the intent of reducing 
 thy vanity. ' Tis a monster thou should'st put in 
 irons, else the fingers of it will tighten around thy 
 throat with the clutch of a hyena. But thou canst 
 sing, Bill thou canst play upon thy windpipe, and 
 knowest it to boot. Be not backward, or sham 
 modesty, like a school-girl; start into metres, as 
 the bards of Fingal did ; throw out a bravura from 
 the hollow of thy lungs, or be plaintive and exceed- 
 ing tender, as " a love-sick pigeon I" 
 
 May. You distress me, Doctor, beyond measure. 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 71 
 
 Vanity! modesty! eh! what else? But have my 
 stave, boys, and welcome! [Sings."] 
 
 Cf)e S5ea=trout stag, 
 i. 
 
 The sea-trout gray 
 Are now at play, 
 
 The salmon is up hurra ! hurra ! 
 For the streamlets brown 
 Are dancing down ; 
 
 So quicken the cup hurra ! hurra ! 
 
 II. 
 
 The cloud-cap still 
 Is on the hill, 
 
 And the showers fall fast -hurra ! hurra ! 
 But the sun and breeze 
 Will scatter these ; 
 
 So drink while they last hurra ! hurra ! 
 
 III. 
 
 We'll start by dawn, 
 O'er lea and lawn, 
 
 Through thicket and thorn hurra ! hurra ! 
 On merriest limb, 
 With rods in trim ; 
 
 Come, drink a sweet morn hurra ! hurra ! 
 
 All. Hurra! hurra! 
 
 May. And now, masters, that ye have got it, what 
 think ye of it? 
 
72 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 Hackle. O, 'tis the pride of melodies, and might 
 win its way before caliphs! 
 
 Leister. 'Tis witching as a star- song. 
 
 Gaff. 'Tis jeopardy for a damsel to list to't. 
 
 Otter. Let us build a shrine. 
 
 Swivel. Ay, Otter, you have it ; we will erect a 
 column^ no, a mosque, a temple, a pyramid ay, 
 a pyramid, with vaulty labyrinths and Sphinx-dens, 
 wherein to embody what ? thee, Bill ? Nay, but 
 thy song personified in shape of a but here en- 
 ters supper. It dips the eye of an ogre into one's 
 forehead to peep at such a stalwart fish. O, Leis- 
 ter ! 'twas a noble catch, worthy a king's toil. I'd 
 rather the turning of that broad flank than the con- 
 trol of an armed legion on such a field as glorious 
 Waterloo even so. 
 
 Leister. Let us devour, Doctor, thanking heaven. 
 I have two plump flappers before me, bred among 
 bulrushes dainty birds I warrant them. 
 
 May. They tickle the lamina of my palate. A 
 breast-cut and the left thigh-bone, if you please. 
 
 Leister. The left, Bill ! Ere long there will be 
 nothing left at this rate. 
 
 May. 'Tis plain, thou art right, Jack; forget not 
 to administer an onion. 
 
 Leister. I shall seize on thee otherwise, Bill, an' 
 thou art longer clamorous. How now, Doctor, no 
 duck ? 
 
 Swivel. Keep a reserve, old boy. My first attack 
 is on the fish my second on these choice-looking 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 73 
 
 morsels of mutton then, for a semi-flapper from 
 thee and I shall crown all by quarrying into the 
 heart of yonder ewe-milk kebbock. 
 
 Hackle. This is supping with a vengeance ! 
 
 Swivel. Say you, Harry? Any pigeons-eggs on 
 the table for our friend Hackle? He hasn't the 
 appetite of a torn-tit. These arms of thine want 
 brawn, Harry ; and these legs ha ! ha ! Didst thou 
 ever behold a well-shaped, unhosed, and finely- 
 rounded limb, without blushing at the poor, 
 scraggy, and unfortunate shanks on which thou 
 thyself trudgest ? 'Tis a pity, man, the art of flesh- 
 gathering is so rare with thee. See Tom Otter, 
 there, and Tim Gaff ay, and the rest of us we 
 have more than skin and bones we are not dry, 
 rattling bags, like our great-grandmothers; and 
 why? 'tis past nature we should be otherwise; see 
 how we eat ! 
 
 Hackle. Stuff, cram, gorge! 
 
 May. Not so, Master Hackle; I for one am 
 esteemed singularly abstemious. I have no whirl- 
 pool within me, like these honest gentlemen. I 
 don't discuss a mutton at a meal, nor shake a firlot 
 of eggs down my throat at breakfast, as some of 
 them do. Am / stuffed, crammed, and gorged ? 
 
 Hackle. Gluttonous beyond measure, Bill. 
 
 May. Listen, O ye shades of doughty warriors ! 
 to whom a sirloin of stout beef was as a matter of 
 moonshine ye who could tuck under your noble 
 
74 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 ribs what a modern can scarce stride across, who 
 swallowed bacons entire, and measured your brose 
 with a cauldron! listen and wonder! O the de- 
 generacy of the age! the spare-thrift and rigid 
 self-denial of us manikins ! How are we shrunk 
 and become sickly, having weak lives and sad di- 
 gestions! What think ye of Harry Hackle, the 
 scarecrow ? this thin, pill -purged, frog-kneed ana- 
 tomy! 
 
 Otter. Eat, Bill, eat ; you make no supper, man. 
 Hackle will hurl his fork betwixt your jaws, unless 
 you employ them to better purpose. 
 
 Hackle. Ay will I, Master May-fly. 
 
 May. Is he wrathful, Tom? Hath he the canine 
 tooth? Can he bite? 
 
 Otter. Do not tempt him, Bill ; lean sharks are 
 least to be trusted. But what is this? a letter, 
 Meg? 
 
 Enter MEG with a letter. 
 
 6< To the worthy and able Anglers assembled at 
 Inn." This is something facetious. 
 
 Leister. A beggar's petition haply. 
 
 Otter. Nay, Jack; the paper is of honest size 
 and quality, clean withal, is well waxed, and neatly 
 impressed. 
 
 " GENTLEMEN, 
 
 " Understanding that you intend to reside a few 
 days in this neighbourhood for the purpose of amusement, 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 75 
 
 and that you reckon among you more than one angler 
 of celebrity, we, the undersigned, being similarly situated, 
 are anxious that, as the river is broad, convenient, and in good 
 condition, a trial of skill should take place betwixt an equal 
 number of your party and two of ourselves say to-morrow, 
 or any other day of this week which you may find suitable. 
 The fly only to be used, and the contest to commence and 
 terminate at fixed hours, and under such restrictions as may 
 be agreed upon before starting ; the party losing to forfeit a 
 dinner. Should this proposal meet with your approbation, 
 you will not refuse us the honour of breakfasting with us to- 
 morrow, at half-past seven, and settling the preliminaries. 
 
 " We remain, although strangers, brethren of the craft, 
 and your very obedient humble servants, 
 
 " RICHARD HERON-BILL. 
 MARK WANDLE-WEIR. 
 ANTHONY SMOULTER- JAWS. ' ' 
 
 All. Agreed, agreed. 
 
 Swivel. So say we, masters ; but who are these 
 Goliaths of Gath that come out against us ? 
 
 Hackle. It matters not ; they offer fair, and will 
 fight honestly. 
 
 May. 'Tis a civil challenge they send us. To 
 refuse is to kill our own good repute. Let us re- 
 spond and arm. 
 
 Swivel. What ! thou, Bill ! thou engage to kill a 
 crocodile, who art slow to master a minnow ! Nay, 
 most valiant May-fly, aback, and learn modesty! 
 It behoves our heroes of to-night to represent us, 
 
76 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 and not thee. Stand forth, Jack Leister and Tom 
 Otter, stand forth ! Ye are our men of pride, and 
 these bones bear witness to you ! Yon grim, huge 
 head, gapes monarchically from the dish, where it 
 lies and proclaims your merits. And you, gentle- 
 men, what say you? 
 
 AIL Leister and Otter for ever ! 
 
 Leister. You greatly honour our poor abilities, 
 Doctor; but be it so. How, Tom, are you dis- 
 posed ? Shall we obey the commonwealth ? 
 
 Otter. I object not, aided by so powerful an 
 ally; yet, or I am mistaken, these rival brethren of 
 the craft, who so self-confidently challenge us, are 
 neither raw nor undisciplined. I know one of them 
 already by repute Wandle-weir, an Englishman, 
 I believe, and one well versed in all the mysteries 
 of the art. However, 'tis more endurable to be 
 vanquished by men of skill, than have a fair name 
 taken from us through vulgar and dishonest craft, 
 such as is practised against strangers by the dons 
 of a small watering-place on Tweedside. But we 
 must send a reply. 
 
 Swivel. Be thou our secretary, Harry, and so 
 dictate : 
 
 " GENTLEMEN, 
 
 " We gave ready welcome to your note of chal- 
 lenge, and have selected two out of our body, willing to com- 
 pete with you on the proposed terms. We suggest, more- 
 over, that the contest shall take place to-morrow, and accord- 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 77 
 
 ingly shall avail ourselves of your polite invitation to break- 
 fast at half-past seven exactly, when umpires shall be chosen, 
 hours determined, and other preliminaries settled. 
 
 " We are, gentlemen, your obedient humble servants, 
 and brother anglers, 
 
 " J. LEISTER. H. HACKLE. 
 
 T. OTTER. T. GAFF. 
 
 N. SWIVELTOP. W. MAY-FLY." 
 
 Gaff. Excellent, Doctor ! Address to The 
 Honourable Fraternity of Anglers now residing at 
 Inn." 
 
 Swivel. Even so ; and now let us append the 
 crest of our club a salmo rampant with the 
 motto. [Enter Meg.~\ Ho ! Meg who waits ? 
 
 Meg. A boy, sir. 
 
 Swivel. Let him run like a twinkling, and deliver 
 this, he knows where. [Exit Meg.~\ We must be 
 up with the larks. Is your tackle in readiness, 
 Jack? and yours, Tom? Ay! ay! always ready. 
 Read us the barometer, Harry. 
 
 Hackle. Inclined to rise, Doctor. 
 
 Swivel. 'Tis all the better. The water is still in 
 good trim a degree too small, but more room for 
 display of science. And now, as it is not very late, 
 let us draw out a code of river-regulations for the 
 protection and advantage of the competitors. We 
 can submit them for approval, before the contest 
 commences, to those gentlemen who have thrown 
 down the gauntlet; and I have no doubt they will 
 
78 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 cordially acquiesce in the arrangements we propose 
 making. But clear the table, Meg, and bring 
 glasses ; we can do nothing without the jug social ; 
 our wits won't work without it. 
 
 / 
 
 [During the dictation of these by the worthy Doctor, 
 assisted by Jack Leister and Tom Otter, Gaff slyly 
 slunk away to bed, and Bill May-fly stood at the 
 shutters, amusing himself with an apostrophe to the 
 moon, part of which is preserved in the MS. scroll of 
 regulations drawn out in the neat and diminutive hand 
 of Harry Haqkle, Esq. who obviously took advantage 
 of certain pauses in the Doctor's composition to pre- 
 serve this singular record.] 
 
 May. Ha! my maiden moon, astart to-night! 
 Have the sun-vampires stolen the blood from thee ? 
 Thou art ever blenched in the forehead, and solemn 
 of countenance. Hast no saifron to heighten thy 
 complexion ? Lack-a-day ! why dost thou rob me 
 of my laughs and frolics? Thy melancholy is 
 catching. Ah ! my fair mistress, thou hast none of 
 the merry twinkling these stars have nothing 
 humorous about thee. Why come hither? Art 
 thou on an embassage to tearful lovers ? Oh ! thou'rt 
 a false witch, and pryest into our crimes and cala- 
 mities. Aback! aback! there is nothing for thy 
 search beyond these shutters no sorrows here, 
 madam; and yet, not good-night 'twould be an 
 early parting to bid good-night so soon, and to one 
 so lovely. Was't thus in the beginning and did 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 79 
 
 father Adam gaze on thee ? Did Egyptian Sesostris, 
 and he of Macedon, and Hannibal, and the Csesars, 
 and Tamerlane, and Mahomet? Did Hesiod, 
 Homer, and Sappho ? Did Shakspeare and Mil- 
 ton? Come! thou'rt familiar with all these, and 
 hast their histories at heart. Nigh six millenniums 
 must have unfolded wonders ! How many battle- 
 fields hast thou ridden across ! how many plague- 
 struck realms, void of joy! Oh ! ours are but dull, 
 tame times* to thee, when empires are at peace. 
 'Tis no spectacle, this commercial theatre, like the 
 war-field. Come, ope thy lips ! Why so chary of 
 thy knowledge ? Say, what thou seest now ? what 
 of navies in the broad blue sea ? what of slumber- 
 ing cities and tented armies? what of forests, 
 wolf-infested? of rueful wastes, stupendous moun- 
 tains, and mighty rivers? Is thine eye on the 
 pyramids, and thy soul back among the Pharaohs ? 
 Art thou mingling thine with the cold silvers of their 
 north, or dost thou lace the waves, washing up the 
 corals to the very roots of broad-leaved palms, 
 around an Indian isle? 
 
 [The MS. soliloquy assumes at this point such a frag- 
 mentary appearance, that we are induced to omit a 
 considerable portion of what remains. The following 
 appears to be its conclusion. ] 
 
 What dost thou with a cloud ? O treachery ! the 
 ship is on a rock ! Ha ! forth again, to shew his 
 
80 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 grave to many a breathing mariner ? Good-night, 
 thou hag of mischief! What are horrors to thee, 
 before whom stalk our feud and pestilence our 
 outrage and calamity? Lift not thou the angler's 
 curtain; 'tis no blessing to have thy prostituted 
 light shed on his slumbering forehead. Away ! he 
 provokes thee not; get thee homage from the ban- 
 dit and jackal. Good-night good-night ! v 
 
 [After this extraordinary effusion, Mr May-fly thought 
 proper to follow the example of Tim Gaff, leaving the 
 remainder of our worthy anglers still busily engaged 
 in framing and counter-framing such enactments as 
 were necessary, they severally opined, to preserve the 
 balance of the competition. The result of their labours 
 was as follows. It is unnecessary to add, that on sub- 
 mitting the regulations next morning to the contend- 
 ing party, they received a cordial and unanimous 
 approval, and a vote of thanks was immediately ten- 
 dered to the industrious projectors.] 
 
 LAWS OF COMPETITION, 
 
 AS SUBMITTED DURING BREAKFAST ON THE FOLLOWING MORN- 
 ING TO THE PARTY OF ANGLERS AT H N INN. 
 
 I. That the arrangements already settled in previous 
 communication betwixt parties shall be held as binding. 
 
 II. That umpires shall be appointed, one by each 
 party, to overlook the observance of regulations by the 
 competitors, and decide the contest. 
 
H 
 
 33 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 81 
 
 III. That no individual shall be allowed to join in 
 the competition, who is not at the starting-post precise- 
 ly at nine o'clock, A.M. ; but the absence of such indi- 
 vidual shall not exclude the contest, should the remain- 
 ing competitor, in his reduced position, think proper to 
 commence it. The non-appearance of an entire party 
 shall of course occasion the forfeiture of the stake. 
 
 IV. That the competitors shall again appear at the 
 starting-post at five o'clock, P.M., when the match shall 
 be held terminated, and the umpires called upon to de- 
 cide. 
 
 V. That the place of contest shall be confined to the 
 river itself, all tributaries excluded. 
 
 A slight objection was raised on the part of Mr Wandle- 
 weir to this enactment; but as he avoided carrying it 
 to any length, it was generally concluded that he was 
 secretly not displeased at its introduction. 
 
 VI. That, upon starting, the two contending parties 
 shall proceed in different directions, as shall be decided by 
 lot ; one up and the other down the river, and to such 
 a distance, that before commencing to angle, there shall 
 be at least a full English mile of water betwixt them. 
 
 VII. That each party shall include the umpire chosen 
 by its opponents who, however, shall not be entitled 
 to angle, or to interrupt, in any way, the progress of the 
 contest. 
 
 Both of these regulations were canvassed by Mr Wan- 
 dle-weir, who proposed, that the competitors should be 
 set off, one against the other, on opposite banks of the 
 river. He agreed, however, to the division into two 
 
 F 
 
82 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 parties, although he questioned the expediency of ham- 
 pering them with the presence of umpires. It was 
 argued on the side of the club, that to approximate the 
 competitors to each other in the manner proposed, might 
 be apt to occasion too great a spirit of rivalry betwixt 
 them, and have the effect of marring those feelings of 
 ultimate concord which it was desirable to establish. 
 Again, the club could with difficulty understand how 
 the presence of umpires could be felt as a restraint. 
 If it were so, the restraint was a mutual one. In 
 their opinion, however, it was a manifest relief ; the 
 duties of the umpires being to preserve betwixt the 
 parties a strict line of disunion, and to announce to 
 those competing the pre-occupation by stranger anglers 
 of such pools as lay in advance. These explanations 
 were admitted by Mr Wandle-weir to be perfectly 
 satisfactory, and lie accordingly withdrew his amend- 
 ment. 
 
 VIII. That the artificial fly alone shall be angled 
 with, and no cross-lines adopted. 
 
 IX. That no competitor shall be allowed an assistant. 
 
 X. That the fish captured shall be estimated by 
 weight, and not by number. 
 
 XI. That, should one of the competitors happen to 
 produce a grilse or salmon (of which there are a few at 
 present in the water), the capture of such fish being 
 with the trouting-fly a matter of chance more than of 
 skill, it shall not be reckoned, however large, to exceed 
 the weight of three pounds. 
 
 To this regulation the most cordial assent was given by 
 Mr Wandle-weir and the other gentlemen present ; and 
 after discussing a few minor preliminaries, among 
 which the dinner was taken into ample consideration, 
 the two parties started, precisely as the clock struck 
 nine, from the small parlour in H n Inn. Dr 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 83 
 
 Swiveltop, unanimously elected umpire on the side 
 of the club, accompanied Messrs Wandle-weir and 
 Heron-bill up the river ; while Smoulter-jaws, the other 
 arbiter of the contest, along with Jack Leister and Tom 
 Otter, proceeded in the contrary direction. Hackle, 
 May-fly, and Tim Gaff, set off towards a neighbouring 
 loch to dabble for perch and set pike-lines. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 INTERIOR OF A POOL ON THE RIVER. 
 
 Enter two TROUT. 
 
 1st Trout. 'Tis getting on in the summer, com- 
 rade; we shall have a hatch of stone-flies ere long, 
 and fill our bellies quietly, without risk of being 
 tongue-grappled by a treacherous torture-iron, in 
 shape of a fat insect. Ay! we shall have to pick 
 and choose upon, and can look before we leap. 
 
 'Id Trout. This caution, neighbour, won't worjs: 
 always. Should I, for instance, take to conjecturing 
 about a fine morsel I see floating towards me, up 
 pops a hungry-headed kelt or some such grim 
 glutton, and away it vanishes. Speculation would 
 make us as lean as eels ; so better trust to chance 
 than take to suspicion. However, as you say, this 
 weather will give us abundance see, there are 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 85 
 
 swallows abroad. I lately overheard Clang-chops, 
 the old pike, say to fat uncle Baunch, after both 
 had taken their suppers, and one might venture 
 near them with impunity, that he had not infre- 
 quently made a spring after one of these birds, but 
 found their feathers hard of digestion. By-the- 
 bye, I have not observed our worthy uncle on the 
 feed this morning. Think you he is unwell ? 
 
 1st Trout. No wonder, he over-eats himself. I 
 have no compassion for the glutton, and, should he 
 pop off, will immediately take possession of his castle, 
 being next of kin, and older than yourself by four 
 seasons. But come, let us have a peep at him, and 
 inquire after his health. How is this? he is not 
 here; 'tis strange indeed! Is't possible he has 
 changed his residence ? But no, everything so com- 
 fortable ; at his time of life, too, quite impossible ! 
 But what news, Master White-fin ? 
 
 Enter another TROUT. 
 
 3d Trout. News ! why is't not news enough, that 
 King Baunch is no more ? 
 
 1st Trout. My fat uncle no more! 
 
 3d Trout. Alas ! indeed he was captured by one 
 of the land-craft no later than yester-eve. 
 
 1st Trout. What! out-witted too ! my clever, 
 close, sapient uncle, out-witted with a feather ! ? Tis a 
 lesson, faith, and a good one. I shan't eye food for 
 a fortnight, no, nor venture from home neither ; 
 and now that I think on't, I may as well reside here, 
 
86 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 since the old boy's gone. 'Tis a quiet, retired place, 
 and no bustle about it to tempt me abroad. But 
 ho ! 'ware pike, comrades I here comes old Clang- 
 chops to look after his neighbour. 
 
 2d Trout. The wily ruffian ! I shall round and 
 have a sly bite at his tail. He did the same office to 
 me some months ago ; but he was nimbler on the 
 tack then than he is at present. I wish some of the 
 land-craft had taken him instead of uncle Baunch, 
 who, praise to his memory ! never devoured above 
 one of his own progeny at a meal. This fellow 
 thinks nothing of whipping up half a score of us ! 
 
 Exeunt TROUT. 
 
 Enter PIKE. 
 
 Pike. Hollo ! King Baunch, up, thou oily knave ! 
 and account to me for the rumpus thou madest 
 after sunset yesterday. One would have fancied 
 that Sir Otter had a hold of thy spine-bone ! Now 
 that I think on't, thou owest me still for protection 
 against the robber nine dainty par and half a gross 
 of minnows ay, and for last night's slumber too ; 
 besides, not a bite came my way, owing to these 
 capers of thine. Your majesty must tell down ere 
 long, or I shall hoist my war-fin, and shew the 
 bloody tooth. But what, King Baunch ! art afraid 
 to come out of thy castle ? Might I not blockade 
 and starve thee in't? Shew face, like an honest 
 fellow, and fear nothing. Answer, friend art 
 deaf? I roar enough, don't I ? What is the matter, 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 87 
 
 King Baunch? Ha! not at home? 'tis strange, 
 and after breakfast too against his custom. 
 
 Enter TROUT, and retires, after snapping at the 
 PIKE'S tail. 
 
 My tail ! this is audacity ! a blackguard eel, no 
 doubt loathsome pest ! There's no checking the 
 freedoms these wretches use with our anointed per- 
 sonsand then they screw themselves under ground 
 ere we can get a peep at them. But this bite is a 
 confounded sharp one, and no eel's neither, but a 
 traitor trout's. King Baunch's mayhap ; the saga- 
 cious knave ! he shall suffer for it. Methinks, 
 however, I should have had a glimpse of his un- 
 wieldy flanks, wheeling round, as I did, so readily. 
 Revenge is my motto, and away I set to deal 
 heavy havoc for this act of aggression ! The starry- 
 sides, I warrant them, will soon come to terms. 
 
 Exit PIKE. 
 
 Re-enter three TROUT. 
 
 1st Trout, You managed old Clang-chops neatly! 
 He is in a fearful fury, and swears destruction to 
 our whole tribe, dashing this way and that, whisk- 
 ing his tail and grinding his teeth. 
 
 2d Trout. He is as Mind as a worm, and will run 
 himself ashore ere long. Poor King Baunch was 
 accustomed to catch half his dinner for him, and no 
 small matter it was. He hasn't a slice of the wits 
 
88 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 of our late sovereign and with a resolute master, 
 I have no doubt we could force him to abandon the 
 pool. 
 
 3d Trout. 'Twould be a praiseworthy action. 
 
 ^j^rout. Not so, Master White-fin. Who is 
 our safe-guard against Sir Otter ? 
 
 3d Trout. Why ! 'tis rumoured he is dead also. 
 
 2d Trout. Strange rumours these, if true. 
 
 3d Trout. Moreover, 'tis whispered the land-craft 
 are abroad. 
 
 1st Trout. Ay! plain enough, Master White-fin. 
 They have a hand in these butcheries, no doubt. 
 But see what a sweet morsel above thee a prime 
 fly. Thou'rt lean in the shoulders, and hast need 
 of food ; I yield it. 
 
 3d TROUT rises, and finds himself fixed. 
 3d Trout. Oh ! oh ! help ! help ! 
 1st Trout. What! trapped? have they a hold 
 of thee, loon ? Good-bye, good-bye ; come away, 
 comrade. 
 
 2d Trout. He's past rescue, methinks. Adieu, 
 Master White-fin. 
 
 Exeunt 1st and 2d TROUT. 
 
 3d Trout. Oh ! ungrateful traitors, will nothing 
 save me? Three times have I leapt upwards, twice 
 have I sounded the channel, v and once have I made 
 for my den across the stream. I must e'en come 
 ashore now. Alack-a-day ! 
 
 3d TROUT is dragged off. 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 89 
 
 This very fictitious chapter is evidently the joint compo- 
 sition of Harry Hackle and Bill May-fly, who appear 
 to have written it on the day of the competition, and 
 while watching, in company with Tim Gaff, an array of 
 pike trimmers floating along the reedy margins of Loch 
 . Their success was limited, but they professed 
 to have derived considerable amusement from the num- 
 ber of nibbles they encountered, and which Tom Otter 
 thought fit, greatly to their wrath and vexation, to at- 
 tribute to one small-headed, but particularly hungry 
 eel. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Enter MARK WANDLE-WEIR and RICHARD HERON-BILL, 
 on opposite sides of the river. 
 
 Wandle* Absolutely, Dick, I have a mind to hang 
 myself upon this very tree. No less than three casts 
 of choice flies have I anchored already among its 
 boughs, and all while attempting to strike one dull- 
 headed trout, who persists in rising tail foremost, or 
 something very like it. Yet I have no wish to leave 
 the booby without a taste of the cold steel. Were 
 you able to manage from that side of the water, a 
 fly-trailer is certain to start him; he lies to the right 
 of yonder stone, and will steady your basket beauti- 
 fully, weighing upwards of a pound. Throw higher 
 up and softly; ay, he broke the surface. You draw 
 your flies too rapidly. 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 91 
 
 Heron. Not a bit, he is tired of us. But how get 
 you on, Wandle-weir ? 'Tis slow work with me as 
 yet ; nothing save a few par and one satanic-look- 
 ing creature I took out of the last stream, having a 
 large black head and inky breast. 'Twill be made a 
 question whether it belong to the trout species or 
 not. The umpire has his doubts. 
 
 Wandle. I have the lead of you, but not greatly. 
 However, 'tis only eleven, and the fish are just com- 
 mencing their forenoon feed. An hour or two will 
 make us better contented. Try the March-brown. 
 'Tis a late insect on this water compared with what 
 it is in England. A light hare's-ear body is also 
 commendable. 
 
 Heron. My upper dropper is a small Limerick, 
 with blue jay feather, yellow hackle and silver twist. 
 
 Wandle. Ridiculous! off with it, as you value your 
 own repute. A Scotchman in this quarter would 
 laugh at you, and ask how many " puddocks" you 
 had bagged. The fal-de-rols hereabouts will achieve 
 nothing ; reserve them for August, and our intended 
 trip to the north-west; they may answer well with 
 the sea-trout and salmon. 
 
 Heron. Would you advise a brown palmer fly ? 
 
 Wandle. By all means, but let it be small one 
 degree bigger than a midge. 
 
 Heron. I have what will suit exactly. You hold 
 a good trout, or I mistake. 
 
 Wandle. He seems a fair fish, and obstinate too ; 
 
92 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 however, walk into my pannier, friend. Hollo, 
 Dick! 
 
 Heron. Another! 
 
 Wandle. A brace, I believe ; there is one at my 
 trail-fly also, but neither of them are large. You 
 see they begin to do us homage. 
 
 Heron. So I observe. Look what a world of them 
 are agog in yonder stream! why, every inch of wa- 
 ter is alive; let us down to it, and give no quarter. 
 
 Wandle. Remain where you are, Dick, if you 
 are wise. Take my word for it you'll not capture 
 a single fin. 'Tis the same on this very pool. See, 
 how the March-browns are descending ! Our fea- 
 thers can do nothing among such tempters. 
 
 Heron. Sad enough! my mouth waters at the sight 
 of these great fellows popping up every mortal se- 
 cond, and no way to run our hooks athwart them. 
 I have one in jeopardy, however; he is but tender- 
 ly fastened, and I must wile him in among the levels. 
 
 Enter SWIVELTOP. 
 
 Swivel. You will teach our club humility, gentle- 
 men. Of a truth they may abandon the contest; 
 but I fear I disturb you, Mr Heron-bill. 
 
 Heron. Not so, Doctor; I angle all the better 
 now that you are with me; believe me you are no 
 mar-sport, and aid wonderfully in keeping up my 
 courage 
 
 Swivel. Which I had as lief see extinguished. 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 93 
 
 Nay, if my company prop thee, 'tis well. I love to 
 look on an able angler. It kills all jealousy, and, 
 to tell the truth, 'tis with me a matter of indiffer- 
 ence which turns out to be the winning party, pro- 
 vided each individual so performs as to win the re- 
 spect of his rivals. 
 
 Heron. I agree with you entirely, and shall not 
 take a defeat to heart so deeply as my friend Wan- 
 die-weir; however, fight I shall, were my bones to 
 crack. 
 
 Swivel. A wise resolution. You pricked a pretty 
 fish just now. 
 
 Heron. Ay, but he is gone. I hit him on his re- 
 flective organ ; he will abjure flies during this fore- 
 noon at least. Wandle-weir, I perceive, has some- 
 thing weighty at his lines, and ha ! ha ! a dead 
 sheep what a trophy ! Into your pannier with it, 
 Mark, should you land him ! 
 
 Wandle. 'Tis an excellent Cheviot, Dick, and 
 in glorious order very savoury, I assure you ; but, 
 alas! I must bid good-bye to it, for my flies are clear, 
 and a tiny par, moreover, dangling at the trailer. I 
 trust, Doctor, you compassionate our miseries. 
 
 Swivel. Not a whit how should I, when I be- 
 hold your good fortune ? nay, nay, Mr Wandle-weir, 
 thou art loading thy shoulders in style. Shew them 
 some charity, an* thou lovest them. 
 
 Wandle. They merit little ; my pannier has only 
 three brace of honest-sized fish in't, none of which 
 
94 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 weigh above thirteen ounces ; as for the others, you 
 would positively laugh to see them. But, by the 
 three Graces! there is a raree-show, a girl of sweet 
 nineteen crossing the ford. Look, Dick! such a 
 symmetry of limb and ancle what a vision! 'tis 
 worth the gold of a sculptor. Ha ! she observes us, 
 and now drops her robes, but not altogether. She 
 is knee-deep, and evidently embarrassed. There is 
 no help for it ; so on she goes, blushing and laugh- 
 ing by turns. This is genuine modesty in distress, 
 Dick! a prude so situated would get angry a 
 flirt stumble into a hole, as if by accident, but for 
 no other purpose than exciting sympathy, bringing 
 assistance, and giving a certain celestial impulse to 
 her drapery. 
 
 Heron. I am glad the poor thing has got over 
 safely, without any such awkward mischance as you 
 allude to. 'Twas a small measure of forbearance 
 we granted her, watching her attitudes so narrowly. 
 She is in full retreat to yon farm-house and God 
 bless her! 
 
 So endeth this chapter, and wisely. The remarks of 
 anglers, when deeply engaged in the sport, are, besides 
 being limited, somewhat monotonous ; and for this rea- 
 son, we presume, the club has given us no insight into 
 the operations of the other contending party, further 
 than a bare statement of the amount of fish produced 
 by each competitor at the close of the contest. It 
 stood as follows : 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 95 
 
 LARGEST 
 TROUT. 
 
 Captured with the fly by Jack Leister, LBS. oz. LS. oz. 
 J6th May 18, . . 37 . 7 2 . 3 
 
 By Tom Otter, ditto, . 31 . 6 2.7 
 
 Sum total, 68 . 13 
 
 o;:. 
 
 Captured by Mark Wandle-Weir, 16th /.as. 
 
 May 18, . * . 30 . 13 
 
 By Richard Heron-bill, ditto, 21 . 1 
 
 Sum total, . 51 . 14 
 
 68 . 13 
 
 Balance in favour of the Club, 16 . 15 
 
 (Signed) ANTHONY SMOULTER-JAWS. 
 NATHAN SWJVELTOP. 
 
 Accordingly, the club competitors were by the 
 umpires declared victorious. 
 
 Of course, some chagrin was felt by Mr Wandle- 
 weir upon this declaration, and testified, besides, by 
 a challenge immediately given to Jack Leister to 
 compete with him next morning, single-handed, and 
 on opposite banks of the river no wading permit- 
 ted, as it seems this worthy and excellent member 
 of our club generally adopted the heron-mode of 
 angling, to which system was attributed the whole 
 of his present success. Leister, without hesitation, 
 agreed to take part in the contest, which being de- 
 cided on the following afternoon, the result was im- 
 mensely in Jack's favour. He ran no less than 151bs. 
 a-head of his opponent, and accordingly ended all 
 disputes about the matter. Meanwhile, the feelings 
 
96 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 of disappointment at first exhibited by Mr Wandle- 
 wcir soon wore off, and he united with great good- 
 will in the lengthened festivities of the evening a 
 record of which seems to have been originally pre- 
 served among the club papers. Upon this we have 
 been unable to lay our hands. It appears, however, 
 from inquiry and recollection, that Messrs Wandle- 
 weir, Heron-bill, and Smoulter-jaws, were with due 
 ceremony, and at their own request, admitted in the 
 course of the same evening members of the club, 
 and made entitled to its various immunities and pri- 
 vileges. 
 
o 
 
 Uf 
 
 X 
 
 o 
 o 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE NORTHERN LOCHS AND RIVERS. 
 
 LEISTER, WANDLE-WEIR, AND HERL-BROKE. 
 
 Leister. You intend, Mr Wandle-weir, I under- 
 stand, to investigate our Northern Lochs and Rivers. 
 You will find many of them excellent, especially 
 those in the counties of Inverness, Ross, and Suther- 
 land ; which, however, are for the most part strictly 
 watched over, and carefully preserved. 
 
 Wandle. Indeed, sir, I was not aware of any re- 
 striction imposed upon trout-fishers throughout this 
 part of Britain. 
 
 Leister. Agreeably to the laws of our ancient 
 realm, there are none. Trout are reckoned as res 
 nullius, and the property of those that can capture 
 them. But, sir, you must understand that our north- 
 ern landholders have a law with themselves in regard 
 to this matter, which, as no patriotic individual has 
 
 G 
 
98 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 as yet thought it worth his while to dispute, is kept 
 in severe practice against all who infringe upon it. 
 In Sutherland especially you will find it in its fullest 
 force. Belonging, it may be said, to a single pro- 
 prietor, this immense territory is controlled upon a 
 system which infringes very considerably upon Scot- 
 tish privileges. Its numerous lochs and rivers, where 
 the destruction would scarcely be noticed were an 
 army of us scattered among them to angle for a cen- 
 tury, all these are in a manner shut up against the 
 craft, nor is it an easy matter to acquire access to 
 them. 
 
 Wandle. And Ross-shire? Do these innovations 
 upon public rights extend to it also? 
 
 Leister. Partly to every shire in the north of Scot- 
 land. You perceive in our southern districts, how- 
 ever, we are able to keep ourselves free from such 
 unhallowed interference on the part of the landhold- 
 ers, who well know that all measures taken to check 
 anglers in the peaceful exercise of their pastime must 
 prove abortive provided, of course, they have esta- 
 blished I>y usage a right of access to the water-edge, 
 otherwise the tenant of the lands through which they 
 pass has it in his power to pursue them as trespass- 
 ers. In the counties I have alluded to, a mere ac- 
 tion of trespass could scarcely be supported in any 
 court, unless damage had actually and conjointly 
 been effected a thing next to impossible among 
 moorland wastes, and along the unrestrained chan- 
 nels of the rapid rivers. The soil, unless planted 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 99 
 
 or cultivated, is free to all. Even some of its pos- 
 sessors do not dispute this ; but display your angling - 
 rod, and you will have keepers immediately at your 
 side, charging you to change the scene of your ope- 
 rations. 
 
 Wandle. And were one to resist their authority, 
 what would be the consequences ? 
 
 Leister. The immediate ones would of course be 
 greatly against the party challenged, although I can- 
 not persuade myself but that the proprietor, unless 
 holding the water and its fishings directly from the 
 crown, would ultimately be the loser at least, the case 
 never having been pushed to any proper determina- 
 tion, I am urged, upon legal principles, to believe so. 
 Alas ! Mr Wandle-weir, they know little who imagine 
 of Scotland that her hills are the dwelling-places of 
 the free they dream not of the inroads of gigantic 
 monopolies athwart the rights and liberties of her 
 children of lords of the soil expatriating their vas- 
 sals usurping public and prescriptive privileges 
 acting the unchallenged despot over every foot of 
 their petty dominions. But so it is ! An unnatu- 
 ral policy is in force under the outworks of the true 
 constitution, neither assisted nor yet opposed by 
 state machinery the spirit of a system, which threat- 
 ens to reavSsume and concentrate the barbarous in- 
 vestitures of feudal ages. These are excrescences 
 upon the trunks of power, displacing every humble, 
 hindrance to their growth, often through legal wile 
 and artifice, but oftener by the strong arm of might. 
 
100 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 The aggressions of men of influence in the north are 
 becoming every day bolder the attitudes assumed 
 by them more and more insolent. They distort the 
 ear of justice, trample upon the prerogatives of the 
 people, delete the most sacred charters, and encir- 
 cle with a palisado of obnoxious enactments their 
 ill-gotten acquisitions. 
 
 Wandle. This is a sad picture of things, Mr 
 Leister, and bids fair, Herl-broke, to knock our pro- 
 jected excursion on the head. 
 
 Leister. Nay, gentlemen, I have no such design, 
 and would only depress a trifle your preconceived 
 notions of Highland liberality. You may find, how- 
 ever, this praise-besplattered virtue better exempli- 
 fied by experiencing the proofs on't. By all means 
 trip it northwards you will not want amusement, 
 and, if sketchers as well as anglers, may occasionally 
 drop in among enviable masses of scenery, choice 
 groupings of tree, hill, and water, well worthy of 
 your attention. Among our club papers, by-the- 
 bye, we have several communications from different 
 members of our fraternity regarding various waters 
 in the districts of Scotland you intend visiting. 
 You are welcome, should you desire it, to a perusal 
 of these, and I have no doubt they will afford you 
 some minute information with respect to the angling 
 qualifications of such lochs and rivers as you are 
 likely to fall in with during your tour. 
 
 Wandle. You greatly oblige us, Mr Leister, and 
 I, for my part, shall certainly take advantage of your 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 101 
 
 offer, as also, I have no doubt, will my friend Herl- 
 broke. What say you, Dick? 
 
 Herl. Most thankfully, and by all means. 
 
 The above is a fragment of conversation which took place 
 betwixt Messrs Leister, Wandle-weir, and Herl-broke, 
 previous to the departure of the two latter gentlemen 
 for the north of Scotland. As in the course of it allu- 
 sion is made to certain papers communicated by mem- 
 bers of the club, we think it proper, having obtained 
 possession of one or more of these, to insert them in 
 this place, premising, that they appear to us generally, 
 if not specifically correct. The following is an account 
 of some of the streams and lochs belonging to Easter 
 Ross-shire. 
 
 LOCH ACHILTY, ROSS-SHIRE. 
 
 THERE are few lakes in Scotland so attractive as 
 Loch Achilty. It is situated in a forest of natural 
 birch, the more graceful of our British trees. On 
 one side stands its own Tor, the nursery of our 
 northern red-deer ; on the other rises Craigdarroch, 
 a wild accumulation of rocks and masses. Both 
 hills are plentifully wooded, and have a thick, 
 waist-deep heather covering in many parts. Loch 
 Achilty is a singular piece of water singular in 
 its make, its workings, and its produce. It has 
 several inlets, and, strange to say, no visible outlet. 
 The bottom is of a softish substance, full of springs, 
 and strewn over with trunks of sunken trees that 
 
102 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 have lain there for ages. Although fed from a 
 mossy origin by dark-coloured streams, the water 
 of Loch Achilty is during summer pure and crystal- 
 line, unlike that of Loch Nech-Beann, or the Lake 
 of the White-Horse, above Towie, out of which, 
 and through a smaller tarn, its principal feeder 
 comes. In this uppermost loch are found fine-sized 
 red-trout, which dash eagerly at the fly towards 
 gloaming, but at other times are shy or asleep, for 
 they rise infrequently and with more circumspec- 
 tion; yet one may occasionally capture a dozen or 
 two of them by nice management, and this number 
 will fill a common-sized creel to the very brim. 
 There is a heronry on a small island within this 
 mountain reservoir, which is well worthy of obser- 
 vation. 
 
 The middle sheet of water, Loch-an-Drame, 
 lying down in a fairy-haunted hollow, teems with 
 small, lively fish. In Loch Achilty itself, the trout, 
 though by no means large, are yet well-sized, and 
 singularly strong. When hooked, they make di- 
 rectly for the bottom, and cause an uncommon 
 vibratory sensation along the line. They are not 
 remarkably thick-shaped, but the head is small, and 
 the flesh red and well-flavoured. 
 
 The most curious production of Loch Achilty is 
 its char. This beautiful fish is indeed discovered 
 in a number of our Scottish lakes, but nowhere 
 have we found it so eager in its approaches towards 
 the fly as in this loch. On a calm, warm day, the 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 103 
 
 whole surface is alive with its bellings, which one 
 would imagine proceeded from so many springs at 
 the bottom. It rises to any colour and size of insect 
 employed, repeating a false snatch until pricked 
 with the barb of the hook. Its dart, however, is 
 not so rapid as that of the trout, and scarcely so 
 true. The char of Loch Achilty generally mea- 
 sures from six to nine inches. It is shaped like the 
 gurnet, and, in proportion to its length, is of small 
 depth and circumference. The head and upper 
 parts are of a grayish-brown colour, marked with 
 whiteish spots ; the belly and lower fins pink, ap- 
 proaching to carmine. At table it is a perfect 
 dainty, having a fine, delicate flavour, superior to 
 that of any trout I ever tasted. One might easily 
 capture three dozen of them among twice as many 
 trout on a favourable day in Loch Achilty. 
 
 Besides the char and trout, this beautiful lake 
 teems with another fish of smaller dimensions, and 
 seemingly a variety of the stickle-back. It swims 
 sometimes in shoals, like the minnow, and some- 
 times alone. Although no doubt occasionally de- 
 voured by the trout and char, I never observed any 
 attacks made upon it by these fish, and am inclined 
 to believe that it is by no means a favourite food of 
 theirs ; yet I cannot affirm that I actually investi- 
 gated this matter with any degree of care or 
 curiosity. Be that as it may, the stickle-back of 
 Loch Achilty is itself a singular production, differ- 
 ing in its habits and appearance from the more 
 
104 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 common varieties of that little fish. It is thick and 
 girthy, prefers swimming in places of considerable 
 depth, although close to the margin, and moves 
 at a sort of jerking but by no means rapid pace. 
 It loves also to congregate in an unsuspicious and 
 familiar manner round the legs of the wader, ex- 
 hibiting a sort of stupid tameness that not a little 
 surprised me. There seems to be no regular season 
 for the spawn of this diminutive animal. I observed 
 it paired off both during summer and winter along 
 the shallows, in order to deposit its ova. When in 
 this ripe state, it presented a dull and unhealthy 
 appearance, and its movements were evidently 
 painful and constrained. 
 
 The spawning of the Loch Aehilty char seemed 
 to me, in several instances, if not in ail, a subter- 
 raneous operation, carried on among the roots of 
 springs, and in the oozy and caverned outlet of its 
 waters. The fish, I am credibly informed, have been 
 caught repeatedly by means of a creel, during 
 winter, in places where the effluent current, after 
 finding its way some hundred yards under ground, 
 emerged again into daylight, before discharging 
 itself by other subterraneous channels into the 
 llasay or Black-water, a considerable stream in 
 the neighbourhood. That the char of Loch Aehilty 
 do not, at least in any quantity, ascend its feeders 
 to spawn, I am convinced, for I have examined 
 these carefully the whole of the autumn, winter, 
 and spring months, and for some time during sum- 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 105 
 
 mer, without being able to discover any traces 
 whatever of the fish. It is possible, indeed, that 
 they carry on nocturnal operations along a piece of 
 shoal ground lying at what may be termed the foot 
 of the loch, opposite Craigdarroch, although I 
 never had the fortune to observe a single straggler 
 during daylight on the spot I mention ; indeed, the 
 occupation of it by a large and voracious species of 
 Canadian water-fowl prevents entirely the intrusion 
 of small fish over this part of Loch Achilty. 
 
 THE RIVER CONAN, LOCH LUICHART, ETC. 
 
 NOT far from this lake runs the Conan, a deep and 
 dark-coloured river, passing in its higher channels 
 through a number of excellent trout ing lochs. 
 Were it not for the cruive fishings near its mouth, 
 Conan would no doubt prove a favourite stream 
 with the angler. The falls also, a short way below 
 Loch Luichart, are a great obstacle to the progress 
 of salmon, which, were they removed, might pro- 
 ceed inland above thirty miles, and over a succes- 
 sion of spawning beds of a first-rate quality. 
 
 It has been in the contemplation of those in- 
 terested in the fishings of this river to blast or cut 
 out a stair-case channel through the bed of rock 
 forming the principal fall, and I have no doubt, 
 were this done, the salmon would immediately take 
 advantage of the improvement. The same experi- 
 ment might be tried at the Rogie falls on the Black- 
 
106 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 water, a tributary of the Conan. Of course, scene- 
 hunters and lovers of the picturesque would, and 
 with some degree of justice, place their interdict 
 upon such proceedings. The destruction of a 
 beautiful cascade is certainly a piece of Gothicism 
 quite out of character with the spirit of a polite 
 age, and I would join sincerely with them in depre- 
 cating the unhallowed act, were I not convinced 
 that effect might be given to the plan on foot with- 
 out detriment to the scenic attractions connected 
 with either of the waterfalls. At any rate, ample 
 compensation is made for petty injuries, by the in- 
 troduction of the salmon through a chain of moun- 
 tain rocks, unequalled in their wildness, and into 
 the higher parts of a river possessed, as the Conan 
 along Strath-Bran is, with every requisite which 
 could occasion and farther the increase of this noble 
 fish. 
 
 Both falls those of Conan and Rogie merit 
 the curiosity of the tourist. The former are of a 
 savage sort, and the body of water launching itself 
 over the naked rocks is of huge compactness, foamy 
 and turbulent. The approach to it is not the 
 best, and we believe it is seldom visited, although 
 nowise in a very secluded situation, lying about a 
 mile above Little Scatwell. Notwithstanding that 
 it is of very considerable height, more so than an 
 ordinary salmon-leap, a fish occasionally has been 
 known to get the better of it. One was taken, not 
 long since, at the head of Loch Luichart, in a very 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 107 
 
 weakly and exhausted state. Rogie falls on the 
 Black-water are much more frequently ascended 
 than those of Conan, being lower, and having on 
 one side of them a detached run, over the precipi- 
 tate part of which salmon can easily toss themselves 
 when the river is in any degree flooded. A cruive, 
 however, is placed during the open season at the 
 bottom of this passage. 
 
 There is a good deal of picturesque beauty about 
 the Rogie falls, but they scarcely equal those of 
 Conan. On one side of them wave graceful birch- 
 trees, of natural growth; the other is what may 
 be termed a bare ascent, although covered with 
 heather and furze-bushes, broom and juniper. The 
 Black-water is a first-rate angling stream, being 
 ascended by the larger proportion of fish that find 
 their way over the cruives at Conan mouth. The 
 part of it immediately below the falls is rocky, and 
 contains some choice water for the rod. Besides 
 salmon, some portions of it contain beautiful yellow- 
 trout, weighing in general from one to five pounds. 
 These may be taken with the fly, but more easily 
 with a small par, although pike are apt too frequent- 
 ly to interfere with this bait. I once t caught four trout 
 of betwixt three or four pounds weight each, a short 
 way above the Rogie falls, while trolling with wire 
 tackle and the upper half of a smaller fish. These 
 fellows did not display much cunning, but darted 
 voraciously at the mangled lure, assailing it with 
 the eagerness of a shark, and by no means uninclin- 
 
108 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 ed to repeat a false bolt, although evidently pricked 
 and cautioned to their heart's content, as I at first 
 imagined. It was plain they were perfectly unac- 
 quainted with the shadow of a rod, and never until 
 that day had been taught the mysteries of honest 
 old Isaac. Peace be to their maries! 
 
 There are few trout in the lower parts of Conan 
 so large, which is owing perhaps to the constant 
 sifting of its principal streams for salmon. I have 
 occasionally, however, taken them above a pound 
 weight in places inaccessible to the drag-net. Along 
 Strath-Bran also, after the river leaves Ledgowan 
 Loch, and a short way above Achnanault, great 
 fish are to be met with in some of the deep pools. 
 They will rise at a large, red professor-fly, and even 
 grilse hooks have been found effectual. I would 
 much, however, prefer angling there with a small 
 fish upon swivel tackle. Gimp also should be used, 
 to prevent pike, which are very numerous in that 
 district, from doing mischief to the apparatus. Loch 
 Luichart, through which Conan runs, is of good re- 
 pute as an angling loch ; perhaps, indeed, it is some- 
 what over-rated. The trout found in it averages from 
 half a pound to a pound in weight ; occasionally, how- 
 ever, it has been caught of a much larger size. It is a 
 beautiful and strong fish, with salmon-coloured flesh, 
 and magnificently spotted on the outside, but rises 
 to the fly lazily and with great caution, at times 
 merely approaching your hook, and retiring again 
 without so much as a single snatch. I have killed, 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 109 
 
 angling from the side, betwixt three or four dozen in 
 the course of a forenoon with a red professor of the 
 ordinary size. 
 
 The streams running into Conan below Loch 
 Luichart are, besides the Rasay or Black-water, the 
 Meig from Strath- Conan, and, lower down, the 
 Orrin. I am not acquainted with any prime salmon 
 pools on the Meig, except those in the neighbour- 
 hood of Scatwell, and immediately below a rocky 
 and dangerous pass, over which the fish only occa- 
 sionally find a transit. The trout in this stream are 
 generally insignificant, as also are those found in 
 Orrin, although we believe well-sized ones are now 
 and then to be captured in the upper parts of both 
 waters. 
 
 Immediately above Loch Luichart, the Gradie 
 river falls into Conan, issuing from Loch Fannich, 
 a considerable extent of water. Loch Fannich con- 
 tains numbers of small trout, and possibly a few of 
 great size. It is, however, scarcely worthy of the 
 angler's attention, being situated in a wild, pastoral, 
 unaccommodating district, and not readily approach- 
 ed even by the pedestrian. The Strath-Bran lakes, 
 although frequently angled on, and some of them 
 stored with pike, are infinitely superior. 
 
 Besides these, a small tarn, lying upon the hill- 
 path betwixt Scatwell and Achnanault, is by no 
 means to be overlooked. There are twain together, 
 but I allude to the more northernly; for although 
 angling in both, I failed to discover fish in the other. 
 
110 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 In fact, I take to myself the merit of being the first 
 who ever drew trout out of this one, and I had fail- 
 ed doing so, were it not for a fit of perseverance 
 which came upon me at the time, for I cannot affirm 
 that the fish are exceedingly numerous or inclined 
 to bite well, yet they are large, and so singularly 
 beautiful and well-formed, that I defy any loch in 
 the kingdom to produce therr equal. I caught only 
 three of them, with the red professor, upon a Lime- 
 rick hook. The biggest of these weighed seven 
 pounds, and measured somewhat about twenty-two 
 inches. Its girth, when compared with its propor- 
 tions, was enormous, and its head no bigger than a 
 walnut. On the breast, it had the colour, and to 
 my fancy the fragrance also, of a water-lily, only 
 that there was a tinge of the rose in its nature. Far- 
 ther up, the body became of a light olive colour, 
 gloriously starred over with orange spots. He 
 fought with great spirit, and sprang out of water 
 like a new-run grilse at the end of his first heat, 
 and when obliged to succumb, did so with all the 
 unwillingness of an expiring Ministry ! At table, I 
 never saw even a salmon redder in the flesh, which 
 was interlayered with curd of marrowy flavour and 
 unequalled whiteness. The other two fish were of 
 the same description, only much smaller, not weigh- 
 ing above a pound and a half each. 
 
 Reverting to the Strath-Bran lochs, the angler, a 
 short way from the bridge at Grugie, where there is 
 a public-house, comes, pursuing his way up the 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. Ill 
 
 Conan, to Loch Cullen. The trout in this sheet of 
 water are some of them of great size ; many, how- 
 ever, are under twelve inches in length, but there 
 are few very small ones. I killed one there weigh- 
 ing three pounds, on the same day that I caught the 
 large one mentioned above, besides several others. 
 But I did not handle the rod with much enthusiasm 
 or for any length of time, as it was then getting 
 late and no breeze on the water; besides, I was 
 over-content with what I had already taken. The 
 Cullen trout, judging from the specimens captured 
 by myself, wants both beauty of form as well as 
 fleshy fairness. My largest fish, although not half 
 the heaviness, was almost of the same length as the 
 one previously alluded to from the hill-loch, and its 
 head fully three times the size. The smaller ones, 
 from a pound weight and downwards, were better pro- 
 portioned, but by no means beautiful in appearance* 
 Achnanault Loch lies immediately above Cullen, 
 and is somewhat of the same description, although I 
 have heard it asserted that the trout therein are of 
 larger size and less plentiful in number, pike being 
 very abundant. The cursory trial I took of it 
 shewed in a manner the reverse; for of the two fish 
 I captured there in the course of ten minutes, both 
 were smaller than any I caught in the other loch. 
 This, however, arose possibly from accident; in- 
 deed, I have generally remarked, when two lakes 
 are near each other and joined by a run of water, 
 that the uppermost contains the larger fish. 
 
112 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 Conan above Achnanault, where there is an ex- 
 cellent inn, runs over a channelly bottom, favour- 
 able to the spawning of trout, which, however, are 
 not quite so plentiful as one would naturally expect. 
 This arises partly from the depredations of their 
 enemies, the pike, partly from the cannibalism of 
 the giants of their own species, and perhaps also 
 from the long-continued descent of snow-water into 
 Conan during spring and the early part of summer. 
 There are, however, in many of the pools heavy and 
 well-conditioned fish. These wink at a small fly, 
 and love better the bushy and bearded lure, or else 
 a spinning bait worth darting after, that gleams 
 across them when the water is quick and swollen. 
 
 A mile or two above Achnanault, the Conan 
 leaves Loch Gowan, a sheet of water of no very 
 great extent, but celebrated above all others in Ross- 
 shire for the size of the trout it affords. These 
 weigh generally from three to ten pounds. I can- 
 not say with accuracy whether any heavier ones 
 have been captured. I suspect not a great number, 
 for the range of water is by no means extensive a 
 mere pool in size compared with Loch Awe or Shin 
 and the fish is evidently not the salmoferox, but 
 a lake trout of inferior description, differing from 
 it both in its shape and general features. Like all 
 large trout, it has certain feeding hours, dependant 
 frequently upon the state of the weather, but for the 
 most part regularly timed off by sun and shade. 
 During these only it can be taken, either by a dark 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 113 
 
 grilse fly, or by trolling with a small fish. The fly, 
 I believe, is preferable, there being numbers of pike 
 to snap at a spinning bait. 
 
 At no great distance from Ledgowan, and in the 
 neighbourhood of Auchnasheen, lies Loch Roshk, 
 a considerable sheet of water, affording very superior 
 angling. Its trout, like those in the places already 
 mentioned, attain to a large size, and may be cap- 
 tured by a good angler in considerable numbers. 
 
 I am not personally acquainted with many other 
 lochs worthy of recommendation in the eastern dis- 
 tricts of Ross-shire. There are, it is true, Lochs 
 Garve or Malaing, through which the Black-water 
 runs, Ussie and Kinellan, near Strathpeffer, all of 
 which contain quantities of pike; and as to Loch 
 Garve, and a smaller sheet of water in its vicinity, 
 they boast of some good trout, but these are scarce- 
 ly worth wasting our patience upon, being so dull 
 and capricious. The inky nature of the water which 
 they inhabit seems indeed to injure their appetite 
 for the fly. Perhaps there is no stream in Scotland 
 so dark in its colour, during summer, as the Black- 
 river. Such, in fact, is its quality in this respect, 
 that salmon ascending it have been known to be- 
 come perfectly foul-hued in the course of forty hours. 
 
 Such is the substance of a communication made to the 
 club by one of its members, regarding some of the 
 waters in Easter Ross-shire. No mention, we perceive, 
 is made of Loch Moir, lying at the extremity of Wy vis, 
 
 H 
 
114 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 neither of Monar in Strath- Orrin, both of which are well 
 spoken of by such as have visited them. The adjoin- 
 ing very brief extracts from another epistolary paper, 
 offered to the inspection of Mr Wandle-weir, are per- 
 haps worthy of perusal, relating as they do to the more 
 prominent waters in the western districts of the same 
 shire. 
 
 WESTERN DISTRICTS OF ROSS-SHIRE. 
 
 I HAVE just angled in the Ewe, Gruinyard, Torridon, 
 Carron and Shiel waters, and may safely assert that, 
 taking them in the mass, they stand altogether unri- 
 valled. The Ewe, issuing from Loch Maree, and just- 
 ly celebrated by Sir Humphrey Davy, consists mere- 
 ly of two or three pools, but these of such a quality, 
 that at certain times a couple of skilful rods might 
 load a horse with salmon grilse and sea-trout. The 
 fish, however, are capricious, and refuse to rise during 
 particular states of the water, which, owing to the 
 influence of the wind on Loch Maree, is constantly 
 varying. The loch itself affords what may, in that 
 district, be termed poor angling. The salmon find 
 their way into it with some difficulty, and yellow 
 trout, though occasionally to be met with, are by no 
 means very abundant. Char, resembling those of 
 Windermere, inhabit its deep places, but are not to 
 be captured with the fly. The scenery is grandly 
 wild, yet scarcely so savage as that on the banks of 
 the Torridon, which present to the eye a continued 
 surface of loose and scattered rocks, singularly ar- 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 115 
 
 ranged, and prodigious as to quantity. I found this 
 latter water in a very exhausted state, and conse- 
 quently met with little success. I am informed, 
 however, that, when flooded, the angling is very 
 superior. I was more fortunate by many degrees 
 on the Carron, the lower pools of which being in 
 prime condition, and full of fish, afforded me as fine 
 sport as I ever before experienced. Had I been 
 provided with good tackle, I might easily have mas- 
 tered above a hundred weight of salmon and grilses. 
 As it was, having only a trouting-wand, and slen- 
 derly-dressed flies, the execution made by me 
 among the larger sorts of fish was greatly limited, 
 and I had chiefly to content myself with the demo- 
 lition of some scores of sea-trout and finnocks. The 
 former of these gave excellent play, being fresh-run 
 and generally well-sized, averaging from one to 
 three pounds in weight. 
 
 There are several fresh-water lochs in the district 
 of Loch Carron, but I cannot greatly commend them, 
 save that they are somewhat picturesque. Salmon 
 which have surmounted the cruive-dyke above New- 
 Kelso are, however, occasionally to be caught in 
 the lowermost. 
 
 Passing to Loch Alsh, and from thence to Loch 
 Duich, a beautiful and superbly wooded arm of the 
 sea, I fell in with the Croe and Shiel waters, both of 
 which, when in a flooded state, are reckoned excel- 
 lent. My success at the mouth of the latter was 
 fair, but by no means equalled what I met with on 
 
116 
 
 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 the Carron. I bad, however, a store of fish in my 
 creel, and trudged on with a contented heart towards 
 Cluany, from which next morning I angled my way 
 through Glen-Garry to Fort- Augustus. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 ANGLING TOUR TO THE NORTH-WEST 
 HIGHLANDS. 
 
 EARLY in the month of August 183 , Messrs Leis- 
 ter, Otter, Swiveltop, and May-fly, as was their 
 wont during summer, set forth on an angling expe- 
 dition to the North-west Highlands. The route 
 selected by these gentlemen differed in some respects 
 from that taken by Wandle-weir and his friends, 
 who were probably by this time on their return south- 
 wards. A communication from Mr Herl-broke, 
 dated 25th July, had been received by the club at 
 
 C- h, previous to starting, wherein he stated their 
 
 success, considering the dryness of the season, to 
 have been of a satisfactory nature; only three sal- 
 mon, however, had as yet been captured, the redu- 
 ced state of the streams confining their amusement, 
 in a great measure, to angling in lochs and hill-tarns. 
 
118 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 Mr Leister and his companions were fortunately 
 not destined to experience the calamity complained 
 of by their English brethren. On the contrary, their 
 very outset was conducted under a beautiful dis- 
 charge of the watery element; and on arriving at 
 Loch Awe, where it was intended their operations 
 should commence, it proved to one and all of our 
 anglers a matter of no little gratification to discover 
 the Orchy and other surrounding waters desirably 
 flooded and trimmed out for sport. A large salmon 
 was quickly taken by Tom Otter, above the kirk at 
 Dalmally, and Jack Leister was so far successful as 
 to load his pannier to the lid with honest-sized trout. 
 Nothing, however, worthy of notice was achieved 
 either by May-fly or the worthy Doctor, who, it 
 may be remarked, went to work in an indolent, lei- 
 surely, and over-presumptuous style, without deem- 
 ing it worth their patience to exercise any degree 
 of craft or ability. 
 
 The day following was spent by all four in troll- 
 ing from a boat for the salmo ferox, of which re- 
 doubtable species of fish they had the misfortune to 
 Jose three fine specimens, securing only a sorry in- 
 dividual of five pound weight, along with a score 
 or so of excellent yellow trout, averaging in their 
 length from twelve to fifteen inches. The escape of 
 the larger fish was owing principally to the inter- 
 vention of a strong variety of water-weed, along 
 the nettings of which the boat at the time of their 
 seizing the bait happened to be directed. To this 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 119 
 
 subaqueous retreat the trout, on finding themselves 
 hooked, naturally retired, and, entangling the cord- 
 lines by which they were held among a series of 
 lengthy roots and inextricable cables, gave to our 
 anglers no other choice than that of parting com- 
 pany with them, which, as this act of submission 
 was more than twice repeated, had the effect of call- 
 ing forth many sore expressions of temporary re- 
 gret. 
 
 We have no intention, however, of following out 
 the movements of our piscatorial adventurers further 
 than is detailed in course of the annexed conversa- 
 tions, which, linked though they be with little inci- 
 dent, may nevertheless prove worthy of a hasty 
 perusal. 
 
 GLEN ETIVE. 
 
 Enter MAY-FLY and SWIVELTOP. 
 
 May. Stretch thy wits, good Doctor, a hair's 
 length. I am sorely nonplussed, and confoundedly 
 knocked up. Oh ! this weary trudging o'er moss 
 and moor, through strong chasms and torrent beds 
 this wrestling with hunger, rain, wind, and dark- 
 ness it takes the romance out of one for ever! 
 Where, in the name of wonder, is this track they 
 talked of, and the precious domicile yclept an inn ? 
 eight miles off! ay, and eight twice told ; which, 
 
120 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 with our morning's walk to boot, is no small matter. 
 We have been sixteen hours agog, Doctor I don't 
 bate a minute and no cheer at our lips neither. 
 
 Swivel. Keep up heart, Bill, we're in old Scot- 
 land still, and by a stream-side. 
 
 May. Plague on the stream ! Now that you 
 talk on't, these fish on my back are not feathers. 
 
 Swivel. Toss them to the ravens, Bill no mar- 
 vel thy courage is low under such a burden. 
 
 May. Art thou serious, Doctor? is it in thy 
 philosophy to separate us from our spoils ? Thou 
 hast broad shoulders; prithee carry them awhile, 
 and exchange panniers. 
 
 Swivel. Ay, Bill, with wondrous satisfaction. 
 Is all to thy mind ? [Exchange baskets."] 
 
 May. Even so. 
 
 Swivel. And to mine also, Bill. [Drops May- 
 jhfs fish among the heather. ~] This load steadies 
 me, and puts vigour into my limbs. I can now re- 
 sist the wind, arid plant my foot with more firmness 
 on the heath. 
 
 May. I wish thee all joy of such blessings, 
 Doctor. But where are we, and why advance? 
 What a wilderness I can fancy around me ! hills, 
 mosses, and decayed forests. This glimmer is 
 more frightful than utter darkness I like it not. 
 The stone-blind night hath fewer horrors. Ha! 
 what is yon ? 
 
 Swivel. A white ghost to be sure! Maybe, 
 Bill, 'tis the ghost of the inn we are searching after. 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 121 
 
 No lights, however no merry fires to draw the 
 damp out of us ! But stay it moves. 
 
 May. Aye ! Doctor, so it doth. Gra'mercy, 'tis 
 a wraith ! 
 
 Swivel. If so, by all means let us capture it ; 
 'twill make our fortunes, Bill. A show-spectre will 
 charm the virtuosi, and reduce the over-stock of 
 men's wits. Mayhap 'tis one of Fingal's heroes! 
 We are not far from Cona, mind you and if such, 
 what tales it may unfold? How the tomes of 
 learned antiquaries will slide from the glass-case to 
 the lumber-room, when their pure palaver is ex- 
 posed and contradicted by its legendary tongue ! 
 But how shall we bribe it to approach, Bill? Shall 
 we offer it thy trout, man ? wandering ghosts are 
 always hungry But ha! it moves again. 
 
 May. Let us pass quietly to this side 
 
 Swivel. And flee our good fortune ? Nay, Bill, 
 nay, thou advisest without judgment. I will shew 
 my front, and question it as to our track and 
 destination where this King's-house on the moor 
 of Rannoch lies. 
 
 May. Folly 1 perilous folly ! but take thy way 
 on't, Doctor. 
 
 Swivel. Oh ! by all the miracles of St Anthony I 
 'tis a horse a cart-horse and nothing but a cart- 
 horse! Hie thee, Bill, this way, and behold a cart- 
 horse. ' , 
 
 May. No unwelcome omen, Doctor; the inn 
 cannot be far distant. 
 
122 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 Swivel. But how are we to find it, Bill? Is't to 
 the right or left hand of us, think you? 
 
 May. To the left, I opine. 
 
 Swivel. To the left, then, let us turn by all means, 
 although I have my doubts on't. 
 
 May. Doubters are alway in the wrong, Doctor. 
 
 Swivel. We shall see, Bill. I marvel much what 
 Otter and Leister can be about at present? 
 
 May. Snug at Bunaw, where we ourselves ought 
 to have remained, instead of trudging up this house- 
 less glen without their company, and at dead of 
 night too ay! and hungry as wolves, wet as fishes, 
 and weary as souls in purgatory. 
 
 Swivel. Who is to blame, Bill ? 
 
 May. Oh! of course, my unfortunate self. But 
 what could we miserable anglers capture out of the 
 broad Awe? not even a wretched par. 
 
 Swivel. And what did we capture out of the 
 narrow Etive? Where were the hosts of sea-trout 
 you promised me, Bill ? the sparkling salmon and 
 capering grilses? Where that pleasant inn your 
 fancy pictured, overlooking a pool paved with fish, 
 so that from its windows we might handle our 
 wands, and, while discussing the contents of a 
 punch-bowl, land at the same time a sixteen pound- 
 er ? Glorious dreams, these Elysian visions, Bill ! 
 What a brief walk we had, besides, from Portson- 
 achan, level and void of roughnesses ; to be sure, 
 our eyes were well feasted ; there were heaths, and 
 brackens, and barked trees in abundance, and heads 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 123 
 
 of hills besides, rather grand-looking, but to my 
 taste very unsocial and grim-visaged. I fancy a 
 green, southern, flowery knoll before any of them. 
 
 May. Tasteless impiety! thou'rt a monster of 
 prejudice, Doctor. 
 
 Swivel. So be it ! But how shall we turn now ? 
 the river, you perceive, takes an angle, and should 
 we pursue it on towards the source, 'twill only be- 
 wilder us the farther. 
 
 May. Then, Doctor, I must drop. Should the 
 inn be not at hand, 'tis useless to goad me on, I am 
 past remedy, and can take my chance upon the wet 
 heather until sun-rise. 
 
 Swivel. Out on thee! thou art not so flagged, 
 Bill ; give me back my pannier. We must ford the 
 stream ; 'tis impossible that the King's-house lies on 
 this side on't. There is neither road nor foot-path 
 and road, of a certainty, there ought to be, or 
 Scotland is not Scotland. 
 
 May. I protest against such daring. The river 
 is swollen and rapid as a race-horse; we shall be 
 carried off in a twinkling and never again heard 
 of. Many of the pools are whole fathoms deep. 
 There's peril in't, even in day-light but now 
 
 Swivel. Be brave, Bill, be brave. I'll pick thee 
 a passage, man, will not overwhelm thee. Strangle 
 these Gorgons of thine, and follow me. See you, 
 the river is not greatly flooded, and this is no doubt 
 a shallow stream, although somewhat rough and 
 noisy. I shall feel my way with my rod. Not 
 
124 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 knee-deep, Bill, I affirm ! Come on, boldly ha ! 
 there's a slippery stone hereabouts push to the 
 left. 
 
 May. I shall be down to a certainty. 
 
 Swivel. Keep thy legs together, and thy side to 
 the current move! move! deliberation is danger. 
 See, I am nearly across. Thy hand, Bill we are 
 safe ! 
 
 May. 'Tis well, for I am sadly worsted; and now 
 let us rest an hour on this bank. 
 
 Swivel. Not one minute ; I value my life more. 
 'Twould stiffen us to do so into sheer corses. Up, 
 up, Bill! and shake the drench-water off thee by 
 a brisk gallop towards yon dark-looking object a 
 short way before us. 'Tis a hut, but an uninhabited 
 one a goat-shed, methinks. But hurra! here is 
 the road the government road leading to Fort- 
 William ! We are close upon King's -house, Bill ! 
 
 May. I see it not and yet, as you say, it must 
 be at hand. How shall we proceed, Doctor ? right 
 or left? 
 
 Swivel. I am puzzled, Bill, like thyself. 'Tis cer- 
 tain, however, that Glencoe lies in the latter direc- 
 tion ; should we take the other, we stumble upon 
 Rannoch moor, where, for ought I know, we may 
 stand at this moment. Let us decide by the toss 
 of a coin ; heads, right tails, left. 
 
 May. Tails! 
 
 Swivel. To the left then we go 
 
 May. And on a good, smooth road, which 'tis a 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 125 
 
 pleasure to travel, after the rough bone- shaking we 
 have just had. I feel wonderfully recruited, and 
 able to perform miracles. 
 
 Swivel. Vaunt not, Bill; but take thine own 
 creel, an' thou be'est so valour-getting. These 
 trout of thine annoy my shoulders not a little. 
 
 May. Ha! Doctor, art thou failing at last? But 
 hand the pannier this way why, it seems to me 
 like an air-bladder! 
 
 Swivel. So it ought, Bill, seeing its contents are 
 one and the same. 
 
 May. What ! hast thou made away with my fish ? 
 Audacity indeed ! unexampled sacrilege ! flung what 
 I have toiled and sweated for to the base-born car- 
 rion-crows? 'Tis too much to endure meekly. 
 Doctor Swiveltop ! I abjure thy fellowship. Thou art 
 a common cateran and body-spoiler. Away! away! 
 lest I inflict the bastinado, and pommel thee into 
 shivers. 
 
 Swivel. Most valiant May -fly! we honour thy 
 very infirmities. Be not wroth as the roused lion, 
 nor slay us in the heat of thine anger ! What to 
 thee, Bill, are a few score of fingerlings? 
 
 May. Fingerlings ! Doctor Swiveltop ? they 
 were pounders ay, two pounders! 
 
 Swivel. Oh ! Bill, not a two-ounce fish amongst 
 them. 'Twas an absolute sin in thee to butcher 
 such fry. Saw you not how the very swallows, 
 while thou wert swinging them out, pounced upon 
 them instead of gad-flies? 
 
126 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 May. I assert, Doctor Nathan Swiveltop, that 
 those trout of mine, you so wilfully and criminally 
 abandoned, and which you now most slanderously 
 hold up to ridicule, were, one and all of them, large 
 and delectable fish that they weighed in general 
 from two to three pounds, although, at the same 
 time, I will to any one, save yourself, allow that 
 five or six of the smallest did not greatly exceed 
 nineteen or twenty ounces. 
 
 Swivel. Good ! excellent! bravo ! well-done! 
 . hurra! and thou wouldesthave forced me, Bill, 
 to carry thy pannier, containing five dozen such fish 
 (far beyond a hundred weight, mark you), for the 
 pure sake of displaying thy prowess to the ignorant 
 inmates of a country inn, and without any regard 
 or fellow-feeling for my fatigue and endurance ? 
 Methinks I did well to rid me of such a load! 
 Egad, Bill, thou art a vile computer and wretched 
 arithmetician. This paltry fabric of willows, yclept 
 thy creel, may barely contain a stone-weight of 
 fish, yet, to thy fable-making fancy, 'twould conceal 
 leviathans. O! how thou stretchest the borders of 
 nature to make room for unheard-of marvels ! 
 
 May. Hold thy prating, Nathan Swiveltop, and 
 anger me not. 
 
 Swivel. Thy wrath is pleasant, Bill pleasant as 
 comedy. I love thee when fired, and hate thee 
 when cool. I love all passionate men. The even- 
 tempered, and what some term the amiable, are 
 either villains, cunning, selfish, and avaricious 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 12? 
 
 otherwise they are fools, silly, simpering, and inani- 
 mate. But here, heaven be thanked, Bill! is a 
 turf-hovel and inhabited, I presume. Let us arouse 
 the slumbering Celts, and make enquiries as to the 
 inn. (Knocking.) Ho! good folks, hollo! 
 
 May. Hit harder, Doctor ; apply the butt-end of 
 thy rod to this make-shift of a door. Hear you that 
 flourish of nose-trumpets! What a snorting these 
 sleepy-pates make! Hollo! bestir ye! (Knocks.) 
 
 Swivel. Thou hast thunder in thy fists, Bill, like 
 old Jupiter; but these worthy souls seem charm- 
 bound, quite entranced hollo! you, hollo! 
 
 May. Ha ! they move and hold consultation. Can 
 you direct us to King's-house, honest folks? (No 
 answer.) Hollo! you inside ! have you tongue-pieces 
 or ear caverns? speak for the sake of mercy we are 
 lost wayfarers, tired as tinkers' mules, and hungry 
 as trapped weasels. (Another whispering.) 
 
 Swivel. They take us for burglars or cut-throats. 
 We are now in Glencoe, methinks, and the massacre 
 is not out of memory ! 
 
 May. Give them a touch of Gaelic, Doctor ; quote 
 Ossian, or shout a war-cry. 
 
 Swivel. Alas! Bill, I am a poor scholar, and know 
 not the lingo. Up, knaves, and shew face instanter! 
 Uncourteous hounds ! why lag ye on your straw, 
 while two wandering knights of the angle crave 
 their way to the hostelry ? Up, ye lazy loons! 
 
 (Voice from within.) Her nain sel pe comin what 
 does she want with Alister MactonaP ? 
 
128 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 Swivel. Why, the road to King's-house, good 
 Alister. 
 
 Voice. Ta Sassenach is on ta road. 
 
 Swivel. Ay! but on which hand does it lie? 
 east or west? north or south? up or down? right 
 or left? Dost thou hear, Alister Macdonald ? 
 
 May. The fellow has slunk off to bed. Hollo! 
 Alister Macdonald son of a dog ! shew thyself 
 come forth, Alister, come forth. 
 
 Voice. What does ta Sassenach want?- 
 
 May. Thy face, rascal. Do you take us for gau- 
 gers? Ajar with that gateway of thine, and give us 
 a peep at thee. 
 
 (Alister, cautiously opening the door.) Ta man pe 
 good, and her face pe good. 
 
 Swivel. Better than her heart ! And now, Alister 
 Macdonald, tell us, I pray thee, where we are Is 
 this Glencoe? 
 
 Alister. To pe shure. 
 
 Swivel. And how far may we be from King's- 
 house? a mile? 
 
 Alister. To pe shure. 
 
 Swivel. Six miles? 
 
 Alister. To pe shure. 
 
 May. The man is a dolt let us on, Doctor ! 
 
 Swivel. He is a knave, Bill. Stay dost thou 
 know what this is, Alister? (Displays his purse.) 
 
 Alister. Ta siller, to pe shure. 
 
 Swivel. Well, tuck thy kilt on, and be our guide to 
 King's-house ; we will reward thee like princes. 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 129 
 
 Alister. And what will ta Sassenach gi'e to her 
 nain sel' ? 
 
 Swivel. Make an honest demand, Alister. 
 
 Alister. Twa guineas frae sic shentlemans, shure 
 enough ? 
 
 Swivel. Get thee to bed, greedy hound ! thou 
 shalt not see a doit of mine. Away, bare-faced, 
 lazy-boned rascal ! we have no need of thee. Put 
 wind into thy sporran, and make a bagpipe o't. 
 Come along, Bill, and leave that boor to learn mo- 
 desty. 
 
 {Alister Macdonald shuts the do;>r t muttering a curse in 
 Gaelic^ 
 
 May. Another specimen of these western Celts ! 
 rude, abject, and rapacious. They have neither 
 conscience nor good-feeling. Marked you how 
 that miserable wretch shook with sheer terror, as he 
 displayed himself cautiously at the entrance of his 
 hovel, after the long colloquy held with his help- 
 mate under the blankets, during which, I have no 
 doubt, they both convinced themselves of our in- 
 tention to rob and murder them ? 
 
 Swivel. Very likely, Bill, but we must now re- 
 trace our steps; for the inn, I feel assured, lies not 
 in this direction, and as for obtaining a night's lodg- 
 ings elsewhere, 'tis out of all likelihood, judging 
 from the reception we have just met with. Quick 
 march, Bill ! what ails thee, thou man of valour ? 
 
 May. What ails a wind-broken horse or a jaded 
 hound? I am desperately flagged, Doctor, quite 
 
130 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 knocked up ; I can't drag a leg after its fellow, I 
 can't lift a jaw, or turn a cheek, or throw up an eye- 
 shutter. My back aches, my belly groans, my legs 
 totter, and my hands are weak and passive as an 
 infant's. 
 
 Swivel. This is a sudden change. Methoughtthy 
 vigour was restored, and that thou wert fresh as at 
 starting. Where now hath thy valour gone, that I 
 may bring it thee ? But move, man, move ! Force 
 up courage for a score of minutes. Shake thy ma- 
 chinery into action. 
 
 May. Nay, Doctor, I cannot. I am conquered 
 for want of thews invincible ; I have walked off all 
 power of walking on my heart halts and 
 
 Swivel. Fudge ! But thou art ill-like in earnest, 
 and chalk-coloured in the visage. Mount upon my 
 back, Bill ; I will carry thee, man ; come, get up. 
 
 May. Not so, not so ; let me lean on this stone 
 awhile. 'Twill revive me, Doctor, and freshen my 
 lirnbs. 
 
 Swivel. Folly ! hoist thyself on these shoulders of 
 mine. Thou art light as thine own pannier, and 
 salmon-sized withal. Fancy a stirrup, Bill, and put 
 thy foot in't. I am no restive unruly charger, but 
 sure-paced, and quiet as a lamb. So mount thee, 
 Bill necessity has no law besides, thou hast the 
 joke to thyself. 
 
 May. I will e'en ascend thee, thou biped perilous ! 
 but not fast, not fast ; for I am giddy as a wind- 
 mill, and the wits are flying out of me in legions. Be 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 131 
 
 thine amble gentle and measured, as thou wert a 
 lady's palfrey and no war-horse. Methought I saw 
 a light and there again ! 
 
 Swivel. Some marsh-lanthorn or Will o* Wisp. 
 
 May. Nay, Doctor, nay ; lift thy head and opine 
 on't. Is't this King's-house, think you ? 
 
 Swivel. A haunted cairn, Bill, and a witch at her 
 cantrips- 
 
 May. 'Tis the inn, Doctor, I wager a round sum. 
 Halt, and let me dismount ere I am jostled to death. 
 
 Swivel. Thou art a poor equestrian, Bill but 
 look ! there be two figures approaching us from the 
 stream side. 
 
 May. Heaven defend us ! move quicker. 
 
 Swivel. O thou craven ! where are thy ails and 
 heart-burns ? How gottest thou wings in such a 
 hurry ? Speed, speed, speed ! the Celts are after 
 thee, Bill ! (May-fly exit.) What hath seized the 
 fool, and who are here to harm him ? Do none walk 
 i'th' night save cut-throats? O white-liver! what 
 cost is't to resemble a man, and by an assumption 
 of courage hold his attitude, albeit having no more 
 o* the true virtue in thee than a mouse's hide. 
 Were there not twain of us besides, should they 
 prove dishonest ? An air of common resolution 
 would have scared them. But these are no night 
 marauders. Ha! ha! ha! Otter and Jack Leister. 
 
 Enter OTTER and LEISTER. 
 Leister. Even so, Doctor. What dost thou here ? 
 
132 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 thy creel on thy back moreover? Where is May- 
 fly? 
 
 Swivel. Saw you not how he fled, terror-struck, 
 at your approach ? 'Tis plain he is no hero. His 
 misapprehensions converted you into highwaymen, 
 and I doubt not he will have reached the inn by this 
 time, should these be its walls from which yonder 
 light proceeds. 
 
 Otter. How, Doctor, still in search of your night's 
 shelter? We thought to have found you snugly 
 seated by a good fire, merry about the face, and in 
 that sort of agreeable semi-slumber which refuses 
 all power of locomotion to him who is seized with 
 it. 
 
 Swivel. And you envied us mightily, Tom, no 
 doubt. Ah! to your fancy, we came off easily, after 
 being thrice drenched, bogged, and bewildered. I 
 might fabricate a winters-night tale out of our dis- 
 asters, did I so design ; but you are laden, like ele- 
 phants ha! here is a salmon. 
 
 Leister. Ay, and three grilses a salmoferox, and 
 eleven sea-trout. These are only part of our day's 
 sport. The remainder, however, which we left at 
 Bunaw, were chiefly yellow-fry and finnocks. Our 
 talmoferox, as you see, is on Otter's shoulders, and 
 weighs sixteen pounds. He is a rarely-formed fish, and 
 was taken with the Maule-fly at the outlet of Loch 
 Awe. But you shall have him to scrutinize at lei- 
 sure, when we reach the inn. How got you on at 
 the Etive, Doctor? Did May-fly fulfil his vaunts? 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 133 
 
 Swivel. Question himself, Jack. See, there he is 
 in propria persona, attended by a Celtic body-guard, 
 for the purpose, I imagine, of delivering me from 
 the hands of such notorious highwaymen and slayers 
 of the king's lieges, as you and Tom Otter. 
 
 Otter. Greet him with three cheers. 
 
 All. Hurra! hurra! hurra! 
 
 Enter MAY-FLY, attended by two others. 
 
 Swivel. To the rescue, most valiant Bill! I am 
 sore beset by these foot-pads on either side of me. 
 What? armed with a pitch-fork, too? charge upon 
 them. 
 
 Leister. Nay, a truce, Master May-fly, we sur- 
 render marr us not, I pray thee, with a weapon so 
 unseemly. 
 
 May. Is't thou, Jack, and Otter too? egad ! boys, 
 but ye have sprung out of the water, and must have 
 rushed up Etive, like twain milters. Here is the 
 hostelry yclept King's-house, as you see, and here am 
 I, Will May-fly, blind and pinched below the ribs 
 with fatigue and famine ; wherefore, haste ye, mas- 
 ters, and enter, so that I may satiate instanter the 
 cravings of nature fill up my internal vacancies, 
 nook and cranny, with such moor dainties as this 
 refuge-roof affords and forthwith betake myself, 
 plenteously primed, to slumber on cool sheets, all 
 blanketings abjured and discarded. 
 
 Intrant omnes. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 CARRON, ROSS-SHIRE. 
 
 OTTER and LEISTER. 
 
 Otter. I am all in a tremor, Jack, and cannot un- 
 riddle my tackle for want of nerve. See how these 
 flies are bewildered! Here is a Gordian knot with 
 a vengeance, and no remedies beside me but patience 
 and my penknife. The former I have lost, and to 
 it I set with the latter, hacking and maiming this 
 way and that, while you, already trimmed, are on 
 the point of discharging your hook at the snout of 
 one of those gallant fish, which belabour the water 
 with their tails in all quarters. What a muster of 
 salmon, grilses, and sea-trout ! 
 
 Leister. Ay, Tom, and I have hold of a fellow at 
 throw first a grilse by his capers, five pound weight, 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 135 
 
 and wild as a north-west swirl. He seems as if one 
 shook nettles at his forehead, flinging and floundering 
 without stay or reason. I have captured many that 
 held their death-strife more deliberately. 'Tis in 
 vain, Sir Silverside, that thou art so frolicksome! I 
 have the lead of thee, friend, so shore-in sideways. 
 Now, Tom, take thy turn o' the pool. 
 
 Otter. Nay, Jack, I will onward or above thee, 
 and may pitch on a stream to my fancy, where the 
 fish are as numerous as they seem hereabouts. 
 
 Leister. I doubt it; there is no part of the whole 
 water so promising, barring the Cruive pool, which 
 has already been dragged by the fishermen, and of 
 course, besides having been thoroughly disturbed, is 
 pretty well emptied of its contents. No doubt, you 
 may meet with abundance of sea-trout near the 
 mouth of the river, but the salmon and larger fish 
 are chiefly lodged within a hundred yards of us. 
 Set to, Tom, and take the noblest of them in tow. 
 Ha ! you raised a huge fellow, but neglected to strike. 
 Change your fly for a smaller one, and cast higher 
 up. 
 
 Otter. I shall bide by my hook, Jack ; 'tis fault- 
 less. There again a different fish 
 
 Leister. And missed him, too ! I would cause my 
 fly to move more rapidly over the surface ; the fel- 
 low rose at it as if suspicious of harm. Send it a 
 sort of galloping pace, and it will smooth down this 
 distrust. Excellent! he springs after it like a tiger. 
 Line, line, line line and your legs a sixteen 
 
136 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 pounder run, Tom now, wind up like lightning 1 , 
 he takes a somerset 
 
 Otter. And is off! hook arid all no help; my 
 gut tackle is single, and by some degrees too weak ; 
 I must use it in plies, or run the risk of parting with 
 every fish which I may chance to fix. You need 
 not stand idle, Jack ; lay on amongst them right and 
 left ; you are sure to have hold of a fellow immedi- 
 ately, only use caution in guiding him, and disturb 
 the water as little as possible. 
 
 Leister. I shall certainly keep on guard against 
 doing so. What plunges these monsters are taking ! 
 But there is no use throwing my fly over them, they 
 have not appetite for it at present, and are merely 
 diverting themselves ; yet there be some less capri- 
 cious spirits awaiting me underneath, which keep 
 their frolics in cfyeck until quickened by the taste of 
 my steel barb. One shewed face at me this in- 
 stant, and leaves a vortex on the water behind him 
 again he has risen, and with no better result. I 
 shall put on a lively looking Irish fly in exchange 
 for this dull insect, and should it not ruffle his gor* 
 get, I abjure further intermeddling with him. 
 
 Otter. No mighty threat this, Jack. I have now 
 armed my line with a stout Maule-fly of moderate 
 size, and have no doubt it will banish the lethargy 
 out of some half-dormant epicure, and cause his flanks 
 to turn over magnificently on the gravel. Already 
 I have fastened on one of Neptune's ambassadors 
 to the river-gods, a splendid salmon, excelling the 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 137 
 
 one I have just lost. See how he posts across the 
 pool! But what! are you similarly occupied with 
 another of the retinue? 
 
 Leister. I am, Tom; and 'tis a gallant fin. Who 
 shall conquer first ? 
 
 Otter. My rod is a degree too slender, and I can- 
 not deal as is meet with this fellow. It bends al- 
 most to my wrist, and is in danger of giving way 
 immediately should he make any violent efforts to 
 escape. But he is too heavy to throw himself out 
 of the water with readiness, and seems inclined to 
 steer deep rather than vault and gambol on the sur- 
 face. I shall find it difficult to fatigue him, as I dare 
 not trust to this switch of mine, and his leisurely 
 saunterings up and down the pool are no small proof 
 of inherent strength. That fish of yours seems in 
 a fair way of subduing himself by over exertion. 
 
 Leister. He is an active fellow, and, were not my 
 wand a double-handed one, might manage to give me 
 the slip ; but I hold him firm, and have no fear of 
 his flinging off. I have already taken much of the 
 devil out of him, and he now begins to shew rib and 
 turn up his keel despondingly. But no ! he is out 
 again, marring the reserve of the pool, as if there were 
 fire at his tail. Should I get him into shoal water, I 
 must have the gaff-hook employed instanter and yet 
 without assistance, 'tis no easy matter to run it across 
 his flanks. Hilloa! bo}^, can I trust you to take the 
 keeping of this rod into your hands a moment, while 
 I lodge my grappling iron in the body of yonder 
 
138 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 salmon ? Hold tight, my youngster, here he comes, 
 twelve good pounds I warrant him. 
 
 Otter. The fish I have hold of is still heavier, arid 
 flags a degree or two in the main, but I shall have 
 some work yet ere he is thoroughly tired out. His 
 paces are more measured and sober, and he seems not 
 a little non-plussed how to proceed. The curbing of 
 a prime salmon like this is pleasureable to our nerves. 
 Hike his runs and rangings his zealous pushes after 
 escape and liberty his strong facing of the rapids, 
 and his plunge brave and systematic. Help him to 
 a touch of thy gaff-hook, Jack, and, mind thou, keep 
 clear of the line, and do the job cleverly, as thou 
 art wont. Good ! he is mastered ; lay him along- 
 side of the other, and let us test the twain, while the 
 pool is under process of recovery. The flounder- 
 ing of these fish must have scared their neighbours ; 
 but no, they are still at play, and, if tempted cun- 
 ningly, will shew face to us anon. The salt-water 
 louse is still on the pate of this fellow ; he has but 
 lately left the sea, and is in beautiful trim for the 
 table. Shall we pack him off to the inn, Jack, and 
 have him cooked for our dinner? 
 
 Leister. Nay, Tom, I love to be graced with my 
 spoils, and were you to rob me of their presence, 
 'tis ten to one but I should lose all power and incli- 
 nation to take another cast. Allow them to remain, 
 I shall angle the more vigorously when they are by 
 me. What is this? no other than a lively fresh-run 
 sea-trout. 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 139 
 
 Otter. AJboisterous rollicker, Jack, agile as Har- 
 lequin; tame him, tame him. 
 
 Leister. 'Tis pretty sport getting hold of such 
 merry ones ; he is sport, however, and must ashore 
 without further ado, else he will aid in rousing his 
 comrades to suspect our propinquity. That was a 
 good salmon you struck at, Tom. 
 
 Otter. Ay, but he is clear off, with the bite of a 
 Limerick on his tongue-end. Marry! he will be- 
 think himself well ere he venture again after fly- 
 food. I have taught him to be sapient. 
 
 Leister. A rare spot this for fish, Tom. Look 
 you here what famous fellows are still holding gau- 
 deamus! but 'tis no use marching my hook over 
 them, they are too saucy to raise a nostril towards 
 me, save in sheer contempt of my skill and feather- 
 craft. Methinks we should abandon the pool for an 
 hour or two, and go sea -wards after the white-trout 
 and finnocks. We have thrashed the water here- 
 abouts to our heart's content, and are not likely to 
 evoke aught more of the monstrous out of it at pre- 
 sent. So e'en let us proceed. 
 
 Otter. You advise justly, Jack, but first we may 
 as well make a change in our tackle. I shall ap- 
 pend a black-professor and one of my own grass- 
 hoppers. 'Tis killing, as you know, among sea-trout. 
 The boy will carry our fish. 
 
140 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 Another Part of the Water. 
 
 Leister. Count your spoils, Tom, muster up your 
 booties ; 'tis time for us to be steering towards our 
 night quarters. I am somewhat voracious, and my 
 rod-arm is waxing stiff. Besides, what further is't 
 possible to achieve ? the breeze is dead, and the fish 
 dull. 'Tis now past four in the afternoon, and we 
 have plied at it these eight hours, doing, it must be 
 granted, no small damage. Let me see, I have here 
 twain salmon, five grilses, and twenty- nine sea-trout, 
 along with a score of finnocks and burn-fish. 
 
 Otter. Good ! you out-weigh me, I fear, but not 
 greatly. I have but one salmon, four grilses, thirty- 
 two sea-trout, and about a dozen or so of the other 
 trash. Scarcely are they to be carried homewards, 
 methinks, by these tired arms and aching shoulders. 
 'Tis a herculean load after its sort, and fortunate 
 we are in not having to travel any distance. Wet 
 thy lips at my flask, Jack, 'twill help thee to strength, 
 and annihilate the seeds rheumatic, which a day's 
 cold wading is apt to imbed in the soil of one's con- 
 stitution. 
 
 Leister. Thy medicine, Otter, hath an honest look; 
 better is't, of a verity, than most stuffs and liquids. 
 They are fools that cry out on't, as it were alway 
 harm's maker, though used at need-time and in 
 moderate measures. Prime whisky 'tis, that hath 
 tricked scrutiny and baffled the gauger, having the 
 breath of the heather and the spirit of the grain, 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 141 
 
 welled out in silence by the tarn-side. Dark forms 
 watched at its birth; the eagle and the red-deer were 
 in their trust ; and up at midnight, like a ghost 
 of the mountain, rose the small smoke of their 
 secret fire. 
 
 Otter. What, Jack! whisky eulogies! ahem! 
 poetic too ! Oh ! tush, man, tush ! 
 
 Exeunt. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 ADVENTURES. 
 
 Enter MAY-FLY and SWIVELTOP. 
 
 May. Let us down upon earth's lap, good Doctor, 
 and take note of the prospect below us. Of what 
 use is't to tramp onward in rear of Jack Leister, for 
 the purpose of persecuting a few loch-trout? Have 
 we not laboured already, enough and in vain? 
 I am cowed out of patience by heat and gad-flies. 
 Oh! for the cold descent of some winter-spirit, to 
 fan off in his flight these stinging sun-rays. Art 
 thou not in a thaw, Doctor? dropping apace? 
 
 Swivel. Ay! verily, Bill; but here is a tree-trunk, 
 old, girthy, and wizard-like, yet withal green in part, 
 and offering kind, cool shelter to our exhausted limbs. 
 Let us throw ourselves down beneath its shadow. 
 'Tis an alder and such an alder ! There are other 
 trees of like size in its neighbourhood. What trees ! 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 143 
 
 they rival England's eldest oaks not in height, I 
 allow, but in circumference of stem ; perhaps in age 
 also. See these knotted congers and hideous con- 
 strictors the writhing and athletic mass of disin- 
 terred roots. Are they not worth our contemplat- 
 ing? Here, Bill, let us drop. 
 
 May. What! among these ferns, and in the prox- 
 imity of this ant-hill? I love not the offensive crawl- 
 ers, nor consider my flesh safe in their neighbour- 
 hood. They are a bandit brood, and infest the 
 bracken-forest far and wide. Rather let us ascend 
 to yonder jut of gray rock, from which the bearded 
 goat hath just now sprung; 'tis more to my mind as 
 a resting-place, and is sheltered also by another of 
 these alders, fully as large and fantastic as the one 
 which you first admired. 
 
 Swivel. We are both of us bad selectors of a lux- 
 urious seat. If you dread ants, I am no friend to a 
 rough, hard, and uneasy stone-crag, when it may 
 be avoided by our progressing to yonder patch of 
 smooth, dry verdure, the very spot which a wood- 
 nymph would select for her summer couch. It is 
 both sunned and shaded, and see, from its ferny 
 marge, upstart two gentle roes, wild, beautiful crea- 
 tures children of a dream. They are not altogether 
 afraid, but pause and turn to gaze with large, mild 
 eye, on our intruding presence. Who that saw 
 them now could be their butcher ? 
 
 May. I would not trust even thyself, Doctor, wert 
 thou aptly armed. 'Tis bad sensibility, and maw- 
 
144 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 kisli to compassionate a prime roe-buck because of 
 his big eyes and graceful attitudes. I sympathize 
 none with it. But the twain are gone, and have no 
 faith in thee, despite of thy pitying phrase. How- 
 beit, thou hast pitched upon a pretty covert for our 
 day-slumbers. The turf is to a wish, soft, green, 
 and free from damp ; and these birches, though 
 they want the architectural build and amplitude of 
 the trees we have left in our rear, form a cool, plea- 
 sant screen, such as we much desire to ward off from 
 us the sun's oppression. Let us rest our rods 
 athwart this bough. Have they not a picturesque 
 and natural look about them, as if they were things 
 of growth, not of handicraft? This is true luxury, 
 Doctor more so than wading waist-deep for a 
 nibble! 
 
 Swivel. Allowed, Bill; but I have still an eye 
 river -ward, and fondle the notion of some huge, black 
 trout inhabiting yonder deep, half- sluggish pool. 
 Yet as for starting them now under such a sun, 
 'tis impossible. I am content to imagine their 
 existence, and should I be led to angle again in this 
 quarter, may have the good fortune to take prisoners 
 a creelful. At present let them enjoy life un- 
 tempted. 
 
 May. Even so ; the sights and sounds on all sides 
 of us are infinitely more attractive to me than the 
 cutting off of their brief careers. Hear you not the 
 falls at this distance? how this continuous murmur 
 haunts the air, intermingled with the more lively 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 145 
 
 brawling of the stream below ! What various mu- 
 sics hath nature, and with how much of nicety do 
 they suit humanity ay, and operate on the heart, 
 moulding its moods and tempers according as they 
 are high or low, solemn or humorous, glad or terri- 
 fic! The voice of such a waterfall speaks home to 
 our feelings, and separates from the servile flesh, 
 where they are inhumed, those loftier portions of 
 our nature, that are akin to the Maker and God of 
 good. Among Scottish cataracts, Doctor, I would 
 
 reckon this of C n not the least imposing. 'Tis 
 
 in no wise hackneyed or hurt by tasteless artifice, like 
 many of greater note, yet hath it all the sublimer cha- 
 racteristics of these. The body of water is strong 
 and straitly confined, descending vigorously over a 
 rampart of high rocks. 'Tis a gallant and terri- 
 ble leap, as of a whole legion into a pool of wrath 
 and alway in front arises a spray-spectre, taking 
 its form from the winds. You may mark it from 
 where we recline, but not so clearly as to distinguish 
 the rainbows with which it is inlaid. 
 
 Swivel. To tell thee my mind, Bill, I am no 
 mighty admirer of waterfalls. Should they be well 
 reputed and praisingly talked of, my fancy is apt 
 to exaggerate their attractions, and when visiting 
 them I ever become disappointed. Yet such a cas- 
 cade as this, stumbled upon unexpectedly, fails not 
 to arrest ray attention. There are no violations of 
 nature throughout its confines no foot-print of the 
 Goth within the sanctuary ; all is secret as where 
 
 K 
 
146 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 the hinds calve. What see we around but huge 
 hills, bare and bleak or skirted, like this one, with 
 promiscuous wood and below us, to our left, only 
 a single stripe of plough-turned soil, with a few scat- 
 tered hovels, each of which is tenanted to the full by 
 the children's children of such as were centuries past 
 the inhabiters of the self-same spot? These are no 
 intruders on solitude, for they hum ever close to 
 their own hives, and adventure not in quest of sights 
 and sounds, remote but a step from the roofs under 
 which they harbour. Despite of them build with- 
 in call the boding raven and the sun-buzzard, while 
 the red-deer of Achilty brandishes his careless antlers 
 from rock and forest. Listen thou, and spell out 
 the elements of nature's anthem the dulcet clusters 
 of glad voices, that fill the surrounding air. Bees, 
 birds, and waters, mingle together their several har- 
 monies, and now, among these thousand twinkling 
 leaves above us, singeth plaintively the summer 
 wind. Its tones unman me most, for they are soft 
 and touching as of female sorrow yet this gust is 
 bolder, Bill, and creates a crave in me to test again 
 the water. I must up and away to the loch of 
 Herons above Tarvie wood, where I may chance, 
 should the breeze improve, to ring the snouts of a 
 score as spirited fish as ever cleft flood and that 
 in spite of all threat or restriction on the part of the 
 proprietor. 
 
 May. This is a sudden resolution, Doctor a 
 wayward caprice. I am in no mood to second thee, 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 147 
 
 but shall slumber pleasantly where I am, until Leis- 
 ter heave up alongside, on his return from Loch 
 Luichart. 
 
 Swivel. The ravens will assail thee, Bill, an thou 
 sleepest; moreover, there be wild cats in the neigh- 
 bourhood, and weasels without count. See, what is 
 this? no other than a huge viper. 
 
 May. Say you, Doctor, a viper ! a hydra ! Egad 
 'tis time to shove off where is the legless ruffian, 
 that we may smite him ? 
 
 Swivel. Here, Bill, coiled up like a Russian knout, 
 and hissing on us with head erect, after the fashion 
 of a tea-kettle. He will escape an you be not quick 
 at marring him. 
 
 May. No fear; I shall stay his careering stylish- 
 ly, or the cunning is out of my right hand. Mawy! 
 I have hit him on the sconce, and ta'en the edge 
 out of his fangs ; but I must now impede his mo- 
 tion with a tail-cut, else will he, as you say, bid 
 us good-morrow among the brackens. How lovest 
 thou this, thou worm of Acheron ? methinks thy 
 vertebral screw is somewhat damaged ! Oh ! thou 
 ugly, flat-pated fiend, toad-hued, abominable reptile, 
 still wouldest thou exalt thee with grim malicious 
 visage and horrid crest ! Abate thee, Master Spit- 
 fire, and bite the sod! 
 
 Swivel. What bloody fractions, Bill, thou hast 
 parcelled him into ! Where is thy heart, man ? Be- 
 shrew thee for want of charity ! 
 
 May. Bah ! Doctor, 'twas in sheer charity I so 
 
148 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 malefactored him. Were he not vile in his nature 
 and dangerous, I had as lief let him free. As 'twas, 
 he got but a semi-torturing. But start you or stay ? 
 In truth, I myself have no relish for further down- 
 sitting, seeing 'tis at such peril as these ambushed 
 adders cause to one's breech. Nay ! to speak truth, 
 I have an inkling after merry sport in this loch you 
 talk of, and though inclined to be sluggish, shall 
 nevertheless shake myself, out of courtesy, into an 
 active humour. 
 
 Exeunt. 
 
 HERON LOCH. 
 
 May. The little waves are riding forth by hosts. 
 I like well the water's aspect. See you, there be 
 some fellows on the feed at the distance of three 
 rods. Let us lay our lines over them. 'Gad! 
 what a vault this copper-fin took ; but the barb is 
 in his tongue, and he may whistle a death-dirge. 
 By Jove ! 'tis a very cayman in vigour ! he runs 
 line like a salmon, and 
 
 Swivel Is off, Bill. 
 
 May. Ay, Doctor, sped and away ! gone by the 
 spirit of mischief! My courage is down ten degrees 
 at a start. 
 
 Swivel. Faith ! 'tis true ; what a melancholy atti- 
 tude you are in ! Cheer up, Bill ; one would imagine 
 you were become bankrupt, and had a surcoat out 
 at the elbows in fact, that you meditated self- 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 149 
 
 destruction and all for loss of a twelve-inch trout, 
 the like of which may be taken at next cast by one 
 of moderate skill and even in the temper. 
 
 May. Is't so, Doctor? then I'll to't again. Marry ! 
 as you predicate, I have seamed another at the muz- 
 zle, and no stripling but I must use caution, for 
 he makes towards the bottom, where the weeds are 
 dense. Hollo! knave, astir and shun trickery fight 
 fair, master trout ! 
 
 Swivel. So, to my mind, he doth ; not being on 
 parole, he is free to escape when and how he listeth. 
 
 May. I have him. 
 
 Swivel. You have, Bill! O conquest unparalleled! 
 triumph without equal! never within its ribbed con- 
 fines throbbed, like thine, the big heart of some 
 king-subduer never was so stirred the pride of 
 orator, when he held in the chains of eloquence a 
 thousand listeners all naturally freemen ! Come, 
 be not too large in thine own reckoning ; lower thy- 
 self a grade out of charity, lest I be terror-struck 
 in thy presence, Bill, and lose valour. Howbeit, 
 I am nigh on a level with thee, and hold fast some 
 lively water-cleaver, which mayhap is destined im- 
 mediately to bite the marge. But who is this mak- 
 ing towards us, Bill? 
 
 May. Marry ! I know not. He hath a boorish 
 gait but is armed, one may perceive, with autho- 
 rity. No doubt, he intends to act the mar-sport. 
 What say you, Doctor, shall we resist, or move off 
 quietly at his bidding ? 
 
150 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 Swivel. Resist, by all means, Bill. There can be 
 no legal hinderance to our angling hereabout, seeing 
 we possess freedom of trespass from the tenantry. 
 Are trout not common to all, and the property of 
 the captor ? Let us combat the matter, Bill, and 
 stand fast. 
 
 Enter KEEPER. 
 
 Keeper. May I ask, masters, whether you have 
 the proprietor's written permission to angle in this 
 loch? 
 
 Swivel. How, friend, does your laird shut up his 
 waters, so that strangers, like us, have it not in our 
 power to take an hour's amusement even on a re- 
 mote hill-top ? We have no passport, nor count 
 upon one as needful, but intend to remain where 
 we are, until driven away by the strong hand ; 
 wherefore attempt not of thyself to foil us, but 
 betake thee else-ward. 
 
 Keeper. Having warned you, masters, you will 
 not refuse to yield me your names for prosecution, 
 else must I proceed to call in assistance, being so 
 empowered? 
 
 Swivel. Here be our cards, friend, which you 
 may bear on a thunderbolt to your laird ; mean- 
 while, we shall angle here according to our discre- 
 tion, and shall possibly, you can inform him, do 
 ourselves the honour of presenting him, ere sunset, 
 with a creelful of good trout so God speed you ! 
 What wait you for ? 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 151 
 
 Keeper. To say truth, masters, you will find it 
 better to be advised. 
 
 Swivel. Oh ! we are in no such humour, arid shall 
 abide^ the issue with great content ; again, I pray 
 you, depart, an you bear love to your master. 
 
 Exit KEEPER. 
 
 May. The fellow hath a look expectant, and 
 moves snailishly on his errand. 
 
 Swivel. Ay ! he gapes after a bribe, and would 
 fain wink at our breach of his laird's ordinance; 
 but what is rightfully ours we design not to pur- 
 chase, so e'en let him wag his tongue against . us ; 
 'tis to me a matter of moonshine. 
 
 May. Set to, Doctor, now that we are quit of 
 the knave, and fill up thy pannier. 'Twill astonish 
 Leister, should we out-weigh him, as we might do 
 with a little management. There is a deep piece 
 of water eastward of the heronry, to which I would 
 fain repair, while you thrash on hereabout. 
 
 Swivel. I am content to do so, Bill, having pro- 
 mise before me of good sport. 
 
 Another Part of the Loch. 
 
 Swivel. What, Bill, seated disconsolate on a 
 stone, waiting like cock o' the weather for a wind- 
 puff! Are thy flies still in sallying mood? Hast 
 had luck, boy, that thou'rt so patient grown ? 
 
 May. I have tooth-ached not a few rascals, but 
 
152 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 the greater part were too nimble for me, and fought 
 themselves off the hook ere I could enforce their 
 submission. Out on them ! they are tender-mouthed, 
 yet strong in the tail and of ample muscle, else had 
 I encreeled a neat score of them. See, the seven 
 I have slaughtered make of themselves an honest 
 heap, and might stand in room of an eight -pound 
 slice of salmon. But where, Doctor, hast thou 
 been ? . I have missed thee from the water's edge 
 these two hours, yet seemingly art thou well-laden 
 with fish, if fish these be on thy shoulders, causing 
 thee such uneasiness. 
 
 Swivel. Ay, that they are! two and three 
 pounders each ! I captured them in a small tarn 
 lying not three hundred yards from where we stand, 
 
 yclept Loch L n. 'Twas signified to me by an 
 
 urchin I chanced to fall in with, immediately after 
 your departure; and although somewhat incredulous 
 of his information, I determined, as it lay at no 
 great distance, to give myself the benefit of a trial. 
 The trout, such as I have taken from it, seem to 
 have been planted there some years ago, and are 
 by no means numerous. In fact, I question much 
 whether they have as yet spawned, notwithstanding 
 the facilities they have of doing so; there being 
 several small water-courses running into various 
 parts of the loch. I have mastered thirteen of them, 
 and, strange to say, these were all I encountered ; 
 but they rose with great truth and avidity, and 
 were mostly hooked in the throat or lower part of 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 153 
 
 the tongue, so that, without any very great exertion, 
 it was impossible for them to escape, my tackle 
 being strong and in good order. 
 
 May. How, think you, they weigh? 
 
 Swivel. Two stone at the least, not an ounce 
 under. They are no bagatelle you will allow, and 
 pain my shoulders considerably the strap of my 
 pannier being somewhat narrow. I will relieve my- 
 self for a space, and lay out my spoils on the heather. 
 
 May. What a swasher has this been ! gaunt and 
 big in the bone, a contrast rare to that sleek-sided 
 monk of a fish you threw just down, which more 
 resembles one of those caught in this loch, save that 
 it hath twice its dimensions, and is of darker hue 
 about the belly ; altogether, you have wrought an 
 achievement, which will cause Leister to rub his 
 eyes out of suspicion that they are sadly bewitched. 
 Faith ! but I shall forth myself, an it please you to 
 guide me, and make second mischief among the 
 knaves. 
 
 Swivel. Nay, Bill, riot in such haste; 'tis a dead 
 calm on the water surface. Moreover, methinks I 
 have mastered all such as were within reach of my 
 fly and in rising humour. Delay till to-morrow, 
 and may you speed well ! 
 
 May. I shall task myself to do so, seeing your 
 counsel hath reason in't. Do you not marvel, 
 Doctor, at the heronry on yonder islet ? What a 
 singular aspect it presents ! Not a leaf is there on 
 the whole cluster of trees, where are cradled the 
 
154 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 huge nests of the fisher-bird, but bare they stand, 
 as if under the thraldom of winter, and disarrayed 
 by the tempest. 'Tis, at such a season as this, a 
 strange sight, out of accordance with all summer 
 things. 
 
 Swivel. But not so, Bill, with nature. From her 
 treasure-house of wonders she ever instructs us, 
 foiling her blooms with barrenness, and, in the cen- 
 tre of what most rejoices, exhibiting a wreck like 
 this, to remind us of frosts, winters, and decay. 
 There is something impressive in the aspect of 
 those rude fabrics, reared by unwieldy birds, and 
 repaired by them with religious diligence, as if they 
 were indeed very sanctuaries. And so too they 
 are, for in them have been cradled many generations 
 of the heron-tribe. Through antiquity they have 
 become sacred, and sacred moreover are they, 
 as domestic abodes retreats for the young, the 
 wearied, and the blood-bestained. Hearken to the 
 clangour of their many inhabitants ! the various 
 notes and signal-cries with which they fill the air. 
 One might imagine a military encampment not far 
 off, and these sounds to be martial ones. See, there 
 is a heron-patriarch, wheeling above the others a 
 slow air-pacer, with white crest and plumage. He 
 is a bird of authority, and, as he lowers himself 
 towards the islet, all in the garrulous divan become 
 quiet. 
 
 May. Let us swim across, Doctor, and indulge 
 ourselves in a narrow inspection of this curiosity. 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 155 
 
 Swivel. With all my heart, Bill. I wish we 
 could send a truce flag before us, and cause these 
 long-shanked islanders to know of our pacific inten- 
 tions ; however, at the worst, we shall only scare 
 them during a brief interval from their domicile*, 
 and this, methinks, is no great grievance. What, 
 Bill, already on the point of plunging? Have a 
 care of those water-weeds to your right. They 
 are tough and long, and should you strike in 
 amongst them 'twill be no easy matter, I apprehend, 
 to escape perdition. But stay ; let us start together. 
 I would fain back my oars against thine for a hand- 
 ful of groats. Now, push off. 
 
 THE HERON ISLE. 
 
 May. Manifestly, we are intruders, and, to speak 
 truth, Doctor, I am alarmed lest a bold bird or twain 
 from among these screamers should take heart to 
 attack us. We have no weapons of defence, and 
 by these beaks overhead run risk of being stilettoed 
 at a swoop. Good luck ! here is a cudgel, and a 
 strong one. 
 
 Swivel. Folly, Bill ! Art afraid, man, of a few 
 water-fowl ? 
 
 May. Not so, Doctor, but I stand on guard, being 
 ignorant of their natures. Marry! are they not 
 threatening in their attitudes, wrathful in their cries, 
 dangerously armed, and desperately congregated ? 
 . But, what have you there ? 
 
156 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 Swivel. An unfledged bird, which I am some- 
 what at a loss how to capture, he employs his ros- 
 trum to such good purpose. However, I have got 
 my fingers about his throat, and shall lug him into 
 your presence. 
 
 May. 'Sooth, a strange-looking object! Think 
 you he would prove delicate at the fork's point ? 
 'Tis a prize, Doctor, and must visit the mainland in 
 our company. He will roast trimly, despite of these 
 stilts of his. 
 
 Swivel. Aback! pitiless epicure is this thy hu- 
 mour? Came we here as kidnappers, forsooth? 
 Why tarry these birds that they enact not the 
 harpy upon thee, O destroyer of their progeny, and 
 violator of their cradles? But it must not be, 
 Master May-fly, and this scion of theirs I shall 
 hoist again into his nursery forthwith. 
 
 May. Truly, he merits no such favour. Look at 
 this pile of bone, scale, and refuse. What gluttons 
 he and his kin are ! 'Tis their usage to make a 
 pretty havoc hereabout among the infant fry. 
 They are poachers consummate, and do more to 
 depopulate our salmon rivers than the whole of our 
 fraternity. Let us make an example, and gibbet 
 this bird at the threshold of his sires. 
 
 Swivel. Most monstrous and unchristian ! I cre- 
 dit not my ears, Master May- fly. Is such truly 
 thy proposition ? 
 
 May. Even so. 
 
 Swivel. Thou'rt cool withal singularly cool. 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 15? 
 
 Can'st take a scalp, Bill, or sever a windpipe, or 
 brew broth of vipers ? Art up to all the sleights 
 and trickeries ? Stars ! I have a perilous neigh- 
 bourhood, and walk on thorns. Where gettest thou 
 thy lack of clemency, Bill ? Is't framed or natural ? 
 purchased or gifted? Hath it limits? or is it in 
 extension infinite ? But come at length off thine 
 eyebrows is the grim resolve ; thou art driven to 
 be compunctious. 
 
 May. Not a whit ; to appease thee, however, I 
 am content to forego the committal of an act so 
 thoroughly barbarous as the neck-screwing of a 
 young heron. Now may we recross, an it pleases 
 you. 
 
 Swivel. With much goodwill. 
 
 Side of the Heron Loch. 
 
 Swivel. Array thee in haste, Bill ; I espy yonder 
 our morning friend the keeper bearing down upon 
 us, in company with two other mongrels of like 
 stamp or calling. 
 
 May. E'en let them pass 
 
 Swivel. If so they list, but such is not their 
 design. Mark you how the rascals will make law 
 for us without warrant or commission. Their whole 
 aim is to usurp our angling-rods, but they may save 
 their cunning, else have I, Nathan Swiveltop, lost 
 stance for my wits. 
 
158 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 Enter KEEPERS. 
 
 1st Keeper. So ho ! masters, still as I left you? 
 
 Swivel. Nay, friend ; my rod is idle, as half an 
 eye might discern. This is a fair piece of water. 
 
 1st Keeper. And I warrant me, you have raked 
 it foully. But you must e'en deliver these rods 
 and fish into our keeping, and trudge off. 
 
 Sivivel. Hear you, Bill, what the knave hath 
 need of! I presume, friend, you hold special autho- 
 rity for this demand. Well! should we decline 
 compliance, how mean you to act? What! is't 
 thus ? Aback and discover your warrant, else shall 
 we reckon with you as common foot-pads. I pray 
 you, hands off! is it your design to assault and 
 rob us? 'Sooth, ye should have studied your men 
 more accurately but take a care. 
 
 2d Keeper. D you, sir, yield up this rod ! 
 
 2d KEEPER attempts to seize the fishing-rod from 
 SWIVELTOP, who knocks him down. 
 
 Swivel. Art satisfied, friend? By heavens! ras- 
 cal, lower that barrel of thine. 
 1st Keeper. Surrender by G ! 
 
 Presenting his gun, which MAY-FLY, rushing up to 
 him, forces out of his hand, and flings into the 
 loch. 
 
 May. Eh ? villain, wouldest play the miscreant ? 
 March thou after that birding-piece of thine, 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 159 
 
 and allow us to pass. Gad, Doctor, yonder comes 
 Jack Leister at full speed. 
 
 Swivel. And in the nick of time. Ho! master 
 keeper, no slinking ! an thou goest, carry thy gun 
 with thee ; 'tis within reach, and will pop out splen- 
 did bilge-water. Art pettish, forsooth ? stay then, 
 and file in with thy comrades. Marry! we shall 
 find law to redress us, seeing you have been handled 
 so smoothly. Assault with intent of robbery ! 'tis 
 no light offence, mark you ! 
 
 1st Keeper. We had the laird's orders. 
 
 Swivel. Your laird's orders, friend! what! to 
 plunder us of our property, and, in case of resist- 
 ance, level a barrel at our heads? Who is this 
 laird of yours that is so absolute ? By Jove ! he 
 hath rare power now-a-days, that can frame his own 
 statutes! But go your ways, and learn to give the 
 laws reverence. Were we so minded, you might 
 find this matter one of some cost. Well, Jack, 
 whence come you ? 
 
 Exeunt KEEPERS. 
 
 Enter LEISTER. 
 
 Leister. Across from Loch Luichart, with intent 
 to take a cast hereabouts on my way to the inn. 
 But what has happened, Doctor? 
 
 Swivel. Only a tussle with some of the laird's 
 keepers, the particulars of which I shall recount to 
 thee on our road homeward. How has it fared 
 with thee, Jack, in the way of sport ? 
 
160 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 Leister. By no means as I expected. I have 
 about nine pounds weight of fish slung over my 
 left shoulder, and these earned by sheer dint of 
 perseverance, without help of breeze or cloud. Is 
 it by otter-craft you procured such a burden, Doc- 
 tor ? Uncover, I prithee, and give me the benefit 
 of an in-peep. 
 
 Swivel. Immediately, Jack ; but first let us on a 
 space, and baffle the eyes of these three knaves who 
 have just quitted us. 'Tis want of policy to allow 
 them knowledge of our good fortune. 
 
 Exeunt. 
 

CHAPTER XL 
 
 CLOSE OF THE SEASON NOVEMBER FISHING 
 WITH SALMON-ROE. 
 
 MAY-FLY and OTTER. 
 
 May. 'Tis yellow November; and on apace creep 
 chills and storms, those calamities among which the 
 year closes. Methinks there is a mood o' the mind 
 to every month in the calendar and now, 'tis our 
 month of melancholy. Let us hang up the wand, 
 Tom, until spring-tide. I have lost my love to it a 
 degree or two, and feel as if nature for a season 
 were wresting it from my hands. How hastily the 
 dark waters glide, leaf strewn, as it were by the fin- 
 gers of fairy foresters! They have too mournful a 
 hue for our flies, and not a trout can one note at the 
 surface. 
 
162 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 Otter. I design angling, Bill, with the salmon-roe, 
 of which I have a store in my creel. See, there are 
 Leister and Swiveltop doing execution therewith on 
 the stream immediately above us. That trite say- 
 ing, " the more the merrier," holds good of this sort 
 of water-raking. Wherefore let us set to they will 
 join us ere long, should we have pitched upon the 
 better pool. Shorten your line, Bill, and throw up 
 against the current. A large single hook you may, 
 on the whole, find preferable to the double ones you 
 have in your pocket-book; however, try them, they 
 will retain the bait more readily than the other, but 
 are scarcely so well adapted for securing the fish. 
 I feel already the rub of a snout against my barb ; 
 and now I have one fast, a good yellow fin, and not 
 a whit out of season, judging by his complexion. 
 Fix a leaden pellet or twain, four inches above the 
 hook, Bill, and while angling, keep your casting- 
 line more on the stretch. Tug smarter, man; you 
 would scarcely run your point through a fungus at 
 that rate of striking. I have another, and shall cap- 
 ture half a score besides, ere you draw blood. 
 
 May. The fault is in the fish, Tom, they bite with 
 such delicacy and want of vigour. 
 
 Otter. 'Tis their manner, Bill, when feeding on 
 this bait, to suck it like the carp but less hesitat- 
 ingly than you imagine. I mistake much if it be 
 not frequently engrossed within the jaws of a huge 
 fellow, without our being able to perceive the slight- 
 est indication of an attack made upon it. The true 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 163 
 
 secret of roe-fishing is in fact to strike immediately 
 upon the progress of the hook appearing in any de- 
 gree checked, and not defer doing so until we sus- 
 tain a direct and palpable assault. But you employ 
 too large a bait, and compress it artificially round 
 your wire, like a soap-ball, designed to cleanse the 
 outside rather than tickle the palate. A bit the size 
 of a horse-bean is sufficient; and note you, Bill, 
 allow it to cling to the steel-barb, as you naturally 
 remove it on your finger-point from the jar which 
 contains it. But I have hold of something huge ; 'tis 
 a sea-trout methinks, black, lubberly, and impotent. 
 He wallops down the river without half his ordinary 
 strength, and can with difficulty draw out a fathom 
 of line from my reel. I pity the poor fellow, and 
 should I land him, shall suffer him to escape. He 
 is of no account out of his element save as manure ; 
 even crows would pick lazily at him ! 
 
 May. Toss him to me, Tom, he will aid wonder- 
 fully the filling of my pannier. 
 
 Otter. Nay, nay; 'tis a fish forbidden, and must 
 off out of sight in a twinkling. There are water 
 bailiffs about the place, that no doubt keep eye upon 
 us; moreover, I have a certain strong respect for 
 the close-season, and am unwilling to violate the 
 enactments relating to it by the detention even of 
 a paltry finnock. 
 
 May. This sounds well; but, faith! 'tis somewhat 
 questionable. I had rather trust gold with a knave 
 than a goodly salmon with thee, Master Otter, be 
 
164 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 the day of his capture when it might. Were not 
 this a lank kipper, of woe-begone aspect, beshrew 
 me an thou would'st have parted with him so readily J 
 
 Otter. I grant you, Bill, you have reason for your 
 conjecture. There is strange magic, I allow, in the 
 eye of a clean-run salmon, which one hath just un- 
 coffined from the pool where he designed wintering. 
 I could no more resist it than Adam could the 
 apples of our grand-progenitrix. Yet with respect 
 to ripe, pregnant, and unwholesome fish, I aver that 
 the meddling therewith is a disgrace to our craft, 
 who ought, above all others, to be the natural pro- 
 tectors of the spawner, and favour, to their utmost 
 ability, the increase of salmon. 
 
 May. Neat professions these, were they alway 
 acted up to. But how comes it, Tom, that your 
 mighty regard for the close-season allows you to 
 break in upon it as you do at present? See you 
 nothing injurious to the breeding of these noble fish 
 in our angling for trout among their places of resort, 
 and over the very channels where they are accus- 
 tomed to shed their ova ? 
 
 Otter. Much otherwise. There is no species of 
 enemy so hostile to the salmon while spawning as 
 the common yellow trout, a single individual of which 
 will consume, in the course of a day, nearly its 
 own bulk in roe. You may perceive, by the readi- 
 ness with which they assail our baits, how deadly 
 they are to the unhatched progeny ; and truly 
 we can do no greater service to the holders of sal- 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 165 
 
 mon-fishings on the lower parts of the waters than 
 by thinning the swarms of spoilers, which at this 
 period hover around the pregnant fish. These, in 
 order to obtain the dainty meal, rake up the gravel 
 in all directions, and scruple not to devour promis- 
 cuously the roe and fry of their own species. I 
 have now hold of a voracious-looking rascal, and 
 shall discover to you the contents of his wallet. Is 
 not this an offender of note? here is no less than 
 an ounce of newly shed spawn, mingled sparingly 
 with flies and water-insects. 
 
 May. He hath paid the penalty. But look you, 
 Tom, how Jack Leister and Swiveltop bring in the 
 bald-pates. If, as you say, the more the merrier, 
 what objection have you to dip a hand into the mine 
 of their good fortune? 
 
 Otter. None in the world, Bill. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 SCENE, A CHURCH- YARD. 
 
 Enter LEISTER, OTTER, SWIVELTOP, and MAY-FLY. 
 
 May. Here let us wind up and unscrew. What 
 is more fitting than that we close the feats of the 
 year in a church-yard? Ah! Doctor, we are out of all 
 humour with Time, he hath put to flight so many 
 schemes of ours. Designed we not more than the 
 summer hath room for ? and now where is even the 
 smoke of our intentions? But 'tis better in truth 
 as it is, else were there too many remembrances of 
 happiness in our hearts not to make the future miser- 
 able. I like to find that disappointments have been 
 mingled up with pleasures, it steels me the more 
 against suffering. And this has been the last of the 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 167 
 
 year's anglings, Doctor; I am sorry for it, and vet 
 glad! 
 
 Swivel. Well do I comprehend thee, Bill, for sor- 
 row and gladness are in me also, blended into that 
 affection which men call melancholy ; perhaps 'tis 
 the place we stand in that awakens it, this fastness, 
 of which, saith one, 
 
 " In the valley of life is the garden of death, 
 Mourner on mourner entereth 
 That Eden of woe, and on its sward 
 Layeth the burden of his regard. 
 Mourner on mourner! another train 
 Bringeth the earlier back again; 
 They have chosen his home, and borne his bier, 
 And watered his turf with a human tear. 
 
 " It is a strange and solemn spot ! 
 Friendship, and faith, and feeling, forgot ! 
 Folly findeth wisdom there, 
 Walking the tombs with a sombre air; 
 And awed into thought are the giddy, and they 
 That have fostered pride fling the bantling away." 
 
 What epitaph, Otter, are you and Leister decy- 
 phering? 
 
 Otter. That of an honest man and an angler, one 
 of the old members of our fraternity. 
 
 May. Peace be to his ashes! 
 
 Otter. Amen ! Bill. I knew the old man well ; 
 he was my earliest instructor in the gentle art! 
 You remember him, Leister, when we were yet boys, 
 how he loved us, I have his rod still, and a ster- 
 
168 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 ling piece of wood hath it been in its own time. 
 There are notches on't, along its butt, denoting the 
 length of great fish mastered by the skill of its first pos- 
 sessor. I can recal, through means of these, many of 
 the venerable man's exploits, as related to us by his 
 own lips in the days of our childhood. Now that I 
 think on't, the pool we have lately been angling upon 
 was a prime favourite of his, and I hold some recol- 
 lections, too, of aiding him at the landing of a huge 
 salmon among yonder shallows. Yes, Jack, 'tis a 
 dream of yesterday. I have the kind eyes of the 
 aged angler beaming upon me, as I attempt to car- 
 ry in my arms the ponderous fish ; he relieves me 
 silently of the burden silently! the familiar spec- 
 tre cannot speak! there is no voice in the visions 
 of memory ! 
 
 Leister. How rapidly, Tom, fleets the mind over 
 the thousand links that connect it with the past, and 
 with what mysterious power it enters into the her- 
 metic chambers of Time! Well hath one said, 
 " There is no such thing as forgetf ulness ! " Stand- 
 ing here, I could recount the tale of my boyhood- 
 those little plots of which it was formed, until now 
 lost sight of, even by myself. 
 
 May. The angler's grave! What associations it 
 presents of one that hath trodden the vales of his na- 
 tive land of a lover of peace, poetry, and the poor 
 of him who lived in contentment, and died 
 
 Otter. Not on his bed, Bill. My ancient friend, 
 Mr Brigstanes, fell a martyr to his angling enthusi- 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 169 
 
 asm, and was drowned, aged seventy-one, at a swol- 
 len ford on the river Clyde. It was nature's way 
 of taking him from the world, and could scarcely 
 be termed a death of violence. Another of our fra- 
 ternity lies buried in this very church-yard ; but 
 the head-stone, owing to some accident or other, has 
 been removed, and I know not the exact turf under 
 which he sleeps. Nor is it of much matter ; he has 
 lain nigh half a century, and there is nought in the 
 treasure-house of our memories whereby to call up 
 in his behalf a single, solitary regret. Some brief 
 verses, which now glance across my recollection, re- 
 lative to the death of one of our fraternity, you 
 will allow me on this fitting occasion to repeat. 
 
 OJtabe. 
 
 Sorrow ! sorrow ! bring it green ; 
 
 True tears make the grass to grow; 
 And the grief of the good, I ween, 
 
 Is grateful to him that sleeps below. 
 Strew sweet flowers, free of blight ; 
 
 Blossoms gathered in the dew; 
 Should they wither before night, 
 
 Flowers and blossoms bring anew. 
 
 II. 
 
 Sorrow ! sorrow ! speed away 
 To our angler's quiet mound ; 
 
 With the old pilgrim, twilight gray, 
 Enter thou on the holy ground. 
 
170 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 Here he sleeps, whose heart was twined 
 With wild stream and wandering burn ; 
 
 Wooer of the western wind, 
 Watcher of the April morn. 
 
 III. 
 Sorrow at the poor man's hearth ! 
 
 Sorrow at the hall of pride ! 
 Honour waits at the grave of worth, 
 
 And high and low stand side by side ! 
 Brother angler, slumber on! 
 
 Haply thou shalt wave the wand, 
 When the tide of time is gone, 
 
 In some far and happy land. 
 
 BURNING OR WATER-FORAY BLACK-FISHING- 
 
 May. Let us leave this spot, Jack. The look 
 on't lowers my spirits, and the dismal moaning 
 which these ash-trees make hath an effect on me 
 which I love not to encourage. 
 
 Leister. I have no wish to remain here any longer, 
 Bill, and 'tis meet we should forthwith be on the 
 start. There is a rumour afloat of a burning to be 
 held to-night on the Meikle-water. Intend you to 
 be present, Tom ? 
 
 Otter. Nay, Jack, I have no great relish for this 
 illegal sport. It is both cruel and irrational, and 
 harms immensely the increase of salmon. As for 
 the spearing of healthy fish during the open-season, 
 and in day-light, as I have seen practised with the 
 single hand on some waters, I say nought against it, 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 171 
 
 seeing it requires like skill and perseverance as 
 angling with the rod does ; but what is there need- 
 ed of these virtues, in order to strike a row of steel 
 prongs into the ribs of a dormant spawner, lying 
 with exposed fin in the narrow of a mere brook, 
 especially when those engaged in the employment 
 are a numerous band, and in use to surround the 
 pool with their persons as with a net, giving no 
 chance of escape even to a solitary straggler ? 'Tis 
 in truth a barbarous pastime, pursued more for sake 
 of the fish, black and unwholesome as they be, than 
 out of frolic and amusement. 
 
 Leister. You are somewhat severe in your con- 
 clusions. Be persuaded, however, to join us for 
 one night, and, believe me, you will abandon your 
 present opinions with respect to this mode of sal- 
 mon-fishing. 
 
 Otter. In truth, I have but little wish to act the 
 beholder of your intended massacre, and might be 
 tempted, were I to accompany you, to offer some 
 measure of interference ; more, in fact, than I could 
 enforce with safety to my person. 
 
 Leister. You are not altogether so rash, Tom; 
 our poor old friend Brigstanes, who now lies here, 
 would, as you well know, have been among the 
 foremost in a ploy of this nature. 
 
 Otter. No doubt, no doubt ; and for his sake, I 
 shall resolve to join you What say you, Doctor? 
 
 Swivel. I am already bound to shew face. 
 
 Leister. So is Bill here. 
 
172 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 Otter. Faith ! we are a posse of pretty scoundrels, 
 and merit well the pillory for our intentions; ne'er- 
 theless, we shall not draw back in the matter. 
 
 Exeunt. 
 
 We possess no lengthened record of the black- 
 fishing alluded to in the above conversation. Ifc 
 seems, however, that Tom Otter took no inactive 
 share in the proceedings of the evening, and actually 
 slaughtered with his own hand a trio of huge kip- 
 pers, much to the satisfaction of his friend Leister; 
 who thenceforward prided himself not a little in 
 having vanquished so effectually the scruples of his 
 brother angler. The burning, or water-foray, as it 
 may appropriately be termed, proved on the whole 
 a successful one. Seventy fish, salmon, bull-trout, 
 and grilses, bit the shore; yet, strange to say, so 
 monstrous and sinful a butchery elicited no further 
 comment from the late traducer of the spear-system, 
 than " 'tis a marvel the simple fools knew not their 
 element better I" A convivial meeting was held 
 by the club on the following evening, which was 
 attended by Leister, Otter, Swiveltop, Gaff, May- 
 fly, and Hackle. 
 
 The year was now drawing to a close, and our 
 anglers had resolved to lay aside for a time the im- 
 plements of their craft, and betake themselves reso- 
 lutely to the more serious occupations of life. 
 
 A sketch of the farewell feast, devised and parti- 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 173 
 
 cipated in on this occasion, is the only remaining 
 fragment we possess relating to the now defunct 
 
 fraternity at C h. 
 
 The subsequent spring brought along with it to 
 their customary haunts no return of jovial and 
 light-hearted souls. One member only, save our- 
 selves, of the dispersed brotherhood was beheld 
 traversing the deserted valley. Over his broad 
 shoulders waved carelessly a long, black wand, the 
 point of which ever and anon caught among the 
 obtruding twigs of a green hazel fence. Nor did 
 this repeated annoyance seem in the least degree 
 
 I to ruffle the temper of the philosophic angler, who, 
 at the continual recurrence of it, retraced his steps 
 with unaltered patience, in order to extricate his 
 line from the mischievous impediment. It was our 
 friend Jack Leister. 
 
 Jack Leister ! We cannot speak of changes in 
 the melancholy manner they ought to be spoken of, 
 but a certain pressure of our comrade's hand, as 
 we came up to him, denoted that he had not alto- 
 gether escaped their influence. The breaking up 
 
 of the fraternity at C h had greatly affected 
 
 him, and it was evident he possessed no degree of 
 appetite for the sport which he almost unconsciously 
 was about to pursue. 
 
 But why say more of this our interview to both 
 of us so sad ! Why linger over scenes which it were 
 better to close up, lest, opening them afresh, we 
 open the heart with them? Ah! the enthusiasm of 
 
174 
 
 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 those first days, how it has departed! What a 
 fashion hath the reality of the future presented it- 
 self in, so different from the resemblances which 
 Hope, the deceiver, led us to rely on! We shall 
 not think of culling flowers out of the quicksand 
 any longer. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 FAREWELL FEAST OF THE ANGLING CLUB. 
 
 LEISTER, OTTER, MAY-FLY, and SWIVELTOP. 
 
 May. Pile high the faggots, Meg; give us an 
 ample, exhilarating flame an ox-roaster, prithee. 
 Ay ! that is the fashion on't ; put thy bellows into 
 its ear, and blow right lustily force a jolly heart 
 into the centre of these fir-logs. Thou art a good 
 girl, and pretty withal, and wilt lack neither mate 
 nor merriment. There is nought, my boys, equal 
 to a prime, sparkling fireside. ? Tis, next to his Bible, 
 the poor man's best comfort ; and merciless wretches 
 are they who refuse, as many do, the clearings of 
 their coppices to supply the hearths of those needy 
 gleaners, with whom God surrounds them in his 
 mysterious, but just distribution of wealth and 
 of poverty! Without this blessing, how rugged 
 and unsocial were we, kept all apart from those 
 kindly intercourses, which are formed and enlarged 
 
176 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 within the hallowed semi-circle ! His fireside is the 
 true secret of the Briton's strength and superiority, 
 of his intellect, his patriotism, his piety, and the 
 thousand virtues with which he is adorned ! Rome, 
 like Britain, long as she flourished, venerated her 
 hearth and household lares. 
 
 Swivel. Give the jug an impulse, Bill, and 
 hearken a stave from Jack Leister. The lilting 
 humour is in his throat, an I guess accurately. 
 Out on this thy practice of thrusting soliloquies 
 across our converse ! Is it not better, when a pause 
 is in't, to fill up the occasion with a song? Come, 
 Jack, take the lead. 
 
 [LEISTER Sings.~\ 
 <!& toafcen, tomfos, toafcen ! 
 
 O waken, winds, waken ! the waters are still, 
 
 And silence and sunlight recline on the hill ; 
 
 The angler is watching, beside the green springs, 
 
 For the low, welcome sound of your wandering wings ! 
 
 II. 
 
 His rod is unwielded, his tackle's unfreed, 
 And the withe- woven pannier lies flung on the mead ; 
 He looks to the lake, through its fane of green trees, 
 And sighs for the curl of the cool, summer breeze. 
 
 III. 
 
 Calm-bound is the form of the water-bird fair, 
 And the spear of the rush stands erect in the air, 
 And the dragon-fly roams o'er the lily-bed gay, 
 Where basks the bold pike in a sun-smitten bay. 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 177 
 
 IV. 
 
 O waken, winds, waken ! wherever asleep, 
 
 On cloUd or dark mountain, or down in the deep; 
 
 The angler is watching, beside the green springs, 
 
 For the low, welcome sound of your wandering wings. 
 
 Otter. There is no need to invoke the elements at 
 present; the blast is bitter enough, and with piti- 
 less anger tears down the beechen draperies inclos- 
 ing our retreat. How it howls, as if through the 
 monstrous windpipes of many air-fiends! its very 
 pauses are parts of the unearthly concert, enacted 
 by some demon of silence. I would love none to 
 be belated to-night on some moor-stretch. 
 
 May. Nor I, Master Otter. 
 
 Swivel. As we know well ! Recollect you our trip 
 to King's-house up Glen Etive ? Ah ! Bill, who that 
 saw thee then, and beheld not misery in person; a 
 weary, woful, and bewildered wight, famished and 
 courage-fallen. But scowl, Master May-fly, with 
 less unkindness ; neither sharpen thy tongue against 
 me. Bear with my humours, I pray thee. 
 
 May. Were I to do so, Doctor, the charity of the 
 deed would pass without recompence. Of a verity, 
 thou deservest the cudgel. 
 
 Swivel. Confessedly, Master May-fly. 
 
 May. Albeit I shall rest content with a song. 
 
 Leister. You usurp, Bill but agreed. The pe- 
 nalty is ajfitting one ; so, Doctor, strike up. 
 
 o 
 
178 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 [SWIVELTOP Sings.'] 
 
 o' arvoto Bale ! 
 
 i. 
 
 The yallow-fins o' Yarrow dale ! 
 
 I kenna whare they're gane tae ; 
 Were ever troots in Border vale 
 
 Sae comely or sae dainty ! 
 
 II. 
 They had baith gowd and spanglit rings, 
 
 Wi' walth o' pearl amang them ; 
 An' for sweet luve o' the bonny things, 
 
 The heart was laith to wrang them. 
 
 III. 
 But he that angle* Yarrow owre, 
 
 Maun changes ever waken ; 
 Frae our Ladye's Loch to Newark Tower, 
 
 Will find the stream forsaken. 
 
 IV. 
 Forsaken, ijka bank an' stane, 
 
 O' a' its troots o' splendour. 
 Auld Yarrow's left sae lorn and lane, 
 
 Ane scarcely wad hae kenn'd her. 
 
 V. 
 Waes me ! the auncient yallow-fin, 
 
 I marvell whare he's gane tae ; 
 Was ever troot in Forest rin 
 
 Sae comely or sae dainty ! 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 179 
 
 Otter. I had as lief, Doctor, thou hadst left thy 
 stave unsung ; it hath troubled the strings of my 
 affections Ah ! I shall never visit Yarrow any 
 more, not because its breed of yellow-fins is now ex- 
 tinct and well might they be so for the waters of 
 that stream have been harrowed without mercy, 
 sifted and ransacked by every species of ingenuity, 
 down from Douglas-burn-foot to the bridge at Broad- 
 meadows, and farther perhaps ; but farther we never 
 angled, although often, from Newark Tower to that 
 of the wizard Sir Michael Scott at Oakwood, have 
 we trodden, along the birchen braes of the silvery 
 river. Its yellow-fins are indeed departed! the 
 huge, thick-shaped, golden-flanked fellows, that were 
 wont to be caught in the May month, during glints 
 of the sun on a warm rainy morning. They loved 
 best theclear, shining minnow, or sometimes ayellow- 
 bodied fly, with a rough red hackle twisted round it; 
 but of these, the minnow was the more captivating 
 lure ; it brought out the daintiest fish from their re- 
 treats, and spun so enchantingly down the primest 
 streams that, troutless as one knew many of these to 
 be, there was still a delight, difficult to forego, in 
 playing among them its tiny form. The Yarrow 
 yellow-fins were ever famous, and an unfrequent 
 specimen may to this day be taken, but only one, 
 out of some scores of gray, lean, loch trout, or of 
 the big-bellied variety found in Tweed. It was, in 
 truth, a lovely fish, ornate with a rare sprinkling 
 of stars, darker than crimson, and these on a light 
 
180 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 amber ground, which, shaded off towards the belly, 
 became gradually like mother-of-pearl. The head 
 was small, the back curved, and the fins yellow, as a 
 newly minted guinea. 
 
 THE ETTRICK SHEPHEED. 
 
 But not for the loss of these is it, that I shall never 
 visit Yarrow any more ; it is because the genius 
 loci the Ettrick Shepherd has departed ! Alas I 
 gentlemen, I have too many angling associations 
 connected with James Hogg, ever to endure again 
 the sight of his favourite Yarrow. Times without 
 number have we traversed its banks together, our 
 slender wands bending alternately with the weight of 
 a struggling trout ; and on St Mary's too, and 
 Loch Skene, and Meggat-water, have we twain 
 fashioned our thoughts and converse to the wild, mys- 
 tic, unviolated scenery around us. But those thoughts 
 and that converse may not be renewed; from the 
 crushings of the mould there is no rescue, and na- 
 ture's ordinance cannot be disturbed by any turbu- 
 lent aspiration of ours. 
 
 The Ettrick Shepherd was a singular character 
 a combination of many virtues with some defects- 
 genius mingled up with its foibles; and these latter 
 the more conspicuous, seeing that no measures were 
 ever put in force to conceal them. In the sphere 
 where most men of talent move, they learn the art 
 of hiding, by a splendid hypocrisy, their other weak- 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 181 
 
 nesses. But this art was never understood by James 
 Hogg. He delighted in the broad exposure of his 
 frailties; and a natural conceit (for such it must be 
 acknowledged he possessed) made him too careless 
 of the censure and advices of others. He hated 
 the trammels of criticism, and disclaimed the saga- 
 cious precepts of the lettered inquisitor. Most of 
 his productions were rapidly thrown off their exe- 
 cution kept pace with their conception ; according- 
 ly, they remain full of crudenesses and contradic- 
 tions. These defects, however, are overlooked in the 
 fancy and originality of the Shepherd Poet ; the 
 drossy and faulty surface is concealed among the 
 ignitions of his genius. 
 
 For one of the self-taught, Hogg shone wonderfully. 
 His best honours were gathered without the aid of pa- 
 tronage. He climbed the obelisk of fame alone not 
 that officious advisers kept altogether aloof, but he 
 rebutted with vigour their sacrilegious suggestions. 
 In none of his poetical compositions was the Ettrick 
 Shepherd an imitator of the Ayrshire Ploughman. 
 His songs differ in their fabric and melody from 
 those of Burns. They are wrought of a lighter and 
 more fanciful material, but they want the strength 
 and judgment the severe beauty of execution 
 the felicity of thought and language. Among them, 
 however, there are many lovely and soul-stirring 
 ditties, pastoral harmonies, and Arcadian airs. 
 Hogg was a master in rural poetry. He had an eye 
 and heart for all the operations of nature, and re- 
 
182 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 verently did he progress her domains for wild and 
 beautiful fancies wherewith to beflower his page. 
 He revived the old, elfin superstitions of his coun- 
 try strewed with ideal structures the valley ed hills, 
 and cast over them a new mantle of glowing and 
 kindly associations. Much of what the Ettrick 
 Shepherd has written will continue imperishable, and 
 much also lie entombed with himself, or, at any rate, 
 remain, as matter of mere curiosity, whereon may 
 speculate some sage unborn philosopher, the pride 
 and paragon of a future century. 
 
 Hogg, talking of him as the man, not the poet, 
 was out of his element in society. He appeared to 
 anything but advantage abroad from his own fire- 
 side. His real character became disguised among 
 follies and affectations, to which, in his calm and 
 natural moments, he was an utter stranger. To 
 such as knew him intimately, these failings had a 
 very different seeming from what they possessed in 
 the eyes of others. The latter regarded them as 
 habitual and monstrous improprieties; the former 
 as mere vagaries of the moment, brought into play, 
 certainly, without forethought, but in perfect inno- 
 cence and in want of wrong motive. At home 
 within his family circle, the Ettrick Shepherd 
 was a different being ; he had the feelings of the 
 husband, the father, and the Christian and was, 
 besides, without measure benevolent and hospitable, 
 full of those charities which commend themselves 
 to the heart, and so winning in his conduct and 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 183 
 
 conversation as to subdue at once the stubborn re- 
 bellions of prejudice, and remodel the preconceived 
 notions of those who judged from surface glimpses, 
 and without any proper acquaintance. 
 
 I have often wondered at the respect paid to less 
 amiable men. How they are prated of and homaged 
 as patterns of moral worth how their meagre vir- 
 tues are bandied about from mouth to mouth, and 
 a dignity is given them greater than their merits 
 how, because they industriously cloak up and con- 
 ceal their foibles, therefore they are deemed ever 
 upright, without flaw or blemish, the embodied per- 
 sonifications of human propriety. Not, indeed, of 
 this sort was James Hogg! he had none of the so- 
 lemn pragmatism of the scholastic grandee, none of 
 the starch and stiffness of the moral pedant. He de- 
 spised to affect a gravity and demureness foreign to 
 his buoyant and playful nature, and loved laughing 
 wisdom better than serious folly. I have an esteem 
 for his memory, which is injured none by the carp- 
 ings and prejudices of others. I knew the man 
 better than they did, and have ever regarded him 
 as uniting in his character many of the most valu- 
 able aspects of human virtue. 
 
 But enough of this James Hogg was a zealous 
 angler, and that is saying much for any man. He 
 had the mysteries of the craft at his finger-ends. 
 It was a part of his poetical existence to lavish the 
 forenoon hours abroad by the river-side, enticing 
 the yellow-fins with his big, brown hackles, or scru- 
 
184 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 tinising the channels for a November fish, with a 
 long, six-pronged leister in his hands. Latterly he 
 patronised the otter. He was wrong, but his hands 
 were perhaps feebler, his dispositions less active 
 than formerly, and he hesitated to wade, as of old, 
 along the margin of St Mary's Loch, when, without 
 this fatigue, he might continue the capture of some 
 scores of half-pounders and a kelt or two, lank, lean, 
 large-headed, and silvery. The Shepherd was a per- 
 severing, arid consequently a successful angler ; but 
 he never, in my humble judgment, threw a nice fly; 
 he was ignorant of the proper sweep necessary to 
 be taken before the line could be fairly projected, 
 and he had a strange affection for strong coarse gut, 
 and large heavy hooks, superfluously loaded with 
 feathers. A flail might have scanned the surface 
 with more delicacy than his untrained tackle! How 
 he managed to catch fish at all, was to me a marvel; 
 but they rose, not a doubt, to his fly, and found an 
 entrance also to his pannier. 
 
 Methinks I once more behold him wending his 
 way back to Altrive Cottage, clad in a grayish shoot- 
 ing-jacket of light summer fabric, with his pastoral 
 plaid, forming a cross in front, and knotted on the 
 left side, so as not to interfere with the use and ex- 
 ercise of his rod-arm, over which waves one of Bail- 
 lie Grieve's best ties worsted certainly, but still 
 in spring, and able to control the efforts of as noble 
 fish as ever swam upward from Yarrow fues. Know 
 ye not the poet by his free, firm step? by the light 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 185 
 
 blue eye, reflecting nature in its joyous sphere? 
 by the forehead, solemn and lofty, in which the mind 
 performs its mysteries, where the fragment of divi- 
 nity in man upholds him in communion with his 
 Maker? This is not a small creel pendant from his 
 shoulders, and it is filled to the saugh-lid with clear, 
 star-sided fish, elf-dolphins, a fairy gift from a kind 
 water-sprite to our Shepherd-bard. 
 
 A DAY'S ANGLING WITH THE ETTRICK SHEPHERD. 
 
 I dream ! This is a past irrevocable vision yet 
 I remember it as of yesterday ! Does it not seem 
 like yesterday when we twain set forth from 
 under the roof of Tibby Shiels, our hostess on St 
 Mary's Loch, to angle together far up among the 
 hills in the burn of Winterhope? It was a half- 
 drizzly, half-rainy morning, with a dash or two of 
 wind at intervals, which considerably agitated the 
 sheet of water, along whose margin, at outset, our 
 road lay. Thick masses of mist floated across the 
 heights, and the distant ravines, giving egress to a 
 number of small torrents, mingled their continuous 
 roar with the occasional gusts of the dying storm. 
 An uncharitable sort of day it seemed for our ang- 
 ling excursion ; but we had the expectation and 
 trust that matters would mend, and so trudged on, 
 in teeth of the weather. 
 
 After leaving the loch-side, our way led up a small 
 glen, bisected by a black, mossy brook, on reaching 
 
136 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 the sources of which we conjectured ourselves at the 
 summit of no inconsiderable hill. There, however, 
 the mist was thick, rapid, and impenetrable, and a 
 cold rain slanted athwart us, in large, ugly drops. 
 Somewhat breathless with our upward ascent, we 
 planted ourselves upon a tuft of thick heather, and, 
 as the phrase goes, took our morning from the flask 
 of mountain dew and its accompanying quaich 
 which, as a matter of course, we carried along with 
 us. One plaid it was under which both of us, for 
 the space of several minutes, were sheltered; but 
 soon again we started along the level moss, with a 
 strong, quick step, anxious to make the best of our 
 time, and gain without delay the wished-for stream. 
 But, wanting a compass, we had to struggle through 
 a cursed obliterating fog; and although at the first 
 instinctive of our course, we soon began to lose 
 all knowledge of where we were. Track there was 
 none among the chaos of moss-hags round about us. 
 A solitary heath-cock whirred up in our van, and 
 took its own path through the humid air, but we 
 had no wings to follow the phantom bird; and the 
 one-eyed pointer which accompanied us returned 
 shivering to our feet, in marvel that the game had not 
 dropped dead before her, out of sheer courtesy to her 
 splendid abilities. And now a ragged sheep, seeming 
 huge as a lion, started up at our side it dived forward 
 into the cloud, and vanished as if evaporated. But 
 on we held, as our fancies directed us, having at 
 whiles a dim, indistinct memory of some knoll or 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 18? 
 
 other of this rude shepherd's cairn or of that hea- 
 thery ridge yet, no sooner recognisant of where we 
 were, than again plunged into the circle of absolute 
 ignorance. 
 
 Lost in a mist! it was a pretty piece of knight- 
 errantry! Through what a battalion of shadows 
 had we to tilt our way! The wind blew in more 
 directions than one, and even the mossy rills seemed 
 to veer about and retrace their courses at our pur- 
 suit. Some of them became dead and stagnant, 
 others escaped from our presence, we knew not 
 where. Our converse was now monosyllabic and 
 ejaculatory, but there was still a lightness at our 
 hearts and in our step; we were amused rather 
 than distressed, for assured felt we, that human ha- 
 bitations were not out of reach, and that it was nei- 
 ther a Siberian desert nor Indian prairie within 
 which we wandered. 
 
 The rain became at length more violent than ever, 
 mingled with hail pellets, large and piercing. 
 What of that? a soaking was nothing extraordinary 
 for anglers to encounter! We esteemed it no resig- 
 nation to endure so petty an evil, and courted ra- 
 ther than shunned the boisterous elements. But 
 lo! we were close by the margin of a sheet of water, 
 and a hurra burst from both our lips, for well knew 
 we Loch Skene the dark, heath-fringed tarn. 
 
188 ANGLIN 7 G REMINISCENCES. 
 
 LOCH SKENE. 
 
 What epicure could desire a richer, more delicate 
 morsel, than a Loch Skene trout? it is the per- 
 fection of a fish curves of a pink carnation colour, 
 and is creamed, betwixt the flakes, with a white, 
 oily, well-flavoured substance. Not large is it, but 
 thick-shaped, golden-hued, and firm, becoming after 
 death ribbed over with irregular clouds on a bright, 
 dainty ground. 
 
 Our rods were soon up ; we intended not to angle 
 there, but help it how could we, although Win- 
 terhope-burn was scarcely half a mile off? There 
 are few days that suit Loch Skene, and this was 
 not one of these. Its trout rise freest during a 
 warm, soft, south-west wind, in a small, quick ripple, 
 and a gentle rain ; but the water at present was all 
 eddied and frothy, our lines were carried up from 
 its surface, and we were unable to guide to our 
 wishes the guileful fly. Not a dozen betwixt us in 
 two tedious hours did we capture; and, vexed at our 
 ill success, away again we set toward Winterhope- 
 burn; yet not till the mist had cleared off, and we 
 had sung out to the circle of hills, in order to stir 
 the slumber of an echo choir. Hymned back were 
 the rotund words, as if by a thousand voices, imi- 
 tative of misery the misery of the damned ! 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 189 
 
 WINTERHOPE-BURN. MEGGAT-WATER. 
 
 It was a glorious day for stream-angling. The 
 fountains of the hills were gushing over every 
 cavity was charged with water. How full and how 
 finely coloured was Winterhope-burn ! All of its 
 finny dwellers were astir ! The first fall of our flies 
 decided our fortune. We moved at half a mile's 
 distance from each other. It would have been folly 
 to have angled closer, especially along the upper 
 part of the stream, which, although divided into 
 fine promising pools, is still narrow and easily 
 traversed. Lower down, it widens up consider- 
 ably, and when meeting with Meggat-water, which 
 it does after a run of two or three miles, offers, 
 when in a swollen state, ample room for the closer 
 exercise of two rods. 
 
 The weather had now greatly improved ; there 
 was a glimpse of blue sky over-head, and one of the 
 hills at a distance was covered with sun-gleams. 
 It was milder and calmer. The day's creation of 
 flies was abroad some of them skimming the air, 
 and others, less secure, the margin of the pools. 
 Nimbly and eagerly the trout rose, not in single- 
 ness but by pairs, darting at our deceitful hooks 
 without caution or forethought. We hollo'd to 
 each other on the capture of every fresh dozen, and 
 frequently was our note of exultation repeated. 
 The contents of our creels increased rapidly, and 
 
190 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 ere four in the afternoon there was mustered betwixt 
 us above three stone weight ! By this time, we 
 had angled over a considerable portion of Meggat- 
 water, and had reached, almost in company with 
 each other, the dark, deep pools lying imme- 
 diately above the Kirk. These, we well knew, 
 contained a number of prime and subtle fish to be 
 captured only when the water, as at that time, was 
 of a dark porter-colour. Accordingly we threw off 
 our somewhat worn and dismantled flies, exchang- 
 ing them for others of a larger and brighter sort, 
 and, tossing for the choice pool, commenced care- 
 fully to rake the water-surface. Almost at the 
 same moment, each of us happened upon a sturdy 
 two-pounder. They fought like heroes, throwing 
 themselves at full length out of the pool, and push- 
 ing straight up against the current. Now they relaxed 
 a little, and shewed their sides. They gasped sub- 
 mission, and our bended wands brought them to the 
 margin. How lovely they looked, lying among the 
 pebbles, not as if in agony they felt none but 
 like a tribute- offering devoted to us, their con- 
 querors ; and in our creels lovelier still, curled up 
 over the rest of their tribe, seemingly their monarchs 
 or their patriarch sires! These creels were full, 
 crammed to the lid, ere we arrived at the Render - 
 land-rocks; but the Shepherd had a game-bag, and I 
 an honestly huge couple of coat-pockets, so that we 
 lacked betwixt us no store-room ! 
 
 St Mary's Loch was again in view, but not as at 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 191 
 
 dawn, when we set forth, for now it was calm, 
 beautiful, and serene. There were an handful or two 
 of clouds up amid the azure of heaven, indolently 
 basking in the retiring sun-rays. Spiritual existences 
 were they not, draperied with ether, curious of the 
 evolutions of spheres or the abodes of humanity? 
 At the meadow-foot waded a heron, with his long 
 skeleton-legs half immersed in the ford ; but now, 
 spreading his huge, broad wings, away he sailed, 
 homeward to his distant nest. We were wet, tired, 
 and hungry, willing to bid our brief adieu to the 
 river margin. Our tackle was soon overhauled, 
 and the contents of our creels emptied out, side by 
 side, upon the mossy sward. 
 
 I know not of a more generous feast for the eye 
 than a display of this nature ! It is worth a peep 
 at the regalia of an Eastern Khan. Here the very 
 confusion is the finest order. Were we to arrange 
 the fish in rows or pairs, according to their sizes, 
 how stiff and stall-like they would appear; but 
 tumble them over carelessly upon the grass, and 
 they will assume attitudes of the greatest beauty. 
 No ordinary take of trout had we on that occasion ; 
 in all seven and twenty dozen ; a couple of two and 
 nine one-pounders, fifty and more half the latter 
 size, and the rest smaller but not despicable fish. 
 
 Such was a memorable day's doings in company 
 with my late friend, the Ettrick Shepherd. Many 
 others have I spent of a similar sort, and none, can 
 I well recollect, which failed to exhibit feats on his 
 
192 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 part of great prowess as an angler, although I take 
 upon me to doubt that he displayed any degree of 
 the science and system esteemed so highly by the 
 Cockney school. 
 
 These sagacious rodsmen, armed with their cun- 
 ning contrivances, equipped and tricked out in all 
 manner of novelties, may, from sheer and intolerant 
 conceit, turn up the fuming nostril at the plain and 
 rustic enginery of the northern angler, with solemn 
 eulogy exalting their unpractised theories, and 
 making boastful exposure of their gleamy baubles ; 
 yet, advance them to the proof, cause them to 
 contest it with the artless craftsmen of Tweedside, 
 and they will confess the utter impotence of their 
 system, renouncing for unadorned simplicity the 
 unnatural similitudes and grotesque inventions of 
 the city artizan. The lure fascinates none the bet- 
 ter because it is of brilliant texture or curious and 
 expensive fabric, set off with orient plumage, and 
 bedizened with ribs of tinsel ; more bewitching is 
 the coarse and homely device, fashioned after 
 nature by the hands of the untaught peasant. 
 
 These remarks are perhaps over-strained, and 
 entirely out of place. I make them out of a strong 
 abhorrence to the practice of foppery, in an art 
 which, by the good old rules of its patriarchs, 
 ought to disclaim everything of the sort. An ape 
 angling with humming-birds is too severe a carica- 
 ture upon our craft, and we wish it to be rendered 
 totally inapplicable. 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 193 
 
 To return to James Hogg He was in many 
 particulars a good example of the old Border 
 anglers. His notions concerning our rights were 
 liberal in the extreme, and strong in their opposition 
 to the narrow, selfish, and oppressive systems in 
 force among northern aristocrats. He was perse- 
 vering and enthusiastic, fond of adventure, and 
 regardless of peril. He had a frank and generous 
 disposition, warm feelings, and unequalled good- 
 humour. With him there was no grumbling at the 
 caprices of fortune, and he encountered her hardest 
 rubs with singular indifference. Perhaps, indeed, 
 this easy and immoveable temper of his was rather 
 a failing than a virtue. 
 
 Happening to be at St Mary's Loch, during the 
 time of an event, by no means a happy one in the 
 experience of Hogg, I was afforded an opportunity 
 of judging with what calmness he encountered re- 
 verses of a distressful nature. It was at the period 
 of his removal from Mount Benger to Altrive 
 Lake a circumstance attended, as his personal 
 friends may recollect, with considerable grievances. 
 Almost during the very progress of this removal, 
 or but a day or two after, he walked up to the head 
 of St Mary's Loch with his rod in hand, arid actually 
 spent the night at Mrs Richardson's cottage, nor 
 was I able to discover the smallest abatement from 
 his usual good spirits and cheerfulness. He con- 
 versed, laughed, and projected schemes of amuse- 
 ment, as if nothing had happened. 
 
194 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 The Ettrick Shepherd owed much to his matri- 
 monial alliance. He had a sensible wife, and an 
 affectionate domestic circle. I shall ever regard 
 his loss as one of no common sort. It will destroy 
 much of the spirit of the Border land, wither many 
 of its associations, and harm not a little the fine 
 tone of fraternal feeling which existed there, It 
 will throw a melancholy over the pastoral hills and 
 the quiet valleys over the mouldering tower and 
 the lowly cottage across the glassy lake and the 
 shining river ; his imperishable song will not fill 
 up the place of its minstrel, nor supply what is 
 departed of the husband, the father, the friend, the 
 patriot, and the angler. 
 
 This lengthened oration of Tom Otter's seems to 
 have been listened to with beseeming attention by 
 the other members of 'the club, and was accordingly 
 followed up by their dedicating a toast to the 
 memory of the Forest-Poet. Topics, however, of 
 a less melanchoty nature found, during the course 
 of the evening, their way into discussion, and the 
 right festive humour prevailed exceedingly. Our 
 recollections, we confess, in an attempt to methodize 
 and embody the principal matters touched upon on 
 the occasion of the fraternity's final meeting, have 
 proved disappointingly brittle; and we find our- 
 selves under the necessity of merely subjoining a 
 few fragments of desultory discourse, along with 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 1 ( J5 
 
 such angling verses as we have had the good fortune 
 to keep in remembrance. 
 
 We may here mention, that the usage of the club 
 in their festive meetings prohibited the introduction 
 of all songs, save and except such as were strictly 
 of a piscatory nature and that by a special indul- 
 gence only, granted by the president, was it rendered 
 allowable for the members present to launch out 
 among staves and rondos of the more ordinary 
 sorts. A law of this complexion was indeed re- 
 quisite, in order to keep up the spirit of the frater- 
 nity; and only on rare occasions, when a certain 
 period of the night had passed over, did the ruling 
 member ever think it proper to lay it aside. 
 
 The following was sung by Harry Hackle, who, 
 along with Tim Gaff, had joined the company 
 shortly after Torn Otter had pronounced his length- 
 ened eulogium on James Hogg. These gentlemen, 
 it appears, popped in unexpectedly, on their return 
 from a shooting excursion held at some distance 
 from the club cottage. Three hares, a brace of old 
 blackcock, and thirteen plump partridges, formed 
 the produce of their day's sport all of which were 
 committed on arrival to the culinary hands of our 
 worthy and discreet hostess. 
 
 [HACKLE sings.] 
 
196 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 Ye Marfcev* of tfje 
 
 i. 
 
 Ye warders of the waters! 
 Is the aldered stream-side free? 
 
 Hath the salmon sped 
 
 From its winter bed 
 Adown to the azure sea ? 
 
 Rideth afloat 
 
 The fisher's boat 
 Below the white-thorn tree? 
 
 II. 
 
 Go forth, ye anglers jovial ! 
 The waters are open wide; 
 
 No longer we ward 
 
 From vernal sward 
 The glittering salmon glide. 
 
 Free at your will 
 
 The crystal rill, 
 And tuneless torrent side. 
 
 III. 
 
 Ho ! warders of the waters ! 
 Is the yellow- trout at feed ? 
 
 And the March-flies brown, 
 
 Are they sailing down 
 Where current and zephyr lead ? 
 
 See you abroad 
 
 With pliant rod 
 Some gentle brother speed ? 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 197 
 
 IV. 
 
 Go forth, ye anglers jovial ! 
 The ring of the trout we spy, 
 
 And the south winds pour 
 
 In a pleasant shower 
 The merry March-brown fly ; 
 
 With vigorous wand 
 
 The fisher band 
 Among the dark pools ply. 
 
 Swivel. The day's labours, Harry, have in no- 
 wise lessened the vigour of thy song. But how is't 
 thou preferrest the fowling-piece now-a-days, and 
 puttest thy rod-arm out of practice? 'Tis a leaning 
 towards revolt in thee and Master Timothy, which 
 I, Nathan Swiveltop, take upon me to reprehend. 
 
 Hackle. They are twin sports, Doctor, those of 
 the stream and field the one vernal, the other au- 
 tumnal. Faith! I love them both. 
 
 Swivel. Not without a preference, master rene- 
 gade. Be honest, Harry, and detail to us thine ang- 
 ling exploits during the last three months. 
 
 Hackle. Ay! that I will. Riddled with my gun 
 three pike on the third of September; marred a fly- 
 ing salmon on the nineteenth of August; and, only 
 a fortnight ago, pinked, off the coast of Ayrshire, 
 an oily porpoise! 
 
 Swivel. Bravo! Harry. And now, Tim, 'tis thy 
 turn to give account of thyself or, failing to do 
 so, render a song instead. 
 
 [GAFF sings.'] 
 
1JI8 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 l]e treamg of Hi cotlantr for me! 
 
 i. 
 
 The streams of Old Scotland for me ! 
 
 The joyous, the wilful, the wild; 
 The waters of song and of glee, 
 That ramble away to the sea 
 
 With the step and the mirth of a child ! 
 
 II. 
 The valleys of England are wide, 
 
 Her rivers rejoice every one ; 
 In grace and in beauty they glide, 
 And water-flowers float at their side 
 
 As they gleam in the rays of the sun. 
 
 III. 
 
 But where is the speed and the spray ? 
 
 The dark lakes that welter them forth ? 
 Tree and heath nodding over their way ? 
 The rock and the precipice grey, 
 
 That bind the wild streams of the north ? 
 
 IV. 
 
 Hath the salmon a dormient home 
 In track of the barbel or bream? 
 Or holds he his fastness of foam 
 Where the wraiths of the dark storm roam 
 At the break of a wandering stream? 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 199 
 
 V. 
 
 Even there you will find him, among 
 The glens of Old Scotland afar; 
 
 And up through her valleys of song 
 
 H e silently glances along, 
 In corslet of silver and star ! 
 
 VI. 
 
 The rivers of Scotland for me! 
 
 They water the soil of my birth, 
 They gush from the hills of the free, 
 And sing, as they seek the wild sea, 
 
 With a hundred sweet voices of mirth ! 
 
 Otter. And ever may they do so ! and ever may 
 our craft continue to haunt them unrestricted ! May 
 no rude, illiberal enactment, usurp from them the 
 privilege bestowed by nature upon her lowliest chil- 
 dren! 
 
 Leister. I fear, Tom, you supplicate in vain, our 
 rights, alas! are daily abridged and interfered with. 
 Streams, where one, a few years ago, might angle 
 without challenge, are now shut out and protected ; 
 and ere long our pastime will become fenced in with 
 a set of arbitrary injunctions, compared with which 
 the game-laws themselves must appear clement and 
 inoppressive I But stiffen thy tumbler a degree, and 
 favour us with a stave. 
 
 [OTTER sings.'] 
 
200 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 Otter's &nglmg Song, 
 i. 
 
 Through sun-bright lakes, 
 
 Round islets gay, 
 The river takes 
 
 Its western way, 
 And the water-chime 
 Soft zephyrs time, 
 
 Each gladsome summer day. 
 
 II. 
 The starry trout, 
 
 Fair to behold, 
 Roameth about 
 
 On fin of gold ; 
 At root of tree 
 His haunt you may see, 
 
 Rude rock or crevice old. 
 
 III. 
 And hither dart 
 
 The salmon grey, 
 From the deep heart 
 
 Of some sea-bay; 
 And herling wild 
 Is here beguiled 
 
 To hold autumnal play. 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 201 
 
 IV. 
 Oh ! 'tis a stream 
 
 Most fair to see, 
 As in a dream 
 
 Flows pleasantly, 
 And our hearts are woo'd 
 To a kind, sweet mood, 
 
 By its wondrous witchery ! 
 
 May, Here's a health to thee, Tom ; yet as for thy 
 singing, I commend it not. To my judgment, thy 
 cranium lacks the hill of tune. 
 
 Otter. I am glad on't, Master May-fly, seeing I 
 shall thereby escape plague and persecution, the in- 
 evitable consequences of having the mood musical 
 about one ; but Swiveltop and you, it is alleged, are 
 wont to practise duetts together by the stream-side, 
 when the angling humour wears off, as it frequently 
 does, betwixt you. Marry ! let us have one. 
 
 May. That you shall, Tom so join in, Doctor. 
 
 Swivel. Lead, Bill, lead, and trust to my assist- 
 ance ; peradventure the words on't cross my memory. 
 
 [MAY-FLY and SWTVELTOP sing.'] 
 
 octo rfjeet! iSrotfjer Angler, sag. 
 
 MAY-FLY. 
 
 Good cheer ! brother angler, say, 
 Is the swift salmon abroad to-day ? 
 Have you noted the flash of his silvery mail, 
 Or the proud free curl of his glittering tail ? 
 
202' ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 Hath he sprung at the winsome fly, 
 Smitten by the treacherous feather, 
 Heedless of the steel and tether, 
 
 And of human subtlety? 
 
 SwiYELTOP. 
 
 Alas! brother angler, nay, 
 Salmon none have I stirred to-day ; 
 Feint, frolic, nor dart, have I beheld ; 
 But round me the wily dark-trout belled 
 One in greed, another in scorn, 
 And a third one of pleasure 
 Sprang at my fly See, all the treasure 
 Ta'en by me this live-long morn ! 
 
 MAY-FLY. 
 
 Ply on, brother angler ! hark ! 
 
 The grey wind warbles across the park ; 
 
 It ruffles the water from bank to bank, 
 
 And shakes the green covert of rushes lank. 
 
 See how it paces round and round, 
 Wild of foot, with step unsteady, 
 Dancing on the amorous eddy. 
 
 To a low, uncertain sound ! 
 
 BOTH. 
 
 Ply on, brother angler ! deep 
 Under the rapids the bright fins sweep, 
 And the salmon holdeth his secret track 
 O'er ledges of rock, through fissure black. 
 Oh ! most hath an angler need 
 
 Of sweet patience and of plodding ; 
 
 For the good wand, ever nodding, 
 Better than cunning, bringeth speed ! 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 203 
 
 Due honours having been paid to Doctor Swivel- 
 top and Mr May-fly for this joint effusion, the latter 
 gentleman thought it proper to fatigue the fraternity 
 with a tedious, semi-political address in the course 
 of which, after acknowledging the complimentary 
 civilities conferred on himself and his illustrious 
 friend, he launched forth into a detail of his own 
 wonderful feats as an angler, whereby it appeared 
 that he had beaten hollow the powers of warlockry 
 in unfolding the secrets of certain lochs and rivers, 
 the finny inhabitants of which had, without doubt, 
 established a subterraneous communication with the 
 great lakes of North America, such was their power, 
 speed, voracity, and amplitude. Previous, however, 
 to the delivery of this rhapsodical oration by the 
 somewhat elevated member, our friend Jack Leister 
 volunteered the following song : 
 
 [LEISTER sings.'] 
 &lje fcteeje 10 on tf)e f^cvott=!ake ! 
 
 i. 
 The breeze is on the Heron-lake ! 
 
 The May-sun shineth clear ! 
 Away we bound through the broomy brake, 
 
 With our wands and angling gear. 
 
 II. 
 The birch-wreath o'er the water-edge 
 
 Scatters sweet flies about, 
 And round his haunt of sighing sedge 
 
 Bells up the yellow trout. 
 
204 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 III. 
 Beware ! beware ! his eye is bright 
 
 As falcon's in the sky : 
 But artful feather, hove aright, 
 
 Will hood a keener eye. 
 
 IV. 
 Beware ! beware ! the water- weed 
 
 And the birch that waves behind, 
 And gently let the good line speed 
 
 Before thee on the wind. 
 
 v. 
 
 O gently let the good line flow, 
 
 And gently wile it home; 
 There's many a gallant fin, I trow, 
 Under the ribbed foam. 
 
 VI. 
 A merry fish on a stallion hair, 
 
 'Tis a pleasant thing to lead, 
 On May-days, when the cowslip fair 
 
 Is blooming on the mead ; 
 
 VII. 
 When the breeze is up, and the sun is out, 
 
 And grey flies two or three 
 Sport in the noon-tide, round about 
 
 The shadow of a tree. 
 
 VIII. 
 O then the heart bounds pleasantly, 
 
 And its thoughts are pleasant things, 
 Gushing in joyous purity, 
 
 Like silent water-springs ! 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 205 
 
 Of Mr May-fly's address, by which the above was 
 succeeded, we forbear offering more than a single 
 extract, relative to a certain angling feat vaunted of 
 by him for the truth of which, however, we hold 
 ourselves in nowise responsible. An exploit, similar 
 in some points, was once narrated to us by a gentle- 
 man whose veracity we had every reason to rely on, 
 and singular to say, the same locality was assigned 
 to it which is spoken of by our worthy brother, as 
 having formed the scene of the following adventure. 
 
 MAY-FLY'S PERILOUS ANGLING FEAT. 
 
 " I trust, gentlemen," continued he, after much 
 previous detail, " I trust to your further forbearance 
 for permission to recount another of those singular 
 angling feats which it was my good fortune lately to 
 perform. You are most of you acquainted with the 
 stream connecting Loch Lydoch with Lochs Aich 
 and Rannoch, and are aware that it contains, among 
 innumerable quantities of small trout, some of a very 
 superior description. While fly-fishing there last 
 summer, and in the act of tossing out a pair of puny 
 individuals, I was surprised by a singular agitation 
 of the water behind them, which was repeated again 
 after a few seconds, farther up the pool. Conceiving 
 this double movement to be occasioned by a large 
 fish in pursuit of food, I immediately substituted for 
 the slender tackle I had hitherto employed, an ordi- 
 nary pike-hook, with its wire arming, affixing there- 
 to one of the small fry just captured. 
 
206 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 " Proceeding, thus equipped, a few yards up the 
 stream, I allowed my bait to drop gently into the 
 centre of a strong, dark-coloured eddy, within which 
 it was no sooner enveloped, than I became sensible 
 of its being seized by a pair of powerful jaws. Im- 
 mediately also, a steady determination thereof to- 
 wards the opposite bank warned me to give out line 
 with my hand from the reel. On finding this, how- 
 ever, speedily exhausted by the determined progress 
 of the fish across the stream, I thought it proper to 
 strike sharply ; and no sooner, gentlemen, was this 
 accomplished, than there came at once to view the 
 fluke of a prodigious tail, announcing to me the pre- 
 sence of a fish at least five stone in weight ! ( Great 
 cheering?) 
 
 " I do not exaggerate I am incapable of exagge- 
 rating. Five stone ! be it repeated, was the weight 
 of this fish ; and the sequel, gentlemen, should you 
 listen to me, will remove all doubts of my veracity. 
 
 "Before I could well recover from the astonishment 
 caused in me by the partial display of such a mon- 
 ster, he commenced ascending the river at an able 
 pace, but by no means so rapidly as to occasion his 
 pursuer over-much distress. In fact, to my best 
 recollection, I was not constrained to yield above 
 four fathoms of line during the whole run, which 
 lasted fifteen minutes at a moderate calculation, and 
 took me a mile's distance from the spot where I first 
 encountered him. When at length the fish halted, 
 which he did with singular suddenness, and more 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 207 
 
 seemingly by way of whim than from fatigue, I be- 
 gan to make calculations as to the possibility of se- 
 curing him before night, seeing that the afternoon 
 was already far advanced, and my situation in the 
 uninhabited and swampy moor, should darkness 
 happen to overtake me, was not to be regarded as 
 one altogether free from peril. 
 
 " Being, however, unwilling to break from the 
 chance I possessed of capturing a trout so enormous, 
 I found it necessary to put in practice some means, 
 in order to rouse him as quickly as possible from 
 the lethargic and immoveable position assumed by 
 him after his recent exertions ; as, without doing this, 
 I had no likelihood of so fatiguing the fish as to ob- 
 tain a speedy conquest over him. Accordingly, I 
 committed myself with great caution to the water 
 which, be it remarked, was deep, rapid, and, as 
 to the footing it afforded, not a little precarious. 
 Scarcely, indeed, had I advanced three paces, before 
 I found myself engulphed waist-high, and on the 
 point of being carried dov/nward by the strength of 
 the current ! 
 
 " At this moment, however, a sudden strain on my 
 line indicated the intentions of the fish to renew his 
 run ; whereupon, more regardful of him than of my 
 own peril, I only clenched my rod with the greater 
 vigour, and relying on the strength of tackle with 
 which I happened to be provided, actually suffered 
 myself to be dragged forward into the midst of a 
 black, dangerous pool ! Here, fortunately, through 
 
208 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 the assistance of my left arm, I kept pretty fairly 
 afloat, and managed at the same time to control a 
 desperate plunge of the infuriated fish, who forth- 
 with, finding all such exertion to no purpose, re- 
 sumed his career up the river. 
 
 " Gentlemen, I cannot describe to you my situation 
 at this juncture. I have no recollection of how I 
 felt and acted for the space of some minutes, seeing 
 that such must have elapsed before I again found 
 myself able rationally to decide what steps, consist- 
 ent with the honour of an angler, it were best for 
 me to pursue. I had been hauled upwards of an 
 hundred yards through the centre of the water, and 
 was now lying* altogether exhausted, on a shoal-bed 
 of gravel. My rod, strange to say, remained un- 
 injured in my grasp, and instinctively T felt apprised 
 of the continued presence of the great fish, again 
 at rest, within the distance of five paces. Pie had, 
 however, fortunately, no inclination to stir fin pre- 
 vious to my reaching terra firma, on the south bank 
 of the river, where, by the aid of my flask, I was 
 enabled ere long to regain a good portion of my 
 lost strength and courage; which having done, I 
 commenced a violent attack with sods and stones 
 upon the spot where he lay, and speedily had the 
 gratification of beholding him at full sail down the 
 stream. Following, of course, as fast as the drenched 
 state of my habiliments allowed me, I felt further 
 encouraged by an indication of great exhaustion on 
 the part of the fish, who evidently had lost the power 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 209 
 
 of retaining lys proper balance, and not unfrequently 
 rolled over, belly-uppermost, in the water. This, 
 however, might have been a stratagem of his to put 
 me off my guard, as all of a sudden he sprang di- 
 rectly into the air, and would certainly have shivered 
 my tackle, had I not become instinctively aware of 
 the movement, and provided for it forthwith, by 
 lowering the point of the rod. Finding himself thus 
 baffled, the fish seemed in no humour to resume his 
 descent, but commenced thrusting with his snout 
 against the opposite marge of the river, from which, 
 however, hastily recoiling, he took a cross run to- 
 wards that on which I stood, and continued without 
 intermission, for nearly a quarter of an hour, passing 
 and repassing betwixt the two banks. 
 
 It was now growing dark I was far from any 
 dwelling, and possessed of a very imperfect know- 
 ledge of the wide and dangerous moor with which 
 I was surrounded ; moreover, I had the hunger of 
 a wolf, and was thoroughly soaked to boot ; 
 yet, gentlemen, for the honour of our craft, I re- 
 solved to remain and subject to the dominion of the 
 wand a fish, I feel assured, without its equal in broad 
 Scotland. Nor was I long in so doing, and that in 
 the manner which I shall now relate to you. 
 
 The part of the river which I had at this time 
 reached happened to branch off in two separate 
 streams, which, joining again below, formed a small 
 island. Through the principal of these I had al- 
 ready been conducted by the fish during his ascent, 
 
 Q 
 
210 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 and it was now my fortune, being on the opposite 
 side of the water from where I then was, to direct 
 him in a manner along the other, which, although 
 in some parts nearly as broad, was by no means 
 either so deep or rapid as the main branch. In 
 fact, at a short distance above their reunion it was 
 crossed by a bar of gravel, which had the effect, 
 while it widened, of greatly obstructing and shallow- 
 ing off the stream. 
 
 Upon this, the fish, in an attempt to carry him- 
 self clean over it, fortunately ran aground, and owing 
 to his fatigued state, and the great bulk he possessed, 
 proved unable to force his way back again into deep 
 water. I immediately marched forward through the 
 stream, recovering line on my way, until I came 
 into close contact with him, and found the monster 
 jammed in as it were betwixt two furrows of gravel, 
 which, by means of his chin, he had reared up on 
 either side of him. Instantly pulling out a large 
 pocket-knife the same, gentlemen, which I now 
 exhibit to you I rushed upon my prize, inflicting 
 across his spine the fatal gash ! It was, to the best of 
 my recollection, as it were, done upon the mane of an 
 earthquake, so violent and terrible was the death of this 
 water-lord ! Blood, sand, and pebbles, were flung about 
 on all sides of me, and I narrowly escaped being laid 
 prostrate by a tail-blow from the infuriated fish! 
 After the lapse, however, of a few seconds, life became 
 extinct, and I dragged him exultingly to the water- 
 edge, there to quaff off to his memory the remainder 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 211 
 
 of my flask, and devise in what manner to bear 
 homewards, through moor and darkness, a trophy so 
 magnificent. 
 
 My first idea was to conceal the fish in some hol- 
 low or other, and endeavour to thread my way 
 towards the inn, which lay several miles off in 
 the neighbourhood of Loch Rannoch, whence, on 
 the day following, I should set out to fetch him, 
 having procured proper assistance. I regret, indeed, 
 that this plan was not pursued, as, had it been, I 
 should probably have escaped the mortification I 
 was destined to suffer, in being obligated to relin- 
 quish so noble a prize. Unwilling, however, to pro- 
 ceed without him, I took it into my head, as a good 
 expedient, that I might readily, by means of my 
 tackle, which remained as yet unextricated from his 
 gorge, float the fish forward down the Gawin and 
 through Loch Aich to within a few yards of where 
 I intended to quarter for the night. 
 
 Accordingly, I commenced the attempt, but had 
 scarcely proceeded above two hundred paces, when my 
 attention was directed to the plunge of a large animal 
 immediately below me, and before I could drag in my 
 captive out of harm's way, he was in the grasp of a 
 powerful otter! In vain, gentlemen, did I shout; in 
 vain rush forward into the stream; tackle and fish 
 both had disappeared in a twinkling; the rascal had 
 carried all away with him. To say more, would be 
 to describe the feelings of one crazed by misfortune! 
 
212 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 I know not to this day how I reached Loch Ran- 
 noch 
 
 Swivel. On the back of a hippopotamus, was it not, 
 Bill? Say so, man, an thou wantest credit for this 
 exploit of thine ! To superadd a marvel or twain 
 will improve the effect on't, and in nowise harm its 
 probability ! 
 
 May. Courtesy, it appears, Nathan, is no director 
 of thy faith. 
 
 Swivel. If so, Bill, my creed would' be a mon- 
 strous one. 
 
 May. Marry, indeed! Doctor thou hast swal- 
 lowed rawer fictions ere now than are of my fashion- 
 ing. How little credit findeth an angler's tale! 
 'Tis among truths unsworn to, the oftest ridiculed. 
 Men stare on't, as it were moon-dropt, and would 
 take the say of a pagan into more account. 
 
 Swivel. Well might they, Master May-fly, opining 
 from these feats of thine. But how, gentlemen, is 
 the bowl run dry? 
 
 je Season. 
 
 We part not thus ! nay, anglers, nay- 
 
 A farewell to the season ! 
 So fill the bowl and drink away; 
 
 Who drinks not harbours treason. 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 213 
 
 II. 
 
 O fill it high ! the joyous draught 
 
 Is native to our heather; 
 If bravely drained and largely quaffed, 
 
 'Twill bind our hearts together. 
 
 III. 
 Now wintry winds, with rapid pace, 
 
 O'er mead and mountain sally ; 
 And gloomily the waters race 
 
 Through each deserted valley. 
 
 IV. 
 
 No more sweet birds, in merry strain, 
 
 Sing from their bowers of beauty ; 
 Lay down the wand the spring again 
 
 Will call it forth for duty. 
 
 V. 
 
 Lay down the wand no longer now 
 
 The fearful trout is belling ; 
 All leafless left, the alder bough 
 
 Moans o'er his glassy dwelling. 
 
 VI. 
 Then heap, heap high our social hearth ! 
 
 Why should the good fire flicker ? 
 And quaff! quaff on ! The best of mirth 
 
 Lies deepest in the liquor ! 
 
214 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 May. And best of melody to boot, Doctor ; thou 
 art tun'd to the point of admiration. But these are 
 voices familiar to us outside ? Hark you ? 
 
 Leister. So methinks, Bill, albeit when or where 
 heard, I recollect not. 
 
 Otter. Marry do I ; an it be not Mark Wandle- 
 weir and Master Herl-broke, Tom Otter is other 
 than Tom Otter. 
 
 Leister. Thou sayest it. Welcome, gentlemen, 
 most welcome. [Enter WANDLE-WEIR and HERL- 
 BROKE.] Hilloa ! mistress, loads of comfort ; bring 
 fire, water, meats and marrows with cordials cun- 
 ning and strengthy hose and hot slippers; there 
 be two here who have dropt out of a cloud, blast- 
 worn and wetted throat high. 
 
 Wandle. A pitiable account of us, Mr Leister ; 
 but in truth thou hast hit the mark. How fares it 
 with our loving fraternity? 
 
 Swivel. Right bountifully, gentle brother. This, 
 you may note, is our feast of farewells, whereat we 
 encase our wands, close our panniers, and determine 
 our retreat from the stream-side. But play thy part 
 at the trencher, good sir; thou must unfold a tale 
 of thy wanderings ere we separate. 
 
 Wandle. Willingly, Doctor. You shall have 
 the arcana of my exploits at a beck, although, to 
 speak the truth, I have proved an adventureless 
 adventurer. 
 
 Swivel. And hast achieved nothing worthy of 
 thy craft? 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 215 
 
 Wandle. Nay, I said not so ; never was hand 
 more gory. But a truce, a truce, sweet Doctor 
 good, let forks wag before tongues. 
 
 Swivel. Amen ! valiant sir. 
 
 [After partaking of the bountiful repast provided by our 
 worthy landlady, Messrs Wandle-weir and Herl- 
 broke proceeded to amuse the club with an account 
 of their wanderings in the north. It is not, however, 
 within the province of these pages to enter into any 
 elaborate detail of the manifold incidents met with 
 by our intelligent brethren of the angle ; we find it 
 incumbent to offer nothing further than such portions 
 of their relation as have reference to the pastime daily 
 pursued by them among the least frequented of our 
 Highland lochs and rivers. To this purpose we shall 
 devote the following chapter.] 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF WANDLE-WEIR AND 
 HERL-BROKE. 
 
 I TAKE it for granted, gentlemen (commenced Mr 
 Wandle-weir, as spokesman on the occasion), that 
 you are already made acquainted with the result of 
 our rod-operations up to the end of July last. My 
 friend Herl-broke, if I remember rightly, addressed 
 a communication to your honourable club, under 
 the intention of regaling his brother members with 
 a spice of our doings and sufferings OB certain 
 angling stations, north of the Tay. Our chief 
 matters of complaint, should you recollect, were 
 the dryness of the season, want of winds, and the 
 incessant torment we met with from hordes of gad- 
 flies, which haunted our steps with provoking per- 
 tinacity along the water's-edge. From a combination 
 of maladies so unlocked for, it was natural for us 
 to determine our escape. Measures accordingly 
 were taken for a retreat homewards, and our 
 journey had actually commenced, when down pops 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 217 
 
 one of the loveliest showers imaginable a glorious, 
 soul-stirring, nerve-renewing thunder-plump! Never 
 was one resolve so thoroughly dissipated for another 
 by this unexpected discharge of the element. We 
 had been waiting at Fort- William the arrival of one 
 of the steamers plying betwixt Inverness and Glas- 
 gow, with the intention of joining her on her voyage 
 south, when the first wild peal burst down from 
 Nevis, gathering in the responses of a thousand 
 lesser hills, recognizant all of their chieftain's terrific 
 slogan. 
 
 May. Quite poetical grown, Mr Wandle-weir; 
 thou hast stocked a note-book with rhymes and 
 images, I venture to infer. 
 
 Wandle. Nay, my humour was not so inclined. 
 But to proceed. Allowing the smoky conveyance 
 (a glimpse of whose tall funnel, walking the great 
 canal into Loch Eil, we had been so anxious for two 
 long days to obtain, and which, just as the last 
 shower-drop reached the earth, glided triumphantly 
 into view), allowing, I say, the murky water-coach to 
 wheel onward, out we danced, Herl-broke and my- 
 self (our friend Smoulter-jaws having waved his 
 adieus some days previous), toward Lochy-side, 
 where, at the distance of a stone's-throw above the 
 castle, we lit upon some shoals of princely sea-trout, 
 fresh from the brine. Of these, we took no less 
 than thirteen out of a single pool the largest 
 weighing upwards of four pounds, and as fleet, wary, 
 and nimble a fish, as ever line thwarted. But our 
 
218 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 good fortune was not destined to cease here, and 
 we had soon the further gratification of shewing the 
 rod-butt to three prime grilses and one salmon, 
 which latter was anchored on by myself in midst of 1 
 a perilous eddy, out of which I found it no easy 
 task to force him, and prevent the cutting of my 
 line on certain sharp-toothed rocks which lay in the 
 direction he aimed at. Luckily, however, my tackle 
 was not deficient in strength, and on putting it 
 resolutely to the test, I was able to effect the wished 
 for control over my fish, and ere long to gaff and 
 secure him. I will not, however, detain you with 
 any further mention of our angling exploits in this 
 quarter. Zealous craftsmen as we were, our appetite 
 for sport became strangely impaired by the want 
 of those scenic attractions, which operate like sun- 
 shine on the heart, and keep the springs of joy 
 open within it. The savage desolateness of the 
 surrounding moorland had greatly lowered our 
 spirits, and we shrunk away, after a week's residence 
 at Fort- William, like guilty things that had busied 
 ourselves with butcheries, not of fish, but of our 
 fellows. 
 
 The next scene of our achievements (continued 
 Mr Wandle-weir) was Loch Ness. Hiring a boat 
 early on the morning after our arrival at Fort- 
 Augustus, we beat up and down both sides of this 
 beautiful expanse of water, without so much as 
 stirring a single fin until the approach of noon, 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 219 
 
 when the breeze stiffening, \ve were fortunate 
 enough to capture several good-sized trout and a 
 brace of noble salmon. Here we were shewn a fish 
 weighing fourteen pounds, of the ordinary loch va- 
 riety, which had been taken during the previous day 
 by means of a spinning bait. It was reckoned a fair 
 pattern of build in a trout of its dimensions, but 
 did not strike me as nearly so magnificent a fish as 
 the salmoferox of Loch Awe, of which your club, 
 gentlemen, possesses such an admirable specimen. 
 I have caught trout from our English waters, which 
 struck me as infinitely more attractive in form, 
 and not a whit inferior to it in complexion. 
 
 May. To my mind, bulk is the prime matter, 
 Master Wandle-weir, I account the beauty of a 
 fish as nothing, provided it weigh like a mill-stone. 
 
 Swivel. Betake thee to the Arctics, Bill, and 
 " bob for whales." 
 
 May. Not yet, Doctor, not yet I am in nowise 
 weary of thy company. But pardon our interrup- 
 tion. 
 
 Wandle. It would be tiresome, gentlemen, to all 
 parties were I to detail circumstantially the nume- 
 rous excursions Mr Herl-broke and myself engaged 
 in during our stay at Fort- Augustus. The Garry, 
 Morriston, Oich, Foyers, Coiltie, and Enneric, were 
 all visited in succession, nor did we neglect running 
 a fly over two or three of the best reputed lochs, 
 situated in the surrounding district of country. 
 Fish, of course, were not always on the fin, and we 
 
220 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 had, upon more than one occasion, to hold ourselves 
 satisfied with an empty pannier. The grandeur of 
 the scenes, however, among which our wanderings 
 introduced us, amply compensated for the want of 
 success occasionally encountered. 
 
 [Here Mr Wandle-weir digressed into an eulogium on 
 various natural beauties discovered to him during the 
 course of the above excursions, after which he 
 amused the club with an account of the piscatory 
 raid undertaken by him and his friend Herl-broke 
 into Ross-shire. We have no design, however, of fol- 
 lowing our worthy brother-anglers along this portion 
 of their tour, having already, in a previous chapter, 
 entered somewhat at large into an analysis of the 
 various waters belonging to the several districts which 
 they visited. We shall only confine our observations, 
 in regard to the country alluded to, within the limits 
 of a single interrogatory, addressed by our intelligent 
 narrator to the members of the club. The purport 
 of Mr Wandle-weir's inquiry was as to the reason- 
 ableness of a statement he had seen repeatedly ad- 
 vanced among northern journalists, whereby it was 
 made to appear that an alarming decrease had of late 
 years taken place in the quantity both of salmon and 
 trout frequenting such streams as discharge them- 
 selves along the Western coasts of Scotland, and, 
 moreover, that this decrease was owing solely to the 
 recent introduction of sheep into those pasture- 
 grounds which border on the waters in question.] 
 
 May. What! Mr Wandle-weir, sheep devour 
 salmon! They say, 'tis true, goats will bolt vipers, 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 221 
 
 Swivel. And pigs eat bairns ! Bill. 
 
 Wandle. I believe, gentlemen, no such unnatural 
 propensity is intended to be attributed to the pec- 
 oral tribe. The destruction chiefly complained of 
 is imagined to be in operation against the ova and 
 fry of the fish. Wool-washing the abridgment 
 of food presumed to have taken place on the sub- 
 stitution of sheep for black cattle (which, as you all 
 know, formerly constituted the live stock of the 
 districts to which I allude) and numerous other 
 causes, are brought forward in support of this sin- 
 gular allegation. 
 
 Leister. Singular, Mr Wandle-weir, you may 
 well call it. It is, besides, utterly irrational, and at 
 variance with what happens to be observed in the 
 Southern districts of Scotland. Of a piece, not- 
 withstanding, it seems with other attempts made by 
 the prejudiced Highlanders to resist the introduction 
 of sheep into our Northern pasture-grounds. I need 
 only, however, in order to prove its inconsistency 
 with fact, direct your attention to what happens to 
 be the case in Selkirkshire a county where it will 
 be allowed the woolly tribe is reared to no inconsi- 
 derable extent. You are yourself acquainted with 
 many of its numerous streams, such especially as 
 have their channel and origin among sheep-pastures, 
 and cannot fail to agree with me, that of these, one 
 and all are crowded with trout almost beyond belief, 
 and that during the autumnal and hibernal months, 
 they are visited, although lying at a great distance 
 
222 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 from the sea, by salmon and other fish, not singly or 
 at infrequent intervals, but in large and continued 
 masses. 
 
 Otter. You say truly, Jack. I have seen no less 
 than forty or fifty gallant fins abstracted by a party 
 of black-fishers from one pool, and that the very 
 one into which the neighbouring sheep-farmers 
 were accustomed to drive their flocks during the 
 washing-month ! 
 
 Wandle. It is, however, to be confessed, Mr 
 Otter, that the purifying operations performed upon 
 the wool of sheep do in some measure affect the 
 salubrity of those waters wherein they are carried 
 on. 
 
 Otter. This I do not deny. The impregnating 
 of a burn or pool with the corrupt smearing materials 
 attached, among other filth, to the fleece, before clip- 
 ping, cannot fail for the moment to sicken and alarm 
 the delicate inhabitants of the stream. No serious 
 result, however, takes place ; as far, at any rate, as 
 my experience goes, I do not remember to have 
 stumbled upon a single fish, small or great, in which 
 the vital spark had been rendered extinct, owing to 
 the cause above alleged. 
 
 [Some further conversation here took place among the 
 members of the club relative to the decrease of game 
 in pastoral districts. This discussion, however, we 
 are urged to pass over, with a view of conducting our 
 readers along with Messrs Wandle-weir and Herl- 
 broke, after their departure from Ross-shire. Their 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 223 
 
 success among the streams and lakes of that county 
 was fully as great as they had anticipated, although 
 the weather encountered by them was not of the de- 
 scription which the angler reckons most favourable. 
 About the commencement of September, and a fort- 
 night previous to the time when the waters north of 
 the Tweed are closed up, we discover our lately in- 
 stalled brethren of the wand among the mountainous 
 regions of Strath- Glass, descending which, they 
 shortly afterwards reach Inverness, and strike onward 
 from thence into Moray shire. We must, however, 
 give the conclusion of their angling adventures in 
 Mr Wandle-weir's own words.] 
 
 We had now arrived (continued he) at the Find- 
 horn, where it passes under the bridge of Dulsie. 
 Much as I have witnessed of river scenery, my recol- 
 lections are unable to call up any continued stretch 
 of bold decorations, equal to what is possessed by 
 this noble stream. From the Streens to the Sus- 
 pension-bridge near Forres, a distance, following its 
 course, of not less than fifteen miles, one unbroken 
 chain of magnificent landscape is presented. With a 
 body of water sufficiently large to attract attention, 
 the Findhorn makes its way betwixt masses of rock, 
 imposing, equally from their height, their form, and 
 their distribution. Trees, the skirts of a forest, old 
 and fantastic, peer over its parapets, mingled with 
 shrubs and saplings, which steal down luxuriantly 
 among the rill- worn fissures. Here, with imprecat- 
 ing arms, a storm-cleft oak towers over the abyss 
 there an ivy mourns and, beyond it, 
 
224 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 " Self-pleased, a graceful birch 
 Nods to its image in the glassy pool." 
 
 To eye Findhorn to advantage, one must adopt 
 the angler's method of river-coursing. Its channel 
 he must convert into his highway, and plunge un- 
 hesitatingly through such fords as promise to lead 
 him toward the best view -stances and juts of observe. 
 Your knapsack-tourists will gain nothing by con- 
 fining themselves to the pinnacles and embankments; 
 they must e'en descend to the water's surface, and 
 look for an eye-feast upwards, not, as is their use, 
 over and across. 
 
 As an angling water, we found Findhorn at certain 
 points incomparable. The period, however, of our 
 visit was such that it required little or no skill to 
 take fish. Five, eleven, and nine salmon, were the 
 several results of our operations during the three 
 days preceding the 15th, when the waters, to our 
 great disappointment, became shut up, and we were 
 forced to adopt our route southward, without test- 
 ing, as we originally intended, the primest of sal- 
 mon-rivers, Spey. 
 
 May. A mighty mortification, indeed, Master 
 Wandle-weir, after the havoc committed by you 
 and Herl-broke ! 'Twere time, methiriks, to put 
 the pannier aside with good will, instead of lusting 
 afresh, against law and reason. 
 
 Swivel. The soul of an angler hath gone out of 
 thee, Bill. 
 
 May. Not so, but its cravings, Doctor, are time- 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 225 
 
 subdued. I despise to be affected by the throbs 
 and longings of a school-boy heart, such as were 
 wont of old to accompany me, while trudging forth, 
 during play hours, to hitch out minnows from a 
 water tank. 
 
 Swivel. Then are you grown a philosopher, Bill. 
 'Tis a change for the worse, an it be true. We 
 must have no stoics among us, Master May-fly. 
 
 May. A sapient resolution. Lead down the aqua, 
 Doctor. What, Tim, anchored already? and thou, 
 Master Hackle ? Replenish, I pray you, my merry 
 men all. 
 
 Otter. Keep the concord, Bill, lest we bind and 
 bed thee. Free and good-humoured, without break 
 or brawl, should be our Feast of Farewells. No 
 apple of contention ought ever to lie upon its board. 
 It should be a sealing up of t'he friendships of the 
 year, that they may be kept faithful until we meet 
 again. But, gentlemen 
 
 And further than this we can add nothing. Of what Mr 
 Otter observed in continuation, we are left totally in 
 the dark. Reader ! go on for the moral to our con- 
 clusion. Say we not, with Solomon 
 
 " All things are vanity !" 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 OUR matter is at an end. We possess no other 
 relics of our loved fraternity and what, gentle 
 angler, are these before thee, save an unassorted, 
 imperfect medley? We have not troubled ourselves 
 to trick them out for favour. They are better, per- 
 haps, as they are, even with all their likeness to 
 those lettered follies which the day gives birth to. 
 
 Will the angling fraternity at C ever re- 
 vive? Alas! the conclusion that our hearts come 
 to is, that it never will. We have reason to believe 
 that its dissolution has been a final one! There are 
 no signs or chances of returning animation among 
 us. The electric fires of sympathy are all gone out. 
 Even the tenement where our festive meetings were 
 
228 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 wont to be held begins to shew symptoms of disre- 
 pair. Its kirtle gay of briers and woodbines now 
 hangs about it in careless shreds the thatch has 
 been partly torn away, while what remains thereof 
 is furred over with wind-sown mosses; there is a 
 huge fissure from base to chimney-top at one end 
 of the building, and several great stones are com- 
 mencing their escape outward above the porch. Its 
 diamond-shaped panes, moreover, are many of them 
 supplanted by patches of vellum abstractions, pro- 
 bably, from some ancient manuscript formerly pos- 
 sessed by our club, and left, unthought of, to the 
 spoiler's mutilating hand. 
 
 Ah ! and our hostess too our mirth-loving, kind- 
 hearted landlady, is no longer to be seen. A stranger 
 fills her place. The tones of sweet humour and 
 benevolence which circled below her hospitable roof 
 are exchanged for the austere brawlings of a drunken 
 publican. There is a sign-board also, swinging 
 aloof over the door-way, with the likeness of a fish 
 pictured upon it surely not that of a salmon a 
 creature set and proportioned so singularly never 
 cleft the flood ; it seems a compound of the tench 
 and the tad-pole, and is coloured over with a sloughy, 
 blue mixture, such as might be formed from the 
 cleanings of some well-daubed palette. At one end 
 
ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 229 
 
 of this murky monster is represented a big-bellied 
 bottle, with its accompanying gill-stoup; at the 
 other depends the figure of a huge fly-hook or 
 parrot pad; while immediately over these, along 
 the top of the board, one may discern, painted in 
 big, black characters, " THE FISHER'S TRYST." 
 
 The Fisher's Tryst ! Pity the angler that ventures 
 below its ungracious rafters ! In vain will he look 
 for the rural pleasaunces they so lately overshadowed. 
 Its once tidy furniture is mostly removed, while a 
 couple of deal benches, guarding on either side a 
 coarse, oaken table, occupy instead the principal 
 apartment. The recess beds have both been robbed 
 of their pannellings, and lie exposed in offensive 
 disorder towards the entrance. One chair, halt 
 and maimed, leans its fractured form against the 
 narrow portion of wall by which these are divided, 
 and a mirror (we recognise it as an ancient friend) 
 is suspended directly over its back. Nothing happy 
 may ever look again upon that darkening surface! 
 
 " They cannot smile on't, 
 Who trim their count' nance at its perilous front." 
 
 We turn with a shiver from this reflector of the 
 human face divine the loved things we looked for 
 
230 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 
 
 are there no longer! We turn with a shiver from 
 the now desecrated dwelling, and its sordid inmates, 
 from the stream, too and why from it ? 
 
 " Still its waters glide, 
 Unsullied at our side, 
 Making sweet music through the valley wide." 
 
 Why, then, turn from it? where the change 
 that urges us to this ? It lies, gentle angler, within 
 our own heart! 
 
 EDINBURGH PRINTING COMPANY.