508 COQUET SIDE. 



reel is set, the lads are mad, the wenches fain what can Bill do but 

 lug out his pipes, and strike up " Felton Loanin'?" Away they go ! 

 Bill gets primed, his pipes grow glib ; he bursts through the old 

 border tunes, " flies from grave to gay, from lively to severe ;" now 

 staccato reels, now sliding softly among among the delicious mazes of 

 " Roslin Castle," or the "Birks of Invermay ;" now furious he rattled 

 over " Dorrington Lads," or " Yellow Walls/' or " Through his dear 

 Strathspeys he bears with Highland rage ; ' when ! who can re- 

 sist it ? we jump up, forget our fatigue, secure a partner, kick our 

 heels among the borderers against the flags, till the whole house reels ; 

 drink toddy, and squeeze the moist hand of our partner ; (dance again, 

 drink more toddy, and talk unutterable nonsense ; till, at last, Bill's 

 pipes seem playing the Dead March in Saul, the dancers appear 

 demons flying through brimstone fumes, and Rough-Riding Will sits 

 on a winnock bunker pointing to the bars where he roasted his enemy, 

 and chiming in with a voice that sounds marvellously like the big 

 drone of a Northumberland bagpipe. Discreetly do we seek our 

 bed, and after long listening to the continuous din underneath, at last 

 fall asleep to dream of diabolical crimes. 



A badger-hunt the next day, athletic sports in the evening, leap- 

 ing, running, wrestling, putting the stone and throwing the hammer, 

 another set-to at the whiskey, and again finding it necessary to betake 

 our conglomerated faculties to repose before the borderers had half 

 finished their debauch ; such were the circumstances that occupied 

 the second twenty-four hours of our stay at Ryehope. Neither want 

 of sleep, toil, nor whiskey seems capable of affecting these sturdy sons 

 of the mountains, and on the evening of the second day they all re- 

 turned home, " staccering whiles, but taking tent aye to free the 

 ditches." On the third day matters were conducted in a more 

 rational manner. The sportsmen having gone off, and the piper 

 being down at the river, we accompanied our host in a quiet ride 

 among the hills to look after his flocks. It was astonishing to mark 

 the difference in the young farmer's manner as soon as he had shaken 

 off his loose companions ; he seemed now to fall back on his original 

 character. He discovered not only a considerable fund of informa- 

 tion and shrewdness, which no one who had seen his wild reckless 

 manner the day before would have imagined to exist, but displayed 

 a depth and delicacy of feeling for the nobler aspects of nature, which 

 it was the more pleasing to recognize and delightful to sympathize 

 with, in that the familiarity with these aspects of nature too often 

 destroys all admiration for them. The respect which he paid to the 

 suggestions of his older shepherds, and the consideration in which he 

 was evidently held by them, was very pleasant to contemplate, for 

 the reflection could not but occur that it was infinitely better these 

 men should be bound together in peaceful interests and occupations, 

 than in steel caps and jackboots, banded as of yore for the purposes 

 of plunder and bloodshed. With feelings of respect which will not 

 be easily eradicated, we left the worthy descendant of Rough-Riding 

 Will, and again sought the banks of the river. 



From Windyhaugh to Shiel Moor are the finest fishing streams in 

 .Coquet the whole distance, in fact, a perfect angler's paradise. 

 The trouts are not in general large, neither are they so fine as are to 



