FISHING AND DRINKING OF OLD. 141 



with a pout-net in Irvine- water, and, when interrupted 

 in his sport (as Scotch anglers too often are, even 

 now-a-days, by Englishmen, or at least by English- 

 men's gamekeepers) he as usual easily made " a Scots 

 poult- staff foil five English swords," killing three men 

 and making the other two run for it ! We may con- 

 clude from this that there was no angling then, — for 

 who can suppose that if the hero knew the use of a 

 fishing-rod he would have descended to a pout-net ? 

 Still it showed the spiiit of fishhig alive in Scotland, 

 and it is not likely that that spirit would die out ; in 

 fact it seems to have become a sort of instinct, espe- 

 cially on the Borders, so long has it been identified 

 with the habits of Scotchmen. Wherefore, then, this 

 omission in the ballads? We leave the question to 

 future investigators. We might almost say there is a 

 cognate puzzle in the absence of any special praise of 

 drinking in the old poetry. " Fuddling," which in 

 modern times has been so much and so improperly 

 conjoined with " fishing," is in the ballads only men- 

 tioned incidentally, — as when it is stated that the 

 monarch's commands came to Sir Patrick Spens, or 

 news of an English raid came to Buccleuch, as they 

 vrere sitting at table birling their bottle ; or that " late 

 at e'en, drinking the wine, and e'er they paid the law- 

 in'," the combat was set that ended so bloodily in the 

 dowie houms o' Yarrow. The lads of Wamphray, in 

 the exuberance of their triumph, declare that they 

 will " hae a pint at Wamphray gate" — a Dumfries- 

 shire ale-house ; and the very emphasis they give to 

 that exceedingly moderate proposal might support the 

 inference that they were rather addicted to teetotalism. 



