24 Transactions. 



Farewell, Old England ; I shall venerate thy memory and thy 

 fertile meadows, and never forget thy florid fields that glut the 

 scythe, nor thy fragrant gardens that perfume the air." Arnoldus : 

 " And welcome Scotland, I say, for this night I purpose to lodge 

 in Dumfreez. But who must carry our implements and our fish ? " 

 Theophilus : "Let us catch 'em first, and then consider their 

 portage." Arnoldus : " That's but little difficult to do, where 

 every field is accommodated with rivulets, and every rivulet 

 furnished with trouts. As we travel along this mountainous coast 

 of Galloway, look out before you and view those parts ; such are 

 the entrances into the decays of Dumfreez, whose situation and 

 buildings bespeak it si^acious, and a town that will furnish us 

 with fish and flesh, where we may stay till to-morrow and solace 

 ourselves with her flourishing streams, whose lofty banks barricade 

 the beautiful pontus arnotus, a pleasant portable river below the 

 situation of the town (unplundered of exercise) that will recreate 

 and recruit us with fish enough if the season but serve to experi- 

 ment the art." Theophilus : " I approve very well of your 

 motion, but a modicuvi first will be very seasonable. Let us 

 summon the cook to know what he's got in the kitchen, and give 

 charge to the chambermaid (if there be such a thing in Scotland) 

 to take care that the windows be decked and adorned with flowers, 

 whilst the boards and floors are strewed with greens ; for I'll 

 examine every thread in our beds to see if they be cleanly washed 

 and thoroughly dried, the better to accommodate us in our northern 

 expedition." In the morning Theophilus says : " Were not com- 

 plaint a ridiculous orator I would tell you the mutton was small, 

 but good ; but cookery, I persuade myself, never worse contrived; 

 and the linen was sweet and clean enough, of a modest complexion, 

 but not lavender proof. Then, for their pewter (the like was 

 never seen), it was tarnished with nothing but a face of lead. 

 The beds, I confess, were soft enough ; and, if I don't mistake 

 myself, short enough ; yet every angler may without difficulty 

 resolve how sweetly rest relishes after recreation, and how 

 grateful solace seems after good success." After a fine descrip- 

 tion of angling in the Nith, Arnoldus is made to say : " In 

 the meantime I'll gratify you with a breviate of Dumfreez, where 

 a provost, as superintendent, supplies the place of a mayor, a 

 magistrate almost as venerable as an English constable. It was 

 anciently a town girt about with a strong stone wall ; but the late 



