182 SOME WRITERS ON THE GENTLE CRAFT 



doubtless the interest was fresher when it was written 

 some half-century ago : 



"Since that time I have seen the cottage of Abbotsford, with its 

 rustic porch, lying peacefully in the haugh between the blue hills, 

 and have listened to the wild rush of the Tweed as it hurried 

 beneath it. As time progressed and as hopes arose, I have seen 

 that cottage converted into a picturesque mansion, with every 

 luxury and comfort attached to it, and have partaken of its hospi- 

 tality ; the unproductive hills I have viewed covered with thriving 

 plantations, and the whole aspect of the county civilised without 

 losing its romantic character. But amidst all these revolutions I 

 have never perceived any change in the mind of him who made 

 them, ' the choice and master-spirit of the age.' There he dwelt 

 in the hearts of the people, diffusing life and happiness around him ; 

 he made a home beside the border river, in a country and a nation 

 that have derived benefit from his presence and consequence from 

 his genius." 



Figuring in the fictitious character of Harry Otter, 

 Scrope relates a humorous adventure that must have 

 had its counterpart in the lives of most angling novices. 

 He tells how, having turned out with a spick-and-span 

 new rod, exquisite in workmanship and resplendent in 

 varnish, he crowned sundry highly satisfactory exploits 

 by landing a 5~lb. grilse, and that with fragile trout 

 tackle. How, swelling inwardly with intense self- 

 satisfaction, he met a native who might have sat to a 

 painter for Wat Tinlinn, and whose rod, with its make- 

 shift appurtenances, were at least as uncouth as himself. 

 How, condescending graciously to this rough brother 

 of the craft, he was provoked by the nil admirari 

 manner to tantalise him with a display of his booty. 

 And how the borderer, " premeesing " carelessly that 



