70 THE BORDER ANGLER. 



follower, and join Lady Scott in the " Sociable," until we should 

 reach the ground of our battue. Laidlaw, on a long-tailed wiry 

 highlander yclept Hodden Grey, which carried him nimbly 

 and stoutly, although his heel almost touched the ground as he 

 sat, was the adjutant. But the most picturesque, figure was 

 the illustrious inventor of the safety-lamp. He had come for 

 his favourite sport of angling, and had been practising it suc- 

 cessfully with Rose, his travelling companion, for two or three 

 days preceding this ; but he had not prepared for coursing- 

 fields, or had left Charlie Purdie's troop for Sir Walter's on a 

 sudden thought ; and his fisherman's costume, a brown hat with 

 flexible brims, surrounded with line upon line of catgut [cat- 

 gut !] and innumerable flyhooks, jackboots worthy of a Dutch 

 smuggler, and a fustian jacket dabbled with the blood of sal- 

 mon, made a fine contrast with the smart jackets, white cord 

 breeches, and well polished jockey boots of the less distin- 

 guished cavaliers about him. Dr. Wollaston was in black, and 

 with his noble severe dignity of countenance, might have 

 passed for a sporting archbishop. Mr. Mackenzie, at this time 

 in the 76th year of his age, with a white hat turned up with 

 green, green spectacles, green jacket, and long brown leathern 

 gaiters buttoned up on his nether anatomy, wore a dog-whistle 

 round his neck, and had all over the air of as resolute a de- 

 votee as the gay captain of Huntly Barn. Tom Purdie and his 

 subalterns had preceded us by a few hours with all the grey- 

 hounds that could be collected at Abbotsford, Darnick, and 

 Melrose; but the giant Maida had remained as his master's 

 orderly, and now gambolled about Sybil Gray, barking for mere 

 joy like a spaniel puppy." 



Lockhart's substitution of catgut for the fine entrail 

 of the Spanish silk-worm as if Sir Humphrey had 

 been a fiddler instead of a fisher is the less pardon- 

 able as, besides being Scott's-son-in-law, and an occa- 

 sional angler himself, he was the constant associate of 

 the Wilsons, Hogg, and others of the keenest anglers 

 in all Scotland. Old people in the district yet remem- 

 ber the sports at this period, the great annual hunt, 

 when all the neighbouring farmers attended, and the 

 proceedings terminated in a grand dinner and drinking 

 bout, Sir Walter in the chair the gala fishing days 

 at Charlie Purdie's at Boldside, &c. As a companion 



