COMPENSATION POND HABBIE'S HOWE. 195 



trout in the reservoirs, and we have heard of an ave- 

 rage of a pound being attained in it with fly. No one 

 need go to Loganhouse- water for solitude. Probably 

 he has just got his rod put up, when half-a-dozen of 

 long carts, full of people, with flags flying and a 

 couple of fiddles or a pair of bagpipes playing, assail 

 at once his eye and his ear. A cab or two may also 

 whirl past. For the road up the glen leads to Habbie's 

 Howe, where the canny citizens of Edinburgh love to 

 pic-nic. In all likelihood, a few carts-full will estab- 

 lish themselves half-way up on the edge of the water ; 

 the grown-up folks will commence dancing to the 

 aforesaid musical instruments within sight of the trouts 

 that have already been horrified' by the procession 

 along the banks, and the juveniles of the party will 

 amuse themselves by rushing up and down the burn, 

 throwing stones into it. What Job supposing him to 

 have been an angler, as is highly probable from his 

 character- would have done under such circumstances 

 we cannot say ; but the angler who has not leave to 

 fish in the ponds must make up his mind to amuse 

 himself for the day in some other way than by angling. 

 There are no trout in the little burn that comes down 

 from the reputed Habbie's Howe and feeds the upper 

 pond. It is, however, a beautiful spot. The green 

 Pentlands rise sheer up on each side ; the glen narrows 

 to a pass ; the streamlet drops from one side of the 

 hill, forming tiny cascades ; and if the angler climbs 

 up by the linns, he will see below each fall a clear 

 rocky pool, of considerable depth, but apparently with- 

 out a single fishy inhabitant. We have thrown in a 

 worm in vain, and turned over the stones fruitlessly 



