262 FIELD AND FERN. 



tent outside, and caught such a violent cold that he 

 had to return home. He loved hunting, and went a 

 great deal with the Duke of Grafton's during his resi- 

 dence at Cosgrove Priory, in their Stony Stratford 

 country. The cottage at Lynedoch, where he spent 

 three months of the year, has never been restored 

 since his death. It stands on a knoll commanding 

 one of the finest views of the river, and is a mass of 

 beautiful decay in summer time, with the birds 

 carolling on its yellow-green thatch, and the creepers 

 clinging to its ruined trellises. A black retriever 

 paced solemnly up and down the old passages, and 

 in and out of the sashless drawing-room windows, as 

 if it were the genius loci, and the flower-garden 

 and vinery formed a rich prairie for rabbits and 

 young pheasants. 



There was not much to be seen on the Inches of 

 Perth. " Good things" may have been " landed" 

 there by racing men, but scarcely a salmon came to 

 the net that morning. The Lynn of Campsie, five 

 or six miles higher up the Tay near Stanley, had 

 very different sport to show. It is close by Catholes, 

 which is a very famous place for the rod. We had 

 to be ferried across from islet to islet, among strange 

 granite ridges and mountain ashes, and furze, before 

 we reached Mr. Speedie's head-quarters at the Lynn. 

 The men were taking a quiet smoke after a shot, 

 with ten or twelve salmon at their side, when one 

 came with a dart and a curl out of the water, 200 

 yards below, at a fly, and in an instant they were 



