INTRODUCTORY. 19 



in some degree looked up to by the club itself as its 

 leading member. He had the talk of three ordinary 

 tongues ; and that, combined with his humour, 

 which was infinite, gave him unlimited sway over 

 those with whom he chanced to associate. Even 

 our grandsire, who was wont to exhibit a tolerable 

 proportion of stiff pride, couched a little under the 

 affability of Sir Amalek, and was known more than 

 once to be driven from a favourite position by the tor- 

 rents of wit and persuasion let loose by the baronet. 



Our recollections, however, of these times and 

 matters are very bare, owing to which circumstance, 

 we are compelled to be brief in our delineations of 

 the other members belonging to the old fraternity. 

 The president, our grandsire, bore a striking re- 

 semblance, both in feature and character, to his 

 ancestor. As an angler, he excelled not only the 

 rest of the club, but every Borderer and Briton 

 that ever came into competition with him. 'Tis 

 vulgarly rumoured, in the district where he resided, 

 that the fish in a neighbouring stream held holiday 

 on the day of his burial, and testified their exulta- 

 tion by leaping all at once out of the water while 

 his coffin was in the act of being lowered. He died 

 very shortly after his father, aged eighty-one, in 

 consequence of a severe internal contusion, received 

 while out at a black-fishing. 



pf the other ancients composing this venerable 

 fraternity, we remember only the names of four. 



