364 NOTES ON 



Note III. 



My hook hangs still in his chaps. P. 82. 



The hooking, playing, and finally the loss of a salmon, by an 

 inexperienced and impatient angler, is very accurately described 

 in the preceding passage. All fishermen of judgment know, that, 

 when the salmon lies dead-still at the bottom, it is in order to collect 

 his strength for a rally ; and that it is very hazardous to strain the line 

 on him at that moment. On the contrary, the judicious angler holds 

 himself in readiness for the fish springing into the air, with the 

 purpose of throwing the weight of its body on the line, and prepares 

 to evade this manoeuvre, by lowering the rod suddenly at the same 

 moment, so as to slack the line, and then secure the purchase on the 

 fish the instant afterwards. This requires great sleight of hand and 

 presence of mind, and many a fish breaks away in such circumstan- 

 ces, and leaves the angler to mourn his impatience and want of ad- 

 dress. This is one of the passages which shews Franck to have been 

 a practical salmon-fisher. See his caution in p. 85. 



Note IV. 

 The name of Comer they mightily honour, but that of Gossip they 



utterly abominate. P. 91. 



Commer (from the French Comere) and gossip are the Scottish 

 and English words for a godmother, or more generally for a com- 

 panion and intimate. 



Note V. 



The remarkable antiquities and mines of Boghall. P. 92. 

 Arnoldus here tells his companion a story of the hardships which 

 he sustained upon a former expedition in Scotland,, when he made 

 one of a body of English cavalry which was stationed at Boghall, a 

 castle of the Earls of Wigton. The village where they quartered is 

 no other than the town of Biggar, which cannot, even in the present 

 day, be recommended for the superior accommodations which it af- 

 fords the traveller. 



