BOAT FISHING 69 



old Scotch castle which it was intended to supplant, 

 well known to the art connoisseur as the subject of Sir 

 John Millais' fine picture of 'Christmas Eve,' so well 

 etched by Macbeth. No wonder that the great artist 

 did justice to his subject, for at the time of which I 

 write he was a near neighbour, and a frequent guest 

 within those hospitable walls, and in later years rented 

 the fishing of the adjoining beat of the Tay, and the 

 shooting of the surrounding woods, chase and bog. 

 \Ve are not far from the scenes depicted in ' Chill 

 October,' ' Murthly Moss,' and ' The Fringe of the 

 Moor.' 



There are two of us sitting in the boat facing the 

 rectangular stern, and Miller and his man have 

 selected two good-sized flies, one a ' Butcher,' the 

 other something like a Popham, and attached them to 

 the treble gut casting lines of a pair of stout eighteen- 

 foot rods, which point outwards from the corners 

 of the stern. A third rod hangs straight between 

 them, on which is a medium-sized phantom minnow. 

 Fortune has so far favoured me this morning, for 1 

 have won the toss, and therefore the first chance with 

 the minnow. We have just finished such a breakfast 

 as Queen Elizabeth might have envied, and start from 

 the bank in high spirits, for the river is in first-rate 

 order ; it is about a week since a heavy spate substi- 



