THE COOKERY OF THE TROUT 251 



most delicate. It is agreed now that the genealogy 

 should be traced to the sea-trout. The bright red 

 colour is appetizing in itself, and they have invariably 

 fetched the highest prices in the market. Laudatores 

 temporis acti, we are inclined to think the finest were 

 even finer than they are now, before the Loch was 

 professionally exploite by the angling clubs, and the 

 voracious pike had been more systematically netted. 

 For there is no question that a fair admixture of 

 pike improves the size, the shape, and the quality of 

 the trout who have survived to share their feeding 

 grounds. As to rivers, we have praised the trout 

 of the Tweed, and it is impossible to read the 

 description of the memorable dinner at the Cleikum 

 Inn, in the introduction to Meg Dod's Cookery Book, 

 without the revival of many a pleasant recollection of 

 the water springing to the lips. Mrs. Johnston was 

 a popular novelist in her day, but we venture to 

 say she never wrote anything more sympathetically 

 spirited than her story of the institution of the 

 Cleikum Club, an inimitable gastronomic sequel to 

 4 St. Ronan's Well.' Touchwood was entertaining 

 the famous Dr. Redgill, a divine as devoted to 

 culinary science and practice as Dr. Opimian of 

 ' Gryll Grange. 7 The nabob, sitting at the lavish table 

 he had spread in Innerleithen, had quoted the ancient 



