164 Ikfnas of tbe 1Rot>, IRffle, an& (Bun 



any rate in the very front rank ; and, though I confess 

 to but a lukewarm admiration for the " Noctes," I can 

 never read the " Recreations " without a feeling of exal- 

 tation and delight, as if I were treading the heather 

 beside Christopher in his sporting-jacket, with the free 

 breezes of the Highlands tingling in my cheeks. 



But it is as a sportsman that I am chiefly concerned 

 with him here, and, indeed, it is in this phase of his 

 character that John Wilson is seen at his best. Never 

 is his pen more eloquent or his imagination more fervent 

 than when he pictures himself casting a fly in the rocky 

 pools or striding, Manton in hand, over the moors. He 

 loved both fishing and shooting, but the gun was 

 always second to the rod in his affections. Angling 

 was a passion with him, I may almost say from the 

 cradle to the grave. When he was but three years 

 old he is said to have strayed away from his nurse and 

 to have been discovered fishing in the burn with a bit 

 of string and a crooked pin. Possibly this may be a 

 myth, but that he showed his angling enthusiasm very 

 early may be gathered from this glowing passage in 

 the " Recreations " : 



" The new-breeched urchin stands on the low bridge 

 of the little bit burnie ! and with crooked pin, baited 

 with one unwrithing ring of a dead worm, and attached 

 to a yarn-thread for he is not yet got into hair, and 

 is years off gut his rod of the mere willow or hazel 

 wand, there will he stand during all his play-hours, as 

 forgetful of his primer as if the weary art of printing 

 had never been invented, day after day, week after 

 week, month after month, in mute, deep, earnest, 



