196 1fcin0s of tbe 1Rofc, IRtfle, ant) 6un 



from its little bunch, drawing it out with trembling 

 hand along the white coverlet, and then replacing it 

 in his pocket-book, he would tell ever and anon of the 

 streams he used to fish in of old, and of the deeds he 

 had performed in his childhood and youth. These 

 precious relics of a bygone sport were wont to be 

 brought out in the early spring, long before sickness 

 confined him to his room. It had been a habit for 

 many years, but then the ' sporting jacket ' was donned 

 soon after, and angling was no more a mere delightful 

 day-dream, but a reality ( that took him knee-deep or 

 waistband-high, through river-feeding torrents, to the 

 glorious music of his running and ringing reel.' This 

 outward life was at an end. With something of a 

 prophetic spirit did he write in former days when he 

 affected the age he had not attained, how love for all 

 sports would live in his heart for ever : ' Our spirit burns 

 within us, but our limbs are palsied, and our feet must 

 brush the heather no more. Lo ! how beautifully these 

 fast travelling pointers do their work on that black 

 mountain's breast ! intersecting it into parallelograms, 

 and squares, and circles, and now all a stoop on a 

 sudden, as if frozen to death ! Higher up among the 

 rocks, and cliffs, and stones we see a stripling, whose 

 ambition it is to strike the sky with his forehead, and 

 wet his hair in the misty cloud, pursuing the ptarmigan 

 now in their variegated summer dress, seen even among 

 the unmelted snows. Never shall Eld deaden our 

 sympathies with the pastimes of our fellow-men any 

 more than with their highest raptures, their profoundest 

 rriefs.' Nor did he belie the words." 



