368 ifcfnss of tbe 1Rob, IRffle, an& (Bun 



and sportsmanlike picture of the capture of a trout 

 from the first rise to the final landing after long and 

 skilful play. 



James Thomson, then, opened to John Younger 



those realms of gold 

 Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold. 



It was like the revelation of Homer to John Keats on 

 reading Chapman's translation of the Iliad. l( From this 

 time," writes John, in his Autobiography, " all subjects 

 of amusement seemed in my view to sink into nothing 

 compared with poetry." 



But a horrible doubt took hold of him as to whether 

 this enthusiasm might not proceed from some soft, un- 

 manly feeling. This doubt, however, was dispelled by an 

 encounter with Andrew Smail, a big, hulking farmer's 

 lad who was the local bully and cock of the walk. John 

 felt that he, too, had stout thews and sinews, and he was 

 minded to take the conceit out of Master Smail. The 

 conflict was brief and decisive. In less than five minutes 

 the young cobbler-poet sealed up his adversary's eyes 

 and left him blinded and beaten. 



Then, to allay his warlike excitement, John sallied 

 out to the burn and there " gumped out half a stone of 

 speckled trouts." Already he had found that angling 

 was a panacea for all troubles, that he could forget all 

 the worries of " this weary, unintelligible world " when he 

 had a rod in his hand and the trout were rising. And 

 in after life, when the Tweed salmon knew his skill and 

 could not resist his crafty lures, the sport was the solace 

 of his existence, in the enjoyment of it all Fortune's 



