492 1fcin0s of tbe 1Rot>, IRffle, anb (Bun 



the table without a word, to return an hour or so after, 

 clothed and in his usual mind, a free and happy man, 

 disemburdened for the nonce. No one spoke to him on 

 those occasions, and no one minded him." 



Long before this, however, when he was but a boy of 

 nine, Stoddart had been taken by his father on a fishing 

 excursion to Mount Benger on Yarrow, and had then 

 made the acquaintance of " the Ettrick Shepherd," who 

 was delighted to find that the lad had sympathy with 

 both poetry and angling. He was made free of Tibbie 

 Shiel's cottage on St. Mary's Loch a place dear to all 

 anglers. Tibbie was a widow, who on the death of her 

 husband (Richardson) retook her maiden name, and was 

 allowed to make her cottage a kind of private inn, on 

 condition that she sold no wine or spirits. But there 

 was no need for her to do that, seeing that her guests 

 always brought " lashins o' liquor " with them. 



Christopher North was a prime favourite of Tibbie's, 

 and till the Shepherd's death paid her cottage many a 

 visit. Talking over old days a few years before she died, 

 she said to a lady staying there, " There was mony a ane 

 cam' here, gentle and simple, but I aye likit the Cock o' 

 the North best, that was Professor Wilson, ye ken. I 

 likit him and Mr. Tom Stoddart and Hogg. Eh ! but 

 they were the callants for drinkin'. Mony's the time, 

 when they were at it, I've fried them a bit ham and took 

 it to them, and said,-' Ye'll just tak this bit ham, gentle- 

 men ; maybe it'll sober ye ' ; an' they would eat it, and 

 just on to the drinkin' again." And then, warming to the 

 old associations, she continued, "Yon Hogg, the Shepherd, 

 ye ken, was an awfu* fine man. He should hae ta'en me, 



