I02 ANGLING & ART IN SCOTLAND 



cream, no doubt frightened away many sportsmen of 

 the more fastidious type. I have heard gentlemen at 

 the Invergarry Hotel, in immaculate evening dress, 

 discussing the place over their wine — "Tomdown! 

 Ah, yes, a perfectly impossible hole ten miles up 

 the valley ! " Probably it would be so to them. 

 But to the good old Tomdowner, in his ancient 

 checked shooting suit and flannel shirt and cap 

 bristling with flies, it was a paradise ; for where 

 could he get such untrammelled freedom, combined 

 with such excellence of sport ? 



There was little initiative at that inn ; the good old 

 routine was always adhered to. Complaints were 

 invariably met with the most willing and cheerful 

 acquiescence, but they did not produce any ameliora- 

 tion. If, in your indignation, you were to call in the 

 authorities and request them kindly jus^ to taste 

 a milk pudding in whose composition a bad t.<gg had 

 inadvertently found a resting-place, they would 

 willingly do so, and would readily endorse all the 

 epithets that you could hurl upon the unlucky 

 pudding — "'Deed yes I it is horrible, horrible; I am 

 sure that no one could eat such a thing ; indeed it is 

 fery strange how it could happen ! " &c. But beyond 

 that nothing came of your remonstrance. 



