178 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SALMON FISHING 



you how all people are not exactly of our way of 

 thinking, as to the triumph of art and these classical 

 illusions ; imagining, on the contrary, that painting 

 is a sleight of hand, and comes by intuition. 



" I was lately sauntering with my painting-box in 

 the romantic glen beneath the towers 



' Where Roslin's chiefs uncoffined lie ; 

 Each baron, for a sable shroud, 

 Sheathed in his iron panoply.' 



As I went along I traced the mazes of the river, in 

 some places brawling among the rocks, and at others 

 gliding silently through the mossy stones. I was 

 thus endeavouring to find out such points of view 

 as had most interest, and to investigate the peculiar 

 character in which the charm of the scene consisted. 

 " Having at length settled all this to my satis- 

 faction, and marked in the outline of a scene with a 

 piece of white crayon, preparatory to colouring it in 

 oil, a very respectable-looking lady came sailing up 

 to me, and begged to look at my canvass. The day 

 being somewhat advanced, she asked me how many 

 sketches I had made that morning ; and upon my 

 telling her that the one she was looking at was the 

 first, she replied with very perfect exultation that 

 her daughters had not been half an hour in the glen 

 before they made nearly a bookfull of drawings ; 

 but then, indeed, there were very few people so gifted 

 as her daughters. I acquiesced in good faith ; for I 

 really knew no human beings that could do the same 

 thing in the same time, and perhaps I might add in 

 the same manner ; so I concluded that the talent 



