6 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED 



and Cumberland. He is not a mere angler, but 

 somewhat of an artist also ; at least he thinks so 

 himself. So when the sun rides high, and the lake 

 lies hot and motionless, " and the flies make strange 

 streaks, albeit skilfully thrown, on the mirror- 

 like surface of the water," as that most capital 

 penman, " the organist," has described it, he plants 

 his sketching stool in some shady nook, and, armed 

 at all points with the necessary implements, 

 imagines that he transmits to his canvass a vivid 

 impression of what he sees before him. 



Well skilled to select his subjects, he does not 

 take a general view of the broad expanse, but gets 

 a glimpse of the lake between the bolls of the trees 

 opposed to it in shadow. Proud of his ultra marine, 

 he touches in the distant mountain, and the rugged 

 brae nearer the foreground he paints rich and sunny ; 

 nor does he forget those accessories that give inter- 

 est and character to the scene the smoke issuing 

 from the cottage lying in some shady nook, the 

 boat hauled up on the gravelly beach, or the cattle 

 that stand listless on some point of land that juts 

 into the lake. Perhaps, too, some shepherd lies 

 sleeping with his flock around him in a sequestered 

 glade. Thus he paints the images of rural life ; and 

 who happier than himself, when he retires to the 

 clean little inn, and selects the trout for his dinner, 

 giving a cut behind the dorsal fin to descry those of 

 the reddest tint ? Self-complacent are his regards 

 when he eyes his ample capture, beaming are his 

 looks when he contemplates his coloured canvass. 

 It is with pain we take leave of the happy man : 

 we would willingly write his memoirs, but we have 



