THE ANGLER'S SOUVENIR. 



home on Yarrow to visit a few friends who had 

 pitched their tent, on a gipsying excursion, in the 

 Fairy's Cleugh, on the south-eastern borders of 

 Lanarkshire. We shall not attempt to injure, by 

 translating, the Shepherd's delightful Doric, but 

 quote his own words. " I couldna ken how ye micht 

 be fennin' in the Tent for fish, so I thocht I might 

 as weel tak a whup at the Meggat. How they lap ! 

 I filled ma creel afore the dew-melt ; and as it's out o' 

 the poor o' ony man wi' a heart to gie owre fishin' 

 in the Meggat durin' a tak, I kent by the sun it was 

 nine-hours ; and by that time I had filled a' ma 

 pouches, the braid o' the tail o' some o' them wrap- 

 pin' again ma elbows." Having overridden his 

 horse, to make up for lost time, the poet is obliged 

 to wait till he gets second wind : and not to be idle, 

 in the meantime, he tries another stream. " I just 

 thocht I wad try the Fruid wi' the flee, and put en 

 a professor. The Fruid's fu' o' sma' troots, and I 

 sune had a string. I could na hae had about me, 

 at this time, ae way and ither, in ma several reposi- 

 tories, string and a', less than thretty dizzen o' 

 troots." Now this is angling indeed, and enough to 

 tempt an elderly Benedict, who manages to kill two 

 brace and a half in a week's constant angling in the 

 Colne, to desert house and home for a month's 

 angling in the Meggat and the Fruid. 



The effect produced on the mind of the angling 

 public by such papers, in BlacJcwood, as " Christo- 

 pher at the Lakes," "Christopher in his Sporting 



