PREFACE. 



MOST of the Songs and Poems embodied in this volume 

 were printed in a collected form, along with other effu- 

 sions, several years ago published I can hardly call 

 them ; for although bearing on the title-page, by express 

 sanction, the imprimatur of a celebrated Edinburgh firm, 

 they laboured under the disadvantage of emanating from 

 a provincial press, were sparingly advertised, and not 

 urged to any great extent upon public attention. From 

 the reviewer, however, in the limited sphere of ordeal to 

 which they were submitted, they met with a nattering 

 reception, which was enhanced, shortly after its issue, by 

 the exhaustion of the impression. Of this success I ne- 

 glected to avail myself, and it was only recently, encouraged 

 by the solicitations of friends, that I entertained the idea 

 of putting that portion of my rhythmical effusions to- 

 gether in a new shape, and blending them at haphazard 

 with a few prose sketches on piscatorial subjects. In 

 carrying this plan into execution, besides introducing 

 original matter, I have subjected my former compositions 

 to a careful revision, pruning them where I discovered 

 redundancies, and investing them, where it seemed both 



