AND ANGLING SONGS. 87 



the shape of bagpipe discord, with the honourable mystery of 

 punch-brewing a mystery which, in the Borderland, is asso- 

 ciated with mirth and melody of a much more intelligible cast. 

 The upshot of the chieftain's ploy piper's fame having lugged 

 lots of volunteers in its wake to the retainer's quarters was an 

 adjournment thereto, followed by ' dirling of roof and rafter,' the 

 active blending of kilt and kirtle, the snapping of thumbs, and 

 that union of howling uproar, with frantic gesticulation, which 

 forms the soul and spirit of the Highland dance. Under cover 

 of such din and devilry I was glad to effect an escape, and at 

 the risk of being swamped in a neighbouring morass, find my 

 way to Crieff. 



In the course of a pedestrian tour which I took in 1831, after 

 fishing the Eden, near Falkland, in Fifeshire, I proceeded to 

 Perth, and from thence, along with a friend, made excursions 

 among the Ochils, our principal attention being directed to the 

 May Water and the feeders of the Devon in Clackmannanshire. 

 On the 16th of July I quitted the Fair City, and made my way 

 up the Tay to where it becomes joined by its tributary the 

 Tummel, and arriving at Moulinearn in the course of the after- 

 noon, I found excellent quarters at the inn, then kept by Mr. 

 Dewar and his right-hand man Sandy, as courteous and obliging 

 host and servitor as one could wish to fall in with. 



The next day being Sunday, I devoted a portion of it to a 

 ramble up the rivulet which issues from Loch Broom, a highly 

 reputed and strictly preserved trouting lake, lying in the midst 

 of a fine grouse district, about five miles from the village. A 

 peep at the water was all I had then the opportunity of enjoying. 

 By kind permission, however, of his Grace the late Duke of 

 Athol, I formed one of an angling party which met there on the 

 22d of July 1854, and, taking everything into account, the sport 

 obtained accorded with what I had been led to expect. An in- 

 cident connected with it may help to show the folly occasionally 



