AND ANGLING SONGS. 143 



was a brother, in short, of William Laidlaw, the author of ' Lucy's 

 Flitting,' one of the most plaintive of our Scottish melodies, 

 whose connexion with Sir Walter Scott, as friend and secretary, 

 is well known, and who at that time occupied the position of 

 factor to Stewart Mackenzie, Esq. of Seaforth, and resided at 

 Brahan Castle, on the banks of the Conan, four or five miles 

 below Contin. 



I had an opportunity, shortly afterwards, of forming an 

 acquaintance with this gentlest and most diffident of men, whose 

 privilege it was to be present with the distinguished novelist in 

 his hours of inspiration, and to commit to writing, as it flowed 

 from his charmed lips, more than one of those admirable fictions 

 which, on the popular shelf, stand side by side, in worthy alliance, 

 with the creations of Shakspeare. The brother whom I met with 

 on this occasion was one of the original introducers of an im- 

 proved system of sheep-farming and agriculture into the North 

 of Scotland. Judged of by the history, as related to me, of his 

 first struggles, it was far from being a work either of ease or 

 profit. As a pioneer, he had to combat with the avarice and 

 litigiousness brought into play through the straitened circum- 

 stances of the land- owners, with the hatred and calumny of a 

 displaced tenantry, those small occupiers or cumberers of the 

 soil, whom Mr. Bright, and along with him my friend Professor 

 Blackie, would wish to see reinstated on Highland territory, and 

 with the prejudices, low cunning, and indolent habits of that 

 class on which he had to depend, in a large measure, for the 

 performance of out-of-door labour. 



My conversation with Mr. James Laidlaw, on my introduction 

 as an angler into Ross-shire, gave me to understand the position 

 of the Blackwater as a sporting river, and the peculiar regard in 

 which its salmon-casts were held by the proprietor. Apprised on 

 this score, and not being at all desirous of interfering with those 

 feelings of tenaciousness which it is natural for the proprietor of 



