158 AN ANGLER'S RAMBLES 



run salmon, under traces made up of single horse-hair ; the idea 

 at the same time presenting itself, that the mislaid packet might 

 possibly have formed part and parcel of the same equine orna- 

 ment as that from which the reverend angler had constructed his 

 slender foot-line. 



On the occasion of my meeting with Mr. Laidlaw, our conver- 

 sation in the afternoon, over a tumbler of Teannanich or Brackla, 

 mixed to taste, was frequently led by him to Lockhart's Life of 

 Sir Walter Scott. He plainly felt sore on the subject, and that 

 not on account of any neglect or want of the most honourable 

 mention made of him by the literary executor, but because, as 

 the purveyor of much of the raw material, and contributor of 

 numerous interesting anecdotes relating to the great novelist, he 

 had looked forward to the insertion of his communications in the 

 biography exactly as they had been furnished by him, instead of 

 their being presented to the public in a cooked- up state, highly 

 spiced, and rendered acceptable to the popular palate. That Mr. 

 Laidlaw had some reason to be aggrieved, I have no doubt ; but 

 that it was out of the province of one in Mr. Lockhart's position 

 to trick out for favour with the graces of composition, corre- 

 spondence which, although sterling to the point, was couched, 

 possibly, in more homely phrase than he could reconcile with 

 his own chaste and appropriate style, cannot be admitted. 



The still portions of the Conon are infested with small pike. 

 In a by-piece of water adjoining it, I have caught several of 

 these petty marauders. There are lakes in the district, Lochs 

 Ousie and Kinellan, which contain, with the exception of the eel, 

 no other kind of fish. The first- mentioned of these lies betwixt 

 Brahan Castle and Knock Farril, an eminence celebrated for its 

 vitrified fort, the remains of which are still a puzzle to the 

 chemist, as well as the antiquary. Loch Ousie occupies a con- 

 siderable area, and is closely encircled with plantations, in which 

 both roe and red-deer find refuge. Water-fowl of various kinds 



