AND ANGLING SONGS. 179 



scape, in abundance. There are ruins also ; and what can be 

 more imposing in that respect than Castle Campbell, frowning 

 down from its site of strength on the Hill of Gloom, and carrying 

 back the tide of thought to the Lords of Lorn, and the devas- 

 tating marches of Montrose ; and in addition to these memorials 

 of the past, there are modern structures, tastefully got up and 

 harmoniously disposed ; nor has our national bard failed to cele- 

 brate, and that in one of his sweetest melodies, the ' clear wind- 

 ing river,' and the fairyland through which it glides. But to 

 talk of it as the Arcadia of Scotland is to place Glen- Devon in a 

 somewhat invidious light, and assume for it a position in our 

 romantic land not justified by the laws of ordinary taste. 



Out of the two months passed by me in 1834 on the skirts of 

 the Ochils, thirty days are recorded in my journal to have been 

 devoted to the water- side. The weather, up to the first or 

 second week of August, appears to have been characterized by 

 severe droughts, and, in consequence, was unpropitious for fly- 

 fishing. I find before that period no entries made of any conse- 

 quence. On August 13th, and following days, a change of 

 weather having taken place, the contents of my basket became 

 more in unison with the expectations I had been led to form of 

 the Devon as a trouting stream the average takes running 

 from four up to five dozen. 



From Dollar, downwards to its junction with the Forth, two or 

 three miles above Alloa, the Devon pursues a sluggish course, 

 and the angling is very indifferent. A salmon-cast formed by a 

 bend or sharp turn near the head of this stretch presented 

 almost the only enlivening feature thirty years ago. Its reputa- 

 tion, even then, was on a doubtful footing. Betwixt Dollar and 

 the Linn there are plenty of small river trout, to which the rocks 

 and brushwood give more than ordinary security. The parrs, 

 also, are pretty numerous in this quarter, but have never, in any 

 one properly certified instance, been taken above the falls, or 



