2o6 AN ANGLER'S RAMBLES 



the Forest; and although the returns, in the shape of well- filled 

 baskets, were seldom so weighty, the deficit in this respect 

 was made up, if not by greater excitement caused by the sport 

 itself, by the influence at least which the fairer beauties of the 

 locale exercised over us. These excursions at the commence- 

 ment of the fishing season generally extended over three or four 

 weeks. 



Of those who took part in them along with me, not a few 

 it is a curious fact, illustrative of the sympathy which obtains 

 betwixt angling and the nobler pursuits of life have presented 

 themselves before the public as candidates for literary renown. 

 I could name eight or nine speculators in rhymes, more than one 

 philosopher, scholars and lawyers of considerable eminence, along 

 with the occupants of three or four professorial chairs, in whose 

 company, below Tibby's roof, I have spent evenings of great 

 delight. Highly successful among the aspirants in question 

 stood the author of the Lays of the Cavaliers; for, apart from 

 the distinctions won by him as a poet and reviewer, Professor 

 Aytoun ranked in the estimation of his sporting friends as one of 

 the elite of our Scottish anglers. His excelling points as a fly- 

 fisher lay in the perseverance with which he plied his weapon 

 more than in any great manifestation of skill, or a very extensive 

 knowledge of the art. He would set to work as doggedly and 

 as determinedly as if he had been tied, wielding the rod instead of 

 the pen, to knock off an article for Blackwood before luncheon. 

 I allude to Professor Aytoun's style of practice in his bachelor 

 days, when he was wont to hold our Border rivers in considera- 

 tion ; and I have no reason to suppose that, within the sphere of 

 his sheriffdom, which comprehended the Orkney and Shetland 

 Islands, he was induced to alter it. Three or four years ago I 

 happened to meet him in Edinburgh, and our conversation turn- 

 ing on the subject of fishing, he entertained me with so animated 

 an account of his sport and adventures, in connexion with the 



