AND ANGLING SONGS. 2 1 3 



which he had been thrown into preventing him from sleeping, 

 induced also an extraordinary degree of thirst, which, as I well 

 recollect (occupying as we did a double-bedded apartment), 

 after expending itself on the contents of the water-jug and ewer, 

 led him to bawl out, ' Tibby, wuman ! water 's terrible scarce 

 wi' ye ; can ye no fetch in the Loch itsel', for I'm afeared we'll 

 need it a' ?' 



SONNET. 



THE fellow-anglers of my youthful days, 

 (Of past realities we form our dream,) 

 I watch them re-assembling by the stream, 

 And on the group with solemn musings gaze : 

 For some are lost in life's bewildering haze, 

 And some have left their sport and ta'en to toil, 

 And some have faced the ocean's wild turmoil, 

 And some a very few their olden ways 

 By shining lake and river still pursue ; 

 Ah ! one I gaze on 'mid the fancied band, 

 Unlike the rest in years, in gait, in hue 

 Uprisen from a dim and shadowy land 

 Ask what loved phantom fixes my regard, 

 Yarrow's late pride, the Angler, Shepherd, Bard ! 



ETTRICK FOREST. 



FROM 1828 to 1835, the latter year included, I paid a stated 

 visit to St. Mary's Loch, taking up my quarters at Tibby Shiels' 

 well-known Howff. It was generally before the conclusion of the 

 winter session at the Edinburgh University, that the yearning to 



