224 AN ANGLER'S RAMBLES 



the head of the Loch, a further distance of fifteen or sixteen 

 miles. After remaining nearly a fortnight at Tibby's cottage, 

 we started again for Edinburgh by Innerleithen, fishing down, 

 on our way to that village, the upper portion of Yarrow. It was 

 not until the afternoon, when we arrived at the Gordon Arms, 

 near where the road leads off from the river towards Traquair, 

 that the absence of Eover was noticed ; and it was then recol- 

 lected that he had been left shut up at Tibby's cottage. It 

 being too late to remedy matters, my friend's mind was at once 

 made up to leave the care of the dog to our hostess, who was 

 well versed in the management of that particular breed. Pro- 

 ceeding to Innerleithen, we spent the night there, and on the 

 following day returned to Edinburgh. One of the first things 

 my friend proposed to do, on his arrival at Gloucester Place, was 

 to post directions to Mrs. Richardson as to how Rover was to be 

 sent home. This intention, however, was agreeably put to flight 

 on entering the paternal residence, by the appearance of the dog 

 itself, safe and sound, ears cocked and tail wagging, whining out 

 a welcome to its truant and negligent master. What appears to 

 me most singular in this incident, is not the mere return of the 

 animal (which, on inquiry, had preceded our own by six or seven 

 hours, and had been accomplished, the greater part of it, over a 

 line of country it was virtually unacquainted with), but the 

 sagacity which had detected our desertion of the cottage, and 

 had induced Rover to beat its own retreat without much delay, 

 in quest of the city quarters where it had been brought up and 

 domesticated. 



Some remarkable exemplifications of the instinct and sagacity 

 which distinguish the colley might be instanced in connexion 

 with the upland parishes in the counties of Selkirk, Peebles, and 

 Dumfries. My recollections of the parish of Ettrick associate 

 with them a congregation composed nearly as much of dogs as of 

 men. The population of that rural parish consists chiefly of hill 



