298 AN ANGLER'S RAMBLES 



availed ourselves of it on the 23d of May 1859, proceeding by 

 way of Lockerbie from the heart of Eskdale to our place of des- 

 tination. We were favoured during our excursion with fine 

 sunny weather, and arrived at Rammerscales (a barbarous cor- 

 ruption of Randolph de Scalis, equerry of Robert the Bruce, to 

 whom the property had formerly been granted) early in the 

 morning, in time to partake of breakfast with the family. Mr. 

 Macdonald, who was well known and appreciated as a classical 

 scholar and Orientalist, performed, until the day of his demise, 

 in December 1862, the duties of secretary to a club composed 

 chiefly of the gentlemen in the district, the meetings of which are 

 held once in the twelvemonth on the banks of the Castle Loch. 

 Its designation is the Vendace Club. Sir W. Jardine, Bart., of 

 Applegarth, has been for many years its president, and to him it 

 probably owes its institution. The object of its meetings may 

 be considered as social ; and, viewed in that light, along with the 

 gratification derivable from witnessing the capture of that rare 

 and delicate fish, peculiar to Loch Maben, the vendace, or Core- 

 gonus Wilhtghbii, unites the further pleasure of testing its merits 

 as a subject for gastronomic indulgence, dainty as the whitebait 

 of the Thames, the burbot of the Trent, or the char of Winder- . 

 mere. 



The capture of the vendace in the Castle Loch (there are five 

 expanses of water bearing the designation Loch in the Loch- 

 maben range, as well as several ponds or water-holes ; but the 

 Castle or Palace Loch is the principal, covering upwards of 200 

 acres, Scottish measure, of ground), the capture of this fish is 

 conducted entirely by the net and coble* an unsportsmanlike 

 way confessedly of going to work, but one which there is no 

 help for, as the vendace cannot be taken by any other means, 

 feeding, as it has been declared to do by Dr. Knox, on ' very 

 minute entomostracous animals, not exceeding seven-twelfths of 

 a line in size.' The impossibility, however, of taking the vendace 



