338 AN ANGLER'S RAMBLES 



And who in the wide world has not heard of Alexander Selkirk ? 

 A rough commonplace vagabond he is said to have been, but 

 the prototype, nevertheless, of ' Robinson Crusoe' in Defoe's 

 admirable fiction. In the neighbourhood of my fishing-ground, 

 Largo Bay, and Largo, the birthplace of this hero, formed part 

 and parcel of the objects of interest within view. Away from 

 them are to be seen, in varying distinctness, the Bass Rock 

 famous as a State prison in olden days, and famed still as the 

 headquarters of the solan goose, North Berwick Law, and, 

 occupying a prominent place at the mouth of the Firth, the Isle 

 of May. To the west, in the landscape, the Lomonds of Fife 

 lift up their heads, leading the thoughts of the angler across 

 from the sea-depths to Leven Loch, contiguous to which, in the 

 north-west, their base extends. 



Associations such as these, romantic, songful, and historical, 

 with the surrounding scenery, have a powerful effect in rendering 

 sea-fishing an agreeable sport. I have but vaguely hinted at a 

 small portion of them, for Fifeshire, in its coast-line particularly, 

 with its numerous castles, battle-fields, religious edifices, abbeys, 

 cathedrals, palaces, and royal as well as baronial burghs, is rich 

 in great memorials. Without some tie to terra firma, the amuse- 

 ment, generally speaking, soon flags. The heart for it requires 

 to be kept up by auxiliary objects, which, in the case of river 

 and lake-fishing, as we all know, are seldom wanting. It is true 

 that the sea itself will now and then present phenomena suffi- 

 ciently attractive to give zest to the fisher's occupation. But 

 such phenomena are rare, or appreciable only by the few, and 

 cannot, as enhancing sport, be put into competition with coast- 

 scenery in the combination spoken of. 



In the year reverted to, the kindness of a gentleman in the 

 neighbourhood placed at my service a nice little pinnace, which 

 I made use of more or less daily for about three weeks, generally 

 in the afternoon and evening. Being a light craft, a couple of 



