84 ANGLING SKETCHES 



ruined towers of Queen Mary's prison, may par- 

 tially console the fisher. The accommodation is 

 agreeable, there is a pleasant inn an old town- 

 house, perhaps, of some great family, when the 

 great families did not rush up to London, but 

 spent their winters in such country towns as 

 Dumfries and St. Andrews. The inn has a great 

 green garden at its doors, and if the talk is mainly 

 of fishing, and if every one tells of his monster 

 trout that escaped the net, there is much worse 

 conversation than that. 



When you reach Kinross, and, after excel- 

 lent ham and eggs, begin to make a start, the 

 cockney element is most visible at the first. 

 Everybody's name is registered in a book ; each 

 pays a considerable, but not exorbitant, fee for 

 the society often well worth the money and the 

 assistance of boatmen. These gentlemen are also 

 well provided with luncheon and beer, and, on 

 the whole, there is more pleasure in the life of a 

 Loch Leven boatman than in most arts, crafts, 

 or professions. He takes the rod when his 

 patron is lazy ; it is said that he often catches the 



