1 68 ROSLIN. 



a salmon, which is a northern fish ; but if you will con- 

 descend to transport yourself from the banks of the 

 Arno to those of the Tweed, and to walk an hour or 

 two with me, I think I can promise that you shall see 

 such a feat performed." 

 Stranger (abstractedly) : 



" Fluminaque antiquos subterlabentia muros." 



" Come now, sink Virgil and the artist a little ; put 

 your sketch-book in your pocket, and let us see what 

 can be done with the salmon. Your quotations, my dear 

 sir, with your permission, will keep, as they have kept, 

 for ages — 



' Adde tot egregias urbes.' 



No, no ; there are no eminent cities or towns here, only 

 Melrose and Gattonside ; and if you call these * egregias 

 urbes,' you are egregiously mistaken." 



He made no reply, but looked at me with a smile 

 that seemed directed at the simplicity and absence of 

 his own character. 



" Now," said I, " as you seem to have descended 

 from your stilts, which I beg to say are very becoming, 

 though somewhat out of season, I will tell you how all 

 people are not exactly of our way of thinking, as to the 

 triumph of art and these classical illusions ; imagining, 

 on the contrary, that painting is a sleight of hand, and 

 comes by intuition. 



" I was lately sauntering with my painting-box in the 

 romantic glen beneath the towers 



' Where Roslin's chiefs uncoffined lie ; 

 Each baron, for a sable shroud, 

 Sheathed in his iron panoply.' 



