LOCHMAEEN. CASTLE LOCH. 79 



On returning from the river-side to our inn, we learned what 

 startled us : the Angel of Death had visited Dumfries the evening 

 before ; that is, on the evening following the afternoon on which 

 I had seen from Annan the fatal cloud hovering over that town. 

 Was this the cause ? What connexion had this mist with the 

 Asiatic pestilence, which swept Dumfries on that fatal night ? I 

 answer not, leaving all to judge for themselves. Of the real 

 nature of this dreadful pestilence nothing is known, nor of any 

 other pestilence. During its visitation to Britain, I had several 

 opportunities of verifying the remark of Thucydides, whilst 

 speaking of the plague at Athens. " The physicians at first 

 could administer no relief, through utter ignorance ; nay, they 

 died the faster the closer their attendance on the sick ; and all 

 human art first and last was totally unavailing.!' 



Behold us now at Lochmahen, and close to the Annan and 

 the AE, both good trouting streams ; but above all, as regards 

 scenery, in the neighbourhood of that beautiful lake, the Castle 

 Loch of Lochmaben ; and on its shady banks the ruined Castle 

 of " the Brus." Here, if we can trust history, lived one of the 

 great Norman robbers, called Robert de Brus. He had other 

 castles besides this one, for the original seat of the family was 

 Guisborough, in Yorkshire ; the Scotch estates came, I think, by 

 marriage. The castle has a still stronger interest than even 

 this, though Bannockburn will live long in story ; this castle 

 was one of the residences of Marie Stuart, queen of Scotland. 

 The lake, which at one time had surrounded the castle by means 

 of an artificial moat, contains fish of various kinds, but not 

 many trout. Pike abound, but chief and foremost is the 

 vengis or vendiss, thought to have been transplanted to this 

 lake by the early monks. Of this curious and beautiful fish, a 

 number of idle stories were told, until the rubbish was cleared 

 away by myself ; the most curious part of its history was, that 

 it could not be tempted by any bait. Now this was time, and 

 the cause thereof was demonstrated for the first time by myself.. 

 The vendiss live on minute microscopic entomostraca, a kind of 

 shellfish, declining all other food. 



Before I describe the vengis or vendiss, let me say a few words 

 about angling in the Annan. It is not a particularly good river 



