240 FISHING GOSSIP. 



Besides fish and no true angler thinks only of 

 fish there is much interest of scenery and of romance 

 at Loch Ard and on the road to it. The loch is in 

 the real "Eob Eoy's country," and the genius of 

 Scott, in his great novel bearing the name of the 

 famous outlaw, has given charm and consecration to 

 almost every spot around. Even the flat and ugly 

 bogs of the Lennox, which you cross on your way 

 from the station to the inn, become picturesque when 

 you remember that you are passing across the same 

 ground as Frank Osbaldistone, and Bailie Nicol 

 Jarvie, and Andrew Fairservice rode across that day 

 when they left behind "the comforts of the Saut 

 Market," and set forth on their immortal expedition. 

 That region looks now much as Scott described it to 

 have been a century and .a half ago : 



" I shall never forget the delightful sensation with which 

 I exchanged the dark, smoky, smothering atmosphere of the 

 Highland hut, in which we had passed the night so uncomfort- 

 ably, for the refreshing fragrance of the morning air, and the 

 glorious beams of the rising sun, which, from a tabernacle of 

 purple and golden clouds, were darted full on such a scene of 

 natural romance and beauty as had never before greeted my 

 eyes. To the left lay the valley, down which the Forth wan- 

 dered on its easterly course, surrounding the beautiful detached 

 hill, with all its garland of woods. On the right, amid a pro- 

 fusion of thickets, knolls, and crags, lay the bed of a broad 

 mountain lake, lightly curled into tiny waves by the breath 

 of the morning breeze, each glittering in its course under the 

 influence of the sunbeams. High hills, rocks, and banks, 



