CLEAR WATERS 



in sinuous course from rocky pool to gravelly shallow, 

 between open grassy banks. Some miles lower down 

 it leaves the wide, open pasture-land, and frets and 

 flashes in a deep rocky trough between high wooded 

 hills for practically the rest of its career. The Leader 

 is not only celebrated in Scottish song, but it is quite 

 a classic stream among Scottish anglers. I had heard 

 its praises chanted by them in my youth over their 

 toddy beside the peat fire at Ellemford and elsewhere 

 again and again ; so when I made its acquaintance for 

 the first time a few years back, its double claims to 

 touch the fancy asserted themselves and stirred 

 pleasantly within me. 



And is this Yarrow, this the stream 

 My waking fancy cherished ? 



I am sure I quoted this and in the proper spirit as I 

 came down from the Lammermuirs on the eastward 

 by ' auld Maitland's tower ' one bright summer after- 

 noon, and saw the Leader glittering like a silver thread 

 amid its green haughs below. And if Leader is not 

 Yarrow, every one not wholly ignorant of Scottish 

 minstrelsy knows very well the poetic connection 

 between the two. Rivers have assuredly a strong 

 personality, and no wonder, for they are live and 

 animate things, not mute, like hills or buildings. All 

 fishermen know they stir the memories associated 

 with them more effectively than any other things- 

 labelled as inanimate. And little rivers, beautiful 

 rivers, if they have things to say, whether of great 

 deeds or merely of memories treasured only by yourself, 

 have a subtle eloquence that no man-made melodies 

 370 



