SCOTLAND. 149 



well as those situated in remote Highland districts, we have both 

 railway and steam-boat conveyances, very conveniently directed to 

 most of the popular and fashionable places of resort for sporting 

 tourists. Edinburgh and Glasgow are both good localities from 

 which to make a start into the "Land t O J cakes." Commencing, 

 however, with the great facilities which the . Clyde navigation 

 affords to the rod-fisher, and the regular and direct transit which 

 characterises all its ordinary movements, we can place the angler 

 on the banks of^ some of the charming mountain streams in a very 

 short space of time. 



An angler placing himself in one of the Clyde steamers, may 

 reach Dumbarton, or the banks of the river Leven, in an hour. 

 This water runs out of Loch Lomond. This stream has been 

 immortalized by Smollet, who was born and educated on its banks, 

 in an ode which is justly considered one of the finest in our 

 language. 



" On Leven' s banks, while free to rove, 

 And tune the rural pipe to love, 

 I envied not the happiest _swain ^ 

 That ever trod the Arcadian plain. 

 Pure stream ! in whose transparent wave 

 My youthful limbs I wont to lave ; 

 No torrents strain thy limpid source, 

 No rocks impede thy dimpling course, 

 That sweetly warbles o'er its bed 

 With white, round, polished pebbles spread. 

 "While lightly poised the scaly brood 

 In myriads cleave thy crystal flood : 

 The springing trout m speckled pride, 

 The salmon, mpnarc\i of the tide, 

 The ruthless pike, intent on war, 

 The silver eel, and mottled par 

 Devolving from thy parent lake, 

 A charming maze thy waters make, 

 ]By bowers of birch, and groves of pine, 

 And edges flowered with eglantine. 

 Still on thy banks so gaily green 

 May numerous flocks and herds be seen, 

 Attentive, then, to this informing lay, 

 Read how he dictates as he points the way. 

 Trust not at first a oriick adventurous pace, 

 Six miles its top points gradual from the base. 

 iJp the high rise with panting haste I passed, 

 And gained the long laborious steep at last." 



The Leven is about seven miles in extent, and there is generally 

 very fair fishing in it ; but it is not a spot to tarry long at. Loch 

 a celeorated sheet of water, contains many fish, but to 



