CHAPTER IX 



THE ETTRICK SHEPHERD'S REEL 



An account of the reel once used by James Hogg Sundry 

 adventures in connection with it A bet of a rump and 

 Dozen B. with spinning minnow and Cyril with 

 Phin's Delight. 



THE Ettrick Shepherd's Reel! Everybody 

 knows that James Hogg was an angler, and 

 doubtless most people have read those most 

 delightful essays, entitled " Noctes Ambro- 

 sianse," which first charmed the readers of 

 BlackwoocFs Magazine, and ran through about 

 forty volumes of it during twenty years of the 

 first half of the last century ; of course, those 

 essays have long since been gathered and pre- 

 served in a handsome volume. Christopher 

 North, the author of these "Noctes" (Pro- 

 fessor John Wilson), was also an enthusiast 

 with the rod, and the humour of these essays 

 is never more exquisite than when the subject 

 of fishing is introduced into them. 



