21 



journeying, on a pleasant April day, from his own 

 home on Yarrow to visit a few friends who had pitched 

 their tent, on a gipsying excursion, in the Fairy's 

 Cleugh, on the south-eastern borders of Lanarkshire. 

 We shall not attempt to injure, "by translating, the 

 Shepherd's delightful Doric, "but quote his own words. 

 " I couldna ken how ye micht be fennin' in the Tent 

 for fish, so I thocht I might as weel tak a whup at the 

 Meggat. How they lap! I filled ma creel afore the 

 dew-melt; and as its out o' the poor o' ony man wi' 

 a heart to gie owre fishin' in the Meggat durin' a tak, I 

 kent by the sun it was nine-hours ; and by that time I 

 had filled a' ma pouches, the braid o' the tail o' some o' 

 them wrappin' again ma elbows." The poet having 

 over-ridden his horse, to make up for lost time, is 

 obliged to wait till he gets second wind, and not to be 

 idle, in the meantime, he trys another stream. "I just 

 thocht I wad try the Fruid wi' the fiee, and put on a 

 professor. The Fruid 's fu' o' sma' troots, and I sune 

 had a string. I could na hae had about me, at this 

 time, ae way and ither, in ma several repositories, 

 string and a', less than thretty dizzen o' troots." Now 

 this is angling indeed, and enough to tempt an elderly 

 Benedict, who manages to kill two brace and a half in 

 a week's constant angling in the Colne, to desert house 

 and home for a month's angling in the Meggat and 

 the Fruid. 



The effect produced on the mind of the angling 

 public by such papers, in Blackwood, as Christopher 

 at the Lakes, Christopher in his Sporting Jacket, Loch 



