194 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 



The Ettrick Shepherd owed much to his matri- 

 monial alliance. He had a sensible wife, and an 

 affectionate domestic circle. I shall ever regard 

 his loss as one of no common sort. It will destroy 

 much of the spirit of the Border land, wither many 

 of its associations, and harm not a little the fine 

 tone of fraternal feeling which existed there, It 

 will throw a melancholy over the pastoral hills and 

 the quiet valleys over the mouldering tower and 

 the lowly cottage across the glassy lake and the 

 shining river ; his imperishable song will not fill 

 up the place of its minstrel, nor supply what is 

 departed of the husband, the father, the friend, the 

 patriot, and the angler. 



This lengthened oration of Tom Otter's seems to 

 have been listened to with beseeming attention by 

 the other members of 'the club, and was accordingly 

 followed up by their dedicating a toast to the 

 memory of the Forest-Poet. Topics, however, of 

 a less melanchoty nature found, during the course 

 of the evening, their way into discussion, and the 

 right festive humour prevailed exceedingly. Our 

 recollections, we confess, in an attempt to methodize 

 and embody the principal matters touched upon on 

 the occasion of the fraternity's final meeting, have 

 proved disappointingly brittle; and we find our- 

 selves under the necessity of merely subjoining a 

 few fragments of desultory discourse, along with 



