AND GLEANINGS. 23 



water. I never angled with bent pin again : as 

 I grew older my passion for trout-fishing absorbed 

 many of my thoughts and much of my time, but 

 far from unprofitably ; for I have no doubt that 

 this had great influence on my studies to the pre- 

 sent time. James Rennie. 



But instances of this enthusiasm crowd upon 

 us : 



" Twenty years ago, at two o'clock of a sum- 

 mer's morning, we left the school at Dalmally, 

 where we were lodging, and walked up Glenor- 

 chy, fourteen miles, along to Inveruren. On the 

 banks of that fishy loch we stood eying the sun- 

 shine beautifully warming the breezy dark moss- 

 water, we unscrewed the brass head of our walk- 

 ing cane to convert it into a rod, when lo ! the 

 hollow was full of emptiness ; we had left all the 

 pieces on the chest of drawers in our bed-room. 

 On recovering our stationary equilibrium, we put 

 our pocket pistol to our head, and blew out its 

 brains in the liquid character of Glenlevet ; then 

 down the glen we bended, and by half-past seven 

 we were in the school-house/' 



Blackwood 's Magazine. 



Nor can we refrain from quoting the following 

 handsome compliment to our London anglers, ex- 

 tracted from the same creditable source : 



