xui THE MIDLAND BROOK 217 



think that it has deteriorated in consequence. 

 It has begun to realise its own importance 

 and is puffed up with pride, and it now 

 takes as good care of its trout as the Itchen 

 itself, which, when you consider that the 

 said trout average some six to the pound, is 

 clearly monstrous. There may perhaps be 

 yet a burn or two in those very remote 

 parts of the kingdom to which the invention 

 of printing has hardly penetrated which are 

 still unspoiled by education. Mr. Andrew 

 Lang knows one, and guides us to it after 

 this fashion : " When, O stranger, thou hast 

 reached a burn where the shepherd asks 

 thee for the newspaper wrapped round thy 

 sandwiches that he may read the news, then 

 erect an altar to Priapus, god of fishermen, 

 and begin to angle boldly." This does not 

 help us much to the discovery of the burn, 

 but it induces the reflection that sandwiches 

 wrapped in newspaper are not at all nice, 

 and unless the angler has reason to believe 

 himself in the neighbourhood of the precious 

 stream I think he would do well to wrap 

 his sandwiches in something else. But 

 perhaps Mr. Lang has calculated on his 

 doing so, and thus renders his burn doubly 



