46 ANGLING SKETCHES 



are expected to know. As the green trout utterly 

 declined to rise, I tried the boatman with the Irish 

 story of why the Gruagach Gaire left off laughing, 

 and all about the hare that came and defiled 

 his table, as recited by ]\Ir. Curtin in his ' Irish 

 Legends ' (Sampson, Low, & Co.). The boatman 

 did not know this fable, but he did know of a red 

 deer that came and spoke to a gentleman. This 

 was a story from the Macpherson country. I give 

 it first in the boatman's words, and then we shall 

 discuss the history of the legend as known to Sir 

 Walter Scott and James Hogg, the Ettrick Shep- 

 herd. 



■The Yarn of the Bl.ick Officer 



' It was about " the last Christmas of the 

 hundred " — the end of last centur}-. The}- wanted 

 men for the Black Watch (42nd Highlanders), and 

 the Black Officer, as they called him, was sent to 

 his own country to enlist them. Some he got 

 willingly, and others by force. He promised he 

 would only take them to London, where the King 



