THE BLOODY DOCTOR 105 



in hodden grey, strolling home from the Rankle 

 burn. And we told him of our bad day, and 

 asked him concerning that hideous fly, which had 

 covered the loch and lured the trout from our 

 decent Greenwells and March browns. And the 

 ancient man listened to our description of the 

 monster, and He said : ' Hoot, ay ; ye've jest for- 

 gathered wi' the Bloody Doctor.' 



This, it appears, is the Border angler's name 

 for the horrible insect, so much appreciated by 

 trout. So we drove home, when all the great 

 table-land was touched with yellow light from a 

 rift in the west, and all the broken hills looked 

 blue against the silvery grey. God bless them ! for 

 man cannot spoil them, nor any revolution shape 

 them other than they are. We see them as the 

 folk from Flodden saw them, as Leyden knew 

 them, as they looked to William of Deloraine, as 

 they showed in the eyes of Wat of Harden and of 

 Jamie Telfer of the Fair Dodhead. They have 

 always girdled a land of warriors and of people 

 fond of song, from the oldest ballad-maker to that 

 Scotch Probationer who wrote. 



