142 - WATERSIDE SKETCHES. 



After fishing in lough and- river under the freest of con- 

 ditions in a certain district in Ireland,' I once found myself 

 whipping a burn in the south of Scotland, having obtained 

 permission so to do from the agent of the nobleman who 

 owned the land. It was a nice little stream for want of a 

 better, and at times, I was told, productive of fair sport. 

 Guided by a local Waltonian whom I had attached to my 

 service, I found myself in the course of my upward progress 

 arrested by admiration of the fern-covered grounds with 

 woods beyond, a few Highland cattle cropping the herbage, 

 a setter or two barking in the distance, birds of prey hawking 

 here and there, and purple mountains receding to a very 

 distant background. 



In the midst of my hearty enjoyment of the scene a youth 

 appeared on the opposite bank, eyeglassed, knickerbockered, 

 and haw-hawing. What right had I there ? Where did I 

 ■come from? What was my name? These and other 

 questions, peremptorily demanded, were straightforwardly 

 answered, and then sentence was pronounced. We were at 

 once sent about our business by this lordly youth, who had 

 talked of " my pwop'ty '' until I assumed he was at the 

 lowest a duke. Of course we shifted quarters immediately, 

 and in trudging towards the boundary of what the young gen- 

 tleman had called " the deer park,"^a strong stretch of the 

 imagination, by the way — I discovered that our outraged 

 landowner was the son of an English manufacturer who 

 rented the place. No doubt he was a good son, and no 

 doubt he had a perfect right to prevent any strolling vaga- 

 bond from thinning out his troutlings ; only, after some 

 years' experience of Ireland, I cannot conceive it possible 

 that any angler there, finding himself in a similar position 



