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and modified in its habits and happiness by the Sabbath; and whilst this fact has been noticed, and even blazoned, in "prose and verse," in respect of almost every other class or character, "the Fisher's Sabbath" mains yet unnoticed. Be it, therefore, my task and aim to give you some notion, in the shape and form of a narrative, illustrated and interspersed with suitable and seasonable reflections, of the life which a trulydevoted fisher, one of the real mountain-breed, leads,-of what he enjoys and suffers,-of all his varied experiences on a Christian Sabbath.

I had fished all Saturday without success. In fact, the weather was extremely unfavourable, for, owing to some heavy showers on "the heads," the trouting streams came down suddenly and red, and rendered fishing with success quite impracticable. By breakfast-time of the Sabbath morning, the sun, which had shone out early, was clouded in with a sheety and dark-spread covering. The whole sky had gradually assumed a sombre aspect, yet not so deep or so lowering as to sadden the earth. There was a kind of Claude Lorraine hue, which settled gradually upon hill and valley, and which was quite consistent with cheerfulness and distinct vision. A gentle breeze sprung up, not in fits or gusts, but in that long and uniform breathing which softly ruffles the surface of the pool, whilst the stream remains apparently untouched. I could see it upon a little pond, or "floshen," first rippling at the weather-ward edge, then gaining form, and advance, and extent, and depth of curl, till "the smooth" became one gentle ruffling, and “the still" one placid agitation. It was as if a troop of spirits had passed over the surface of the water, and with their presence had fanned it into motion; or as if a Scotch housewife, in the hurry and bustle of her morning dairy, had breathed gently upon a milk-cog, compelling the cream to retire to the opposite side of the vessel, before the stream of her blast. The bell rung to church, and long did I hesitate betwixt two opinions. What would I gain by a stroll into the mountains, and along those well-known streams, but vexation and chagrin? and by going, as usual, to

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church, I might settle accounts with my conscience, and hear an excellent sermon. The bell, however, rung in whilst I was still hesitating; and as I disliked, or thought that I disliked, a public entry into the church when too late, I gradually ascended the long glen, which conducted me almost to the mountai's-brow. I was quite alone in the solitude of Nature, and I felt it. The mountainous region was thinly inhabited, and, with the exception of a single shepherd, who hung in loose plaid, and with his dog accompanying him, upon the distant weather gleam, I am quite certain that no rational creature was within ten miles of me. There was something balmy, yet not oppressively hot, in the air, and every fowl of heaven seemed to hold jubilee, and to rejoice in the consciousness of being, and in the possession of liberty. No wonder, thought I, that your mountaineers have, in all ages, resisted the aggressions of despotism, for the very air which they breathe, the very ground which they tread, is hallowed by the presence of Freedom. Even the flocks roam without restraint, whilst the raven and the kite, the lapwing and the curlew, keep up the communion of independence over head. Having gained the summit of the mountain, I rested upon a well-known cairn, from the southern side of which the shepherd had carefully scoped out a recess, stocked with hazel staves of curious workmanship, and with many a scattered remnant of shoes and stockings. From this, I looked a-down the vale, and along the full stretch of a stream, all visible in every pool and current, every bend and winding. In the extreme distance lay the sea, like an edging of blue ribbon, contracted into a narrow stripe, and sinking away into the horizon cloud. And as I turned my face northward, into the broken and precipitous recesses of the cataract and the spring, I could see a whole host of rivulets rushing from the declivity, and curving away fantastically into the larger river beneath. On the whole of Nature around me one character was inscribed, one expression was visible, one solicitation was perceptible, and I recollected, and felt, that I was every inch a fisher. Need I mince 3 K

the matter, by apology to the religious, or explanation to the prudent and propriety-guided reader? It is sufficient, at least for the purposes of truth and sincerity, to state, that I felt something like regret that it was Sabbath, and that my hand was not armed, as on the immediately-preceding day, with a rod, and my pockets stored with lines and hooks. I would have exchanged any two of the longest and most lovely Sabbaths of June, for one short hour of weekday freedom on this occasion. Yet, had some malicious spirit of the mountain, or of the flood, supplied me with the means, and had I been even fully assured of the absence of all worldly observation, I had not thrown a line, or fished a single pool. My feelings upon the subject terminated in mere regret that Saturday had not been Sunday, and vice versa. A truly irreligious fisher is a monster in rerum natura." Every fisher feels, that, to violate the majesty and authority of God, by profanation or impiety, were to forfeit his claims to the character which he possesses, and which he values so highly. It were throwing upwards spot, or pollution, upon the pure vault of heaven-it were whispering treason and trespass into the ever-listening ear of Silence-it were advancing singly and alone into the presencechamber of Majesty, with the view of perpetrating insult. "Oh! how can he resist" the freshness, and the purity, and the promise, and the gladdening uprising of the morning dew! “Oh! how can he resist" the elevation and the buoyancy of spirit which every ascending step on the mountain imparts or supports! "Oh! how can he resist" the intercommunings of solitude, the inner feeling and the outward impression, that close and elevating intercourse which the spirit of Nature holds with the heart, and with the reflective and imaginative powers! All this may indeed be resisted by a person who knows merely how to cover his hook with a worm or with a minnow, and to torture into temptation the living

"bait." But a "fly-fisher," a real sportsman of the true innocuous breed, is altogether incapable of such monstrosity. His whole aspect is erect and prepossessing, and his whole soul is refined, and exalted into lofty and purifying apprehensions. Who ever heard of a fishing cock-fighter, or smuggler, or horse-dealer? Wherever there is grossierte of purpose, or low chicanery of dealing, there the spirit of angling will not abide.

Have you ever, Mr Editor, experienced a Sabbath amongst the Mountains?" I do not speak of a walk which you may accidentally have held along a public road, and through a mountainous district of country, do not speak of a companioned ramble, which, in the buoyancy and thoughtlessness of youth, you may have taken, of a summer Sabbath, to the "Fountain-head," or to "Habbie's How;" neither do I advert to that straining and puffing which the desire of compassing Arthur's Seat, of a Sunday afternoon, may have induced you to undergo. None of these come within a thousand miles of my present meaning, when I interrogate you respecting a Sabbath amongst the Mountains." He who sets out of a spring or a summer Sabbath morning, in excellent health, and good, though, at the same time, chastened and commandable spirits, who has said to himself, "Go to," I will forget for a day all that bustle and anxiety which the week has produced,-he who, with a single pocketable volume, measures his way, as it were, at random, into the distant wildernesswho feels, as he advances, that he is opening up a favourite retreat of Nature, and who ultimately lays him self down in some sunny glen, where the noisy, and dancing, and sparkling mountain-stream winds around him,

he who reposes upon turf, at once verdant and dry, at once fragrant and soft, and who, pleased with himself and with all around him, gradually converts a reclining into a supine position, and who, thus circumstanced and situated, hears the grasshopper chirp, the lavrock sing, and the ra

ven croak around and above him, who takes knowledge of the fleecy clouds as they sail, in almost imperceptible motion, above, and who looks into the distant blue of heaven, till it become dark and deep, and indigo-hued, till the large and vibratory bells float, and the dancing and restless flashess of darkness shift across his vision; he who does and experiences all this, knows, and he only can be said to know, what "a Sabbath amongst the Mountains"

means.

As if led by instinct, rather than by reason or recollection, I arrived about mid-day at the most favourite portion of my most favourite stream, and there I laid myself down on an elevated bank, from which I could command a pretty extended view of some of the best pools and eddies in the water. I took from my pocket my Sabbath companion, "Young's Night Thoughts," and had just entered upon the fearful mystery of "Lorenzo," when I was arrested by a frequent and expressive plunging. When I looked up, the whole adjoining pool, and indeed the whole smoother water, so far as my eye could reach, was one theatre of commotion. It resembled the first bubbling and bell-shewing of a boiling pot, or rather the close and universal flash and dancing of a thunder shower on the surface of the flood. What I felt on this occasion it would be needless, even were it possible, to describe, for, to a brother of the rod, such an attempt would be impertinent, and to any other reader it would be at once absurd and un

intelligible. I forgot "Lorenzo," gradually permitted "Young," as if I had been fast asleep, to slip from my hand, and fixed my eyes intently and steadily upon the scene before me. But whilst I continued to look with the intensity of a cat watching her prey, or of Hogg's dog, Hector, setting, during prayer-time, the family mouser, the scene instantly shifted, and the water became smooth and unbroken as formerly. I had never distinctly marked this fact before, and my attention was aroused to it by what followed. After an interval of half an hour, I felt a gentle breeze upon my face, and saw a whole colony of flies, of every wing

and colour, straggling, and fluttering, and tilting passively along, over the stream-head. In an instant, the former appearances were renewed; there was nothing to be seen but one plunge and plash, wherever such commotions, from the nature_of_the stream, were visible. I thought that, had I been differently circumstanced, in point of time and accoutrements, I could have filled my basket at the delightful rate of two to a throw, and could not help wishing that, instead of my present teasing and tempting position, I had occupied my place immediately under the precentor's desk in the church. Whether these were feelings of repentance or true devotion, or of mere sportsman regret, I leave to the Professor of "Moral Philosophy," that most comprehensive and incomprehensible of all sciences, coolly, leisurely, and learnedly, to determine.

In the meantime, I may be permitted, as a fisher, to remark in passing, that, from what I observed on this occasion, I was enabled to explain a circumstance which I had not formerly understood. During the same day, and apparently under the same sky and breath of heaven, trouts are often teasingly capricious;

now, for example, you cannot bring your hook within an inch and a half of the surface of the flood, but some lazy, lumbering fellow, has his nose three inches out of the water to secure it, or some light smart chitterling of a par or whiting makes a sommerset of a foot high, in order to catch it! and again, in the course of one single minute, things are so altered, that, though you should strain your rod from its joints, and your arm from its socket, and your eyeballs from their setting, in throwing, and adjusting throws, in lightly dropping here, and in smartly trailing there, in the full and exhausted exercise of all your skill and all your art, you shall not be able to raise a single fin; you may as well fish with your youngest petticoat-attired son in the duck-pond, or the byre-doordub. Now, it occurs to me, that all this is owing to a certain alternate change of the electrical state of the atmosphere, in consequence of which, the flies are at once disengaged from the banks, and the trouts are sud

denly excited to secure their prey. If ever any very decided discoveries shall be made, in the infant science of electricity, it strikes me that the angler has an excellent chance to hit upon the truth. But upon this subject the year 1924 must bear testimony; and to the fishers and philosophers of that year I willingly leave the whole subject in all its bearings. There is one circumstance, however, of which, as an angler, I am entitled, even now, to speculate. All fishers know, that the killing of trouts is not in proportion to their rising; in other words, that one may be actually teased and tormented out of all patience with a constant shew of taking, by every manner of rise and curvet-work, whilst, at the same time, your hook is never touched, or touched in so slight and almost imperceptible a manner, that you become, at last, quite furious, and lash away as if you were giving the water, like Xerxes, a chastisement, or bringing into subjection and intelligence some wayward and refractory pointer. Now, I account for this fact in the following manner: When the water is clear, (and such occurrences only take place in this state of the water,) and there is no ripple upon the surface of the pool, the trouts, provided the electrical state of the atmosphere be favourable for their rising, immediately dash upwards at the first fly which presents itself over head. Thus they acquire an impetus; they are like a vessel under full sail, and they cannot all at once arrest and completely nullify their motion; coming, however, in the course of their upward ascent, to discover that what they took for a veritable fly has some suspicious points about it that the tail is unusually elongated, or the wing uncommonly dense and heavy, or the body and head of a somewhat attenuated aspect; these adventurers of the flood seem suddenly to alter their intentions, and to divert that impetus into another direction, which they have no means of altogether and suddenly nullifying; and thus they spring up on all sides of, and at all angles from, your hook, as if they were actually making merry with your efforts, and enjoying the sport more than the

sportsman himself. Let any one who is accustomed to the elegant and graceful accomplishment of skating take this matter into consideration, and he will not be long in assimilating the two cases, and in discovering how a skater, moving at the rate of fifteen miles an hour, may deflect, rather than instantly arrest his speed. I am the more inclined to consider the above as the true interpretation of the phenomenon, in as much as those trouts which rise in agitated streams and gullets, where the features of the hook cannot be distinctly made out, always take firmly, and seldom suffer themselves to miss their aim.

How it came to pass I cannot now distinctly recollect, but so it was, that I looked and gazed myself under a warm mid-day sun, which had now broken forth, first into stupor, and latterly into a sound sleep. And whenever at any time, and such times occur to us all, I miss my sleep, and begin to feel hot and restless in my bed, and get into a habit of counting the hours, and almost imagine the house haunted, from the number of unaccountable noises,and find that my pillow has not been properly shaken up, and that the bed-sheets have shifted their position, and given place to the fretting, tickling, teasing blanket ;-whenever, I say, this happens to be the case, and I can obtain sleep upon none of the customary expedients and appliances, I uniformly have recourse to my memory, and conjure up, from the distance of twenty-five years, this hour's experience; and lay myself again quietly down upon the soft grass, and apply the vision of my fancy to the very identical stream, and pool, and exhibition of flies, and rises, and flood-boiling, till my feelings and apprehensions are again stupified into insensibility, and I sink at last into a sound and refreshing slumber. This is one expedient for commanding sleep, which is very much at the service of every fisher. None else can use it. There are many others. And if any one philosopher should arise, who should discover an infallible cure to that nightly sleeplessness and restlessness to which authors, booksellers, lawyers, writers, and all sedentary

may requiesce under the last sale of city acres, and under the contemplation of that handsome allowance which may thus be appropriated to public dinners,-though a country laird

may "dover o'er" in the calculation of the question betwixt letting his acres at a fiar or at a money-rent,

"I want no Paradise but rest, To rest, and not to know 'tis rest." In fact, dreaming, or the consciousness of being asleep, spoils all. I had rather, for my own part, count every hour from twelve to seven, and hear every infernal click which the house-clock is making, and feel all the horrors of that warning whirr which precedes the striking-I had rather suffer all this, than be exposed to the consciousness, whilst asleep, of being asleep, to that painful feeling which results from a fruitless effort to reason one's self out of the persuasion of being asleep, or to pinch and drag one's self, in vain, into an aroused state.-I have actually cast myself from a precipice, or from the top of a very high tree, merely with the view of discovering the difference betwixt imagination and reality; and have often attained an imaginary awakening, only to be precipitated anew into all the excruciating horror of a reasoned reality of suffering. For this cause, I say, any man would make a fortune by a sleeping device. And yet I am not quite certain that any such universal remedy of nightly restlessness shall ever be devised. For although a fisher may doze himself into sleep over the imaginary stream and rush of flies,-though a bookseller, that great Mæcenas of modern times, may contrive to congratulate himself asleep over an extensive list of subscribers' names, though an advocate may drive off the blue devils under the protection and at the instigation of a wealthy and litigious client, though a minister of the national church may purchase repose, under the recollected monotony of his own, or of a brother's pulpit oratory, though a Burgh magistrate

Ettrick, may resolve themselves into sough and snore, in making advantageous purchases and sales of wool and wethers, and though butchers, bakers, tailors, and horse-dealers, together with every species and society of trade and craft, may each craddle their own particular bumps into inactivity under appropriate and suitable appliances; yet, how shall we abstract the thing so far as to make the cap fit each particular head, and yet all craniums in general! The substantive verb, and the elastic and patent braces, were nothing to this. In the present instance, I slept, however, without the help of effort or artifice, and I immediately, as might naturally have been expected, commenced just where I was,-my favourite amusement of fishing. My rod was in my hand,-it was Monday,-"it was off the day it was on," and the trouts were alive to the sport in which I was engaged. For a time I did pretty well, and succeeded in landing a "bull trout," of no ordinary dimensions; but as I was employed in inspecting his scales, and looking at his whole outspread and fascinating shape and size, the heavens begun suddenly to darken over head. It was not that the clouds thickened, but that they came up from behind the mountains into dark and suffocating tower, and jet, and commotion, as if they had ascended from some immense conflagration. I looked upon the water, but it had become ink, and there was a rusty red gleam which floated and undulated on its surface. I looked upon the earth; but it was no longer green, and fresh, and rejoicing,-a change had passed over it, it seemed as if I had reached the ascent to Mount Vesuvius; and there was, as if they had sprung from the soil, an innumerable multitude around me. It now came over my soul suddenly, that I was breaking the Sabbath," and that I was thus, somehow or other, caught in the midst of

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