INTRODUCTION.

Longa Captamus Arundine Praedas.

M

Y DEAR BOYS,-I have often thought of writing, for your amusement, a short account of my fishing in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, that, if you are spared, you may remark the difference which manufactories and drainage have made there, on the rivers and waters I frequented in my youth. I will also extend the circle to other places; and though of late there has been much written and said on the Art of Angling (it being almost a fashion to do so), I think, as it is now fifty years since I first took to it, I can tell you something that you will not find in any of the books which have been published on this pleasant sport. Now, I

do not write to you as novices, or as not knowing anything about it; for I suppose you heartily interested in the subject, and as having read up to it from Lady Juliana Berners, down to Hofland, Stoddart, Younger, Stewart, Ephemera, etc., and also the Border Angler, or British Railway Streams. I propose to give you a little more practical detail of how to get and keep the Stone or May-fly, Partail and Creeper, for your baits; and I hope I shall be able to add to your amusement and your knowledge, by detailing what I have really experienced myself at different places.

Beginning, therefore, with the days when I was young, and before I took my departure to the Great Metropolis, I shall conduct you, and those who may please to read, to many a pleasant river which I have visited, both for sport and health, since that time. The details I will not make long, but will only give a few practical rules, that, when you or others go to a river, you may not be disappointed altogether from not knowing when to fish, and what trout and salmon are likely to take in the different states

of the waters. And I hope I may lead you, while fishing, to think of greater things than the mere sport of killing fish, and to learn that he is a happy man who can at times shake off the world and its cares; and with a contented mind, and a heart grateful for mercies received, enjoy all things in his great Father, and be happy and delighted whenever

HE GOES A-FISHING.

THORNILEE-ON-TWEED, 19th Nov. 1859.

J. L.

NEIGHBOURHOOD OF EDINBURGH.

Lochend.

Y cheerful home, from 1808 to 1819, was at the bottom of a sweet hawthorn lane, leading from Leith Walk to the Quarry Holes, now quite changed from its once bridle lane appearance by walls of stone and lime. It was generally called Lovers' Lane, for its beauty and its solitude. It was quite destroyed when a quarry of whinstone, to pave the road between Leith and Edinburgh, for the first time was opened near to the top of it. 'Twas here that I first took up the rod and bent my way over to the loch, which I could trace from my bed-room window, and at that time full of good large perch. Sometimes, very early in the fine mornings of May and June, I would scramble over