is is an evidence that
(as in the formation of this globe) fire has been called upon to assist
water. Again and again, another and another hulking dirty erection fixes
its hideous trail in the lovely localities, till the landscape still
onwards opens upon green fields, all covered and whitened over, _not_
with daisies, but with _yarn_, which has just been removed from the
vitriolic vat. I had essayed here and there to fish, but had not even a
nibble. A little factory urchin, who saw my mistake, immediately
accosted me with--

"Ye needna fish here about, sir, for the fish are a' dead."

"What has _deaded_ them?" said I.

"Oh! I dinna ken, except maybe it's the vitriol--they dinna tak wi' the
vitriol ava."

"No wonder," thought I. "I suspect neither you nor I would tak weel with
such a beverage." So I at once rolled in my line, put up my rod, and was
on the eve of returning, somewhat disappointed, from my forenoon's
ramble, when my attention was attracted by an old, though fresh-looking
man _in his "cruda viridisque senectus_," who was sitting on a bench in
the sunshine, betwixt the door and the window of one of those very neat
and cleanly cottages, which have been erected for the convenience and
accommodation of the mill-spinners, and which, from the name of the
spirited proprietor, has been called "Yoolfield."

"James," said the old man--"come here, James, and tell me what's that ye
waur saying to the gentleman."

"Ou, I was only telling him there waur nae trouts, except _stane
anes_,[B] here."

In the meantime, I had approached the old man's seat, and thinking that
he motioned me to be seated, I at once took my place, as if I had been
an old acquaintance, by his side. It turned out that he was the
grandfather of this urchin, who in a few minutes reappeared with a face
of great comfort and vigorous health; "_causa erat in aperto_"--he had
dined.

"Ye'll be a stranger hereaboots, I mak nae doubt?" said the old man.

I replied that I had been so for some time past; that I had stopped, on
my way north, a day in Cupar, in order to revisit this romantic retreat;
but that it was now sadly changed, and I had not the heart to pursue my
walk any further. I miss, added I, everything which I expected to see:
the solitude, the green banks, the trees, the pure waters, the yellow
trouts, the all of innocence and nature by which this den was marked,
ere these vile spinning-jennies had entered, with noise, confusion, and
de