ir reception; the fold and the poultry-yard furnished the
entertainment, and the kind and hearty welcome made amends for all
deficiencies in elegance and fashion.

CHAPTER XXVI
The Elliots and Armstrongs did convene,
They were a gallant company!

Ballad of Johnnie Armstrong

Without noticing the occupations of an intervening day or two, which, as
they consisted of the ordinary silvan amusements of shooting and
coursing, have nothing sufficiently interesting to detain the reader, we
pass to one in some degree peculiar to Scotland, which may be called a
sort of salmon-hunting. This chase, in which the fish is pursued and
struck with barbed spears, or a sort of long-shafted trident, called a
waster, is much practised at the mouth of the Esk and in the other salmon
rivers of Scotland. The sport is followed by day and night, but most
commonly in the latter, when the fish are discovered by means of torches,
or fire-grates, filled with blazing fragments of tar-barrels, which shed
a strong though partial light upon the water. On the present occasion the
principal party were embarked in a crazy boat upon a part of the river
which was enlarged and deepened by the restraint of a mill-wear, while
others, like the ancient Bacchanals in their gambols, ran along the
banks, brandishing their torches and spears, and pursuing the salmon,
some of which endeavoured to escape up the stream, while others,
shrouding themselves under roots of trees, fragments of stones, and large
rocks, attempted to conceal themselves from the researches of the
fishermen. These the party in the boat detected by the slightest
indications; the twinkling of a fin, the rising of an airbell, was
sufficient to point out to these adroit sportsmen in what direction to
use their weapon.

The scene was inexpressibly animating to those accustomed to it; but, as
Brown was not practised to use the spear, he soon tired of making efforts
which were attended with no other consequences than jarring his arms
against the rocks at the bottom of the river, upon which, instead of the
devoted salmon, he often bestowed his blow. Nor did he relish, though he
concealed feelings which would not have been understood, being quite so
near the agonies of the expiring salmon, as they lay flapping about in
the boat, which they moistened with their blood. He therefore requested
to be put ashore, and, from the top of a heugh or broken bank, enjoyed
the scen