Page:Biographical and critical studies by James Thomson ("B.V.").djvu/396

380 CRITICAL STUDIES but avows that on recovering from the stupor at the absence of his rod-pieces, " we put our pocket-pistol to our head and blew out its brains into our mouth — in the liquid character of Glenlivet." He makes the distance to the loch fourteen instead of thirteen miles, and thus summarises the day's proceedings : " At eleven our five flies were on the water. By sunset we had killed twenty dozen — none above a pound, and by far the greater number about a quarter — but the tout-ensemble was imposing, and the weight could not have been short of five stone. We filled both creels (one used for salmon), bag, and pillow-slip, and all the pockets about our person — and at first peep of evening star went our ways again down the glen towards Dalmally. We reached the school- house * ae wee short hour ayont the twal,' having been on our legs almost all the twenty-four hours, and for eight up to the waist in water — distance walked, fifty- six miles ; trouts killed, twenty dozen and odds ; and weight carried — 'At the close of the day when the hamlet was still, And mortals the sweets of forgetfulness proved,' certainly seventy pounds for fourteen miles; and if the tale be not true, may May-day miss Maga." So fatal are " long earthen pipes " and Glenlivet to physical stamina and moral fortitude !