ugh (not yet enough) to cocknify the scene: a
haven in the rocks in front: in front of that, a file of grey islets: to
the left, endless links and sand wreaths, a wilderness of hiding-holes,
alive with popping rabbits and soaring gulls: to the right, a range of
seaward crags, one rugged brow beyond another; the ruins of a mighty and
ancient fortress on the brink of one; coves between--now charmed into
sunshine quiet, now whistling with wind and clamorous with bursting
surges; the dens and sheltered hollows redolent of thyme and
southernwood, the air at the cliff's edge brisk and clean and pungent of
the sea--in front of all, the Bass Rock, tilted seaward like a doubtful
bather, the surf ringing it with white, the solan-geese hanging round
its summit like a great and glittering smoke. This choice piece of
seaboard was sacred, besides, to the wrecker; and the Bass, in the eye
of fancy, still flew the colours of King James; and in the ear of fancy
the arches of Tantallon still rang with horse-shoe iron, and echoed to
the commands of Bell-the-Cat.

There was nothing to mar your days, if you were a boy summering in that
part, but the embarrassment of pleasure. You might golf if you wanted;
but I seem to have been better employed. You might secrete yourself in
the Lady's Walk, a certain sunless dingle of elders, all mossed over by
the damp as green as grass, and dotted here and there by the stream-side
with roofless walls, the cold homes of anchorites. To fit themselves for
life, and with a special eye to acquire the art of smoking, it was even
common for the boys to harbour there; and you might have seen a single
penny pickwick, honestly shared in lengths with a blunt knife, bestrew
the glen with these apprentices. Again, you might join our fishing
parties, where we sat perched as thick as solan-geese, a covey of little
anglers, boy and girl, angling over each other's heads, to the much
entanglement of lines and loss of podleys and consequent shrill
recrimination--shrill as the geese themselves. Indeed, had that been
all, you might have done this often; but though fishing be a fine
pastime, the podley is scarce to be regarded as a dainty for the table;
and it was a point of honour that a boy should eat all that he had
taken. Or again, you might climb the Law, where the whale's jawbone
stood landmark in the buzzing wind, and behold the face of many
counties, and the smoke and spires of many towns, and the sails of
distant shi