INTRODUCTORY. 3 



never going out of sight, and growing every mile un- 

 der your eyes, until it is lost in the mazes of Galashiels 

 mill-leads. You leave it only as it accomplishes a 

 union with the Tweed (although not until intercourse 

 with a manufcicturing town has sullied its native pu- 

 rity — as intercourse with manufacturing towns is too 

 apt to do with both water and humanity), and then 

 you go careering past ancient towns, decayed abbeys, 

 ruined castles, and battle-fields, through the classic 

 land of Scotland, but ever, at intervals of three or four 

 miles, with a stoppage at some station, " mighty con- 

 vanient " for the bearer of rod and creel. The mere 

 enumeration of the streams Avhich are crossed by the 

 North British Railway and its branches or continua- 

 tions, is like calling the roll of the waters best loved 

 by the angler. The Esk, the Tyne, and the Eye, on 

 the Main line to Berwick ; again the Esks, North and 

 South, the Gala, the Tweed, the Teviot, and the Till, 

 on the line to Kelso and by the Branch of the North 

 Eastern Railway to Berwick ; the Ettrick on the Sel- 

 kii'k branch ; the Ale on the Hawick branch ; the Jed 

 on the Jedburgh branch ; and the Whitadder on the 

 Dunse branch ; while stations on these lines give the 

 angler command of the Yarrow, the Leader, the Kale, 

 the Rule, the Eden, the Leet, the Bowmont, and the 

 Blackadder, and of almost innumerable burns which 

 ought not to be without places in an angling cata- 

 logue. 



It is the object of this little volume to point out the 

 best stations for these different streams, to delineate 

 the various characteristics of our border rivers, and 

 to throw out a few hints on the modes of angling 



