THE TWEED — SIR WALTER SCOTT. 65 



to whom we have already referred in connection Avith 

 the new Tweed Act, is one of them, and gave in evi- 

 dence to the House of Commons Committee that " at 

 the beginning of the season in 1856 he killed nine sal- 

 mon (kelts, we presume) in one day, whereas during 

 the rest of the season, though out eight or ten times, 

 he got only one." He stated, indeed, that he had 

 made calculations in 1850 which led him to believe 

 that in that year there had not been more than 700 

 clean fish altogether killed by the rod in the Tweed. A 

 few grilse and salmon — the latter perhaps not particu- 

 larly clean — have, however, always been got by " The 

 Nest" anglers in the period of grace allowed for rod- 

 fishing at the end of the season, and it is hoped that, 

 in future, although the time is abridged, the sport will 

 be better. 



As we have reached the salmon-district of the 

 Tweed, we are now also fairly into the land of Scott. 

 At Ashiesteel he took up his residence after being ap- 

 pointed Sheriff-depute of Selkirk, when his principal 

 began to grumble about his living at Lasswade, at a 

 distance from the scene of his duties. Here he wTote the 

 Lay, Marmion, Waverley, and others of his immortal 

 works, and abode until he became the laird of Clarty- 

 hole, and built his "stone and lime romance" at Abbots- 

 ford. He was the plain " Shirra," — not even the titular 

 " Duke of Darnick" — and was ready for any kind of 

 " ploy." He was an angler, although he declares in 

 his review of Sir Humphrey Davy's Salmoyiia^ that 

 his line usually fell " with the emphasis of a quoit;" 

 and Hogg talks of him as being in his highest glee 

 when " toiling in Tweed to the waist" with rod or 



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