92 THE BORDER ANGLER. 



for a few miles, between Wooler and Etal, there is no 

 restriction, — the Marquis of Waterford not being a re- 

 sidenter; but at the latter place, for about three miles, 

 it is again preserved — or at least was so when Lord 

 Frederick Fitzclarence occupied Etal House, which is 

 the property of the Earl of Glasgow. One free day in 

 the week only was allowed on this part of the water ; 

 but any one who might take up his residence at Etal, 

 the loveliest village of Millfield Plain, or indeed of Nor- 

 thumberland, would probably have little difficulty in 

 obtaining permission to fish every day. Below Etal, 

 for a mile or two on each side of Heaton Mill, the Till 

 is open, but, for the last four or five miles of its course, 

 it is the property of Sir Francis Blake, of Twizel, and 

 is rigidly preserved. The Till is a slow running river, 

 but stretches of water in which movement is barely 

 discernible alternate with brisk streams, and it is 

 stocked with very large trout. We have seen one of 

 seven pounds weight which had been caught in the 

 Till with worm. It is a very early trouting-river, pre- 

 ceding the Tweed and the other neighbouring streams 

 by fully a month in spring. Trout, in good condition, 

 may frequently be taken in February, and always in 

 March. There are also a great many pike in it, espe- 

 cially in the neighbourhood of Etal and of Chillingham. 

 Salmon enter it prettyfreely, but are captured at "locks" 

 at Ford ; and it is, above all others, the stream for whit- 

 ling — the liveliest of the salmonidse. Nothing can be 

 more pleasant than to see one of these fish, a pound 

 and a half in weight, dancing its vagaries at the end 

 of a line among the pools of the Till ; and on many 

 days of the season the angler in its waters will have 



