THE TWEED — NORHAM. 95 



Eobertson of Ladykirk. Save in exceptional seasons, 

 when grilse are plentiful and there are no floods to in- 

 duce them to run up, there is but little salmon-fishing 

 with the rod in this part of the Tweed. A capital 

 day's trout-fishing may, however, be had in this stretch 

 of water, by the woody banks of Milngraden, the 

 streams and little islands of Bendibus and the Dreeper, 

 and the pleasant braes of Ladykirk — ending at last 

 where " Norham's castled steep" rises gaunt and ruin- 

 ous over the " fair river, broad and deep," flowing 

 majestically onwards to the sea. 



Norham is an ancient border village, quiet as Eng- 

 lish country villages usually are. The angling visitor 

 at it feels constantly overshadowed by the ancient 

 Castle, and as he wades into the deep stream that 

 wheels round the base of the knoll on which it stands, 

 he of course keeps repeating to himself the fine opening 

 lines of Mai^mion. High spring-tides reach Norham, 

 but there is still good trout-fishing in the Tweed, and 

 we have many a time filled a creel between it and 

 Berwick. Every two or three hundred yards now, there 

 is a netting-station, and towards the mouth of the river 

 the stranger is amazed at the sight of tall ladders, with 

 a box or cage on the top of them, reared on its banks. 

 Over the edge of the box or cage a face may be de- 

 tected peering steadfastly into the Tweed at the head 

 of some shallow stream, and as aripple — invisible to the 

 inexperienced — marks the upward passage of a fish, the 

 watcher pulls a string which drags an old kettle across 

 the floor of the shell, some fifty or a hundred yards off, 

 where the fishermen are sleeping or mending their nets. 

 Out rush a couple of booted Northumbrians — one jumps 



