154 THE BORDER ANGLER. 



all the more ruthless in the latter period of the national 

 wars, when Englishmen had begun to lose respect for 

 church property, which had formerly been held sacred 

 even in the most ferocious inroads. After Henry VIII. 

 had let the Southern nobles taste the blood of the 

 church, as it were, the noble Abbey of Jedburgh began 

 to suffer in the forays until it was entirely reduced to 

 dilapidation in 1545. It is still, however, a fine monu- 

 ment of ecclesiastical art. There are a great number 

 of old fortresses and other antiquities in the neighbour- 

 hood of Jedburgh ; and at Hundalee, Lintlee, and Moss- 

 burnford, the rocky sides of the Jed are excavated so 

 as to form hiding-places, probably for women, children, 

 and other valuables, in times of trouble. The burghers 

 of Jedburgh, however, were always ready to give as 

 good as they got ; their peculiarly inverted method of 

 carrying out criminal law has passed into a proverb ; 

 and at the last great border battle, the Eaid of the 

 Reidswire, they came in pretty effectually, and turned 

 the day in favour of the Scotch. The town in its modern 

 character is a " pleasant habitation," and is the best 

 place from which to fish the Teviot and its lower tri- 

 butaries. Besides the Eule, the Jed, and the Ale, it 

 gives command of the Oxnam, and allows of a stretch 

 to the Kale. The Oxnam enters the Teviot from the 

 same side, about two miles below the confluence of the 

 Jed. It is a small stream, and is not, we believe, much 

 distinguished amongst the anglers of the district. Not 

 so the Kale, however, the next and last tributary which 

 the Teviot receives. Its trout are numerous, of fair size, 

 and of excellent quality. The upper part of it may 

 be most conveniently fished from Hounam, where the 



