( 159 ) 

 CHAPTER VII. 



THE WHITADDER AND BLACKADDEE. 



G^WPHESE Berwickshire Twins will stand compa- 

 y «^ rison with any trouting-streams in the south of 

 ) Scotland. The one is fair and gravelly, with rat- 

 tling streams, and sometimes rocky banks ; the other 

 black but comely, sleeping in its alluvial bed amongst 

 the moors, and breeding big trouts that are as strong 

 and sportive in the water as they are flavoury on the 

 table. Both come from the same hills, yet no two 

 streams differ more in character. It is hard to tell 

 which is the preferable ; and the best way of solving 

 the difficulty is to spend a summer in the skirts of the 

 Lammermoors, and take them " week about." 



The Whitadder rises at the White Well, near Johns- 

 cleuch, in Haddingtonshire, and for the first fifteen 

 miles of its course v/inds its way through the bare 

 valleys of the Lammermoors, the heathy sides of the 

 hills being relieved and variegated by pleasant patches 

 of green. In the first five or six miles of its course 

 it receives but insignificant contributions from a few 

 burns ; but it and they are all swarming with small 

 trout. Above Millknow, in a flood, a boy with a pin 

 may slay his dozens, and at all times the expert angler 

 may fill his pannier, if it is of reasonable size, with 

 trout — a few of decent proportions amongst them. 



