166 THE BORDER ANGLER. 



fisher he could only be compared with the masters. We 

 have heard him aver that upon one occasion when he 



had engaged to fish Wee Willie L for a wager with 



worm, he killed in the Whitadder near Ellemford 96 lbs. 

 of trout. At another time, when he wished to astonish 

 some strangers who had found their way to Ellemford, 

 he fished for a whole day in one stream above the Black 

 Weil, between Ellemford and Abbey St. Bathan's, and 

 when they came up to him, and saw him without his 

 great creel on his back, they fancied he had got nothing, 

 until Geordie pointed out thirty dozen of trout which 

 he had thrown out in heaps upon the water-side ! But 

 even granting that Geordie could use the long-bow as 

 well as the fishing-rod, he certainly accomplished ex- 

 traordinary feats. We have seen him, when fishing 

 with minnow just after the turn of a summer-flood, fill 

 a basket in an hour or two almost without stirring from 

 one spot ; and it was remarked as a singular fact that, 

 in the annual competition of the Ellem Fishing Club, 

 (the oldest and most extensive club of the kind in the 

 south of Scotland), the member was usually successful 

 who had Geordie as an attendant. After reigning many 

 years at Ellemford, Geordie quarrelled with his land- 

 lord, and flitted fifteen miles down the Whitadder to 

 Harden ; he afterwards took an inn at Eeston, on the 

 Eye water ; and finally died as host of the Cross-keys, 

 Dunse, where we believe his spouse Jean, a Berwick- 

 shire Tibbie Shiels, still lives. We saw Geordie a few 

 months before he died, and although greatly broken 

 down by dropsy and rheumatic gout, his heart still 

 panted for the water-brooks, and he speculated about 

 future fishing-days. He 1 amented the degeneracy of these 



