1 74 THE BORDER ANGLER. 



be on its banks in April or May, when a " take " comes 

 on. The trout, for the rest of the Whitadder, below 

 this point, are on the whole larger than in the npper 

 portions ; and fly-fishing may be practised a week or 

 two earlier in the season. It is equally adapted for all 

 kinds of angling. At Chirnside, which is a station on 

 the Dunse branch from the North British, there is a 

 comfortable village inn. A paper-mill here, however, 

 spoils the fishing somewhat for a couple of miles, and 

 the angler following the river need not grudge an 

 hour or two to take a peep at Ninewells, the birth- 

 place of David Hume, and where he sometimes stayed 

 after he had acquired fame. (Some of his comical 

 hoaxes and jeux d' esprit, addressed to his friends in 

 London — all the more comical as coming from such a 

 philosopher — are dated from Ninewells. He was one 

 of the Berwickshire Homes, but altered his name to 

 make it accord with the border pronunciation, for with 

 Mersemen of all degrees the Earl of Home is the Earl 

 of Hume.) It is not until it reaches Allanton Bridge 

 that the Whitadder reacquires its character. Here it 

 is joined by the Blackadder. Allanton has an inn, or 

 respectable public-house ; but it has changed its occu- 

 pants since, sleeping there on one occasion, we were 

 astonished in the morning by a charge of eighteen- 

 pence, the pajTuent of which was in full of all demands 

 for bed, breakfast — a Scotch breakfast — and a glass of 

 toddy. " She didna chairge onything for the bed," 

 the hostess said, and could with difficulty be prevailed 

 upon to accept half-a-crown. We fear that the old 

 body is dead. 



