164 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED 



from Meikleour on the banks of the Tay to the 

 Pavilion on those of the Tweed. These boats 

 were built on Tweedside for fly fishing in small 

 waters, and in warm weather were held for the 

 fisherman by a man who waded in the water, lest 

 the salmon should be scared away by the motion 

 or appearance of the oars, or canting pole, as it 

 might be. Being, therefore, of a very light and 

 diminutive construction, they were not exactly 

 calculated to endure the buffets of large and 

 tempestuous waters : one is not apt, however, to 

 be over nice about such things, and accordingly 

 I resolved to put them to the proof. Nor was an 

 opportunity long wanting. After a night of heavy 

 rain, the Tay, which flowed through the park of 

 Meikleour, rose to a fearful extent. This was 

 exactly the sort of thing to suit me ; so I proposed 

 to my fisherman, Charles Purdie, to go down the 

 flood to Perth, a distance of about twelve miles by 

 water. We did so ; and I here insert the particulars 

 of our voyage, as they may serve to give an idea of 

 a Scottish spate. 



We were standing at the foot of the sloping 

 lawn before my house ; and as Charlie Purdie bent 

 his regards on the frightful violence of the flood, I 

 thought he did not half like to embark on it. In 

 fact, he did not only disapprove of the general 

 conduct of the river, but also of the peculiar rocky 

 nature of the channel in which it was its pleasure 

 to gallop along to the ocean. Moreover, he knew 

 there was an obstruction in the river at a place 

 called the Linn of Campsie, about four miles below 

 the proposed starting-place, where at the arrival of 



