CHAPTER X 



" And doun the stream, like Levin's gleam, 

 The fleggit salmond flew ; 

 The ottar yaap his pray let drap, 

 And to his hiddils drew." 



Border Minstrelsy. 



Whilst the Pavilion 1 was getting ready for my 

 reception, I took up my quarters at an inn at 

 Melrose, and, at my instigation, Mr. Tintern came 

 there also, and thus we soon got intimate. The 

 river had been falling in for some time, and was 

 now too low for fly-fishing ; and as the sky had 

 lately been pretty clear, and as the evening promised 

 a calm and sunny day for the morrow, I promised 

 to show him the manner in which we speared 

 salmon by the light of the sun, should the weather 

 prove as good as I anticipated. 



My expectations for the time, at least, were 

 fulfilled ; for on waking I found the whole expanse 

 of heaven serene and glowing ; not a cloud to be 



1 Having often mentioned the Pavilion water, I should have 

 explained before that it belongs to Lord Somerville ; and I have thus 

 called it from the name of his house, which I rented for some years, 

 and which is about two miles up the river from Melrose. The chief 

 scene of my operations, however, was some miles lower down the river 

 from Dryburgh, as far as Makerstoun. 



