ACCESS TO THE HEAD OF THE TWEED. 49 



Berwick, where he would have to take off his trout-flies, 

 and start fishing for podlies, coal-saiths, eels, and rock- 

 codlings. 



The railway-system which has opened out so much 

 water to the angler has had the effect, however, of 

 making the Tweed, for the first fifteen miles of its 

 course, less accessible than it was ten years ago. The 

 opening of the Caledonian Kailway has laid off the 

 Edinburgh and Dumfries coach, which used to strike 

 the valley of the Tweed at Eachan Mill, and only 

 leave Tweeddale as it turned over the shoulder of the 

 hill into Annandale. A most convenient angling-inn, 

 the Crook, about seven miles from the source of the 

 Tweed, is thus rendered somewhat difficult of access. 

 During some seasons a coach has been run by Mr. 

 Croall to Broughton, but this, we fear, is not likely 

 to last. An Act has, how r ever, been obtained for a 

 branch-line from the Caledonian railway at Symington 

 to Broughton, while there is a further project for the 

 continuation of the line down Tweedside to Galashiels. 

 If all this is carried out, it will throw open many 

 miles of water which are now attainable only from 

 Peebles. In the meantime, perhaps the easiest way 

 of getting to the head of the Tweed is by the Cale- 

 donian to Symington Station, and thence by omnibus 

 to Biggar. The angler who leaves Edinburgh by the 

 first train will get to Biggar shortly after nine o'clock. 

 He is here about twelve miles from the Crook inn, and 

 he may accomplish that distance in a day, angling 

 his way down Biggar- water to the bridge at Brough- 

 ton, and thence taking the road across by Rachan 

 Mill to the nearest point of the Tweed, from which he 



