THE TWEED PEEBLES. 57 



We have, however, still charge of the angler who 

 started with us for a week's fishing in Upper Tweed- 

 dale ; but he has now made his way to Peebles from 

 Rachan Mill. He had to take provender in his pocket, 

 for there is no baiting place by the water-side. He 

 is bound for Edinburgh by the evening train, and we 

 have now time to look about us at the place and its 

 scenery, as well as at the fishing for which Peebles 

 furnishes a convenient station. 



PEEBLES is a curious old Scotch burgh, supposed 

 from its name to have been a haunt of the nomadic 

 Britons who long held Ettrick and Strath-Cluyd. It 

 obtained a royal charter from David II. in 1337, but 

 was ruthlessly deprived of the parliamentary privileges 

 thereto effeiring by the Keform Act of 1832. It has 

 still a provost and council, and is the county-town. 

 It has throughout borne the usual character of small 

 Scotch towns, having always been a homely, drouthy, 

 God-fearing place. Its inhabitants, of whom there are 

 about 2000, and who are as " clannish " as the inha- 

 bitants of other Scotch towns, consider it the most 

 remarkable spot in the universe. It is looked upon as 

 a metropolis by the surrounding country districts, and 

 a story is told of a country-laird, who thus gave his 

 verdict as to the comparative merits of this capital and 

 that of France " Paris for pleesure ! Hoot- toot ! 

 gie 's Peebles ! " It is, however, prettily situated, and 

 it is singularly healthy. The bare pastoral hills of 

 Tweeddale are here partly relieved by wood ; Nidpath 

 Castle, about a mile above the town, overhangs the 

 Tweed, there contracted in its vale to a deep glen ; at 



