72 THE BORDER ANGLER. 



across the Tweed and over the hill of Bemerside to 

 Dryburgh. Wordsworth had thus fitly lamented him, 

 when his departure for Naples too surely presaged a 

 final separation from the land he loved so dearly 



" A trouble, not of clouds or weeping rain, 

 Nor of the setting sun's pathetic light 

 Engender'd, hangs o'er Eildon's triple height ; 

 Spirits of Power, assembled there, complain 

 For kindred power departed from their sight, 

 While Tweed, best pleased in chaunting a blithe strain, 

 Saddens his voice again and yet again." 



We shall not encroach upon the domain of our brother 

 inditers of guide-books by giving the oft-repeated de- 

 scriptions of the curiosities that may be seen at Abbots- 

 ford. But the house may be visited, and a few hours' 

 good angling at the same time be obtained, in a single 

 day from Edinburgh. Leaving that city by the first 

 train, and taking the Selkirk train from Galashiels, the 

 angler will be set down at Boldside, close by Abbots- 

 ford, a little after nine o'clock, with nine hours before 

 him for visiting the shrine and trying his skill in the 

 Abbot's ford, before the return train is due. He may 

 either fish up to Ettrick-foot and back, or down to 

 Melrose, a distance of about three miles by the water, 

 where he may catch the evening train.* 



The Ettrick is the first of the larger tributaries which 

 the Tweed receives, and it enters the main river about 

 three miles below Yair-bridge. We reserve it and the 



* Our good-humoured critic in the Gateshead Observer the 

 source of half the jokes that fill the newspapers innocently 

 asks if we intend the angler to catch this train " with a fly ! " 

 Well, trains have been caught before now with a fly, but 

 anglers more usually drive " their own pair " their " ten-toe'd 

 machine/' that is than a fly or any other vehicle. 



