FREEDOM OF TROUT-FISHING. 77 



There is, indeed, excellent salmon-fishing close to 

 Melrose, but of course it is somewhat difficult to ob- 

 tain permission to try it. A Purdie a nephew, we 

 believe, of Sir Walter's Tom is Mr. Broadwood's 

 head-keeper, and inherits much of the spirit of his 

 predecessors. 



There is not, however, any restriction now upon 

 fishing for trout the attempt to prohibit the public 

 right having been abandoned. A stupid decision by 

 Sheriff Eutherford (of Koxburghshire) to the effect 

 that the owner of a salmon-cast may prevent trout- 

 angling in it, lest the salmon -should thereby be dis- 

 turbed, is, we should think, too absurd for anyone ever 

 to try to enforce it, Melrose, therefore, is a capital 

 station for the angler. He has the Tweed at hand ; 

 the railway will, any morning, carry him to any other 

 part of the river below him, to the Gala, to the Teviot, 

 or to Ale-water, and bring him back at night ; while 

 he is within walking distance of the Leader and the 

 Elwand. There are excellent inns in fact, all so 

 good that we cannot single out any one as the best, 

 although the George is perhaps the most frequented. 



The salmon -fishings for the next seven or eight 

 miles of the Tweed's course from Melrose to Dry- 

 burgh belong to a number of different proprietors, 

 and several of them are let to English anglers. There 

 are many excellent casts in them, the "waters" get- 

 ting better and better, as each has of course a better 

 chance of getting a few fish than the one above it. 

 We do not know how, in the absence of personal ac- 

 quaintance, leave of salmon-fishing may be obtained in 

 these waters unless from the keepers of the lessees 



