CLEAR WATERS 



rivals for supremacy in the dale. It is nearly two 

 since the latter succumbed as regards Lauderdale, and 

 the former as its titular earls have held the field in the 

 great old rambling mansion of Thirlestane beside 

 Lauder. Here in a mile of woody poHcies the trout 

 of Leader have a refuge which no doubt helps to 

 maintain a sufficient stock in the much tormented 

 reaches of the river above and below. Yet in all that 

 glittering east-windy September I only met a couple 

 of stray fishermen on the river in either portion ! I 

 was out myself seven or eight days or parts of days 

 with poor results, which last was the fault of the 

 weather, not of the river, as I saw quite enough to 

 realise that there were plenty of trout in it. I ought 

 to have had a decent basket one day, and suffered on 

 that occasion some partly deserved humiliation at the 

 hands of one of the above-mentioned anglers. 



Wishful to explore the lower portion of the water, 

 where pent in between the steep woody heights of 

 Chapel and Ledgerwood it pursues a picturesquely 

 fretting course, I went down there in rather lazy 

 mood as regards the fishing part of the business. As 

 the wind was blowing briskly down stream, the other- 

 wise poor prospects didn't move me to struggle up 

 against it, particularly as my chief object was to get 

 down the river and sample it. So I whipped lazily 

 downwards with such very moderate prospects as the 

 clear low water, just here and there, held out to so 

 slack a procedure. Rather to my surprise I picked 

 up some half-dozen quite sizeable fish, while the wood- 

 land scenery was delightful and the class of water so 

 alluring as to make me long to fish it seriously, when a 



372 



