78 THE SALMON 



Dryburgh, Melrose and St. Boswell's make the use 

 of the boat imperative, but I have never seen harling 

 attempted on that classic ground. 



I need not make any serious call upon my 

 memory to describe a day upon Tweed, for it was 

 only yesterday (September 13, 1897) that by the 

 kindness of my friend, Mr. Walter Farquhar, I 

 enjoyed a pleasant day's sport in the Mertoun 

 water — a typical stretch of the river, and the scene 

 of many an episode in Scrope's work. I had been 

 trouting at Dryburgh just a week before, after a 

 succession of heavy floods, when the water was 

 still out of condition for salmon-fishing — so had a 

 good opportunity of measuring the exact effect of a 

 week's dry weather upon the stream. My letter of 

 invitation, written on the 9th, told me that the river 

 was then in fine order, and was running down slowly, 

 and that my friend had got five fish and a sea-trout 

 the day before — an excellent bag considering that the 

 nets were still on. I arrived at the stables at Mer- 

 toun at about twelve o'clock, after a drive of nearly 

 ten miles and a railway journey of half an hour, and it 

 was not long before I had commenced operations 

 at the House stream. Goodfellow, the presiding 

 genius of the beat, was away for the day on business, 

 but he had left a worthy substitute in the person of 



