1 6 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 



record ; neither have we discovered any documents 

 leading us to suppose, that a narration of its pro- 

 ceedings was entrusted to the management of a 

 secretary, until very lately before its dissolution. 

 Our grandfather, who, along with our older ances- 

 tor, was a keen and competent angler, introduced 

 us into the club, when only ten years of age ; the 

 chief requisition being, that the entrant should have 

 slain a salmon on Tweedside. This feat we actually 

 did accomplish at that early period of our boyhood, 

 although (we make the confession without a blush) 

 after the fish had been fixed and exhausted by the 

 tackle of our grandsire, who good-naturedly con- 

 ceded to us the triumph of hauling it ashore. 



The club, at the time of our admission, consisted 

 of a circle of greybeards, several of them octogen- 

 arians, and none under sixty years of age. Its num- 

 bers, as far as we recollect, were about seven or eight, all 

 jovial fellows, full of humour, and of the right cast. 

 These were principally country lairds, having no fixed 

 profession, but independent with regard to circumstances. 



The most prominent of them, next to my grand- 

 father, who, as senior member, held the situation of 

 president, was one Sir Amalek All-gab, a large 

 portly, broad-shouldered man, with a very simple 

 and good-natured countenance, which, to our boy- 

 ish eyes, appeared monstrously out of character 

 with his person. Sir Amalek was the last of the 

 Mne of All-gabs, a family of good repute and ere- 



