444 Ifctngs of tbe 1Rofc, IRffle, anfc Gun 



He gives an animated account of a night with the spear, 

 which shows how keenly he enjoyed the picturesque 

 incidents of the pastime. In this respect, however, he 

 is no worse than Sir Walter Scott, whose description of 

 salmon-leistering in " Guy Mannering " is written with 

 a spirit and gusto which betray his own admiration of 

 that unhallowed sport. 



But William Scrope goes further. After discoursing 

 on leistering, rake-hooking, and other nefarious modes 

 of catching salmon, he says : 



" All this to the Southern ear sounds like poaching of 

 the most flagitious description ; but a salmon is a fish 

 of passage, and if you do not get him to-day he will be 

 gone to-morrow. . . . Keep close time strictly ; kill no 

 spawning fish ; tamper not with foul ones of any sort ; 

 preserve the fry ; send the black fishers to Iceland : but 

 catch as many salmon as you can, recte si possis (meaning, 

 with a rod) si non> quocunque modo that is, with a net, 

 leister, and so forth." 



Other times, other manners. Were Scrope to revisit 

 the glimpses of the moon he would hardly dare to write 

 in that strain now ; if he did, he would find himself 

 ostracised from the society of all respectable sportsmen. 



It is worth noting that, despite the great increase in 

 the number of anglers, despite the abominations of dye- 

 works and sewers which have sullied the purity of its 

 waters, Tweed can show bigger fish now than it did 

 in Scrope's time. " During my experience of twenty 

 years," he writes, " I never caught one there above 

 30 Ibs., and very few above 20 Ibs." Now, in 1 873 a 

 fish of 57 Ibs. was taken out of Tweed with the rod, in 



