174 WANDERINGS AND MEMORIES 



has killed more fish on the Tay than any other 

 living man, telling me that until he was sixty-three 

 his largest salmon was 35 lbs. Yet after this he 

 landed one of 42 lbs. At different times I have 

 fished most of the Highland salmon rivers, from the 

 Tweed to the Thurso, but have never had any good 

 sport except on the Tay, where I know every yard 

 of the river from Killin to Glencarse, below Perth. 

 For twenty-five years, from 1870 to 1896, my father, 

 who was a very keen and expert angler, rented 

 various beats. His earliest experience, after rent- 

 ing different rivers in Sutherland, notably the 

 Helmsdale and Shin (where he had wonderful 

 sport in the 'fifties and 'sixties), was on the Stanley 

 Water when John Leech was his guest. The views 

 of the latter in his first essays in salmon-fishing, 

 seen in the amusing pictures of the adventures of 

 Mr. Briggs, are well known to readers of Punch. 

 After the year 1870 my father rented various beats 

 on the river, but had little good sport until he took 

 the Murthly Water in 1883. This excellent piece 

 of the river — ^then at its best in autumn — he retained 

 until the new proprietor, wishing to fish there him- 

 self, came to live at Murthly. Then he took 

 Stobhall, possibly the best beat in Scotland, for 

 a few years, and afterwards fished Ballathine, 

 Benchil and other beats until his death in 1896. 

 My father loved to fill his house with his friends in 

 autumn, and so in the nature of things the oppor- 

 tunities of good salmon-fishing — usually crowded 

 within the dates September 25th to October 18th — 

 were seldom realised by his own sons. There were 

 always, too, many keen fishermen in the house. On 

 the six miles of water my father allowed only two 



