SCOTLAND 167 



What Sir Herbert Maxwell says as to the crying 

 need for remedial action is confirmed by the Duke of 

 Roxburghe, who informs me that, from a careful 

 study of records, he is convinced that there has been 

 a marked falling-off in the stock during the last 

 twenty-five years. He excepts from this generalisa- 

 tion the autumn of 1903, when salmon were 

 extraordinarily abundant. The Duke thinks that 

 public sense of the importance of enforcing the 

 laws against pollution and otherwise preserving the 

 fisheries is seriously on the decrease. 



The statements by Sir Herbert Maxwell and the 

 Duke of Roxburghe imply that sport on the Tweed 

 used to be splendid. This is amply borne out by an 

 interesting MS. which Mrs. Grant of Househill, Nairn, 

 has found among her family papers. A first cousin 

 of her grandfather, Mr. John Laurie, was, in his 

 day, known as " The Champion of the Tweed." He 

 lived in New York, and made a fortune there ; but 

 his mother had an estate near Kelso, to which he 

 often returned. The faded letter to which I have 

 referred runs thus : 



"In 1842, on the 14th March, I left Edinburgh, 

 accompanied by Mr. William Shiels, and proceeded 

 to Kelso, for the purpose of enjoying a few days' 

 salmon fishing in the Tweed. Alexander Low, 

 Esquire, had given me permission to take possession 

 of his cottage at the boat-house, and to have the 

 uninterrupted and exclusive fishing of what is called 

 Rutherford Waters, being three miles of the Tweed. 

 The cottage is about six miles above Kelso. Mr. 



