PREFACE 



xvn 



was in the habit of executing in his expedition to 

 Latium. 



" 1 only hope the public will be so good as not 

 to be discerning ; because if they are, I shall have 

 you, my most tender and amiable friend, eternally 

 dinging in my ears, ' There, did not I tell you so ? 

 But you would not be ruled by me, so you must 

 take the consequences.' ' 



At the end of this colloquy, and when left alone, 

 I began to reflect a little ; and although at first 1 

 could not help thinking my gentleman somewhat 

 hasty, yet I came to the conclusion that he was 

 partly, if not entirely, in the right. So I began 

 to listen a little to reason, and contracted my plan, 

 resolving to treat on Salmon Fishing alone, as it 

 is practised in the Tweed ; for although various 

 authors have written some pages on the sport, yet 

 I am not aware that any one has as yet gone far 

 into the subject, or given any precepts, or treated 

 of the various methods available to the sportsman 

 of killing these valuable animals in the rod-fisher's 

 part of a river throughout the whole of the lawful 

 season. This I have attempted to do in the follow- 

 ing pages, having had more than twenty years' 

 practice in that border river alone, above twelve 

 miles of which I rented at different periods. 



To the Tweed I have confined myself; and I 

 beg my readers to observe that my remarks and 

 instructions are meant to apply to that river alone ; 

 and consequently that I am not accountable for 

 what salmon choose to do in other waters, and for 

 the. different means that people may employ for 

 catching them there. 



