xviii SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED 



Deer-stalking and salmon fishing are at the head 

 of field and river sports : having written what 

 has been very generously received upon the first 

 and best of these subjects, I have been encouraged 

 to take up the other. This I have done the 

 more readily, as I have been fortunate enough 

 to bring to my aid the talents of artists, who 

 are amongst the most eminent in their various 

 departments that this country can boast of. I 

 must not, however, impute the landscape part 

 to them : this it was unfortunately necessary that 

 some one should undertake who was acquainted 

 with the scenery, and I must hold myself in a 

 great measure responsible for such portion of the 

 plates. 



It will be seen that in the letterpress I have 

 attempted little more than to give a correct and 

 faithful account of the manner and spirit in which 

 the sport of salmon fishing is carried on in various 

 ways where the scene is laid, and to bring before 

 the sportsman the characters of such people as he 

 is likely to fall in with in his excursions. 



Among those whom I have taken this liberty 

 with, as the type of his class, will be found the late 

 Tom Purdie, Sir Walter Scott's faithful right-hand 

 man, well known to the readers of Mr. Lockhart's 

 delightful Biography, and the genuine parent of 

 the stories here attributed to him. 1 



Since the following pages have been printed, 

 Mr. Yarrell has put into my hands The Annals 

 and Magazine of Natural History for Feb. 1843, 



1 Tom's nephew, Alexander Purdie, is still Lord Polwarth's fisher- 

 man on the upper Mertoun water. ED. 



