332 TWEED AND ITS TRIBUTARIES. 



nate along with the Sprouston casts. They are taken 

 on lease by a few gentlemen from the north of England 

 who pay the large sum of one hundred and eighty-five 

 pounds yearly for their amusement, besides the expense 

 of maintaining a fisherman, boats, &c. Their courtesy 

 and accommodating disposition to anglers in general, 

 form a striking contrast to the selfish and usurping 

 spirit manifested by several of the frequenters of Tweed- 

 side, who look upon a fishing-rod in any other hands 

 but their own, in the same light as they would do the 

 weapon of a poacher, at work among their game covers, 



The casts above mentioned are, one and all, excellent, 

 and contain a great variety of water. Sprouston Dub 

 is of large extent, and forms generally, in the event of 

 a breeze, the afternoon beat. During September and 

 October, it is always well stocked with salmon, and 

 indeed, at no season of the year, wants fish of this 

 description. It has been conjectured, by those com- 

 petent to judge, that in this pool alone, there are often 

 congregated, at the same time, a thousand salmon and 

 grilses. I have witnessed five or six good fish, not 

 kelts, taken out here, in the course of little more than 

 half-an-hour, as fast in fact, as they could be hooked 

 and played to bank. The fisherman employed on the 

 Hendersyde water is brother to the tacksman at Sprous- 

 ton. At Birgham, the next fishing station further 

 down the river, two or three other Kersses are engaged 

 in this occupation, one of them being a son of Old RoVs 

 at Trows. At Carham, Wark, Lees, and Tweed Mill, a 

 family of Scotts hold rule, and about Melrose, in the 

 upper waters, are several Purdies, a name which the 

 author of Waverley has made celebrated. 



Before descending Tweed to the Birgham water, I 

 shall recur for a single moment to its principal tributary 



