136 AX ANGLER'S RAMBLES 



of irrigation, which entered the river on the south side, within a 

 few yards of the Corstorphine road. Fellows weighing upwards 

 of a pound I have occasionally landed, and, as I imagined, 

 hooked and played larger ones. It was by no means unusual 

 for me to take two dozen and upwards of trout in this locality. 

 On reference to my journal I find such captures frequently 

 recorded. My success on the higher portions of this stream may 

 be judged of from the following extracts : 



Near Currie, April 2, 1834, s. flies, 72 trout. 



Ditto, April 3, 1834 60 



Slateford, April 7, 1834 45 



Above Currie, May 28, 1835 98 



Ditto, June 3, 1835 78 



The Water of Leith, I may here mention, finds place among 

 the salmon streams named in the old Scots Acts, to which con- 

 servators were appointed by the Crown. At what period the 

 solar ceased to frequent this stream cannot be ascertained with 

 any accuracy, but I have my father's authority for stating that, 

 when a boy, he well remembered being one of a boat's crew 

 which gave chase to a salmon in the Water of Leith, and by the 

 assistance of the oars, and a boat-hook, succeeded in capturing 

 it. This incident, I have reason to think, took place about the 

 year 1780. My earliest instructor in fly-fishing was a Mr. Wilson 

 from Glasgow ; but the most valuable lessons I ever received 

 were given by an eccentric genius who presided over a small but 

 highly- exalted tackle-shop in the High Street of Edinburgh, not 

 far from the Tron Church in fact, fronting Niddry Street. His 

 name was Rawson Bill Rawson. There was another of that 

 name a brother, I believe who followed the same occupation 

 in Princes Street. The character, however, I allude to, was a 

 thinnish, white-haired old man, with a glittering eye, like the 

 Ancient Mariner's, and a leg which, if not altogether game, might 

 have claimed exemption, I won't say in toto, but certainly on 



