96 ANGLING SKETCHES 



Leyden sang ; but now the stream is very much 

 tainted indeed below Hawick, like Tweed in too 

 many places. Thus, for a dozen reasons, trout are 

 nigh as rare as red deer. Clearburn alone remains 

 full of unsophisticated fishes, and I have the less 

 hesitation in revealing this, because I do not ex- 

 pect the wanderer who may read this page to be 

 at all more successful than myself. No doubt 

 they are sometimes to be had, by the basketful, 

 but not often, nor by him who thinks twice 

 before risking his life by smothering in a peaty 

 bottom. 



To reach Clearburn Loch, if you start from the 

 Teviot, you must pass through much of Scott's 

 country and most of Leyden's. I am credibly in- 

 formed that persons of culture have forgotten John 

 Leyden. He was a linguist and a poet, and the 

 friend of Walter Scott, and knew 



The mind whose fearless frankness naught could move, 

 The friendship, like an elder brother's love. 



We remember what distant and what deadly shore 

 has Leyden's cold remains, and people who do not 

 know may not care to be reminded. 



