A TWEEDSIDE SKETCH 127 



However, one does do at Rome as the Romans 

 do, and fishes for salmon in Tweed when the nets 

 are off in October, when the yellowing leaves 

 begin to fall, and when that beautiful reach of 

 wooded valley from Elibank to the meeting of 

 Tweed and Ettrick is in the height of its autumnal 

 charm. Why has Yarrow been so much more 

 besung than Tweed, in spite of the greater stream's 

 far greater and more varied loveliness ? The fatal 

 duel in the Dowie Dens of Yarrow and the 

 lamented drowning of Willie there have given the 

 stream its 'pastoral melancholy,' and engaged 

 Wordsworth in the renown of the water. For the 

 poetry of Tweed we have chiefly, after. Scott, to 

 thank Mr. Stoddart, its loyal minstrel. ' Dearer 

 than all these to me,' he says about our other 

 valleys, ' is sylvan Tweed.' 



Let ither anglers choose their ain, 



And ither wateis tak' the lead, 

 O' Hieland streams we covet nane, 



But gie to us the bonny Tweed ; 

 And gie to us the cheerfu' burn, 



That steals into its valley fair, 

 The streamlets that, at ilka turn, 



Sae saftly meet and mingle there. 



