BOBIN HOPE. 159 



o' their mouths wi' their teethy tongue — an' they are 

 amaist sure to do sae. But he was owre weel heuckit, 

 this ane, to work his purpose in that gyse, as ye sal 

 hear ; for when by dint o' runnin' back thrae the water 

 as fast as I could, and windin' up the line I had 

 brought a bow on the tap o' the road, I fand the fish 

 had riestit in the deepest part o' the pool, trying a' that 

 teeth an' tongue could do to get haud o' the heuck ; and 

 there did he lie for nearly an hour, for I had plenty o' 

 time to look at my watch, and now and then to tak' 

 mony a snuff too. But I was certain by this time that 

 he was fast heuckit, and I raised him again by cloddin 

 stanes afore him as near as I durst for hittin' the line. 

 But when I got him up at last there was mickle mair 

 to do than I thocht of; for he ran up the pool and 

 doon the pool I dar say fifty times, till my feet wur 

 dour sair wi' gangin sae iang on the channel : then he 

 gaed owre the stream a'thegither. I was glad to let 

 him change his gait ony way; and he gaed down to 

 Glenbenna, that was in Whitebank's-water, and I 

 wrocht him lang there. To mak' a lang tale short, 

 before I could get at him wi' the gaff, I was baith 

 hungry an' tyrt; an' after a' he was firm heuckit, in 

 the teughest part o' the bod}', at the outside o' the 

 edge o' the wick bane. He was a clean sawmon, an' 

 three an' twenty meal punds." 



No creature is more capricious than a salmon. One 

 of the Lairds of Makerstoun, many years ago, had a 

 fisherman named Robin Hope, who, like many of his 

 brethren on the Tweed, was an original. Attending his 

 master on a day that was considered quite a killing 



