ROBIN HOPE. 139 



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 rod, I fand the fish 

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

 teeth an' toung 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 lang 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 Glen- 

 benna, 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 body, at the outside o' the edge o' the wick bane. 

 He was a clean sawmon, an' three an' twenty meal 

 pounds." 



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 one, 

 not a fish would stir. " What is the meaning of this, 



