174 THE COUP DE GRACE. 



and his race well nigh finished. Drawn into the bare 

 water, and not approving of the extended cleik, he 

 makes another swift rush, and repeats this effort each 

 time that he is towed to the shallows. At leno;th he is 

 cleiked in earnest, and hauled to shore : he proves one 

 of the grey scull, newly run, and weighs somewhat 

 above twenty pounds. The hook is not in his mouth, 

 but in the outside of it ; in which case a fish being able 

 to respire freely, always shows extraordinary vigour, 

 and generally sets his head down the stream. 



During the whole period of my experience in fishing, 

 though I have had some sharp encounters, yet I never 

 knew any sport equal to this. I am out of breath 

 even now whenever I think of it. I will trouble any 

 surveyor to measure the distance from the Kingswell 

 Lees, the starting spot, above Melrose Bridge, to the 

 end of the Cauld Pool, the death place, by Melrose 

 Church, and to tell me how much less it is than a mile 

 and three quarters, — I say I will trouble him to do so ; 

 and let him be a lover of the angle, that he may rather 

 increase than diminish the distance, as in good feeling 

 and respect for the craft it behoves him to do. I will 

 likewise thank my contemporaries and posterity to bear 

 in mind that the distance about to be measured by this 

 able surveyor was run at an eclipse pace, always allowing 

 for some slight abatement in speed pending our im- 

 mersion. 



Whilst I was taking a rest on the greensward, the 

 heated face of my excellent new friend appeared through 

 the alders. He could not, however, be fairly said to be 

 in at the death ; the coup de grace having been already 



