138 FISH AND FISHING IX SCOTLAND. 



CHAPTER XII. 



THE TWEED. 



THE Tweed, so celebrated in song, is of all the rivers of Scotland 

 the best suited for angling, and an angler might pass a pleasant 

 week or fortnight in fishing the Tweed from Tweedsmuir to 

 Norham or even to Whitadder mouth, confining his sport 

 strictly to the stream itself. Many beautiful and many wild 

 scenes would he pass through. There are interruptions, it is 

 true, to the angler's course, but fewer, I believe, than occur on 

 any stream of its magnitude. His best course would be to 

 commence at the Bield, well provided with tackle, but not 

 encumbered ; for the trug angler, like the soldier, should not 

 only carry all he requires with him, but be able to angle freely, 

 to cross a stream, to perform a long march, climb mountains, 

 and be prepared to sleep under the thatched roof or marble- 

 porched hall, as chance or fortune may direct. As an angler he 

 will be welcome everywhere, at least I have always found it so. 



I have described the fishing at the Bield and in Tala ; silvery 

 streams and soft reaches, running over a gravelly pebbled bottom, 

 lead on through a land of heather and pasture to Peebles. 

 Although I have not fished over this ground, I am disposed to 

 recommend it to the angler. Should the river be swollen, he 

 ought not to attempt crossing it by wading through fords which 

 he knows not. Foreign travel and the incidents of war make 

 some bold, and enable them to do that with ease which a civilian, 

 though a brave man, might shrink from, or by attempting lose 

 his life. I was travelling one summer day from Dunse to Mill- 

 know, by Elmsford. On reaching the cottage I found the river to 

 be swollen, much flooded, and impassable otherwise than by 

 swimming. Unhesitatingly I entered the stream on my good 

 grey mare, although I had never swum her across but once before ; 

 but knowing well that all horses swim, and so fearing nothing, 

 she boldly struck out in water which might be ten feet deep. 

 The people on the other side called out to me not to attempt it, 



