276 FISHING GOSSIP. 



landscape. A more enjoyable wind-up to your day's 

 sport you cannot have. On Tweedside, which is 

 crowded with scenic attractions, I know of no spot 

 that so powerfully commends itself to the eye, and is 

 more adapted by its associations to invite to soothing 

 reverie. 



The charms which belong to this view-point are 

 no doubt greatly enhanced in the angler's estimation 

 by the character of the river. The curve or bend 

 here taken by the Border-stream embraces a series of 

 rocky pools and gravelly stretches, which in their 

 harmonious combination present themselves at once 

 to his mind as the cherished lurking-places both of 

 salmon and river-trout ; not that they excel in this 

 respect the ranges of water in their immediate neigh- 

 bourhood, but forming as they do a prominent 

 feature in the picture, they add to the interest of it 

 in the eye of a certain class of onlookers, and really 

 deepen and make more imposing the general effect. 



Since the communication by railway was estab- 

 lished betwixt Kelso and St. Boswells a station on 

 the North British line situated at about a mile's dis- 

 tance from the Abbey I have taken opportunities, 

 two or three at least every season, to pay a visit, rod 

 in hand, to the bend in question and the portions of 

 the river adjoining it. Sometimes, for variety's sake, 

 I alight at Maxton Station, three miles further down, 

 and fish up towards Dryburgh. In that case, I 



