238 FISHING GOSSIP. 



Battery, probably from its being walled in or fortified 

 on one side. It is very rapid, and can only be fished 

 with success when Tweed is in a reduced state. The 

 minnow on this cast is an acceptable lure both to 

 trout and salmon. Heading it expands the famous 

 Monk's Ford, which, get a mild easterly wind to 

 ruffle it in May or June, may be fished without fear 

 of the result. The water, being in prime order, two 

 stone weight of trout (it is purely a trouting range 

 of water) would not be considered anything very 

 extraordinary in the way of a take the average 

 weight of the individual captures approaching, if 

 not exceeding, half-a-pound. 



Irrespective of the interest attached to it in con- 

 nection with the Abbey grounds, Dryburgh water, as 

 a stretch of Tweed stored with finny wealth, and 

 moulded by nature to the angler's liking, possesses 

 peculiar attractions. I shall not say it is unsurpassed, 

 either as a succession of salmon-casts or as a trouting- 

 beat, by the divisions of the Border river conter- 

 minous to it ; but it excels them in variety of char- 

 acter, and is enhanced in the estimation of its fre- 

 quenters by the circumstance that, owing to this 

 variety, let the general taking humour, whether by 

 trout or salmon, on the river, be what it may, the 

 chances are greatly in favour of its affording sport. 



To the greater part of the range of water above 

 sketched the fair trout-fisher has always been per- 



