THE TWEED AT DRYBURGH. 289 



mitted ready access, both "by the various proprietors 

 on its banks, and the lessees of the fishings ; the 

 Abbey policies, in fact, which extend to nearly a mile 

 on the south side of the river, being the only portion 

 from which the public are excluded, and that from 

 considerations with which their superiority in the 

 way of commanding sport with the rod has little or 

 nothing to do. 



Leaving the Dryburgh casts, which are crowned 

 by the Monk's Ford, the angler, pushing upwards, 

 enters forthwith upon the Bemersyde fishing-grounds, 

 which, in their alliance with those of Old Melrose on 

 the opposite bank, form a fascinating combination of 

 river-scenery high in order with salmon-holds and 

 trouting-water of established celebrity. I do not 

 know, throughout the whole course of Tweed, from 

 its sources in Tweedsmuir down to the mouth of the 

 Whitadder a course of nearly a hundred miles in 

 extent of a spot where this combination is main- 

 tained so admirably. For more than twenty years it 

 has been my delight, two or three times every season, 

 to visit it, rod in hand ; and a personal acquaintance 

 with the proprietors and occasional lessees of the 

 salmon-fishings as well, has given me not a few 

 opportunities to test its excellence as sporting water. 

 Besides a score or two of kelts, I have abstracted 

 from it several fish which I may be permitted to 

 affirm were clean and seasonable. As to their having 



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