SUNDAY ON TWEEDSIDE. 63 



in the country. An indescribable calmness ushers 

 in the first day of the week. If we look up to 

 the hills at early morn, we may observe that 

 already in the very steps of the neighbouring 

 shepherd up their sides, there is something 

 which denotes a more sober and peaceful stride 

 than he had yesterday. If we listen, we hear 

 not, as at other times, the busy flail going in the 

 adjacent barn, we see fewer travellers, no 

 horsemen or carriages^ save, perhaps, a solitary 

 gig carrying a family to church. To our pisca- 

 tory friends in the South, say at Richmond or 

 Maidenhead, this is the great day of all the week 

 for their sport of angling ! but here we have no 

 such custom; and, I will venture to inform them, 

 that from Tweedsmuir to Tweedmouth, not a 

 line for salmon, salar, trout, or par, is cast on its 

 waters, so well is the Sunday kept on Tweed- 

 side ! ! But it may be said by some of our 

 Southern brethren of the angle, What are you 

 to do when in the country, on this day, if you 

 do not fish, read ? No, not entirely so. He 

 is a fisher seldom to be courted, who has not 

 added to his art some other acquirement besides 

 reading, say botany, geology, entomology, or 

 sketching. In fact, we should reckon that man to 



