LEISTERING SALMON* $7 



these months, brings into the tributaries of Tweed a 

 considerable number of salmon, grilses, and sea trout, 

 a party is generally formed, composed of the male in- 

 habitants of the parish or district, from old men of 

 threescore down to boys in their earliest teens. For 

 several days previous, the blacksmiths, miles about, 

 are employed in sharpening up and repairing the leis- 

 ters or salmon spears, which are commonly three or 

 four pronged, and have long slender shafts formed of 

 ash or fir. Torches also of pitch, rosin, old ropes, 

 and flax, are made ready the state of the water is dis- 

 cussed and a mimickry of the bustle prevalent before 

 a foray, or martial adventure, is enacted among the 

 petty villages or farm-houses bordering upon the stream. 



On the afternoon of the intended operations, and 

 immediately previous to their setting forth, every pub- 

 lic-house contains a number of small and select groups, 

 talking over their former feats and fortunes. Here is 

 no less a personage than the Ettrick Shepherd, a good 

 hand both at the rod and leister ; on his right sits Wat 

 Amos, and David Tiirnbull, landlord of the Gordon 

 Arms, below Benger Knowe ; to the left of the poet 

 are seated Thorburn of Juniper Bank, and Forster of 

 Coldstream, without question the ablest anglers on 

 Tweedside ; at another corner you may discern Wal- 

 ter Brydon of Ettrick, surrounded by a bevy of Scotts, 

 Laidlaws, and Andersons. " Wee Jamie/' as Mr 

 Hogg terms his only son, lingers impatiently outside, 

 and, though a boy, is by no means unlearned in the 

 art of transfixing a salmon. Here, too, is old " Jock 

 Gray," the Edie Ochiltree of Sir Walter Scott, the 

 veriest gaberlunzie man in broad Scotland, and one of 

 the best mimics alive. 



But the sun is now gone down, and a star or two 

 peer out from the eastern bend of heaven. Yarrow, 



