EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION ix 



to be taken " recte si possis . . . si non quocunque 

 modo." But in other respects the interest is fresh and 

 topical. The way of a salmon with the fly in 1921 is 

 just what it was in 1842, and if Scrope were to re- 

 visit the Tweed to-day he would surely find himself 

 just as successful an angler, perhaps more successful, 

 thanks to the later improvements in equipment. 

 For the salmon is the same fish all the time. " Plus 

 <;a change, plus cest la meme chose." 



Changes, of course, there have been, some of them 

 for the better, some of them for the worse. On the 

 whole, so far as the Tweed itself is concerned, I think 

 the better predominates. All methods of poaching, 

 for instance, are nowadays at any rate illegal, and, 

 though they are not by any means obsolete, they are 

 for the most part practised, so to say, with one eye 

 over the shoulder, an attitude which must to some 

 extent interfere with their efficiency. Watchers and 

 bailiffs come in for a good deal of reprobation from 

 people who know little of the difficulties and dangers 

 of their work, but, on the whole, they are both brave 

 and intelligent men, and they deserve the thanks 

 of anglers. We hear a great deal about poaching 

 which they have not prevented, but we hear very 

 little about the raids that have not come off, the 

 spawning beds which have not been disturbed, the 

 passes which have not seen the furtive cleik. In the 

 nature of things it is impossible for any river to 

 maintain a big force of protectors, so, as matters are 

 at present, some poaching is inevitable. That there 

 is not more of it is a benefit which we owe to what 

 bailiffs there are. There might be less than there is, 



