ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 



C h was first instituted, there is no authentic 



record ; neither have we discovered any documents 

 leading us to suppose, that a narration of its pro- 

 ceedings was entrusted to the management of a 

 secretary, until very lately before its dissolution. 

 Our grandfather, who, along with our older ances- 

 tor, was a keen and competent angler, introduced 

 us into the club, when only ten years of age ; the 

 chief requisition being, that the entrant should have 

 slain a salmon on Tweedside. This feat we actually 

 did accomplish at that early period of our boyhood, 

 although (we make the confession without a blush) 

 after the fish had been fixed and exhausted by the 

 tackle of our grandsire, who good-naturedly con- 

 ceded to us the triumph of hauling it ashore. 



The club, at the time of our admission, consisted 

 of a circle of greybeards, several of them octogen- 

 arians, and none under sixty years of age. Its 

 numbers, as far as we recollect, were about seven or 

 eight, all jovial fellows, full of humour, and of -the 

 right cast. These were principally country lairds, 

 having no fixed profession, but independent with 

 regard to circumstances. 



The most prominent of them, next to my grand- 

 father, who, as senior member, held the situation of 

 president, was one Sir Amalek All-gab, a large, 

 portly, broad-shouldered man, with a very simple 

 and good-natured countenance, which, to our boy- 

 ish eyes, appeared monstrously out of character 

 with his person. Sir Amalek was the last of the 



