432 Meetings of Bemvickshire Ncdwralists , Club, by J. Hardy. 



" Practical Angler," and Forrest, Engraver to the Scottish. Art 

 Union, I knew intimately. These, I think, and one or two 

 Edinburgh Baillies were among the founders of the Nest Club." 

 The spirited engraving of this Club, the Water Ouzel, by Sim- 

 son, embellishes one of Mr Stoddart's later works, " An Angler's 

 Rambles and Eambling Songs," a book grateful to all Borderers. 

 The river is now crossed to Yair. The bridge here was built 

 about 1764, at least the Act for it was obtained in that year. 

 Yair is a large square bright looking mansion, built about the 

 beginning of the present century, and well sheltered behind with 

 old woods. The bank above the entrance to the stables is almost 

 quite covered with the large radical foliage of Valeriana pyrenaica. 

 The green lawn in front, bounded by the Tweed, is finely orna- 

 mented with tall wide-spreading trees ; conspicuous among them 

 a Norway maple, whose crimson upper foliage, flaming like a 

 meteor, catches the attention a great way off. There is also a 

 spacious Spanish Chestnut, with a far-extending lower arm ; and 

 variously adorned in mossy green and yellow, an umbrageous 

 Golden Chestnut. The largest tree on the grounds is an Elm, in 

 front of the house. Its rival, a gigantic Ash, beside the Tweed, 

 of 20 feet circumference, at three feet from the ground, was 

 broken across the bole, by the great gale of Sept. 15, 1878. Dr 

 Douglas, in the work already referred to, mentions the elms and 

 ashes at Yair. One ash, in his time, measured 12 feet 9 inches 

 at the bottom, but was divided into two clefts about a foot above 

 the surface of the ground. Another was 8 feet 2 inches at the 

 height of five feet, and had an upright stem of 12 feet; and the 

 whole tree having considerable shoots and branches, contained 

 about 80 feet of timber. Two elms, at Yair, measured each 

 above 1 3 feet round at the surface of the ground. " One of them 

 at 6 feet above it, is 1 1 feet 9 inches, and has a straight trunk of 

 12 feet ; the trunk of the other is 9 feet in length, and its aver- 

 age girth is 10 feet 4 inches ; and both together must contain 

 from 260 to 300 feet."* Mr Pringle, the owner, courteously 

 welcomed the company. A small stream, the Yair burn, passes 

 between the house and the garden. On the banks of this to the 

 left of the house, and leading to the garden were plots of Tritoma 

 uvaria, Cannabis Indica, Ricinus communis, or Castor Oil plant; 

 Bamboo (Borassus flab elli for mis) ; and the Tussac-grass of the 

 * Agricultural Survey of Selkirkshire, 1792, pp. 284, 285. 



