288 FISHING GOSSIP. 
Battery, probably from its being walled in or fortified 
on one side. It is very rapid, and can only be fished 
with success when Tweed is in a reduced state. The 
minnow on this cast is an acceptable lure both to 
trout and salmon. Heading it expands the famous 
Monk’s Ford, which, get a mild easterly wind to 
ruffle it in May or June, may be fished without fear 
of the result. The water, being in prime order, two 
stone weight of trout (it is purely a trouting range 
of water) would not be considered anything very 
extraordinary in the way of a take—the average 
weight of the individual captures approaching, if 
not exceeding, half-a-pound. 
Irrespective of the interest attached to it in con- 
nection with the Abbey Sounds, Dryburgh water, as 
a stretch of Tweed stored with finny wealth, and 
moulded by nature to the angler’s liking, possesses 
peculiar attractions. I shall not say it is unsurpassed, 
either as a succession of salmon-casts or as a trouting- 
beat, by the divisions of the Border river conter- 
minous to it; but it excels them in variety of char- 
acter, and is enhanced in the estimation of its fre- 
quenters by the circumstance that, owing to this 
variety, let the general taking humour, whether by 
trout or salmon, on the river, be what it may, the 
chances are greatly in favour of its affording sport. 
To the greater part of the range of water above 
sketched the fair trout-fisher has always been per- 
