3°4 THE SALMON RIVERS OF SCOTLAND 



Below comes Lord Polwarth's Merton reach of twenty-two 

 pools, the upper part being sometimes let, while the lower one is 

 always in the hands of the proprietor. The first nine pools have 

 the right on both banks ; then on the south side, for the next 

 six pools, is the Maxton water of Sir Henry Fairfax Lucy, while 

 the remaming seven are again Lord Polwarth's on both sides. 

 Here the Cauld Pool, the Webbs, Crago'er, and Stih Foot are all 

 noted casts, both in spring and autumn. 



John Younger, the well-known Tweedside shoemaker, politician, 

 and angler, who was born in 1785, states in his book of River Angling, 

 that in 1816, one John Haliburton, a farmer friend, rented the 

 Merton angling for fifteen pounds a year with a " cow's grass " ! 



The Rutherford water of Sh Edmund Antrobus foUo\\'s, and 

 has eight pools, of which the Clippers is the lowest, while of Corse 

 Heugh, the top one, Mr. Liddell sings : — 



" Three mighty fish I lost that afternoon 



In the ' Corse Heugh ' (I can't ensure the spelhng) ; 

 It's the upper cast, a mile above 



The fisherman John Aitkeu's cosy dwelling," 



This section is sometimes let with Rutherford Lodge, only a 

 few minutes distant from the railway station of the same name. 

 Like all the other anglings of the Tweed, it is not nearly so good as 

 it was. There are two and a half miles of both banks, which in 

 recent times have yielded as follows ; — 



1896 ..... 105 salmon 13 grilse. 



1897 



1898 



1899 



We now come to the famed Makerston reach, belonging to Mr. 

 Hugh Scott MakdougaU, with its fomrteen fine catches distributed over 

 a mile and three-quarters of both banks, which are usually let. Lord 

 Brackley, who succeeded Lord Wimborne, being the present tenant. 



" Hirple Nellie " (excusably turned by an English sporting 

 paper into " Help our Nellie "), Red Stane, Side Strake, Doors, 

 Nether Heads, Willie's Owerfa', and KUl Mouth, are all extra 

 good ; and once more to quite the rhyming Mr. Liddell : — 



" These last five cataracts descend 

 Through waUs of rock from end to end ; 

 They're known conjointly as ' The Trows ' 

 (Pronounced as if you were saying ' vows '), 

 But meaning ' Troughs ') — you'd ne'er attain 

 The reason why, so I'll explain. 

 Lang sjme a prehistoric man 

 Devised a raft of novel plan ; 

 He took tivo troughs for feeding cattle, 

 Joined them with nails, or rope, or wattle 

 And bevelled them, one end to be 

 In shape just hke our letter V. 

 Then, if the stream were small and low 

 (Else it were suicide to go). 



