26 A PRIMITIVE ESTABLISHMENT. sleep in a small closet within a large chamber, in which two "hurricane houses," as Hawser Trunnion would call the fixed bedsteads peculiar to the borders, are erected. One is held in jointtenancy by the landlady and her daughter-the other is occupied by "the lassie," as they call "the maid of all work”—and a very pretty sunnyhaired, blue-eyed girl, the lassie is. The bolt is on my side of the door; and were I a somnambulist, the outer chamber would be open to invasion. Here is confidence in lovely woman. I-a very stranger-put in possession of the citadel itself. How loudly the hostess snores! By Saint Paul! a marvellous heavy sleeper to hold that high responsibility, which, in a Turkish harem, they confide to "the mother of the maids!" If the outpost duty is entrusted to the stout gentlewoman whom I am listening to, and Irish anglers are occasionally accommodated for the night, I would conscientiously recommend the bolt to be placed on the other side of the door. Thank God! I am no sleep-walker. No matter, therefore, what side the fastening is on so far as I'm concerned. Another day has passed. I have fished the Whitadder most successfully, and returned to "mine inn" at seven o'clock, with a full pannier of beautiful red trouts. Dinner had been some A PRIMITIVE ESTABLISHMENT. 27 time waiting, and the blue-eyed lassie paraded a clean and comfortable repast. How much it predisposes a man to make himself comfortable in the evening, when he returns from moor or river with a well-filled bag or weighty creel! I poked the fire-for the nights are chilly on the borderthe whisky was excellent-the water critically boiled-and for myself, I put no more faith in Father Mathew than I do in Harriet Martineau. I know not wherefore, but I never required so much attendance-and the blue-eyed lassie does "her spiriting so gently!" How pretty and how modest!—and she is so perfectly unconscious of her beauty, that on the gazer she has a double claim. Lord! how soundly the old woman snored last night-while that sweet girl, no doubt, slept calmly as an infant, within a halbert's length, and the bolt on my side! "Hallo! Colonel O'Shaughnessey!" and dame Prudence gave me a jog-" Arrah! what's this you're talking about? Are you, at your time of life, going to make a Judy Fitzsummon's mother of yourself? Take a friend's advice, and be off in the morning-but give Mistress Macsneeish a whisper before you go, and tell her to change the fastening, and put it on the other side." CHAPTER III. CORNHILL SALMON BRIDGE OF COULSON-BEAUTIFUL POOL-A SPORTING -- HYMENEAL STATISTICS ANGLING INCIDENT THE BOMONT-BLACK-HEADED GULLS-BORDER MELODIES-A RENTDAY DINNER, AND DEEP POTATION. I AM located in one of the best inns to be found upon the borders-that at Cornhill. Read and wrote all day-excellent dinner-and to pass an hour, have set out for a short stroll into Scotland. The Tweed, which separates the kingdoms, is not a mile from the hotel, and, over the noble bridge of Coulson, I proceeded into the ancient town of Coldstream, where General Monk raised the household regiment before the Restoration, which still retains the name of what may be termed its birth-place. From the battlements of the bridge, at either side, the view is fine-to the artist, pretty and picturesque; but, to the angler, a prospect of surpassing interest. Above, the river makes a graceful sweep, exhibiting a broad expanse of unbroken water, which, gliding quietly under the arches, falls a dozen feet over a curtain of stone-work extending right across, with one open passage on the English side to enable the salmon to come up. Last night was rainy and as on the sabbath all impediments are removed, no doubt, profiting by the spaight and a free passage, hundreds availed themselves of the opportunity and ascended their native stream. Over the large basin above the bridge a myriad of tiny trouts are springing, carrying on a "hit and miss" sort of warfare against the flies; while their larger companions, avoiding unnecessary trouble and display, slightly break the water as they suck the victim in. I was amusing myself in mental calculations as to the respective sizes of the fish which starred the surface of the pool, when suddenly, a noble salmon, fresh from the sea, who had used his Sunday licence and passed the barriers which for six days would have been opposed to him, celebrated his advent by a clean somerset of three full feet! Great was the splash thereof!-the water went curling over the pool, effacing in a moment the minuter circles made by the lesser tenants of the stream. A minute after this saltation had been performed the ripple eddied to the bank, as you may have noticed Spaight-Anglicè, a fresh. * 30 A SPORTING SALMON. the wavy swell following the transit of some large steamer, break under the bay window of the Crown and Sceptre, while the white-bait is in culinary progress, and Cockneys who have dined already, sigh at the memory of past pleasure, and wish they had not dined. I never saw a finer fish than "the saltador." I hooked him next day in the belly fin, and off he went, carrying my casting-line away with him easily as if it had been made of single hair. He was taken four days afterwards in a draught net; my fly and casting-line proved the identity; and at scale he turned eighteen pounds! I am somewhat digressive,-all great men digress,-myself, Byron, Joe Hume, and others. I was also oblivious that I was withholding from you information that might be of more importance than the private history of every salmon in the Tweed. Immediately abutting on this exquisite pool-in fact its left flank resting on the river-the first house you encounter on the Scottish side is an unpretending edifice, one story high and roofed with tiles. Humble as its exterior may be, pass it with reverence-for that is the temple of Hymen, and there his chief-priest resides. I know, my dear Jack, that you are no fortune-hunter-but still, should it please the Lord to promiscuously (as they call it in Ireland) throw some lady of Miss Angela Coutts's calibre |