The Poet-Angler

At the age of 23 Thomas Stoddart became an Advocate, although he did not appear to have held a brief at any time. His legal training was of some value, however: it enabled him to study with a proper understanding the various complicated Acts of Parliament which dealt with rivers and fishing. His parents, recognising where his real interests lay, provided him with a modest competency so that he could henceforth follow his particular bent and heart’s desire. He settled down in Kelso, near to his beloved Tweed and Teviot.

‘Well, Tom, and what are you doing now?’ asked his old friend Sheriff Glassford Bell.

‘Doing? Man, I’m an angler’, was Stoddart’s swift reply, and an angler he remained to the end of his days.

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