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PRESIDE OF THE GLASGOW BORDER COUNTIES ASSOCIATION.
By ALEXANDER LAING.

PAR from the maddening crowd, in the
sequestered parish of Cavers, this worthy

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son of the Borderland was born on the 5th April, 1845, at North House, Teviothead, where his father was land steward. At that time the Rev. Henry Scott Riddell was minister at Teviothead, and the laddies looked upon the author of "Scotland Yet" and "The Hames o' oor ain folk" with fear and trembling. There our young Borderer had his ABC licked into him in the good old way by Dominie Little, and doubtless imbibed in that classic ground something of the old Border spirit, love of freedom and manly independence; for in this parish of Cavers, of which Denholm is the chief town, resided the lineal descendents of the hero of Otterburn; and on its southern side lies Liddesdale, the old Debatable Land, home of the Elliots, the Armstrongs, Lord Soulis of Hermitage, and other Border chiefs celebrated in olden ballad and story.

In these degenerate days when we are almost altogether made in Germany, when the rural population must leave the pastoral vale for the great centres of trade and commerce, and people are more eager in getting riches than understanding, the Borderland, with its heroic past and reflective and energetic present, is a good soil for implanting hardihood and courage in young hearts to be shown in after years.

From Teviothead the family removed to

Sweethope, near Kelso. Prominent landmarks in the vicinity are Hume Castle, Smailholm Tower, Sweethope crags, and the loch where phantastic shadows cast by the huge masses of stone lent terror to the imaginative childhood of Sir Walter Scott.

The elementary education, interrupted at Teviothead, was continued at Stitchel and Nenthorn schools until the age of thirteen, when William Robertson was apprenticed to Messrs. J. & J. H. Rutherfurd, well known publishers and booksellers in Kelso, whose Border Almanac meets with an annual welcome far beyond the bounds of the Borderland.

Local tradition says that Mr. Rutherfurd predicted, on observing how the young apprentice set to his work the first day, that this one would rise to something yet. However, the lad did not remain long, though he gives Mr. James Rutherfurd the credit of founding in him the basis of a good commercial training, but relinquished that pursuit of literature for a more general calling, and entered the firm of Redpath & Son, at that time one of the largest hardware houses in the south of Scotland. After completing an apprenticeship he eventually rose to a partnership on a re-organisation of the firm as Redpath & Company, and continued in that position until the Glasgow business was opened. He still regards the late Mr. James Redpath as the best friend he ever had.

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this in a measure explains the pleasure he manifests in encouraging such societies for young men of the present day. But while developing his mind in this kind of school, he was also receiving instruction in the tender passion from the bright eyes of a Kelso lassie, with whom he entered the bonds of matrimony in the year '69.

In church affairs likewise Mr. Robertson fulfilled his part, and was an office-bearer in Kelso Free Church, the church of Dr. Horatius Bonar. He was one of the deputation appointed to hear Dr. Robertson Nicoll, then a young man just beginning his career in the ministry; and the report of the deputation, which was the means of bringing to Kelso that now world

self in Glasgow Central Arcade, and with characteristic energy and courage went to the London Fisheries Exhibition the same year, 1883, gaining two Diplomas.

Unknown and knowing no one in Glasgow, one of his first acquaintances was the late Mr. Wm. Forsyth, a man of culture, wide reading, full of the glamour of Border poesy and tale, and as leal a Borderer as ever lived. He was a leading promoter of the Glasgow Border Counties Association, and soon brought Mr. Robertson into the conclave. Moreover, a keen angler, and associated with the brethren of the angle throughout the west, his was no mere lukewarm friendship. Let it be said, the new enterprise grew and grew, and now Mr. Willie

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esteemed critic and litterateur, is a valued possession of Mr. Robertson's, it having been written out by his own hand.

In order to expand the Fishing Tackle Department of his firm, which was gaining distinction throughout the country and still enjoys a good reputation, Mr. Robertson travelled in the north of Scotland for several years, taking up his residence first in Edinburgh, and afterwards in the Kingdom of Fife. It was during his sojourn among the people of the kingdom. that his shadow began to grow to those ample dimensions that hid our young Kelso contemporary for a time from our eyes.

At the expiry of the term of co-partnery he retired from the firm, started business for him

J. C. R. Buckner.

Robertson is guide, counsellor and friend to followers of the gentle art the wide world over.

A keen and wily angler now, Kelso folks say he never handled a rod with success when a dweller on Tweedside. Every stream, loch, and burn in Scotland he knows, and with suitable lures he can "bate a'." For some years past a Director of the Loch Leven Angling Association, Ltd., President of Glasgow Wanderers' Angling Club for six years, Chairman of Committee of Upper Ward of Lanark Clyde Angling Protection Association, Member of Committee of Loch Lomond Angling Improvement Association, his enthusiasm is unbounded. He was chief in promoting the Clyde Hatchery started at Abington some years ago, the first promoted by

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