PISC. Enough, Sir, enough; I have laid open to you the part where I can worst defend myself; and now you attack me there. Come, boy, set two chairs; and whilst I am taking a pipe of tobacco, which is always my breakfast, we will, if you please, talk of some other subject.*

VIAT. None fitter then, Sir, for the time and place, than those instructions you promised.

*The following verses, extracted from a longer poem, in praise of tobacco, will serve to illustrate the several visits to the Fishing house. They are taken from Gosden's edition of the Journey to Beresford Hall.

"Now cloud on cloud pervades the fishers' room,
The Moreland ale rich sparkles to the sight;
They draw fresh wisdom from the circling gloom,
And deal a converse pregnant with delight.

"Methinks I see them with the mental eye,
I hear their lessons with attentive ear,
Of early fishing with the summer fly,
And many a pleasing tale to anglers dear."
Am. Ed.

PISC. I begin to doubt, by something I discover in you, whether I am able to instruct you or no; though, if you are really a stranger to our clear northern rivers, I still think I can, and, therefore, since it is yet too early in the morning at this time of the year, to-day being but the seventh of March, to cast a fly upon the water, if you will direct me what kind of fishing for a trout I shall read you a lecture on, I am willing and ready to obey you.

VIAT. Why, Sir, if you will so far oblige me, and that it may not be too troublesome to you, I would entreat you would run through the whole body of it; and I will not conceal from you that I am so far in love with you, your courtesy, and pretty Moreland seat, as to resolve to stay with you long enough by intervals, for I will not oppress you, to hear all you can say upon that subject.

PISC. You cannot oblige me more than by such a promise; and therefore, without more ceremony, I will begin to tell you that my father Walton having read to you before, it would look like a presumption in me, and peradventure would do so in any other man, to pretend to give lessons for angling after him, who, I do really believe, understands as much of it, at least, as any man in England; did I not preacquaint you, that I am not tempted to it by any vain opinion of myself, that I am able to give you better directions; but having from my childhood pursued the recreation of angling in very clear rivers, truly I think by much, some of them at least, the clearest in this kingdom, and the manner of angling here with us, by reason of that exceeding clearness, being something different from the method commonly used in others, which, by being not near so bright, admit of stronger tackle, and allow a nearer approach to the

stream; I may, peradventure, give you some instructions that may be of use even in your own rivers, and shall bring you acquainted with more flies, and show you how to make them, and with what dubbing too, than he has taken notice of in his Complete Angler.*

VIAT. I beseech you, Sir, do: and if you will lend me your steel, I will light a pipe the while; for that is commonly my breakfast in a morning, too.†

* Part I., Chap. 5.

It is not wise to venture out in the morning with an empty stomach, which renders the system peculiarly liable to any malaria that may be prevalent; besides, an empty stomach makes a light brain, and the angler needs all the coolness of judgment he can command. It is far better to rise even earlier than our father Walton, that, having fortified ourselves against the cravings of appetite which the angler's pursuits give him, for (as the Berners' Treatyse says) "the swete ayre of the swete savoure of the meede flowers makyth us hungry," we may not be forced to turn from the side of the stream until the golden opportunities of the morning are all well used.-Am. Ed.

P

CHAPTER IV.

ISCATOR. Why, then, Sir, to begin methodically, as a master in any art should do; and I will not deny but that I think myself a master in this: I shall divide angling for Trout or Grayling into these three ways; at the top, at the bottom, and in the middle: which three ways, though they are all of them, as I shall hereafter endeavor to make it appear, in some sort common to both those kinds of fish; yet are they not so generally and absolutely so, but that they will necessarily require a distinction, which in due place I will also give you.

That which we call angling at the top is with a fly; at the bottom, with a ground-bait; in the middle, with a minnow or ground-bait.

Angling at the top is of two sorts; with a quick fly, or with an artificial fly.

That we call angling at the bottom is also of two sorts; by the hand, or with a cork or float.

That we call angling in the middle is also of two sorts; with a minnow for a trout, or with a ground-bait for a grayling.

Of all which several sorts of angling, I will, if you can have the patience to hear me, give you the best account I

can.

VIAT. The trouble will be yours, and mine the pleasure and the obligation; I beseech you therefore to proceed. PISC. Why then, first of fly-fishing.

CHAPTER V.

Of Fly-fishing.

ISCATOR. Fly-fishing, or fishing at the top is, as I said

PISCA

before, of two sorts; with a natural and living fly, or with an artificial and made fly.

First then, of the natural fly; of which we generally use but two sorts, and those but in the two months of May and June only, namely, the green-drake, and the stone-fly; though I have made use of a third that way, called the camlet fly, with very good success for grayling; but never saw it angled with by any other after this manner, my master only excepted, who died many years ago, and was one of the best anglers that I ever knew.

These are to be angled with, with a short line, not much more than half the length of your rod, if the air be still; or with a longer, very near or all out as long as your rod, if you have any wind to carry it from you. And this way of fishing we call daping, dabbing, or dibbing,* wherein you are always to have your line flying before you up or down the river as the wind serves, and to angle as near as you can to the bank of the same side whereon you stand; though where you see a fish rise near you, you may guide your quick fly over him, whether in the middle or on the contrary side; and if you are pretty well out of sight, either by kneeling, or the

fly.

*See chap. vii., May 11, directions how to bait with the green-drake

PART II.-E