the loss of your fly, for ten to one I teach you to make a better. Who's that calls?

SERV. Sir, will it please you to come to dinner?

PISC. We come. You hear, sir, we are called, and now take your choice, whether you will climb this steep hill before you, from the top of which you will go directly into the house, or back again over these stepping-stones, and about by the bridge.

VIAT. Nay, sure, the nearest way is best; at least my stomach tells me so; and I am now so well acquainted with your rocks, that I fear them not.

PISC. Come, then, follow me; and so soon as we have dined, we will down again to the little, house, where I will begin at the place I left off about fly-fishing, and read you another lecture; for I have a great deal more to say upon that subject.

VIAT. The more the better; I could never have met with a more obliging master, my first excepted; nor such sport can all the rivers about London ever afford, as is to be found in this pretty river.

PISC. You deserve to have better, both because I see you are willing to take pains, and for liking this little so well; and better I hope to show you before we part.

CHAPTER VII.

[Second Day.]

VIAT. Come, sir, having now well dined, and being again set in your little house, I will now challenge your promise, and entreat you to proceed in your instruction for fly-fishing; which that you may be the better encouraged to do, I will assure you that I have not lost, I think, one syllable of what you have told me; but very well retain all your directions, both for the rod, line, and making a fly; and now desire an account of the flies themselves.

PISC. Why, sir, I am ready to give it you, and shall have the whole afternoon to do it in, if nobody come in to inter

rupt us; for you must know (besides the unfitness of the day) that the afternoons, so early in March, signify very little for angling with a fly, though with a minnow, or a worm, something might (I confess) be done.

To begin, then, where I left off, my father Walton tells us of but twelve artificial flies only, to angle with at the top, and gives their names; of which some are common with us here; and I think I guess at most of them by his description, and I believe they all breed and are taken in our rivers, though we do not make them either of the same dubbing or fashion. And it may be in the rivers about London, which I presume he has most frequented, and where it is likely he has done most execution, there is not much notice taken of many more: but we are acquainted with several others here, though perhaps I may reckon some of his by other names, too; but if I do, I shall make you amends by an addition to his catalogue. And although the forenamed great master in the art of angling, for so in truth he is, tells you that no man should, in honesty, catch a trout in the middle of March, yet I hope he will give a man leave sooner to take a grayling, which, as I told you, is in the dead months in his best season: and do assure you (which I remember by a very remarkable token), I did once take, upon the sixth day of December, one, and only one, of the biggest graylings, and the best in season, that ever I yet saw or tasted; and do usually take trouts too, and with a fly, not only before the middle of this month, but almost every year in February, unless it be a very ill spring indeed; and have sometimes in January, so early as New-year's tide, and in frost and snow, taken grayling in a warm sunshine day for an hour or two about noon; and to fish for him with a grub, it is then the best time of all.

I shall therefore begin my fly-fishing with that month, though I confess very few begin so soon, and that such as are so fond of the sport as to embrace all opportunities, can rarely in that month find a day fit for their purpose; and tell you, that upon my knowledge these flies in a warm sun, for an hour or two in the day, are certainly taken.

JANUARY.

1. A RED BROWN, with wings of the male of a mallard almost white: the dubbing of the tail of a black long-coated

cur, such as they commonly make muffs of; for the hair on the tail of such a dog dies and turns to a red-brown, but the hair of a smooth-coated dog of the same colour will not do, because it will not die, but retains its natural colour, and this fly is taken in a warm sun, this whole month through.

2. There is also a very little BRIGHT DUN GNAT, as little as can possibly be made, so little as never to be fished with, with above one hair next the hook; and this is to be made of a mixed dubbing of marten's fur, and the white of a hare's scut, with a very white and small wing; and it is no great matter how fine you fish, for nothing will rise in this month but a grayling; and of them I never, at this season, saw any taken with a fly, of above a foot long in my life: but of little ones about the bigness of a smelt, in a warm day, and a glowing sun, you may take enough with these two flies, and they are both taken the whole month through.*

FEBRUARY.

1. Where the red-brown of the last month ends, another almost of the same colour begins, with this saving, that the dubbing of this must be of something a blacker colour, and both of them wrapped on with red silk. The dubbing that should make this fly, and that is the truest colour, is to be got off the black spot of a hog's ear: not that a black spot in any part of the hog will not afford the same colour, but that the hair in that place is, by many degrees, softer, and more fit for the purpose. His wing must be as the other [1. in January]; and this kills all this month, and is called the lesser red-brown.

2. This month, also, a plain hackle, or palmer-fly, made with a rough black body, either of black spaniel's fur, or the whirl of an ostrich feather, and the red hackle of a capon over all, will kill, and, if the weather be right, make very good sport.

*I do not think it necessary to describe the patterns of any trout-flies for this month. Trout are in such ill-condition now, as to be entirely worthless either for sport or food; Grayling may be caught in the middle of fine January days, with gentles, small artificial duns, and with a little "soldier palmer," made thus:-Body, bronze-coloured peacock harl, ribbed with fine gold twist, and two very small black-red, or furnace hackles, struck with strict regularity from tail to shoulder. Hooks, ten, eleven, twelve. This little palmer is a general lure for trout, dace, and roach in the summer and autumn months.-ED.

3. Also a lesser hackle, with a black body, also silver twist over that, and a red feather over all, will fill your pannier, if the month be open, and not bound up in ice and snow, with very good fish; but, in case of a frost and snow, you are to angle only with the smallest gnats, browns, and duns you can make; and with those are only to expect graylings no bigger than sprats.

4. In this month, upon a whirling round water, we have a great hackle, the body black, and wrapped with a red feather of a capon untrimmed; that is, the whole length of the hackle staring out (for, we sometimes barb the hackle-feather short all over; sometimes barb it only a little, and sometimes barb it close underneath), leaving the whole length of the feather on the top or back of the fly, which makes it swim better, and, as occasion serves, kills very great fish.

5. We make use, also, in this month, of another great hackle, the body black, and ribbed over with gold twist, and a red feather over all; which also does great execution.

6. Also a great dun, made with dun bear's hair, and the wings of the grey feather of a mallard near unto his tail; which is absolutely the best fly can be thrown upon a river this month, and with which an angler shall have admirable sport.

7. We have also this month the great blue dun, the dubbing of the bottom of bear's hair next to the roots, mixed with a little blue camlet, the wings of a dark grey feather of a mallard.

8. We have also this month a dark-brown, the dubbing of the brown hair off the flank of a brended cow, and the wings of the grey drake's feather.

And note, that these several hackles, or palmer-flies, are some for one water and one sky, and some for another; and, according to the change of those, we alter their size and colour; and note also, that both in this, and all other months of the year, when you do not certainly know what fly is taken, or cannot see any fish to rise, you are then to put on a small hackle, if the water be clear, or a bigger if something dark, until you have taken one; and then thrusting your finger through his gills, to pull out his gorge, which being opened with your knife, you will then discover what fly is taken, and may fit yourself accordingly.

For the making of a hackle, or palmer-fly, my father Walton has already given you sufficient direction.*

[I am not very favourable to simple hackles, or to any sort of palmers, either in this month, or in March. I would not use palmers until April. Indeed I consider them summer and autumn baits. They are representations of caterpillars, produced in warm weather, and very rarely found in this climate of ours in April. Cotton gives a list of eight flies for February. I do not like any one of them. I will give four patterns for this month, confident of their attractiveness.

No. 1. Wings, a light brown, mottled feather of the mallard, found under its wing; body, a mixture of red squirrel's fur and claret mohair, warped up the hoop to the wings with fiery brown silk; legs, a hackledyed claret. Hooks, 8, 9, 10.

No. 2. Wings, standing upright, of a starling's wing-feather; tail, two fibres of the mottled mallard's feather; body, dark olive mohair, tipped with silver tinsel. Hooks, 9 and 10. A good fly on a bright day.

No. 3. Wings, reddest feather of the woodcock's wing; body, dark fur of the hare's ear, to be picked out at the shoulder; gold tip, and tail, two fibres of the mallard feather. Hooks, same size as those of No. 2.

No. 4. Wings and legs, brown mottled partridge back-feather; body, a mixture of orange mohair, and dark and light hare's ear fur. Hooks, 10 and 11.-ED.]

MARCH.

For this month you are to use all the same hackles and flies with the other; but you are to make them less.

1. We have, besides, for this month, a little dun, called a whirling dun (though it is not the whirling dun, indeed, which is one of the best flies we have); and for this the dubbing must be of the bottom fur of a squirrel's tail; and the wing, of the grey feather of a drake.

2. Also a bright brown; the dubbing either of the brown of a spaniel, or that of a red cow's flank, with a grey wing. 3. Also a whitish dun; made of the roots of camel's hair; and the wings, of the grey feather of a mallard.

4. There is also for this month a fly called the thorn-tree

* But, with Mr. Cotton's good leave, he has not, nor any author that I know of, unless we are to take that for a palmer, which Walton has given directions for making, page 79, which I can never do till I see, what I have never yet seen, viz., caterpillars with wings. Rejecting, therefore, wings as unnatural and absurd; supposing you would make the plain hackle or palmer, which are terms of the same import, the method of doing it is as follows: So far, Sir John Hawkins. But I reject his instructions for making a hackle, and substitute my own. They will be found at the end of this work, following the plate on which are engraved diagrams of winged flies and hackle in their first, middle, and last stages of manufacture.-ED.