ii2 LETTERS TO YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 



master-craftsmen — the latter is so still, as I hope and believe. 

 Mr. Halford we are obliged, alas ! to speak of in the past 

 tense. He was my own first and most kindly teacher. I 

 have watched Mr. Corrie at work also, and therefore I can add 

 that Mr. Halford' s own style of casting differed again from 

 that of either of these great men whom he cites. After all, 

 it is but an analogous case with that of golf and of others 

 of the arts and crafts. The club-work, the brush-work, the 

 chisel-work, or what you will, differ under the hands of 

 different masters, yet each will produce a masterpiece after 

 his kind. It ought not to surprise us, therefore, that the case 

 is not otherwise with the angler's rod-work. 



But now you are so far advanced that you really deserve 

 removal into a higher class. I will promote you therefore 

 from the wet-fly stream and the " chuck and chance it " to 

 one of those placid and pellucid rivers coming from the chalk, 

 where you will fish only, or almost only, for the trout which 

 you see rise. And, having guided you thither, my first word 

 to you will be one which will make you revile me bitterly for 

 many of my former words ; for, after all the pains that I 

 have led you to take to acquire the art of throwing the line 

 out straightly, I have now to tell you that in order to do full 

 execution on one of these dry-fly rivers you have to learn 

 to cast the fly at the end of a line which shall not be straight. 



My reason for inculcating the straight line throw was, 

 in the first place, that it is the more difficult throw to achieve— 

 among wet-fly fishers it is almost the mark of expert distinc- 

 tion to throw a straight line ; the duffer throws a wobbly 

 line — and, in the second place, it is hardly to be thought that 

 you will ever learn to place the fly accurately with the wavy 

 line unless you have already learnt the art of accurate placing 

 with a straight line. Understand me: it is easier to throw 

 a wavy line, a line that has slack places and curves in it, than 

 it is to throw a straight line ; but it is easier to place the 

 fly just where you want it with a straight line than with a 

 wavy one. If you stop to think a moment, you will realise 

 that this must be so. With the straight line, the calculation 

 needed for pitching the fly is one of simple straight ' length ; 

 with the wavy line, each of the waves has to be taken into 

 account. In actual work, as almost goes without saying, the 



