

CHAPTER XXI 



DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING OF A LINE, AND FOR THE 

 COLOURING OF BOTH ROD AND LINE 



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Pise. Well, scholar, I have held you too long about 

 these cadis, and smaller fish, and rivers, and fish-ponds ; 

 and my spirits are almost spent, and so I doubt is your 

 patience : but being, we are now almost at Tottenham, 

 where I first met you, and where we are to part, I will 

 lose no time, but give you a little direction how to make 

 and order your lines, and to colour the hair of which you 

 make your lines, for that is very needful to be known 

 of an angler ; and also how to paint your rod, especially 

 your top ; for a right grown top is a choice commodity, 

 and should be preserved from the water soaking into 

 it, which makes it in wet weather to be heavy and fish 

 ill-favouredly, and not true ; and also it rots quickly 

 for want of painting : and I think a good top is worth 

 preserving, or I had not taken care to keep a top above 

 twenty years. 



But first for your line. First, note, that you are to 

 take care that your hair be round and clear, and free 

 from galls or scabs or frets, for a well-chosen, even, clear, 

 round hair, of a kind of glass-colour, will prove as strong 

 as three uneven scabby hairs, that are ill-chosen, and 

 full of galls or unevenness. You shall seldom find a 

 black hair but it is round, but many white are flat 

 and uneven ; therefore, if you get a lock of right round, 

 clear, glass-colour hair, make much of it. 



And for making your line, observe this rule ; first 

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