THE COMPLETE ANGLER . 281 



the point towards your fingers' ends ; then take a strong 

 small silk, of the colour of the fly you intend to make, 

 wax it well with wax of the same colour too (to which 

 end, you are always, by the way, to have wax of all colours 

 about you) and draw it betwixt your finger and thumb, 

 to the head of the shank, and then whip it twice or thrice 

 about the bare hook, which you must know is done, 

 both to prevent slipping, and also that the shank of the 

 hook may not cut the hairs of your towght, which some- 

 times it will otherwise do : which being done, take your 

 line, and draw it likewise betwixt your finger and thumb, 

 holding the hook so fast as only to suffer it to pass by, 

 until you have the knot of your towght almost to the 

 middle of the shank of your hook, on the inside of it ; then 

 whip your silk twice or thrice about both hook and line, as 

 hard as the strength of the silk will permit ; which being 

 done, strip the feather for the wings proportionable to 

 the bigness of your fly, placing that side downwards which 

 grew uppermost before, upon the back of the hook, leaving 

 so much only as to serve for the length of the wing of 

 the point of the plume, lying reversed from the end of the 

 shank upwards ; then whip your silk twice or thrice about 

 the root-end of the feather, hook, and towght ; which 

 being done, clip off the root-end of the feather close by 

 the arming, and then whip the silk fast and firm about the 

 hook and towght, until you come to the bend of the hook, 

 but not further, as you do at London, and so make a 

 very unhandsome, and, in plain English, a very unnatural 

 and shapeless fly ; which being done, cut away the end 

 of your towght, and fasten it, and then take your dubbing, 

 which is to make the body of your fly, as much as you 

 think convenient, and holding it lightly with your hook 

 betwixt the finger and thumb of your left hand, take your 

 silk with the right, and twisting it betwixt the finger and 

 thumb of that hand, the dubbing will spin itself about 

 the silk, which when it has done, whip it about the armed 



