Introduction xxxix 



hazel is similarly treated, also a fair shoot of black- 

 thorn or crabtree for a top. The butt is bound with 

 hoops of iron, the top is accommodated with a noose, 

 a hair line is looped in the noose, and the angler is 

 equipped. Splicing is not used, but the joints have 

 holes to receive each other, and with this instrument 

 " ye may walk, and there is no man shall wit where- 

 about ye go ". Recipes are given for colouring and 

 plaiting hair lines, and directions for forging hooks. 

 "The smallest quarell needles" are used for the 

 tiniest hooks. 



Barker (1651) makes the rod "of a hasel of one 

 piece, or of two pieces set together in the most con- 

 venient manner, light and gentle ". He recommends 

 the use of a single hair next the fly, "you shall 

 have more rises," which is true, " and kill more fish," 

 which is not so likely. The most delicate striking 

 is required with fine gut, and with a single hair 

 there must be many breakages. For salmon, Bar- 

 ker uses a rod ten feet in the butt, " that will carry 

 a top of six foot pretty stiffe and strong**. The 

 "winder," or reel, Barker illustrates with a totally 

 unintelligible design. His salmon fly "carries six 

 wings " ; perhaps he only means wings composed 

 of six kinds of feathers, but here Franck is a better 

 authority, his flies being sensible and sober in colour. 

 Not many old salmon flies are in existence, nor 

 have I seen more ancient specimens than a few, 

 chiefly of peacocks 1 feathers, in the fly-leaf of a 

 book at Abbotsford ; they were used in Ireland by 

 Sir Walter Scott's eldest son. The controversy as 

 to whether fish can distinguish colours was unknown 

 to our ancestors. I am inclined to believe that, for 

 salmon, size, and perhaps shade, light or dark, with 

 more or less of tinsel, are the only important points. 

 Izaak stumbled on the idea of Mr. Stewart (author 

 of The Practical Angler} saying, "for the gener- 



