chap, xxi.] THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 245 



doubt is your patience : but being we are now al- 

 most 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, especi- 

 ally 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 un- 

 evenness. 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 

 let your hair be clean washed ere you go about to 

 twist it : and then choose not only the clearest hair 

 for it, but hairs that be of an equal bigness, for 

 such do usuallv stretch all together, and break all 



