FROM TREATISE TO COMPLEAT ANGLER. 47 



But it is impossible to be certain, and we must 

 take the Discourse as we find it. It is taken 

 partly from Mascall, partly from Dennys and 

 part is original. On the whole it is well put 

 together, and forms a good general treatise. I 

 have no doubt that its compiler was a fisher- 

 man, and what is more a fly fisher. Rods, 

 Markham tells us, are to be bought in great 

 variety in nearly every haberdasher's shop. 

 Artificial flies are to be moved upon the waters 

 the first time the advice to draw your flies 

 appears and will then be taken greedily. He 

 repeats Mascall's advice to strike before the 

 trout takes the fly. Chiefly, however, in his 

 dressing of trout flies does he show an advance. 

 He took Mascall's list, but in many cases he 

 changes the dressing, and in most he amplifies 

 it and makes it more accurate. Indeed, if you 

 compare the two lists it is clear what happened : 

 someone, whether Markham or Lawson or 

 another, who was himself a practical fly 

 dresser, used Mascall's list as his basis, went 

 through it fly by fly and rewrote the dressings 

 so as to make them complete and unambiguous, 

 neither of which they originally were. In cer- 

 tain cases, too, he gives dressings different from 

 Mascall's, and altogether polishes them up and 

 gives the finishing touches. Whether that 

 someone was Markham himself or Lawson I 

 cannot say. However all this will be treated at 

 greater length in the chapter on flies. He is 

 the first writer definitely to recommend you to 



