CHAPTER IV. 



EARLY FLY FISHING IN FRANCE. 



La Peche est un des plus agreables passe-temps 

 qu'on puisse prendre a la Campagne, & celuy qui 

 renferme le plus de secrets ; elle est divertissante, 

 utile & aisee a exercer, pour peu qu'on ait de 

 patience. 



Traitte de toute sorte de Chasse 

 et de Peche. 1714. 



HIS chapter is a digression, for it 

 is necessary to go back, and to 

 collect what little there is of 

 early fly fishing in France. It is 

 very little : I know of no mention 

 of the fly before the eighteenth 

 century, and there are not many books before 

 that which even mention the rod. But do not 

 let it be thought that French literature is barren 

 and uninteresting. It is nothing of the sort; 

 it is rather charming, and would repay more 

 study than it has received. But the rod is 

 much less often mentioned than with us. On 

 the other hand nets and other engines were more 

 highly developed than in England. 



It is difficult to say why this difference 



