50 FLY FISHING FOE TROUT. 



should have arisen. A modern writer has 

 started the ingenious theory that it is due to the 

 fact that in France fresh water fish were treated 

 entirely as food; while England, with her 

 extensive coast and plentiful supply of sea fish, 

 could afford to use her rivers and lakes as 

 sources of sport. But this theory is untenable. 

 Before the days of quick transport and cold 

 storage, fish could not be carried far inland; 

 and our rivers and ponds were important food 

 preserves, whilst sporting rights were worth 

 little. Salmon nets and weirs were extremely 

 valuable, and are mentioned in numberless legal 

 documents ; whilst rod fishing for salmon could 

 be had for the asking. Whatever the reason 

 be, the fact remains. The earliest book in 

 England on fly fishing was written during the 

 Wars of the Eoses, whilst I know of no French 

 book which mentions the artificial fly earlier 

 than the reign of Queen Anne. It is true that 

 there is one extremely early French book, but 

 unfortunately its connexion with the artificial 

 fly is too slender to stand examination. How- 

 ever, the book is one worth describing. 



During the thirteenth century there appeared 

 in France a Latin poem called de Vetula, the 

 Old Woman. It was fobbed off on the world 

 as a work of the Latin poet Ovid, and its mani- 

 fest inconsistencies, anachronisms and absurdi- 

 ties were bolstered up by a rigmarole of a story 

 that it had been recently found in the poet's 

 tomb. Ovid, it should be said, was a favourite 



