THE DRY FLY. 125 



other fishermen were so angry that he was 

 mobbed and had to leave. 



The book bears every mark of truth and 

 accuracy. The account of floating mayflies on 

 the Wye can be accepted confidently, for by 

 1865 the dry fly was in full swing on south 

 country streams. But the case is not so strong 

 with regard to the statement which he makes 

 more than once, that he introduced floating flies 

 forty years previously. Not that there is any 

 improbability in it, but because of the general 

 principle that statements in round numbers 

 made long after the event should be accepted 

 with caution. Still I believe it to be sub- 

 stantially true. I believe him to have been one 

 of the first dealers to put floating flies on the 

 market, his patterns are frequently mentioned 

 by contemporary writers, and he is the first 

 writer to give definite directions for dressing 

 floating duns. If the reader wishes to see what 

 Ogden's Mayflies were like he can, if he is so 

 lucky as to own that book which the hackneyed 

 word 'unique' alone describes, Aldam's Quaint 

 Treatise On Flies and Fly making, find at the 

 end of it two original Mayflies, tied by him. 

 These I believe to be the oldest representations 

 of floating flies now extant, and lovely flies they 

 are. 



In the Field for 17 December, 1853, an article 

 signed The Hampshire Fly Fisher says that fish- 

 ing upstream is very awkward 'unless you are 

 trying the Carshalton dodge and fishing with a 



