X. PREFACE. 



upon the water at the time of fishing, still I am of 

 opinion that an unnecessary number of patterns only 

 confuses the tyro ; the author gives a list of ninety 

 varieties, I have gone through the whole carefully, one 

 by one, and have come to the conclusion that from 

 thirty to forty of them are amply sufficient to meet the 

 requirements of the angler, not only upon the Yorkshire 

 rivers, but upon any stream. Theakston has adopted a 

 nomenclature entirely his own, and great has been the 

 amount of both time and labour that I have expended 

 upon the identification of some of his patterns ; many 

 of them are merely reproductions of different shades of 

 the same fly, and it saves an immensity of trouble to 

 adopt the plan in the first instance advocated by Mr. 

 Francis, and later on by David Foster, viz., to keep a 

 good stock of Browns, Duns, and Spinners of different 

 shades, and adapt them to the various contingencies of 

 water and weather. To such flies as I consider almost 

 indispensable to the wandering angler I have appended 

 foot notes, giving the name by which the fly is more 

 generally known, and also any comments that I have 

 thought might possibly prove of interest. 



For some of the information contained in those notes 

 I must acknowledge my indebtedness to several sources, 

 among which I may mention the works of Ronalds, 

 Jackson, " Ephemera," and Blacker, also last, but by 

 no means least, that splendid volume edited by Mr. 

 W. H. Aldain, which illustrates, by means of actual 

 dressed flies and their component parts, the patterns 

 recommended by an old Derbyshire flyfisher who lived 



