92 THE TROUT 



of the soundest character ; and that an unnecessarily 

 long line should be avoided is an equally valuable 

 hint. The only point on which modern anglers 

 would probably join issue with Mr. Barker is his 

 dictum that dfoze/^-stream fishing should be practised. 



As to the ' Impedymentes,' they, in the main, 

 touch nearly every circumstance which in these days 

 militates against a good day's sport, or, indeed, any 

 sport at all, just as they did when the * Treaty se of 

 Fysshynge wyth an angle ' was written over 400 years 

 ago. The habits of trout seem, indeed, to have 

 altered so little in the above-mentioned period that 

 the modern fisherman, when driven to extremities by 

 lack of success, may console himself with the reflec- 

 tion that things were much the same in the days of 

 Henry VI. as in the reign of our present gracious 

 Sovereign. 



But when one turns to consider the question of 

 what are the best rods and tackle to be used for the 

 various kinds of trout fishing, then the task of ven- 

 turing to advise becomes complicated in the extreme. 

 It is not many years since trout-rods were generally 

 manufactured of ash, hickory, lancewood, or green- 

 heart, and of those woods much use is still made ; 

 but American anglers found out that strips of cane, 

 carefully selected, built up and fastened by certain 



