120 



clone, take your line [link of gut], and draw it 

 likewise between your finger and thumb, hold- 

 ing the hook so fast, as only to suffer it to pass 

 by, until you have the knot of your towght al- 

 most to the middle of the shank of your hook, 

 on the inside of it ; then whip your silk twice 

 or thrice about both hook and line, as hard as 

 the strength of the silk will permit. Which 

 being done, strip the feather for the wings pro- 

 portionable to the bigness of your fly, placing 

 that side downwards which grew uppermost 

 before upon the back of the hook, leaving so 

 much only as to serve for the length of the 

 wing of the point of the plume lying reversed 

 from the end of the shank upwards ; then 

 whip your silk twice or thrice about the root- 

 end of the feather close by the arming ; and 

 then whip the silk fast and firm about the 

 hook and towght, until you come to the bend 

 of the hook, but not farther, as you do at 

 London, and so make a very unhandsome, and, 

 in plain English, a very unnatural and shape- 

 less fly.* Which being done, cut away the 

 end of your towght and fasten it. And then 

 take your dubbing, which is to make the body 

 of your fly, as much as you think convenient, 

 and holding it lightly, with your hook, betwixt 



* This may have been the case in Mr. Cotton's time, 

 but is not the case now quite the contrary. 



