Jobn 13oun0et 377 



least fancifully conceived to resemble, in some degree, 

 the five pristine colours of the rainbow, or the five 

 human senses. 



In thus writing on the subject, as an article by itself, 

 which came to be published under the name of ' River 

 Angling,' I described these five flies numerically, 1st, 

 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, adding a sixth as a favourite variation 

 of my first. Mr. Scrope some year or two thereafter, 

 published a splendid book on fishing, under a show of 

 plates, and price as great in proportion to mine as the 

 amount of his original fortune in life was above mine, 

 not as he stood higher in knowledge of his subject or in 

 manual ability, but in worldly circumstances, and con- 

 sequently in the world's eye. Thus the world goes 

 generally while I am valued at eighteen pence, Scrope 

 sells at two guineas ! God help me and the world both ; 

 we are a farce to think on a sorry farce indeed. It is 

 puzzling to suppose which is the most to be pitied. 

 Scrope's six flies are mine, of course, to a shade ; they 

 could indeed be properly no other, only that he has 

 described them in other words (even figured them in 

 painted plates), with perhaps more quaint punctuality in 

 tufts and toppings, and under fanciful local names of 

 designation, such as * Meg in her braws,' ' Kinmont 

 Willie/ ' The Lady o' Mertoun,' and so on." 



It may be that Mr. William Scrope did plagiarise 

 John Younger's flies ; but if so, I think it was not 

 conscious or deliberate plagiarism of that I should 

 deem the author of " Days and Nights of Salmon- 

 fishing " incapable, for he was a true gentleman 

 and sportsman, though his grand seigneur modes of 



