VEXATIONS AND CONSOLATIONS 133 



coffee without milk or sugar, and to this I pretended 

 to attribute his keen and valuable observations upon 

 fish and flies. One day I told him that it was all very 

 well to imagine that his second edition was due to his 

 own genius, or the consummate art of the lithographer ; 

 it was simply cold coffee neat that did it ! Smoking 

 you may indulge in to any extent while fishing if your 

 habit lies that way, since the wind helps you materially 

 in lessening the weight of the tobacco pouch. To smoke 

 cigars, however, is a sinful waste of good material and 

 of time, and cigarettes are a nuisance. Hence the 

 proverbial love of the angler for the pipe, and the 

 d n ble iteration of references to smoking in sport- 

 ing literature. 



Some of us, I fear, will never learn the lesson of care 

 in the matter of clothes and boots. We make a boast 

 of roughing it, of getting wet in the feet, of letting the 

 rain work its will, until one morning we go grunting to 

 our doctor to know what that twinge in the knee-joint 

 or wandering sensation across the shoulders may mean. 

 If you must get wet through, as will occasionally hap- 

 pen, do it manfully and even thoroughly while you 

 are about it, taking due care to keep moving and to 

 change everything at the earliest moment. The danger 

 need, however, seldom be incurred. For uncertain 

 weather have the waterproofs near ; but a suit of 

 really good cloth should be enough for passing showers. 



The angling authors of the last generation invariably 

 elaborated sumptuary laws in this respect, enjoining 

 upon you special suits of different colours to tally with 

 particular days. I would not recommend staring 

 white for a chalk stream, but otherwise the colour is a 

 thing of small consequence. A distinctive suit for 

 fishing is money well spent ; and the fly-fisher especi- 

 ally requires something more than the commonplace 



