ARTIFICIAL FLY-MAKING 191 



task would have been indeed a labour of love to me, 

 and, to tell the truth, it was a portion of the work 

 to which I had looked forward with pleasurable 

 anticipation. When, however, I remembered 

 how much I owe to the instruction which Mr. 

 Halford has given in his book on * Artificial Fly- 

 making,' I felt that I should not be acting honour- 

 ably, either to him or the reader, were I to carry 

 out my first intention. The information which 

 he gives is the very best of its kind ; therefore to 

 crib from his book in the wholesale manner 

 which would have been necessary would have 

 been, in my opinion, dishonourable; to give 'that 

 which I did not consider to be equally good 

 would have been to defraud the reader. I 

 therefore decided to refrain from dealing as 

 exhaustively with the subject as I had proposed, 

 and I think that the reader will endorse my 

 views. 



I regret that I have not the honour of any 

 acquaintance with Mr. Halford, but I have 

 studied and profited by his book. I had tied 

 flies from my boyhood ; very dreadful productions 

 most of them were, too. If I killed a fish 

 with them my joy was infinite. As years went 

 on I made some considerable progress in the art, 

 but there was still a very manifest want of neat- 

 ness and finish about them. The work, though 

 engrossing enough, was not a little laborious, and 



