xii PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION 



while our city-tainted nostrils will be cleansed by the 

 delicious fragrance of the country-side. 



Hence it is that even the novice in fly fishing, 

 vexed as he may be by his want of success, is consoled 

 and comforted by the beauty surrounding him, and 

 by the lessons which he absorbs with every breath 

 drawn from the scented bosom of Mother Nature. 



There is no experience he will find more enjoyable 

 or pastime more delightful than those associated with 

 that perfection of natural life which is to be found by 

 an English trout stream. 



Hardly any water-side exists which fails to interest 

 and attract the fisherman, and the pleasure of wander- 

 ing by the scented side of any brook or sylvan stream 

 and watching the varying beauties and the wonder 

 of its natural life is always enhanced by the infinite 

 probabilities of trout which it suggests to the ardent 

 angler, and the recollections which it arouses of sunlit 

 days and happy associations of the past. 



When one recalls the pleasure and assistance which 

 have been derived from the literature devoted to fly 

 fishing, the works of Izaak Walton, Buxton, Cholmon- 

 deley-Pennell, Maxwell, Francis, Marston, Sheringham, 

 Sir Edward Grey, Hart-Davis, Val Consons, William 

 J. Long, Thomas, Senior, Hodson, Halford, Dewar, 

 Hutchinson, Gathorne-Hardy, and others, the delightful 

 reminiscences which have been revived, and the exten- 

 sive fields of sport which have thus been thrown open, 

 it would indeed be ungrateful to deny the efficacy of 

 written instructions in this delightful science. 



If it be desirable and necessary to obtain help in 

 order to become a proficient fly fisherman, the author 



