6 4 



CHAPTER III. 



FLY-DRESSING. 



" Thou, Nature, art my goddess : to thy law 

 My services are bound." 



King Lear. 



A LMOST every writer on angling since the days 

 *-* of old Izaak, has prefaced his chapter on this 

 subject with the observation that it is nearly if 

 not quite impossible, by merely printed instruc- 

 tions, however explicit, to make any one an expert 

 or even a tolerably fair fly-dresser. Certainly the 

 art did not come to me through any such instruc- 

 tions; and a practical fly-maker myself, I am at 

 one with others in the belief that a volume of 

 details would fail to impart it to any. For fly- 

 dressing is an art a humble art, if you will, but 

 still an art as much as painting is. In both we 

 set ourselves to represent nature in form and tint, 

 and equally in both we must follow nature as our 

 guide. The principles of the art may be given, but 



