PROFESSIONAL FLY-DRESSERS. 73 



the part of the Irish fly-dresser, but he is relieved by 

 the showiness of floss, feather, and tinsel, from the 

 necessity of exercising anything like that degree of 

 taste which the working with dull and sombre colours 

 calls forth j and in the case of the wings, he is not 

 hampered with one tithe of the difficulty which attends 

 the neat adjustment and fixing on of these appendages, 

 severally and without break of fibre, all of which is 

 requisite in regard to most of the Scottish salmon flies. 



Still, in either capacity, whether as a dresser of Irish 

 or Tweed flies, it is essential, if aspiring to excellence, 

 that the artist be endowed with a tasteful and correct 

 eye the eye in some measure of a painter, who can 

 understand the arrangement and mutual relation of 

 colours to each other; he must also possess the ready 

 use of his' fingers, so as to be able to execute delicate 

 and minute work, to give, as it were to a spider's thread, 

 the sufficiency of a strong cord, to conceal and varnish 

 over all breaks and finishes, so that the entirety of the 

 performance may, in a manner, challenge or defy 

 question. 



I could introduce by name to the reader, a great 

 number of excellent fly-dressers, as well amateurs as 

 professional hands, but shall confine myself to the 

 mention of two or three among the latter, the super- 

 iority of whose style of dressing, as regards salmon- 

 hooks, is well known and appreciated by the frequenters 

 of our Scottish rivers. Among these, is Mr. Forrest, 

 of Kelso, a most able and ingenious artificer in every 

 department relating to angling, and one whose stock of 

 materials, gut, wire, wood, feathers, &c., can be relied 

 on as fresh, and of the best decription. Mr. Blacker, 

 from London, and Hogg, of Edinburgh, are also held 

 in good estimation, as dressers of hooks. The Wrights, 



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