4 ANGLING IMPROVED. 



end of such a top as I did before direct for the ground- 

 rod, and you may prove what I say to be true, if you 

 hang a weight at the top of the fly-rod, which you shall 

 see ply and bend, in the stiff and thick part, more or 

 less as the weight is heavy or light. Having made this 

 digression for the cane, I return to the making up of 

 the top, of which at the upper or small end, I would 

 have you to cut off about two feet, or three quarters of 

 a yard at most ; and then piece neatly to the thick re- 

 maining part, a small shoot of black thorn or crab tree, 

 gathered in due season as before, fitted in a mpst exact 

 proportion to the hazel, and then cut off a small part 

 of the slender end of the black thorn or crab tree, and 

 lengthen out the same with a small piece of whalebone, 

 made round, smooth, and taper ; all which will make 

 your rod to be very long, gentle, and not so apt to 

 break or stand bent as the hazel, both which are great 

 inconveniences, especially breaking, which will force 

 you from your sport to mend your top. 



2. To teach the way or manner how to make a 

 line, were time lost, it being so easy and ordinary ; yet 

 to make the line well, handsome, and to twist the hair 

 even and neat, makes the line strong. For if one hair 

 be long and another short, the short one receiveth no 

 strength from the long one, and so breaketh, and then 

 the other, as too weak, breaks also; therefore you 

 must twist them slowly, and in the twisting, keep them 

 from entangling together, which hinders their right 

 plaiting or bedding. Further, I do not like the mixing 

 of silk or thread with hair, but if you please, you may, 



