222 ANCIENT ANGLING AUTHORS 



man, John Kirby, and the date, 1784, appears on 

 this frontispiece, but to the title-page no date is 

 affixed. 



The following advice, which is given in this book 

 to young anglers, was probably the result of personal 

 experiment, and was doubtless only too readily 

 followed by old as well as young anglers : 



If at any time you happen to be overheated with 

 walking, or other exercise, avoid small liquors, 

 especially water, as you would poison ; but rather 

 take a glass of rum or brandy, the instantaneous 

 effects whereof, in cooling the body, and quenching 

 drought are amazing. 



A Concise Treatise on tJie Art of Angling. . . . By 

 Thomas Best, Gent. Late of his Majesty's Drawing 

 Room in the Tower, London, appeared in 1787. 

 Thirteen editions of this work were published;, to 

 the tenth and eleventh editions the greater part of 

 Nobbes' Coinpleat Troller was added. 



This book, though it contains nothing strikingly 

 original, is a thoroughly practical treatise on the 

 art of angling ; in the preface the author honestly 

 admits that he has added "compilations from the 

 best authors who have written on that subject," and 

 that the list of flies in the second part he was 

 indebted "to the ingenious Mr Cotton for, the best 

 fly-fisher that ever was. nor do I believe that there 

 will ever be another nee simile aut secundum. His 

 flies, with some little deviation, I have been equally 

 successful with as well in southern as northern rivers ; 



