FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD 

 is no hint that he considers one fly better than any other for different 

 rivers. He would have been sure to say so had it occurred to him, for, 

 having served as one of Cromwell's Ironsides and fished many rivers 

 in England, when the Protectorate was on the wane and the Monarchy 

 about to be restored, he prudently crossed the Border, where he found 

 a more congenial political atmosphere, and travelled north in a leisurely 

 way, catching salmon in every likely river he crossed, from the Dum- 

 friesshire Nith to the Brora of Sutherland and Naver of Caithness, and 

 arguing fiercely upon controversial theology. 



By degrees it became generally known that salmon might be taken 

 with larger flies than were in use for trout. Riverside folk, whose wallets 

 were not stored with the varied material employed by Franck, were fain 

 to use what stuff was ready to hand — ^feathers of poultry and native wild- 

 fowl, dubbing from homespun cloth or an old bit of carpet; whence it 

 came to pass that local patterns of flies established their reputation, 

 differing in trifling details, but agreeing in their prevailing sober hues. 

 Such, no doubt, was the origin of Tweedside " Toppy " and the old brown 

 turkey wing with light coloured tips; both of which, experto credite, are 

 just as sure killers at the present time as when their praise was celebrated 

 by William Scrope. 



Like many another old fisher, I have lived to see the fashion change 

 on many rivers, where, in my youth, if a man were so daring an inno- 

 vator as to depart from the routine alternative of grey mallard, brown 

 turkey or grey goose wing, he was dubbed by the local experts *' a fule 

 body and an obstinate, wi' his head filled wi' queer whimsies aboot flees." 

 Time has wrought a gentle, but emphatic, revenge; for it is now proved, 

 in the preference shown for the gaudiest patterns by the present genera- 

 tion of experts on these very rivers, that the " queer whimsies " existed 

 only in the heads of those who imagined that success depended upon 

 rigid adherence to established patterns. 



Instances could be cited without end to demonstrate the fallacy of 

 attributing superior virtues to one fly over another according to the river 

 in which it is used. One may suffice here, and it is a case peculiarly 

 in point, because it resulted in the genesis of a certain queer fly, which 

 has since won a reputation upon many rivers. Indeed, when I went to 

 fish the Redbridge water on the Test some years ago, so firm was the 

 belief in this fly that the local prophet warned me against throwing 

 away a chance by offering the fish any other. 

 42 



