52 DOUBTS AND DIFFICULTIES. 



DOUBTS AND DIFFICULTIES. 



He makes a mayfty to a miracle, and has 

 furnished half the country-side with angle rods. 



SPECTATOR, 1711. 



A LTHOUGH the rising generation of trout 

 jf~\ and grayling are justly credited with 

 being far in advance of their ancestors 

 of two hundred years ago, when the lines at 

 the heading of this chapter were written, it 

 must be admitted as a counterpoise that modern 

 gut and flies have been brought to something 

 very like perfection. I have never mounted a 

 fly upon a cast plucked from the tail of a 

 white stallion a recipe one reads in old angling 

 books so whether Hercules casts are better than 

 this I cannot say, but they offer little to be 

 desired, and are made in a variety which must 

 satisfy the most exacting dry fly fisherman. 



DRAWN OR UNDRAWN GUT. 



4 That is the question.' Indeed a parody 

 could be written upon this vexed soliloquy by 

 men who have either failed to rise a shy 

 trout by using too stout a cast of undrawn gut. 



