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ROD-BOXES. 



Speaking of 'leather,' reminds me I have omitted to mention 

 the subject of 'Rod' boxes, which, however, are probably now-a- 

 days made more often of wood. Still the old-fashioned cylindrical 

 solid leather rod-case, with the ' unpickable ' lock, which, as a 

 boy, caused me, I fear, to break the loth commandment, had a 

 special 'character' of its own a free and easy, 'knockabout' 

 'sort of devil-may-care look, making one quite comfortable in 

 one's mind even when watching it subject to the gentle atten- 

 tions of the railway guard or porter. Mr. B. R. Bambridge, of 

 Eton-on-Thames, makes a speciality of these solid leather rod- 

 boxes, both cylindrical and ' square' ; as well as of boxes in oak 

 and Japanned tin, all of which can be relied upon as thoroughly 

 sound and serviceable. 



Another 'box' of peculiar interest to those who tie their own 

 flies, is manufactured by Messrs. Williams, of Great Queen Street. 

 Their " Vade Mecum for Fly Dressers" is really a marvel 

 of ingenuity and compactness. It contains compartments some 

 20 in all, I should judge for stowage of hooks, feathers, silks, 

 wax, gut, and the amateur fly-dresser's hundred and one trifling, 

 but practically indispensable, implements ; and all in the modest 

 compass of a box about 10 inches high by 3 or 4 wide, and 

 the same in depth (of side). The way the various boxes ' dove- 

 tail ' one into another, and each in his proper and accessible place, 

 is like one of those puzzles we delighted in as boys except that 

 the ' puzzle ' in this case is only of a few moments' duration. 



Some further matters of interest to fly-fishers will be found 

 further on under the head of " Miscellanea." 



GUT. 



I am sorry to say that I have nothing in the way of 

 " improvement " to chronicle in regard to this prime necessary 

 for fishermen. On the contrary, my impression is that 

 every year the gut gets shorter and less perfect. Messrs. M. 

 Carswell, the well-known gut makers, of Glasgow, claim to have 

 invented an improved instrument for ' drawing ' gut ; but drawn 

 gut is, .even when a necessity, a necessity to which I only submit 



