PREFACE. 



* 



FEW years ago I consulted a pro- 

 fessional fly-dresser as to the best means 

 of learning to make artificial flies, to 

 enable me to produce imitations of the natural 

 insects sufficiently good to serve as patterns, and 

 was seriously, and, I believe, without " arriere 

 penste" assured by him that it was impossible for 

 an Amateur to acquire the art otherwise than by 

 taking a series of lessons at a considerable cost. 

 Having always been an unbeliever in the word 

 impossible, I determined to try and teach myself. 

 Accordingly, with a copy of Ronalds' " Fly Fisher's 

 Entomology " opened before me, and a few in- 

 dispensable materials, I commenced trying to 

 puzzle out the mysteries of the craft. After many 

 attempts, and almost as many failures, I suc- 

 ceeded in turning out something remotely akin 

 in form and colour to the Red Spinner illus- 

 trated in that admirable treatise, and was further 

 encouraged by finding a grayling sufficiently silly 

 to take this bad imitation. I then set to work in 

 right earnest, and dressed fly after fly, mostly de- 



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