CHAP. v. THE FOURTH DAY. 85 



your hook, then the point of your feather next the shank of 

 your hook; and having done so, whip it three or four times 

 about the hook with the same silk with which your hook was 

 armed; and, having made the silk fast, take the hackle of 

 a cock or capon's neck, or a plover's top, which is usually 

 better ; take off the one side of the feather, and then take the 

 hackle, silk, or crewel, gold or silver thread, make these fast at 

 the bent of the hook, that is to say, below your arming; then 

 you must take the hackle, the silver or gold thread, and work it 

 up to the wings, shifting or still removing your finger, as you 

 turn the silk about the hook ; and still looking at every stop or 

 turn, that your gold, or what materials soever you make your 

 fly of do lie right and neatly ; and if you find they do so, then, 

 when you have made the head, make all fast and then work 

 your hackle up to the head, and make that fast : and then with 

 a needle or pin divide the wing into two, and then with the 

 arming silk whip it about cross ways betwixt the wings, and 

 then with your thumb you must turn the point of the feather 

 towards the bent of the hook, and then work three or four times 

 about the shank of the hook, and then view the proportion, and 

 if all be neat and to your liking, fasten. 



I confess, no direction can be given to make a man of a dull 

 capacity able to make a fly well : and yet I know this, with a 

 little practice, will help an ingenious angler in a good degree ; 

 but to see a fly made by an artist in that kind is the best 

 teaching to make it. And then an ingenious angler may walk 

 by the river and mark what flies fall on the water that day, and 

 catch one of them, if he sees the trouts leap at a fly of that kind ; 

 and then having always hooks ready hung with him, and having 

 a bag always with him, with bear's hair, or the hair of a brown 

 or sad-coloured heifer, hackles of a cock or capon, several 

 coloured silk and crewel to make the body of the fly, the 

 feathers of a drake's head, black or brown sheep's wool, or 

 hog's wool or hair, thread of gold and of silver; silk of several 

 colours (especially sad-coloured), to make the fly's head : and 

 there be also other coloured feathers, both of little birds and of 

 speckled fowl. I say, having those with him in a bag, and 



