WALTON TO THE READER. 39 



makes hay by the fair days in an almanac, and no surer ; for those very 

 flies that used to appear about and on the water in one month of the year, 

 may the following year come almost a month sooner or later, as the same 

 year proves colder or hotter : and yet in the following Discourse I have 

 set down the twelve flies that are in reputation with many Anglers, and 

 they may serve to give him some observations concerning them. And 

 he may note, that there are in Wales and other countries peculiar flies 

 proper to the particular place or country ; and doubtless, unless a man 

 makes a fly to counterfeit that very fly in that place, he is like to lose his 

 labor, or much of it : but for the generality, three or four flies neat and 

 rightly made, and not too big, serve for a Trout in most rivers all the sum- 

 mer. And for winter fly-fishing, it is as useful as an almanac out of date. 

 And of these, because as no man is born an artist, so no man is born an 

 Angler, I thought fit to give thee this notice. 



When I have told the Reader, that in this fifth impression there are 

 many enlargements, gathered both by my own observations and the com- 

 munication with friends, I shall stay him no longer than to wish him a 

 rainy evening to read this following Discourse ; and that, if he be an honest 

 Angler, the east wind may never blow when he goes a-fishing. 



L W. 



