THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 85 



YEM. All excellent good, and ray stomach excellent good 

 too. And now 1 remember and find that true which devout 

 Lessius'" says : " That poor men, and those that fast often, 

 have much more pleasure in eating than rich men and gluttons, 

 that always feed before their stomachs are empty of their last 

 meat, and call for more : for by that means they rob them- 

 selves of that pleasure that hunger brings to poor men." 

 And I do seriously approve of that saying of yours, " that 

 you would rather be a civil, well-governed, well-grounded, 

 temperate, poor angler, than a drunken lord." But I hope 

 there is none such ; however, I am certain of this, that I 

 have been at very many costly dinners that have not afforded 

 me half the content that this has done, for which I thank 

 God and you. 



And now, good master, proceed to your promised direction 

 for making and ordering my artificial fly. 



Pise. My honest scholar, I will do it ; for it is a debt due 

 unto you by my promise. And because you shall not think 

 yourself more engaged to me than indeed you really are, I 

 will freely give you such directions as were lately given to 

 me by an ingenious brother of the angle, an honest man and 

 a most excellent fly-fisher, t 



You are to note, that there are twelve kinds of artificial 

 made, flies to angle with on the top of the water. Note, 

 by the way, that the fittest season of using these, is a bluster- 

 ing windy day, when the waters are so troubled, that the 

 natural fly cannot be seen, or rest upon them. The first is 

 the dun-fly, in March : the body is made of dun wool ; the 

 wings, of the partridge's feathers. The second, is another 

 dun-fly ; the body of black wool : and the wings made of the 

 black drake's feathers, and of the feathers under his tail. 

 The third, is the stone-fly, in April : the body is made of 

 black wool ; made yellow under the wings and under the tail 



* Leonard Lessius.a very learned Jesuit, professor of divinity in the College 

 of Jesuits at Louvain. He was born at Antwerp, 1554, and became very famous 

 for his skill in divinity, civil law, mathematics, physic, and history : he wrote 

 several theological tracts, and a book entitled, Hygiasticon, sen vera ratio valctu- 

 dinis bonae, et vitae ad extremam senectutem conseruandae. From this work of 

 Lessius, it is probable the passage in the text is cited. He died in 1623. 



t Walton knew very little about fly-fishing. In this passage he admits his 

 ignorance, by stating that the instructions he gives the scholar are derived from 

 "an ingenious brother of the angle." The instructions are curious, but by no 

 means useful. When we come to the second part of this work, written by 

 Cotton, who was an excellent fly -fisher in his day, we shall treat of artificial 

 flies, as now made, and show the modern method of using them. ED. 



