146 THE COMPLETE ANGLEB. [PART i. 



made of greenish wool, lapt about with the herle of a pea- 

 cock's tail : and the wings made of the wings of the buzzard. 

 The twelfth is the dark drak,e-fly, good in August : the body- 

 made with black wool, lapt about with black silk : his wings 

 are made with the mail i of the black drake, with a black 

 head. Thus have you a jury of flies likely to betray and 

 condemn all the trouts in the river. 2 



I shall next give you some other directions for fly-fishing, 

 such as are given by Mr. Thomas Barker, 3 a gentleman 

 that hath spent much time in fishing : but I shall do it with 

 a little variation. 



1 Meaning spotted, speckled, mottled feathers. ED. 



2 It has been already observed, that Walton's excellence as an angler did 

 not consist in fly-fishing ; the reader is, therefore, recommended to the 

 "List of flies " in the second (Cotton's) part, and the additions contained in 

 the notes thereon. H. 



3 In his "Delight; or the Art of Angling," published 1661. Here 

 follow some extracts from that humorous book itself. Addressing himself 

 to the noble lord to whom it is dedicated, he thus begins : 



' ' Under favour, I will compliment, and put a case to your honour. I 

 met with a man ; and upon our discourse he fell out with me, having a 

 good weapon, but neither stomach nor skill : I say this man may come 

 home by Weeping-cross ; I will cause the clerk to toll his knell. It "is the 

 very like case to the gentleman angler, that goeth to the river for his 

 pleasure. This angler hath neither judgment nor experience ; he may come 

 home lightly laden at his leisure. 



" A man that goeth to the river for his pleasure, must understand, when 

 he cometh there, to set forth his tackle. The first thing he must do, is to 

 observe the wind and sun for DAY, the moon, the stars, and the wanes of 

 the air for NIGHT, to set forth his tackles for day or night ; and accordingly 

 to go for his pleasure, and some profit. 



' ' Now I am determined to angle with ground-baits, and set my tackles 

 to my rod, and go to my pleasure. I begin at the uppermost part of the 

 stream, carrying my rod with an upright hand, feeling my plummet running 

 truly on the ground some ten inches from the hook, plumming my line 

 according to the swiftness of the stream I angle in ; for one plummet will 

 not serve for all streams ; for the true angling is, that the plummet run 

 truly on the ground. 



" My lord sent to me, at sun-going-down, to provide him a good dish of 

 Trouts against the next morning, by six o'clock. I went to the door to see 

 how the wanes of the air were like to prove. I returned answer, that I 

 doubted not, God willing, but to be provided at the time appointed. I 

 went presently to the river, and it proved very dark ; I threw out a line 

 of three silks and three hairs twisted for the uppermost part ; and a line of 

 two hairs and two silks twisted, for the lower part with a good large hook. 

 I baited my hook with two lob-worms, the four ends hanging as meet as I 

 could guess them in the dark. I fell to angle. It proved very dark, so 



