178 FLY-FISHING FOR TROUT AND GRAYLING. 



hours' practice, cast as effectually and efficiently as 

 he might by the practice of as many months with 

 the old style lines. With reference to the degree of 

 skill and proficiency in the delivery of the fly, the 

 talent of the oldest and best fly-fishers varies. The 

 real adept will adapt himself to surrounding circum- 

 stances, casting over intervening boughs and bushes, 

 now over an impending rock or boulder, or around 

 some partially submerged substance in midstream, 

 or jutting portions of the river's bank, without regard 

 to any orthodox principle or rule. 



In short, a thorough command of the rod and line 

 is as essential and important as the wielding of the 

 whip in the case of a tandem or four-in-hand drive. 

 We are reminded by this analogy that the most 

 skilful cast we ever knew wielded the whip : we refer 

 to the famous Royal coachman, Tom Bosworth. Old 

 Tom had, in the early part of his life, driven three 

 successive British Sovereigns, viz. the Fourth George, 

 the Fourth William, and finally, for a lengthened 

 period, Her Majesty Queen Victoria. As a successful 

 fisherman, Old Tom, when known to the writer, was 

 unsurpassed. He would often fish in the wake of 

 several rodsters, whose energy would exceed their 

 skill, and would extract not infrequently three times 

 over the weight of fish, by skilfully and carefully 

 casting over the awkward and most unlikely looking 

 spots, which the majority of anglers would rarely 

 dream of trying. A favourite freak of his with the 

 whip was to take the pipe from the teeth of a passing 

 pedestrian by a carefully calculated whirl of the whip, 



