X PREFATORY NOTE. 



fishing, as contrasted with the time-honoured plan of 

 fishing ' down : ' fishing, that is, with the flies below 

 rather than above the angler's stand-point. Not that I 

 mean to assert that Mr. Stewart was by any means the 

 first to preach the new doctrine, still less the first to 

 practise it, but that he was the first to ' formularise ' it, to 

 give it consistency and shape, and to bring it prominently 

 before the angling world. . . . And even then — and it is 

 a good illustration of the 'specialism' referred to — his 

 book was (statedly) confined to one branch of one kind 

 of angling for one species of fish : * The Art of Trout 

 Fishing, more particularly applied to Clear Water.' 

 It might have been added ' and in streams and rivers 

 north of the Tweed,' for I believe there is not a word 

 in the book about the rivers or lakes of England, 

 Ireland, or Wales, or how to catch trout in them. I 

 say this in no disparagement of the author or his 

 capital book, but only to illustrate the complexity and 

 ' elaborateness ' at which the art of angling has arrived. 

 So far from disparaging, it is probable, on the contrary^ 

 that if all writers on fishing had the modesty to confine 

 themselves, as Mr. Stewart did, to subjects they were 

 really personally acquainted with, the gentle art would 

 not be afflicted with a literature containing a greater 

 amount of undiluted bosh — to say nothing of downright 

 'cribbing' — than probably any printed matter of equal 

 bulk in existence. We want a few more ' Gilbert Whites 

 of Selborne' amongst our angling authors. . . . Poor 

 Stewart ! he was a fine fisherman and a right good com- 

 panion, and pleasant days we fly-fished side by side, with 



