16 THE TROUT ARE RISING 
In the first chapter of “The Compleat Angler,” 
Izaak Walton points out that in the Old Testa- 
ment fish hooks are but twice mentioned, once by 
Moses and once by the prophet Amos; though 
Cruden’s “‘ Concordance”’ discloses, throughout the 
Bible, many allusions to fish. But there is nothing 
concerning fly-fishing therein. 
Nor indeed is there much to the purpose in 
literature before the seventeenth century, when 
Charles Cotton, who died in 1687, was about 
the first to systematize the art in the second part 
of “The Compleat Angler.” Robert Venables, 
however, and James Chetham in the same century 
were hardly behind him as instructors, 
But it is not for me to attempt exploration 
of the dark ages for the inventor of fly-fishing. 
All I know about it is that he did later generations 
of honest men a good turn! And he certainly 
bequeathed to them what the poet calls a “ pleasing 
madness.” 
Many miles will the enthusiast travel by train, 
by motor or cycle, sometimes even on foot—a 
fine performance, nowadays—in order to get 
trout-fishing. One of the best walking feats 
accomplished for this object that I ever heard 
of was that of Sir Charles Payton (“ Sarcelle”’), 
formerly for many years British Consul at Calais, 
who remembers walking from Worcester to Ten- 
bury one night about fifty years ago, fishing next 
day, and walking back in the evening, From 
Worcester to Tenbury must be a good twenty- 
one miles by road. Asa schoolboy at Scarborough 
