xii PREFATORY NOTE. 



pages the very kind assistance of the eminent and 

 scientific gentlemen who write in regard to such special 

 subjects with equal felicitousness and authority. Thus 

 the volumes of the Badminton Library confided to me 

 by the Editor and publishers will not lose either in com- 

 pleteness or trustworthiness by my shortcomings. 



Frankly, however, this is not the reason why I have 

 sought the able co-operation of Major John P. Traherne, 

 Mr. Henry R. Francis, and Mr. H. S. Hall, in dealing 

 with the theory and practice of artificial fly-fishing. The 

 reason is that in some of my former writings I have put 

 forward certain opinions on these subjects which if not 

 ' revolutionary,' may certainly be called in one sense 

 'radical,' and which have not as yet found general 

 acceptance amongst fly-fishers. 



Whether the said opinions are right or wrong matters 

 not. If I had seen any sufficient reason to alter them 

 — at any rate in regard to their main outlines— I should 

 have unhesitatingly avowed it long ago, for I look upon 

 a man who says that he never changes his mind as an 

 ass, or else as sacrificing truth to ' consistency ; ' but 

 whatever my theories, and whatever may be their ulti- 

 mate fate, I had, of course, no right or desire to air my 

 hobbies in the pages of the Badminton Library ; and 

 I am sure that my readers will, in any case, be the 

 gainers by the substitution of the admirable essays 

 alluded to, written as they are by fly-fishers of long and 

 successful experience and in every sense entitled to be 

 regarded as masters of the craft. 



To the Marquis of Exeter, Mr. William Senior, 



