190 FLY FISHING FOE TROUT. 



failures which must precede success, I am com- 

 pelled to the conclusion that the Treatise 

 embodies a long previous history. This history 

 may be traditional. It is possible that the 

 author gathered all the knowledge displayed in 

 the book from word of mouth and that she 

 records traditions handed down through 

 generations of anglers. This may be so. But 

 I think it more likely that the written word 

 existed as a guide. That we shall ever find any 

 earlier manuscript is perhaps unlikely, but the 

 possibility is alluring. I like to think that 

 there is a chance, even the remotest, that some 

 day we may have revealed to us dressings of 

 flies even earlier than those which date from 

 the Wars of the Roses. 



