THE LITERATURE OF FLY FISHING. 207 



Miracle; and furnishes the whole country with 

 Angle-rods.'* This passage, by the way, is 

 one of the very few references to fishing to be 

 found in general literature which is not either 

 inaccurate or trivial. Seeing how popular 

 fishing has been for centuries, it is strange that 

 so little notice has been taken of it, and that 

 little usually incorrect. 



Two more prose writers of the century, and 

 two only, shall be mentioned, one at the 

 beginning the other at the end. Robert Howlett 

 produced one of those treatises of which there 

 are many, chiefly copied, but with just enough 

 originality to escape utter plagiarism. He 

 gives a good description of current practice in 

 fly fishing. 'If you cannot discern your Flie 

 upon the Water, for more Sureness, strike as 

 soon as you perceive a Fish rises within the 

 reach of your Rod and Line; and if you miss 

 him, throw your Flie immediately beyond him, 

 and draw it gently over the Place; if he like it, 

 he will take it; and always carefully watch, 

 that you may strike at the first rising of the 

 Fish, when you can ; and lest you should not see 

 when you have a rise, strike so soon as you see 

 the Line go from you; and keep your Flie 

 always in a gentle Motion, that a fish may hang 

 himself though you strike not.' 



Thomas Best (Gent, late of his Majesty's 

 Drawing Room in the Tower) wrote a work 

 which must have been exceedingly popular, for 



*Spectator No. 108 (4 July, 1711). 



