THE LITERATUEE OF ELY FISHING. 217 



widely read, and she was a celebrity in her day. 

 From Stewart to the present day is some sixty 

 years, and many have been the good books 

 written during that time. They are too 

 numerous even to name. I shall therefore say 

 nothing of Henderson, who fished all his long 

 life and wrote with equal skill : nothing of 

 Fitzgibbon or Pennell, victor in the famous 

 fishing duel with Stewart; nothing of Prime 

 and Orvis and the older school of American 

 writers; nothing of La Branche and modern 

 American dry fly practice : nothing of Petit 

 and the French fishermen, now an important 

 group : nothing of many a living writer. There 

 is much to be said about each, but to write of 

 all would require more space than I have left, 

 and more patience than I can expect of a 

 reader. So I will conclude with four writers 

 and four only. Lord Grey of Fallodon pub- 

 lished his book at the end of last century. The 

 dry fly was then at its zenith, and the other 

 system was receiving somewhat intolerant 

 treatment. He was the first writer of 

 importance on the dry fly who really knew what 

 the wet fly meant. Himself the best and most 

 devoted dry fly fisherman in England, he thus 

 started unconsciously that restatement of 

 values which Mr. Skues has carried so far. 

 But he did more. He is gifted with the power 

 to write fine prose. Listen to this. After 

 telling how Londoners who own gardens in the 

 country realise more poignantly than others 



