x PREFATORY NOTE. 
fishing, as contrasted with the time-honoured plan of 
fishing ‘down:’ fishing, that is, with the flies below 
rather than above the angler’s stand-point. Not that I 
mean to assert that Mr. Stewart was by any means the 
first to preach the new doctrine, still less the first to 
practise it, but that he was the first to ‘formularise’ it, to 
give it consistency and shape, and to bring it prominently 
before the angling world. . . . And even then—and it is 
a good illustration of the ‘specialism’ referred to—his 
book was (statedly) confined to oxe branch of one kind 
of angling for oxe species of fish: ‘The Art of Trout 
Fishing, more particularly applied to Clear Water.’ 
It might have been added ‘and in streams and rivers 
north of the Tweed,’ for I believe there is not a word 
in the book about the rivers or lakes of England, 
Jreland, or Wales, or how to catch trout in them. I 
say this in no disparagement of the author or his 
capital book, but only to illustrate the complexity and 
‘elaborateness’ at which the art of angling has arrived, 
So far from disparaging, it is probable, on the contrary, 
that if all writers on fishing had the modesty to confine 
themselves, as Mr. Stewart did, to subjects they were 
really personally acquainted with, the gentle art would 
not be afflicted with a literature containing a greater 
amount of undiluted bosh—to say nothing of downright 
‘cribbing’—than probably any printed matter of equal 
bulk in existence. We want a few more ‘ Gilbert Whites 
of Selborne’ amongst our angling authors. ... Poor 
Stewart! he was a fine fisherman and a right good com- 
panion, and pleasant days we fly-fished side by side, with 
