ling will ever be) I think him so good a fish, as to be little inferior to the best Trout that ever I tasted in my life.

Viat. Here's another skip-jack; and I have raised five or six more at least whilst you were speaking. Well, go thy way, little Dove! thou art the finest river that ever I saw, and the fullest of fish. Indeed, Sir, I like it so well, that I am afraid you will be troubled with me once a year, so long as we two live.

Pisc. I am afraid I shall not, Sir: but were you once here a May or a June, if good sport would tempt you, I should then expect you would sometimes see me; for you would then say it were a fine river indeed, if you had once seen the sport at the height.

Viat. Which I will do, if I live, and that you please to give me leave. There was one, and there another.

Pisc. And all this in a strange river, and with a fly of your own making! why what a dangerous man are you! Viat. I, Sir: but who taught me? and as Damatas says by his man Dorus, so you may say by me,

If any man such praises have,

What then have I that taught the knave?1

But what have we got here? a Rock springing up in the middle of the river! this is one of the oddest sights that ever I saw.

up

Pisc. Why, Sir, from that Pike' that you see standing there distant from the rock, this is called Pike-Pool. And young Mr. Izaac Walton was so pleas'd with it, as to draw it in landscape, in black and white, in a blank

(1) Sidney's Arcadia.

(2) 'Tis a rock, in the fashion of a spire-steeple, and almost as big. It stands in the midst of the river Dove; and not far from Mr. Cotton's house, below which place this delicate river takes a swift career betwixt many mighty rocks, much higher and bigger than St. Paul's church before 'twas burnt. And this Dove being oppos'd by one of the highest of them, has, at last, forc'd itself a way through it; and after a mile's concealment, appears again with more glory and beauty than before that opposition, running through the most pleasant valleys and most fruitful meadows that this nation can justly boast of.- Walton.

book I have at home, as he has done several prospects of my house also, which I keep for a memorial of his favour, and will shew you when we come up to dinner.

Viat. Has young master Izaac Walton been here, too? Pisc. Yes, marry has he, Sir, and that again and again too; and in France since, and at Rome, and at Venice, and I can't tell where; but I intend to ask him a great many hard questions so soon as I can see him, which will be, God willing, next month. In the mean time, Sir, to come to this fine stream at the head of this great pool, you must venture over these slippery, cobbling stones. Believe me, Sir, there you were nimble, or else you had been down. But now you are got over, look to yourself: for, on my word, if a fish rise here, he is like to be such a one as will endanger your tackle. How now!

Viat. I think you have such command here over the fishes, that you can raise them by your word, as they say conjurors can do spirits, and afterward make them do what you bid them; for here's a Trout has taken my fly; I had rather have lost a crown. What luck's this! he was a lovely fish, and turned up a side like a Salmon.

Pisc. O Sir, this is a war where you sometimes win,. and must sometimes expect to lose. Never concern yourself for the loss of your Fly; for ten to one I teach you to make a better. Who's that calls?

Serv. Sir, will it please you to come to dinner?

Pisc. We come. You hear, Sir, we are called: and now take your choice, whether you will climb this steep hill before you, from the top of which you will go directly into the house, or back again, over these stepping stones, and about by the bridge.

Viat. Nay, sure the nearest way is best; at least my stomach tells me so; and I am now so well acquainted with your rocks, that I fear them not.

Pisc. Come then, follow me. And so soon as we have

din'd, we will down again to the little house: where I will begin, at the place I left off, about fly-fishing, and read you another lecture; for I have a great deal more to say upon that subject.

Viat. The more the better; I could never have met with a more obliging master, my first excepted. Nor such sport can all the rivers about London ever afford, as is to be found in this pretty river.

Pisc. You deserve to have better; both because I see you are willing to take pains, and for liking this little so well; and better I hope to shew you before we part,

CHAP. VII.

FISHING AT THE TOP. Flies for the Months of January, February, March, April, and part of May; including, under May, particular Directions for baiting with the Green-Drake.

Viator. COME, Sir, having now well din'd, and being again set in your little house, I will now challenge your promise, and entreat you to proceed in your instruction for fly-fishing: which, that you may be the better encouraged to do, I will assure you, that I have not lost, I think, one syllable of what you have told me; but very well retain all your directions, both for the rod, line, and making a fly, and now desire an account of the flies themselves.

Pisc. Why, Sir, I am ready to give it you, and shall have the whole afternoon to do it in, if nobody come in to interrupt us; for you must know, (besides the unfitness of the day,) that the afternoons, so early in March, signify very little to angling with a fly, though with a minnow, or a worm, something might (I confess) be done.

To begin, then, where I left off, My father Walton tells

us of but twelve artificial flies only, to angle with at the top, and gives their names; of which some are common with us here; and I think I guess at most of them by his description, and I believe they all breed and are taken in our rivers, though we do not make them either of the same dubbing or fashion. And it may be in the rivers about London, which I presume he has most frequented, and where 'tis likely he has done most execution, there is not much notice taken of many more: but we are acquainted with several others here, though perhaps I may reckon some of his by other names too; but if I do, I shall make you amends by an addition to his catalogue. And although the fore-named great master in the art of angling, for so in truth he is, tells you that no man should, in honesty, catch a Trout till the middle of March, yet I hope he will give a man leave sooner to take a Grayling, which, as I told you, is in the dead months in his best season: and do assure you, (which I remember by a very remarkable token,) I did once take upon the sixth day of December one, and only, one, of the biggest Graylings, and the best in season, that ever I yet saw or tasted; and do usually take Trouts too, and with a fly, not only before the middle of this month, but almost every year in Februunless it be a very ill spring indeed; and have sometimes in January, so early as New-year's tide, and in frost and snow, taken Grayling in a warm sunshine day for an hour or two about noon; and to fish for him with a grub, it is then the best time of all.

ary,

I shall therefore begin my fly-fishing with that month, (though, I confess, very few begin so soon, and that such as are so fond of the sport as to embrace all opportunities can rarely in that month find a day fit for their purpose,) and tell you, that, upon my knowledge, these flies in a warm sun, for an hour or two in the day, are certainly taken.

JANUARY.

1. A RED BROWN with wings of the male of a mallard almost white; the dubbing of the tail of a black longcoated cur, such as they commonly make muffs of; for the hair on the tail of such a dog dyes, and turns to a red brown, but the hair of a smooth-coated dog of the same colour will not do, because, it will not dye, but retains its natural colour.' And this fly is taken, in a warm sun, this whole month through.

2. There is also a very little BRIGHT-DUN GNAT, as little as can possibly be made, so little as never to be fish'd with, with above one hair next the hook; and this is to be made of a mixt dubbing of marten's fur, and the white of a hare's scut, with a very white and small wing; and it is no great matter how fine you fish, for nothing will rise in this month but a Grayling; and of them I never, at this season, saw any taken with a fly, of above a foot long, in my life: but of little ones about the bigness of a smelt, in a warm day, and a glowing sun, you may take enough with these two flies; and they are both taken the whole month through.

FEBRUARY.

1. Where the RED BROWN of the last month ends, ANOTHER, almost of the same colour, begins with this; saving that the dubbing of this must be of something a blacker colour, and both of them warpt-on with red silk. The dubbing that should make this fly, and that is the truest colour, is to be got off the black spot of a hog's ear: not that a black spot in any part of the hog will not afford the same colour, but that the hair in that place is, by many degrees, softer, and more fit for the purpose. His wing must be as the other; and this kills all this month, and is called the LESSER RED-BROWN.

(1) The dubbing is to be warped on as No. 1, in February, infra.