er, and still more his English
predecessors, dealt much in the home-made. The _Treatise_ of the
fifteenth century bids you make your 'Rodde' of a fair staff even of a
six foot long or more, as ye list, of hazel, willow, or 'aspe' (ash?),
and 'beke hym in an ovyn when ye bake, and let him cool and dry a four
weeks or more.' The pith is taken out of him with a hot iron, and a yard
of white hazel is similarly treated, also a fair shoot of blackthorn or
crabtree for a top. The butt is bound with hoops of iron, the top is
accommodated with a noose, a hair line is looped in the noose, and the
angler is equipped. Splicing is not used, but the joints have holes to
receive each other, and with this instrument 'ye may walk, and there is
no man shall wit whereabout ye go.' Recipes are given for colouring and
plaiting hair lines, and directions for forging hooks. 'The smallest
quarell needles' are used for the tiniest hooks.

Barker (1651) makes the rod 'of a hasel of one piece, or of two pieces
set together in the most convenient manner, light and gentle.' He
recommends the use of a single hair next the fly,--'you shall have more
rises,' which is true, 'and kill more fish,' which is not so likely. The
most delicate striking is required with fine gut, and with a single hair
there must be many breakages. For salmon, Barker uses a rod ten feet in
the butt, 'that will carry a top of six foot pretty stiffe and strong.'
The 'winder,' or reel, Barker illustrates with a totally unintelligible
design. His salmon fly 'carries six wings'; perhaps he only means wings
composed of six kinds of feathers, but here Franck is a better authority,
his flies being sensible and sober in colour. Not many old salmon flies
are in existence, nor have I seen more ancient specimens than a few,
chiefly of peacocks' feathers, in the fly-leaf of a book at Abbotsford;
they were used in Ireland by Sir Walter Scott's eldest son. The
controversy as to whether fish can distinguish colours was unknown to our
ancestors. I am inclined to believe that, for salmon, size, and perhaps
shade, light or dark, with more or less of tinsel, are the only important
points. Izaak stumbled on the idea of Mr. Stewart (author of _The
Practical Angler_) saying, 'for the generality, three or four flies,
neat, and rightly made, and not too big, serve for a trout in most
rivers, all the summer.' Our ancestors, though they did not fish with
the dry fly, were intent on imitati