last meal and call for more; for, by that means, they rob themselves of that pleasure that hunger brings to poor men.' And I do seriously approve of that saying of yours, 'that you had rather be a civil, well-governed, well-grounded, temperate poor angler, than a drunken lord.' But I hope there is none such. However, I am certain of this, that I have been at many very costly dinners that have not afforded me half the content that this has done; for which I thank God and you. And now, good master, proceed to your promised directions for making and ordering my artificial fly.

Piscator.

No direction can be given to make a man of dull capacity able to make a fly well, and yet I know that mine, with a little practice, will help an ingenious angler in a good degree. But to see a fly made by an artist in that kind is the best teaching to make it. And then an ingenious angler may walk by the river and mark what flies fall on the water that day, and catch one of them, if he sees the trouts leap at a fly of that kind, and then (having always hooks ready hung with him), and having a bag also always with him, with bear's hair, or the hair of a brown or

sad-coloured heifer, hackles of a cock or capon, several coloured silks to make the body of the fly, the feathers of a drake's head, black or brown sheep's wool, or hog's wool or hair, thread of gold and of silver, silk of several colours, especially sad-coloured, to make the fly's head; and there be also other coloured feathers, both of little birds and of speckled fowl: I say, having those with him in a bag, and trying to make a fly, though he miss at first, yet shall he at last hit it better, even to such a perfection, as none can well teach him. And if he hit to make his fly right, and have the luck to hit also when there be store of trouts, a dark day, and a right wind, he will catch such store of them as will encourage him to grow more and more in love with the art of fly-making.

Venator. But, my loving master, if any wind will not serve, then I wish I were in Lapland, to buy a good wind of one of the honest witches that sell so many winds there and so cheap.

Piscator. Marry, scholar, but I would not be there, nor, indeed, from under this tree; for look how it begins to rain, and by the clouds, if I mistake not, we shall presently have a smoking shower, and therefore sit

close, this sycamore-tree will shelter us. And I will tell you, as they come into my mind, more observations of fly-fishing for a trout.

But first for the wind. You are to take notice, that of the winds, the south wind is said to be the best. One observes that

When the wind is south

It blows your bait into a fish's mouth.

Next to that, the west wind is believed to be the best; and having told you that the east wind is the worst, I need not tell you which wind is the best in the third degree. And yet, as Solomon observes, that he that considereth the wind shall never sow,' so he that busies his head too much about them, if the weather be not made extreme cold by a west wind, shall be a little superstitious; for as it is observed by some, that there is no good horse of a bad colour, so I have observed that if it be a cloudy day, and not extreme cold, let the wind sit in what corner it will, and do its worst, I heed it not.

And now I shall tell you that the fishing with a natural fly is excellent, and affords much pleasure. They may be found thus: the May-fly, usually in and about that month,

near to the river side, especially against rain. The oak-fly, on the body of the oak or ash, from the beginning of May to the end of August: it is a brownish fly, and easy to be found, and stands usually with its head downwards, that is to say, towards the root of the tree. The black fly, or hawthorn-fly, to be had on any hawthorn-bush after the leaves be come forth. With these and a short line, you should certainly have sport, if there be trouts; yea, on a hot day, but especially in the evening of a hot day, you will have sport.

And now, scholar, my direction for flyfishing is ended with this shower, for it has done raining. Look about you, and see how pleasantly that meadow looks, nay, and the earth smells sweetly too. . . . Let us stretch our legs a little in a gentle walk to the river, and try what interest our angles will pay us for lending them so long to be used by the trouts; lent them indeed, like usurers, for our profit and their destruction.

Venator. Oh, me ! look you, master! a fish! a fish! Oh, alas! master, I have lost her.

Piscator. Ah, marry, sir, that was a good fish indeed; if I had had the luck to have taken up that rod, then it is twenty to one he

should not have broken my line by running to the rod's end, as you suffered him. I would have held him within the bent of my rod, unless he had been fellow to the great trout that is near an ell long, which was of such length and depth that he had his picture drawn, and now is to be seen at the 'George,' in Ware; and it may be that by giving that very great trout the rod, that is, by casting it to him into the water, I might have caught him in the longrun, for so I always do when I meet with overgrown fish: and you will learn to do so too, hereafter; for I tell you, scholar, fishing is an art, or at least it is an art to catch fish.

THE HEART OF ROBERT THE BRUCE. A.D. 1327.

(FROISSART.)

DURING this truce,* it happened that King Robert of Scotland, who had been a very valiant knight, waxed old, and was attacked

* Between Edward III. of England and Robert I. of Scotland, surnamed Robert the Bruce.