A BOOK ON ANGLING: BEING A COMPLETE TREATISE ON THE ART OF ANGLING IN EVERY BRANCH WITH EXPLANATORY PLATES, ETC. By Francis Francis. Sixth edition, revised and improved. To which is added (1887) a memoir of the author.

(1867) 1887 6th edition - 2nd issue. Small 8vo (130 x 202mm). Ppxxxii,529. Sixteen engraved plates, six of them hand-coloured. Maroon cloth, blind-stamped decoration and border to upper and lower board, spine titled in gilt.

The engraved plates are of fishing tackle and flies. Four of the six fine hand-coloured plates are of classic salmon flies, and a large portion of the text is devoted to tying salmon flies as well as recommended patterns for various rivers. One of the greatest and most comprehensive angling books. Good section on pike with plates of rigs and flights. "His main book, covering every aspect of angling, coarse, spinning and fly, A Book On Angling, was far in advance of anything that had been published before. Some of it is still quoted, notably this: 'The judicious and perfect application of dry, wet and mid-water fly fishing stamps the finished fly fisher with the hallmark of efficiency.' " (From a newspaper article by Conrad Voss Bark). This sixth edition is seen in two states, both carry the date of 1885 at the foot of the title-page. The later state, however, mentions an added (1887) memoir of the author, Francis having died in 1886. "In this edition I have made some alterations, and have recorded such fresh knowledge as experience has proved of value to the angler. The position occupied by me for some years, as Naturalist Director of the Bright Aquarium, having afforded me special opportunities of observing the habits of the salmon (British), with regard to which grave fallacies existed until lately, I have incorporated in this work the information I obtained, and believe that it forms the most complete history of the subject at present existing." (From the author's preface to the sixth edition). The author noted in his preface to the third edition that the first and second editions "...sold more rapidly than any other Angling book produced during the last quarter of a century."