Take a length of fine round silk worm gut, half a yard of silk well
waxed, (wax if possible of the same colour,) take a No. three or four
hook, hold it by the bend between the forefinger and thumb of the left
hand, with the shank towards your right hand, and with the point and
beard of your hook not under your fingers, but nearly parallel with the
tips of them, then take the silk and hold it about the middle of it
with your hook, one part laying along the inside of it to your left
hand, the other to your right; then take that part of the silk which
lies towards your right hand between the forefinger and thumb of that
hand, and holding that part towards your left tight along the inside of
the hook, whip that to the right three or four times round the shank of
the hook towards the right hand, after which take the gut and lay
either of its ends along the inside of the shank of the hook, till it
comes near the bend of it, then hold the hook, silk and gut tight
between the forefinger and thumb of your left hand, and afterwards put
that portion of silk into your right, giving three or four more whips
over both gut and hook, until it approaches the end of the shank, then
make a loop and fasten it tight, then whip it neatly again over both
silk, gut, and hook, until it comes near to the end of the hook, make
another loop and fasten it again; now wax the longest end of the silk
again, then hold your Ostrich strand, dubbing on whatever you have
selected, and hook as at first with the silk just waxed anew, whip them
three or four times round at the bend of the hook, making them tight by
a loop as before, then the strands to your right hand and twisting them
and the silk together with the forefinger and thumb of the right hand,
wind them round the shank tight, till you come to the place where you
fastened, then loop and fasten again, then take your scissors and cut
the body of the Palmer into an oval shape, that is, small at the head
and the end of the shank, but full in the centre; don't cut too much of
the dubbing off. Now both ends of the silk are separated, one at the
bend, the other at the end of the shank, wax them afresh, then take the
hackle, hold the small end of it between the forefinger and thumb of
your left hand, and stroke the fibres of it with those of your right,
the contrary way to what they are formed; hold your hook as at the
beginning, and place the point of the hackle on its bend with that side
growing next to the Cock's neck upwards, then whip it tight to the
hook, but in fastening, avoid if possible, tying the fibres; the hackle
now being fast, take it by the large end and keeping that side which
lies to the neck of the Cock to the left hand, begin with your right
hand to wind it up the shank upon the dubbing, stopping every second
turn, and holding what you have wound tight with the fingers of your
left hand, whilst with a needle you pick out the fibres unavoidably
left in; proceed in this manner till you come to where you first
fastened, and where an end of the silk remains; then clip off the
fibres of the hackle which you hold between your finger and thumb close
to the stem, and hold the stem close to the hook, afterwards take the
silk in your right hand and whip the stem fast to the hook, and make it
tight: clip off the remaining silk at both bend and shank of the hook,
and also all fibres that start or don't stand well, and then your fly
is complete.