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THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2007 with funding from 
 
 IVIicrosoft Corporation 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/compleatanglerorOOwaltrich 
 
You are well overtaken, Gentlemen, a g^ood morning to you both. 
 
COMPLFAT "ANGLEIL 
 
 or Ik (bNTEnrmrivE Mm/ RECREmiON: 
 
 iieiivg, <x Di/cour/e ofTlSti&TlSfilNG 
 
 not ur0drf^tKe perij/al (/ mg/t ZncferJ: 
 
 Walton. 
 
 Wit^ Illu/rrdtionj 
 
 6^ JAmej'TfsQrpe 
 
 HODDEK. & STOUGHTON 
 
 Na^ York & iQudori 
 
nil 
 
 TO THE 
 RIGHT WORSHIPFUL 
 
 JOHN OFFLEY 
 
 OF 
 
 MADELY MANOR, IN THE COUNTY OF 
 STAFFORD, ESQ. 
 
 My most Honoured Friend. 
 
 Sir, 
 I HAVE made so ill use of your former favours, as by them 
 to be encouraged to entreat that they may be enlarged to the 
 Patronage and Protection of this Book ; and I have put on a 
 modest confidence, that I shall not be denied, because it is a 
 Discourse of Fish and Fishing, which you know so well, and 
 both love and practise so much. 
 
 You are assured, though there be ignorant men of another 
 belief, that Angling is an Art; and you know that Art better 
 than others; and that this is truth, is demonstrated by the 
 fruits of that pleasant labour which you enjoy when you 
 purpose to give rest to your mind, and divest yourself of your 
 more serious business, and, which is often, dedicate a day or 
 two to this recreation. 
 
 At which time, if common Anglers should attend you, and be 
 eye-witnesses of the success, not of your fortune but your skill, 
 it would doubtless beget in them an emulation to be like you, 
 and that emulation might beget an industrious diligence to be 
 so : but I know it is not attainable by common capacities. And 
 
 ivi3731S2 
 
THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY 
 
 there be now many men of great wisdom, learning, and ex- 
 perience, which love and practise this Art, that know I speak 
 the truth. 
 
 Sir, — This pleasant curiosity of Fish and Fishing, of which 
 you are so great a master, has been thought worthy the pens 
 and practises of divers in other nations, that have been reputed 
 men of great learning and wisdom, and amongst those of this 
 nation, I remember Sir Henry Wotton, a dear lover of this Art, 
 has told me that his intentions were to write a Discourse of 
 the Art, and in praise of Angling : and doubtless he had done 
 so, if death had not prevented him ; the remembrance of which 
 hath often made me sorry; for if he had lived to do it, then 
 the unlearned Angler had seen some better Treatise of this Art, 
 a Treatise that might have proved worthy his perusal, which, 
 though some have undertaken, I could never yet see in English. 
 
 But mine may be thought as weak, and as unworthy of 
 common view ; and I do here freely confess, that I should rather 
 excuse myself, than censure others, my own discourse being 
 liable to so many exceptions; against whic^h, you, Sir, might 
 make this one, — That it can contribute nothing to your know- 
 ledge. And lest a longer Epistle may diminish your pleasure, 
 I shall make this no longer than to add this following truth, 
 
 That I am really, 
 
 Sir, 
 
 Your affectionate Friend, 
 
 And most humble Servant, 
 
 Iz. Wa. 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 You are well overtaken, Gentlemen, a good morning 
 
 to you both Frontispiece 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I thought we had wanted three miles of this house till 
 you shewed it to me: but now we are at it, we'll 
 turn into it, and refresh ourselves 9 
 
 There my Hostess shall now dress it after my fashion, 
 
 and I warrant it good meat 21 
 
 Get secretly behind the tree, and stand as free from 
 
 motion as is possible 37 
 
 Here's to you a hearty draught, and to all that love us, 
 
 and the honest Art of Angling 51 
 
 Who Hunts, doth oft in danger ride ; 
 Who Hawks, lures oft both far and wide ; 
 Who uses Games shall often prove 
 A loser ; but who falls in love. 
 
 Is fettered in fond Cupid's snare : 
 
 My Angle breeds me no such care ... 59 
 
 And then an ingenious Angler may walk by the river 
 
 and mark what flies fall on the water that day . . 71 
 
 The great Trout that is near an ell long, which was of 
 such a length and depth, that he had his picture 
 drawn 81 
 
 vii 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Old Oliver Henley, now with God, a noted Fisher both 
 
 for Trout and Salmon 91 
 
 How to roast him when he is caught loi 
 
 Go yourself so far from the water-side, that you per- 
 ceive nothing but the top of the floats, which you 
 must watch most diligently 113 
 
 I have taken many a good Eel by Snigling .... 125 
 
 In a morning up we rise, ere Aurora *s peeping. 
 Drink a cup to wash our eyes, leave the sluggard 
 
 sleeping: 135 
 
 To that purpose I will go with you to Mr. John Stubs, 
 
 near to the Swan in Golden-lane 145 
 
 Makes excellent sport for young Anglers, or boys, or 
 
 women that love that recreation 153 
 
 And pray let's now rest ourselves in this sweet shady 
 arbour, which Nature herself has woven with her 
 own fine fingers 163 
 
 Vlll 
 
CHAPTER I. A CONFERENCE BETWIXT AN ANGLER, 
 A HUNTER, AND A FALCONER; EACH COMMENDING 
 HIS RECREATION 
 
 PISCATOR, VENATOR, AUCEPS 
 
 PISCATOR. You are well overtaken, Gentlemen, a good 
 morning to you both ; I have stretched my legs up 
 Tottenham-hill to overtake you, hoping your business 
 may occasion you towards Ware, whither I am going this fine, 
 fresh. May morning. 
 
 Venator. Sir, I for my part shall almost answer your 
 hopes; for my purpose is to drink my morning's draught at 
 the Thatched-house in Hodsden, and I think not to rest till 
 I come thither, where I have appointed a friend or two to 
 meet me: but for this Gentleman that you see with me, I 
 know not how far he intends his journey; he came so lately 
 into my company, that I have scarce had time to ask him 
 the question. 
 
 AucEPS. Sir, I shall by your favour bear you company as 
 far as Theobald's ; and there leave you, for then I turn up to a 
 friend's house who mews a Hawk for me, which I now long 
 to see. 
 
 Ven. Sir, we are all so happy as to have a fine, fresh, 
 cool morning, and I hope we shall each be the happier in the 
 other's company. And, Gentlemen, that I may not lose yours, 
 I shall either abate, or amend my pace to enjoy it; knowing 
 that, as the Italians say, *Good company in a journey makes 
 the way to seem the shorter.* 
 
 Auc. It may do so. Sir, with the help of good discourse, 
 which methinks we may promise from you that both look and 
 speak so cheerfully: and for my part I promise you, as an 
 invitation to it, that I will be as free and open-hearted, as 
 discretion will allow me to be with strangers. 
 
A CONFERENCE BETWIXT 
 
 Ven. And, Sir, I promise the like. 
 
 Pisc. I am right glad to hear your answers, and in 
 confidence you speak the truth, I shall put on a boldness to ask 
 you. Sir, whether business or pleasure caused you to be so 
 early up, and walk so fast, for this other Gentleman hath 
 declared he is going to see a hawk, that a friend mews for him. 
 
 Ven. Sir, mine is a mixture of both, a little business and 
 more pleasure, for I intend this day to do all my business, and 
 then bestow another day or two in hunting the Otter, which a 
 friend that I go to meet, tells me, is much pleasanter than any 
 other chase whatsoever: howsoever I mean to try it; for to- 
 morrow morning we shall meet a pack of Otter-dogs of noble 
 Mr. Sadler's, upon Amwell-hill, who will be there so early, that 
 they intend to prevent the Sun rising. 
 
 Pisc. Sir, my fortune has answered my desires, and my 
 purpose is to bestow a day or two in helping to destroy some 
 of those villainous vermin, for I hate them perfectly, because 
 they love fish so well, or rather, because they destroy so much ; 
 indeed so much, that in my judgment all men that keep Otter- 
 dogs ought to have pensions from the King to encourage them 
 to destroy the very breed of those base Otters, they do so much 
 mischief. 
 
 Ven. But what say you to the Foxes of the Nation, would 
 not you as willingly have them destroyed? for doubtless they 
 do as much mischief as Otters do. 
 
 Pisc Oh Sir, if they do, it is not so much to me and my 
 fraternity as those base vermin the Otters do. 
 
 Auc. Why, Sir, I pray, of what fraternity are you, that you 
 are so angry with the poor Otters? 
 
 Pisc I am. Sir, a brother of the Angle, and therefore an 
 enemy to the Otter: for you are to note, that we Anglers all 
 love one another, and therefore do I hate the Otter, both for 
 my own and for their sakes who are of my brotherhood. 
 
 Ven. And I am a lover of Hounds; I have followed many 
 a pack of dogs many a mile, and heard many merry huntsmen 
 make sport and scoff at Anglers. 
 
 Auc. And I profess myself a Falconer, and have heard many 
 grave, serious men pity them, 'tis such a heavy, contemptible, 
 dull recreation. 
 
AN ANGLER, A HUNTER, AND A FALCONER 
 
 Pisc. You know. Gentlemen, 'tis an easy thing to scoff at 
 any art or recreation ; a little wit mixed with ill-nature, con- 
 fidence, and maHce, will do it; but though they often venture 
 boldly, yet they are often caught even in their own trap, accord- 
 ing to that of Lucian, the father of the family of Scoffers. 
 
 Lucian, well skill'd in scoffing, this hath writ, 
 Friend, that's your folly which you think your wit; 
 This you vent oft, void both of wit and fear, 
 Meaning another, when yourself you jeer. 
 
 If to this you add what Solomon says of Scoffers, that * they 
 are an abomination to mankind,' Prov. xxiv. 9. let him that 
 thinks fit, scoff on, and be a scoffer still ; but I account them 
 enemies to me, and to all that love virtue and Angling. 
 
 And for you that have heard many grave serious men pity 
 Anglers; let me tell you. Sir, there be many men that are by 
 others taken to be serious and grave men, which we contemn 
 and pity. Men that are taken to be grave, because nature 
 hath made them of a sour complexion, money-getting men, 
 men that spend all their time first in getting, and next in 
 anxious care to keep it; men that are condemned to be rich, 
 and then always busy or discontented : for these poor-rich-men, 
 we Anglers pity them perfectly, and stand in no need to borrow 
 their thoughts to think ourselves so happy. No, no. Sir, we 
 enjoy a contentedness above the reach of such dispositions, and 
 as the learned and ingenuous Montaigne says like himself freely, 
 *When my Cat and I entertain each other with mutual apish 
 tricks, as playing with a garter, who knows but that I make my 
 Cat more sport than she makes me? Shall I conclude her to 
 be simple, that has her time to begin or refuse to play as freely 
 as I myself have? Nay, who knows but that it is a defect of 
 my not understanding her language (for doubtless Cats talk 
 and reason with one another) that we agree no better : and who 
 knows but that she pities me for being no wiser, than to play 
 with her, and laughs and censures my folly for making sport for 
 her, when we two play together?' 
 
 Thus freely speaks Montaigne concerning Cats, and I hope 
 I may take as great a liberty to blame any man, and laugh at 
 him too let him be never so grave, that hath not heard what 
 Anglers can say in the justification of their art and recreation ; 
 
 3 
 
A CONFERENCE BETWIXT 
 
 which I may again tell you is so full of pleasure, that we need 
 not borrow their thoughts to think ourselves happy. 
 
 Ven. Sir, you have almost amazed me, for though I am no 
 scoffer, yet I have, I pray let me speak it without offence, always 
 looked upon Anglers as more patient and more simple men, 
 than I fear I shall find you to be. 
 
 Pisc. Sir, I hope you will not judge my earnestness to be 
 impatience : and for my simplicity, if by that you mean a harm- 
 lessness, or that simplicity which was usually found in the 
 primitive Christians, who were, as most Anglers are, quiet men, 
 and followers of peace ; men that were so simply-wise, as not 
 to sell their consciences to buy riches, and with them vexation 
 and a fear to die; if you mean such simple men as lived in 
 those times when there were fewer Lawyers ; when men might 
 have had a Lordship safely conveyed to them in a piece of 
 parchment no bigger than your hand, though several sheets 
 will not do it safely in this wiser age, I say. Sir, if you take us 
 Anglers to be such simple men as I have spoken of, then myself 
 and those of my profession will be glad to be so understood: 
 But if by simplicity you meant to express a general defect in 
 those that profess and practise the excellent Art of Angling, I 
 hope in time to disabuse you, and make the contrary appear so 
 evidently, that if you will but have patience to hear me, I shall 
 remove all the anticipations that discourse, or time, or prejudice 
 have possessed you with against that laudable and ancient Art ; 
 for I know it is worthy the knowledge and practice of a wise man. 
 
 But, Gentlemen, though I be able to do this, I am not so 
 unmannerly as to engross all the discourse to myself; and 
 therefore, you two having declared yourselves, the one to be a 
 lover of Hawks, the other of Hounds, I shall be most glad to 
 hear what you can say in the commendation of that recreation 
 which each of you love and practise; and having heard what 
 you can say, I shall be glad to exercise your attention with 
 what I can say concerning my own recreation and Art of 
 Angling, and by this means, we shall make the way to seem the 
 shorter : and if you like my motion, I would have Mr. Falconer 
 to begin. 
 
 Auc. Your motion is consented to with all my heart, and 
 to testify it, I will begin as you have desired me. 
 4 
 
AN ANGLER, A HUNTER, AND A FALCONER 
 
 And first, for the element that I used to trade in, which is 
 the Air, an element of more worth than weight, an element 
 that doubtless exceeds both the earth and water; for though 
 I sometimes deal in both, yet the air is most properly mine, I 
 and my Hawks use that most, and it yields us most recreation ; 
 it stops not the high soaring of my noble generous Falcon ; in 
 it she ascends to such an height, as the dull eyes of beasts and 
 fish are not able to reach to; their bodies are too gross for 
 such high elevations: in the air my troops of Hawks soar up 
 on high, and when they are lost in the sight of men, then they 
 attend upon and converse with the Gods ; therefore I think my 
 Eagle is so justly stiled Jove's servant in ordinary: and that 
 very Falcon, that I am now going to see, deserves no meaner 
 a title, for she usually in her flight endangers herself, like the 
 son of Daedalus, to have her wings scorched by the Sun's heat, 
 she flies so near it, but her mettle makes her careless of danger ; 
 for she then heeds nothing, but makes her nimble pinions cut 
 the fluid air, and so makes her high way over the steepest 
 mountains and deepest rivers, and in her glorious career looks 
 with contempt upon those high steeples and magnificent palaces 
 which we adore and wonder at ; from which height I can make 
 her to descend by a word from my mouth, (which she both knows 
 and obeys), to accept of meat from my hand, to own me for her 
 Master, to go home with me, and be willing the next day to 
 afford me the like recreation. 
 
 And more ; this element of air which I profess to trade in, 
 the worth of it is such, and it is of such necessity, that no 
 creature whatsoever, not only those numerous creatures that 
 feed on the face of the earth, but those various creatures that 
 have their dwelling within the waters, every creature that hath 
 life in it's nostrils stands in need of my element. The waters 
 cannot preserve the Fish without air, witness the not breaking 
 of ice in an extreme frost ; the reason is, for that if the inspiring 
 and expiring organ of any animal be stopped, it suddenly yields 
 to nature, and dies. Thus necessary is air to the existence 
 both of Fish and Beasts, nay, even to Man himself; that air or 
 breath of life with which God at first inspired mankind. Gen. ii. 7., 
 he, if he wants it, dies presently, becomes a sad object to all that 
 loved and beheld him, and in an instant turns to putrefaction. 
 
 5 
 
A CONFERENCE BETWIXT 
 
 Nay more, the very birds of the air, those that be not 
 Hawks, are both so many and so useful and pleasant to man- 
 kind, that I must not let them pass without some observations : 
 they both feed and refresh him; feed him with their choice 
 bodies, and refresh him with their heavenly voices. I will not 
 undertake to mention the several kinds of fowl by which this 
 is done ; and his curious palate pleased by day, and which with 
 their very excrements afford him a soft lodging at night. These 
 I will pass by, but not those little nimble musicians of the air, 
 that warble forth their curious ditties, with which nature hath 
 furnished them to the shame of art. 
 
 As first the Lark, when she means to rejoice, to cheer 
 herself and those that hear her, she then quits the earth, and 
 sings as she ascends higher into the air, and having ended her 
 heavenly employment, grows then mute and sad to think she 
 must descend to the dull earth, which she would not touch but 
 for necessity. 
 
 How do the Black-bird and Thrassel with their melodious 
 voices, bid welcome to the cheerful Spring, and in their fixed 
 months warble forth such ditties as no art or instrument can 
 reach to? 
 
 Nay, the smaller birds also do the like in their particular 
 seasons, as namely the Leverock, the Titlark, the little Linnet, 
 and the honest Robin, that loves mankind both alive and dead. 
 
 But the Nightingale, another of my airy creatures, breathes 
 such sweet loud music out of her little instrumental throat, that 
 it might make mankind to think miracles are not ceased. He 
 that at midnight, when the very labourer sleeps securely, should 
 hear, as I have very often, the clear airs, the sweet descants, 
 the natural rising and falling, the doubling and redoubling of 
 her voice, might well be lifted above earth, and say. Lord, what 
 music hast thou provided for the Saints in Heaven, when thou 
 affordest bad men such music on Earth! 
 
 And this makes me the less to wonder at the many Aviaries 
 in Italy, or at the great charge of Varro his Aviary, the ruins of 
 which are yet to be seen in Rome, and is still so famous there, 
 that it is reckoned for one of those notables which men of 
 foreign nations either record, or lay up in their memories when 
 they return from travel. 
 6 
 
AN ANGLER, A HUNTER, AND A FALCONER 
 
 This for the birds of pleasure, of which very much more 
 might be said. My next shall be of birds of political use; I 
 think 'tis not to be doubted that swallows have been taught 
 to carry letters between two armies. But 'tis certain, that 
 when the Turks besieged Malta or Rhodes, I now remember 
 not which 'twas. Pigeons are then related to carry and recarry 
 letters. And Mr. G. Sandys, in his * Travels,' relates it to be done 
 betwixt Aleppo and Babylon. But if that be disbelieved, 'tis 
 not to be doubted that the Dove was sent out of the Ark by 
 Noah, to give him notice of land, when to him all appeared 
 to be sea, and the Dove proved a faithful and comfortable 
 messenger. And for the Sacrifices of the Law, a pair of Turtle 
 Doves or young Pigeons, were as well accepted as costly Bulls 
 and Rams. And when God would feed the Prophet Elijah, 
 I Kings xvii. 4-6. after a kind of miraculous manner, he did it 
 by Ravens, who brought him meat morning and evening. 
 Lastly, the Holy Ghost, when he descended visibly upon our 
 Saviour, did it by assuming the shape of a Dove. And to con- 
 clude this part of my discourse, pray remember these wonders 
 were done by birds of the air, the element in which they and I 
 take so much pleasure. 
 
 There is also a little contemptible winged creature, an 
 inhabitant of my aerial element, namely the laborious Bee, of 
 whose prudence, policy, and regular government of their own 
 common-wealth, I might say much, as also of their several 
 kinds, and how useful their honey and wax is both for meat 
 and medicines to mankind ; but I will leave them to their sweet 
 labour, without the least disturbance, believing them to be all 
 very busy at this very time amongst the herbs and flowers that 
 we see nature puts forth this May morning. 
 
 And now to return to my Hawks, from whom I have made 
 too long a digression; you are to note, that they are usually 
 distinguished into two kinds ; namely, the Long-winged and 
 the Short- winged Hawk : of the first kind, there be chiefly in 
 use amongst us in this nation. 
 
 The Gerfalcon and Jerkin. 
 The Falcon and Tassel-gentle. 
 The Laner and Laneret. 
 The Bockerel and Bockeret. 
 
 7 
 
A CONFERENCE BETWIXT 
 
 The Saker and Sacaret. 
 
 The Merlin and Jack Merlin. 
 
 The Hobby and Jack. 
 There is the Stelletto of Spain. 
 
 The Blood-red Rook from Turkey. 
 
 The Waskite from Virginia. 
 And there is of short-winged Hawks, 
 
 The Eagle and Iron. 
 
 The Goshawk and Tarcel. 
 
 The Sparhawk and Musket. 
 
 The French Pye of two sorts. 
 These are reckoned Hawks of note and worth, but we have 
 also of an inferior rank. 
 
 The Stanyel, the Ringtail, 
 
 The Raven, the Buzzard, 
 
 The Forked Kite, the Bald Buzzard. 
 
 The Hen-driver, and others that I forbear to name. 
 Gentlemen, if I should enlarge my discourse to the obser- 
 vation of the Eires, the Brancher, the Ramish Hawk, the 
 Haggard, and the two sorts of Lentners, and then treat of their 
 several Ayries, their Mewings, rare order of casting, and the 
 renovg,tion of their feathers ; their reclaiming, dieting, and then 
 come to their rare stories of practice ; I say, if I should enter 
 into these, and many other observations that I could make, it 
 would be much, very much pleasure to me: but lest I should 
 break the rules of civility with you, by taking up more than 
 the proportion of time allotted to me, I will here break off, and 
 entreat you, Mr. Venator, to say what you are able in the com- 
 mendation of Hunting, to which you are so much affected ; and 
 if time will serve, I will beg your favour for a further enlargement 
 of some of those several heads of which I have spoken. But 
 no more at present. 
 
 Ven. Well, Sir, and I will now take my turn, and will first 
 begin with a commendation of the Earth, as you have done 
 most excellently of the Air ; the earth being that element upon 
 which I drive my pleasant, wholsome, hungry trade. The earth 
 is a solid, settled element ; an element most universally beneficial 
 both to man and beast : to men who have their several recrea- 
 tions upon it, as Horse-races, Hunting, sweet smells, pleasant 
 8 
 
I thought we had wanted three miles of this house till you shewed it to me : but now we 
 
 are at it, we '11 turn into it, and refresh ourselves. 
 
 B 
 
AN ANGLER, A HUNTER, AND A FALCONER 
 
 walks : the Earth feeds man, and all those several beasts that 
 both feed him, and afford him recreation : What pleasure doth 
 man take in hunting the stately Stag, the generous Buck, the 
 wild Boar, the cunning Otter, the crafty Fox, and the fearful 
 Hare ? And if I may descend to a lower game, what pleasure 
 is it sometimes with gins to betray the very vermin of the earth ? 
 as namely, the Fitchet, the Fulimart, the Ferret, the Pole-cat, 
 the Mould-warp, and the like creatures that live upon the face, 
 and within the bowels of the earth ? How doth the earth bring 
 forth herbs, flowers, and fruits, both for physic and the pleasure 
 of mankind ? and above all, to me at least, the fruitful Vine, of 
 which, when I drink moderately, it clears my brain, cheers my 
 heart, and sharpens my wit. How could Cleopatra have feasted 
 Mark Antony with eight Wild Boars roasted whole at one 
 supper, and other meat suitable, if the earth had not been a 
 bountiful mother ? But to pass by the mighty Elephant, which 
 the earth breeds and nourisheth, and descend to the least of 
 creatures, how doth the earth afford us a doctrinal example in 
 the little Pismire, who in the Summer provides and lays up 
 her Winter provision, and teaches man to do the like? The 
 earth feeds and carries those horses that carry us. If I would 
 be prodigal of my time and your patience, what might not I say 
 in commendations of the earth? that puts limits to the proud 
 and raging sea, and by that means preserves both man and 
 beast that it destroys them not, as we see it daily doth those 
 that venture upon the sea, and are there shipwrecked, drowned, 
 and left to feed Haddocks ; when we that are so wise as to keep 
 ourselves on earth, walk, and talk, and live, and eat, and drink, 
 and go a hunting: of which recreation I will say a little, and 
 then leave Mr. Piscator to the commendation of Angling. 
 
 Hunting is a game for Princes and noble persons; it hath 
 been highly prized in all ages ; it was one of the qualifications 
 that Xenophon bestowed on his Cyrus, that he was a hunter of 
 wild beasts. Hunting trains up the younger nobility to the use 
 of manly exercises in their riper age. What more manly 
 exercise than hunting the Wild Boar, the Stag, the Buck, the 
 Fox, or the Hare? how doth it preserve health, and increase 
 strength and activity? 
 
 And for the dogs that we use, who can commend their 
 
 9 
 
A CONFERENCE BETWIXT 
 
 excellency to that height which they deserve? how perfect is 
 the Hound at smelling, who never leaves or forsakes his first 
 scent, but follows it through so many changes and varieties of 
 other scents, even over, and in the water, and into the earth? 
 What music doth a pack of dogs then make to any man, whose 
 heart and ears are so happy as to be set to the tune of such 
 instruments? How will a right Greyhound fix his eye on the 
 best Buck in a herd, single him out, and follow him, and him 
 only, through a whole herd of rascal game, and still know and 
 then kill him ? For my Hounds I know the language of them, 
 and they know the language and meaning of one another, as 
 perfectly as we know the voices of those with whom we dis- 
 course daily. 
 
 I might enlarge myself in the commendation of Hunting, 
 and of the noble Hound especially, as also of the docibleness of 
 dogs in general ; and I might make many observations of Land- 
 creatures, that for composition, order, figure, and constitution, 
 approach nearest to the completeness and understanding of 
 man; especially of those creatures which Moses in the Law 
 permitted to the Jews, Lev. xi. 2-8. which have cloven hoofs and 
 chew the cud, which I shall forbear to name, because I will not 
 be so uncivil to Mr. Piscator, as not to allow him a time for the 
 commendation of Angling, which he calls an Art ; but doubtless 
 'tis an easy one : and, Mr. Auceps, I doubt we shall hear a 
 watery discourse of it, but I hope 'twill not be a long one. 
 
 Auc. And I hope so too, though I fear it will. 
 
 Pisc. Gentlemen, let not prejudice prepossess you. I con- 
 fess my discourse is like to prove suitable to my recreation, 
 calm and quiet; we seldom take the name of God into our 
 mouths, but it is either to praise him or pray to him ; if others 
 use it vainly in the midst of their recreations, so vainly as if 
 they meant to conjure ; I must tell you, it is neither our fault 
 nor our custom; we protest against it. But, pray remember, 
 I accuse nobody ; for as I would not make a watery discourse, 
 so I would not put too much vinegar into it ; nor would I 
 raise the reputation of my own art by the diminution or 
 ruin of another's. And so much for the Prologue to what I 
 mean to say. 
 
 And now for the Water, the element that I trade in. The 
 
 lO 
 
AN ANGLER, A HUNTER, AND A FALCONER 
 
 water is the eldest daughter of the creation, the element upon 
 which the Spirit of God did first move, Gen. i. 2. the element 
 which God commanded to bring forth living creatures abun- 
 dantly; and without which, those that inhabit the land, even 
 all creatures that have breath in their nostrils, must suddenly 
 return to putrefaction. Moses, the great Law-giver and chief 
 philosopher, skilled in all the learning of the Egyptians, who 
 was called the friend of God, and knew the mind of the 
 Almighty, names this element the first in the creation ; this is 
 the element upon which the Spirit of God did first move, and is 
 the chief ingredient in the creation : many Philosophers have 
 made it to comprehend all the other elements, and most allow 
 it the chiefest in the mixtion of all living creatures. 
 
 There be that profess to believe that all bodies are made 
 of water, and may be reduced back again to water only : they 
 endeavour to demonstrate it thus: 
 
 Take a Willow, or any like speedy growing plant, newly 
 rooted in a box or barrel full of earth, weigh them all together 
 exactly when the trees begin to grow, and then weigh all 
 together after the tree is increased from it's first rooting to 
 weigh an hundred pound weight more than when it was first 
 rooted and weighed; and you shall find this augment of the 
 tree to be without the diminution of one dram weight of the 
 earth. Hence they infer this increase of wood to be from water 
 of rain, or from dew, and not to be from any other element. 
 And they affirm, they can reduce this wood back again to water ; 
 and they affirm also the same may be done in any animal or 
 vegetable. And this I take to be a fair testimony of the 
 excellency of my element of water. 
 
 The water is more productive than the earth. Nay, the 
 earth hath no fruitfulness without showers or dews; for all 
 the herbs, and flowers, and fruit are produced and thrive by 
 the water; and the very minerals are fed by streams that run 
 under ground, whose natural course carries them to the tops 
 of many high mountains, as we see by several springs breaking 
 forth on the tops of the highest hills ; and this is also witnessed 
 by the daily trial and testimony of several miners. 
 
 Nay, the increase of those creatures that are bred and fed 
 in the water, are not only more and more miraculous, but more 
 
 II 
 
A CONFERENCE BETWIXT 
 
 advantageous to man, not only for the lengthening of his life, 
 but for the preventing of sickness ; for 'tis observed by the most 
 learned physicians, that the casting off of Lent and other fish- 
 days, — which hath not only given the lie to so many learned, 
 pious, wise founders of colleges, for which we should be 
 ashamed, — hath doubtless been the chief cause of those many 
 putrid, shaking, intermitting agues, unto which this nation of 
 our's is now more subject than those wiser countries that feed 
 on herbs, sallads, and plenty of fish ; of which it is observed in 
 story, that the greatest part of the world now do. And it may 
 be fit to remember that Moses, Lev. xi. 9, Deut. xiv. 9, appointed 
 fish to be the chief diet for the best common-wealth that ever 
 yet was. 
 
 And it is observable, not only that there are fish, as namely, 
 the Whale, three times as big as the mighty Elephant ; that is 
 so fierce in battle ; but that the mightiest feasts have been made 
 of fish. The Romans in the height of their glory have made fish 
 the mistress of all their entertainments ; they have had music to 
 usher in their Sturgeons, Lampreys, and Mullets, which they 
 would purchase at rates rather to be wondered at than believed. 
 He that shall view the writings of Macrobius, or Varro, may be 
 confirmed and informed of this, and of the incredible value of 
 their fish and fish-ponds. 
 
 But, Gentlemen, I have almost lost myself, which I confess 
 I may easily do in this philosophical discourse ; I met with most 
 of it very lately, and, I hope, happily, in a conference with a 
 most learned physician. Dr. Wharton, a dear friend ; that loves 
 both me and my art of Angling. But however, I will wade na 
 deeper in these mysterious arguments, but pass to such obser- 
 vations as I can manage with more pleasure, and less fear of 
 running into error. But I must not yet forsake the waters, by 
 whose help we have so many known advantages. 
 
 And first, to pass by the miraculous cures of our known 
 baths, how advantageous is the sea for our daily traffic ; without 
 which we could not now subsist? How does it not only furnish 
 us with food and physic for the bodies, but with such obser- 
 vations for the mind as ingenious persons would not want? 
 
 How ignorant had we been of the beauty of Florence, of the 
 monuments, urns, and rarities that yet remain in, and near unto 
 12 
 
AN ANGLER, A HUNTER, AND A FALCONER 
 
 old and new Rome, so many as it is said will take up a year's 
 time to view, and afford to each of them but a convenient con- 
 sideration; and therefore it is not to be wondered at, that so 
 learned and devout a father as St. Jerome, after his wish to 
 have seen Christ in the flesh, and to have heard St. Paul preach, 
 makes his third wish, to have seen Rome in her glory ; and that 
 glory is not yet all lost, for what pleasure is it to see the 
 monuments of Livy, the choicest of the Historians : of Tully, 
 the best of Orators ; and to see the bay-trees that now grow out 
 of the very tomb of Virgil? These, to any that love learning, 
 must be pleasing. But what pleasure is it to a devout Christian 
 to see there the humble house in which St. Paul was content 
 to dwell; and to view the many rich statues that are there 
 made in honour of his memory ? Nay, to see the very place in 
 which St. Peter and he lie buried together ? These are in and 
 near to Rome. And how much more doth it please the pious 
 curiosity of a Christian, to see that place on which the blessed 
 Saviour of the world was pleased to humble himself, and to take 
 our nature upon him, and to converse with men : to see Mount 
 Sion, Jerusalem, and the very Sepulchre of our Lord Jesus? 
 How may it beget and heighten the zeal of a Christian, to see 
 the devotions that are daily paid to him at that place ? Gentle- 
 men, lest I forget myself I will stop here, and remember you, 
 that but for my element of water, the inhabitants of this poor 
 Island must remain ignorant that such things ever were, or that 
 any of them have yet a being. 
 
 Gentlemen, I might both enlarge and lose myself in such 
 like arguments ; I might tell you that Almighty God is said to 
 have spoken to a Fish, but never to a Beast ; that he hath made 
 a Whale a Ship to carry and set his Prophet Jonah safe on the 
 appointed shore. Of these I might speak, but I must in manners 
 break off, for I see Theobald's house. I cry you mercy for being 
 so long, and thank you for your patience. 
 
 Auc. Sir, my pardon is easily granted you : I except against 
 nothing that you have said ; nevertheless, I must part with you 
 at this park-wall, for which I am very sorry ; but I assure you 
 Mr. Piscator, I now part with you full of good thoughts, not 
 only of yourself, but your recreation. And so Gentlemen, God 
 keep you both. 
 
 13 
 
A CONFERENCE BETWIXT 
 
 Pisc. Well, now Mr. Venator you shall neither want time 
 nor my attention to hear you enlarge your discourse concerning 
 Hunting. 
 
 Ven. Not I Sir, I remember you said that Angling itself 
 was of great antiquity, and a perfect art, and an art not easily 
 attained to; and you have so won upon me in your former 
 discourse, that I am very desirous to hear what you can say 
 further concerning those particulars. 
 
 Pisc. Sir, I did say so, and I doubt not but if you and I 
 did converse together but a few hours, to leave you possessed 
 with the same high and happy thoughts that now possess me 
 of it ; not only of the antiquity of Angling, but that it deserves 
 commendations, and that it is an art, and an art worthy the 
 knowledge and practice of a wise man. 
 
 Ven. Pray, Sir, speak of them what you think fit, for we 
 have yet five miles to the Thatched-house, during which 
 walk, I dare promise you my patience, and diligent attention 
 shall not be wanting. And if you shall make that to appear 
 which you have undertaken; first, that it is an art, and an 
 art worth the learning, I shall beg that I may attend you a 
 day or two a-fishing, and that I may become your Scholar, 
 and be instructed in the art itself which you so much 
 magnify. 
 
 Pisc. O, Sir, doubt not but that Angling is an art ; is it not 
 an art to deceive a Trout with an artificial fly ? a Trout ! that is 
 more sharp sighted than any Hawk you have named, and more 
 watchful and timorous than your high mettled Merlin is bold? 
 and yet, I doubt not to catch a brace or two to-morrow, for a 
 friend's breakfast: doubt not therefore. Sir, but that Angling 
 is an art, and an art worth your learning : the question is rather, 
 whether you be capable of learning it ? for Angling is somewhat 
 like poetry, men are to be born so : I mean with inclinations to 
 it, though both may be heightened by discourse and practice; 
 but he that hopes to be a good Angler, must not only bring an 
 inquiring, searching, observing wit ; but he must bring a large 
 measure of hope and patience, and a love and propensity to the 
 art itself; but having once got and practised it, then doubt not 
 but Angling will prove to be so pleasant, that it will prove to 
 be like virtue, a reward to itself. 
 14 
 
AN ANGLER, A HUNTER, AND A FALCONER 
 
 Ven. Sir, I am now become so full of expectation, that I 
 long much to have you proceed ; and in the order that you 
 propose. 
 
 Pisc. Then first, for the antiquity of Angling, of which I 
 shall not say much, but only this ; some say it is as ancient as 
 Deucalion's flood : others, that Belus, who was the first inventor 
 of godly and virtuous recreations, was the first inventor of 
 Angling: and some others say, for former times have had their 
 disquisitions about the antiquity of it, that Seth, one of the sons 
 of Adam, taught it to his sons, and that by them it was derived 
 to posterity : others say, that he left it engraven on those pillars 
 which he erected, and trusted to preserve the knowledge of the 
 mathematics, music, and the rest of that precious knowledge, 
 and those useful arts which by God's appointment or allowance 
 and his noble industry, were thereby preserved from perishing 
 in Noah's flood. 
 
 These, Sir, have been the opinions of several men, that have 
 possibly endeavoured to make Angling more ancient than is 
 needful, or may well be warranted; but for my part, I shall 
 content myself in telling you, that Angling is much more 
 ancient than the Incarnation of our Saviour : for in the Prophet 
 Amos mention is made of fish-hooks ; and in the Book of Job, 
 which was long before the days of Amos, for that book is said 
 to be writ by Moses, mention is made also of fish-hooks, which 
 must imply Anglers in those times. 
 
 But, my worthy friend, as I would rather prove myself a 
 gentleman by being learned and humble, valiant and inoffensive, 
 virtuous and communicable, than by any fond ostentation oif 
 riches, or wanting those virtues myself, boast that these were 
 in my ancestors, — and yet I grant that where a noble and 
 ancient descent and such merits meet in any man, it is a double 
 dignification of that person : — so if this antiquity of Angling, 
 which for my part I have not forced, shall, like an ancient 
 family, be either an honour or an ornament to this virtuous art 
 which I profess to love and practise, I shall be the gladder that 
 I made an accidental mention of the antiquity of it ; of which I 
 shall say no more, but proceed to that just commendation which 
 I think it deserves. 
 
 And for that I shall tell you, that in ancient times a debate 
 
 c 15 
 
A CONFERENCE BETWIXT 
 
 hath risen, and it remains yet unresolved, whether the happiness 
 of man in this world, doth consist more in contemplation or 
 action. 
 
 Concerning which some have endeavoured to maintain their 
 opinion of the first, by saying, that the nearer we mortals come 
 to God by way of imitation, the more happy we are. And they 
 say, that God enjoys himself only by a contemplation of his own 
 Infiniteness, Eternity, Power and Goodness, and the like. And 
 upon this ground, many cloisteral men of great learning and 
 devotion, prefer contemplation before action. And many of 
 the fathers seem to approve this opinion, as may appear in 
 their commentaries upon the words of our Saviour to Martha, 
 Luke X. 41, 42. 
 
 And on the contrary there want not men of equal authority 
 and credit, that prefer action to be the more excellent; as 
 namely experiments in physic, and the application of it, both 
 for the ease and prolongation of man's life ; by which each man 
 is enabled to act and do good to others; either to serve his 
 country, or do good to particular persons; and they say also, 
 that action is doctrinal, and teaches both art and virtue, and is 
 a maintainer of humane society ; and for these, and other like 
 reasons to be preferred before contemplation. 
 
 Concerning which two opinions I shall forbear to add a 
 third by declaring my own, and rest myself contented in telling 
 you, my very worthy friend, that both these meet together, and 
 do most properly belong to the most honest, ingenuous, quiet, 
 and harmless art of Angling. 
 
 And first, I shall tell you what some have observed, and I 
 have found it to be a real truth, that the very sitting by the 
 river's side is not only the quietest and fittest place for con- 
 templation, but will invite an Angler to it : and this seems to be 
 maintained by the learned Pet. Du Moulin, who in his discourse 
 of the fulfilling of prophecies, observes, that when God intended 
 to reveal any future events or high notions to his prophets, he 
 then carried them either to the deserts or the sea-shore, that 
 having so separated them from amidst the press of people and 
 business, and the cares of the world, he might settle their mind 
 in a quiet repose, and there make them fit for revelation. 
 
 And this seems also to be intimated by the Children of 
 16 
 
AN ANGLER, A HUNTER, AND A FALCONER 
 
 Israel, Psal. 137, who having in a sad condition banished all 
 mirth and music from their pensive hearts, and having hung up 
 their then mute harps upon the willow-trees growing by the 
 rivers of Babylon, sat down upon those banks bemoaning the 
 ruins of Sion, and contemplating their own sad condition. 
 
 And an ingenious Spaniard says, that * rivers and the 
 inhabitants of the watery element were made for wise men to 
 contemplate, and fools to pass by without consideration.' And 
 though I will not rank myself in the number of the first, yet 
 give me leave to free myself from the last, by offering to you a 
 short contemplation, first of rivers and then of fish ; concerning 
 which I doubt not but to give you many observations that will 
 appear very considerable: I am sure they have appeared so 
 to me, and made many an hour pass away more pleasantly, 
 as I have sat quietly on a flowery bank by a calm river, and 
 contemplated what I shall now relate to you. 
 
 And first concerning Rivers ; there be so many wonders 
 reported and written of them, and of the several creatures that 
 be bred and live in them ; and those by authors of so good 
 credit, that we need not to deny them an historical faith. 
 
 As namely of a river in Epirus, that puts out any lighted 
 torch, and kindles any torch that was not lighted. Some waters 
 being drank cause madness, some drunkenness, and some 
 laughter to death. The river Selarus in a few hours turns a 
 rod or wand to stone : and our Camden mentions the like in 
 England, and the like in Lochmere in Ireland. There is also 
 a river in Arabia, of which all the sheep that drink thereof 
 have their wool turned into a vermilion colour. And one of no 
 less credit than Aristotle, tells us of a merry river, the river 
 Elusina, that dances at the noise of music, for with music it 
 bubbles, dances, and grows sandy, and so continues till the 
 music ceases, but then it presently returns to it's wonted calm- 
 ness and clearness. And Camden tells us of a well near to 
 Kirby in Westmoreland, that ebbs and flows several times 
 every day : and he tells us of a river in Surrey, it is called 
 Mole, that after it has run several miles, being opposed by 
 hills, finds or makes itself a way under ground, and breaks out 
 again so far off*, that the inhabitants thereabouts boast, as the 
 Spaniards do of their river Anus, that they feed divers flocks 
 
 17 
 
A CONFERENCE BETWIXT 
 
 of sheep upon a bridge. And lastly, for I would not tire your 
 patience, one of no less authority than Josephus, that learned 
 Jew, tells us of a river in Judea, that runs swiftly all the six 
 days of the week, and stands still and rests all their Sabbath. 
 
 But I will lay aside my discourse of rivers, and tell you 
 some things of the monsters, or fish, call them what you will, 
 that they breed and feed in them. Pliny the Philosopher says, 
 in the Third Chapter of his Ninth Book, that in the Indian Sea, 
 the fish called the Baloena or Whirlpool is so long and broad, 
 as to take up more in length and breadth than two acres of 
 ground, and of other fish of two hundred cubits long ; and that 
 in the river Ganges, there be Eels of thirty foot long. He says 
 there, that these monsters appear in that sea only, when the 
 tempestuous winds oppose the torrents of waters falling from 
 the rocks into it, and so turning what lay at the bottom to be 
 seen on the water's top. And he says, that the people of Cadara, 
 an island near this place, make the timber for their houses of 
 those fish-bones. He there tells us, that there are sometimes 
 a thousand of these great Eels found wrapped, or interwoven 
 together. He tells us there, that it appears that Dolphins love 
 music, and will come, when called for, by some men or boys, 
 that know and used to feed them, and that they can swim as 
 swift as an arrow can be shot out of a bow, and much of this 
 is spoken concerning the Dolphin, and other fish, as may be 
 found also in learned Dr. Casaubon's * Discourse of Credulity and 
 Incredulity,' printed by him about the year 1670. 
 
 I know, we islanders are averse to the belief of these 
 wonders ; but, there be so many strange creatures to be now 
 seen, many collected by John Tradescant, and others added by 
 my friend Elias Ashmole, Esq. ; who now keeps them carefully 
 and methodically at his house near to Lambeth near London, 
 as may get some belief of some of the other wonders I men- 
 tioned. I will tell you some of the wonders that you may now 
 see, and not till then believe, unless you think fit. 
 
 You may there see the Hog-fish, the Dog-fish, the Dolphin, 
 the Coney-fish, the Parrot-fish, the Shark, the Poison-fish, 
 Sword-fish, and not only other incredible fish ; but you may 
 there see the Salamander, several sorts of Barnacles, of Solan 
 Geese, the Bird of Paradise, such sorts of Snakes, and such 
 18 
 
AN ANGLER, A HUNTER, AND A FALCONER 
 
 Bird's-nests, and of so various forms, and so wonderfully made, 
 as may beget wonder and amusement in any beholder : and so 
 many hundred of other rarities in that collection, as will make 
 the other wonders I spake of the less incredible ; for you may 
 note, that the waters are Nature's store-house, in which she 
 locks up her wonders. 
 
 But, Sir, lest this discourse may seem tedious, I shall give 
 it a sweet conclusion out of that holy poet Mr. George Herbert 
 his divine * Contemplation on God's Providence.' 
 
 Lord, who hath praise enough? Nay, who hath any? 
 None can express thy works, but he that knows them ; 
 And none can know thy works, they are so many, 
 And so complete, but only he that owes them! 
 
 "We all acknowledge both thy power and love 
 To be exact, transcendent, and divine; 
 Who dost so strangely and so sweetly move, 
 Whilst all things have their end, yet none but thine. 
 
 Wherefore, most sacred Spirit, I here present 
 For me, and all my fellows, praise to thee ; 
 And just it is that I should pay the rent. 
 Because the benefit accrues to me. 
 
 And as concerning fish in that Psalm, Psal. 104, wherein 
 for height of poetry and wonders, the Prophet David seems 
 even to exceed himself, how doth he there express himself in 
 choice metaphors, even to the amazement of a contemplative 
 reader, concerning the sea, the rivers, and the fish therein con- 
 tained? And the great Naturalist, Pliny, says, *That Nature's 
 great and wonderful power is more demonstrated in the sea 
 than on the land.' And this may appear by the numerous and 
 various creatures inhabiting both in and about that element ; as 
 to the readers of Gesner, Rondeletius, Pliny, Auso- du Bartas, in the 
 nius, Aristotle, and others, may be demonstrated. Fifth Day. 
 But I will sweeten this discourse also out of a contemplation 
 in divine Du Bartas, who says : 
 
 God quickened in the sea and in the rivers, 
 
 So many fishes of so many features. 
 
 That in the waters we may see all creatures, 
 
 Ev'n all that on the earth are to be found, 
 
 As if the world were in deep waters drown'd. 
 
 For Seas as well as Skies, have Sun, Moon, Stars; 
 
 As well as Air— Swallows, Rooks, and Stares ; 
 
 19 
 
A CONFERENCE BETWIXT 
 
 As well as Earth — Vines, Roses, Nettles, Melons, 
 Mushrooms, Pinks, Gilliflowers, and many millions 
 Of other plants, more rare, more strange than these, 
 As very fishes living in the seas : 
 As also Rams, Calves, Horses, Hares, and Hogs, 
 Wolves, Urchins, Lions, Elephants, and Dogs ; 
 Yea Men and Maids; and which I most admire, 
 The mitred Bishop, and the cowled Friar. 
 Of which, examples but a few years since. 
 Were shewn the Norway and Polonian Prince. 
 
 These seem to be wonders, but have had so many con- 
 firmations from men of learning and credit, that you need not 
 doubt them : nor are the number, nor the various shapes of 
 fishes, more strange or more fit for contemplation, than their 
 different natures, inclinations and actions ; concerning which I 
 shall beg your patient ear a little longer. 
 
 The Cuttle-fish will cast a long gut out of her throat, which, 
 like as an Angler doth his line, she sendeth forth and pulleth 
 Mont. ' Essays,' ^^ again at her pleasure, according as she sees some 
 and other affirri little fish come near to her ; and the Cuttle-fish, 
 ^'®' being then hid in the gravel, lets the smaller fish 
 
 nibble and bite the end of it, at which time, she by little and 
 little draws the smaller fish so near to her, that she may leap 
 upon her, and then catches and devours her : and for this reason 
 some have called this fish the Sea-Angler. 
 
 And there is a fish called a Hermit, that at a certain age 
 gets into a dead fish's shell, and like a hermit dwells there 
 alone, studying the wind and weather, and so turns her shell, 
 that she makes it defend her from the injuries that they would 
 bring upon her. 
 
 There is also a fish called, by .^lian, in his 9th Book of 
 Living Creatures, Ch. 16, the Adonis or Darling of the Sea ; 
 so called, because it is a loving and innocent fish, a fish that 
 hurts nothing that hath life, and is at peace with all the 
 numerous inhabitants of that vast watery element ; and trul;/ 
 I think most Anglers are so disposed to most of mankind. 
 
 And there are also lustful and chaste fishes, of which I shall 
 give you examples. 
 
 And first, what Du Bartas says of a fish called the Sargus : 
 which because none can express it better than he does, I shall 
 20 
 
AN ANGLER, A HUNTER, AND A FALCONER 
 
 give you in his own words; supposing it shall not have the 
 less credit for being verse, for he hath gathered this, and other 
 observations out of authors that have been great and industrious 
 searchers into the secrets of Nature. 
 
 The adult'rous Sargus doth not only change 
 Wives every day in the deep streams, but— strange ! 
 As if the honey of sea-love delight 
 Could hot suffice his ranging appetite, 
 Goes courting she-goats on the grassy shore, 
 Horning their husbands that had horns before. 
 
 And the same author writes concerning the Cantharus, that 
 which you shall also hear in his own words. 
 
 But contrary, the constant Cantharus 
 
 Is ever constant to his faithful spouse, 
 
 In nuptial duties spending his chaste life. 
 
 Never loves any but his own dear wife. , 
 
 Sir, but a little longer, and I have done. 
 
 Ven. Sir, take what liberty you think fit, for your discourse 
 seems to be music, and charms me to an attention. 
 
 Pisc. Why then, Sir, I will take a little liberty to tell, or 
 rather to remember you what is said of Turtle-Doves ; first, 
 that they silently plight their troth and marry; and that then, 
 the survivor scorns, as the Thracian women are said to do, to 
 out-live his or her mate, and this is taken for a truth, and if 
 the survivor shall ever couple with another, then not only the 
 living but the dead, be it either the he or the she, is denied 
 the name and honour of a true Turtle-Dove. 
 
 And to parallel this land-rarity, and teach mankind moral 
 faithfulness, and to condemn those that talk of religion, and yet 
 come short of the moral faith of fish and fowl ; men that violate 
 the law affirmed by St. Paul, Rom. ii. 14, 15, 16, to be writ in 
 their hearts, and which he says, shall at the last d^y condemn 
 and leave them without excuse ; — I pray hearken du Bartas, Fifth 
 to what Du Bartas sings, for the hearing of such °*y- 
 conjugal faithfulness, will be music to all chaste ears, and there- 
 fore I pray hearken to what Du Bartas sings of the Mullet 
 
 But for chaste love the Mullet hath no peer; 
 For, if the fisher hath surpris'd her pheer. 
 As mad with woe, to shore she followeth, 
 Prest to consort him both in life and death. 
 T. 21 
 
A CONFERENCE BETWIXT 
 
 On the contrary, what shall I say of the House-Cock, which 
 treads any hen, and then, contrary to the Swan, the Partridge, 
 and Pigeon, takes no care to hatch, to feed, or to cherish his 
 own brood, but is senseless, though they perish. 
 
 And 'tis considerable, that the Hen, which because she also 
 takes any cock, expects it not, who is sure the chickens be 
 her own, hath by a moral impression her care and affection to 
 her own brood more than doubled, even to such a height, that 
 our Saviour, in expressing his love to Jerusalem, Mat. xxiii. 37, 
 quotes her for an example of tender affection; as his Father 
 had done Job for a pattern of patience. 
 
 And to parallel this cock, there be divers fishes that cast 
 their spawn on flags or stones, and then leave it uncovered, 
 and exposed to become a prey, and be devoured by vermin, or 
 other fishes ; but other fishes, as namely, the Barbel, take such 
 care for the preservation of their seed, that unlike to the Cock 
 or the Cuckoo, they mutually labour, both the spawner and the 
 melter, to cover their spawn with sand, or watch it, or hide it 
 in some secret place, unfrequented by vermin, or by any fish 
 but themselves. 
 
 Sir, these examples may, to you and others, seem strange ; 
 but they are testified some by Aristotle, some by Pliny, some 
 by Gesner, and by many others of credit, and are believed and 
 known by divers, both of wisdom and experience, to be a truth ; 
 and indeed are, as I said at the beginning, fit for the con- 
 templation of a most serious and a most pious man. And 
 doubtless this made the Prophet David say, Psal. cvii. 23, 24., 
 * They that occupy themselves in deep waters see the wonderful 
 works of God ' : indeed such wonders and pleasures too as the 
 land affords not. 
 
 And that they be fit for the contemplation of the most 
 prudent, and pious, and peaceable men, seems to be testified 
 by the practice of so many devout and contemplative men, as 
 the Patriarchs and Prophets of old, and of the Apostles of our 
 Saviour in our latter times ; of which twelve, we are sure he 
 chose four that were simple Fishermen, whom he inspired and 
 sent to publish his blessed will to the Gentiles, and inspired 
 them also with a power to speak all languages, and by their 
 powerful eloquence to beget faith in the unbelieving Jews, and 
 22 
 
AN ANGLER, A HUNTER, AND A FALCONER 
 
 themselves to suffer for that Saviour whom their fore-fathers 
 and they had crucified ; and, in their sufferings, to preach free- 
 dom from the incumbrances of the law, and a new way to 
 everlasting life. This was the employment of these happy 
 fishermen, concerning which choice, some have made these 
 observations. 
 
 First, That he never reproved these for their employment 
 or calling, as he did Scribes and the Money-changers. And 
 secondly, he found that the hearts of such men by nature were 
 fitted for contemplation and quietness ; men of mild, and sweet, 
 and peaceable spirits, as indeed most Anglers are : these men, 
 our blessed Saviour, who is observed to love to plant grace in 
 good natures, though indeed nothing be too hard for him, yet 
 these men he chose to call from their irreprovable employment 
 of fishing, and gave them grace to be his disciples, and to 
 follow him and do wonders ; I say four of twelve. 
 
 And it is observable, that it was our Saviour's will, that 
 these our four Fishermen should have a priority of nomination 
 in the catalogue of his Twelve Apostles, Mat. x. 2-4. Acts i. i, 3., 
 as namely, first, St. Peter, St. Andrew, St. James, and St. John, 
 and then the rest in their order. 
 
 And it is yet more observable, that when our blessed 
 Saviour went up into the mount, when he left the rest of his 
 disciples and chose only three to bear him company at his 
 Transfiguration, that those three were all Fishermen. And 
 it is to be believed, that all the other Apostles, after they 
 betook themselves to follow Christ, betook themselves to be 
 Fishermen too ; for it is certain, that the greater number of 
 them were found together fishing by Jesus after his Resur- 
 rection, as it is recorded in the 21st chapter of St. John's 
 Gospel, V. 3, 4. 
 
 And since I have your promise to hear me with patience, 
 I will take a liberty to look back upon an observation that 
 hath been made by an ingenuous and learned man, who observes, 
 that God hath been pleased to allow those, whom he himself 
 hath appointed to write his holy will in Holy Writ, yet, to 
 express his will in such metaphors as their former affections or 
 practice had inclined them to ; and he brings Solomon for an 
 example, who before his conversion was remarkably carnally- 
 
 23 
 
A CONFERENCE BETWIXT 
 
 amorous ; and after, by God's appointment, wrote that spiritual 
 dialogue or holy amorous love-song, the Canticles, betwixt God 
 and his Church ; in which he says his beloved had Eyes like 
 the Fish-pools of Heshbon. 
 
 And if this hold in reason, as I see none to the contrary, 
 then it may be probably concluded, that Moses, who, I told 
 you before, writ the book of Job, and the Prophet Amos, who 
 was a Shepherd, were both Anglers; for you shall in all the 
 Old Testament find fish-hooks, I think but twice mentioned, 
 namely, by meek Moses the friend of God, and by the humble 
 Prophet Amos. 
 
 Concerning which last, namely, the Prophet Amos, I shall 
 make but this observation, that he that shall read the humble, 
 lowly, plain style of that prophet, and compare it with the high, 
 glorious, eloquent style of the Prophet Isaiah, though they be 
 both equally true, may easily believe Amos to be, not only a 
 Shepherd, but a good-natured, plain Fisherman. 
 
 Which I do the rather believe by comparing the affectionate, 
 loving, lowly, humble Epistles of St. Peter, St. James, and 
 St. John, whom we know were all Fishers, with the glorious 
 language and high metaphors of St. Paul, who we may believe 
 was not. 
 
 And for the lawfulness of fishing it may very well be main- 
 tained by our Saviour's bidding St. Peter cast his hook into 
 the water and catch a fish, for money to pay tribute to Caesar. 
 And let me tell you, that Angling is of high esteem, and of 
 much use in other nations. He that reads the Voyages of 
 Ferdinand Mendez Pinto, shall find, that there he declares to 
 have found a King and several Priests a-fishing. 
 
 And he that reads Plutarch, shall find that Angling was 
 not contemptible in the days of Mark Antony and Cleopatra, 
 and that they in the midst of their wonderful glory used Angling 
 as a principal recreation. And let me tell you, that in the 
 Scripture, Angling is always taken in the best sense, and that 
 though Hunting may be sometimes so taken, yet it is but 
 seldom to be so understood. And let me add this more, he 
 that views the ancient Ecclesiastical Canons, shall find hunting 
 to be forbidden to Churchmen, as being a turbulent, toilsome, 
 perplexing recreation ; and shall find Angling allowed to Clergy- 
 24 
 
AN ANGLER, A HUNTER, AND A FALCONER 
 
 men, as being a harmless recreation, a recreation, that invites 
 them to contemplation and quietness. 
 
 I might here enlarge myself by telling you, what com- 
 mendations our learned Perkins bestows on Angling : and how 
 dear a lover, and great a practiser of it our learned Doctor 
 Whitaker was, as indeed many others of great learning have 
 been. But I will content myself with two memorable men, 
 that lived near to our own time, whom I also take to have 
 been ornaments to the Art of Angling. 
 
 The first is Doctor Nowel, sometimes Dean of the Cathedral 
 Church of St. Paul's in London, where his monument stands yet 
 undefaced : a man that in the Reformation of Queen 
 Elizabeth, not that of Henry viii., was so noted 
 for his meek spirit, deep learning, prudence and piety, that 
 the then Parliament and Convocation both, chose, enjoined, 
 and trusted him to be the man to make a Catechism for public 
 use, such a one as should stand as a rule for faith and manners 
 to their posterity. And the good old man, though he was very 
 learned, yet knowing that God leads us not to heaven by many 
 nor by hard questions, like an honest Angler, made that good, 
 plain, unperplexed Catechism which is printed with our good 
 old Service-Book. I say, this good man was a dear lover, and 
 constant practiser of Angling, as any age can produce ; and 
 his custom was to spend besides his fixed hours of prayer, 
 those hours which by command of the Church were enjoined 
 the Clergy, and voluntarily dedicated to devotion by many 
 primitive Christians : I say, besides those hours, this good man 
 was observed to spend a tenth part of his time in Angling; 
 and also, for I have conversed with those which have conversed 
 with him, to bestow a tenth part of his revenue, and usually 
 all his fish, amongst the poor that inhabited near to those 
 rivers in which it was caught : saying often, * That Charity 
 gave life to Religion ' : and at his return to his house, would 
 praise God he had spent that day free from worldly trouble ; 
 both harmlessly, and in a recreation that became a Church- 
 man. And this good man was well content, if not desirous, 
 that posterity should know he was an Angler, as may appear 
 by his picture, now to be seen, and carefully kept in Brazen- 
 nose College, to which he was a liberal benefactor, in which 
 
 25 
 
A CONFERENCE BETWIXT 
 
 picture he is drawn leaning on a desk with his Bible before 
 him, and on one hand of him his lines, hooks, and other tack- 
 ling lying in a round ; and on his other hand are his Angle- 
 rods of several sorts : and by them this is written, * That he 
 died 13 Feb. 1601, being aged 95 years, 44 of which he had 
 been Dean of St. Paul's Church ; and that his age had neither 
 impaired his hearing, nor dimmed his eyes, nor weakened his 
 memory, nor made any of the faculties of his mind weak or 
 useless.' 'Tis said that Angling and Temperance were great 
 causes of these blessings, and I wish the like to all that imitate 
 him, and love the memory of so good a man. 
 
 My next and last example shall be that under-valuer of 
 money, the late Provost of Eton College, Sir Henry Wotton, 
 a man with whom I have often fished and conversed, a man 
 whose foreign employments in the service of this nation, and 
 whose experience, learning, wit, and cheerfulness, made his 
 company to be esteemed one of the delights of mankind : this 
 man, whose very approbation of Angling were sufficient to con- 
 vince any modest censurer of it, this man was also a most dear 
 lover, and a frequent practiser of the Art of Angling ; of which 
 he would say, *'Twas an employment for his idle time, which 
 was then not idly spent ' : for Angling was, after tedious study, 
 * a rest to his mind, a cheerer of his spirits, a diverter of sad- 
 ness, a calmer of unquiet thoughts, a moderator of passions, a 
 procurer of contentedness ' : and * that it begat habits of peace 
 and patience in those that professed and practised it.' Indeed, 
 my friend, you will find Angling to be like the virtue of 
 Humility, which has a calmness of spirit, and a world of other 
 blessings attending upon it. 
 
 Sir, this was the saying of that learned man, and I do 
 easily believe that peace, and patience, and a calm content, 
 did cohabit in the cheerful heart of Sir Henry Wotton, because 
 I know that when he was beyond seventy years of age, he 
 made this description of a part of the present pleasure that 
 possessed him, as he sat quietly in a Summer's evening on a 
 bank a-fishing ; it is a description of the Spring, which, because 
 it glided as soft and sweetly from his pen, as that river does 
 at this time, by which it was then made, I shall repeat it 
 unto you. 
 26 
 
AN ANGLER, A HUNTER, AND A FALCONER 
 
 This day dame Nature seem'd in love : 
 
 The lusty sap began to move ; 
 
 Fresh juice did stir th' embracing vines, 
 
 And birds had drawn their valentines, 
 
 The jealous Trout, that low did lie. 
 
 Rose at a well dissembled fly ; 
 
 There stood my friend with patient skill, 
 
 Attending of his trembling quill. 
 
 Already were the eaves possest 
 
 With the swift Pilgrim's daubed nest: 
 
 The groves already did rejoice, 
 
 In Philomel's triumphing voice : 
 
 The showers were short, the weather mild, 
 
 The morning fresh, the evening smil'd. 
 
 Joan takes her neat rub'd pail, and now 
 
 She trips to milk the sand-red cow; 
 
 Where, for some sturdy foot-ball swain, 
 
 Joan strokes a syllabub or twain. 
 
 The fields and gardens were beset 
 
 With Tulips, Crocus, Violet ; 
 
 And now, though late, the modest rose 
 
 Did more than half a blush disclose. 
 
 Thus all looks gay, and full of cheer, 
 
 To welcome the new-livery'd year. 
 
 These were the thoughts that then possessed the undis- 
 turbed mind of Sir Henry Wotton. Will you hear the wish of 
 another Angler, and the commendation of his happy life, which 
 he also sings in verse ? viz. Jo. Davors, Esq. ; 
 
 Let me live harmlessly, and near the brink 
 
 Of Trent or Avon, have a dwelling place ; 
 
 Where I may see my quill or cork down sink 
 
 With eager bite of Perch, or Bleak, or Dace, 
 
 And on the World and my Creator think ; 
 
 Whilst some men strive ill-gotten goods t* embrace 
 And others spend their time in base excess 
 Of wine, or worse, in war and wantonness. 
 
 Let them that list, these pastimes still pursue. 
 
 And on such pleasing fancies feed their fill, 
 
 So I the Fields and Meadows green may view, 
 
 And daily by fresh Rivers walk at will. 
 
 Among the Daisies and the Violets blue, 
 
 Red Hyacinth, and yellow Daffodil, 
 Purple Narcissus like the morning rays 
 Pale Gander-grass, and azure Culverkeys. 
 
 27 
 
A CONFERENCE BETWIXT 
 
 I count it higher pleasure to behold 
 The stately compass of the lofty sky, 
 And in the midst thereof, like burning gold, 
 The flaming Chariot of the World's great eye ; 
 The watery clouds that in the air up roU'd, 
 With sundry kinds of painted colours fly, 
 And fair Aurora lifting up her head, 
 Still blushing, rise from old Tithonus' bed. 
 
 The hills and mountains raised from the plains, 
 The plains extended level with the ground, 
 The grounds divided into sundry veins, 
 The veins enclos'd with rivers running round ; 
 These rivers making way through Nature's chains 
 With headlong course into the sea profound; 
 The raging sea, beneath the vallies low. 
 Where lakes, and rills, and rivulets do flow. 
 
 The lofty woods, the forests wide and long, 
 Adorn'd with leaves and branches fresh and green, 
 In whose cool bowers the birds with many a song 
 Do welcome with their quire the Summer's Queen : 
 The meadows fair where Flora's gifts among 
 Are intermix'd, with verdant grass between. 
 The silver-scaled fish that softly swim 
 Within the sweet brook's chrystal watery stream. 
 
 All these, and many more of his creation 
 
 That made the heavens, the Angler oft doth see; 
 
 Taking therein no little delectation. 
 
 To think how strange, how wonderful they be: 
 
 Framing thereof an inward contemplation. 
 
 To set his heart from other fancies free; 
 
 And whilst he looks on these with joyful eye. 
 
 His mind is rapt above the starry sky. 
 
 Sir, I am glad my memory has not lost these last verses, 
 because they are somewhat more pleasant and more suitable 
 to May-day, than my harsh discourse, and I am glad your 
 patience hath held out so long, as to hear them and me : for 
 both together have brought us within the sight of the Thatched- 
 house : and I must be your debtor, if you think it worth your 
 attention, for the rest of my promised discourse, till some other 
 opportunity, and a like time of leisure. 
 
 Ven. Sir, you have Angled me on with much pleasure to 
 the Thatched-house : and I now find your words true, * That 
 28 
 
AN ANGLER, A HUNTER, AND A FALCONER 
 
 good company makes the way seem short*; for trust me, Sir, 
 I thought we had wanted three miles of this house till you 
 shewed it to me : but now we are at it, we '11 turn into it, and 
 refresh ourselves with a cup of drink and a little rest. 
 
 Pisc. Most gladly. Sir, and we'll drink a civil cup to all 
 the Otter-hunters that are to meet you to-morrow. 
 
 Ven. That we will. Sir, and to all the lovers of Angling 
 too, of which number I am now willing to be one myself; for 
 by the help of your good discourse and company, I have put 
 on new thoughts both of the Art of Angling, and of all that 
 profess it : and if you will but meet me to-morrow, at the time 
 and place appointed, and bestow one day with me and my 
 friends in hunting the Otter, I will dedicate the next two days 
 to wait upon you, and we two will for that time do nothing but 
 Angle, and talk of fish and fishing. 
 
 Pisc. 'Tis a match, Sir, I '11 not fail you, God willing, to 
 be at Amwell-hill to-morrow morning before Sun-rising. 
 
 »9 
 
CHAPTER II. OBSERVATIONS OF THE OTTER 
 
 AND CHUB 
 
 PISCATOR, VENATOR, HUNTSMAN, HOSTESS 
 
 VENATOR. My friend Piscator, you have kept time with 
 my thoughts, for the Sun is just rising, and I myself just 
 now come to this place, and the dogs have just now put 
 down an Otter. Look down at the bottom of the hill there in 
 that meadow, chequered with Water-lilies and Lady-smocks ; 
 there you may see what work they make : look, look, you may 
 see all busy, men and dogs, dogs and men all busy. 
 
 Pisc. Sir, I am right glad to meet you, and glad to have 
 so fair an entrance into this day's sport, and glad to see so 
 many dogs, and more men all in pursuit of the Otter ; let 's 
 compliment no longer, but join unto them ; come honest Venator, 
 let 's be gone, let us make haste ; I long to be doing : no 
 reasonable hedge or ditch shall hold me. 
 
 Ven. Gentleman Huntsman, where found you this Otter ? 
 
 Hunt. Marry, Sir, we found her a mile from this place, 
 a fishing : she has this morning eaten the greatest part of this 
 Trout ; she has only left thus much of it as you see, and was 
 fishing for more ; when we came we found her just at it : but 
 we were here very early, we were here an hour before Sun- 
 rise, and have given her no rest since we came; sure she will 
 hardly escape all these dogs and men. I am to have the skin 
 if we kill her. 
 
 Ven. Why, Sir, what's the skin worth? 
 
 Hunt. 'Tis worth ten shillings to make gloves ; the gloves 
 of an Otter are the best fortification for your hands that can 
 be thought on against wet weather. 
 
 Pisc. I pray, honest Huntsman, let me ask you a pleasant 
 question; do you hunt a beast or a fish? 
 30 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF THE OTTER AND CHUB 
 
 Hunt. Sir, it is not in my power to resolve you, I leave 
 it to be resolved by the College of Carthusians, who have made 
 vows never to eat flesh. But I have heard, the question hath 
 been debated among many great clerks, and they seem to 
 dififer about it ; yet most agree that her tail is fish : and if her 
 body be fish too, then I may say, that a fish will walk upon 
 land, for an Otter does so sometimes five, or six, or ten miles 
 in a night to catch for her young ones, or to glut herself with 
 fish, and I can tell you that Pigeons will fly forty miles for a 
 breakfast ; but Sir, I am sure the Otter devours much fish, and 
 kills and spoils much more than he eats: and I can tell you, 
 that this Dog-fisher, for so the Latins call him, can smell a 
 fish in the water an hundred yards from him : Gesner says much 
 farther, and that his stones are good against the Falling- 
 sickness : and that there is an herb, Benione, which being hung 
 in a linen cloth near a fish-pond, or any haunt that he uses, 
 makes him to avoid the place ; which proves he smells both 
 by water and land; and I can tell you there is brave hunting 
 this Water-dog in Cornwall, where there have been so many, 
 that our learned Camden says, there is a river called Ottersey, 
 which was so named, by reason of the abundance of Otters 
 that bred and fed in it. 
 
 And thus much for my knowledge of the Otter, which you 
 may now see above water at vent, and the dogs close with 
 him ; I now see he will not last long, follow therefore my 
 masters, follow, for Sweetlips was like to have him at this 
 last vent. 
 
 Ven. Oh me, all the horse are got over the river, what 
 shall we do now? shall we follow them over the water? 
 
 Hunt. No, Sir, no, be not so eager, stay a little and follow 
 me, for both they, and the dogs will be suddenly on this side 
 again, I warrant you ; and the Otter too, it may be : now have 
 at him with Kilbuck, for he vents again. 
 
 Ven. Marry so he does, for look he vents in that corner. 
 Now, now Ringwood has him: now he's gone again, and has 
 bit the poor dog. Now Sweetlips has her; hold her. Sweet- 
 lips! now all the dogs have her, some above and some under 
 water ; but now, now she 's tired, and past losing : come bring 
 her to me, Sweetlips. Look, 'tis a Bitch-Otter, and she has 
 
 31 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF THE OTTER AND CHUB 
 
 lately whelped, let 's go to the place where she was put down, 
 and not far from it you will find all her young ones, I dare 
 warrant you, and kill them all too. 
 
 Hunt. Come, gentlemen, come all, let's go to the place 
 where we put down the Otter. Look you, hereabout it was 
 that she kennelled ; look you, here it was indeed, for here 's 
 her young ones, no less than five ; come let 's kill them all. 
 
 Pisc. No, I pray Sir, save me one, and I'll try if I can 
 make her tame, as I know an ingenious gentleman in Leicester- 
 shire, Mr. Nich. Seagrave, has done ; who hath not only made 
 her tame, but to catch fish, and do many other things of much 
 pleasure. 
 
 Hunt. Take one with all my heart, but let us kill the 
 rest. And now let 's go to an honest Ale-house, where we may 
 have a cup of good Barley-wine, and sing Old Rose, and all 
 of us rejoice together. 
 
 Ven. Come my friend Piscator, let me invite you along 
 with us ; I '11 bear your charges this night, and you shall bear 
 mine to-morrow ; for my intention is to accompany you a day 
 or two in fishing. 
 
 Pisc. Sir, your request is granted, and I shall be right 
 glad, both to exchange such a courtesy, and also to enjoy 
 your company. 
 
 Ven. Well, now let 's go to your sport of Angling. 
 
 Pisc. Let's be going with all my heart. God keep you 
 all. Gentlemen, and send you meet this day with another Bitch- 
 Otter, and kill her merrily, and all her young ones too. 
 
 Ven. Now, Piscator, where will you begin to fish ? 
 
 Pisc. We are not yet come to a likely place, I must walk 
 a mile further yet, before I begin. 
 
 Ven. Well then, I pray, as we walk tell me freely, how 
 do you like your lodging and mine Host and the company? 
 Is not mine Host a witty man? 
 
 Pisc. Sir, I will tell you presently what I think of your 
 
 Host ; but first I will tell you, I am glad these Otters were 
 
 killed, and I am sorry that there are no more Otter-killers : 
 
 for I know that the want of Otter-killers, and the not keeping 
 
 32 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF THE OTTER AND CHUB 
 
 the Fence-months for the preservation of fish, will in time 
 prove the destruction of all rivers ; and those very few that 
 are left, that make conscience of the laws of the nation, and 
 of keeping days of abstinence, will be forced to eat flesh, or 
 suffer more inconveniences than are yet foreseen. 
 
 Ven. Why Sir, what be those that you call the Fence- 
 months ? 
 
 Pisc. Sir, they be principally three, namely, March, April, 
 and May, for these be the usual months that Salmon come 
 out of the Sea to spawn in most fresh rivers, and their fry 
 would about a certain time return back to the salt water, if 
 they were not hindered by wears and unlawful gins, which the 
 greedy fishermen set, and so destroy them by thousands, as 
 they would, being so taught by nature, change the fresh for 
 salt water. He that shall view the wise Statutes made in the 
 13th of Edward i. and the like in Richard 11. may see several 
 provisions made against the destruction of fish : and though 
 I profess no knowledge of the Law, yet I am sure the regula- 
 tion of these defects might be easily mended. But I remember 
 that a wise friend of mine did usually say, *That which is 
 every body's business, is no body's business.' If it were other- 
 wise, there could not be so many nets and fish that are under 
 the Statute-size, sold daily amongst us, and of which the con- 
 servators of the waters should be ashamed. 
 
 But above all, the taking fish in Spawning-time, may be 
 said to be against nature; it is like the taking the dam on 
 the nest when she hatches her young : a sin so against nature, 
 that Almighty God hath in the Levitical law made a law 
 against it. 
 
 But the poor fish have enemies enough beside such un- 
 natural fishermen, as namely, the Otters that I spake of, the 
 Cormorant, the Bittern, the Osprey, the Sea-gull, the Heron, 
 the King-fisher, the Gorara, the Puet, the Swan, Goose, Ducks, 
 and the Craber, which some call the Water-rat: against all 
 which any honest man may make a just quarrel, but I will 
 not, I will leave them to be quarrelled with, and killed by 
 others; for I am not of a cruel nature, I love to kill nothing 
 but fish. 
 
 And now to your question concerning your Host ; to speak 
 
 33 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF THE OTTER AND CHUB 
 
 truly, he is not to me a good companion : for most of his 
 conceits were either Scripture-jests, or lascivious jests ; for 
 which I count no man witty, for the Devil will help a man 
 that way inclined, to the first : and his own corrupt nature, 
 which he always carries with him, to the latter; but a com- 
 panion that feasts the company with wit and mirth, and leaves 
 out the sin which is usually mixed with them, he is the man; 
 and indeed such a companion should have his charges borne, 
 and to such company I hope to bring you this night ; for at 
 Trout-hall, not far from this place, where I purpose to lodge 
 to-night, there is usually an Angler that proves good company : 
 and let me tell you, good company and good discourse are the 
 very sinews of virtue : but for such discourse as we heard last 
 night, it infects others, the very boys will learn to talk and 
 swear as they heard mine Host, and another of the company 
 that shall be nameless; I am sorry the other is a gentleman, 
 for less Religion will not save their souls than a beggar's ; I 
 think more will be required at the last great day. Well, you 
 know what example is able to do, and I know what the Poet 
 says in the like case, which is worthy to be noted by all parents 
 and people of civility : 
 
 Many a one 
 Owes to his country his religion : 
 And in another would as strongly grow, 
 Had but his nurse or mother taught him so. 
 
 This is reason put into verse, and worthy the consideration 
 of a wise man. But of this no more, for though I love civility, 
 yet I hate severe censures : 1 11 to my own art, and I doubt 
 not but at yonder tree I shall catch a Chub, and then we'll 
 turn to an honest cleanly Hostess, that I know right well ; 
 rest ourselves there, and dress it for our dinner. 
 
 Ven. Oh Sir, a Chub is the worst fish that swims, I hoped 
 for a Trout to my dinner. 
 
 Pisc. Trust me. Sir, there is not a likely place for a Trout 
 hereabout, and we staid so long to take our leave of your 
 Huntsmen this morning, that the Sun is got so high, and shines 
 so clear, that I will not undertake the catching of a Trout till 
 evening ; and though a Chub be by you and many others 
 34 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF THE OTTER AND CHUB 
 
 reckoned the worst of fish, yet you shall see I '11 make it a 
 good fish, by dressing it. 
 
 Ven. Why, how will you dress him? 
 
 Pisc. I '11 tell you by and by, when I have caught him. 
 Look you here. Sir, do you see ? but you must stand very close, 
 there lie upon the top of the water in this very hole twenty 
 Chubs, I *11 catch only one, and that shall be the biggest of 
 them all : and that I will do so, I '11 hold you twenty to one, 
 and you shall see it done. 
 
 Ven. Ay, marry Sir, now you talk like an artist, and I '11 
 say you are one, when I shall see you perform what you say 
 you can do ; but I yet doubt it. 
 
 Pisc. You shall not doubt it long, for you shall see me do 
 it presently : look, the biggest of these Chubs has had some 
 bruise upon his tail, by a Pike or some other accident, and 
 that looks like a white spot ; that very Chub I mean to put 
 into your hands presently ; sit you but down in the shade, and 
 stay but a little while, and I '11 warrant you I '11 bring him 
 to you. 
 
 Ven. I '11 sit down and hope well, because you seem to be 
 so confident. 
 
 Pisc Look you Sir, there is a trial of my skill, here he is ; 
 that very Chub that I shewed you with the white spot on his 
 tail : and I '11 be as certain to make him a good dish of meat, 
 as I was to catch him. I'll now lead you to an honest Ale- 
 house where we shall find a cleanly room, lavender in the 
 windows, and twenty ballads stuck about the wall ; there my 
 Hostess, which I may tell you, is both cleanly and handsome 
 and civil, hath dressed many a one for me, and shall now dress 
 it after my fashion, and I warrant it good meat. 
 
 Ven. Come Sir, with all my heart, for I begin to be hungry, 
 and long to be at it, and indeed to rest myself too ; for though 
 I have walked but four miles this morning, yet I begin to be 
 weary ; yesterday's hunting hangs still upon me. 
 
 Pisc Well Sir, and you shall quickly be at rest, for yonder 
 is the house I mean to bring you to. 
 
 Come Hostess, how do you? Will you first give us a cup 
 of your best drink, and then dress this Chub, as you dressed 
 my last, when I and my friend were here about eight or ten 
 
 35 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF THE OTTER AND CHUB 
 
 days ago ? But you must do me one courtesy, it must be done 
 instantly. 
 
 Hostess. I will do it, Mr. Piscator, and with all the speed 
 I can. 
 
 Pisc. Now Sir, has not my hostess made haste ? and does 
 not the Fish look lovely? 
 
 Ven. Both, upon my word. Sir, and therefore let's say 
 grace, and fall to eating of it. 
 
 Pisc. Well Sir, how do you like it? 
 
 Ven. Trust me, 'tis as good meat as I ever tasted : now 
 let me thank you for it, drink to you, and beg a courtesy of 
 you ; but it must not be denied me. 
 
 Pisc. What is it I pray Sir? you are so modest, that 
 methinks I may promise to grant it before it is asked. 
 
 Ven. Why Sir, it is, that from henceforth you would allow 
 me to call you Master, and that really I may be your Scholar, 
 for you are such a companion, and have so quickly caught, and 
 so excellently cooked this fish, as makes me ambitious to be 
 your Scholar. 
 
 Pisc. Give me your hand ; from this time forward I will 
 be your Master, and teach you as much of this art as I am 
 able ; and will, as you desire me, tell you somewhat of the nature 
 of most of the fish that we are to angle for, and I am sure I 
 both can and will tell you more than any common Angler 
 yet knows. 
 
 3<5 
 

 
 
 
 .4,i."^J^ 
 
 Get secretly behind the tree, and stand as free from motion as is possible. 
 
CHAPTER III. HOW TO FISH FOR, AND TO DRESS 
 THE CHAVENDER, OR CHUB 
 
 PISCATOR AND VENATOR 
 
 PISCATOR. The Chub, though he eat well thus dressed, 
 yet as he is usually dressed, he does not : he is objected 
 against, not only for being full of small forked bones, 
 dispersed through all his body, but that he eats waterish, and 
 that the flesh of him is not firm, but short and tasteless. The 
 French esteem him so mean, as to call him Un Villain ; never- 
 theless he may be so dressed as to make him very good meat ; 
 as namely, if he be a large Chub, then dress him thus : 
 
 First scale him, and then wash him clean, and then take 
 out his guts ; and to that end make the hole as little and near 
 to his gills as you may conveniently, and especially make clean 
 his throat from the grass and weeds that are usually in it, for 
 if that be not very clean, it will make him to taste very sour ; 
 having so done, put some sweet herbs into his belly, and then 
 tie him with two or three splinters to a spit, and roast him, 
 basted often with vinegar, or rather verjuice and butter, with 
 good store of salt mixed with it. 
 
 Being thus dressed, you will find him a much better dish 
 of meat than you, or most folk, even than Anglers themselves 
 do imagine ; for this dries up the fluid watery humour with 
 which all Chubs do abound. 
 
 But take this rule with you, that a Chub newly taken and 
 newly dressed, is so much better than a Chub of a day's keeping 
 after he is dead, that I can compare him to nothing so fitly as 
 to cherries newly gathered from a tree, and others that have 
 been bruised and lain a day or two in water. But the Chub 
 being thus used and dressed presently, and not washed after 
 he is gutted ; — for note, that lying long in water, and washing 
 the blood out of any fish after they be gutted, abates much of 
 
 37 
 
HOW TO FISH FOR, AND TO DRESS 
 
 their sweetness, — you will find the Chub being dressed in the 
 blood and quickly, to be such meat as will recompense your 
 labour, and disabuse your opinion. 
 
 Or you may dress the Chavender or Chub thus : 
 
 When you have scaled him, and cut off his tail and fins, 
 and washed him very clean, then chine or slit him through the 
 middle, as a salt fish is usually cut ; then give him three or 
 four cuts or scotches on the back with your knife, and broil 
 him on charcoal, or wood-coal that are free from smoke, and 
 all the time he is a-broiling baste him with the best sweet 
 butter, and good store of salt mixed with it ; and to this add 
 a little thyme cut exceeding small, or bruised into the butter. 
 The Cheven thus dressed hath the watery taste taken away, 
 for which so many except against him. Thus was the Cheven 
 dressed that you now liked so well, and commended so much. 
 But note again, that if this Chub that you ate of, had been kept 
 till to-morrow, he had not been worth a rush. And remember 
 that his throat be washed very clean, I say very clean, and 
 his body not washed after he is gutted, as indeed no fish 
 should be. 
 
 Well Scholar, you see what pains I have taken to recover 
 the lost credit of the poor despised Chub. And now I will give 
 you some rules how to catch him ; and I am glad to enter you 
 into the Art of Fishing by catching a Chub, for there is no fish 
 better to enter a young Angler, he is so easily caught, but then 
 it must be this particular way. 
 
 Go to the same hole in which I caught my Chub, where 
 in most hot days you will find a dozen or twenty Chevens float- 
 ing near the top of the water, get two or three grashoppers 
 as you go over the meadow, and get secretly behind the tree, 
 and stand as free from motion as is possible ; then put a gras- 
 hopper on your hook, and let your hook hang a quarter of a 
 yard short of the water, to which end you must rest your rod 
 on some bough of the tree, but it is likely the Chubs will sink 
 down towards the bottom of the water at the first shadow of 
 your rod, for a Chub is the fearfuUest of fishes, and will do so 
 if but a bird flies over him, and makes the least shadow on the 
 water : but they will presently rise up to the top again, and 
 there lie soaring till some shadow affrights them again : I say 
 38 
 
THE CHAVENDER, OR CHUB 
 
 when they lie upon the top of the water, look out the best 
 Chub, which you, setting yourself in a fit place, may very easily 
 see, and move your rod as softly as a snail moves, to that Chub 
 you intend to catch ; let your bait fall gently upon the water 
 three or four inches before him, and he will infallibly take the 
 bait, and you will be as sure to catch him ; for he is one of the 
 leather-mouthed fishes, of which a hook does scarcely ever lose 
 its hold ; and therefore give him play enough before you offer 
 to take him out of the water. Go your way presently, take my 
 rod, and do as I bid you, and I will sit down and mend my 
 tackling till you return back. 
 
 Ven. Truly, my loving Master, you have offered me as 
 fair as I could wish. I '11 go and observe your directions. 
 
 Look you, Master, what I have done ! that which joys my 
 heart, caught just such another Chub as your's was. 
 
 Pisc. Marry, and I am glad of it : I am like to have a 
 towardly Scholar of you. I now see, that with advice and 
 practice, you will make an Angler in a short time. Have but 
 a love to it, and I '11 warrant you. 
 
 Ven. But Master, what if I could not have found a gras- 
 hopper ? 
 
 Pisc. Then I may tell you, that a black snail, with his 
 belly slit, to shew his white ; or a piece of soft cheese, will 
 usually do as well : nay, sometimes a worm, or any kind of fly, 
 as the Ant-fly, the Flesh-fly, or Wall-fly, or the Dor or Beetle, 
 which you may find under cow-dung, or a Bob, which you will 
 find in the same place, and in time will be a Beetle ; it is a 
 short white worm, like to and bigger than a Gentle, or a Cod- 
 worm, or a Case-worm, any of these will do very well to fish 
 in such a manner. And after this manner you may catch a 
 Trout in a hot evening : when as you walk by a brook, and 
 shall see or hear him leap at flies, then if you get a grashopper, 
 put it on your hook, with your line about two yards long, 
 standing behind a bush or tree where his hole is, and make 
 your bait stir up and down on the top of the water: you may 
 if you stand close, be sure of a bite, but not sure to catch him, 
 for he is not a leather-mouthed fish : and after this manner you 
 may fish for him with almost any kind of live fly, but especially 
 with a Grashopper. 
 
 39 
 
HOW TO FISH FOR, AND TO DRESS 
 
 Ven. But before you go further, I pray good Master, what 
 mean you by a leather-mouthed fish ? 
 
 Pisc. By a leather-mouthed fish, I mean such as have their 
 teeth in their throat, as the Chub or Cheven, and so the Barbel, 
 the Gudgeon, and Carp, and divers others have ; and the hook 
 being stuck into the leather or skin of the mouth of such fish, 
 does very seldom or never lose its hold : but on the contrary, 
 a Pike, a Perch, or Trout, and so some other fish, — which have 
 not their teeth in their throats, but in their mouths, which you 
 shall observe to be very full of bones, and the skin very thin, 
 and little of it : — I say, of these fish the hook never takes so 
 sure hold, but you often lose your fish, unless he have gorged it. 
 
 Ven. I thank you, good Master, for this observation ; but 
 now what shall be done with my Chub or Cheven, that I have 
 caught ? 
 
 Pisc. Marry Sir, it shall be given away to some poor body, 
 for I '11 warrant you I '11 give you a Trout for your supper : 
 and it is a good beginning of your art to offer your first-fruits 
 to the poor, who will both thank God and you for it, which I 
 see by your silence you seem to consent to. And for your 
 willingness to part with it so charitably, I will also teach you 
 more concerning Chub-fishing : you are to note that in March 
 and April he is usually taken with worms ; in May, June, and 
 July he will bite at any fly, or at cherries, or at beetles with 
 their legs and wings cut off, or at any kind of snail, or at the 
 black bee that breeds in clay walls; and he never refuses a 
 grashopper on the top of a swift stream, nor at the bottom the 
 young humble-bee that breeds in long grass, and is ordinarily 
 found by the mower of it. In August, and in the cooler months, 
 a yellow paste, made of the strongest cheese, and pounded in 
 a mortar with a little butter and saffron, so much of it as being 
 beaten small will turn it to a lemon-colour. And some make 
 a paste for the Winter-months, — at which time the Chub is 
 accounted best, for then it is observed, that the forked bones 
 are lost or turned into a kind of gristle, especially if he be baked, 
 — of cheese and turpentine ; he will bite also at a Minnow or 
 Penk, as a Trout will ; of which I shall tell you mere hereafter, 
 and of divers other baits. But take this for a rule, that in hot 
 weather he is to be fished for towards the mid-water, or near 
 40 
 
THE CHAVENDER, OR CHUB 
 
 the top : and in colder weather nearer the bottom. And if you 
 fish for him on the top, with a beetle or any fly, then be sure 
 to let your line be very long, and to keep out of sight. And 
 having told you that his spawn is excellent meat, and that the 
 head of a large Cheven, the throat being well washed, is the 
 best part of him, I will say no more of this fish at the present, 
 but wish you may catch the next you fish for. 
 
 But lest you may judge me too nice in urging to have the 
 Chub dressed so presently after he is taken, I will commend to 
 your consideration how curious former times have been in the 
 like kind. 
 
 You shall read in Seneca his * Natural Questions,' Lib. 3, 
 Cap. 17, that the ancients were so curious in the newness of 
 their fish, that that seemed not new enough that was not put 
 alive into the guest's hand ; and he says that to that end they 
 did usually keep them living in glass bottles in their dining- 
 rooms ; and they did glory much in their entertaining of friends, 
 to have that fish taken from under their table alive, that was 
 instantly to be fed upon. And he says, they took great pleasure 
 to see their Mullets change to several colours, when they were 
 dying. But enough of this, for I doubt I have stayed too long 
 from giving you some observations of the Trout, and how to 
 fish for him, which shall take up the next of my spare time. 
 
 41 
 
CHAPTER IV. OBSERVATIONS OF THE NATURE AND 
 BREEDING OF THE TROUT, AND HOW TO FISH 
 FOR HIM. AND THE MILK-MAID'S SONG 
 
 PISCATOR, VENATOR, MILK-WOMAN, MAUDLIN, HOSTESS 
 
 PISCATOR. The Trout is a fish highly valued both in this 
 and foreign Nations : he may be justly said, as the old 
 Poet said of Wine, and we English say of Venison, to be 
 a generous fish : a fish that is so like the Buck that he also has 
 his seasons ; for it is observed, that he comes in and goes out of 
 season with the Stag and Buck. Gesner says, his name is of 
 a German offspring, and says he is a fish that feeds clean and 
 purely, in the swiftest streams, and on the hardest gravel ; and 
 that he may justly contend with all fresh-water fish, as the 
 Mullet may with all sea-fish, for precedency and daintiness of 
 taste, and that being in right season, the most dainty palates 
 have allowed precedency to him. 
 
 And before I go farther in my discourse, let me tell you, 
 that you are to observe, that as there be some barren Does, 
 that are good in Summer, so there be some barren Trouts that 
 are good in Winter; but there are not many that are so, for 
 usually they be in their perfection in the month of May, and 
 decline with the Buck. Now you are to take notice, that in 
 several countries, as in Germany and in other parts, compared 
 to our's, fish do differ much in their bigness, and shape, and 
 other ways, and so do Trouts ; it is well known that in the Lake 
 Leman, the Lake of Geneva, there are Trouts taken of three 
 cubits long, as is affirmed by Gesner, a writer of good credit; 
 and Mercator says, the Trouts that are taken in the Lake of 
 Geneva, are a great part of the merchandize of that famous 
 City. And you are further to know, that there be certain waters, 
 that breed Trouts remarkable both for their number and small- 
 42 
 
NATURE AND BREEDING OF THE TROUT 
 
 ness. I know a little brook in Kent, that breeds them to a 
 number incredible, and you may take them twenty or forty in 
 an hour, but none greater than about the size of a Gudgeon ; 
 there are also in divers rivers, especially that relate to, or be 
 near to the Sea, as Winchester, or the Thames about Windsor, 
 a little Trout called a Samlet or Skegger-Trout,— in both which 
 places I have caught twenty or forty at a standing,— that will 
 bite as fast and as freely as Minnows ; these be by some taken 
 to be young Salmons, but in those waters they never grow to 
 be bigger than a Herring. 
 
 There is also in Kent near to Canterbury, a Trout called 
 there a Fordidge Trout, a Trout that bears the name of the 
 town where it is usually caught, that is accounted the rarest of 
 fish ; many of them near the bigness of a Salmon, but known 
 by their different colour, and in their best season they cut very 
 white ; and none of these have been known to be caught with 
 an Angle, unless it were one that was caught by Sir George 
 Hastings, an excellent Angler, and now with God ; and he 
 hath told me, he thought that Trout bit not for hunger but 
 wantonness ; and it is the rather to be believed, because both 
 he then, and many others before him, have been curious to 
 search into their bellies, what the food was by which they 
 lived : and have found out nothing by which they might satisfy 
 their curiosity. 
 
 Concerning which you are to take notice, that it is reported 
 by good authors, that Grashoppers and some fish have no 
 mouths, but are nourished and take breath by the porousness 
 of their gills, Man knows not how ; and this may be believed, 
 if we consider that when the Raven hath hatched her eggs, she 
 takes no farther care, but leaves her young ones to the care 
 of the God of Nature, who is said in the Psalms, (Psal. cxlvii. 9.) 
 *To feed the young Ravens that call upon him.' And they be 
 kept alive, and fed by a dew, or worms that breed in their nests, 
 or some other ways that we mortals know not ; and this may 
 be believed of the Fordidge Trout, which, as it is said of the 
 Stork, (Jerem. viii. 7.) that * he knows his season,* so he knows 
 his times, I think almost his day of coming into that river out 
 of the sea, where he lives, and it is like feeds, nine months of 
 the year, and fasts three in the river of Fordidge. And you 
 
 G 43 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF THE NATURE AND 
 
 are to note that those townsmen are very punctual in observing 
 the time of beginning to fish for them ; and boast much that 
 their river affords a Trout, that exceeds all others. And just 
 so does Sussex boast of several fish ; as namely, a Shelsey 
 Cockle, a Chichester Lobster, an Arundel Mullet, and an Amerly 
 Trout. 
 
 And now for some confirmation of the Fordidge Trout : 
 you are to know that this Trout is thought to eat nothing in 
 the fresh water ; and it may be the better believed, because it 
 is well known, that Swallows and Bats and Wagtails, which 
 View Sir Fran. ^^^ Called half-year birds, and not seen to fly in 
 Bacon, Exper. England for six months in the year, but about 
 ^' Michaelmas leave us for a hotter climate ; yet some 
 
 of them that have been left behind their fellows, have been 
 found many thousands at a time, in hollow trees, or clay caves ; 
 where they have been observed to live and sleep out the whole 
 seeTopsei'of Winter without meat; and so Albertus observes, 
 Froffs.' ^1^0^ there is one kind of Frog that hath her mouth 
 
 naturally shut up about the end of August, and that she lives 
 so all the Winter : and though it be strange to some, yet it is 
 known to too many among us to be doubted. 
 
 And so much for these Fordidge Trouts, which never afford 
 an Angler sport, but either live their time of being in the fresh 
 water, by their meat formerly gotten in the sea, not unlike the 
 Swallow or Frog, or by the virtue of the fresh water only ; or 
 as the Bird of Paradise, and the Camelion are said to live by 
 the sun and the air. 
 
 There is also in Northumberland a Trout called a Bull- 
 Trout, of a much greater length and bigness, than any in these 
 Southern parts : and there are in many rivers that relate to the 
 sea, Salmon-Trouts, as much different from others, both in shape 
 and in their spots, as we see sheep in some countries differ one 
 from another in their shape and bigness, and in the fineness of 
 their wool : and certainly, as some pastures breed larger sheep, 
 so do some rivers, by reason of the ground over which they run, 
 breed larger Trouts. 
 
 Now the next thing that I will commend to your considera- 
 tion is, that the Trout is of a more sudden growth than other 
 fish : concerning which you are also to take notice, that he 
 44 
 
BREEDING OF THE TROUT 
 
 lives not so long as the Pearch and divers other fishes do, 
 as Sir Francis Bacon hath observed in his * History of Life 
 and Death.' 
 
 And next you are to take notice, that he is not like the 
 Crocodile, which if he lives never so long, yet always thrives 
 till his death : but *tis not so with the Trout ; for after he is 
 come to his full growth, he declines in his body, and keeps his 
 bigness or thrives only in his head till his death. And you are 
 to know, that he will about, especially before, the time of his 
 spawning, get almost miraculously through wears, and flood- 
 gates against the streams ; even through such high and swift 
 places as is almost incredible. Next, that the Trout usually 
 spawns about October or November, but in some rivers a little 
 sooner or later : which is the more observable, because most 
 other fish spawn in the Spring or Summer, when the sun hath 
 warmed both the earth and water, and made it fit for generation. 
 And you are to note, that he continues many months out of 
 season : for it may be observed of the Trout, that he is like the 
 Buck or the Ox, that will not be fat in many months, though he 
 go in the very same pasture that horses do, which will be fat 
 in one month ; and so you may observe, that most other fishes 
 recover strength, and grow sooner fat and in season, than the 
 Trout doth. 
 
 And next you are to note, that till the sun gets to such a 
 height as to warm the earth and the water, the Trout is sick 
 and lean, and lousy, and unwholesome : for you shall in Winter 
 find him to have a big head, and then to be lank, and thin, and 
 lean : at which time many of them have sticking on them Sugs, 
 or Trout-lice, which is a kind of a worm, in shape like a clove 
 or pin, with a big head, and sticks close to him and sucks his 
 moisture ; those, I think, the Trout breeds himself, and never 
 thrives till he free himself from them, which is when warm 
 weather comes ; and then, as he grows stronger, he gets from 
 the dead, still water, into the sharp streams, and the gravel, 
 and there rubs off these worms or lice ; and then, as he grows 
 stronger, so he gets him into swifter and swifter streams, and 
 there lies at the watch for any fly or Minnow, that comes near 
 to him ; and he especially loves the May-fly, which is bred of 
 the Cod- Worm, or Cadis ; and these make the Trout bold and 
 
 45 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF THE NATURE AND 
 
 lusty, and he is usually fatter and better meat at the end of 
 that month, than at any time of the year. 
 
 Now you are to know, that it is observed, that usually the 
 best Trouts are either red or yellow ; though some, as the 
 Fordidge Trout, be white and yet good ; but that is not usual : 
 and it is a note observable, that the female Trout hath usually 
 a less head, and a deeper body than the male Trout ; and is 
 usually the better meat : and note, that a hog-back, and a little 
 head to either Trout, Salmon, or any other fish, is a sign that 
 that fish is in season. 
 
 But yet you are to note, that as you see some willows or 
 palm-trees, bud and blossom sooner than others do, so some 
 Trouts be in rivers sooner in season : and as some hollies or 
 oaks are longer before they cast their leaves, so are some 
 Trouts in rivers longer before they go out of season. 
 
 And you are to note, that there are several kinds of Trouts, 
 but these several kinds are not considered but by very few 
 men, for they go under the general name of Trouts : just as 
 Pigeons do in most places ; though it is certain there are tame, 
 and wild Pigeons : and of the tame, there be Helmits and Runts, 
 and Carriers, and Cropers, and indeed too many to name. Nay, 
 the Royal Society have found and published lately, that there 
 be thirty and three kinds of Spiders : and yet all, for aught I 
 know, go under that one general name of Spider. And 'tis so 
 with many kinds of fish, and of Trouts especially, which differ 
 in their bigness and shape, and spots and colour. The great 
 Kentish Hens may be an instance compared to other hens ; 
 and doubtless there is a kind of small Trout, which will never 
 thrive to be big, that breeds very many more than others do, 
 that be of a larger size ; which you may rather believe, if you 
 consider, that the little Wren and Titmouse will have tv/enty 
 young ones at a time, when usually the noble Hawk, or the 
 musical Thrassel or Black-bird, exceed not four or five. 
 
 And now you shall see me try my skill to catch a Trout, 
 and at my next walking, either this evening, or to-morrow 
 morning, I will give you direction how you yourself shall fish 
 for him. 
 
 Ven. Trust me. Master, I see now it is a harder matter to 
 catch ^ Trout than a Chub : for I have put on patience, and 
 46 
 
BREEDING OF THE TROUT 
 
 followed you these two hours, and not seen a fish stir, neither 
 at your minnow nor your worm. 
 
 Pisc. Well Scholar, you must endure worse luck some- 
 time, or you will never make a good Angler. But what say 
 you now? there is a Trout now, and a good one too, if I can 
 but hold him, and two or three turns more will tire him : 
 Now you see he lies still, and the sleight is to land him : 
 reach me that landing-net : so, Sir, now he is mine own, 
 what say you now ? is not this worth all my labour and your 
 patience ? 
 
 Ven. On my word. Master, this is a gallant Trout, what 
 shall we do with him ? 
 
 Pisc. Marry, e'en eat him to supper : we '11 go to my 
 Hostess, from whence we came ; she told me, as I was going 
 out of door, that my brother Peter, a good Angler and a cheer- 
 ful companion, had sent word he would lodge there to-night, 
 and bring a friend with him. My Hostess has two beds, and 
 I know, you and I may have the best : we '11 rejoice with 
 my brother Peter and his friend, tell tales, or sing ballads, 
 or make a catch, or find some harmless sport to content us, 
 and pass away a little time without offence to God or man. 
 
 Ven. a match, good Master, let's go to that house, for 
 the linen looks white, and smells of lavender, and I long to lie 
 in a pair of sheets that smell so : let 's be going, good Master, 
 for I am hungry again with fishing. 
 
 Pisc Nay, stay a little, good Scholar, I caught my last 
 Trout with a worm, now I will put on a Minnow and try a 
 quarter of an hour about yonder trees for another, and so walk 
 towards our lodging. Look you. Scholar, thereabout we shall 
 have a bite presently, or not at all : have with you Sir ! o' my 
 word I have hold of him. Oh it is a great logger-headed Chub ; 
 come, hang him upon that willow twig, and let's be going. 
 But turn out of the way a little, good Scholar, towards yonder 
 high honeysuckle hedge ; there we '11 sit and sing whilst this 
 shower falls so gently upon the teeming earth, and gives yet 
 a sweeter smell to the lovely flowers that adorn these verdant 
 meadows. 
 
 Look, under that broad beech-tree, I sat down, when I was 
 last this way a-fishing, and the birds in the adjoining grove 
 
 47 
 
THE MILK-MAID'S SONG 
 
 seemed to have a friendly contention with an echo, whose dead 
 voice seemed to live in a hollow tree, near to the brow of that 
 primrose-hill ; there I sat viewing the silver streams glide 
 silently towards their centre, the tempestuous sea ; yet some- 
 times opposed by rugged roots, and pebble-stones, which broke 
 their waves, and turned them into foam : and sometimes I 
 beguiled time by viewing the harmless lambs, some leaping 
 securely in the cool shade, whilst others sported themselves in 
 the cheerful sun ; and saw others craving comfort from the 
 swollen udders of their bleating dams. As I thus sat, these 
 and other sights had so fully possessed my soul with content, 
 that I thought as the Poet has happily expressed it ; 
 
 I was for that time lifted above earth ; 
 And possess'd joys not promis'd in my birth. 
 
 As I left this place, and entered into the next field, a second 
 pleasure entertained me ; 'twas a handsome Milk-maid that 
 had not yet attained so much age and wisdom as to load her 
 mind with any fears of many things that will never be, as too 
 many men too often do ; but she cast away all care, and sung 
 like a nightingale : her voice was good, and the ditty fitted for 
 it ; 'twas that smooth song, which was made by Kit. Marlow, 
 now at least fifty years ago : and the Milk-maid's mother sung 
 an answer to it, which was made by Sir Walter Raleigh in 
 his younger days. 
 
 They were old-fashioned poetry, but choicely good, I think 
 much better than the strong lines that are now in fashion in 
 this critical age. Look yonder ! on my word, yonder they both 
 be a-milking again. I will give her the Chub, and persuade 
 them to sing those two songs to us. 
 
 God speed you, good woman ! I have been a-fishing, and 
 am going to Bleak-Hall to my bed, and having caught more 
 fish than will sup myself and my friend, I will bestow this upon 
 you and your daughter, for I use to sell none. 
 
 MiLK-w. Marry God requite you, Sir, and we '11 eat it 
 cheerfully ; and if you come this way a-fishing two months 
 hence, a grace of God I '11 give you a syllabub of new verjuice 
 in a new-made hay-cock for it, and my Maudlin shall sing 
 you one of her best ballads ; for she and I both love all 
 48 
 
THE MILK-MAID'S SONG 
 
 Anglers, they be such honest, civil, quiet men ; in the mean 
 time will you drink a draught of Red-cow's milk? you shall 
 have it freely. 
 
 Pisc. No, I thank you, but I pray do us a courtesy that 
 shall stand you and your daughter in nothing, and yet we 
 will think ourselves still something in your debt ; it is but 
 to sing us a song, that was sung by your daughter, when 
 I last passed over this Meadow, about eight or nine days 
 since. 
 
 MiLK-w. What song was it, I pray ? Was it, * Come 
 Shepherds deck your herds,' or, * As at noon Dulcinea rested ' : 
 or, * Philida flouts me ' : or, * Chevy Chace ' ? or, * Johnny Arm- 
 strong ' ? or, * Troy Town ' ? 
 
 Pisc. No, it is none of those : it is a song, that your 
 daughter sung the first part, and you sung the answer 
 to it. 
 
 MiLK-w. O, I know it now, I learned the first part in my 
 golden age, when I was about the age of my poor daughter ; 
 and the latter part, which indeed fits me best now, but two 
 or three years ago, when the cares of the world began to take 
 hold of me : but you shall, God willing, hear them both, and 
 sung as well as we can, for we both love Anglers. Come 
 Maudlin, sing the first part to the gentlemen with a merry 
 heart, and I '11 sing the second, when you have done. 
 
 THE MILK-MAID'S SONG 
 
 Come live with me, and be my Love, 
 And we will all the pleasures prove 
 That valleys, groves, or hills, or field. 
 Or woods, and steepy mountains yield. 
 
 Where we will sit upon the rocks, 
 And see the Shepherds feed our flocks, 
 By shallow rivers, to whose falls 
 Melodious birds sing madrigals. 
 
 And I will make thee beds of roses, 
 And then a thousand fragrant posies, 
 A cap of flowers, and a kirtle 
 Embroider'd all with leaves of mjrrtle. 
 
 49 
 
THE MILK-MAID'S SONG 
 
 A gown made of the finest wool, 
 Which from our pretty lambs we pull; 
 Slippers lin'd choicely for the cold, 
 With buckles of the purest gold. 
 
 A belt of straw, and ivy-buds. 
 With coral clasps and amber studs ; 
 And if these pleasures may thee move, 
 Come live with me, and be my Love. 
 
 Thy silver dishes for thy meat. 
 As precious as the Gods do eat, 
 Shall on an ivory table be 
 Prepar'd each day for thee and me. 
 
 The Shepherd-Swains shall dance and sing, 
 For thy delight each May-morning: 
 If these delights thy mind may move, 
 Then live with me, and be my Love. 
 
 Ven. Trust me, Master, it is a choice Song, and sweetly 
 sung by honest Maudlin. I now see it was not without cause, 
 that our good Queen Elizabeth did so often wish herself a 
 Milk-maid all the month of May, because they are not troubled 
 with fears and cares, but sing sweetly all the day, and sleep 
 securely all the night : and without doubt, honest, innocent, 
 pretty Maudlin does so. I '11 bestow Sir Thomas Overbury's 
 Milk-maid's wish upon her, *That she may die in the Spring, 
 and being dead, may have good store of flowers stuck round 
 about her winding sheet' 
 
 THE MILK-MAID'S MOTHER'S ANSWER 
 
 If all the world and love were young. 
 And truth in every Shepherd's tongue. 
 These pretty pleasures might me move 
 To live with thee, and be thy Love. 
 
 But time drives flocks from field to fold, r 
 When rivers rage, and rocks grow cold, 
 Then Philomel becometh dumb. 
 And age complains of care to come. 
 
 The flowers do fade, and wanton fields 
 To wajrward Winter reckoning yields, 
 A honey tongue, a heart of gall, 
 Is fancy's spring, but sorrow's fall. 
 50 
 
THE MILK-MAID'S SONG 
 
 Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of roses, 
 Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies. 
 Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten, 
 In folly ripe, in reason rotten. 
 
 Thy belt of straw, and ivy-buds. 
 Thy coral clasps, and amber studs. 
 All these in me no means can move 
 To come to thee, and be thy Love. 
 
 What should we talk of dainties then. 
 Of better meat than 's fit for men ? 
 These are but vain : that 's only good 
 Which God hath blest, and sent for food. 
 
 But could youth last, and love still breed. 
 Had joys no date, nor age no need ; — 
 Then those delights my mind might move, 
 To live with thee, and be thy Love. 
 
 Mother. Well, I have done my song ; but stay, honest 
 Anglers, for I will make Maudlin to sing you one short song 
 more. Maudlin, sing that song that you sung last night, when 
 young Coridon the Shepherd played so purely on his oaten 
 pipe to you and your Ccusin Retty. 
 
 Maud. I will, Mother. 
 
 I married a Wife of late, 
 The more 's my unhappy fate : 
 
 I married her for love. 
 
 As my fancy did me move, 
 And not for a worldly estate : 
 
 But Oh 1 the green-sickness 
 Soon changed her likeness; 
 And all her beauty did fail. 
 But 'tis not so. 
 With those that go, 
 Through frost and snow, 
 As all men know, 
 And carry the milking-pail. 
 
 Pisc Well sung, good Woman ; I thank you ; I '11 give 
 you another dish of fish one of these days ; and then beg 
 
 51 
 
THE MILK-MAID'S SONG 
 
 another song of you. Come, Scholar, let Maudlin alone ; do 
 not you offer to spoil her voice. Look, yonder comes mine 
 Hostess, to call us to supper. How now ; is my Brother Peter 
 come ? 
 
 Host. Yes, and a friend with him ; they are both glad to 
 hear that you are in these parts, and long to see you, and long 
 to be aX supper, for they be very hungry. 
 
 5« 
 
CHAPTER V. MORE DIRECTIONS HOW TO FISH 
 FOR, AND HOW TO MAKE FOR THE TROUT AN 
 ARTIFICIAL MINNOW, AND FLIES, WITH SOME 
 MERRIMENT 
 
 PISCATOR, PETER, VENATOR, CORIDON 
 
 PISCATOR. Well met, Brother Peter ; I heard you and a 
 friend would lodge here to-night, and that hath made me 
 to bring my friend to lodge here too. My friend is one 
 that would fain be a Brother of the Angle ; he hath been an 
 Angler but this day, and I have taught him how to catch a 
 Chub by daping with a Grashopper, and the Chub he caught 
 was a lusty one of nineteen inches long. But pray. Brother 
 Peter, who is your companion? 
 
 Peter. Brother Piscator, my friend is an honest Country- 
 man, and his name is Coridon, and he is a downright witty 
 companion, that met me here purposely to be pleasant and 
 eat a Trout, and I have not yet wetted my line since we met 
 together ; but I hope to fit him with a Trout for his breakfast, 
 for I '11 be early up. 
 
 Pisc. Nay Brother you shall not stay so long: for look 
 you here is a Trout will fill six reasonable bellies. Come 
 Hostess, dress it presently, and get us what other meat the 
 house will afford, and give us some of your best Barley-wine, 
 the good liquor that our honest forefathers did use to drink 
 of ; the drink which preserved their health and made them live 
 so long, and to do so many good deeds. 
 
 Pet. O* my word this Trout is perfect in season. Come, 
 I thank you, and here is a hearty draught to you, and to all 
 the Brothers of the Angle wheresoever they be, and to my 
 young brother's good fortune to-morrow; I will furnish him 
 
 53 
 
MORE DIRECTIONS 
 
 with a rod, if you will furnish him with the rest of the tackling ; 
 we will set him up and make him a fisher. 
 
 And I will tell him one thing for his encouragement, that 
 his fortune hath made him happy to be Scholar to such a 
 Master ; a Master that knows as much both of the nature and 
 breeding of fish as any man : and can also tell him as well how 
 to catch and cook them, from the Minnow to the Salmon, as 
 any that I ever met withal. 
 
 Pisc. Trust me. Brother Peter, I find my Scholar to be 
 so suitable to my own humour, which is to be free, and pleasant, 
 and civilly merry, that my resolution is to hide nothing that 
 I know from him. Believe me. Scholar, this is my resolution ; 
 and so here 's to you a hearty draught, and to all that love 
 us, and the honest Art of Angling. 
 
 Ven. Trust me, good Master, you shall not sow your seed 
 in barren ground, for I hope to return you an increase answer- 
 able to your hopes ; but however you shall find me obedient,, 
 and thankful, and serviceable to my best ability. 
 
 Pisc. 'Tis enough, honest Scholar, come let's to supper. 
 Come my friend Coridon, this Trout looks lovely, it was 
 twenty-two inches when it was taken, and the belly of it 
 looked some part of it as yellow as a marigold, and part of 
 it as white as a lily, and yet methinks it looks better in this 
 good sauce. 
 
 CoRiDON. Indeed honest friend, it looks well, and tastes 
 well, I thank you for it, and so doth my friend Peter, or else 
 he is to blame. 
 
 Pet. Yes, and so I do, we all thank you, and when we 
 have supped, I will get my friend Coridon to sing you a song 
 for requital. 
 
 Cor. I will sing a song, if any body will sing another; 
 else, to be plain with you, I will sing none : I am none of 
 those that sing for meat, but for company : I say, * 'Tis merry 
 in hall, when men sing all.' 
 
 Pisc. I '11 promise you I '11 sing a song that was lately 
 made at my request, by Mr. William Basse, one that hath 
 made the choice songs of the * Hunter in his career,' and of 
 *Tom of Bedlam,' and many others of note ; and this that I will 
 sing is in praise of Angling. 
 54 
 
HOW TO FISH FOR THE TROUT 
 
 Cor. And then mine shall be the praise of a Countryman's 
 Life : what will the rest sing of ? 
 
 Pet. I will promise you, I will sing another song in praise 
 of Angling to-morrow night, for we will not part till then, but 
 fish to-morrow, and sup together, and the next day every man 
 leave fishing, and fall to his business. 
 
 Ven. 'Tis a match, and I will provide you a song or 
 a catch against then too, which shall give some addition of 
 mirth to the company ; for we will be civil and as merry as 
 beggars. 
 
 Pisc. 'Tis a match my Masters, let's ev'n say grace, and 
 turn to the fire, drink the other cup to wet our whistles, and 
 so sing away all sad thoughts. 
 
 Come on my Masters, who begins? I think it is best to 
 draw cuts, and avoid contention. 
 
 Pet. It is a match. — Look, the shortest cut falls to 
 Coridon. 
 
 CoR. Well then, I will begin, for I hate contention. 
 
 CORIDON'S SONG 
 
 Oh the sweet contentment 
 The Countryman doth find I 
 
 High trolollie lollie loe, 
 
 High trolollie lollie lee, 
 That quiet contemplation 
 Possesseth all my mind : 
 
 Then care away, 
 
 And wend along with me. 
 
 For Courts are full of flattery, 
 As hath too oft been tried; 
 
 High trolollie lollie loe, &c. 
 The City full of wantonness, 
 And both are full of pride : 
 
 Then care away, &c. 
 
 But Oh 1 the honest Countryman 
 Speaks truly from his heart. 
 
 High trolollie lollie loe, &c. 
 His pride is in his tillage, 
 His horses, and his cart: 
 
 Then care away, &c. 
 
 55 
 
MORE DIRECTIONS 
 
 Our clothing is good sheep-skins, 
 Grey russet for our wives, 
 
 High trolollie lollie loe, &c. 
 'Tis warmth and not gay clothing 
 That doth prolong our lives : 
 
 Then care away, &c. 
 
 The Ploughman though he labour hard, 
 Yet on the holiday. 
 
 High trolollie lollie loe, &c. 
 No Emperor so merrily 
 Does pass his time away: 
 
 Then care away, &c. 
 
 To recompense our tillage, 
 
 The Heavens afford us showers; 
 
 High trolollie lollie loe, &c. 
 And for our sweet refreshments 
 The earth affords us bowers: 
 
 Then care away, &c. 
 
 The Cuckoo and the Nightingale 
 Full merrily do sing. 
 
 High trolollie lollie loe, &c. 
 And with their pleasant roundelays 
 Bid welcome to the Spring: 
 
 Then care away, &c. 
 
 This is not half the happiness 
 The Countryman enjoys; 
 
 High trolollie lollie loe, &c. 
 Though others think they have as much, 
 Yet he that says so lies : 
 
 Then come away, turn 
 
 Countryman with me. 
 
 Jo. Chalkhill. 
 
 Pisc. Well sung Coridon, this song was sung with mettle ; 
 and it was choicely fitted to the occasion ; I shall love you for 
 it as long as I know you ; I would you were a Brother of the 
 Angle, for a companion that is cheerful, and free from swearing 
 and scurrilous discourse, is worth gold. I love such mirth as 
 does not make friends ashamed to look upon one another next 
 morning ; nor men that cannot well bear it, to repent the money 
 they spend when they be warmed with drink : and take this 
 for a rule, you may pick out such times and such companies, 
 that you may make yourselves merrier for a little than a great 
 56 
 
HOW TO FISH FOR THE TROUT 
 
 deal of money ; for * 'Tis the company and not the charge that 
 makes the feast ' : and such a companion you prove, I thank 
 you for it. 
 
 But I will not compliment you out of the debt that I owe 
 you, and therefore I will begin my Song, and wish it may be 
 so well liked. 
 
 THE ANGLER'S SONG 
 
 As inward love breeds outward talk, 
 
 The Hound some praise, and some the Hawk : 
 
 Some better pleas'd with private sport 
 
 Use Tennis, some a Mistress court : 
 
 But these delights I neither wish, 
 
 Nor envy, while I freely fish. 
 
 Who Hunts, doth oft in danger ride; 
 Who Hawks, lures oft both far and wide ; 
 Who uses Games shall often prove 
 A loser; but who falls in love, 
 
 Is fettered in fond Cupid's snare : 
 
 My Angle breeds me no such care. 
 
 Of recreation there is none 
 So free' as Fishing is alone ; 
 All other pastimes do no less 
 Than mind and body both possess : 
 
 My hand alone my work can do, 
 
 So I can fish and study too. 
 
 I care not, I, to fish in seas, 
 Fresh rivers best my mind do please. 
 Whose sweet calm course I contemplate, 
 And seek in life to imitate : 
 
 In civil bounds I fain would keep, 
 
 And for my past offences weep. 
 
 And when the timorous Trout I wait 
 
 To take, and he devours my bait. 
 
 How poor a thing sometimes I find 
 
 Will captivate a greedy mind : 
 And when none bite, I praise the wise. 
 Whom vain allurements ne'er surprise. 
 
 But yet, though while I fish I fast ; 
 I make good fortune my repast, 
 And thereunto my friend'Snvite, 
 In whom I more than that delight: 
 
 Who is more welcome to my dish, 
 
 Than to my angle was my fish. 
 
 « 57 
 
MORE DIRECTIONS 
 
 As well content no prize to take, 
 As use of taken prize to make : 
 For so our Lord was pleased when 
 He fishers made fishers of men : 
 
 Where, which is in no other game, 
 
 A man may fish and praise his name. 
 
 The first men that our Saviour dear 
 Did choose to wait upon him here. 
 Blest fishers were, and fish the last 
 Food was, that he on earth did taste. 
 
 I therefore strive to follow those. 
 
 Whom he to follow him hath chose. 
 
 Cor. Well sung Brother, you have paid your debt in good 
 coin ; we Anglers are all beholden to the good man that made 
 this song. Come Hostess, give us more Ale, and let's drink 
 to him. 
 
 And now let *s every one go to bed that we may rise early ; 
 but first let's pay our reckoning, for I will have nothing to 
 hinder me in the morning ; for my purpose is to prevent the 
 Sun rising. 
 
 Pet. a match ; come Coridon, you are to be my bed- 
 fellow : I know. Brother, you and your Scholar will lie together ; 
 but where shall we meet to-morrow night ? for my friend 
 Coridon and I will go up the water towards Ware. 
 
 Pisc. And my Scholar and I will go down towards 
 Waltham. 
 
 Cor. Then let 's meet here ; for here are fresh sheets that 
 smell of lavender, and I am sure we cannot expect better meat, 
 or better usage in any place. 
 
 Pet. 'Tis a match. Good night to every body. 
 
 Pisc. And so say I. 
 
 Ven. And so say I. 
 
 Pisc. Good morrow, good Hostess, I see my Brother Peter 
 is still in bed : Come give my Scholar and me a morning- 
 drink, and a bit of meat to breakfast, and be sure to get a 
 good dish of meat or two against supper, for we shall come 
 home as hungry as hawks. Come, Scholar, let's be going. 
 58 
 
HOW TO FISH FOR THE TROUT 
 
 Ven. Well now, good Master, as we walk towards the 
 river give me direction, according to your promise, how I shall 
 fish for a Trout. 
 
 Pisc. My honest Scholar, I will take this very convenient 
 opportunity to do it. 
 
 The Trout is usually caught with a worm or a Minnow, 
 which some call a Penk, or with a fly, viz. either a natural or 
 an artificial fly : concerning which three I will give you some 
 observations and directions. 
 
 And first for worms : of these there be very many sorts ; 
 some breed only in the earth, as the Earth-worm ; others of or 
 amongst plants, as the Dug-worm ; and others breed either out 
 of excrements, or in the bodies of living creatures, as in the 
 horns of sheep or deer ; or some of dead flesh, as the Maggot 
 or Gentle, and others. 
 
 Now these be most of them particularly good for particular 
 fishes : but for the Trout, the Dew-worm, which some also call 
 the Lob-worm, and the Brandling, are the chief ; and especially 
 the first for a great Trout, and the latter for a less. There be 
 also of Lob-worms some called Squirrel-tails, a worm that has 
 a red head, a streak down the back, and a broad tail, which 
 are noted to be the best, because they are the toughest and 
 most lively, and live longest in the water : for you are to know, 
 that a dead worm is but a dead bait, and like to catch nothing, 
 compared to a lively, quick stirring worm : and for a Brandling, 
 he is usually found in an old dunghill, or some very rotten place 
 near to it : but most usually in cow-dung, or hog's dung, rather 
 than horse-dung, which is somewhat too hot and dry for that 
 worm. But the best of them are to be found in the bark of 
 the tanners, which they cast up in heaps after they have used 
 it about their leather. 
 
 There are also divers other kinds of worms, which for colour 
 and shape alter even as the ground out of which they are got, 
 as the Marsh-worm, the Tag-tail, the Flag-worm, the Dock- 
 worm, the Oak-worm, the Gilt-tail, the Twachel or Lob-worm, 
 which of all others is the most excellent bait for a Salmon, and 
 too many to name, even as many sorts as some think there be 
 of several herbs or shrubs, or of several kinds of birds in the 
 air ; of which I shall say no more, but tell you, that what worms 
 
 59 
 
MORE DIRECTIONS 
 
 soever you fish with, are the better for being well scoured, that 
 is, long kept before they be used : and in case you have not 
 been so provident, then the way to cleanse and scour them 
 quickly, is to put them all night in water, if they be Lob-worms, 
 and then put them into your bag with fennel ; but you must 
 not put your Brandlings above an hour in water, and then put 
 them into fennel for sudden use ; but if you have time, and 
 purpose to keep them long, then they be best preserved in an 
 earthen pot with good store of moss, which is to be fresh every 
 three or four days in summer, and every week or eight days in 
 winter ; or at least the moss taken from them, and clean washed, 
 and wrung betwixt your hands till it be dry, and then put it to 
 them again. And when your worms, especially the Brandling, 
 begins to be sick and lose of his bigness, then you may recover 
 him, by putting a little milk or cream, about a spoonful in a day, 
 into them by drops on the moss ; and if there be added to the 
 cream an egg beaten and boiled in it, then it will both fatten 
 and preserve them long. And note, that when the knot, which 
 is near to the middle of the Brandling, begins to swell, then he 
 is sick, and, if he be not well looked to, is near dying. And for 
 moss you are to note, that there be divers kinds of it, which I 
 could name to you, but will only tell you, that that which is 
 likest a buck's horn is the best, except it be soft white moss, 
 which grows on some heaths, and is hard to be found. And 
 note, that in a very dry time, when you are put to an extremity 
 for worms, walnut-tree leaves squeezed into water, or salt in 
 water, to make it bitter or salt, and then that water poured on 
 the ground, where you shall see worms are used to rise in the 
 night, will make them to appear above ground presently. And 
 you may take notice, some say that camphor put into your 
 bag with your moss and worms, gives them a strong and so 
 tempting a smell, that the fish fare the worse and you the 
 better for it. 
 
 And now I shall shew you how to bait your hook with a 
 worm, so as shall prevent you from much trouble, and the loss 
 of many a hook too, when you fish for a Trout with a running- 
 line, that is to say, when you fish for him by hand at the ground : 
 I will direct you in this as plainly as I can, that you may not 
 mistake. 
 60 
 
HOW TO FISH FOR THE TROUT 
 
 Suppose it be a big Lob-worm, put your hook into him 
 somewhat above the middle, and out again a little below the 
 middle : having so done, draw your worm above the arming of 
 your hook ; but note, that at the entering of your hook it must 
 not be at the head-end of the worm, but at the tail-end of him, 
 that the point of your hook may come out toward the head-end, 
 and having drawn him above the arming of your hook, then 
 put the point of your hook again into the very head of the 
 worm, till it come near to the place where the point of the hook 
 first came out : and then draw back that part of the worm that 
 was above the shank or arming of your hook, and so fish with 
 it. And if you mean to fish with two worms, then put the second 
 on before you turn back the hook's head of the first worm ; you 
 cannot lose above two or three worms before you attain to 
 what I direct you ; and having attained it, you will find it very 
 useful, and thank me for it ; for you will run on the ground 
 without 'tangling. 
 
 Now for the Minnow or Penk ; he is not easily found and 
 caught till March, or in April, for then he appears first in the 
 river, nature having taught him to shelter and hide himself in 
 the Winter in ditches that be near to the river, and there both 
 to hide and keep himself warm in the mud or in the weeds, 
 which rot not so soon as in a running river, in which place if 
 he were in Winter, the distempered floods that are usually in 
 that season, would suffer him to take no rest, but carry him 
 headlong to mills and wears to his confusion. And of these 
 Minnows, first you are to know, that the biggest size is not 
 the best ; and next, that the middle size and the whitest are 
 the best : and then you are to know, that your Minnow must 
 be so put on your hook, that it must turn round when 'tis 
 drawn against the stream, and that it may turn nimbly, you 
 must put it on a big-sized hook as I shall now direct you, which 
 is thus. Put your hook in at his mouth and out at his gill, then 
 having drawn your hook two or three inches beyond or through 
 his gill, put it again into his mouth, and the point and beard 
 out at his tail, and then tie the hook and his tail about very 
 neatly with a white thread, which will make it the apter to turn 
 quick in the water : that done, pull back that part of your line 
 which was slack when you did put your hook into the Minnow 
 
 6i 
 
MORE DIRECTIONS 
 
 the second time : I say pull that part of your line back so that 
 it shall fasten the head, so that the body of the Minnow shall 
 be almost straight on your hook ; this done, try how it will turn 
 by drawing it cross the water or against a stream, and if it do 
 not turn nimbly, then turn the tail a little to the right or left 
 hand, and try again, till it turn quick ; for if not, you are in 
 danger to catch nothing ; for know, that it is impossible that it 
 should turn too quick : and you are yet to know, that in case 
 you want a Minnow, then a small Loach or a Stickle-bag, or 
 any other small fish that will turn quick, will serve as well : 
 and you are yet to know, that you may salt them, and by that 
 means keep them ready and fit for use three or four days, or 
 longer ; and that of salt, bay-salt is the best. 
 
 And here let me tell you, what many old Anglers know 
 right well, that at some times, and in some waters, a Minnow 
 is not to be got, and therefore let me tell you, I have, — which 
 I will shew to you, — an artificial Minnow, that will catch a Trout 
 as well as an artificial Fly, and it was made by a handsome 
 woman that had a fine hand, and a live Minnow lying by her : 
 the mould or body of the Minnow was cloth, and wrought upon 
 or over it thus with a needle : the back of it with very sad 
 French green silk, and paler green silk towards the belly, 
 shadowed as perfectly as you can imagine, just as you see a 
 Minnow ; the belly was wrought also with a needle, and it was 
 a part of it white silk, and another part of it with silver thread ; 
 the tail and fins were of a quill, which was shaven thin ; the 
 eyes were of two little black beads, and the head was so 
 shadowed, and all of it so curiously wrought, and so exactly 
 dissembled, that it would beguile any sharp-sighted Trout in 
 a swift stream. And this Minnow I will now shew you ; look, 
 here it is : and if you like it, lend it you, to have two or three 
 made by it, for they be easily carried about an Angler, and be 
 of excellent use ; for note, that a large Trout will come as 
 fiercely at a Minnow, as the highest mettled hawk doth seize 
 on a partridge, or a greyhound on a hare. I have been told, 
 that i6o Minnows have been found in a Trout's belly ; either 
 the Trout had devoured so many, or the Miller that gave it 
 a friend of mine, had forced them down his throat after he had 
 taken him. 
 62 
 
HOW TO FISH FOR THE TROUT 
 
 Now for Flies, which are the third bait wherewith Trouts 
 are usually taken. You are to know, that there are so many 
 sorts of flies as there be of fruits : I will name you but some 
 of them, as the Dun- fly, the Stone-fly, the Red-fly, the Moor- 
 fly, the Tawny-fly, the Shell-fly, the Cloudy or Blackish-fly, 
 the Flag-fly, the Vine-fly : there be of flies, Caterpillars, and 
 Canker- flies, and Bear-flies, and indeed too many either for me 
 to name or for you to remember : and their breeding is so various 
 and wonderful, that I might easily amaze myself, and tire you 
 in a relation of them. 
 
 And yet I will exercise your promised patience by saying 
 a little of the Caterpillar, or the Palmer-fly or worm, that by 
 them you may guess, what a work it were in a discourse but 
 to run over those very many flies, worms, and little living 
 creatures with which the Sun and Summer adorn and beautify 
 the river banks and meadows, both for the recreation and con- 
 templation of us Anglers ; pleasures which, I think, myself enjoy 
 more than any other man that is not of my profession. 
 
 Pliny holds an opinion, that many have their birth or being 
 from a dew, that in the Spring falls upon the leaves of trees ; 
 and that some kinds of them are from a dew left upon herbs 
 or flowers ; and others from a dew left upon coleworts or 
 cabbages : all which kinds of dews being thickened and con- 
 densed, are by the Sun's generative heat most of them hatched, 
 and in three days made living creatures ; and these of several 
 shapes and colours ; some being hard and tough, some smooth 
 and soft ; some are horned in their head, some in their tail, 
 some have none : some have hair, some none : some have six- 
 teen feet, some less, and some have none; but, as in his 'History 
 our Topsel hath, with great diligence, observed, of serpents.* 
 those which have none, move upon the earth, or upon broad 
 leaves, their motion being not unlike to the waves of the sea. 
 Some of them he also observes to be bred of the eggs of other 
 caterpillars, and that those in their time, turn to be butterflies : 
 and again, that their eggs turn the following year to be cater- 
 pillars. And some affirm, that every plant has his particular fly 
 or caterpillar, which it breeds and feeds. I have seen, and may 
 therefore affirm it, a green caterpillar, or worm, as big as a 
 small peascod, which had fourteen legs, eight on the belly, four 
 
 K 63 
 
MORE DIRECTIONS 
 
 under the neck, and two near the tail. It was found on a hedge 
 of privet, and was taken thence, and put into a large box, and 
 a little branch or two of privet put to it, on which I saw it feed 
 as sharply as a dog gnaws a bone : it lived thus five or six 
 days, and thrived, and changed the colour two or three times, 
 but by some neglect in the keeper of it, it then died and did 
 not turn to a fly : but if it had lived, it had doubtless turned to 
 one of those flies that some call flies of prey, which those that 
 walk by the rivers, may in Summer see fasten on smaller flies, 
 and I think make them their food. And 'tis observable, that as 
 there be these flies of prey which be very large, so there be 
 others very little, created, I think, only to feed them, and breed 
 out of I know not what ; whose life, they say, Nature intended 
 not to exceed an hour, and yet that life is thus made shorter by 
 other flies, or accident. 
 
 'Tis endless to tell you what the curious searchers into 
 Nature's productions have observed of these worms and flies : 
 but yet I shall tell you what Aldrovandus, our Topsel, and others 
 say of the Palmer-worm or Caterpillar ; that whereas others 
 content themselves to feed on particular herbs or leaves, — for 
 most think those very leaves that gave them life and shape, 
 give them a particular feeding and nourishment, and that upon 
 them they usually abide ; — yet he observes, that this is called a 
 Pilgrim or Palmer-worm, for his very wandering life and various 
 food ; not contenting himself, as others do, with any one certain 
 place for his abode, nor any certain kind of herbs or flowers 
 for his feeding ; but will boldly and disorderly wander up and 
 down, and not endure to be kept to a diet, or fixed to a par- 
 ticular place. 
 
 Nay, the very colours of caterpillars are, as one has observed, 
 very elegant and beautiful ; I shall, for a taste of the rest, 
 describe one of them, which I will sometime the next month 
 shew you feeding on a Willow-tree, and you shall find him 
 punctually to answer this very description ; his lips and mouth 
 somewhat yellow, his eyes black as jet, his forehead purple, his 
 feet and hinder parts green, his tail two forked and black, the 
 whole body stained with a kind of red spots which run along 
 the neck and shoulder-blade, not unlike the form of Saint 
 Andrew's cross, or the letter X, made thus cross-wise, and a 
 64 
 
HOW TO FISH FOR THE TROUT 
 
 white line drawn down his back to his tail ; all which add much 
 beauty to his whole body. And it is to me observable, that at 
 a fixed age this caterpillar gives over to eat, and towards Winter 
 comes to be covered over with a strange shell or view sir Fra. 
 crust, called an Aurelia, and so lives a kind of dead Bacon Exper. 
 
 ,,- ' . . . «i i, -r-ri- , 1 i« 728 and 29, 
 
 hfe, without eatmg all the Wmter; and, as others in his • Natural 
 of several kinds turn to be several kinds of flies History.' 
 and vermin the Spring following, so this caterpillar then turns 
 to be a painted butterfly. 
 
 Come, come my Scholar, you see the river stops our morning 
 walk, and I will also here stop my discourse, only as we sit 
 down under this honeysuckle hedge, whilst I look a line to fit 
 the rod that our brother Peter hath lent you, I shall, for a 
 little confirmation of what I have said, repeat the observation 
 of Du Bartas. 
 
 God, not contented to each kind to give, 6. Day of 
 
 And to infuse the virtue generative, Du Bartas. 
 
 By his wise power made many creatures breed 
 Of lifeless bodies without Venus' deed. 
 
 So the cold humour, breeds the Salamander, 
 Who, in effect, like to her birth's commander. 
 With child with hundred winters, with her touch, 
 Quencheth the fire though glowing ne'er so much. 
 
 So in the fire in burning furnace springs 
 The Fly Perausta with the flaming wings; 
 Without the fire it dies, in it it joys, 
 Living in that which all things else destroys. 
 
 So, slow Bootes underneath him sees ViewGerh. 
 
 In th' icy islands goslings hatch'd of trees. Herbal and 
 
 Whose fruitful leaves falling into the water, Camden. 
 Are turn'd, 'tis known, to living fowls soon after. 
 
 So rotten planks of broken ships do change 
 To Barnacles. O transformation strange I 
 'Twas first a green tree, then a broken hull. 
 Lately a mushroom, now a flying Gull. 
 
 Ven. O my good Master, this morning-walk has been 
 spent to my great pleasure and wonder : but I pray, when shall 
 I have your direction how to make Artificial Flies, like to those 
 that the Trout loves best? and also how to use them? 
 
 65 
 
MORE DIRECTIONS 
 
 Pisc. My honest Scholar, it is now past five of the clock, 
 we will fish till nine, and then go to breakfast ? go you to yonder 
 sycamore-tree, and hide your bottle of drink under the hollow 
 root of it : for about that time, and in that place, we will make 
 a brave breakfast with a piece of powdered beef, and a radish 
 or two that I have in my fish-bag ; we shall, I warrant you, 
 make a good, honest, wholesome, hungry breakfast, and I will 
 then give you direction for the making and using of your flies : 
 and in the mean time there is your rod and line, and my advice 
 is, that you fish as you see me do, and let 's try which can catch 
 the first fish. 
 
 Ven. I thank you. Master, I will observe and practise your 
 directions, as far as I am able. 
 
 Pisc. Look you. Scholar, you see I have hold of a good 
 fish : I now see it is a Trout, I pray put that net under him, 
 and touch not my line, for if you do, then we break all. Well 
 done Scholar, I thank you. 
 
 Now for another. Trust me I have another bite : come 
 Scholar, come lay down your rod, and help me to land this as 
 you did the other. So, now we shall be sure to have a good 
 dish of fish to supper. 
 
 Ven. I am glad of that ; but I have no fortune : sure, 
 Master, your's is a better rod, and better tackling. 
 
 Pisc. Nay, then take mine, and I will fish with your's. 
 Look you. Scholar, I have another ; come, do as you did before. 
 And now I have a bite at another : Oh me ! he has broke all ; 
 there 's half a line and a good hook lost. 
 
 Ven. Ay, and a good Trout too. 
 
 Pisc. Nay, the Trout is not lost, for pray take notice, no 
 man can lose what he never had. 
 
 Ven. Master, I can neither catch with the first nor second 
 angle : I have no fortune. 
 
 Pisc. Look you. Scholar, I have yet another : and now 
 having caught three brace of Trouts, I will tell you a short tale 
 as we walk towards our breakfast : a scholar, a preacher I 
 should say, that was to preach to procure the approbation of a 
 parish, that he might be their lecturer, had got from his fellow- 
 pupil the copy of a sermon that was first preached with great 
 commendation by him that composed it ; and though the 
 
 66 
 
HOW TO FISH FOR THE TROUT 
 
 borrower of it preached it word for word, as it was at first, yet 
 it was utterly disliked as it was preached by the second to his 
 congregation : which the sermon-borrower complained of to the 
 lender of it, and was thus answered ; * I lent you indeed my 
 fiddle, but not my fiddlestick ' ; for you are to know, that every 
 one cannot make music with my words, which are fitted for 
 my own mouth. And so, my Scholar, you are to know, that as 
 the ill pronunciation or ill accenting of words in a sermon spoils 
 it, so the ill carriage of your line, or not fishing even to a foot 
 in a right place, makes you lose your labour : and you are to 
 know, that though you have my fiddle, that is, my very rod and 
 tacklings with which you see I catch fish, yet you have not my 
 fiddlestick ; that is, you yet have not skill to know how to 
 carry your hand and line, nor how to guide it to a right place : 
 and this must be taught you, — for you are to remember I told 
 you Angling is an art, — either by practice, or a long observation, 
 or both. But take this for a rule, when you fish for a Trout 
 with a worm, let your line have so much, and not more lead 
 than will fit the stream in which you fish ; that is to say, more 
 in a great troublesome stream than in a smaller that is quieter ; 
 as near as may be, so much as will sink the bait to the bottom, 
 and keep it still in motion; and not more. 
 
 But now let 's say grace and fall to breakfast : what say 
 you, Scholar, to the providence of an old Angler? Does not 
 this meat taste well ? and was not this place well chosen to eat 
 it? for this sycamore-tree will shade us from the sun's heat. 
 
 Ven. All excellent good, and my stomach excellent good 
 too. And now I remember and find that true which devout 
 Lessius says, *that poor men, and those that fast often, have 
 much more pleasure in eating than rich men and gluttons, that 
 always feed before their stomachs are empty of their last meat, 
 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 your's, * that you would 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. 
 
 ^7 
 
MORE DIRECTIONS 
 
 And now, good Master, proceed to your promised direction 
 for making and ordering my artificial fly. 
 
 Pisc. My honest Scholar, I will do it, for it is a debt due 
 unto you by my promise ; and because you shall not think 
 yourself more engaged to me than indeed you really are, I will 
 freely give you such directions as were lately given to me by 
 an ingenuous Brother of the Angle, an honest man, and a most 
 excellent fly-fisher. 
 
 You are to note, that there are twelve kinds of artificial 
 made-flies to angle with upon the top of the water : note by 
 the way, that the fittest season of using these, is a blustering 
 windy day, when the waters are so troubled that the natural fly 
 cannot be seen, or rest upon them. The first is the Dun-fly in 
 March, the body is made of dun wool, the wings of the partridge's 
 feathers. The second is another Dun-fly, the body of black 
 wool, and the wings made of the black-drake's feathers, and of 
 the feathers under his tail. The third is the Stone-fly in April, 
 the body is made of black wool, made yellow under the wings, 
 and under the tail, and so made with wings of the drake. The 
 fourth is the Ruddy-fly in the beginning of May, the body made 
 of red wool wrapt about with black silk, and the feathers are 
 the wings of the drake ; with the feathers of a red capon also, 
 which hang danghng on his sides next to the tail. The fifth is 
 the Yellow or Greenish-fly, in May likewise, the body made of 
 yellow wool, and the wings made of the red cock's hackle or 
 tail. The sixth is the Black-fly, in May also, the body made of 
 black wool, and lapped about with the herl of a peacock's tail ; 
 the wings are made of the wings of a brown capon with his 
 blue feathers in his head. The seventh is the Sad-yellow-fly in 
 June, the body is made of black wool, with a yellow list on 
 either side, and the wings taken off" the wings of a buzzard, 
 bound with black braked hemp. The eighth is the Moorish-fly, 
 made with the body of duskish wool, and the wings made of 
 the blackish mail of the drake. The ninth is the Tawny-fly, 
 good until the middle of June ; the body made of tawny wool, 
 the wings made contrary one against the other, made of the 
 whitish mail of the wild-drake. The tenth is the Wasp-fly, in 
 July, the body made of black wool, lapped about with yellow silk, 
 the wings made of the feathers of the drake, or of the buzzard, 
 68 
 
HOW TO FISH FOR THE TROUT 
 
 The eleventh is the Shell-fly, good in mid July, the body made 
 of greenish wool, lapped about with the herl of a peacock's tail ; 
 and the wings made of the wings of the buzzard. The twelfth 
 is the Dark- Drake-fly, good in August, the body made with 
 black wool, lapped about with black silk ; his wings are made 
 with the mail of the black-drake, with a black head. Thus have 
 you a jury of flies likely to betray and condemn all the Trouts 
 in the river. 
 
 I shall next give you some other directions for fly-fishing, 
 such as are given by Mr. Thomas Barker, a gentleman that 
 hath spent much time in fishing : but I shall do it with a little 
 variation. 
 
 First, let your rod be light, and very gentle, I take the 
 best to be of two pieces ; and let not your line exceed, — especi- 
 ally for three or four links next to the hook, — I say, not exceed 
 three or four hairs at the most, though you may fish a little 
 stronger above in the upper part of your line : but if you can 
 attain to angle with one hair, you shall have more rises and 
 catch more fish. Now you must be sure not to cumber yourself 
 with too long a line, as most do : and before you begin to angle, 
 cast to have the wind on your back, and the sun, if it shines, 
 to be before you, and to fish down the stream ; and carry the 
 point or top of your rod downward, by which means the shadow 
 of yourself, and rod too will be the least offensive to the fish, 
 for the sight of any shade amazes the fish, and spoils your sport, 
 of which you must take a great care. 
 
 In the middle of March, till which time a man should not 
 in honesty catch a Trout, or in April, if the weather be dark, 
 or a little windy or cloudy, the best fishing is with the Palmer- 
 worm, of which I last spoke to you, but of these there be divers 
 kinds, or at least of divers colours ; these and the May-fly are 
 the ground of all fly-angling, which are to be thus made. 
 
 First, you must arm your hook with the line in the inside 
 of it, then take your scissars, and cut so much of a brown 
 mallard's feather, as in your own reason will make the wings 
 of it, you having withal regard to the bigness or littleness of 
 your hook ; then lay the outmost part of your feather next 
 to your hook, then the point of your feather next the shank of 
 your hook ; and having so done, whip it three or four times 
 
 69 
 
MORE DIRECTIONS 
 
 about the hook with the same silk with which your hook was 
 armed, and having made the silk fast, take the hackle of a 
 cock or capon's neck, or a plover's top, which is usually better : 
 take off the one side of the feather, and then take the hackle, 
 silk, or crewel, gold or silver thread, make these fast at the 
 bent of the hook, that is to say, below your arming ; then you 
 must take the hackle, the silver or gold thread, and work it up 
 to the wings, shifting or still removing your finger, as you turn 
 the silk about the hook : and still looking at every stop or turn, 
 that your gold, or what materials soever you make your fly of, 
 do lie right and neatly, and if you find they do so, then, when 
 you have made the head, make all fast : and then work your 
 hackle up to the head, and make that fast : and then with a 
 needle or pin divide the wing into two, and then with the arming 
 silk whip it about cross-ways betwixt the wings, and then with 
 your thumb you must turn the point of the feather towards the 
 bent of the hook, and then work three or four times about the 
 shank of the hook, and then view the proportion, and if all be 
 neat and to your liking, fasten. 
 
 I confess, no direction can be given to make a man of a 
 dull capacity able to make a fly well : and yet I know, this 
 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 see 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 
 a capon, several coloured silk and crewel 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 where there is store of Trouts, a dark day, 
 70 
 
And then an ingenious Angler may walk by the river 
 and mark what flies fall on the water that day. 
 
HOW TO FISH FOR THE TROUT 
 
 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. 
 
 Ven. 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. 
 
 Pisc. 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 shall 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 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, Eccles. zi. 4., that * he that considers the 
 wind shall never sow ' : so he that busies his head too much 
 about them, if the weather be not made extreme cold by an 
 East 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 it's worst, I heed it 
 not. And yet take this for a rule, that I would willingly fish 
 standing on the lee-shore : and you are to take notice, that the 
 fish lies or swims nearer the bottom, and in deeper water in 
 Winter than in Summer ; and also nearer the bottom in a cold 
 day, and then gets nearest the lee-side of the water. 
 
 But I promised to tell you more of the fly-fishing for a 
 Trout, which I may have time enough to do, for you see it rains 
 May-butter : first for a May-fly, you may make his body with 
 greenish-coloured crewel, or willowish-colour ; darkening it in 
 most places with waxed silk, or ribbed with black hair, or some 
 
 71 
 
MORE DIRECTIONS 
 
 of them ribbed with silver thread ; and such wings for the colour 
 as you see the fly to have at that season ; nay, at that very day 
 on the water. Or you may make the Oak-fly with an orange- 
 tawny and black ground, and the brown of a mallard's feather 
 for the wings ; and you are to know, that these two are most 
 excellent flies, that is, the May-fly and the Oak-fly. And let 
 me again tell you that you keep as far from the water as you 
 can possibly, whether you fish with a fly or worm, and fish 
 down the stream ; and when you fish with a fly, if it be possible, 
 let no part of your line touch the water, but your fly only ; and 
 be still moving your fly upon the water, or casting it into the 
 water, you yourself being also always moving down the stream. 
 Mr. Barker commends several sorts of the Palmer-flies, not only 
 those ribbed with silver and gold, but others that have their 
 bodies all made of black, or some with red, and a red hackle ; 
 you may also make the Hawthorn-fly, which is all black, and 
 not big, but very small, the smaller the better ; or the Oak-fly, 
 the body of which is orange-colour and black crewel, with a 
 brown wing, or a fly made with a Peacock's feather, is excellent 
 in a bright day : You must be sure you want not in your 
 Magazine-bag the peacock's feather, and grounds of such wool 
 and crewel as will make the Grashopper ; and note, that usually 
 the smallest flies are the best ; and note also, that the light fly 
 does usually make most sport in a dark day, and the darkest 
 and least fly in a bright or clear day ; and lastly note, that you 
 are to repair upon any occasion to your Magazine-bag, and upon 
 any occasion vary, and make them lighter or sadder according 
 to your fancy or the day. 
 
 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 butt or 
 body of an Oak or Ash, from the beginning of May to the 
 end of August ; it is a brownish fly, and easy to be so found, 
 and stands usually with his head downward, that is to say, 
 towards the root of the tree ; the small black fly, or Hawthorn- 
 fly, is to be had on any hawthorn bush after the leaves be 
 come forth : with these and a short line, as I shewed to Angle 
 for a Chub, you may dape or dop, and also with a Gras- 
 72 
 
HOW TO FISH FOR THE TROUT 
 
 hopper behind a tree, or * in any deep hole, still making it to 
 move on the top of the water, as if it were alive, and still 
 keeping yourself out of sight, you shall certainly have sport 
 if there be Trouts; yea, in a hot day, but especially in the 
 evening of a hot day, you will have sport. 
 
 And now. Scholar, my direction for fly-fishing is ended with 
 this shower, for it has done raining; and now look about you, 
 and see how pleasantly that meadow looks ; nay, and the 
 earth smells as sweetly too. Come, let me tell you what holy 
 Mr. Herbert says of such days and flowers as these, and then 
 we will thank God that we enjoy them, and walk to the river 
 and sit down quietly, and try to catch the other brace of 
 Trouts, 
 
 Sweet Day, so cool, so calm, so bright. 
 The bridal of the earth and sky ; 
 Sweet dews shall weep thy fall to night, — 
 
 for thou must die. 
 
 Sweet Rose, whose hue, angry and brave, 
 Bids the rash gazer wipe his eye. 
 Thy root is ever in it's grave,— 
 
 and thou must die. 
 
 Sweet Spring, full of sweet days and roses, 
 A box where sweets compacted lie; 
 My music shews you have your closes, — 
 
 and all must die. 
 
 Only a sweet and virtuous soul. 
 Like season'd timber never gives. 
 But when the whole world turns to coal, 
 
 then chiefly lives. 
 
 Ven. I thank you, good Master, for your good direction for 
 fly-fishing, and for the sweet enjoyment of the pleasant day, 
 which is so far spent without offence to God or man : and I 
 thank you for the sweet close of your discourse with Mr. Her- 
 bert's Verses, who I have heard loved Angling: and I do the 
 rather believe it, because he had a spirit suitable to Anglers, 
 and to those primitive christians that you love, and have so 
 much commended. 
 
 Pisc. Well, my loving Scholar, and I am pleased to know 
 that you are so well pleased with my direction and discourse. 
 
 73 
 
MORE DIRECTIONS 
 
 And since you like these verses of Mr. Herbert's so well, 
 let me tell you what a reverend and learned Divine that pro- 
 fesses to imitate him, and has indeed done so most excellently, 
 hath writ of our Book of Common Prayer, which I know you 
 will like the better, because he is a friend of mine, and I am 
 sure no enemy to Angling. 
 
 What? pray'r by th' book? and common? Yes, why not? 
 The Spirit of Grace 
 And Supplication, 
 Is not left free alone 
 For time and place, 
 But manner too : to read or speak by rote, 
 Is all alike to him, that prays 
 In 's heart, what with his mouth he says. 
 
 They that in private by themselves alone 
 Do pray, may take 
 What liberty they please. 
 In choosing of the ways 
 Wherein to make 
 Their souls' most intimate affections known 
 To him that sees in secret, when 
 Th' are most conceal'd from other men. 
 
 But he, that unto others leads the way 
 In public prayer, 
 Should do it so 
 As all that hear may know 
 They need not fear 
 \ To tune their hearts unto his tongue, and say. 
 
 Amen; not doubt they were betray'd 
 To blaspheme, when they meant to have pray'd. 
 
 Devotion will add life unto the letter, 
 
 And why should not 
 That which authority 
 Prescribes, esteemed be 
 Advantage got? 
 If th' prayer be good, the commoner the better, 
 Prayer in the Church's words, as well 
 As sense, of all prayers bears the bell. 
 
 Ch. Harvie, 
 
 And now, Scholar, I think it will be time to repair to our 
 Angle-rods, which we left in the water, to fish for themselves, 
 74 
 
HOW TO FISH FOR THE TROUT 
 
 and you shall choose which shall be yours ; and it is an even 
 lay, one of them catches. 
 
 And let me tell you, this kind of fishing with a dead-rod, and 
 laying night hooks, are like putting money to use, for they 
 both work for the owners, when they do nothing but sleep, or 
 eat, or rejoice ; as you know we have done this last hour, and 
 sate as quietly and as free from cares under this Sycamore, as 
 Virgil's Tityrus and his Meliboeus did under their broad Beech- 
 tree. No life, my honest Scholar, no life so happy and so 
 pleasant, as the life of a well-governed Angler ; for when the 
 Lawyer is swallowed up with business, and the Statesman is 
 preventing or contriving plots, then we sit on cowslip-banks, 
 hear the birds sing, and possess ourselves in as much quietness 
 as these silent silver streams, which we now see glide so 
 quietly by us. Indeed, my good Scholar, we may say of Angling, 
 as Dr. Boteler said of Strawberries ; * Doubtless God could 
 have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did ' : and so, 
 if I might be judge, * God never did make a more calm, quiet, 
 innocent recreation, than Angling.* 
 
 I *11 tell you, Scholar, when I sat last on this primrose-bank, 
 and looked down these Meadows, I thought of them as Charles 
 the Emperor did of the city of Florence : * That they were too 
 pleasant to be looked on, but only on holidays * : as I then sat 
 on this very grass, I turned my present thoughts into verse: 
 'twas a wish which I '11 repeat to you, 
 
 THE ANGLER'S WISH 
 
 I in these flow'ry meads would be: 
 These crystal streams should solace me; 
 To whose harmonious bubbling noise, 
 I with my Angle would rejoice, 
 
 Sit here, and see the Turtle-dove, 
 
 Court his chaste mate to acts of love : 
 
 Or on that bank, feel the west wind 
 Breathe health and plenty, please my mind 
 To see sweet dew-drops kiss these flowers, 
 And then, wash'd off by April-showers : 
 Here, hear my Kenna sing * a song, * Like Her- 
 
 There see a black-bird feed her young, °"* P®°'"- 
 
 75 
 
MORE DIRECTIONS 
 
 Or a leverock build her nest; 
 Here, give my weary spirits rest, 
 And raise my low-pitch'd thoughts above 
 Earth, or what poor mortals love: 
 Thus free from Law-suits, and the noise 
 Of Princes' courts, I would rejoice. 
 
 Or, with my Bryan, and a book. 
 Loiter long days near Shawford-brook ; 
 There sit by him, and eat my meat, 
 There see the sun both rise and set : 
 There bid good morning to next day, 
 There meditate my time away: 
 And angle on, and beg to have 
 A quiet passage to a welcome grave. 
 
 When I had ended this composure, I left this place, and saw 
 a Brother of the Angle sit under that honey-suckle-hedge, one 
 that will prove worth your acquaintance ; I sat down by him, and 
 presently we met with an accidental piece of merriment, which I 
 will relate to you; for it rains still. 
 
 On the other side of this very hedge sat a gang of Gipsies, 
 and near to them sat a gang of Beggars : the Gipsies were then 
 to divide all the money that had been got that week, either by 
 stealing linen or poultry, or by fortune-telling, or legerdemain, or 
 indeed by any other sleights and secrets belonging to their 
 mysterious government. And the sum that was got that week 
 proved to be but twenty and some odd shillings. The odd money 
 was agreed to be distributed amongst the poor of their own cor- 
 poration ; and for the remaining twenty shillings, that was to be 
 divided unto four gentlemen Gipsies, according to their several 
 degrees in their commonwealth. 
 
 And the first or chiefest Gipsy, was by consent to have 
 a third part of the twenty shillings ; which all men know is 
 6s. 8d. 
 
 The second was to have a fourth part of the 20s. which all 
 men know to be 5s. 
 
 The third was to have a fifth part of the 20s. which all men 
 know to be 4s. 
 
 The fourth and last Gipsy, was to have a sixth part of the 
 20s. which all men know to be 3s. 4d. 
 76 
 
HOW TO FISH FOR THE TROUT 
 
 As for example, 
 
 3 times 6s. 8d. is . . . . 20s. 
 
 And so is 4 times 5s. . . . . 20s. 
 
 And so is 5 times 4s. . . . . 20s. 
 
 And so is 6 times 3s. 4d. . . . 20s. 
 
 And yet he that divided the money was so very a Gipsy, that 
 though he gave to every one these said sums, yet he kept one 
 shiUing of it for himself. 
 
 As for example, 
 
 s. d. 
 
 
 6 8 
 
 . 
 
 5 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 3 4 
 
 make but 
 
 10 
 
 But now you shall know, that when the four Gipsies saw that 
 he had got one shilling by dividing the money, though not one 
 of them knew any reason to demand more, yet like lords and 
 courtiers, every Gipsy envied him that was the gainer, and 
 wrangled with him, and every one said the remaining shilling 
 belonged to him : and so they fell to so high a contest about it, 
 as none that knows the faithfulness of one Gipsy to another, will 
 easily believe ; only we that have lived these last twenty years, 
 are certain that money has been able to do much mischief. 
 However the Gipsies were too wise to go to law, and did there- 
 fore choose their choice friends Rook and Shark, and our late 
 English Gusman to be their arbitrators and umpires; and so 
 they left this honey-suckle hedge, and went to tell fortunes, and 
 cheat, and get more money and lodging in the next village. 
 
 When these were gone, we heard as high a contention 
 amongst the Beggars, whether it was easiest to rip a cloak, or to 
 unrip a cloak ? One Beggar affirmed it was all one. But that 
 was denied, by asking her, if doing and undoing were all one ? 
 then another said, 'twas easiest to unrip a cloak, for that was to 
 let it alone. But she was answered, by asking her, how she un- 
 ripped it, if she let it alone ? and she confessed herself mistaken. 
 These, and twenty such like questions were proposed, and 
 answered with as much beggarly logic and earnestness, as was 
 ever heard to proceed from the mouth of the most pertinacious 
 
MORE DIRECTIONS 
 
 schismatic ; and sometimes all the Beggars, whose number was 
 neither more nor less than the poets' nine muses, talked all 
 together about this ripping and unripping, and so loud that not 
 one heard what the other said ; but at last one Beggar craved 
 audience, and told them, that old father Clause, whom Ben 
 Jonson in his * Beggar's-bush ' created King of their corporation, 
 was that night to lodge at an Ale-house, called Catch-her-by-the- 
 way, not far from Waltham-cross, and in the high-road towards 
 London ; and he therefore desired them to spend no more time 
 about that and such like questions, but to refer all to father 
 Clause at night, for he was an upright judge, and in the mean 
 time draw cuts what song should be next sung, and who should 
 sing it : they all agreed to the motion, and the lot fell to her that 
 was the youngest, and veriest virgin of the company, and she 
 sung Frank Davison's song, which he made forty years ago, and 
 all the others of the company joined to sing the burthen with her ; 
 the ditty was this, but first the burthen. 
 
 Bright shines the sun, play Beggars, play, 
 Here's scraps enough to serve to day. 
 
 What noise of viols is so sweet 
 
 As when our merry clappers ring? 
 
 What mirth doth want when Beggars meet? 
 
 A Beggar's life is for a king: 
 
 Eat, drink, and play, sleep when we list, 
 
 Go where we will, — so stocks be miss'd. 
 
 Bright shines the sun, play Beggars, play, 
 
 Here's scraps enough to serve to day. 
 
 The world is our's and cur's alone, 
 For we alone have world at will ; 
 We purchase not, all is our own, 
 Both fields and streets we Beggars fill : 
 
 Bright shines the sun, play Beggars, play, 
 
 Here's scraps enough to serve to day. 
 
 A hundred herds of black and white 
 Upon our gowns securely feed ; 
 And yet if any dare us bite, 
 He dies therefore as sure as creed: 
 Thus Beggars lord it as they please, 
 And only Beggars live at ease: 
 
 Bright shines the sun, play Beggars, play, 
 
 Here's scraps enough to serve to day. 
 
 78 
 
HOW TO FISH FOR THE TROUT 
 
 Ven. I thank you, good Master, for this piece of merriment, 
 and this song, which was well humoured by the maker, and well 
 remembered by you. 
 
 Pisc. But I pray forget not the catch which you promised to 
 make against night; for our countryman, honest Coridon, will 
 expect your catch and my song, which I must be forced to patch 
 up, for it is so long since I learned it, that I have forgot a part of 
 it. But come, now it hath done raining, let's 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. 
 
 Ven. Oh me! look you Master, a fish a fish! Oh, alas 
 Master, I have lost her! 
 
 Pisc. Ay marry. Sir, that was a good fish indeed : if I had had 
 the luck to have taken up that rod, then 'tis twenty to one, he 
 should not have broke 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 a length and depth, that he had his 
 picture drawn, and now is to be seen at mine Host Rickabie's, at 
 the George in Ware ; and it may be, by giving that very great 
 Trout the rod, that is, by casting it to him into the water, I might 
 have caught him at the long run ; for so I use always to do when 
 I meet with an 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. 
 
 Ven. But Master, I have heard that the great Trout you 
 speak of is a Salmon. 
 
 Pisc. Trust me. Scholar, I know not what to say to it. 
 There are many country people that believe Hares change sexes 
 every year : And there be very many learned men think so too, 
 for in their dissecting them they find many reasons to incline 
 them to that belief. And to make the wonder seem yet less, that 
 Hares change sexes, note, that Doctor Men Casaubon affirms in 
 his book of credible and incredible things, that Gaspar Peucerus, 
 a learned Physician, tells us of a people that once a year 
 turn wolves, partly in shape, and partly in conditions. And so 
 whether this were a Salmon when he came into the fresh water, 
 
 79 
 
MORE DIRECTIONS 
 
 and his not returning into the sea hath altered him to another 
 colour or kind, I am not able to say ; but I am certain he hath 
 all the signs of being a Trout both for his shape, colour, and 
 spots, and yet many think he is not. 
 
 Ven. But Master, will this Trout which I had hold of die ? 
 for it is like he hath the hook in his belly. 
 
 Pisc. I will tell you. Scholar, that unless the hook be fast in 
 his very gorge, 'tis more than probable he will live, and a little 
 time with the help of the water, will rust the hook, and it will in 
 time wear away ; as the gravel doth in the horse-hoof, which 
 only leaves a false quarter. 
 
 And now, Scholar, let's go to my rod. Look you. Scholar, 
 I have a fish too, but it proves a logger-headed Chub, and this is 
 not much amiss, for this will pleasure some poor body, as we go 
 to our lodging to meet our brother Peter and honest Coridon. 
 Come, now bait your hook again, and lay it into the water, for 
 it rains again ; and we will ev'n retire to the sycamore-tree, and 
 there I will give you more directions concerning fishing: for I 
 would fain make you an artist. 
 
 Ven. Yes, good Master, I pray let it be so. 
 
 Pisc. Well, Scholar, now we are sat down and are at ease, 
 I shall tell you a little more of Trout-fishing, before I speak of 
 the Salmon, which I purpose shall be next, and then of the Pike 
 or Luce. You are to know, there is night as well as day-fishing 
 for a Trout, and that in the night the best Trouts come out of 
 their holes : and the manner of taking them is, on the top of the 
 water with a great lob or garden-worm, or rather two, which 
 you are to fish with in a place where the waters run somewhat 
 quietly, for in a stream the bait will not be so well discerned. I 
 say in a quiet or dead place near to some swift, there draw your 
 bait over the top of the water, to and fro, and if there be a good 
 Trout in the hole, he will take it, especially if the night be dark : 
 for then he is bold and lies near the top of the water, watching 
 the motion of any frog or water-rat or mouse that swims betwixt 
 him and the sky ; these he hunts after, if he sees the water but 
 wrinkle, or move in one of these dead holes, where these great old 
 Trouts usually lie near to their holds ; for you are to note, that 
 the great old Trout is both subtle and fearful, and lies close all 
 day, and does not usually stir out of his hold, but lies in it as 
 80 
 
» /^ 
 
 The great Trout that is near an ell long, which was of such 
 a length and depth, that he had his picture drawn. 
 
HOW TO FISH FOR THE TROUT 
 
 close in the day, as the timorous Hare does in her form : for the 
 chief feeding of either is seldom in the day, but usually in the 
 night, and then the great Trouts feed very boldly. 
 
 And you must fish for him with a strong line, and not a little 
 hook, and let him have time to gorge your hook, for he does not 
 usually forsake it, as he oft will in the day-fishing: and if the 
 night be not dark, then fish so with an artificial fly of a light 
 colour, and at the snap ; nay, he will sometimes rise at a dead 
 mouse, or a piece of cloth, or any thing that seems to swim cross 
 the water, or to be in motion : this is a choice way, but I have 
 not oft used it, because it is void of the pleasures that such days 
 as these, that we two now enjoy, afford an Angler. 
 
 And you are to know, that in Hampshire, which I think exceeds 
 all England for swift, shallow, clear, pleasant brooks, and store 
 of Trouts, they use to catch Trouts in the night, by the light of 
 a torch or straw, which when they have discovered, they strike 
 with a Trout-spear or other ways. This kind of way they catch 
 very many, but I would not believe it till I was an eye-witness of 
 it, nor do I like it now I have seen it. 
 
 Ven. But, Master, do not Trouts see us in the night? 
 
 Pisc. Yes, and hear, and smell too, both then and in the day 
 time ; for Gesner observes, the Otter smells a fish forty furlongs 
 off him in the water: and that it may be true, seems to be 
 affirmed by Sir Francis Bacon, in the Eighth Century of his 
 'Natural History,' who there proves that waters may be the 
 medium of sounds, by demonstrating it thus : * That if you knock 
 two stones together very deep under the water, those that stand 
 on a bank near to that place, may hear the noise without any 
 diminution of it by the water.* He also offers the like experiment 
 concerning the letting an anchor fall by a very long cable or rope 
 on a rock, or the sand within the sea: and this being so well 
 observed and demonstrated, as it is by that learned man, has 
 made me to believe that Eels unbed themselves, and stir at the 
 noise of thunder, and not only, as some think, by the motion or 
 stirring of the earth which is occasioned by that thunder. 
 
 And this reason of Sir Francis Bacon, Exper. 792, has made 
 me crave pardon of one that I laughed at for affirming, that he 
 knew Carps come to a certain place in a pond, to be fed, at the 
 ringing of a bell, or the beating of a drum : and however, it shall 
 
 81 
 
MORE DIRECTIONS 
 
 be a rule for me to make as little noise as I can when I am fishing, 
 until Sir Francis Bacon be confuted, which I shall give any man 
 leave to do. 
 
 And, lest you may think him singular in this opinion, I will tell 
 you, this seems to be believed by our learned Doctor Hakewill, 
 who in his * Apology of God's Power and Providence,' fol. 360, 
 quotes Pliny to report, that one of the Emperors had particular 
 fish-ponds, and in them several fish, that appeared and came 
 when they were called by their particular names : and St. James 
 tells us. Chap. iii. and 7, that all things in the sea have been 
 tamed by mankind. And Pliny tells us. Lib. ix, 55, that Antonia, 
 the wife of Drusus, had a Lamprey, at whose gills she hung 
 jewels or ear-rings : and that others have been so tender-hearted, 
 as to shed tears at the death of fishes, which they have kept and 
 loved. And these observations, which will to most hearers seem 
 wonderful, seem to have a further confirmation from * Martial,' 
 Lib. iv, Epigr. 30, who writes thus: 
 
 Piscator fuge ne nocens, &c 
 
 Angler, would'st thou be guiltless? then forbear, 
 For these are sacred fishes that swim here ; 
 Who know their sovereigfn, and will lick his hand: 
 Than which none's greater in the world's command: 
 Nay, more, th* have names, and when they called are, 
 Do to their several owners' call repair. 
 
 All the further use that I shall make of this, shall be, to advise 
 Anglers to be patient, and forbear swearing, lest they be heard, 
 and catch no fish. 
 
 And so I shall proceed next to tell you, it is certain, that 
 certain fields near Lemster, a Town in Herefordshire, are 
 observed to make the sheep that graze upon them more fat 
 than the next, and also to bear finer wool ; that is to say, that, 
 that year in which they feed in such a particular pasture, they 
 shall yield finer wool than they did that year before they came 
 to feed in it, and coarser again if they shall return to their 
 former pasture ; and again return to a finer wool, being fed in 
 the fine-wool ground. Which I tell you, that you may the 
 better believe that I am certain, if I catch a Trout in one 
 meadow he shall be white and faint, and very like to be lousy ; 
 82 
 
HOW TO FISH FOR THE TROUT 
 
 and as certainly, if I catch a Trout in the next meadow, he 
 shall be strong, and red, and lusty, and much better meat : 
 trust me. Scholar, I have caught many a Trout in a particular 
 meadow, that the very shape and the enamelled colour of him 
 hath been such, as hath joyed me to look on him : and I have 
 then with much pleasure concluded with Solomon, * Every thing 
 is beautiful in his season,' Eccles. iii. ii. 
 
 I should by promise speak next of the Salmon ; but I will 
 by your favour say a little of the Umber or Grayling ; which is 
 so like a Trout for his shape and feeding, that I desire I may 
 exercise your patience with a short discourse of him, and then 
 the next shall be of the Salmon. 
 
 83 
 
CHAPTER VI. OBSERVATIONS OF THE UMBER OR 
 GRAYLING, AND DIRECTIONS HOW TO FISH FOR 
 THEM 
 
 PISCATOR 
 
 THE Umber and Grayling are thought by some to differ, 
 as the Herring and Pilcher do. But though they may 
 do so in other nations, I think those in England differ 
 nothing but in their names. Aldrovandus says, they be of a 
 Trout kind : and Gesner says, that in his country, which is 
 Switzerland, he is accounted the choicest of all fish. And in 
 Italy, he is in the month of May so highly valued, that he is 
 sold then at a much higher rate than any other fish. The 
 French, which call the Chub Un Villain, call the Umber of the 
 lake Leman, Un Umble Chevalier \ and they value the Umber 
 or Grayling so highly, that they say he feeds on gold, and say 
 that many have been caught out of their famous river of Loire, 
 out of whose bellies grains of gold have been often taken. And 
 some think that he feeds on Water-thyme, and smells of it at 
 his first taking out of the water ; and they may think so with 
 as good reason as we do, that our Smelts smell like violets at 
 their being first caught ; which I think is a truth. Aldrovandus 
 says, the Salmon, the Grayling, and Trout, and all fish that 
 live in clear and sharp streams, are made by their mother 
 Nature of such exact shape and pleasant colours, purposely to 
 invite us to a joy and contentedness in feasting with her. 
 Whether this is a truth or not, is not my purpose to dispute ; 
 but 'tis certain, all that write of the Umber declare him to be 
 very medicinable. And Gesner says, that the fat of an Umber 
 or Grayling being set with a little honey, a day or two in the 
 sun in a little glass, is very excellent against redness, or swarthi- 
 ness, or anything that breeds in the eyes. Salvian takes him 
 84 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF THE UMBER OR GRAYLING 
 
 to be called Umber from his swift swimming or gliding out of 
 sight, more like a shadow or a ghost than a fish. Much more 
 might be said both of his smell and taste, but I shall only tell 
 you, that St. Ambrose, the glorious Bishop of Milan, who lived 
 when the Church kept fasting-days, calls him the Flower-fish, 
 or Flower of Fishes, and that he was so far in love with him, 
 that he would not let him pass without the honour of a long 
 discourse ; but I must ; and pass on to tell you how to take 
 this dainty fish. 
 
 First, note, that he grows not to the bigness of a Trout ; 
 for the biggest of them do not usually exceed eighteen inches ; 
 he lives in such rivers as the Trout does, and is usually taken 
 with the same baits as the Trout is, and after the same manner, 
 for he will bite both at the Minnow, or Worm, or Fly ; though 
 he bites not often at the Minnow, and is very gamesome at the 
 fly, and much simpler, and therefore bolder than a Trout ; for 
 he will rise twenty times at a fly, if you miss him, and yet rise 
 again. He has been taken with a fly made of the red feathers 
 of a Parakita, a strange outlandish bird, and he will rise at a 
 fly not unlike a gnat or a small moth, or indeed, at most flies 
 that are not too big. He is a fish that lurks close all Winter, 
 but is very pleasant and jolly after mid- April, and in May, and 
 in the hot months : he is of a very fine shape, his flesh is white, 
 his teeth, those little ones that he has, are in his throat, yet he 
 has so tender a mouth, that he is oftener lost after an Angler 
 has hooked him than any other fish. Though there be many 
 of these fishes in the delicate river Dove, and in Trent, and 
 some other smaller rivers, as that which runs by Salisbury, yet 
 he is not so general a fish as the Trout, nor to me so good to 
 eat or to angle for. And so I shall take my leave of him, and 
 now come to some observations of the Salmon, and how to 
 catch him. 
 
 85 
 
CHAPTER VIL OBSERVATIONS OF THE SALMON, 
 WITH DIRECTIONS HOW TO FISH FOR HIM 
 
 PISCATOR 
 
 THE Salmon is accounted the King of fresh-water fish, and 
 is ever bred in rivers relating to the sea, yet so high or 
 far from it as admits of no tincture of salt, or brackish- 
 ness ; he is said to breed or cast his spawn in most rivers, in 
 the month of August : some say that then they dig a hole or 
 grave in a safe place in the gravel, and there place their eggs 
 or spawn, after the melter has done his natural office, and then 
 hide it most cunningly, and cover it over with gravel and stones ; 
 and then leave it to their Creator's protection, who by a gentle 
 heat, which he infuses into that cold element, makes it brood 
 and beget life in the spawn, and to become Samlets early in 
 the Spring next following. 
 
 The Salmons having spent their appointed time, and done 
 this natural duty in the fresh waters, they then haste to the 
 sea before Winter ; both the melter and spawner : but, if they 
 be stopped by flood-gates or wears, or lost in the fresh waters, 
 then, those so left behind, by degrees grow sick, and lean, and 
 unseasonable, and kipper ; that is to say, have bony gristles 
 grow out of their lower chaps, not unlike a hawk's beak, which 
 hinder their feeding, and in time such fish so left behind, pine 
 away and die. 'Tis observed, that he may live thus one year 
 from the sea ; but he then grows insipid, and tasteless, and 
 loses both his blood and strength, and pines and dies the second 
 year. And 'tis noted, that those little Salmons called Skeggers, 
 which abound in many rivers relating to the sea, are bred by 
 such sick Salmons, that might not go to the sea, and that 
 though they abound, yet they never thrive to any considerable 
 bigness. 
 
 86 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF THE SALMON 
 
 But if the old Salmon gets to the sea, then that gristle 
 which shews him to be kipper, wears away, or is cast off, as 
 the Eagle is said to cast his bill, and he recovers his strength, 
 and comes next Summer to the same river, if it be possible, to 
 enjoy the former pleasures that there possessed him ; for, as 
 one has wittily observed, he has, like some persons of honour 
 and riches, which have both their Winter and Summer houses, 
 the fresh rivers for Summer, and the salt-water for Winter, to 
 spend his life in ; which is not, as Sir Francis Bacon hath 
 observed in his * History of Life and Death,* above ten years : 
 and it is to be observed, that though the Salmon does grow big 
 in the sea, yet he grows not fat but in fresh rivers ; and it is 
 observed, that the farther they get from the sea, they be both 
 the fatter and better. 
 
 Next, I shall tell you, that though they make very hard 
 shift to get out of the fresh rivers into the sea ; yet they will 
 make harder shift to get out of the salt into the fresh rivers, 
 to spawn, or possess the pleasures that they have formerly found 
 in them : to which end, they will force themselves through 
 flood-gates, or over wears, or hedges, or stops in the water, 
 even to a height beyond common belief. Gesner speaks of such 
 places as are known to be above eight feet high above water. 
 And our Camden mentions in his * Britannia ' the like wonder 
 to be in Pembrokeshire, where the river Tivy falls into the sea, 
 and that the fall is so down-right, and so high, that the people 
 stand and wonder at the strength and sleight by which they 
 see the Salmon use to get out of the sea into the said river; 
 and the manner and height of the place is so notable, that it is 
 known far by the name of the Salmon-leap ; concerning which, 
 take this also out of Michael Drayton, my honest old friend ; 
 as he tells it you in his * Polyolbion.* 
 
 And when the Salmon seeks a fresher stream to find, 
 Which hither from the Sea comes yearly by his kind ; 
 As he towards season grows, and stems the wat'ry tract 
 Where Tivy falling down, makes an high cataract, 
 Forc'd by the rising rocks that there her course oppose. 
 As though within her bounds they meant her to inclose ; 
 Here, when the labouring fish does at the foot arrive. 
 And finds that by his strength he does but vainly strive ; 
 
 87 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF THE SALMON 
 
 His tail takes in his mouth, and bending like a bow 
 That 's to full compass drawn, aloft himself doth throw, 
 Then springing at his height, as doth a little wand, 
 That bended end to end, and started from man's hand, 
 Far off itself doth cast ; so, does the Salmon vault, 
 And if at first he fail, his second Summersault 
 He instantly essays : and from his nimble ring. 
 Still yerking, never leaves until himself he fling 
 Above the opposing stream. 
 
 This Michael Drayton tells you, of this leap or summersault 
 of the Salmon. 
 
 And next I shall tell you, that it is observed by Gesner 
 and others, that there is no better Salmon than in England : 
 and that though some of our northern countries have as fat 
 and as large as the river Thames, yet none are of so excellent 
 a taste. 
 
 And as I have told you that Sir Francis Bacon observes, 
 the age of a Salmon exceeds not ten years, so let me next tell 
 you, that his growth is very sudden : it is said, that after he is 
 got into the sea, he becomes from a Samlet, not so big as a 
 Gudgeon, to be a Salmon, in as short a time as a gosling 
 becomes to be a goose. Much of this has been observed by 
 tying a ribbon or some known tape or thread, in the tail of 
 some young Salmons, which have been taken in wears as they 
 have swimmed towards the salt-water, and then by taking a 
 part of them again with the known mark at the same place at 
 their return from the sea, which is usually about six months 
 after; and the like experiment hath been tried upon young 
 Swallows, who have, after six months' absence, been observed 
 to return to the same chimney, there to make their nests and 
 habitations for the Summer following : which has inclined many 
 to think, that every Salmon usually returns to the same river 
 in which it was bred, as young Pigeons taken out of the same 
 dove-cote, have also been observed to do. 
 
 And you are yet to observe further, that the he-Salmon is 
 usually bigger than the Spawner, and that he is more kipper, 
 and less able to endure a Winter in the fresh-water, than she 
 is, yet she is at that time of looking less kipper and better, as 
 watery, and as bad meat. 
 
 And yet you are to observe, that as there is no general 
 
 88 
 
WITH DIRECTIONS HOW TO FISH FOR HIM 
 
 rule without an exception, so there are some few rivers in this 
 nation, that have Trouts and Salmons in season in Winter, as 
 *tis certain there be in the river Wye in Monmouthshire, where 
 they be in season, as Camden observes, from September till 
 April. But, my Scholar, the observation of this and many 
 other things, I must in manners omit, because they will prove 
 too large for our narrow compass of time, and therefore 
 I shall next fall upon my directions, how to fish for this 
 Salmon. 
 
 And for that, first you shall observe, that usually he stays 
 not long in a place as Trouts will, but, as I said, covets still to 
 go nearer the spring-head ; and that he does not as the Trout, 
 and many other fish, lie near the water-side or bank or roots 
 of trees, but swims in the deep and broad parts of the water, 
 and usually in the middle, and near the ground, and that there 
 you are to fish for him, and that it is to be caught as the 
 Trout is, with a Worm, a Minnow, which some call a Penk, 
 or with a Fly. 
 
 And you are to observe, that he is very seldom observed to 
 bite at a Minnow, yet sometimes he will, and not usually at a fly, 
 but more usually at a worm, and then most usually at a Lob or 
 Garden-worm, which should be well scoured, that is to say, kept 
 seven or eight days in moss before you fish with them : and if 
 you double your time of eight into sixteen, twenty, or more days, 
 it is still the better, for the worms will still be clearer, tougher, 
 and more lively, and continue so longer upon your hook ; and 
 they may be kept longer by keeping them cool and in fresh moss, 
 and some advise to put camphor into it. 
 
 Note also, that many use to fish for a Salmon with a ring of 
 wire on the top of their rod, through which the line may run to 
 as great a length as is needful when he is hooked. And to that 
 end, some use a wheel about the middle of their rod, or near their 
 hand, which is to be observed better by seeing one of them, than 
 by a large demonstration of words. 
 
 And now I shall tell you, that which may be called a secret : 
 I have been a-fishing with old Oliver Henley, now with God, a 
 noted Fisher both for Trout and Salmon, and have observed, 
 that he would usually take three or four worms out of his bag, 
 and put them into a little box in his pocket, where he would 
 
 89 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF THE SALMON 
 
 usually let them continue half an hour or more, before he would 
 bait his hook with them ; I have asked him his reason, and he 
 has replied, * He did but pick the best out to be in readiness 
 against he baited his hook the next time.' But he has been 
 observed both by others and myself, to catch more fish than I or 
 any other body that has ever gone a-fishing with him could do, 
 and especially Salmons ; and I have been told lately, by one of 
 his most intimate and secret friends, that the box in which he put 
 those worms, was anointed with a drop, or two or three, of the 
 Oil of Ivy-berries, made by expression or infusion ; and told, that 
 by the worms remaining in that box an hour, or a like time, they 
 had incorporated a kind of smell that was irresistibly attractive, 
 enough to force any fish within the smell of them, to bite. This 
 I heard not long since from a friend, but have not tried it ; yet I 
 grant it probable, and refer my reader to Sir Francis Bacon's 
 * Natural History,' where he proves fishes may hear, and doubtless 
 can more probably smell: and I am certain Gesner says, the 
 Otter can smell in the water, and I know not but that fish may 
 do so too : 'tis left for a lover of Angling, or any that desires to 
 improve that art, to try this conclusion. 
 
 I shall also impart two other experiments, but not tried by 
 myself, which I will deliver in the same words that they were 
 given me by an excellent Angler and a very friend, in writing ; 
 he told me the latter was too good to be told, but in a learned 
 language, lest it should be made common. 
 
 * Take the stinking oil, drawn out of Polypody of the oak by 
 a retort, mixed with turpentine, and hive-honey, and anoint your 
 bait therewith, and it will doubtless draw the fish to it.' 
 
 The other is this: *Vulnera hederae grandissimae inflicta 
 sudant Balsamum oleo gelato, albicantique persimile, odoris vero 
 longe suavissimi.' 
 
 'Tis supremely sweet to any fish, and yet Assafoetida may do 
 the like. 
 
 But in these things I have no great faith, yet grant it 
 probable, and have had from some chemical men, namely, from 
 Sir George Hastings and others, an affirmation of them to be 
 very advantageous : but no more of these, especially not in this 
 place. 
 
 I might here, before I take my leave of the Salmon, tell you, 
 90 
 
Old Oliver Henley, now with God, a noted Fisher 
 both for Trout and Salmon. 
 
WITH DIRECTIONS HOW TO FISH FOR HIM 
 
 that there is more than one sort of them, as namely, a Tecon, 
 and another called in some places a Samlet, or by some, a 
 Skegger : but these and others, which I forbear to name, may be 
 fish of another kind, and differ, as we know a Herring and a 
 Pilcher do, which I think are as different, as the rivers in which 
 they breed, and must by me be left to the disquisitions of men 
 of more leisure, and of greater abilities, than I profess myself 
 to have. 
 
 And lastly, I am to borrow so much of your promised 
 patience, as to tell you that the Trout or Salmon being in season, 
 have at their first taking out of the water, which continues during 
 life, their bodies adorned, the one with such red spots, and the 
 other with such black or blackish spots, as give them such an 
 addition of natural beauty, as, I think, was never given to any 
 woman by the artificial paint or patches, in which they so much 
 pride themselves in this age. And so I shall leave them both, 
 and proceed to some observations on the Pike. 
 
 91 
 
CHAPTER VIII. OBSERVATIONS OF THE LUCE OR 
 PIKE, WITH DIRECTIONS HOW TO FISH FOR 
 HIM 
 
 PISCATOR AND VENATOR 
 
 PISCATOR. The mighty Luce or Pike is taken to be the 
 Tyrant, as the Salmon is the King of the fresh waters. 
 *Tis not to be doubted, but that they are bred, some by 
 generation, and some not : as namely, of a weed called Pickerel- 
 weed, unless learned Gesner be much mistaken : for he says, this 
 weed and other glutinous matter, with the help of the Sun's heat 
 in some particular months, and some ponds apted for it by nature, 
 do become Pikes. But doubtless divers Pikes are bred after 
 this manner, or are brought into some ponds some such other 
 ways as are past man's finding out, of which we have daily 
 testimonies. 
 
 Sir Francis Bacon, in his * History of Life and Death,* 
 observes the Pike to be the longest-lived of any fresh-water-fish, 
 and yet he computes it to be not usually above forty years; 
 and others think it to be not above ten years ; and yet Gesner 
 mentions a Pike taken in Swedeland in the year 1449, with a ring 
 about his neck, declaring he was put into that pond by Frederick 
 the Second, more than two hundred years before he was last 
 taken, as by the Inscription in that ring, being Greek, was inter- 
 preted by the then Bishop of Worms. But of this no more, but 
 that it is observed, that the old or very great Pikes have in them 
 more of state than goodness ; the smaller or middle-sized Pikes, 
 being by the most and choicest palates observed to be the best 
 meat ; and contrary, the Eel is observed to be the better for age 
 and bigness. 
 
 All Pikes that live long prove chargeable to their keepers, 
 
 because their life is maintained by the death of so many other 
 
 fish, even those of their own kind ; which has made him by 
 
 some writers to be called the Tyrant of the Rivers, or the Fresh- 
 
 92 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF THE LUCE OR PIKE 
 
 water- Wolf, by reason of his bold, greedy, devouring disposition, 
 which is so keen, as Gesner relates, a man going to a pond, 
 where it seems a Pike had devoured all the fish, to water his 
 Mule, had a Pike bit his Mule by the lips ; to which the Pike 
 hung so fast, that the Mule drew him out of the water, and by 
 that accident the owner of the Mule angled out the Pike. And 
 the same Gesner observes, that a Maid in Poland had a Pike bit 
 her by the foot as she was washing clothes in a pond. And 
 I have heard the like of a woman in Killingworth Pond, not far 
 from Coventry. But I have been assured by my friend Mr. 
 Segrave, of whom I spake to you formerly, that keeps tame 
 Otters, that he hath known a Pike in extreme hunger, fight with 
 one of his Otters for a Carp that the Otter had caught, and was 
 then bringing out of the water. I have told you who relate these 
 things, and tell you they are persons of credit, and shall con- 
 clude this observation, by telling you what a wise man has 
 observed ; * It is a hard thing to persuade the belly, because it 
 has no ears.* 
 
 But if these relations be disbelieved, it is too evident to be 
 doubted, that a Pike will devour a fish of his own kind, that shall 
 be bigger than his belly or throat will receive, and swallow a 
 part of him, and let the other part remain in his mouth till the 
 swallowed part be digested, and then swallow that other part 
 that was in his mouth, and so put it over by degrees ; which is 
 not unlike the Ox and some other beasts, taking their meat, not 
 out of their mouth immediately into their belly, but first into 
 some place betwixt, and then chew it, or digest it by degrees 
 after, which is called Chewing the Cud. And doubtless Pikes 
 will bite when they are not hungry, but as some think even for 
 very anger, when a tempting bait comes near to them. 
 
 And it is observed, that the Pike will eat venomous things, — 
 as some kind of Frogs are, — and yet live without being harmed 
 by them : for as some say, he has in him a natural balsam, or 
 antidote against all poison: and he has a strange heat, that 
 though it appear to us to be cold, can yet digest, or put over, 
 any fish -flesh by degrees without being sick. And others 
 observe, that he never eats the venomous Frog till he have first 
 killed her, and then,— as Ducks are observed to do to Frogs in 
 spawning-time, — at which time some Frogs are observed to be 
 
 93 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF THE LUCE OR PIKE 
 
 venomous, — so thoroughly washed her, by tumbling her up and 
 down in the water, that he may devour her without danger. 
 And Gesner affirms that a Polonian gentleman did faithfully 
 assure him, he had seen two young Geese at one time in the 
 belly of a Pike. And doubtless a Pike in his height of hunger, 
 will bite at and devour a dog that swims in a pond, and there 
 have been examples of it, or the like ; for as I told you, * The 
 belly has no ears when hunger comes upon it.* 
 
 The Pike is also observed to be a solitary, melancholy, and a 
 bold fish : melancholy, because he always swims or rests himself 
 alone, and never swims in shoals or with company, as Roach 
 and Dace, and most other fish do: and bold, because he fears 
 not a shadow, or to see or be seen of any body, as the Trout 
 and Chub, and all other fish do. 
 
 And it is observed by Gesner, that the jaw-bones, and hearts 
 and galls of Pikes, are very medicinable for several diseases ; 
 or to stop blood, to abate fevers, to cure agues, to oppose or 
 expel the infection of the Plague, and to be many ways medicin- 
 able and useful for the good of mankind : but he observes, that 
 the biting of a Pike is venomous and hard to be cured. 
 
 And it is observed, that the Pike is a fish that breeds but 
 once a year, and that other fish, as namely. Loaches, do breed 
 oftener : as we are certain tame Pigeons do almost every month, 
 and yet the Hawk, a bird of prey, as the Pike is a fish, breeds 
 but once in twelve months : and you are to note, that his time of 
 breeding, or spawning, is usually about the end of February, or 
 somewhat later, in March, as the weather proves colder or 
 warmer, and to note, that his manner of breeding is thus, a He 
 and a She-Pike will usually go together out of a river into some 
 ditch or creek, and that there the Spawner casts her eggs, and 
 the Melter hovers over her all that time that she is casting her 
 spawn, but touches her not. 
 
 I might say more of this, but it might be thought curiosity or 
 worse, and shall therefore forbear it, and take up so much of your 
 attention, as to tell you, that the best of Pikes are noted to be in 
 Rivers, next, those in great Ponds, or Meres, and the worst in 
 small Ponds. 
 
 But before I proceed further, I am to tell you that there is a 
 great antipathy betwixt the Pike and some Frogs ; and this 
 94 
 
WITH DIRECTIONS HOW TO FISH FOR HIM 
 
 may appear to the reader of Dubravius, a Bishop in Bohemia, who 
 in his book * Of Fish and Fish-ponds,' relates what he says he 
 saw with his own eyes, and could not forbear to tell the reader. 
 Which was: 
 
 * As he and the Bishop Thurzo were walking by a large pond 
 in Bohemia, they saw a Frog, when the Pike lay very sleepily 
 and quiet by the shore-side, leap upon his head, and the Frog 
 having expressed malice or anger by his swollen cheeks and 
 staring eyes, did stretch out his legs and embraced the Pike's 
 head, and presently reached them to his eyes, tearing with them 
 and his teeth those tender parts ; the Pike, moved with anguish, 
 moves up and down the water, and rubs himself against weeds, 
 and whatever he thought might quit him of his enemy ; but all 
 in vain, for the Frog did continue to ride triumphantly, and to bite 
 and torment the Pike, till his strength failed, and then the Frog 
 sunk with the Pike to the bottom of the water ; then presently 
 the Frog appeared again at the top and croaked, and seemed to 
 rejoice like a conqueror, after which he presently retired to his 
 secret hole. The Bishop, that had beheld the battle, called his 
 fisherman to fetch his nets, and by all means to get the Pike, that 
 they might declare what had happened : and the Pike was drawn 
 forth, and both his eyes eaten out, at which when they began to 
 wonder, the fisherman wished them to forbear, and assured them 
 he was certain that Pikes were often so served.' 
 
 I told this, which is to be read in the Sixth Chapter of the 
 First Book of Dubravius, unto a friend, who replied, * It was as 
 improbable as to have the mouse scratch out the cat's eyes.* But 
 he did not consider, that there be Fishing Frogs, which the 
 Dalmatians call the Water-devil, of which I might tell you as 
 wonderful a story, but I shall tell you, that 'tis not to be doubted, 
 but that there be some Frogs so fearful of the Water-snake, that, 
 when they swim in a place in which they fear to meet with him, 
 they then get a reed across into their mouths, which, if they two 
 meet by accident, secures the Frog from the strength and malice 
 of the Snake ; and note, that the Frog usually swims the fastest 
 of the two. 
 
 And let me tell you, that as there be Water and Land-Frogs, 
 so there be Land and Water-snakes. Concerning which, take 
 this observation, that the Land-snake breeds and hatches her 
 
 95 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF THE LUCE OR PIKE 
 
 eggs, which become young snakes, in some old dunghill, or a 
 like hot place ; but the Water-snake, which is not venomous, 
 and as I have been assured by a great observer of such secrets, 
 does not hatch but breed her young alive, which she does not 
 then forsake, but bides with them, and in case of danger will 
 take them all into her mouth, and swim away from any appre- 
 hended danger, and then let them out again when she thinks 
 all danger to be past ; these be accidents that we Anglers 
 sometimes see, and often talk of. 
 
 But whither am I going? I had almost lost myself by 
 remembering the discourse of Dubravius. I will therefore stop 
 here, and tell you according to my promise how to catch this 
 Pike. 
 
 His feeding is usually of fish or frogs, and sometimes a weed 
 of his own called Pickerel-weed. Of which I told you some 
 think some Pikes are bred ; for they have observed, that where 
 none have been put into ponds, yet they have there found 
 many : and that there has been plenty of that weed in those 
 ponds, and that that weed both breeds and feeds them ; but 
 whether those Pikes so bred will ever breed by generation as 
 the others do, I shall leave to the disquisitions of men of more 
 curiosity and leisure than I profess myself to have ; and shall 
 proceed to tell you that you may fish for a Pike, either with a 
 Ledger or a Walking-bait ; and you are to note, that I call that 
 a Ledger-bait, which is fixed or made to rest in one certain 
 place when you shall be absent from it : and I call that a 
 Walking-bait, which you take with you, and have ever in 
 motion. Concerning which two, I shall give you this direction ; 
 that your Ledger-bait is best to be a living bait, though a dead 
 one may catch, whether it be a fish or a frog ; and that you 
 may make them live the longer, you may, or indeed you must, 
 take this course. 
 
 First, for your live-bait of fish, a Roach or Dace is, I think, 
 best and most tempting, and a Pearch is the longest lived on a 
 hook, and having cut off his fin on his back, which may be 
 done without hurting him, you must take your knife, which 
 cannot be too sharp, and betwixt the head and the fin on the 
 back, cut or make an incision, or such a scar, as you may put 
 the arming-wire of your hook into it, with as little bruising or 
 96 
 
WITH DIRECTIONS HOW TO FISH FOR HIM 
 
 hurting the fish as art and diligence will enable you to do ; 
 and so carrying your arming-wire along his back, unto, or near 
 the tail of your fish, betwixt the skin and the body of it, draw 
 out that wire or arming of your hook at another scar near to 
 his tail : then tie him about it with thread, but no harder than 
 of necessity to prevent hurting the fish ; and the better to avoid 
 hurting the fish, some have a kind of probe to open the way, 
 for the more easy entrance and passage of your wire or arming : 
 but as for these, time, and a little experience, will teach you 
 better than I can by words ; therefore I will for the present say 
 no more of this, but come next to give you some directions how 
 to bait your hook with a Frog. 
 
 Venator. But, good Master, did you not say even now, 
 that some Frogs were venomous, and is it not dangerous to 
 touch them ? 
 
 Pisc. Yes, but I will give you some rules or cautions 
 concerning them : and first, you are to note, that there are two 
 kinds of Frogs ; that is to say, if I may so express myself, a 
 Flesh, and a Fish-frog : by Flesh-frogs, I mean frogs that breed 
 and live on the land ; and of these there be several sorts also, 
 and of several colours, some being speckled, some greenish, 
 some blackish, or brown : the Green-Frog, which is a small one, 
 is by Topsel taken to be venomous ; and so is the Padock or 
 Frog-padock, which usually keeps or breeds on the land, and is 
 very large, and bony, and big, especially the she-frog of that 
 kind ; yet these will sometimes come into the water, but it is 
 not often ; and the Land-frogs are some of them observed by 
 him, to breed by laying eggs : and others to breed of the slime 
 and dust of the earth, and that in Winter they turn to slime 
 again, and that the next Summer that very slime returns to 
 be a living creature ; this is the opinion of Pliny, , in his loth 
 and * Cardanus undertakes to give a reason for the Book ♦ De 
 raining of frogs : but if it were in my power, it ^^^^' ^^'' 
 should rain none but Water-frogs, for those I think are not 
 venomous, especially the right Water-frog, which about February 
 or March breeds in ditches by slime, and blackish eggs in that 
 slime : about which time of breeding, the he and she-frogs are 
 observed to use divers summersaults, and to croak and make 
 a noise, which the Land-frog, or Padock-frog, never does. Now 
 p 97 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF THE LUCE OR PIKE 
 
 of these Water-frogs, if you intend to fish with a frog for a 
 Pike, you are to choose the yellowest that you can get, for that 
 the Pike ever likes best. And thus use your frog, that he may 
 continue long alive. 
 
 Put your hook into his mouth, which you may easily do 
 from the middle of April till August, and then the frog's mouth 
 grows up, and he continues so for at least six months without 
 eating, but is sustained, none, but He whose Name is Wonder- 
 ful, knows how : I say, put your hook, I mean the arming-wire, 
 through his mouth, and out at his gills, and then with a fine 
 needle and silk sew the upper part of his leg with only one 
 stitch to the arming-wire of your hook, or tie the frog's leg 
 above the upper joint to the armed wire ; and in so doing, use 
 him as though you loved him, that is, harm him as little as you 
 may possibly, that he may live the longer. 
 
 And now, having given you this direction for the baiting 
 your Ledger-hook with a live fish or frog, my next must be to 
 tell you, how your hook thus baited must or may be used : and 
 it is thus. Having fastened your hook to a line, which if it be 
 not fourteen yards long, should not be less than twelve ; you 
 are to fasten that line to any bough near to a hole where a 
 Pike is, or is likely to lie, or to have a haunt, and then wind 
 your line on any forked stick, all your line, except half a yard 
 of it, or rather more, and split that forked stick with such a 
 nick or notch at one end of it, as may keep the line from any 
 more of it ravelling from about the stick than so much of it as 
 you intend ; and choose your forked stick to be of that bigness 
 as may keep the fish or frog from pulling the forked stick under 
 the water till the Pike bites, and then the Pike having pulled 
 the line forth of the cleft or nick of that stick in which it was 
 gently fastened, he will have line enough to go to his hold and 
 pouch the bait : and if you would have this Ledger-bait to keep 
 at a fixed place, undisturbed by wind or other accidents, which 
 may drive it to the shore-side ; for you are to note, that it is 
 likeliest to catch a Pike in the midst of the water, then hang 
 a small plummet of lead, a stone, or piece of tile, or a turf in a 
 string, and cast it into the water, with the forked stick, to hang 
 upon the ground, to be a kind of anchor to keep the forked 
 stick from moving out of your intended place till the Pike come. 
 98 
 
WITH DIRECTIONS HOW TO FISH FOR HIM 
 
 This I take to be a very good way, to use so many Ledger- 
 baits as you intend to make trial of. 
 
 Or if you bait your hooks thus with live fish or frogs, and 
 in a windy day, fasten them thus to a bough or bundle of straw, 
 and by the help of that wind can get them to move across a 
 pond or mere, you are like to stand still on the shore and see 
 sport presently if there be any store of Pikes ; or these live- 
 baits may make sport, being tied about the body or wings of 
 a goose or duck, and she chased over a pond : and the like 
 may be done with turning three or four live-baits thus fastened 
 to bladders, or boughs, or bottles of hay or flags to swim down 
 a river, whilst you walk quietly alone on the shore, and are 
 still in expectation of sport. The rest must be taught you by 
 practice, for time will not allow me to say more of this kind of 
 fishing with live-baits. 
 
 And for your dead-bait for a Pike, for that you may be 
 taught by one day's going a-fishing with me, or any other body 
 that fishes for him, for the baiting your hook with a dead 
 Gudgeon or a Roach, and moving it up and down the water, 
 is too easy a thing to take up any time to direct you to do it ; 
 and yet, because I cut you short in that, I will commute for it, 
 by telling you that that was told me for a secret : it is this. 
 
 Dissolve Gum of Ivy in Oil of Spike, and therewith anoint 
 your dead-bait for a Pike, and then cast it into a likely place, 
 and when it has lain a short time at the bottom, draw it towards 
 the top of the water and so up the stream, and it is more than 
 likely that you have a Pike follow with more than common 
 eagerness. 
 
 And some affirm, that any bait anointed with the marrow 
 of the thigh-bone of an Hern, is a great temptation to any 
 fish. 
 
 These have not been tried by me, but told me by a friend 
 of note, that pretended to do me a courtesy ; but if this direc- 
 tion to catch a Pike thus, do you no good, yet I am certain 
 this direction how to roast him when he is caught, is choicely 
 good, for I have tried it ; and it is somewhat the better for not 
 being common, but with my direction you must take this caution, 
 that your Pike must not be a small one, that is, it must be more 
 than half a yard, and should be bigger. 
 
 99 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF THE LUCE OR PIKE 
 
 First, open your Pike at the gills, and if need be, cut also 
 a little slit towards the belly ; out of these take his guts and 
 keep his liver, which you are to shred very small with Thyme, 
 Sweet -marjoram, and a little Winter -savory : to these put 
 some pickled Oysters, and some Anchovies, two or three, both 
 these last whole, for the Anchovies will melt, and the Oysters 
 should not, to these you must add also a pound of sweet Butter, 
 which you are to mix with the herbs that are shred, and let 
 them all be well salted : if the Pike be more than a yard long, 
 then you may put into these herbs more than a pound, or if he 
 be less, then less butter will suffice : these being thus mixed 
 with a blade or two of mace, must be put into the Pike's belly, 
 and then his belly so sewed up, as to keep all the butter in his 
 belly if it be possible ; if not, then as much of it as you possibly 
 can, but take not ofif the scales ; then you are to thrust the 
 spit through his mouth out at his tail, and then take four, or 
 five, or six split sticks or very thin laths, and a convenient 
 quantity of tape or filleting ; these laths are to be tied round 
 about the Pike's body from his head to his tail, and the tape 
 tied somewhat thick to prevent his breaking or falling off from 
 the spit ; let him be roasted very leisurely, and often basted 
 with Claret wine, and Anchovies, and Butter mixed together, 
 and also with what moisture falls from him into the pan : when 
 you have roasted him sufficiently, you are to hold under him, 
 when you unwind or cut the tape that ties him, such a dish as 
 you purpose to eat him out of ; and let him fall into it with the 
 sauce that is roasted in his belly, and by this means the Pike 
 will be kept unbroken and complete : then, to the sauce which 
 was within, and also that sauce in the pan, you are to add a fit 
 quantity of the best Butter, and to squeeze the juice of three 
 or four Oranges : lastly, you may either put into the Pike with 
 the Oysters, two cloves of Garlick, and take it whole out, when 
 the Pike is cut off the spit ; or to give the sauce a haut-godt, 
 let the dish into which you let the Pike fall, be rubbed with it : 
 the using or not using of this garlick is left to your discretion. 
 
 M. B. 
 
 This dish of meat is too good for any but Anglers, or very 
 honest men ; and I trust, you will prove both, and therefore I 
 have trusted you with this secret. 
 
 lOO 
 
How to roast him when he is caught. 
 
WITH DIRECTIONS HOW TO FISH FOR HIM 
 
 Let me next tell you, that Gesner tells us there are no 
 Pikes in Spain, and that the largest are in the lake Thrasimene 
 in Italy ; and the next, if not equal to them, are the Pikes of 
 England, and that in England, Lincolnshire boasteth to have 
 the biggest. Just so doth Sussex boast of four sorts of fish ; 
 namely, an Arundel Mullet, a Chichester Lobster, a Shelsey 
 Cockle, and an Amerly Trout. 
 
 But I will take up no more of your time with this relation, 
 but proceed to give you some observations of the Carp, and 
 how to angle for him, and to dress him, but not till he is 
 caught 
 
 lOI 
 
CHAPTER IX. OBSERVATIONS OF THE CARP, WITH 
 DIRECTIONS HOW TO FISH FOR HIM 
 
 PISCATOR 
 
 THE Carp is the Queen of Rivers : a stately, a good, and 
 a very subtle fish, that was not at first bred, nor hath 
 been long in England, but is now naturalized. It is said, 
 they were brought hither by one Mr. Mascal, a gentleman that 
 then lived at Plumsted in Sussex, a County that abounds more 
 with this fish than any in this nation. 
 
 You may remember that I told you, Gesner says, there are 
 no Pikes in Spain ; and doubtless, there was a time, about a 
 hundred, or a few more years ago, when there were no Carps 
 in England, as may seem to be affirmed by Sir Richard Baker, 
 in whose Chronicle you may find these verses. 
 
 Hops and Turkies, Carps and Beer, 
 Came into England all in a year. 
 
 And doubtless, as of sea-fish the Herring dies soonest out 
 of the water, and of fresh-water-fish the Trout, so, except the 
 Eel, the Carp endures most hardness, and lives longest out of 
 his own proper element. And therefore, the report of the Carp's 
 being brought out of a foreign country into this nation, is the 
 more probable. 
 
 Carps and Loaches are observed to breed several months in 
 one year, which Pikes and most other fish do not. And this is 
 partly proved by tame and wild Rabbits, as also by some Ducks, 
 which will lay eggs nine of the twelve months, and yet there be 
 other Ducks that lay not longer than about one month. And it 
 is the rather to be believed, because you shall scarce or never 
 take a Male-Carp without a Melt, or a Female without a Roe or 
 Spawn, and for the most part very much; and especially all 
 102 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF THE CARP 
 
 the Summer season ; and it is observed, that they breed more 
 naturally in ponds than in running waters, if they breed there at 
 all ; and that those that live in rivers, are taken by men of the 
 best palates to be much the better meat. 
 
 And it is observed, that in some ponds Carps will not breed, 
 especially in cold ponds ; but where they will breed, they breed 
 innumerably : Aristotle and Pliny say, six times in a year, if there 
 be no Pikes nor Pearch to devour their spawn, when it is cast 
 upon grass, or flags, or weeds, where it lies ten or twelve days 
 before it be enlivened. 
 
 The Carp, if he have water-room and good feed, will grow to 
 a very great bigness and length : I have heard, to be much above 
 a yard long. 'Tis said, by Jovius, who hath writ of fishes, that in 
 the lake Lurian in Italy, Carps have thriven to be more than fifty 
 pound weight; which is the more probable, for as the Bear is 
 conceived and born suddenly, and being born is but short-lived, 
 so, on the contrary, the Elephant is said to be two years in his 
 dam's belly, some think he is ten years in it, and being born, 
 grows in bigness twenty years ; and 'tis observed too that he 
 lives to the age of a hundred years. And 'tis also observed, that 
 the Crocodile is very long-lived, and more than that, that all that 
 long life he thrives in bigness ; and so I think some Carps do, 
 especially in some places ; though I never saw one above twenty- 
 three inches, which was a great and goodly fish ; but have been 
 assured there are of a far greater size, and in England too. 
 
 Now, as the increase of Carps is wonderful for their number ; 
 so there is not a reason found out, I think by any, why they 
 should breed in some ponds, and not in others of the same 
 nature for soil and all other circumstances : and as their breed- 
 ing, so are their decays also very mysterious : I have both read 
 it, and been told by a gentleman of tried honesty, that he has 
 known sixty or more large Carps put into several ponds near 
 to a house, where by reason of the stakes in the ponds, and the 
 owner's constant being near to them, it was impossible they 
 should be stolen away from him: and that when he has after 
 three or four years, emptied the pond, and expected an increase 
 from them by breeding young ones, — for that they might do so, 
 he had, as the rule is, put in three melters for one spawner ; — he 
 has, I say, after three or four years, found neither a young nor 
 
 Q 103 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF THE CARP 
 
 old Carp remaining. And the like I have known of one that 
 has almost watched the pond, and at a like distance of time at 
 the fishing of a pond, found of seventy or eighty large Carps 
 not above five or six : and that he had forborne longer to fish 
 the said pond, but that he saw in a hot day in Summer, a large 
 Carp swim near the top of the water with a frog upon his head, 
 and that he upon that occasion caused his pond to be let dry : 
 and I say, of seventy or eighty Carps, only found five or six in 
 the said pond, and those very sick and lean, and with every one 
 a frog sticking so fast on the head of the said Carps, that the 
 frog would not be got off without extreme force or killing : and 
 the gentleman that did affirm this to me, told me he saw it, and 
 did declare his belief to be, — and I also believe the same, — that 
 he thought the other Carps that were so strangely lost, were so 
 killed by frogs, and then devoured. 
 
 And a person of honour now living, in Worcestershire,^ 
 
 assured me he had seen a necklace, or collar of Tadpoles, hang 
 
 like a chain or necklace of beads about a Pike's 
 
 neck, and to kill him ; whether it were for meat or 
 
 malice, must be to me a question. 
 
 But I am fallen into this discourse by accident, of which 
 I might say more, but it has proved longer than I intended, 
 and possibly may not to you be considerable ; I shall therefore 
 give you three or four more short observations of the Carp, 
 and then fall upon some directions how you shall fish for him. 
 
 The age of Carps is by Sir Francis Bacon, in his * History 
 of Life and Death,' observed to be but ten years, yet others 
 think they live longer. Gesner says, a Carp has been known 
 to live in the Palatinate above a hundred years : but most 
 conclude, that, contrary to the Pike or Luce, all Carps are the 
 better for age and bigness ; the tongues of Carps are noted to 
 be choice and costly meat, especially to them that buy them : 
 but Gesner says. Carps have no tongue like other fish, but a 
 piece of flesh-like fish in their mouth like to a tongue, and 
 should be called a palate: but it is certain it is choicely good, 
 and that the Carp is to be reckoned amongst those leather- 
 mouthed fish, which I told you have their teeth in their throat, 
 and for that reason he is very seldom lost by breaking his 
 hold, if your hook be once stuck into his chaps. 
 104 
 
WITH DIRECTIONS HOW TO FISH FOR HIM 
 
 I told you that Sir Francis Bacon thinks that the Carp 
 lives but ten years, but Janus Dubravius has writ a book *0f 
 Fish and Fish-ponds/ in which he says, that Carps begin to 
 spawn at the age of three years, and continue to do so till 
 thirty : he says also, that in the time of their breeding, which 
 is in Summer, when the sun hath warmed both the earth and 
 water, and so apted them also for generation ; that then three 
 or four male Carps will follow a female, and that then she 
 putting on a seeming coyness, they force her through weeds 
 and flags, where she lets fall her eggs or spawn, which sticks 
 fast to the weeds, and then they let fall their melt upon it, 
 and so it becomes in a short time to be a living fish ; and 
 as I told you, it is thought the Carp does this several 
 months in the year, and most believe that most fish breed 
 after this manner, except the Eel: and it has been observed, 
 that when the Spawner has weakened herself by doing that 
 natural office, that two or three Melters have helped her from off 
 the weeds by bearing her up on both sides, and guarding her 
 into the deep. And you may note, that though this may seem 
 a curiosity not worth observing, yet others have judged it worth 
 their time and costs, to make glass-hives, and order them in 
 such a manner as to see how bees have bred and made their 
 honey-combs, and how they have obeyed their king, and 
 governed their commonwealth. But it is thought that all Carps 
 are not bred by generation, but that some breed other ways, 
 as some Pikes do. 
 
 The physicians make the galls and stones in the heads of 
 Carps to be very medicinable; but 'tis not to be doubted but 
 that in Italy they make great profit of the spawn of Carps, 
 by selling it to the Jews, who make it into Red Caviare, the 
 Jews not being by their law admitted to eat of Caviare made 
 of the Sturgeon, that being a fish that wants scales, and, — as 
 may appear in Levit. xi. lo, — by them reputed to be unclean. 
 
 Much more might be said out of him, and out of Aristotle, 
 which Dubravius often quotes in his * Discourse of Fishes ' ; but 
 it might rather perplex than satisfy you, and therefore I shall 
 rather choose to direct you how to catch, than spend more 
 time in discoursing either of the nature or the breeding of 
 this Carp, or of any more circumstances concerning him; but 
 
 105 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF THE CARP 
 
 yet I shall remember you of what I told you before, that he 
 is a very subtle fish, and hard to be caught. 
 
 And my first direction is, that if you will fish for a Carp, 
 you must put on a very large measure of patience; especially 
 to fish for a River-Carp : I have known a very good fisher 
 angle diligently four or six hours in a day, for three or four 
 days together, for a River-Carp, and not have a bite: and you 
 are to note, that in some ponds, it is as hard to catch a Carp 
 as in a river; that is to say, where they have store of feed, 
 and the water is of a clayish colour : but you are to remember, 
 that I have told you there is no rule without an exception, 
 and therefore being possessed with that hope and patience, 
 which I wish to all fishers, especially to the Carp- Angler, I shall 
 tell you with what bait to fish for him. But first you are to 
 know, that it must be either early or late ; and let me tell you, 
 that in hot weather, for he will seldom bite in cold, you 
 cannot be too early or too late at it. And some have been so 
 curious as to say, the Tenth of April is a fatal day for Carps. 
 
 The Carp bites either at worms or at paste, and of worms 
 I think the bluish Marsh or Meadow- worm is best ; but possibly 
 another worm, not too big, may do as well, and so may a Green 
 Gentle : and. as for pastes, there are almost as many sorts as 
 there are medicines for the tooth-ache, but doubtless sweet 
 pastes are best ; I mean, pastes made with honey or with 
 sugar : which, that you may the better beguile this crafty fish, 
 should be thrown into the pond or place in which you fish for 
 him, some hours or longer before you undertake your trial of 
 skill with the angle-rod : and doubtless if it be thrown into the 
 water a day or two before, at several times and in small pellets, 
 you are the likelier when you fish for the Carp to obtain your 
 desired sport : or in a large pond, to draw them to any certain 
 place, that they may the better and with more hope be fished 
 for, you are to throw into it, in some certain place, either grains 
 or blood mixed with cow-dung, or with bran; or any garbage, 
 as chicken's guts or the like, and then some of your small 
 sweet pellets with which you purpose to angle : and these small 
 pellets being a few of them also thrown in as you are angling, 
 will be the better. 
 
 And your paste must be thus made: Take the flesh of a 
 
 io6 
 
WITH DIRECTIONS HOW TO FISH FOR HIM 
 
 rabbit or cat cut small, and bean-flour, and if that may not be 
 easily got, get other flour, and then mix these together, and 
 put to them either sugar, or honey, which I think better, and 
 then beat these together in a mortar, or sometimes work them 
 in your hands, your hands being very clean, and then make it 
 into a ball, or two, or three, as you like best for your use ; but 
 you must work or pound it so long in the mortar, as to make 
 it so tough as to hang upon your hook without washing from 
 it, yet not too hard; or that you may the better keep it on 
 your hook, you may knead with your paste a little, and not 
 much, white or yellowish wool. 
 
 And if you would have this paste keep all the year for any 
 other fish, then mix with it virgin-wax and clarified honey, 
 and work them together with your hands before the fire, then 
 make these into balls, and they will keep all the year. 
 
 And if you fish for a Carp with Gentles, then put upon your 
 hook, a small piece of scarlet about this bigness Qj it being 
 soaked in, or anointed with Oil of Peter, called by some Oil of 
 the Rock ; and if your gentles be put two or three days before, 
 into a box or horn anointed with honey, and so put upon your 
 hook as to preserve them to be living, you are as like to kill 
 this crafty fish this way as any other; but still as you are 
 fishing, chew a little white or brown bread in your mouth, and 
 cast it into the pond about the place where your float swims. 
 Other baits there be, but these with diligence, and patient 
 watchfulness, will do it better than any that I have ever prac- 
 tised, or heard of: And yet I shall tell you, that the crumbs of 
 white bread a,nd honey made into a paste, is a good bait for a 
 Carp, and you know it is more easily made. And having said 
 thus much of the Carp, my next discourse shall be of the Bream, 
 which shall not prove so tedious, and therefore I desire the 
 continuance of your attention. 
 
 But first I will tell you how to make this Carp, that is 
 so curious to be caught, so curious a dish of meat, as shall 
 make him worth all your labour and patience: and though it 
 is not without some trouble and charges, yet it will recompense 
 both. 
 
 Take a Carp, alive if possible, scour him, and rub him clean 
 with water and salt, but scale him not ; then open him, and put 
 
 107 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF THE CARP 
 
 him with his blood and his liver, which you must save when you 
 open him, into a small pot or kettle ; then take Sweet-marjoram, 
 Thyme, and Parsley, of each half a handful, a sprig of Rose- 
 mary, and another of Savory, bind them into two or three small 
 bundles, and put them to your Carp, with four or five whole 
 Onions, twenty pickled Oysters, and three Anchovies. Then 
 pour upon your Carp as much Claret wine as will only cover 
 him ; and season your claret well with salt, cloves, and mace, 
 and the rinds of oranges and lemons ; that done, cover your pot 
 and set it on a quick fire, till it be sufficiently boiled ; then take 
 out the Carp, and lay it with the broth into the dish, and pour 
 upon it a quarter of a pound of the best fresh butter, melted 
 and beaten with half a dozen spoonfuls of the broth, the yolks 
 of two or three eggs, and some of the herbs shred ; garnish 
 your dish with lemons, and so serve it up, and much good do 
 you. Dr. T. 
 
 io8 
 
CHAPTER X. OBSERVATIONS OF THE BREAM, AND 
 DIRECTIONS TO CATCH HIM 
 
 PISCATOR 
 
 THE Bream being at a full growth, is a large and stately 
 fish : he will breed both in rivers and ponds ; but loves 
 best to live in ponds, and where, if he likes the water 
 and air, he will grow not only to be very large, but as fat as a 
 hog : he is by Gesner taken to be more pleasant or sweet than 
 wholesome : this fish is long in growing, but breeds exceedingly 
 in a water that pleases him ; yea, in many ponds so fast, as to 
 over-store them, and starve the other fish. 
 
 He is very broad with a forked tail, and his scales set in 
 excellent order ; he hath large eyes, and a narrow sucking 
 mouth ; he hath two sets of teeth, and a lozenge-like bone, a 
 bone to help his grinding. The Melter is observed to have two 
 large melts, and the female two large bags of eggs or spawn. 
 
 Gesner reports, that in Poland, a certain and a great number 
 of large Breams were put into a pond, which in the next 
 following Winter were frozen up into one entire ice, and not 
 one drop of water remaining, nor one of these fish to be found, 
 though they were diligently searched for ; and yet the next 
 Spring when the ice was thawed, and the weather warm, and 
 fresh water got into the pond, he affirms they all appeared 
 again. This Gesner affirms, and I quote my author, because it 
 seems almost as incredible as the resurrection to an atheist. 
 But it may win something in point of believing it, to him that 
 considers the breeding or renovation of the silk-worm, and of 
 many insects. And that is considerable which Sir Francis 
 Bacon observes in his * History of Life and Death,* fol. 20, that 
 there be some herbs that die and spring every year, and some 
 endure longer. 
 
 109 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF THE BREAM 
 
 But though some do not, yet the French esteem this fish 
 highly, and to that end have this proverb, * He that hath Breams 
 in his pond, is able to bid his friend welcome.' And it is noted, 
 that the best part of a Bream is his belly and head. 
 
 Some say, that Breams and Roaches will mix their eggs 
 and melt together, and so there is in many places a bastard 
 breed of Breams, that never come to be either large or good, 
 but very numerous. 
 
 The baits good to catch this Bream, are many. i. Paste 
 made of brown bread and honey, Gentles, or the brood of 
 wasps that be young, and then not unlike gentles, and should 
 be hardened in an oven, or dried on a tile before the fire to 
 make them tough ; or there is at the root of docks or flags, 
 or rushes in watery places, a worm not unlike a maggot, at 
 which Tench will bite freely. Or he will bite at a Grashopper 
 with his legs nipped off in June and July, or at several flies 
 under water, which may be found on flags that grow near to 
 the water-side. I doubt not but that there be many other 
 baits that are good, but I will turn them all into this most 
 excellent one, either for a Carp or Bream, in any river or mere : 
 it was given to me by a most honest and excellent Angler, and 
 hoping you will prove both, I will impart it to you. 
 
 1. Let your bait be as big a Red-worm as you can find, 
 without a knot ; get a pint or quart of them in an evening in 
 garden walks, or chalky commons, after a shower of rain ; and 
 put them with clean moss well washed and picked, and the 
 water squeezed out of the moss as dry as you can, into an 
 earthen pot or pipkin set dry, and change the moss fresh every 
 three or four days for three weeks or a month together ; then 
 your bait will be at the best, for it will be clear and lively. 
 
 2. Having thus prepared your baits, get your tackling ready 
 and fitted for this sport. Take three long angling-rods, and as 
 many and more silk, or silk and hair lines, and as many large 
 
 swan or goose-quill floats. Then take a piece of lead 
 made after this manner, and fasten them to the low- 
 ends of your lines. Then fasten your link-hook also to 
 the lead, and let there be about a foot or ten inches 
 between the lead and the hook, but be sure the lead be heavy 
 enough to sink the float or quill a little under the water, and 
 no 
 
AND DIRECTIONS TO CATCH HIM 
 
 not the quill to bear up the lead, for the lead must lie on the 
 ground. Note, that your link next the hook may be smaller 
 than the rest of your line, if you dare adventure, for fear of 
 taking the Pike or Pearch, who will assuredly visit your hooks, 
 till they be taken out, as I will shew you afterwards, before 
 either Carp or Bream will come near to bite. Note also, that 
 when the worm is well baited, it will crawl up and down, as 
 far as the lead will give leave, which much enticeth the fish to 
 bite without suspicion. 
 
 3. Having thus prepared your baits, and fitted your tackling, 
 repair to the river, where you have seen them to swim in skuls 
 or shoals in the Summer time in a hot afternoon, about three 
 or four of the clock, and watch their going forth of their deep 
 holes and returning, which you may well discern, for they 
 return about four of the clock, most of them seeking food at 
 the bottom, yet one or two will lie on the top of the water, 
 rolling and tumbling themselves whilst the rest are under him 
 at the bottom, and so you shall perceive him to keep sentinel ; 
 then mark where he plays most, and stays longest, which 
 commonly is in the broadest and deepest place of the river, 
 and there, or near thereabouts, at a clear bottom, and a con- 
 venient landing-place, take one of your angles ready fitted as 
 aforesaid, and sound the bottom, which should be about eight 
 or ten feet deep ; two yards from the bank is the best. Then 
 consider with yourself whether that water will rise or fall by 
 the next morning, by reason of any water-mills near, and 
 according to your discretion take the depth of the place, 
 where you mean after to cast your ground-bait, and to fish, to 
 half an inch ; that the lead lying on, or near the ground-bait, 
 the top of the float may only appear upright half an inch above 
 the water. 
 
 Thus you having found and fitted for the place and depth 
 thereof, then go home and prepare your ground-bait, which is 
 next to the fruit of your labours, to be regarded. 
 
 THE GROUND-BAIT 
 
 You shall take a peck, or a peck and a half, according to 
 the greatness of the stream, and deepness of the water, where 
 
 R III 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF THE BREAM 
 
 you mean to angle, of sweet gross-ground barley-malt, and boil 
 it in a kettle ; one or two warms is enough ; then strain it 
 through a bag into a tub, the liquor whereof hath often done 
 my horse much good, and when the bag and malt is near cold, 
 take it down to the water-side about eight or nine of the clock 
 in the evening, and not before : cast in two parts of your ground- 
 bait, squeezed hard between both your hands, it will sink 
 presently to the bottom, and be sure it may rest in the very 
 place where you mean to angle : if the stream run hard, or 
 move a little, cast your malt in handfuls a little the higher, 
 upwards the stream. You may between your hands close the 
 malt so fast in handfuls, that the water will hardly part it with 
 the fall. 
 
 Your ground thus baited, and tackling fitted, leave your 
 bag with the rest of your tackling and ground-bait near the 
 sporting-place all night, and in the morning about three or four 
 of the clock visit the water-side, but not too near, for they have 
 a cunning watchman, and are watchful themselves too. 
 
 Then gently take one of your three rods, and bait your 
 hook, casting it over your ground-bait, and gently and secretly 
 draw it to you, till the lead rests about the middle of the 
 ground-bait. 
 
 Then take a second rod and cast in about a yard above, 
 and your third a yard below the first rod, and stay the rods in 
 the ground, but go yourself so far from the water-side, that you 
 perceive nothing but the top of the floats, which you must 
 watch most diligently; then, when you have a bite, you shall 
 perceive the top of your float to sink suddenly into the water ; 
 yet nevertheless be not too hasty to run to your rods, until you 
 see that the line goes clear away, then creep to the water-side, 
 and give as much line as possibly you can : if it be a good Carp 
 or Bream, they will go to the farther side of the river, then 
 strike gently, and hold your rod at a bent a little while ; but 
 if you both pull together, you are sure to lose your game, for 
 either your line, or hook, or hold will break ; and after you have 
 overcome them, they will make noble sport, and are very shy 
 to be landed. The Carp is far stronger and more mettlesome 
 than the Bream. 
 
 Much more is to be observed in this kind of fish and fishing, 
 
 112 
 
Go yourself so far from the water-side, that you perceive nothing but the top of the floats, 
 which you must watch most diligently. 
 
AND DIRECTIONS TO CATCH HIM 
 
 but it is far fitter for experience and discourse than paper. 
 Only thus much is necessary for you to know, and to be mindful 
 and careful of; that if the Pike or Pearch do breed in that 
 river, they will be sure to bite first, and must first be taken. 
 And for the most part they are very large, and will repair to 
 your ground-bait, not that they will eat of it, but will feed and 
 sport themselves amongst the young fry, that gather about and 
 hover over the bait. 
 
 The way to discern the Pike and to take him, if you mis- 
 trust your Bream-hook, — for I have taken a Pike a yard long 
 several times at my Bream-hooks, and sometimes he hath had 
 the luck to share my line, — may be thus : 
 
 Take a small Bleak, or Roach, or Gudgeon, and bait it, 
 and set it alive among your rods two foot deep from the cork, 
 with a little red-worm on the point of the hook ; then take a 
 few crums of white-bread, or some of the ground-bait, and 
 sprinkle it gently amongst your rods. If Mr. Pike be there, 
 then the little fish will skip out of the water at his appearance, 
 but the live-set bait is sure to be taken. 
 
 Thus continue your sport from four in the morning till eight, 
 and if it be a gloomy, windy day, they will bite all day long. 
 But this is too long to stand to your rods at one place, and it 
 will spoil your evening-sport that day, which is this. 
 
 About four of the clock in the afternoon repair to your 
 baited place ; and as soon as you come to the water-side, cast 
 in one half of the rest of your ground-bait, and stand off : then 
 whilst the fish are gathering together, for there they will most 
 certainly come for their supper, you may take a pipe of tobacco ; 
 and then in with your three rods as in the morning : You will 
 find excellent sport that evening till eight of the clock ; then 
 cast in the residue of your ground-bait, and next morning by 
 four of the clock, visit them again for four hours, which is the 
 best sport of all ; and after that, let them rest till you and your 
 friends have a mind to more sport. 
 
 From St. James's-tide until Bartholomew-tide is the best; 
 when they have had all the Summer's food, they are the 
 fattest. 
 
 Observe lastly, that after three or four days' fishing together, 
 your game will be very shy and wary; and you shall hardly 
 
 113 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF THE BREAM 
 
 get above a bite or two at a baiting ; then your only way is to 
 desist from your sport about two or three days ; and in the 
 mean time, on the place you late baited, and again intend to 
 bait — you shall take a turf of green, but short grass, as big or 
 bigger than a round trencher ; to the top of this turf, on the 
 green side, you shall with a needle and green thread fasten 
 one by one as many little red-worms as will near cover all the 
 turf: Then take a round board or trencher, make a hole in the 
 middle thereof, and through the turf, placed on the board or 
 trencher, with a string or cord as long as is fitting, tied to a 
 pole, let it down to the bottom of the water for the fish to 
 feed upon without disturbance about two or three days ; and 
 after that you have drawn it away, you may fall to, and enjoy 
 your former recreation. B. A. 
 
 114 
 
CHAPTER XI. OBSERVATIONS OF THE TENCH, 
 AND ADVICE HOW TO ANGLE FOR HIM 
 
 PISCATOR 
 
 THE Tench, the Physician of fishes, is observed to love 
 ponds better than rivers, and to love pits better than 
 either; yet Camden observes there is a river in Dorset- 
 shire that abounds with Tenches, but doubtless they retire to 
 the most deep and quiet places in it. 
 
 This fish hath very large fins, very small and smooth scales, 
 a red circle about his eyes, which are big and of a gold colour, 
 and from either angle of his mouth there hangs down a little 
 barb: in every Tench's head there are two little stones, which 
 foreign physicians make great use of ; but he is not commended 
 for wholesome meat, though there be very much use made of 
 them, for outward applications. Rondeletius says, that at his 
 being at Rome, he saw a great cure done by applying a Tench 
 to the feet of a very sick man. This he says, was done after 
 an unusual manner by certain Jews. And it is observed, that 
 many of those people have many secrets, yet unknown to 
 Christians ; secrets that have never yet been written, but have 
 been since the days of their Solomon, who knew the nature of 
 all things, even from the cedar to the shrub, delivered by 
 tradition from the father to the son, and so from generation to 
 generation without writing, or unless it were casually, without 
 the least communicating them to any other nation or tribe : for 
 to do that, they account a profanation. And yet it is thought 
 that they, or some spirit worse than they, first told us, that lice 
 swallowed alive were a certain cure for the Yellow-Jaundice. 
 This, and many other medicines were discovered by them or by 
 revelation ; for, doubtless, we attained them not by study. 
 
 Well, this fish, besides his eating, is very useful both dead 
 
 115 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF THE TENCH 
 
 and alive, for the good of mankind. But I will meddle no more 
 with that, my honest humble art teaches no such boldness ; 
 there are too many foolish meddlers in physic and divinity, that 
 think themselves fit to meddle with hidden secrets, and so bring 
 destruction to their followers. But I '11 not meddle with them 
 any farther than to wish them wiser; and shall tell you next, 
 for, I hope, I may be so bold, that the Tench is the physician 
 of fishes, for the Pike especially ; and that the Pike, being 
 either sick or hurt, is cured by the touch of the Tench. And 
 it is observed, that the tyrant Pike will not be a wolf to his 
 physician, but forbears to devour him though he be never so 
 hungry. 
 
 This fish, that carries a natural balsam in him to cure both 
 himself and others, loves yet to feed in very foul water, and 
 amongst weeds. And yet I am sure he eats pleasantly, and, 
 doubtless, you will think so too, if you taste him. And I shall 
 therefore proceed to give you some few, and but a few, direc- 
 tions how to catch this Tench, of which I have given you these 
 observations. 
 
 He will bite at a Paste made of brown bread and honey, or 
 at a Marsh-worm, or a Lob-worm ; he inclines very much to any 
 paste with which tar is mixed, and he will bite also at a smaller 
 worm, with his head nipped off, and a Cod-worm put on the 
 hook before that worm ; and I doubt not but that he will also 
 in the three hot months, — for in the nine colder he stirs not 
 much, — bite at a Flag- worm, or at a Green Gentle, but can 
 positively say no more of the Tench, he being a fish that I have 
 not often angled for, but I wish my honest Scholar may, and 
 be ever fortunate when he fishes. 
 
 Ii6 
 
CHAPTER XII. OBSERVATIONS OF THE PEARCH, 
 AND DIRECTIONS HOW TO FISH FOR HIM 
 
 PISCATOR AND VENATOR 
 
 PISCATOR. The Pearch is a very good, and a very bold- 
 biting fish : he is one of the fishes of prey, that, like the 
 Pike and Trout, carries his teeth in his mouth ; which 
 is very large, and he dare venture to kill and devour several 
 other kinds of fish : he has a hooked, or hog back, which is 
 armed with sharp and stiff bristles, and all his skin armed or 
 covered over with thick, dry, hard scales, and hath, which few 
 other fish have, two fins on his back : he is so bold, that he 
 will invade one of his own kind, which the Pike will not do so 
 willingly, and, you may therefore easily believe him to be a 
 bold biter. 
 
 The Pearch is of great esteem in Italy, saith Aldrovandus, 
 and especially the least are there esteemed a dainty dish. And 
 Gesner prefers the Pearch and Pike above the Trout, or any 
 fresh-water fish : he says, the Germans have this Proverb, 
 * More wholesome than a Pearch of Rhine ' : and he says the 
 River-Pearch is so wholesome, that physicians allow him to be 
 eaten by wounded men, or by men in fevers, or by women in 
 child-bed. 
 
 He spawns but once a year, and is by physicians held very 
 nutritive ; yet by many to be hard of digestion : they abound 
 more in the River Po and in England, says Rondeletius, than 
 other parts, and have in their brain a stone which is in foreign 
 parts sold by apothecaries, being there noted to be very medi- 
 cinable against the stone in the reins : these be a part of the 
 commendations which some philosophical brains have bestowed 
 upon the fresh-water Pearch : yet they commend the Sea- 
 Pearch, which is known by having but one fin on his back, — 
 s 117 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF THE PEARCH 
 
 of which they say, we English see but a few, — to be a much 
 better fish. 
 
 The Pearch grows slowly, yet will grow, as I have been 
 credibly informed, to be almost two foot long ; for an honest 
 informer told me, such a one was not long since taken by Sir 
 Abraham Williams, a gentleman of worth, and a Brother of the 
 Angle, that yet lives, and I wish he may : this was a deep- 
 bodied fish : and doubtless durst have devoured a Pike of half 
 his own length : for I have told you, he is a bold fish, such a 
 one as, but for extreme hunger, the Pike will not devour : for 
 to affright the Pike, and save himself, the Pearch will set up 
 his fins, much like as a Turkey-Cock will sometimes set up 
 his tail. 
 
 But, my Scholar, the Pearch is not only valiant to defend 
 himself, but he is, as I said, a bold-biting fish, yet he will not 
 bite at all seasons of the year ; he is very abstemious in Winter, 
 yet will bite then in the midst of the day, if it be warm : and 
 note, that all fish bite best about the midst of a warm day in 
 Winter, and he hath been observed by some, not usually to 
 bite till the Mulberry-tree buds ; that is to say, till extreme 
 frosts be past the Spring ; for when the Mulberry-tree blossoms, 
 many Gardeners observe their forward fruit to be past the 
 danger of frosts, and some have made the like observation of 
 the Pearch's biting. 
 
 But bite the Pearch will, and that very boldly : and as one 
 has wittily observed, if there be twenty or forty in a hole, they 
 may be at one standing all catched one after another ; they 
 being, as he says, like the wicked of the world, not afraid, 
 though their fellows and companions perish in their sight. 
 And you may observe, that they are not like the solitary Pike ; 
 but love to accompany one another, and march together in 
 troops. 
 
 And the baits for this bold fish, are not many ; I mean, he 
 will bite as well at some, or at any of these three, as at any, or 
 all others whatsoever, a Worm, a Minnow, or a little Frog, of 
 which you may find many in hay-time : and of worms, the Dung- 
 hill-worm, called a Brandling, I take to be best, being well 
 scoured in moss or fennel ; or he will bite at a worm that lies 
 under cow-dung with a bluish head. And if you rove for a 
 ii8 
 
AND DIRECTIONS HOW TO FISH FOR HIM 
 
 Pearch with a Minnow, then it is best to be alive, you sticking 
 your hook through his back-fin ; or a Minnow with the hook 
 in his upper lip, and letting him swim up and down about mid- 
 water, or a little lower, and you still keeping him to about that 
 depth, by a cork, which ought not to be a very little one : and 
 the like way you are to fish for the Pearch, with a small Frog, 
 your hook being fastened through the skin of his leg, towards 
 the upper part of it : and lastly, I will give you but this advice, 
 that you give the Pearch time enough when he bites, for there 
 was scarce ever any Angler that has given him too much. And 
 now I think best to rest myself, for I have almost spent my 
 spirits with talking so long. 
 
 Venator. Nay, good Master, one fish more, for you see it 
 rains still, and you know our Angles are like money put to 
 usury ; they may thrive, though we sit still and do nothing but 
 talk and enjoy one another. Come, come, the other fish, good 
 Master. 
 
 Pisc. But, Scholar, have you nothing to mix with this 
 discourse, which now grows both tedious and tiresome ? Shall 
 I have nothing from you, that seem to have both a good memory 
 and a cheerful spirit ? 
 
 Ven. Yes, Master, I will speak you a copy of verses that 
 were made by Doctor Donne, and made to shew the world that 
 he could make soft and smooth verses when he thought smooth- 
 ness worth his labour ; and I love them the better, because they 
 allude to rivers, and fish, and fishing. They be these : 
 
 Come live with me, and be my love, 
 And we will some new pleasures prove, 
 Of golden sands, and crystal brooks. 
 With silken lines, and silver hooks. 
 
 There will the river whisp'ring run, 
 Warm'd by thy eyes more than the Sun ; 
 And there the enamell'd fish will stay, 
 Begging themselves they may betray. 
 
 When thou wilt swim in that live bath, 
 Each fish, which ev'ry channel hath. 
 Most am'rously to thee will swim, 
 Gladder to catch thee, than thou him. 
 
 119 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF THE PEARCH 
 
 If thou, to be so seen, be'st loath. 
 By sun or moon, thou dark'nest both; 
 And if mine eyes have leave to see, 
 I need not their light, having thee. 
 
 Let others freeze with Angling-reeds, 
 
 And cut their legs with shells and weeds;— 
 
 Or treach'rously poor fish beset, 
 
 With strangling snares, or windowy net : — 
 
 Let coarse bold hands, from slimy nest, 
 The bedded fish in banks outwrest;— 
 Let curious traitors sleave silk flies. 
 To 'witch poor wand'ring fishes eyes :— 
 
 For thee, thou need'st no such deceit, 
 For thou thyself art thine own bait : 
 That fish that is not catch'd thereby, 
 Is wiser far, Alas! than I. 
 
 Pisc. Well remembered, honest Scholar, I thank you for 
 these choice verses, which I have heard formerly, but had quite 
 forgot, till they were recovered by your happy memory. Well, 
 being I have now rested myself a little, I will make you some 
 requital, by telling you some observations of the Eel, for it 
 rains still, and because, as you say, our Angles are as money 
 put to use, that thrives when we play, therefore we'll sit still 
 and enjoy ourselves a little longer under this honey-suckle- 
 hedge. 
 
 I20 
 
CHAPTER XIII. OBSERVATIONS OF THE EEL, AND 
 OTHER FISH THAT WANT SCALES, AND HOW 
 TO FISH FOR THEM 
 
 PISCATOR 
 
 IT is agreed by most men, that the Eel is a most dainty fish ; 
 the Romans have esteemed her the Helena of their feasts, 
 
 and some the Queen of palate-pleasure. But most men 
 differ about their breeding: some say they breed by genera- 
 tion as other fish do, and others, that they breed as some 
 worms do, of mud, as rats and mice, and many other living 
 creatures are bred in Egypt, by the Sun's heat when it shines 
 upon the overflowing of the river Nilus : or out of the putre- 
 faction of the earth, and divers other ways. Those that deny 
 them to breed by generation as other fish do, ask, if any man 
 ever saw an Eel to have a spawn or melt? and they are 
 answered, that they may be as certain of their breeding as if 
 they had seen them spawn : for they say, that they are certain 
 that Eels have all parts fit for generation, like other fish, but 
 so small as not to be easily discerned, by reason of their fat- 
 ness, but that discerned they may be, and that the he and the 
 she-Eel may be distinguished by their fins. And Rondeletius 
 says, he has seen Eels cling together like dew-worms. 
 
 And others say, that Eels growing old, breed other Eels 
 out of the corruption of their own age, which Sir Francis Bacon 
 says, exceeds not ten years. And others say, that as pearls are 
 made of glutinous dew-drops, which are condensed by the Sun's 
 heat in those countries, so Eels are bred of a particular dew, 
 falling in the months of May or June on the banks of some 
 particular ponds or rivers,— apted by nature for that end,— 
 which in a few days are by the Sun's heat turned into Eels; 
 and some of the ancients have called the Eels that are thus 
 
 121 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF THE EEL 
 
 bred, the Offspring of Jove. I have seen in the beginning of 
 July, in a river not far from Canterbury, some parts of it 
 covered over with young Eels, about the thickness of a straw ; 
 and these Eels did lie on the top of that water, as thick as 
 motes are said to be in the Sun: and I have heard the like 
 of other rivers, as namely in Severn, — where they are called 
 Yelvers, — and in a pond or mere near unto Staffordshire, where 
 about a set time in Summer, such small Eels abound so much, 
 that many of the poorer sort of people, that inhabit near to it, 
 take such Eels out of this mere, with sieves or sheets, and 
 make a kind of Eel-cake of them, and eat it like as bread. 
 And Gesner quotes Venerable Bede to say, that in England 
 there is an Island called Ely, by reason of the innumerable 
 number of Eels that breed in it. But that Eels may be bred 
 as some worms, and some kind of Bees and Wasps are, either 
 of dew, or out of the corruption of the earth, seems to be made 
 probable by the Barnacles and young Goslings bred by the 
 Sun's heat, and the rotten planks of an old Ship, and hatched 
 of trees ; both which are related for truths by Du Bartas and 
 Lobel, and also by our learned Camden, and laborious Gerard 
 in his * Herbal.' 
 
 It is said by Rondeletius, that those Eels that are bred in 
 rivers that relate to, or be nearer to the sea, never return to the 
 fresh waters, as the Salmon does always desire to do, when 
 they have once tasted the salt-water; and I do the more 
 easily believe this, because I am certain that powdered beef 
 is a most excellent bait to catch an Eel : and though Sir 
 Francis Bacon will allow the Eel's life to be but ten years, 
 yet he, in his * History of Life and Death,' mentions a Lamprey 
 belonging to the Roman Emperor to be made tame, and so 
 kept for almost threescore years : and that such useful and 
 pleasant observations were made of this Lamprey, that 
 Crassus the Orator, who kept her, lamented her death. And 
 we read in Dr. Hakewill, that Hortensius was seen to weep 
 at the death of a Lamprey that he had kept long, and loved 
 exceedingly. 
 
 It is granted by all, or most men, that Eels, for about six 
 months, that is to say, the six cold months of the year, stir not 
 up and down, neither in the rivers, nor in the pools in which 
 
 122 
 
AND OTHER FISH THAT WANT SCALES 
 
 they usually are, but get into the soft earth or mud, and there 
 many of them together bed themselves, and live without feeding 
 upon any thing, as I have told you some Swallows have been 
 observed to do in hollow trees for those cold six months : and 
 this the Eel and Swallow do, as not being able to endure 
 winter-weather ; for Gesner quotes Albertus to say, that in 
 the year 1125, that year's winter being more cold than usually, 
 Eels did by Nature's instinct get out of the water into a stack 
 of hay in a meadow upon dry ground, and there bedded them- 
 selves, but yet at last a frost killed them. And our Camden 
 relates, that in Lancashire, fishes were digged out of the 
 earth with spades, where no water was near to the place. I 
 shall say little more of the Eel, but that, as it is observed, he 
 is impatient of cold, so it hath been observed, that in warm 
 weather an Eel has been known to live five days out of the 
 water. 
 
 And lastly, let me tell you that some curious searchers into 
 the natures of fish, observe that there be several sorts or kinds 
 of Eels, as the Silver Eel, and Green or Greenish Eel, with 
 which the river of Thames abounds, and those are called Grigs ; 
 and a Blackish Eel, whose head is more flat and bigger than 
 ordinary Eels : and also an Eel whose fins are reddish, and but 
 seldom taken in this Nation, and yet taken sometimes : these 
 several kinds of Eels are, say some, diversly bred, as namely, 
 out of the corruption of the earth, and some by dew, and other 
 ways, as I have said to you : and yet it is affirmed by some 
 for a certain, that the Silver Eel is bred by generation, but 
 not by spawning as other fish do, but that her brood come alive 
 from her, being then little live Eels no bigger nor longer than 
 a pin ; and I have had too many testimonies of this to doubt the 
 truth of it myself, and if I thought it needful I might prove it, 
 but I think it is needless. 
 
 And this Eel, of which I have said so much to you, may 
 be caught with divers kinds of baits : as namely, with powdered 
 beef, with a Lob, or Garden-worm, with a Minnow, or gut of a 
 Hen, Chicken, or the guts of any fish, or with almost any thing, 
 for he is a greedy fish ; but the Eel may be caught especially 
 with a little, a very little Lamprey, which some call a Pride, 
 and may in the hot months be found many of them in the river 
 
 123 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF THE EEL 
 
 Thames, and in many mud-heaps in other rivers, yea, almost as 
 usually as one finds worms in a dunghill. 
 
 Next note, that the Eel seldom stirs in the day, but then 
 hides himself, and therefore he is usually caught by night, with 
 one of these baits of which I have spoken, and may be then 
 caught by laying hooks, which you are to fasten to the bank, 
 or twigs of a tree ; or by throwing a string cross the stream 
 with many hooks at it, and those baited with the aforesaid baits, 
 and a clod, or plummet, or stone, thrown into the river with 
 this line, that so you may in the morning find it near to some 
 fixed place, and then take it up with a drag-hook or otherwise : 
 but these things are indeed too common to be spoken of, and 
 an hour's fishing with any Angler will teach you better both 
 for these and many other common things in the practical part 
 of Angling, than a week's discourse. I shall therefore conclude 
 this direction for taking the Eel, by telling you, that in a warm 
 day in summer, I have taken many a good Eel by Snigling, 
 and have been much pleased with that sport. 
 
 And because you that are but a young Angler, know not 
 what Snigling is, I will now teach it to you. You remember I 
 told you that Eels do not usually stir in the day-time, for then 
 they hide themselves under some covert, or under boards or 
 planks about flood-gates, or wears, or mills, or in holes in the 
 river-banks ; so that you observing your time in a warm day, 
 when the water is lowest, may take a strong, small hook, tied 
 to a strong line, or to a string about a yard long, and then into 
 one of these holes, or between any boards about a mill, or under 
 any great stone or plank, or any place where you think an Eel 
 may hide or shelter herself, you may with the help of a short 
 stick put in your bait, but leisurely, and as far as you may 
 conveniently : and it is scarce to be doubted, but that if there 
 be an Eel within the sight of it, the Eel will bite instantly, and 
 as certainly gorge it : and you need not doubt to have him, if 
 you pull him not out of the hole too quickly, but pull him out 
 by degrees, for he lying folded double in his hole, will with the 
 help of his tail break all, unless you give him time to be 
 wearied with pulling, and so get him out by degrees, not pulling 
 too hard. 
 
 And to commute for your patient hearing this long direction, 
 124 
 
I have taken many a good Eel by Snigling. 
 
AND OTHER FISH THAT WANT SCALES 
 
 I shall next tell you how to make this Eel a most excellent 
 dish of meat. 
 
 First, wash him in water and salt, then pull off his skin 
 below his vent or navel, and not much further: having done 
 that, take out his guts as clean as you can, but wash him not : 
 then give him three or four scotches with a knife, and then put 
 into his belly and those scotches, sweet herbs, an anchovy, and 
 a little nutmeg grated, or cut very small, and your herbs and 
 anchovies must also be cut very small, and mixed with good 
 butter and salt ; having done this, then pull his skin over him 
 all but his head, which you are to cut off, to the end you may 
 tie his skin about that part where his head grew, and it must 
 be so tied as to keep all his moisture within his skin : and 
 having done this, tie him with tape or packthread to a spit, 
 and roast him leisurely, and baste him with water and salt till 
 his skin breaks, and then with butter : and having roasted him 
 enough, let what was put into his belly, and what he drips, be 
 his sauce. S. F. 
 
 When I go to dress an Eel thus, I wish he were as long 
 and big as that which was caught in Peterborough river in the 
 year 1667, which was a yard and three quarters long. If you 
 will not believe me, then go and see at one of the Coffee-houses 
 in King- street in Westminster. 
 
 But now let me tell you, that though the Eel thus dressed 
 be not only excellent good, but more harmless than any other 
 way, yet it is certain, that physicians account the Eel dangerous 
 meat ; I will advise you therefore, as Solomon says of honey, 
 Prov. XXV. 16, * hast thou found it, eat no more than is sufficient, 
 lest thou surfeit, for it is not good to eat much honey.' And let 
 me add this, that the uncharitable Italian bids us, *give Eels, 
 and no Wine to our Enemies.' 
 
 And I will beg a little more of your attention to tell you, 
 that Aldrovandus and divers physicians, commend the Eel 
 very much for medicine, though not for meat. But let me tell 
 you one observation ; that the Eel is never out of season, as 
 Trouts and most other fish are at set times, at least most Eels 
 are not. 
 
 I might here speak of many other fish whose shape and 
 
 125 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF THE EEL 
 
 nature are much like the Eel, and frequent both the sea and 
 fresh rivers ; as namely, the Lamprel, the Lamprey, and the 
 Lamperne : as also of the mighty Conger, taken often in Severn 
 about Gloucester ; and might also tell in what high esteem many 
 of them are for the curiosity of their taste ; but these are not 
 so proper to be talked of by me, because they make us Anglers 
 no sport, therefore I will let them alone as the Jews do, to whom 
 they are forbidden by their law. 
 
 And, Scholar, there is also a Flounder, a sea-fish, which 
 will wander very far into fresh rivers, and there lose himself, 
 and dwell and thrive to a hand's breadth, and almost twice so 
 long ; a fish without scales, and most excellent meat, and a fish 
 that affords much sport to the Angler, with any small worm, 
 but especially a little bluish worm, gotten out of marsh-ground 
 or meadows, which should be well scoured ; but this, though it 
 be most excellent meat, yet it wants scales, and is, as I told 
 you, therefore an abomination to the Jews. 
 
 But, Scholar, there is a fish that they in Lancashire boast 
 very much of, called a Char, taken there, and I think there only, 
 in a Mere called Winander-Mere ; a Mere, says Camden, that 
 is the largest in this nation, being ten miles in length, and some 
 say, as smooth in the bottom as if it were paved with polished 
 marble : this fish never exceeds fifteen or sixteen inches in 
 length, and 'tis spotted like a Trout, and has scarce a bone but 
 on the back : but this, though I do not know whether it make 
 the Angler sport, yet I would have you take notice of it, 
 because it is a rarity, and of so high esteem with persons of 
 great note. 
 
 Nor would I have you ignorant of a rare fish called a 
 Guiniad, of which I shall tell you what Camden, and others 
 speak. The river Dee, which runs by Chester, springs in 
 Merionethshire, and as it runs towards Chester, it runs through 
 Pemble-Mere, which is a large water : and it is observed, that 
 though the river Dee abounds with Salmon, and Pemble-Mere 
 with the Guiniad, yet there is never any Salmon caught in the 
 Mere, nor a Guiniad in the river. And now my next observation 
 shall be of the Barbel. 
 
 126 
 
CHAPTER XIV. OBSERVATIONS OF THE BARBEL, 
 AND DIRECTIONS HOW TO FISH FOR HIM 
 
 PISCATOR, VENATOR, AND MILK-WOMAN 
 
 PISCATOR. The Barbel is so called, says Gesner, by 
 reason of his barb or wattels at his mouth, which are 
 under his nose or chaps. He is one of those leather- 
 mouthed fishes that I told you of, that does very seldom break 
 his hold if he be once hooked : but he is so strong, that 
 he will often break both rod and line, if he proves to be a 
 big one. 
 
 But the Barbel, though he be of a fine shape, and looks 
 big, yet he is not accounted the best fish to eat, neither for his 
 wholesomeness nor his taste: but the male is reputed much 
 better than the female, whose spawn is very hurtful, as I will 
 presently declare to you. 
 
 They flock together like sheep, and are at the worst in 
 April, about which time they spawn, but quickly grow to be in 
 season. He is able to live in the strongest swifts of the water, 
 and in Summer they love the shallowest and sharpest streams ; 
 and love to lurk under weeds, and to feed on gravel against a 
 rising ground, and will root and dig in the sands with his nose 
 like a hog, and there nests himself: yet sometimes he retires 
 to deep and swift bridges, or flood-gates, or wears, where he 
 will nest himself amongst piles, or in hollow places, and take 
 such hold of moss or weeds, that be the water never so swift, 
 it is not able to force him from the place that he contends for. 
 This is his constant custom in Summer, when he and most 
 living creatures sport themselves in the sun, but at the approach 
 of Winter, then he forsakes the swift streams and shallow 
 waters, and by degrees retires to those parts of the river that 
 are quiet and deeper; in which places, and I think about 
 
 127 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF THE BARBEL 
 
 that time, he spawns, and as I have formerly told you, with the 
 help of the melter, hides his spawn or eggs in holes, which they 
 both dig in the gravel, and then they mutually labour to cover 
 it with the same sand, to prevent it from being devoured by 
 other fish. 
 
 There be such store of this fish in the river Danube, that 
 Rondeletius says, they may in some places of it, and in some 
 months of the year, be taken by those that dwell near to the 
 river, with their hands, eight or ten load at a time ; he says, 
 they begin to be good in May, and that they cease to be so 
 in August, but it is found to be otherwise in this nation: but 
 thus far we agree with him, that the spawn of a Barbel, if it 
 be not poison, as he says, yet that it is dangerous meat, and 
 especially in the month of May, which is so certain, that 
 Gesner and Gasius, declare it had an ill effect upon them, even 
 to the endangering of their lives. 
 
 This fish is of a fine cast and handsome shape, with small 
 scales, which are placed after a most exact and curious 
 manner, and, as I told you, may be rather said not to be ill, 
 than to be good meat; the Chub and he have, I think, both 
 lost part of their credit by ill cookery, they being reputed the 
 worst or coarsest of fresh-water fish ; but the Barbel affords 
 an Angler choice sport, being a lusty and a cunning fish; so 
 lusty and cunning as to endanger the breaking of the Angler's 
 line, by running his head forcibly towards any covert, or hole, 
 or bank ; and then striking at the line, to break it off with his 
 tail, as is observed by Plutarch, in his book *De Industria 
 Animalium,' and also so cunning to nibble and suck off your 
 worm close to the hook, and yet avoid the letting the hook 
 come into his mouth. 
 
 The Barbel is also curious for his baits, that is to say, that 
 they be clean and sweet; that is to say, to have your worms 
 well scoured, and not kept in sour and musty moss, for he is a 
 curious feeder; but at a well-scoured Lob-worm, he will bite 
 as boldly as at any bait, and specially, if the night or two 
 before you fish for him, you shall bait the places where you 
 intend to fish for him, with big worms cut into pieces ; and 
 note, that none did ever over-bait the place, nor fish too early 
 or too late for a Barbel. And the Barbel will bite also at 
 128 
 
AND DIRECTIONS HOW TO FISH FOR HIM 
 
 Gentles, which not being too much scoured, but green, are a 
 choice bait for him ; and so is cheese, which is not to be too 
 hard, but kept a day or two in a wet Hnen cloth to make it 
 tough: with this you may also bait the water a day or two 
 before you fish for the Barbel, and be much the likelier to catch 
 store: and if the cheese were laid in clarified honey a short 
 time before, as namely, an hour or two, you were still the 
 likelier to catch fish : some have directed to cut the cheese into 
 thin pieces, and toast it, and then tie it on the hook with fine 
 silk : and some advise to fish for the Barbel with sheep's tallow 
 and soft cheese beaten or worked into a paste, and that it is 
 choicely good in August, and I believe it: but doubtless the 
 Lob-worm well scoured, and the Gentle not too much scoured, 
 and cheese ordered as I have directed, are baits enough ; and I 
 think will serve in any month ; though I shall commend any 
 Angler that tries conclusions, and is industrious to improve the 
 Art. And now, my honest Scholar, the long shower and my 
 tedious discourse are both ended together : and I shall give 
 you but this observation, that when you fish for a Barbel, your 
 rod and line be both long, and of good strength ; for, as I told 
 you, you will find him a heavy and a dogged fish to be dealt 
 withal, yet he seldom or never breaks his hold if he be once 
 strucken. And if you would know more of fishing for the Umber 
 or Barbel, get into favour with Dr. Sheldon, whose skill is above 
 others ; and of that, the poor that dwell about him have a com- 
 fortable experience. 
 
 And now let's go and see what interest the Trouts will 
 pay us for letting our Angle-rods lie so long, and so quietly, in 
 the water, for their use. Come, Scholar, which will you 
 take up? 
 
 Venator. Which you think fit. Master. 
 
 Pisc. Why, you shall take up that ; for I am certain by 
 viewing the line, it has a fish at it. Look you. Scholar : well 
 done. Come now, take up the other too ; well, now you may 
 tell my brother Peter at night, that you have caught a leash of 
 Trouts this day. And now let 's move toward our lodging, and 
 drink a draught of Red-Cow's milk as we go, and give pretty 
 Maudlin and her honest mother a brace of Trouts for their 
 supper. 
 
 129 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF THE BARBEL 
 
 Ven. Master, I like your motion very well ; and I think 
 it is now about milking-time, and yonder they be at it. 
 
 Pisc. God speed you, good woman, I thank you both for our 
 songs last night ; I and my companion have had such fortune 
 a-fishing this day, that we resolve to give you and Maudlin a 
 brace of Trouts for supper, and we will now taste a draught of 
 your Red-Cow's milk. 
 
 MiLK-woMAN. Marry, and that you shall with all my heart, 
 and I will be still your debtor when you come this way : if you 
 will but speak the word I will make you a good syllabub, of 
 new verjuice, and then you may sit down in a hay-cock and eat 
 it, and Maudlin shall sit by and sing you the good old song of 
 the * Hunting in Chevy Chace.' or some other good ballad, for 
 she hath good store of them ; Maudlin, my honest Maudlin, 
 hath a notable memory, and she thinks nothing too good for 
 you, because you be such honest men. 
 
 Ven. We thank you, and intend once in a month to call 
 upon you again, and give you a little warning, and so good 
 night : good night. Maudlin. And now, good Master, let 's lose 
 no time; but tell me somewhat more of fishing, and if you 
 please, first something of fishing for a Gudgeon. 
 
 Pisc. I will, honest Scholar. 
 
 130 
 
CHAPTER XV. OBSERVATIONS OF THE GUDGEON, 
 THE RUFFE, AND THE BLEAK, AND HOW TO 
 FISH FOR THEM 
 
 PISCATOR 
 
 THE Gudgeon is reputed a fish of excellent taste, and to 
 be very wholesome : he is of a fine shape, of a silver 
 colour, and beautified with black spots both on his body 
 and tail. He breeds two or three times in the year, and always 
 in Summer. He is commended for a fish of excellent nourish- 
 ment : the Germans call him Groundling, by reason of his feeding 
 on the ground : and he there feasts himself in sharp streams, 
 and on the gravel. He and the Barbel both feed so, and do 
 not hunt for flies at any time, as most other fishes do : he is an 
 excellent fish to enter a young Angler, being easy to be taken 
 with a small red-worm, on, or very near to the ground. He is 
 one of those leather -mouthed fish that has his teeth in his 
 throat, and will hardly be lost from off the hook if he be once 
 strucken : they be usually scattered up and down every river 
 in the shallows, in the heat of Summer ; but in Autumn, when 
 the weeds begin to grow sour or rot, and the weather colder, 
 then they gather together, and get into the deeper parts of the 
 water; and are to be fished for there, with your hook always 
 touching the ground, if you fish for him with a float, or with a 
 cork ; but many will fish for the Gudgeon by hand, with a run- 
 ning line upon the ground, without a cork, as a Trout is fished 
 for, and it is an excellent way, if you have a gentle rod and as 
 gentle a hand. 
 
 There is also another fish called a Pope, and by some a 
 Ruffe, a fish that is not known to be in some rivers : he is 
 much like the Pearch for his shape, and taken to be better than 
 the Pearch, but will not grow to be bigger than a Gudgeon ; 
 he is an excellent fish, no fish that swims is of a pleasanter 
 taste, and he is also excellent to enter a young Angler, for he 
 
 u 131 
 
THE GUDGEON, THE RUFFE, AND THE BLEAK 
 
 is a greedy biter, and they will usually lie abundance of them 
 together, in one reserved place, where the water is deep, and 
 runs quietly ; and an easy Angler, if he has found where they 
 lie, may catch forty or fifty, or sometimes twice so many, at a 
 standing. 
 
 You must fish for him with a small red-worm, and if you 
 bait the ground with earth, it is excellent. 
 
 There is also a Bleak, or Fresh-water-Sprat, a fish that is 
 ever in motion, and therefore called by some the River-Swallow ; 
 for just as you shall observe the Swallow to be most evenings 
 in Summer, ever in motion, making short and quick turns when 
 he flies to catch flies in the air, by which he lives, so does the 
 Bleak at the top of the water. Ausonius would have him called 
 Bleak, from his whitish colour : his back is of a pleasant sad 
 or sea-water-green, his belly white and shining as the mountain- 
 snow ; and doubtless, though he have the fortune, which virtue 
 has in poor people, to be neglected, yet the Bleak ought to be 
 much valued, though we want Allamot-salt, and the skill that 
 the Italians have to turn them into Anchovies. This fish may 
 be caught with a Pater-noster line, that is, six or eight very 
 small hooks tied along the line, one half a foot above the other : 
 I have seen five caught thus at one time, and the bait has been 
 Gentles, than which none is better. 
 
 Or this fish may be caught with a fine small artificial fly, 
 which is to be of a very sad, brown colour, and very small, and 
 the hook answerable. There is no better sport than whipping 
 for Bleaks in a boat, or on a bank in the swift water in a 
 Summer's evening, with a hazle top about five or six foot long, 
 and a line twice the length of the rod : I have heard Sir Henry 
 Wotton say, that there be many that in Italy will catch Swallows 
 so, or especially Martins, this Bird-Angler standing on the top 
 of a steeple to do it, and with a line twice so long as I have 
 spoken of : and let me tell you. Scholar, that both Martins and 
 Bleaks be most excellent meat. 
 
 And let me tell you, that I have known a Hern that did 
 constantly frequent one place, caught with a hook baited with 
 a big Minnow or a small Gudgeon. The line and hook must 
 be strong, and tied to some loose staff", so big as she cannot 
 fly away with it, a line not exceeding two yards. 
 132 
 
CHAPTER XVI. IS OF NOTHING; OR, THAT WHICH 
 
 IS NOTHING WORTH 
 
 PISCATOR, PETER, VENATOR, CORIDON 
 
 PISCATOR. My purpose was to give you some directions 
 concerning Roach and Dace, and some other inferior fish, 
 which make the Angler excellent sport, for you know 
 there is more pleasure in hunting the Hare than in eating her : 
 but I will forbear at this time to say any more, because you see 
 yonder come our brother Peter and honest Coridon : but I will 
 promise you, that as you and I fish and walk to-morrow towards 
 London, if I have now forgotten any thing that I can then 
 remember, I will not keep it from you. 
 
 Well met, Gentlemen, this is lucky that we meet so just 
 together at this very door. Come Hostess, where are you ? Is 
 supper ready? Come, first give us drink, and be as quick as 
 you can, for I believe we are all very hungry. Well brother 
 Peter and Coridon, to you both ; come drink, and then tell me 
 what luck of fish : we two have caught but ten Trouts, of which 
 my Scholar caught three ; look, here 's eight, and a brace we 
 gave away; we have had a most pleasant day for fishing and 
 talking, and are returned home both weary and hungry, and 
 now meat and rest will be pleasant. 
 
 Peter. And Coridon and I have had not an unpleasant 
 day, and yet I have caught but five Trouts : for indeed we went 
 to a good honest ale-house, and there we played at Shovel- 
 board half the day ; all the time that it rained we were there, 
 and as merry as they that fished, and I am glad we are now 
 with a dry house over our heads, for hark how it rains and 
 blows. Come Hostess, give us more ale, and our supper with 
 what haste you may : and when we have supped let us have 
 your song, Piscator, and the catch that your Scholar promised 
 us, or else Coridon will be dogged. 
 
 133 
 
IS OF NOTHING; OR 
 
 Pisc. Nay, I will not be worse than my word, you shall 
 not want my song, and I hope I shall be perfect in it. 
 
 Venator. And I hope the like for my catch, which I have 
 ready too, and therefore let 's go merrily to supper, and then 
 have a gentle touch at singing and drinking ; but the last with 
 moderation. 
 
 CoRiDON. Come, now for your song, for we have fed heartily. 
 Come Hostess, lay a few more sticks on the fire, and now sing 
 when you will. 
 
 Pisc. Well then, here 's to you, Coridon ; and now for my 
 song. 
 
 Oh ! the gallant fisher's life, 
 It is the best of any, 
 'Tis full of pleasure, void of strife, 
 And 'tis beloved by many: 
 
 Other joys 
 
 Are but toys, 
 
 Only this 
 
 Lawful is. 
 
 For our skill 
 
 Breeds no ill, 
 But content and pleasure. 
 
 In a morning up we rise, 
 Ere Aurora's peeping. 
 Drink a cup to wash our eyes, 
 Leave the sluggard sleeping: 
 
 Then we go 
 
 To and fro, 
 
 With our knacks 
 
 At our backs. 
 
 To such streams 
 
 As the Thames, 
 If we have the leisure. 
 
 When we please to walk abroad 
 For our recreation. 
 In the fields is our abode, 
 Full of delectation. 
 
 Where in a brook 
 
 With a hook. 
 
 Or a lake, 
 
 Fish we take. 
 
 There we sit. 
 
 For a bit. 
 Till we fish entangle. 
 134 
 
M 
 
 In a morning up we rise, ere Aurora's peeping. 
 
 Drink a cup to wash our eyes, leave the sluggard sleeping^. 
 
THAT WHICH IS NOTHING WORTH 
 
 We have gentles in a horn, 
 We have paste and worms too, 
 We can watch both night and morn, 
 Suffer rain and storms too: 
 
 None do here 
 
 Use to swear, 
 
 Oaths do fray 
 
 Fish away, 
 
 We sit still, 
 
 And watch our quill; 
 Fishers must not wrangle. 
 
 If the Sun's excessive heat 
 Make our bodies swelter, 
 To an Osier hedge we get 
 For a friendly shelter. 
 
 Where in a dike 
 
 Pearch or Pike, 
 
 Roach or Dace, 
 
 We do chase, 
 
 Bleak or Gudgeon 
 
 Without grudging, 
 We are still contented. 
 
 Or we sometimes pass an hour 
 Under a green Willow; 
 That defends us from a shower, 
 Making earth our pillow, 
 
 Where we may 
 
 Think and pray, 
 
 Before death 
 
 Stops our breath: 
 
 Other joys 
 
 Are but toys, 
 And to be lamented. 
 
 Jo. Chalkhill. 
 
 Ven. Well sung, Master; this day's fortune and pleasure, 
 and this night's company and song, do all make me more and 
 more in love with Angling. Gentlemen, my Master left me 
 alone for an hour this day, and I verily believe he retired him- 
 self from talking with me, that he might be so perfect in this 
 song; was it not. Master? 
 
 Pisc. Yes indeed, for it is many years since I learned it, 
 and having forgotten a part of it, I was forced to patch it up by 
 the help of mine own invention, who am not excellent at poetry, 
 
 135 
 
IS OF NOTHING; OR 
 
 as my part of the song may testify : but of that I will say no 
 more, lest you should think I mean by discommending it to 
 beg your commendations of it. And therefore, without replica- 
 tions, let's hear your catch, Scholar, which I hope will be a 
 good one, for you are both musical, and have a good fancy to 
 boot. 
 
 Ven. Marry, and that you shall, and as freely as I would 
 have my honest Master tell me some more secrets of fish and 
 fishing as we walk and fish towards London to-morrow. But 
 Master, first let me tell you that, that very hour which you were 
 absent from me, I sat down under a Willow-tree by the water- 
 side, and considered what you had told me of the owner of that 
 pleasant meadow in which you then left me ; that he had a 
 plentiful estate, and not a heart to think so ; that he had at this 
 time many law-suits depending, and that they both damped his 
 mirth, and took up so much of his time and thoughts, that he 
 himself had not leisure to take the sweet content that I, who 
 pretended no title to them, took in his fields ; for I could there 
 sit quietly, and looking on the water, see some fishes sport 
 themselves in the silver streams, others, leaping at flies of 
 several shapes and colours ; looking on the hills, I could behold 
 them spotted with woods and groves ; looking down the 
 meadows, could see here a boy gathering Lilies and Lady- 
 smocks, and there a girl cropping Culverkeyes and Cowslips, 
 all to make Garlands suitable to this present month of May : 
 these, and many other field-flowers, so perfumed the air, that I 
 thought that very meadow, like that field in Sicily, of which 
 Diodorus speaks, where the perfumes arising from the place, 
 make all dogs that hunt in it to fall ofl*, and to lose their 
 hottest scent. I say, as I thus sat joying in my own happy 
 condition, and pitying this poor rich man, that owned this and 
 many other pleasant groves and meadows about me, I did 
 thankfully remember what my Saviour said, that the Meek 
 possess the earth ; or rather, they enjoy what the other possess 
 and enjoy not ; for Anglers, and meek, quiet-spirited men, are 
 free from those high, those restless thoughts, which corrode the 
 sweets of life ; and they, and they only, can say, as the poet 
 has happily expressed it; 
 
 136 
 
THAT WHICH IS NOTHING WORTH 
 
 Hail blest estate of lowliness ! 
 
 Happy enjoyments of such minds, 
 
 As rich in self-contentedness, 
 
 Can, like the reeds in roughest winds, 
 By yielding make that blow but small, 
 At which proud oaks and cedars fall. 
 
 There came also into my mind at that time, certain verses 
 in praise of a mean estate and an humble mind ; they were 
 written by Phineas Fletcher, an excellent Divine, and an excel- 
 lent Angler, and the author of excellent * Piscatory Eclogues,* 
 in which you shall see the picture of this good man's mind, 
 and I wish mine to be like it. 
 
 No empty hopes, no courtly fears him fright, 
 No begging wants, his middle fortune bite. 
 
 But sweet content exiles both misery and spite. 
 His certain life, that never can deceive him. 
 
 Is full of thousand sweets, and rich content ; 
 The smooth-leaVd beeches in the field receive him 
 
 With coolest shade, till noon-tide's heat be spent: 
 His life, is neither toss'd in boisterous seas. 
 Or the vexatious world, or lost in slothful ease: 
 Pleas'd and full blest he lives, when he his God can please. 
 
 His bed, more safe than soft, yields quiet sleeps. 
 
 While by his side his faithful spouse hath place ; 
 His little son, into his bosom creeps. 
 
 The lively picture of his father's face ; 
 His humble house, or poor state, ne'er torment him, 
 Less he could like, if less his God had lent him. 
 And when he dies, green turfs do for a tomb content him. 
 
 Gentlemen, these were a part of the thoughts that then 
 possessed me, and I there made a conversion of a piece of an 
 old catch, and added more to it, fitting them to be sung by us 
 Anglers: come, Master, you can sing well, you must sing a 
 part of it as it is in this paper. 
 
 Pet. I marry. Sir, this is music indeed, this has cheered 
 my heart, and made me to remember six verses in praise of 
 Music, which I will speak to you instantly. 
 
 Music, miraculous rhetoric ! — that speak'st sense 
 Without a tongue, excelling eloquence; 
 With what ease might thy errors be excus'd, 
 Wert thou as truly lov'd as thou'rt abus'd? 
 But though dull souls neglect, and some reprove thee, 
 I cannot hate thee, 'cause the Angels love thee. 
 X 137 . 
 
IS OF NOTHING 
 
 Ven. And the repetition of these last verses of Music, 
 have called to my memory what Mr. Ed. Waller, a Lover of 
 the Angle, says of Love and Music. 
 
 Whilst I listen to thy voice, 
 
 Chloris, I feel my heart decay: 
 That powerful voice 
 
 Calls my fleeting soul away; 
 Oh ! suppress that magic sound, 
 Which destroys without a wound. 
 
 Peace Chloris, peace, or singing die, 
 That together you and I 
 To Heaven may go : 
 For all we know 
 Of what the blessed do above 
 Is, that they sing, and that they love. 
 
 Pisc. Well remembered, Brother Peter, these verses came 
 seasonably, and we thank you heartily. Come, we will all join 
 together, my Host and all, and sing my Scholar's Catch over 
 again, and then each man drink the tother cup and to bed, 
 and thank God we have a dry house over our heads. 
 
 Pisc. Well now. Good Night to every body. 
 
 Pet. And so say I. 
 
 Ven. And so say I. 
 
 CoR. Good Night to you all, and I thank you. 
 
 Pisc. Good Morrow, Brother Peter, and the like to you, 
 honest Coridon : come, my Hostess says there is seven shil- 
 lings to pay, let's each man drink a pot for his morning's 
 draught, and lay down his two shillings, that so my Hostess 
 may not have occasion to repent herself of being so diligent, 
 and using us so kindly. 
 
 Pet. The motion is liked by every body, and so Hostess, 
 here 's your money ; we Anglers are all beholding to you, it will 
 not be long ere I '11 see you again. And now Brother Piscator, 
 I wish you and my Brother, your Scholar, a fair day and good 
 fortune. Come Coridon, this is our way. 
 138 
 
CHAPTER XVII. OF ROACH AND DACE, AND HOW 
 TO FISH FOR THEM; AND OF CADIS 
 
 VENATOR AND PISCATOR 
 
 VENATOR. Good Master, as we go now towards London, 
 be still so courteous as to give me more instructions, 
 for I have several boxes in my memory, in which I will 
 keep them all very safe, there shall not one of them be lost. 
 
 PiscATOR. Well, Scholar, that I will, and I will hide nothing 
 from you that I can remember, and can think may help you 
 forward towards a perfection in this art ; and because we have 
 so much time, and I have said so little of Roach and Dace, I 
 vTill give you some directions concerning them. 
 
 Some say the Roach is so called, from Rutilus, which, they 
 say, signifies red fins : he is a fish of no great reputation for 
 his dainty taste, and his spawn is accounted much better than 
 any other part of him. And you may take notice, that as the 
 Carp is accounted the Water- Fox, for his cunning; so the 
 Roach is accounted the Water-Sheep for his simplicity or 
 foolishness. It is noted that the Roach and Dace recover 
 strength, and grow in season in a fortnight after spawning: 
 the Barbel and Chub in a month, the Trout in four months, and 
 the Salmon in the like time, if he gets into the Sea, and after 
 into fresh water. 
 
 Roaches be accounted much better in the river than in a 
 pond, though ponds usually breed the biggest. But there is 
 a kind of bastard small Roach that breeds in ponds, with a very 
 forked tail, and of a very small size, which some say is bred 
 by the Bream and right Roach, and some ponds are stored 
 with these beyond belief; and knowing men that know their 
 difference, call them Ruds ; they differ from the true Roach as 
 much as a Herring from a Pilchard, and these bastard-breed 
 
 139 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF ROACH AND DACE 
 
 of Roach are now scattered in many rivers, but I think not in 
 the Thames, which I believe affords the largest and fattest in 
 this nation, especially below London-bridge : the Roach is a 
 leather-mouthed fish, and has a kind of saw-like teeth in his 
 throat. And lastly, let me tell you, the Roach makes an Angler 
 excellent sport, especially the great Roaches about London, 
 where I think there be the best Roach-Anglers, and I think 
 the best Trout-Anglers be in Derbyshire, for the waters there 
 are clear to an extremity. 
 
 Next, let me tell you, you shall fish for this Roach in 
 Winter with paste or gentles, in April with worms or cadis : 
 in the very hot months with little white snails, or with flies 
 under water, for he seldom takes them at the top, though the 
 Dace will. In many of the hot months. Roaches may also be 
 caught thus : Take a May-fly or Ant-fly, sink him with a little 
 lead to the bottom near to the piles or posts of a bridge, or 
 near to any posts of a wear, I mean any deep place where 
 Roaches lie quietly, and then pull your fly up very leisurely, 
 and usually a Roach will follow your bait to the very top of 
 the water and gaze on it there, and run at it and take it lest 
 the fly should fly away from him. 
 
 I have seen this done at Windsor and Henley-bridge, and 
 great store of Roach taken ; and sometimes a Dace or Chub ; 
 and in August you may fish for them with a paste made only 
 of the crumbs of bread, which should be of pure fine manchet ; 
 and that paste must be so tempered betwixt your hands till it 
 be both soft and tough too ; a very little water, and time and 
 labour, and clean hands, will make it a most excellent paste : 
 but when you fish with it, you must have a small hook, a quick 
 eye, and a nimble hand, or the bait is lost and the fish too ; if 
 one may lose that which he never had : with this paste you 
 may, as I said, take both the Roach and the Dace or Dare, for 
 they be much of a kind, in matter of feeding, cunning, goodness, 
 and usually in size. And therefore take this general direction 
 for some other baits which may concern you to take notice of. 
 They will bite almost at any fly, but especially at Ant-flies ; 
 concerning which, take this direction, for it is very good. 
 
 Take the blackish Ant-fly out of the Mole-hill or Ant-hill, 
 in which place you shall find them in the month of June, or if 
 140 
 
AND HOW TO FISH FOR THEM 
 
 that be too early in the year, then doubtless you may find them 
 in July, August, and most of September, gather them alive with 
 both their wings, and then put them into a glass that will hold 
 a quart or a pottle ; but first put into the glass a handful or 
 more of the moist earth, out of which you gather them, and as 
 much of the roots of the grass of the said hillock, and then put 
 in the flies gently, that they lose not their wings : lay a clod 
 of earth over it, and then so many as are put into the glass 
 without bruising, will live there a month or more, and be always 
 in a readiness for you to fish with ; but if you would have them 
 keep longer, then get any great earthen pot, or barrel of three 
 or four gallons, which is better, then wash your barrel with 
 water and honey ; and having put into it a quantity of earth 
 and grass-roots, then put in your flies, and cover it, and they 
 will live a quarter of a year ; these in any stream and clear 
 water, are a deadly bait for Roach or Dace, or for a Chub ; 
 and your rule is, to fish not less than a handful from the 
 bottom. 
 
 I shall next tell you a Winter-bait for a Roach, a Dace or 
 Chub, and it is choicely good. About AU-hallontide, and so till 
 frost comes, when you see men ploughing up heath-ground, 
 or sandy ground, or green-swards, then follow the plough, and 
 you shall find a white worm as big as two maggots, and it hath 
 a red head, you may observe in what ground most are, for there 
 the crows will be very watchful and follow the plough very 
 close ; it is all soft, and full of whitish guts : a worm that is in 
 Norfolk, and some other Counties, called a Grub, and is bred 
 of the spawn or eggs of a beetle, which she leaves in holes that 
 she digs in the ground under cow or horse-dung, and there rests 
 all Winter, and in March or April, comes to be first a red, and 
 then a black beetle : gather a thousand or two of these, and 
 put them with a peck or two of their own earth, into some tub 
 or firkin, and cover, and keep them so warm, that the frost, or 
 cold air, or winds kill them not ; these you may keep all Winter, 
 and kill fish with them at any time : and if you put some of 
 them into a little earth and honey a day before you use them, 
 you will find them an excellent bait for Bream, Carp, or indeed 
 for almost any fish. 
 
 And after this manner you may also keep gentles all Winter, 
 
 141 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF ROACH AND DACE 
 
 which are a good bait then, and much the better for being lively 
 and tough : or you may breed and keep gentles thus : take a 
 piece of beast's liver, and with a cross stick, hang it in some 
 corner over a pot or barrel, half full of dry clay, and as the 
 gentles grow big, they will fall into the barrel, and scour them- 
 selves, and be always ready for use whensoever you incline to 
 fish ; and these gentles may be thus created till after Michael- 
 mas. But if you desire to keep gentles to fish with all the 
 year, then get a dead cat or a kite, and let it be fly-blown, and 
 when the gentles begin to be alive and to stir, then bury it and 
 them in soft, moist earth, but as free from frost as you can, 
 and these you may dig up at any time when you intend to use 
 them ; these will last till March, and about that time turn to 
 be flies. 
 
 But if you be nice to foul your fingers, which good Anglers 
 seldom are, then take this bait : get a handful of well-made 
 malt, and put it into a dish of water, and then wash and rub it 
 betwixt your hands till you make it clean, and as free from 
 husks as you can ; then put that water from it, and put a small 
 quantity of fresh water to it, and set it in something that is 
 fit for that purpose over the fire, where it is not to boil apace, 
 but leisurely and very softly, until it become somewhat soft, 
 which you may try by feeling it betwixt your finger and thumb, 
 and when it is soft, then put your water from it, and then take 
 a sharp knife, and turning the sprout end of the corn upward, 
 with the point of your knife take the back part of the husk off 
 from it, and yet leaving a kind of inward husk on the corn, or 
 else it is marred, and then cut off" that sprouted end, I mean a 
 little of it, that the white may appear, and so pull off the husk 
 on the cloven side, as I directed you, and then cutting off" a very 
 little of the other end, that so your hook may enter ; and if your 
 hook be small and good, you will find this to be a very choice 
 bait, either for Winter or Summer, you sometimes casting a 
 little of it into the place where your float swims. 
 
 And to take the Roach and Dace, a good bait is the young 
 brood of wasps or bees, if you dip their heads in blood; 
 especially good for Bream, if they be baked or hardened in 
 their husks, in an oven, after the bread is taken out of it ; or 
 hardened on a fire-shovel ; and so also is the thick blood of 
 142 
 
AND HOW TO FISH FOR THEM 
 
 sheep, being half dried on a trencher, that so you may cut it 
 into such pieces as may best fit the size of your hook, and a 
 little salt keeps it from growing black, and makes it not the 
 worse, but better : this is taken to be a choice bait if rightly 
 ordered. 
 
 There be several oils of a strong smell that I have been told 
 of, and to be excellent to tempt fish to bite, of which I could 
 say much; but I remember I once carried a small bottle from 
 Sir George Hastings to Sir Henry Wotton, they were both 
 chemical men, as a great present; it was sent, and received, 
 and used with great confidence ; and yet upon enquiry, I found 
 it did not answer the expectation of Sir Henry, which, with the 
 help of this and other circumstances, makes me have little belief 
 in such things as many men talk of: not but that I think fishes 
 both smell and hear, as I have expressed in my former discourse ; 
 but there is a mysterious knack, which, though it be much 
 easier than the philosopher's stone, yet is not attainable by 
 common capacities, or else lies locked up in the brain or breast 
 of some chemical man, that like the Rosicrucians, will not yet 
 reveal it. But let me nevertheless tell you, that Camphor, put 
 with moss into your worm-bag with your worms, makes them, 
 if many Anglers be not very much mistaken, a tempting bait, 
 and the Angler more fortunate. But I stepped by chance into 
 this discourse of oils and fishes smelling, and though there 
 might be more said, both of it and of baits for Roach and Dace, 
 and other float-fish, yet I will forbear it at this time, and tell you 
 in the next place how you are to prepare your tackling: con- 
 cerning which, I will for sport-sake, give you an old rhyme out 
 of an old fish-book which will prove a part, and but a part, of 
 what you are to provide. 
 
 My rod and my line, my float and my lead, 
 My hook and my plummet, my whetstone and knife, 
 
 My basket, my baits both living and dead, 
 •My net and my meat, for that is the chief: 
 
 Then I must have thread, and hairs green and small, 
 
 With mine Angling-purse, and so you have all. 
 
 But you must have all these tackling, and twice so many 
 more, with which if you mean to be a Fisher, you must store 
 yourself; and to that purpose I will go with you either to 
 
 143 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF ROACH AND DACE 
 
 Mr. Margrave, who dwells amongst the Booksellers in St. Paul's 
 Church-yard, or to Mr. John Stubs, near to the Swan in 
 Golden-lane; they be both honest men, and will fit 
 that^the tack- an Angler with what Tackling he lacks. 
 
 ^"^■^^dt^mt" "Ven. Then, good Master, let it be at for 
 
 Jo^dsfin the he is nearest to my dwelling, and I pray let 's meet 
 li°An°k7' °^ there the ninth of May next, about two of the 
 clock, and I '11 want nothing that a fisher should be 
 furnished with. 
 
 Pisc. Well, and I '11 not fail you, God willing, at the time 
 and place appointed. 
 
 Ven. I thank you, good Master, and I will not fail you: 
 and, good Master, tell me what baits more you remember, for 
 it will not now be long ere we shall be at Tottenham-High- 
 Cross, and when we come thither I will make you some 
 requital of your pains, by repeating as choice a copy of verses 
 as any we have heard since we met together; and that is a 
 proud word, for we have heard very good ones. 
 
 Pisc. Well, Scholar, and I shall be then right glad to 
 hear them ; and I will as we walk, tell you whatsoever comes 
 in my mind, that I think may be worth your hearing. You 
 may make another choice bait thus : Take a handful or two of 
 the best and biggest wheat you can get, boil it in a little milk, 
 like as Frumety is boiled, boil it so till it be soft, and then fry 
 it very leisurely with honey and a little beaten saffron dissolved 
 in milk, and you will find this a choice bait, and good I think 
 for any fish, especially for Roach, Dace, Chub, or Grayling ; I 
 know not but that it may be as good for a river-Carp, and 
 especially if the ground be a little baited with it. 
 
 And you may also note, that the spawn of most fish is a 
 very tempting bait, being a little hardened on a warm tile, and 
 cut into fit pieces. Nay, mulberries and those black-berries 
 which grow upon briers, be good baits for Chubs or Carps, 
 with these many have been taken in ponds, and in some rivers 
 where such trees have grown near the water, and the fruit 
 customarily dropped into it ; and there be a hundred other baits 
 more than can be well named, which, by constant baiting the 
 water, will become a tempting bait for any fish ixi it. 
 
 You are also to know, that there be divers kinds of Cadis, 
 144 
 
To that purpose I will go with you to Mr. John Stubs, near to the Swan in Golden-lane. 
 Y 
 
AND HOW TO FISH FOR THEM 
 
 or Case-worms, that are to be found in this nation in several 
 distinct Counties, and in several little brooks that relate to 
 bigger rivers ; as namely, one Cadis called a Piper, whose 
 husk or case is a piece of reed about an inch long or longer, 
 and as big about as the compass of a two-pence ; these worms 
 being kept three or four days in a woollen bag with sand at the 
 bottom of it, and the bag wet once a day, will in three or four 
 days turn to be yellow, and these be a choice bait for the Chub 
 or Chavender, or indeed for any great fish, for it is a large 
 bait. 
 
 There is also a lesser Cadis-worm, called a Cock-spur, being 
 in fashion like the spur of a cock, sharp at one end, and the 
 case or house in which this dwells is made of small husks, and 
 gravel, and slime, most curiously made of these, even so as to 
 be wondered at, but not to be made by man no more than a 
 King-fisher's nest can, which is made of little fishes* bones, and 
 have such a geometrical interweaving and connection, as the 
 like is not to be done by the art of man : this kind of Cadis is a 
 choice bait for any float-fish, it is much less than the Piper- 
 Cadis, and to be so ordered ; and these may be so preserved, 
 ten, fifteen, or twenty days, or it may be longer. 
 
 There is also another Cadis, called by some a Straw-worm, 
 and by some a Ruff-coat, whose house or case is made of little 
 pieces of bents, and rushes, and straws, and water-weeds, and 
 I know not what, which are so knit together with condensed 
 slime, that they stick about her husk or case, not unlike the 
 bristles of a Hedgehog; these three Cadises are commonly 
 taken in the beginning of Summer, and are good indeed to take 
 any kind of fish, with float or otherwise. I might tell you of 
 many more, which as these do early, so those have their time 
 also of turning to be flies later in Summer; but I might lose 
 myself and tire you by such a discourse, I shall therefore but 
 remember you, that to know these and their several kinds, and 
 to what flies every particular Cadis turns, and then how to 
 use them, first as they be Cadis, and after as they be flies, is an 
 art, and an art that every one that professes to be an Angler 
 has not leisure to search after, and if he had is not capable of 
 learning. 
 
 I '11 tell you. Scholar, several countries have several kinds of 
 
 145 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF CADIS 
 
 Cadises, that indeed differ as much as dogs do : that is to say, 
 as much as a very cur and a greyhound do. These be usually 
 bred in the very little rills or ditches that run into bigger rivers, 
 and I think a more proper bait for those very rivers, than any 
 other. I know not how or of what this Cadis receives life, or 
 what coloured fly it turns to ; but doubtless, they are the death 
 of many Trouts, and this is one killing way. 
 
 Take one, or more if need be, of these large yellow Cadis, 
 pull off his head, and with it pull out his black gut, put the body, 
 as little bruised as is possible, on a very little hook, armed on 
 with a red hair, which will shew like the Cadis-head, and a very 
 little thin lead, so put upon the shank of the hook that it may 
 sink presently; throw this bait thus ordered, which will look 
 very yellow, into any great still hole, where a Trout is, and he 
 will presently venture his life for it, 'tis not to be doubted, if you 
 be not espied, and that the bait first touch the water, before the 
 line; and this will do best in the deepest stillest water. 
 
 Next let me tell you, I have been much pleased to walk 
 quietly by a brook with a little stick in my hand, with which 
 I might easily take these and consider the curiosity of their 
 composure : and if you shall ever like to do so, then note, that 
 your stick must be a little hasel or willow, cleft, or have a nick 
 at one end of it, by which means you may with ease take many 
 of them in that nick out of the water, before you have any 
 occasion to use them. These, my honest Scholar, are some 
 observations told to you as they now come suddenly into my 
 memory, of which you may make some use : but for the practical 
 part, it is that that makes an Angler: it is diligence, and 
 observation, and practice, and an ambition to be the best in 
 the art that must do it. I will tell you, Scholar, I once heard one 
 say, * I envy not him that eats better meat than I do, nor him 
 that is richer, or that wears better clothes than I do; I envy 
 nobody but him, and him only, that catches more fish than I do.* 
 And such a man is like to prove an Angler, and this noble 
 emulation I wish to you and all young Anglers. 
 
 146 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. OF THE MINNOW OR PENK, OF 
 THE LOACH, AND OF THE BULL-HEAD, OR 
 MILLER'S-THUMB 
 
 PISCATOR AND VENATOR 
 
 PISCATOR. There be also three or four other little fish that 
 I had almost forgot, that all are without scales, and may 
 for excellency of meat be compared to any fish of greatest 
 value, and largest size. They be usually full of eggs or spawn 
 all the months of Summer ; for they breed often, as 'tis observed 
 mice and many of the smaller four-footed creatures of the earth 
 do ; and as those, so these come quickly to their full growth and 
 perfection. And it is needful that they breed both often and 
 numerously, for they be, besides other accidents of ruin, both a 
 prey, and baits for other fish. And first I shall tell you of the 
 Minnow or Penk. 
 
 The Minnow hath, when he is in perfect season and not sick, 
 which is only presently after spawning, a kind of dappled or 
 waved colour, like to a Panther, on his sides, inclining to a 
 greenish and sky-colour, his belly being milk-white, and his back 
 almost black or blackish. He is a sharp biter at a small worm, 
 and in hot weather makes excellent sport for young Anglers, or 
 boys, or women that love that recreation, and in the Spring they 
 make of them excellent Minnow-Tansies ; for being washed well 
 in salt, and their heads and tails cut ofT, and their guts taken 
 out, and not washed after, they prove excellent for that use, that 
 is, being fried with yolks of eggs, the flowers of cowslips, and of 
 primroses, and a little Tansie; thus used they make a dainty 
 dish of meat. 
 
 The Loach is, as I told you, a most dainty fish, he breeds 
 and feeds in little and clear swift brooks or rills ; and lives there 
 upon the gravel, and in the sharpest streams : he grows not to 
 be above a finger long, and no thicker than is suitable to that 
 
 147 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF THE MINNOW, THE LOACH 
 
 length. This Loach is not unlike the shape of the Eel ; he has a 
 beard or wattels like a Barbel. He has two fins at his sides, four 
 at his belly, and one at his tail ; he is dappled with many black 
 or brown spots, his mouth is Barbel-like under his nose. This 
 fish is usually full of eggs or spawn, and is by Gesner, and other 
 learned physicians, commended for great nourishment, and to be 
 very grateful both to the palate and stomach of sick persons ; he 
 is to be fished for with a very small worm at the bottom, for he 
 very seldom or never rises above the gravel, on which I told you 
 he usually gets his living. 
 
 The Miller's-Thumb or Bull-Head, is a fish of no pleasing 
 shape. He is by Gesner compared to the Sea-toad-fish, for his 
 similitude and shape. It has a head, big and flat, much greater 
 than suitable to his body ; a mouth very wide and usually gaping. 
 He is without teeth, but his lips are very rough, much like to a 
 file; he hath two fins near to his gills, which be roundish or 
 crested, two fins also under the belly, two on the back, one 
 below the vent, and the fin of his tail is round. Nature hath 
 painted the body of this fish with whitish, blackish, brownish 
 spots. They be usually full of eggs or spawn all the Summer, I 
 mean the females, and those eggs swell their vents almost into 
 the form of a dug. They begin to spawn about April, and as I 
 told you, spawn several months in the Summer; and in the 
 Winter, the Minnow, and Loach, and Bull-Head, dwell in the 
 mud as the Eel doth, or we know not where ; no more than we 
 know where the Cuckoo and Swallow, and other half-year-birds, 
 which first appear to us in April, spend their six cold, winter, 
 melancholy months. This Bull- Head does usually dwell and 
 hide himself in holes, or amongst stones in clear water ; and in 
 very hot days will lie a long time very still, and sun himself, and 
 will be easy to be seen upon any flat stone, or any gravel, at 
 which time he will suffer an Angler to put a hook baited with a 
 small worm, very near unto his very mouth, and he never refuses 
 to bite, nor indeed to be caught with the worst of Anglers. 
 Matthiolus commends him much more for his taste and nourish- 
 ment, than for his shape or beauty. 
 
 There is also a little fish called a Sticklebag : a fish without 
 scales, but hath his body fenced with several prickles. I know 
 not where he dwells in Winter, nor what he is good for in 
 148 
 
AND OF THE BULL-HEAD AND STICKLEBAG 
 
 Summer, but only to make sport for boys and women-anglers, 
 and to feed other fish that be fish of prey, as Trouts in particular, 
 who will bite at him as at a Penk, and better, if your hook be 
 rightly baited with him : for he may be so baited, as his tail 
 turning like the sail of a windmill, will make him turn more 
 quick than any Penk or Minnow can. For note, that the nimble 
 turning of that or the Minnow is the perfection of Minnow- 
 Fishing. To which end, if you put your hook into his mouth, 
 and out at his tail, and then having first tied him with white 
 thread a little above his tail, and placed him after such a manner 
 on your hook as he is like to turn, then sew up his mouth to your 
 line, and he is like to turn quick, and tempt any Trout : but if he 
 do not turn quick, then turn his tail a little more or less towards 
 the inner part, or towards the side of the hook; or put the 
 Minnow or Sticklebag a little more crooked or more straight on 
 your hook, until it will turn both true and fast : and then doubt 
 not but to tempt any great Trout that lies in a swift stream. 
 And the Loach that I told you of, will do the like : no bait is 
 more tempting, provided the Loach be not too big. 
 
 And now, Scholar, with the help of this fine morning, and 
 your patient attention, I have said all that my present memory 
 will afford me concerning most of the several fish that are 
 usually fished for in fresh waters. 
 
 Venator. But, Master, you have by your former civility made 
 me hope that you will make good your promise, and say some- 
 thing of the several rivers that be of most note in this nation ; 
 and also of Fish-ponds, and the ordering of them, and do it, I 
 pray, good Master, for I love any discourse of rivers, and fish 
 and fishing, the time spent in such discourse passes away very 
 pleasantly. 
 
 '49 
 
CHAPTER XIX. OF SEVERAL RIVERS, AND SOME 
 OBSERVATIONS OF FISH 
 
 PISCATOR 
 
 WELL, Scholar, since the ways and weather do both 
 favour us, and that we yet see not Tottenham-Cross, 
 you shall see my willingness to satisfy your desire. 
 And first, for the rivers of this nation, there be, as you may 
 note out of Dr. Heylin's * Geography' and others, in number 
 325, but those of chiefest note he reckons and describes as 
 followeth. 
 
 The chief is Thamisis, compounded of two rivers, Thame 
 and Isis ; whereof the former, rising somewhat beyond Thame 
 in Buckinghamshire, and the latter near Cirencester in Glou- 
 cestershire, meet together about Dorchester in Oxfordshire ; the 
 issue of which happy conjunction is the Thamisis, or Thames. 
 Hence it flieth betwixt Berks, Buckinghamshire, Middlesex, 
 Surrey, Kent, and Essex, and so weddeth himself to the Kentish 
 Medway in the very jaws of the Ocean : this glorious river 
 feeleth the violence and benefit of the sea more than any river 
 in Europe, ebbing and flowing twice a day more than sixty 
 miles : about whose banks are so many fair towns, and princely 
 palaces, that a German Poet thus truly spake: 
 
 Tot Campos, &c. 
 
 We saw so many Woods and Princely bowers, 
 Sweet Fields, brave Palaces, and stately Towers; 
 So many Gardens, dress'd with curious care, 
 That Thames with royal Tiber may compare. 
 
 2. The second river of note, is Sabrina or Severn ; it hath 
 it's beginning in Plinilimmon-Hill in Montgomeryshire, and his 
 end seven miles from Bristol, washing in the mean space the 
 150 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF SEVERAL RIVERS 
 
 walls of Shrewsbury, Worcester, and Gloucester, and divers 
 other places and palaces of note. 
 
 3. Trent, so called for thirty kind of fishes that are found 
 in it, or for that it receiveth thirty lesser rivers, who having his 
 fountain in Staffordshire, and gliding through the Counties of 
 Nottingham, Lincoln, Leicester, and York, augmenteth the 
 turbulent current of Humber, the most violent stream of all the 
 isle. This Humber is not, to say truth, a distinct river, having 
 a spring-head of his own, but it is rather the mouth, or Aestuarium, 
 of divers rivers here confluent and meeting together; namely, 
 your Derwent, and especially of Ouse and Trent ; and (as the 
 Danow, having received into its channel, the rivers Dravus, 
 Savus, Tibiscus, and divers others) changeth his name into 
 this of HumberabuSf as the old geographers call it 
 
 4. Medway, a Kentish river, famous for harbouring the 
 Royal Navy. 
 
 5. Tweed, the North-East bound of England, on whose 
 northern banks is seated the strong and impregnable town of 
 Berwick. 
 
 6. Tyne, famous for Newcastle, and her inexhaustible coal- 
 pits. These, and the rest of principal note, are thus com- 
 prehended in one of Mr. Drayton's Sonnets. 
 
 Our flood's queen, Thames, for ships and swans is crown'd, 
 
 And stately Severn for her shore is prais'd; 
 The crystal Trent for fords and fish renown'd, 
 
 And Avon's fame to Albion's cliffs is rais'd. 
 Carlegion Chester vaunts her holy Dee, 
 
 York many wonders of her Ouse can tell ; 
 The Peak her Dove, whose banks so fertile be, 
 
 And Kent will say her Medway doth excell. 
 Cotswold commends her Isis to the Thame, 
 
 Our Northern borders boast of Tweed's fair flood. 
 Our Western parts extoll their Willy's fame. 
 
 And the old Lea brags of the Danish blood. 
 
 These observations are out of learned Dr. Heylin, and my 
 old deceased friend, Michael Drayton; and because you say, 
 you love such discourses as these of rivers and fish and fishing, 
 I love you the better, and love the more to impart them to 
 you : nevertheless. Scholar, if I should begin but to name the 
 several sorts of strange fish that are usually taken in many of 
 z 151 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF FISH 
 
 those rivers that run into the sea, I might beget wonder in you, 
 or unbelief, or both ; and yet I will venture to tell you a real 
 truth concerning one lately dissected by Dr. Wharton, a man of 
 great learning and experience, and of equal freedom to com- 
 municate it ; one that loves me and my art, one to whom I have 
 been beholden for many of the choicest observations that I 
 have imparted to you. This good man, that dares do any thing 
 rather than tell an untruth, did, I say, tell me, he lately dis- 
 sected one strange fish, and he thus described it to me. 
 
 * The fish was almost a yard broad, and twice that length ; 
 his mouth wide enough to receive or take into it the head of a 
 man, his stomach seven or eight inches broad : he is of a slow 
 motion, and usually lies or lurks close in the mud, and has a 
 moveable string on his head about a span, or near unto a quarter 
 of a yard long, by the moving of which, — which is his natural 
 bait ; — when he lies close and unseen in the mud, he draws 
 other smaller fish so close to him, that he can suck them into 
 his mouth, and so devours and digests them.' 
 
 And, Scholar, do not wonder at this, for besides the credit 
 of the relator, you are to note, many of these, and fishes, which 
 are of the like, and more unusual shapes, are very often taken 
 on the mouths of our sea-rivers, and on the sea-shore ; and 
 this will be no wonder to any that have travelled Egypt, where 
 'tis known the famous river Nilus does not only breed fishes 
 that yet want names, but by the overflowing of that river, 
 and the help of the sun's heat on the fat slime which that 
 river leaves on the banks, when it falls back into its natural 
 channel, such strange fish and beasts are also bred, that no 
 man can give a name to, as Grotius, in his *Sophom,' and 
 others, have observed. 
 
 But whither am I strayed in this discourse ? I will end it 
 by telling you, that at the mouth of some of these rivers of 
 our's. Herrings are so plentiful, as namely, near to Yarmouth 
 in Norfolk, and in the west-country, Pilchers so very plentiful, 
 as you will wonder to read what our learned Camden relates 
 of them in his * Britannia,' p. 178, 186. 
 
 Well, Scholar, I will stop here, and tell you what by 
 reading and conference I have observed concerning Fish- 
 ponds. 
 152 
 

 Makes excellent sport for young Anglers, or boys, or women that love that recreation. 
 
CHAPTER XX. OF FISH-PONDS, AND HOW TO 
 
 ORDER THEM 
 
 PISCATOR 
 
 DOCTOR LEBAULT, the learned Frenchman, in his large 
 discourse of * Maison Rustique,' gives this direction for 
 making of Fish-ponds ; I shall refer you to him to read 
 it at large, but I think I shall contract it, and yet make it as 
 useful. 
 
 He adviseth, that when you have drained the ground, and 
 made the earth firm where the head of the Pond must be, that 
 you must then in that place, drive in two or three rows of oak 
 or elm piles, which should be scorched in the fire, or half burnt 
 before they be driven into the earth; for being thus used, it 
 preserves them much longer from rotting ; and having done so, 
 lay faggots or bavins of smaller wood betwixt them, and then 
 earth betwixt and above them, and then having first very well 
 rammed them and the earth, use another pile in like manner as 
 the first were: and note, that the second pile, is to be of, or 
 about the height that you intend to make your Sluice or Flood- 
 gate, or the vent that you intend shall convey the overflowings 
 of your Pond, in any flood that shall endanger the breaking of 
 the Pond-dam. 
 
 Then he advises that you plant willows or owlers about it, 
 or both, and then cast in bavins in some places not far from 
 the side, and in the most sandy places, for fish both to spawn 
 upon, and to defend them and the young fry from the many 
 fish, and also from vermin that lie at watch to destroy them ; 
 especially the spawn of the Carp and Tench, when 'tis left to 
 the mercy of ducks or vermin. 
 
 He and Dubravius, and all others advise, that you make 
 choice of such a place for your pond, that it may be refreshed 
 
 153 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF FISH-PONDS 
 
 with a little rill, or with rain water running or falling into it ; by 
 which fish are more inclined both to breed, and are also refreshed 
 and fed the better, and do prove to be of a much sweeter and 
 more pleasant taste. 
 
 To which end it is observed, that such pools as be large, 
 and have most gravel, and shallows where fish may sport them- 
 selves, do afford fish of the purest taste. And note, that in all 
 pools it is best for fish to have some retiring place, as namely, 
 hollow banks, or shelves, or roots of trees, to keep them from 
 danger ; and, when they think fit, from the extreme heat of 
 Summer; as also from the extremity of cold in Winter. And 
 note, that if many trees be growing about your pond, the leaves 
 thereof falling into the water, make it nauseous to the fish, and 
 the fish to be so to the eater of it. 
 
 'Tis noted that the Tench and Eel love mud, and the Carp 
 loves gravelly ground, and in the hot months to feed on grass : 
 you are to cleanse your pond, if you intend either profit or 
 pleasure, once every three or four years, especially some ponds, 
 and then let it lie dry six or twelve months, both to kill the 
 water-weeds, as water-lilies, candocks, reate, and bull-rushes, 
 that breed there ; and also, that as these die for want of water, 
 so grass may grow in the pond's bottom, which Carps will eat 
 greedily in all the hot months if the pond be clean. The letting 
 your pond dry and sowing oats in the bottom is also good, for 
 the fish feed the faster: and being sometime let dry, you may 
 observe what kind of fish either increases or thrives best in 
 that water ; for they differ much both in their breeding and 
 feeding. 
 
 Lebault also advises, that if your ponds be not very large 
 and roomy, that you often feed your fish by throwing into them 
 chippings of bread, curds, grains, or the entrails of chickens, or 
 of any fowl or beast that you kill to feed yourselves ; for these 
 afford fish a great relief. He says that frogs and ducks do 
 much harm, and devour both the spawn and the young fry of 
 all fish, especially of the Carp. And I have, besides experience, 
 many testimonies of it ; but Lebault allows Water-frogs to be 
 good meat, especially in some months, if they be fat : but you 
 are to note, that he is a Frenchman, and we English will hardly 
 beheve him, though we know frogs are usually eaten in his 
 154 
 
AND HOW TO ORDER THEM 
 
 country : however, he advises to destroy them and King-fishers 
 out of your ponds ; and he advises, not to suffer much shooting 
 at wild-fowl, for that he says affrightens, and harms and 
 destroys the fish. 
 
 Note, that Carps and Tench thrive and breed best when no 
 other fish is put with them into the same pond ; for all other 
 fish devour their spawn ; or at least the greatest part of it. 
 And note, that clods of grass thrown into any pond, feed any 
 Carps in Summer; and that garden-earth and parsley thrown 
 into a pond, recovers and refreshes the sick fish. And note, 
 that when you store your pond, you are to put into it two or 
 three melters for one spawner, if you put them into a Breeding- 
 pond ; but if into a Nurse-pond, or Feeding-pond, in which they 
 will not breed, then no care is to be taken, whether there be 
 most male or female Carps. 
 
 It is observed, that the best ponds to breed Carps, are those 
 that be stony or sandy, and are warm and free from wind, and 
 that are not deep, but have willow trees, and grass on their 
 sides, over which the water does sometimes flow: and note, 
 that Carps do more usually breed in marle-pits, or pits that 
 have clean clay-bottoms, or in new ponds, or ponds that lie dry 
 a Winter season, than in old ponds that be full of mud and 
 weeds. 
 
 Well, Scholar, I have told you the substance of all that 
 either observation or discourse, or a diligent survey of Dubravius 
 and Lebault hath told me ; not that they in their long discourses 
 have not said more, but the most of the rest are so common 
 observations, as if a man should tell a good arithmetician, that 
 twice two is four. I will therefore put an end to this discourse, 
 and we will here sit down and rest us. 
 
 155 
 
CHAPTER XXI. DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING OF A 
 LINE, AND FOR THE COLOURING OF BOTH 
 ROD AND LINE 
 
 PISCATOR AND VENATOR 
 
 PISCATOR. Well, Scholar, I have held you too long about 
 these Cadis, and smaller fish, and rivers, and fish-ponds, 
 and my spirits are almost spent, and so I doubt is your 
 patience ; but being we are now almost at Tottenham, where 
 I first met you, and where we are to part, I will lose no time, 
 but give you a little direction how to make and order your 
 Lines, and to colour the hair of which you make your Lines, 
 for that is very needful to be known of an Angler; and also 
 how to paint your Rod ; especially your top, for a right-grown 
 top is a choice commodity, and should be preserved from the 
 water soaking into it, which makes it in wet weather to be 
 heavy, and fish ill-favouredly, and not true, and also it rots 
 quickly for want of painting: and I think a good top is worth 
 preserving, or I had not taken care to keep a top above twenty 
 years. 
 
 But first for your Line. First, Note, that you are to take 
 care, that your hair be round and clear, and free from galls or 
 scabs, or frets : for a well-chosen, even, clear, round hair, of a 
 kind of glass-colour, will prove as strong as three uneven, scabby 
 hairs, that are ill-chosen, and full of gall, or unevenness. You 
 shall seldom find a black hair but it is round, but many white 
 are flat and uneven, therefore, if you get a lock of right, round, 
 clear, glass-colour hair, make much of it. 
 
 And for making your line, observe this rule, first let your 
 
 hair be clean washed ere you go about to twist it : and then 
 
 choose not only the clearest hair for it, but hairs that be of 
 
 an equal bigness, for such do usually stretch all together, and 
 
 156 
 
DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING OF A LINE 
 
 break all together, which hairs of an unequal bigness never 
 do, but break singly, and so deceive the Angler that trusts 
 to them. 
 
 When you have twisted your links, lay them in water for 
 a quarter of an hour at least, and then twist them over again 
 before you tie them into a line : for those that do not so, shall 
 usually find their line to have a hair or two shrink, and be 
 shorter than the rest at the first fishing with it, which is so 
 much of the strength of the line lost for want of first watering 
 it and then re-twisting it ; and this is most visible in a seven- 
 hair line, one of those which hath always a black hair in the 
 middle. 
 
 And for dying of your hairs, do it thus : Take a pint of 
 strong ale, half a pound of soot, and a little quantity of the 
 juice of Walnut-tree leaves, and an equal quantity of allum ; 
 put these together into a pot, pan, or pipkin, and boil them 
 half an hour ; and having so done, let it cool ; and being cold, 
 put your hair into it, and there let it lie : it will turn your hair 
 to be a kind of water, or glass-colour, or greenish, and the 
 longer you let it lie, the deeper coloured it will be : you might 
 be taught to make many other colours, but it is to little pur- 
 pose ; for doubtless the water-colour, or glass-coloured hair, is 
 the most choice and most useful for an Angler ; but let it not 
 be too green. 
 
 But if you desire to colour hair greener, then do it thus : 
 
 take a quart of small Ale, half a pound of Allum ; then put 
 
 these into a pan or pipkin, and your hair into it with them ; 
 
 then put it upon a fire, and let it boil softly for half an hour ; 
 
 and then take out your hair, and let it dry ; and having so done, 
 
 then take a pottle of water, and put into it two handfuls of 
 
 Marygolds, and cover it with a tile, or what you think fit, and 
 
 set it again on the fire, where it is to boil again softly for half 
 
 an hour, about which time the scum will turn yellow ; then put 
 
 into it half a pound of Copperas, beaten small, and with it the 
 
 hair that you intend to colour ; then let the hair be boiled softly 
 
 till half the liquor be wasted ; and then let it cool three or four 
 
 hours, with your hair in it : and you are to observe, that the 
 
 more Copperas you put into it, the greener it will be ; but 
 
 doubtless the pale green is best : but if you desire yellow hair, 
 2A 157 
 
DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING OF A LINE 
 
 which is only good when the weeds rot, then put in the more 
 Marygolds, and abate most of the Copperas, or leave it quite 
 out, and take a little Verdigrise instead of it. 
 
 This for colouring your hair. And as for painting your rod, 
 which must be in oil, you must first make a size with glue and 
 water boiled together until the glue be dissolved, and the size 
 of a lye-colour : then strike your size upon the wood with a 
 bristle, or a brush, or pencil, whilst it is hot; that being quite 
 dry, take White-lead, and a little Red-lead, with a little Coal- 
 black, so much as all together will make an ash-colour ; grind 
 these all together with Linseed-oil ; let it be thick, and lay it 
 thin upon the wood with a brush or pencil ; this do for the 
 ground of any colour to lie upon wood. 
 
 For a Green. Take Pink and Verdigrise, and grind them 
 together in Linseed-oil, as thin as you can well grind it ; then 
 lay it smoothly on with your brush, and drive it thin : once doing, 
 for the most part, will serve, if you lay it well ; and if twice, be 
 sure your first colour be thoroughly dry before you lay on a 
 second. 
 
 Well, Scholar, having now taught you to paint your rod, 
 and we having still a mile to Tottenham High-cross, I will, as 
 we walk towards it, in the cool shade of this sweet honeysuckle 
 hedge, mention to you some of the thoughts and joys that have 
 possessed my soul since we two met together. And these 
 thoughts shall be told you, that you also may join with me in 
 thankfulness, to the Giver of every good and perfect gift, for 
 our happiness. And, that our present happiness may appear 
 to be the greater, and we the more thankful for it, I will beg 
 you to consider with me, how many do, even at this very time, 
 lie under the torment of the Stone, the Gout, and Tooth-ache ; 
 and this we are free from. And every misery that I miss is a 
 new mercy : and therefore let us be thankful. There have been, 
 since we met, others that have met disasters of broken limbs ; 
 some have been blasted, others thunder-strucken ; and we have 
 been freed from these, and all those many other miseries that 
 threaten human nature : let us therefore rejoice and be thankful. 
 Nay, which is a far greater mercy, we are free from the un- 
 supportable burthen of an accusing, tormenting conscience ; a 
 misery that none can bear, and therefore let us praise Him for 
 .158 
 
AND FOR THE COLOURING OF ROD AND LINE 
 
 his preventing grace, and say, Every misery that I miss is a 
 new mercy : Nay, let me tell you, there be many that have 
 forty times our estates, that would give the greatest part of it 
 to be healthful and cheerful like us ; who, with the expence of 
 a little money, have eat and drank, and laughed, and angled, 
 and sung, and slept securely ; and rose next day, and cast away 
 care, and sung, and laughed, and angled again ; which are 
 blessings rich men cannot purchase with all their money. Let 
 me tell you. Scholar, I have a rich neighbour, that is always 
 so busy that he has no leisure to laugh ; the whole business of 
 his life is to get money, and more money, that he may still get 
 more and more money ; he is still drudging on, and says, that 
 Solomon says, * The diligent hand maketh rich ' : and it is true 
 indeed ; but he considers not that 'tis not in the power of riches 
 to make a man happy : for it was wisely said, by a man of great 
 observation, *That there be as many miseries beyond riches, 
 as on this side them ' : and yet God deliver us from pinching 
 poverty ; and grant, that having a competency, we may be 
 content and thankful. Let not us repine, or so much as think 
 the gifts of God unequally dealt, if we see another abound with 
 riches ; when, as God knows, the cares, that are the keys that 
 keep those riches, hang often so heavily at the rich man's 
 girdle, that they clog him with weary days, and restless nights, 
 even when others sleep quietly. We see but the outside of the 
 rich man's happiness : few consider him to be like the Silk- 
 worm, that, when she seems to play, is, at the very same time, 
 spinning her own bowels, and consuming herself. And this 
 many rich men do ; loading themselves with corroding cares, 
 to keep what they have, probably, unconscionably got. Let 
 us, therefore, be thankful for health and a competence, and 
 above all, for a quiet conscience. 
 
 Let me tell you. Scholar, that Diogenes walked on a day, 
 with a friend, to see a country fair; where he saw ribbons, 
 and looking-glasses, and nut-crackers, and fiddles, and hobby- 
 horses, and many other gimcracks ; and having observed them, 
 and all the other finnimbruns that make a complete country 
 fair ; he said to his friend, * Lord ! How many things are there 
 in this world, of which Diogenes hath no need ? ' And truly it 
 is so, or might be so, with very many who vex and toil them- 
 
 159 
 
DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING OF A LINE 
 
 selves to get what they have no need of. Can any man charge 
 God, that he hath not given him enough to make his life happy ? 
 No, doubtless ; for nature is content with a little : and yet you 
 shall hardly meet with a man that complains not of some want ; 
 though he, indeed, wants nothing but his will, it may be, 
 nothing but his will of his poor neighbour, for not worshipping, 
 or not flattering him : and thus, when we might be happy and 
 quiet, we create trouble to ourselves. I have heard of a man 
 that was angry with himself because he was no taller, and of a 
 woman that broke her looking-glass because it would not shew 
 her face to be as young and handsome as her next neighbour's 
 was. And I knew another, to whom God had given health, 
 and plenty ; but a wife, that nature had made peevish, and her 
 husband's riches had made purse-proud, and must, because she 
 was rich, and for no other virtue, sit in the highest pew in the 
 church ; which, being denied her, she engaged her husband 
 into a contention for it ; and, at last, into a law-suit with a 
 dogged neighbour, who was as rich as he, and had a wife as 
 peevish and purse-proud as the other: and this law-suit begot 
 higher oppositions, and actionable words, and more vexations 
 and law-suits ; for you must remember, that both were rich, 
 and must therefore have their wills. Well, this wilful, purse- 
 proud law-suit, lasted during the life of the first husband : after 
 which his wife vexed and chid, and chid and vexed, till she also 
 chid and vexed herself into her grave ; and so the wealth of 
 these poor rich people was curst into a punishment ; because 
 they wanted meek and thankful hearts ; for those only can make 
 us happy. I knew a man that had health and riches, and several 
 houses, all beautiful and ready furnished, and would often trouble 
 himself and family to be removing from one house to another : 
 and being asked by a friend. Why he removed so often from 
 one house to another ? replied, * It was to find content in some 
 one of them.' But his friend knowing his temper, told him, if 
 he would find content in any of his houses, he must leave him- 
 self behind him ; for, content will never dwell but in a meek 
 and quiet soul. And this may appear, if we read and consider 
 what our Saviour says in St. Matthew's Gospel ; for he there 
 says, — * Blessed be the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. — 
 Blessed be the pure in heart, for they shall see God. — Blessed 
 i6o 
 
AND FOR THE COLOURING OF ROD AND LINE 
 
 be the poor in spirit, for their's is the kingdom of heaven. 
 And, — Blessed be the meek, for they shall possess the earth.* 
 Not that the meek shall not also obtain mercy, and see God, 
 and be comforted, and at last come to the kingdom of heaven ; 
 but in the mean time he, and he only, possesses the earth as 
 he goes toward that kingdom of heaven, by being humble and 
 cheerful, and content with what his good God has allotted 
 him : he has no turbulent, repining, vexatious thoughts, that 
 he deserves better ; nor is vexed when he sees others possessed 
 of more honour, or more riches than his wise God has allotted 
 for his share ; but he possesses what he has with a meek and 
 contented quietness ; such a quietness as makes his very 
 dreams pleasing, both to God and himself. 
 
 My honest Scholar, all this is told to incline you to thank- 
 fulness; and to incline you the more, let me tell you, that 
 though the Prophet David was guilty of murder and adultery, 
 and many other of the most deadly sins : yet he was said to be 
 a man after God's own heart, because he abounded more with 
 thankfulness than any other that is mentioned in holy scripture, 
 as may appear in his book of Psalms ; where there is such a 
 commixture of his confessing of his sins and unworthiness, and 
 such thankfulness for God's pardon and mercies, as did make 
 him to be accounted even by God himself, to be a man after his 
 own heart : and let us in that, labour to be as like him as we 
 can ; let not the blessings we receive daily from God, make us 
 not to value, or not praise him, because they be common ; let 
 not us forget to praise him for the innocent mirth and pleasure 
 we have met with since we met together : What would a blind 
 man give to see the pleasant rivers, and meadows, and flowers, 
 and fountains, that we have met with since we met together? 
 I have been told, that if a man, that was born blind, could 
 obtain to have his sight for but only one hour, during his whole 
 life, and should, at the first opening of his eyes, fix his sight 
 upon the Sun when it was in his full glory, either at the rising 
 or setting of it, he would be so transported and amazed, and so 
 admire the glory of it, that he would not willingly turn his eyes 
 from that first ravishing object, to behold all the other various 
 beauties this world could present to him. And this, and many 
 other like blessings, we enjoy daily; and for most of them, 
 
 i6i 
 
DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING OF A LINE 
 
 because they be so common, most men forget to pay their 
 praises; but let not us, because it is a sacrifice so pleasing to 
 him that made that Sun, and us, and still protects us, and gives 
 us flowers, and showers, and stomachs, and meat, and content, 
 and leisure to go a-fishing. 
 
 Well, Scholar, I have almost tired myself, and, I fear, more 
 than almost tired you : but I now see Tottenham High- 
 Cross ; and our short walk thither shall put a period to my too 
 long discourse ; in which my meaning was, and is, to plant that 
 in your mind, with which I labour to possess my own soul : that 
 is, a meek and thankful heart. And, to that end, I have shewed 
 you that riches without them do not make any man happy. 
 But let me tell you, that riches with them remove many fears, 
 and cares; and therefore my advice is, that you endeavour to 
 be honestly rich, or contentedly poor: but be sure that your 
 riches be justly got, or you spoil all. For it is well said by 
 Caussin, *he that loses his conscience, has nothing left that is 
 worth keeping.' Therefore be sure you look to that. And, in 
 the next place, look to your health : and if you have it, praise 
 God, and value it next to a good conscience ; for health is the 
 second blessing that we mortals are capable of; a blessing that 
 money cannot buy; and therefore value it, and be thankful for 
 it. As for money, which may be said to be the third blessing, 
 neglect it not : but note, that there is no necessity of being 
 rich: for I told you, there be as many miseries beyond riches, 
 as on this side them : and, if you have a competence, enjoy it 
 with a meek, cheerful, thankful, heart. I will tell you. Scholar, 
 I have heard a grave Divine say, that God has two dwellings, 
 one in Heaven, and the other in a meek and thankful heart. 
 Which Almighty God grant to me, and to my honest Scholar : 
 and so you are welcome to Tottenham High-Cross. 
 
 Venator. Well, Master, I thank you for all your good 
 directions ; but for none more than this last of thankfulness, 
 which I hope I shall never forget. And pray let's now rest 
 ourselves in this sweet shady arbour, which Nature herself 
 has woven with her own fine fingers ; 'tis such a contexture 
 of Woodbines, Sweetbriar, Jessamine, and Myrtle, and so inter- 
 woven, as will secure us both from the sun's violent heat, and 
 from the approaching shower ; and, being sat down, I will 
 162 
 
And pray let's now rest ourselves in this sweet shady arbour, which Nature herself has 
 woven with her own fine fingers. 
 
AND FOR THE COLOURING OF ROD AND LINE 
 
 requite a part of your courtesies with a bottle of Sack, Milk, 
 Oranges, and Sugar; which all put together, .make a drink 
 like Nectar, indeed, too good for any body but us Anglers ; and 
 so, Master, here is a full glass to you of that liquor; and 
 when you have pledged me, I will repeat the verses which I 
 promised you ; it is a copy printed amongst some of Sir Henry 
 Wotton's, and doubtless made either by him, or by a lover of 
 Angling. Come, Master, now drink a glass to me, and then 
 I will pledge you, and fall to my repetition; it is a description 
 of such country recreations as I have enjoyed since I had the 
 happiness to fall into your company. 
 
 Quivering fears, heart-tearing cares, 
 Anxious sighs, untimely tears, 
 
 Fly, fly to courts. 
 
 Fly to fond worldlings' sports. 
 Where strain'd Sardonic smiles are glosing still, 
 And grief is forc'd to laugh against her will. 
 
 Where mirth's but mummery, 
 
 And sorrows only real be. 
 
 Fly from our country pastimes, fly, 
 Sad troops of human misery : — 
 
 Come serene looks, 
 
 Clear as the crystal brooks, 
 Or the pure azur'd heaven that smiles to see 
 The rich attendance on our poverty; 
 
 Peace and a secure mind, 
 
 Which all men seek, we only find. 
 
 Abused mortals, did you know 
 
 Where joy, heart's-ease and comforts grow, 
 
 You'd scorn proud towers. 
 
 And seek them in these bowers; 
 Where winds sometimes our woods perhaps may shake, 
 But blustering care could never tempest make, 
 
 Nor murmurs e'er come nigh us. 
 
 Saving, of fountains that glide by us. 
 
 Here's no fantastic masque, nor dance, 
 But of our kids that frisk and prance ; 
 Nor wars are seen, 
 Unless upon the green 
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DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING OF A LINE 
 
 Two harmless lambs are butting one the other, 
 Which done, both bleating run each to his mother. 
 And wounds are never found, 
 Save what the ploughshare gives the ground. 
 
 Here are no entrapping baits 
 To hasten too, too hasty fates,— 
 
 Unless it be 
 
 The fond credulity 
 Of silly fish, which, worldling like, still look 
 Upon the bait, but never on the hook: — 
 
 Nor envy, 'less among 
 
 The birds for price of their sweet song. 
 
 Go, let the diving Negro seek 
 
 For gems hid in some forlorn creek: 
 
 We all pearls scorn, 
 
 Save what the dewy morn 
 Congeals upon each little spire of grass. 
 Which careless shepherds beat down as they pass: 
 
 And gold ne'er here appears, 
 
 Save what the yellow Ceres bears. 
 
 Blest silent groves ! Oh may you be 
 For ever Mirth's best nursery! 
 
 May pure contents 
 
 For ever pitch their tents 
 Upon these downs, these meads, these rocks, these mountains, 
 And Peace still slumber by these purling fountains: 
 
 Which, we may every year 
 
 Meet when we come a-fishing here. 
 
 Pisc. Trust me, Scholar, I thank you heartily for these 
 verses, they be choicely good, and doubtless made by a lover 
 of Angling : Come, now, drink a glass to me, and I will requite 
 you with another very good copy : it is a Farewell to the Vanities 
 of the World, and some say, written by Sir Harry Wotton, who 
 I told you was an excellent Angler. But let them be writ by 
 whom they will, he that writ them had a brave soul, and must 
 needs be possessed with happy thoughts at the time of their 
 composure. 
 
 Farewell ye gilded follies, pleasing troubles ; 
 Farewell ye honour'd rags, ye glorious bubbles; 
 Fame's but a hollow echo,— Gold, pure clay;— 
 Honour, the darling but of one short day :— 
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AND FOR THE COLOURING OF ROD AND LINE 
 
 Beauty, th' eye's idol, but a damask'd skin: — 
 State, but a golden prison, to live in 
 And torture free-born minds :—Embroider'd trains 
 Merely but pageants for proud swelling veins :— 
 And blood ally'd to greatness, is alone 
 Inherited, not purchas'd, nor our own. 
 Fame, Honour, Beauty, State, Train, Blood, and Birth, 
 Are but the fading blossoms of the earth. 
 
 I would be Great,— but that the Sun doth still 
 
 Level his rays against the rising hill : 
 
 I would be High,— but see the proudest oak 
 
 Most subject to the rending thunder-stroke: 
 
 I would be Rich,— but see men too unkind, 
 
 Dig in the bowels of the richest mind : 
 
 I would be Wise,— but that I often see 
 
 The fox suspected, whilst the ass goes free : 
 
 I would be Fair, — but see the fair and proud, 
 
 Like the bright Sun oft setting in a cloud: 
 
 I would be Poor,— but know the humble grass 
 
 Still trampled on by each unworthy ass: 
 
 Rich hated :— Wise suspected :— Scorn'd if poor :— 
 
 Great fear'd :— Fair tempted :— High, still envy'd more : 
 
 I have wish'd all; but now I wish for neither; 
 
 Great, High, Rich, Wise, nor Fair; Poor I'll be rather. 
 
 Would the World now adopt me for her heir, 
 
 Would Beauty's Queen entitle me the fair,— 
 
 Fame speak me Fortune's minion,— could I vie 
 
 Angels with India,— with a speaking eye 
 
 Command bare heads, bow'd knees, strike Justice dumb, 
 
 As well as blind and lame, or give a tongue 
 
 To stones by epitaphs: be called great master 
 
 In the loose rhymes of every poetaster : — 
 
 Could I be more than any man that lives. 
 Great, fair, rich, wise, all in superlatives: 
 Yet I more freely would these gifts resign, 
 Than ever Fortune would have made them mine; 
 And hold one minute of this holy leisure, 
 Beyond the riches of this empty pleasure. 
 
 Welcome, pure thoughts. Welcome ye silent groves. 
 These guests, these courts my soul most dearly loves: 
 Now the wing'd people of the sky shall sing 
 My cheerful anthems to the gladsome Spring: 
 A Pray'r-book now, shall be tdy looking-glass, 
 In which I will adore sweet Virtue's face. 
 
 I6S 
 
DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING OF A LINE 
 
 Here dwell no hateful looks, no palace-cares, 
 No broken vows dwell here, nor pale-fac'd fears: 
 Then here I'll sit, and sigh my hot love's folly, 
 And learn t' affect an holy melancholy: 
 And if Contentment be a stranger,— then 
 I'll ne'er look for it, but in Heaven again. 
 
 Ven. Well, Master, these verses be worthy to keep a room 
 in every man's memory. I thank you for them; and I thank 
 you for your many instructions, which God willing, I will not 
 forget : and as St. Austin in his * Confessions,' Book 4, Chap. 3, 
 commemorates the kindness of his friend Verecundus, for lending 
 him and his companion a country-house, because there they 
 rested and enjoyed themselves free from the troubles of the 
 world ; so, having had the like advantage, both by your con- 
 versation and the Art you have taught me, I ought ever to do 
 the like : for indeed, your company and discourse have been so 
 useful and pleasant, that I may truly say, I have only lived 
 since I enjoyed them and turned Angler, and not before. 
 Nevertheless, here I must part with you, here in this now sad 
 place, where I was so happy as first to meet you : but I shall 
 long for the ninth of May, for then I hope again to enjoy your 
 beloved company at the appointed time and place. And now 
 I wish for some somniferous potion, that might force me to 
 sleep away the intermitted time, which will pass away with me 
 as tediously, as it does with men in sorrow ; nevertheless I will 
 make it as short as I can by my hopes and wishes. And my 
 good Master, I will not forget the doctrine which you told me 
 Socrates taught his Scholars, that they should not think to be 
 honoured so much for being Philosophers, as to honour Philo- 
 sophy by their virtuous lives. You advised me to the like 
 concerning Angling, and I will endeavour to do so, and to live 
 like those many worthy men, of which you made mention in 
 the former part of your discourse. This is my firm resolution ; 
 and as a pious man advised his friend, that to beget mortifica- 
 tion he should frequent churches, and view monuments and 
 charnel-houses, and then, and there consider, how many dead 
 bones Time had piled up at the gates of Death : so when I 
 would beget content, and increase confidence in the power, and 
 wisdom, and providence of Almighty God, I will walk the 
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AND FOR THE COLOURING OF ROD AND LINE 
 
 meadows by some gliding stream, and there contemplate the 
 lilies that take no care, and those very many other various little 
 living creatures, that are not only created, but fed, man knows 
 not how, by the goodness of the God of Nature, and therefore 
 trust in him. This is my purpose; and so, *Let every thing 
 that hath breath praise the Lord': And let the blessing of 
 St. Peter's Master be with mine. 
 
 Pisc. And upon all that are lovers of virtue ; and dare 
 trust in his Providence, and be quiet, and go a-Angling. 
 
 'STUDY TO BE QUIET.' 
 
Text printed by T. and A. Constable, Printers to His Majesty, Edinburgh 
 The Coloured Plates printed by Henry Stone and Son, Ltd., Baubury 
 
VF n I I 7q