V 
 
 r 
 
 /- 
 
 \ 
 

er 
 
 
BERKELEY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY Of 
 CALIFORNIA 
 

 
 
 
 / 
 
THE 
 
 COMPLETE ANGLER, 
 
 ittan'0 Lira-ration; 
 
 BEING 
 
 A DISCOURSE 
 
 RIVERS, FISH-PONDS, FISH, AND FISHING, 
 
 IN TWO PARTS: 
 
 THE FIRST WRITTEN BY 
 
 MR. IZAAK WALTON. 
 
 THE SECOND BY 
 
 CHARLES COTTON, ESQ. 
 
 WITH TBB 
 
 LIVES OF THE AUTHORS : 
 
 AND 
 
 NOTES, HISTORICAL, SUPPLEMENTARY, AND EXPLANATORY, 
 
 BY SIR JOHN HAWKINS, KNT. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR JAMES SMITH, 163, STRAND. 
 
 1822. 
 
LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED 3V W- LEWIS, 
 

ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 TO 
 THE NINTH EDITION. 
 
 THE English language does not, perhaps, con- 
 tain a book of more general and undivided popu- 
 larity than TUE COMPLETE ANGLER; it is praised 
 and loved by persons of all conditions ; and, so far 
 from being confined to those who are devoted to the 
 sport of which it mainly treats, it is a favourite with 
 many men who never handled an Angling-rod in 
 their lives. As a literary production it is a pheno- 
 menon, a work entirely sui generis, such as was 
 never before produced, and such as we shall pro- 
 bably never see again. Lucid and interesting trea- 
 tises have been very frequently written upon recrea- 
 tive sports, but, although the authors have had all 
 the excitement which an ardent attachment to the 
 respective subjects could supply, none of them have 
 been made to extend beyond the circle for whose 
 instruction or amusement they were undertaken, nor 
 have they in any instance filled so independent a sta- 
 tion in literature, as The Complete Angler has done. 
 
 M852814 
 
IV ADVERTISEMENT TO 
 
 It would probably never have occurred to any mind, 
 but one so chastely and purely constituted, as that of 
 old Izaak Walton, to make instructions in the Art of 
 Angling a vehicle for inculcating the doctrines of 
 rational piety and the purest morality : and yet this 
 he has done. His book comprises a course of Moral 
 Philosophy, and while its principles are laid down in 
 the most convincing manner, they are enforced with 
 an irresistible gentleness. The agreeable simplicity 
 of the style, its colloquial ease, and the innocent 
 mirth which pervades it, form a combination of the 
 useful and the agreeable, which is equally rich and 
 rare. 
 
 If that axiom of the Epicurean School be true, 
 that it is the business of man on earth to pursue hap- 
 piness, then is Izaak Walton the first of philosophers, 
 and the best, because he improves upon that system 
 by adding to it the benevolent principles of the Chris- 
 tian Religion. He leads his readers and disciples to 
 the purest gratification, but he never fails to prove to 
 them, chemin faisant, that it can only be attained by 
 the exercise of patience and humility. He persuades 
 to the paths of virtue, by shewing that they are those 
 of pleasantness and peace ; and, in this respect alone, 
 his illustrations are " worth a thousand homilies." 
 
THE NINTH EDITION. V 
 
 Our venerable author has been more than usually 
 fortunate in the persons to whom the task of editing 
 his favourite book has fallen. Sir John Hawkins, 
 who stands by far the most eminent among them, 
 seems to have been urged to his labours by a feeling 
 of affectionate respect for the author, which was in- 
 spired by the work, and which gathered strength as 
 he pursued it. It is impossible to praise, too highly, 
 the intelligence and pains which he has bestowed, 
 and by dint of which he has succeeded in making 
 his notes nearly as amusing as the text. 
 
 To render the work worthy of public patronage, the 
 whole of the old plates have been discarded, from 
 an idea that they tended very little to illustrate the 
 text; and, in their execution, could hardly be con- 
 sidered any embellishment, while their insertion was 
 a very material enhancement of the price of the work. 
 
 The Publisher of the present edition has, there- 
 fore, substituted other plates, which he trusts will, 
 to the lovers of the Art of Angling, prove no small 
 recommendation to the work; while, to collectors 
 and admirers of the arts, their execution will yield 
 equal pleasure. The situations delineated are such 
 as "Angler's love;" and, it is hoped, the present 
 
VI ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 embellishments will be generally considered as more 
 " germain to the matter," than the antiquated repre- 
 sentations of the previous editions, which seem to 
 have been retained, in the case of Walton's excellent 
 Book, without any attempt at improvement, whilst 
 almost every other work has been undergoing the 
 changes attendant upon the advancement of the arts, 
 and the refinement of taste. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 TO 
 
 THE SIXTH EDITION, 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 JOHN SIDNEY Himtixs, Esq. 1797. 
 
 IN consequence of the death of the former Editor, since the 
 publication of the fourth edition of this work in 1784, the revi- 
 sion of the present has devolved upon me, his son. For the 
 execution of this office he had left belu'nd him some corrections 
 and additions, inserted in the margin of his copy of the fourth 
 edition ; which, though not many, have been all made use of 
 on this occasion, from a wish that the book might receive the 
 advantage of his last corrections. Such of them as he had com- 
 pleted have been silently adopted ; but such as were nothing 
 more than mere hints, I have reduced into form, and distin- 
 guished them by the initials J. S. H. ; and where these latter are 
 continuations of former notes, have precisely marked wliere 
 they stopped in the fourth edition, by placing the initials J. H. 
 I have, however, in no instance varied from the last of the edi- 
 tions, published in his life, excepting u here it was warranted 
 by some memorandum of my father's, or by communications 
 from intelligent friends since his decease, being myself wholly 
 unacquainted with the subject. 
 
 As the plates have, in consequence of the number of impres- 
 sions furnished from them for the preceding editions, become 
 so worn as to be no longer any ornament to the work, it has 
 been found necessary to omit them. Such of them, however, as 
 represent the materials for fishing (and which fortunately had 
 sustained less injury) have been retained; and for the omission 
 of the Test all possible amends have been made, by printing the 
 book with a better type, and on better paper than could other- 
 wise have been afforded. 
 
 J. S. H. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 TO THE 
 
 EDITION PUBLISHED BY SIR JOHN HAWKINS, 1760. 
 
 THE COMPLETE ANGLER having been written so long ago as 
 1653, although the last publication thereof in the life-time of the 
 Author was in 1676, contains many particulars of persons now 
 but little known, and frequent allusions to facts, and even 
 modes of living, the memory whereof is in a great measure 
 obliterated : a new edition, therefore, seemed to require a re- 
 trospect to the time when the authors lived, an explanation of 
 such passages as an interval of more than an hundred years 
 had necessarily rendered obscure, together with such improve- 
 ments in tin- art itself as the accumulated experience of suc- 
 ceeding times has enabled us to furnish. 
 
 An Edition, undertaken with this view, is now attempted, 
 and in a way, it is to be hoped, that may once again introduce 
 the Authors to the acquaintance of persons of learning and 
 judgment. 
 
 All that the Editor requests, in return for the pains he has 
 taken, is, that the reader will do him the justice to believe that 
 his only motives for the republication of this work were a desire 
 to perpetuate the memory of a meek, benevolent, pious man, 
 and to contribute something to the improvement of an art of 
 which he professes himself a lover. 
 
 Twickenham, 
 Apr it JO, 1760. 
 
LIFE 
 
 MR. ISAAC WALTON. 
 
 J. H E excellent Lord Verulam has noted it, as one of the great 
 deficiencies of biographical history, that it is,"for the most part, con- 
 fined to the actions of kings, princes, and great personages, who are 
 necessarily few; while the memory of less conspicuous, though good 
 men, has been no better preserved, than by vague reports, and bar- 
 ren elogies. l 
 
 It is not therefore to be wondered at, if little care has been taken to 
 perpetuate the remembrance of the person who is the subject of the 
 present enquiry; and, indeed, there are many circumstances that 
 seem to account for such an omission ; for neither was he distin- 
 guished by his rank, or eminent for his learning, or remarkable for 
 the performance of any public service ; but as he ever affected a 
 retired life, so was he noted, only, for 'an ingenious, humble, good 
 man. 
 
 However, to so eminent a degree did he POMCM the qualities above 
 ascribed to him, as to afford a very justifiable reason for endeavour- 
 ing to impress upon the minds of mankind, by a collection of many 
 scattered passages concerning him, a due sense of their value and 
 importance. 
 
 ISAAC, or, as he used to write it, IZAAK WALTON, was born at 
 Stafford, in the month of August, 1593. The Oxford Antiquary, who 
 has thus fixed the place and year of his nativity, has left us no me- 
 morials of his family,* nor even hinted where or how he was 
 educated; but has only told us, that before the year 1643, Walton 
 was settled, and followed the trade of a sempster, in London. 3 
 
 From his own writings, then, it must be, that the circumstances 
 
 (1) " De vitis cogitantem subit qua-darn admiratio, tempora isla nostra 
 baud nflsse bona sna ; cum tani raia fit conuucmoratio el consciiptio 
 vitamin, eoruui, qui noslio seculo clarncrunt. KIM enim reges, et qui 
 absolntum principatum obtineaut, pauci esse possint; principes etiani in 
 republic^ liber (lot rebuspublicis in mnuarrhiam conversis) baud multi; 
 ii tr u M q tie tair.cn noil dct'uerunt viri egregii (licet sub regibus) qui melipra 
 merentur, quam inceriain et vapam memorise sine fainaui aut elogia arida 
 et jejuna." De Attf mentis Sc'u'iitiurum, lib. II. cap. 7. 
 
 (2) By the register of St. Mary, Suiiord, it appears he was born August 
 9th, 1593. 
 
 (3) Atken. Oxon. Vol. I 305. 
 
X LIFE OF WALTON. 
 
 attending his life must, in a great measure, come; and, as occasions 
 offer, a proper use will be made of them ; nevertheless a due regard 
 will be paid to some traditional memoirs, which (besides that they 
 contain nothing improbable) the authority of those to whom we stand 
 indebted for them, will not allow us to question. 
 
 His first settlement in London, as a shop-keeper, was in the Royal 
 Burse in Cornhill, built by Sir Thomas Gresham, and finished in 
 1 567. ' In this situation he could scarcely be said to have had elbow- 
 room ; for the shops over the Burse were but seven feet and a half 
 long, and five wide;* yet here did he carry on his trade, till some 
 time before the year 1624; when he dwelt on the north side of 
 Fleet-street, in a house two doors west of the end of Chancery-lane, 
 and abutting on a messuage known by the sign of the Harrow." 3 
 Now the old timber-house at the south-west corner of Chancery-lane, 
 in Fleet-street, till within these few years, was known by that sign : it 
 is therefore beyond doubt that Walton lived at the very next door. 
 And in this house, he is in the deed above referred to, which bears 
 date 1624 said to have followed the trade of a Linen draper. It 
 further appears by that deed, that the house was in thejotnf occupa> 
 tion of Isaac Walton, and John Mason, hosier; whence we may 
 conclude, that half a shop was sufficient for the business of Walton. 
 
 A citizen of this age would almost as much disdain to admit of a 
 tenant for half his shop, as a knight would to ride double ; though 
 the brethren of one of the most ancient orders in the world were so 
 little above this practice, that their common seal was the device of 
 two riding on one horse. 4 A more than gradual deviation from 
 that parsimonious character, of which this is a ludicrous instance, 
 hastened the grandeur, and declension, of that fraternity ; and it is 
 rather to be wished than hoped, that the vast increase of trade of 
 this country, and an aversion from the frugal manners of our fore- 
 fathers, may not be productive of similar consequences to this nation 
 in general 
 
 I conjecture, that about 1632 he married ; for in that year 1 find 
 him "living in a house in Chancery-lane, a few doors higher up, on 
 the left hand, than the former, and described by the occupation of a 
 trmpsler or milliner. The former of these might be his own proper 
 trade ; and the latter, as being a feminine occupation, might probably 
 he carried on by his wife : she, it appears, was Anne the daughter of 
 Thomas Ken, df FurnivaTs Inn, and sister of Thomas, afterwards 
 Dr. Ken, bishop of Bath and Wells, one of the seven that were sent 
 to the Tower, and who at the Revolution was deprived, and died in 
 retirement. Walton seems to have been as happy in the married 
 state, as the society and friendship of a prudent and pious woman of 
 great endowments could make him ; and that Mrs. Walton was such 
 a one, we may conclude from what will be said of her hereafter. 
 About 1643 he left London, and, with a fortune very far short of 
 
 (1) Ward's Life of Sir Thoauu Gresham, p. It. 
 
 * (3) Ex vet. ckartii penes me. 
 
 (4) The Knights Templars. Ashmole's Inttit. of the Order of tlie Garter, 
 p. 55. See the seal at the end of Matt. Paris Hist. Anglicana, edit. 1640. 
 
LIFE OF WALTON., XI 
 
 what would n*w be called a competency,! seems to have retired 
 altogether from business ; at which time (to use the words of Wood) 
 " finding it dangerous for honest men to be there, he left that city, 
 and lived sometimes at Stafford, 2 and elsewhere ; but mostly in the 
 families of the eminent clergymen of England, of whom he was much 
 beloved." 3 
 
 While he continued in London, his favourite recreation was angling, 
 in which he was the greatest proficient of his time ; and indeed, so 
 great were his skill and experience in that art, that there is scarce 
 any writer on the subject since his time, who has not made the rules 
 and practice of Walton his very foundation. It is therefore with the 
 greatest propriety that Langbaine calls him " the common father of 
 all anglers." * 
 
 The river that he seems mostly to have frequented for this purpose 
 was the Lea, which has its source above Ware in Hertfordshire, and 
 falls into the Thames a little below Black- Wall ; * unless we will sup- 
 pose that the vicinity of the New-River 6 to the place of his habita- 
 tion, might sometimes tempt him out with his friends, honest Nat. 
 and R. Roe, whose loss he so pathetically mentions,? to spend an 
 afternoon there. 
 
 In the year 1662, he was by death deprived of the solace and com- 
 fort of a good wife, as appears by the following monumental 
 inscription in the chapel of Our Lady, in the cathedral church of 
 Worcester 
 
 EXTERRIS 
 
 D. 
 M.S. 
 
 HERE MI. i II BURIED 
 so much as could dye of 
 
 AN"NE, the Wife of IZAAK WALTON; 
 who was a Woman of remarkable Prudence, 
 
 and of the Primitive Piety ; 
 
 her great, and general Knowledge 
 
 being adorned with such true Ham i lily. 
 
 and blest with so much Christian Meekness, 
 
 as made her worthy of a more memorable Monument. 
 
 She dyed (alas that she is dead !) 
 
 the 17 th of April, 1662, Aged 52. 
 
 Study to be like her. 
 
 Living, while in London, in the parish of St. Dunstan in the West, 
 whereof Dr. John Donne, dean of St. Paul's, was vicar, he became 
 of course a frequent hearer of that excellent preacher, and, at length, 
 (as he himself expresses it,) 8 his convert. Upon his decease in 
 
 (1) See his Will, at the end of the Life. 
 
 (2) He lived upon a small estate near the toWn of Stafford , where, ac 
 cording to his own account, he suffered during the time of the civil wars; 
 having by his loyalty rendered himself obnoxious to the persons in 
 power. 
 
 (3) Athen. Oxon. Vol. I. 305. 
 
 (4) Live* of the English Dramatic Poets, art. C/ta. Cotton, Esq. 
 r (5) See Chap. XIX. note, page -219. 
 
 (6) That great work, the bringing water from Chadwell and Amwell, in 
 Hertfordshire, to London, by means of the trench called the New River, 
 was completed on Michaelmas day, 1613. Slew's Survey, fol. 1633. p. 12. 
 
 (7) Preface to Complete Angler. 
 
 (S; rerses of Walton at the end of Dr. Donne's Life. 
 
 b2 
 
XJ1 LIFE OF WALTON. 
 
 1631, Sir Henry Wotton (of whom mention will be made hereafter) 
 requested Walton to collect materials for a Life of the Doctor, which 
 it seems Sir Henry had undertaken to write ;i but Sir Henry dying 
 before he had completed the life, Walton undertook it himself; and 
 in the year 1640 finished, and published it with a Collection of the 
 Doctors Sermon*, in folio. As soon as the book came out, a com- 
 plete copy was sent as a present to Walton, by Mr. John Donne, the 
 doctor's son, afterwards doctor of laws; and one of the blank leaves 
 contained his letter to Mr. Walton : the letter is yet extant . and in 
 print, and is a handsome and grateful acknowledgment of the ho- 
 nour done to the memory of his father. 
 
 Doctor King, afterwards bishop of Chichester, in a letter to the 
 author, thus expresses himself concerning this Life : " I am glad that 
 the general demonstration of his [Doctor Donne's] worth was so 
 fairly preserved, and represented to the world, by your pen, in the 
 history of his life; indeed so well, that, beside others, the best critic 
 of our later time, Mr. John Hales, of Eaton, affirmed to me, he had 
 not seen a life written with more advantage to the subject, or reputa- 
 tion to the writer, than that of Doctor Donne." 3 
 
 Sir Henry Wotton dying in 1639, Walton was importuned by 
 bishop King to undertake the writing his Life also ; and, as it should 
 by a circumstance mentioned in the margin, it was finished 
 
 about 1644.4 Notwithstanding which, the earliest copy I have yet 
 been able to meet with is that prefixed to a Collection of Sir Henry's 
 Remains, undoubtedly made by Walton himself, intitled AV//<////V/- 
 H'oftommur, and by him, in 1651, dedicated to Lady Mary Wotton 
 and her three daughters; though in a subsequent edition, in 1685, he 
 has recommended them to the patronage of a more remote relation 
 of the author, namely, Philip carl of Chesterfield. 
 
 The Precepts of Angling meaning thereby the Rules and Direc- 
 lions for taking Fish with a Hook and Line till Walton's time, 
 having hardly ever been reduced to writing, were propagated from 
 age to age chiefly by tradition : but Walton, whose benevolent and 
 communicative temper appears in almost every line of his writings, 
 unwilling to conceal from the world those assistances which his long 
 practice and experience enabled him, perhaps the best of any man of 
 his time, to give, in the year 1653 published, in a very elegant manner, 
 his Complete Angler, or Contempt ai it e Man's Recreation, in small 
 duodecimo, adorned with exquisite cuts of most of the fish mentioned 
 in it. The artist who engraved them has been so modest as to con- 
 ceal his name : but there is great reason to suppose they are the 
 
 (1) See Rtliquiff U'attoniame, octavo, 1085. p. 360. 
 
 (*) In Peck's Desiderata Curiosa, Vol. I. lib. VI. p. 24. In the year 
 1714, the very book, with the original manuscript letter, was in the hands 
 nt the Rev. Mr. Borradale, rector of Market-Deeping, in the county of 
 
 (3) Bishop King's Letter to Gallon before the Collection of the Lives, in 
 1070. 
 
 (4) It is certain that Hooker's Life was written about 1664; and Walton 
 says, in his Epistle before the Lives, that " there was an interval of 
 " twenty years between the writing of Hooker's Life and Wotton's, which 
 fixes the date of the latter to 1644." 
 
LIFE OF WALTON. Xlll 
 
 work of Lombart, who is mentioned in the Sculptura of Mr. Evelyn j 
 and also that the plates were of steel. 
 
 And let no man imagine, that a work on such a subject must ne- 
 cessarily be unentertaining, or trifling, or even uninstructive ; for the 
 contrary will most evidently appear, from a perusal of this excellent 
 piece, which whether we consider the elegant simplicity of the 
 style, the ease and unaffected humour of the dialogue, the lovely 
 scenes which it delineates, the enchanting pastoral poetry which it 
 contains, or the fine morality it so sweetly inculcates has hardly its 
 fellow in any of the modern languages. 
 
 The truth is, that there are few subjects so barren as not to afford 
 matter of delight, and even of instruction, if ingeniously treated: 
 Montaigne has written an essay on Coaches, and another on Thumbs , 
 and our own nation has produced many men, who, from a peculiar 
 felicity in their turn of thinking, and manner of writing, have adorned, 
 and even dignified, themes the most dry and unpromising. Many 
 would think that time ill employed, which was spent in composing a 
 treatise on the art of shooting in the long bow ; and how few lovers 
 of horticulture would expect entertainment from a discourse of 
 Sallads ! and yet the Toxophilus of Roger Ascham, and the Acetaria 
 of Mr. Evelyn, have been admired and commended by the best judges 
 of literature. 
 
 But that the reader may determine for himself, how much our 
 author has contributed to the improvement of piscatory science, and 
 how far his work may be said to be an original, it will be necessary 
 for him to take a view of the state of angling at the time when he 
 \\roif ; and that he may be the better able to do this, he will consider, 
 that, till the time of the Reformation, although the clergy, as well 
 regular as secular on account of their leisure, and because tlu> 
 canon law forbad them the use of the sanguinary recreations of 
 hunting, hawking, and fowling were the great proficients in angling, 
 yet none of its precepts were committed to writing ; and that, from 
 tlu- time of the introduction of printing into this kingdom, to that of 
 the lirst publication of Walton's book, in 1653, an interval of more 
 than one hundred and fifty years, only five books on this subject had 
 been given to the world : of the four latest, some mention is made in 
 the margin ; but the first of that number, as well on account of its 
 
 (1) " A Booke of fishing with hooke and line, and of all other instruments 
 thereunto belonging. Another of sundrie engines and traps to lake pole- 
 cats, buzzards, rats, mice, and all other kinds of vermineand beasts what- 
 soever, most profitable for all warriners, and such as delight in this kind 
 of sport and pastime, made by L. M. 4to. London, 1590, 1506, 1000. 
 
 It appears by a variety of evidence, that the person meant by these 
 initials was one Leonard Mascall, an author who wrote on planting and 
 grafting, and also on cattle. Vide infra, Chap. IX. 
 
 Approved Experiments touching ffcft and Fruit, to be regarded by the 
 Lovers of Angling, by Mr. John Taverner, in Quarto, 1600. 
 
 The Secrets of Angling, a poem, in three books, by J. D. Esq. Octavo, 
 1613. Mention is made of this book, in a note on a passage in the ensuing 
 dialogues: and there is reason to think, that it is the foundation of a 
 treatise, intitled, The whole Art of jingling, published in Quarto, 1056, hy 
 the well-known Gervase Markham, as part of his Cotmtry Contentments, 
 or Husbandman's Recreations, since he confesses, that the substance ot 
 
XIV LIFE OF WALTON. 
 
 quaintness as antiquity, and because it is not a little characteristic of 
 the age when it was written, deserves to be particularly distinguished. 
 This tract, intitled, The Treatyse of Fysshynge iryth an Angte, makes 
 part of a book, like many others of that early time, without a title ; 
 but which, by the colophon, appears to have been printed at West- 
 minster, by Wynkyn de Worde, 1496, in a small folio, containing a 
 treatise on hawking; another, on hunting, in verse, the latter 
 taken, as it seems, from a Tract, on that subject, written by old Sir 
 Tristram, an ancient forester, cited in the Forest Laws of Manwood, 
 chap. iv. in sundry places; a book wherein is determined the Lyg- 
 nage of Cote Armures; the above-mentioned treatise of fishings and 
 the method of Blasynge of Armes. 
 
 The book printed by Wynkyn de Worde is, in truth, a re-publica- 
 tion of one known, to the curious, by the name of the " Book of St. 
 Alban's," it appearing by the colophon to have been printed there, in 
 1486, and, as it seems, with Caxton's letter, i Wynkyn de Worde's 
 impression has the addition of the treatise of fishing; of which only 
 it concerns us to speak. 
 
 The several tracts contained in the above-mentioned two impres- 
 sions of the same book, were compiled by Dame Julyans (or .Juliana) 
 Berners, Bernes, or Barnes; prioress of the nunnery of Sopwell, near 
 St. Alban's; a lady of a noble family and celebrated, for her learn- 
 ing and accomplishments, by Leland, Bale, Pits, bishop Tanner, and 
 others. And the. reason for her publishing it, in the manner it ap- 
 pears in, she gives us in the following words : And for by cause that 
 this present treaty se sholde not come to the hondys of eche ydle per- 
 one vhyche volde desire it,yfit vcere enprynted a/lone by itself and 
 put in a tytyU plaunftet ; therefore I hare compylyd it in a greter 
 volume, of dyuerte bokys concemynge to gentyU and noble men, to 
 the entent that the forsayd ydle persones tchyche sholde hatu hut 
 lytyll mesure m the *ayd dysporte offysshynge, shofde not by this 
 meane utterly dystroye it. 
 
 And as to the treatise itself, it must be deemed a great typographi- 
 cal curiosity, as well for the wooden sculpture which in the original 
 immediately follows the title, as for the orthography and the charac- 
 ter in which it is printed. And, with respect to the subject matter 
 thereof, it begins With a comparison of fishing with the diversions 
 of hunting, hawking, and fowling, which, the authoress shews, are 
 attended with great inconveniences and disappointments ; whereas in 
 fishing, if his sport fail him, the Angler, says she, atte the leest, hath 
 his holsom tealke, and mery at his ease, a svete ayre of the stcete 
 sauoure of the meed e flour es, thatmakyth him /nnif/ry ; hehereth the 
 metodyou* armony offoiclet; he seeth the yonge su-annes, heerons, 
 
 his book was originally in rhyme. Of Markhatn's book, a specimen is 
 given in a note on page 20. 
 
 Barker 1 ! Art of jingling, printed in 12mo. in 1651, and again in4to. in 1653. 
 A third edition was published in 1659, under the title of Barker's Delight, 
 9r the Art of Angling. For an Account of this book and its Author, vide. 
 infra. J. 8. H. 
 
 (l) Vide Biographia Britannica, Art. CAXTON, note L. wherein the 
 author, Mr. Oldys, has Riven a copious account of the book, and a cha- 
 racter of the lady who compiled it. 
 

LIFE OF V ALTO JT. XV 
 
 duckes, cotes, and many other foteles, wyth theyr brodes; whyche me 
 semyth better than ulle the noyse of houndys, the blastes of hornys, and 
 the scrye of foulis, that hunters fawktners, and f outers can make. And 
 if the Angler take fysshe ; surely, thenne, is there noo man merier than 
 he is in his spyryte. 
 
 At the beginning of the directions, How the angler is to make his 
 harnays, or tackle, he is thus instructed to provide a Rod : And how 
 ye shall make your rodde craftly, here I shall teche you. Ye shall kytte 
 betweene Myghelmas and Candylmas, a fayr staffe, of a f adorn and an 
 halfe longe and arme-grete, of hasyll t wyllowe, or aspe; and bethe hym 
 in an hole ouyn, and sette hym euyn ; thenne, lete hym cole and drye a 
 moneth, Take thenne andfrette ' hym, faste, wyth a coekeshote corde ; 
 and bynde hym to afournte, or an euyn square grete tree. Take, thenne, 
 a plummets wire, that is eusn and streyte, and sharpe. at the one ende; 
 and hete the sharpe ende in a charcolefyre till it be vohyte, and brenne the 
 stajfe therwyth thorugh, eusr streyte in thepythe at bothe endes, tyllthey 
 mete : and after that brenne hym in the nether end myth a byrdt broche* 
 and wyth other broches, eche gretttr than other, and euer the grettest 
 the lastc ; so that ye make your hole, aye, tapre were. Thenne lete hym 
 lye styll, and kele two dayes ; unfrette 3 hym thenne, and lete hym drye 
 in an hous roof, in the smoke lyll he be thrugh drye. In the same sea- 
 son, take afayr yerde ofgrene ftasyll, andbethe him euen andslreyghte, 
 and lete it d>ye with the stajfe ; and whan they ben drye* make the yerde 
 mete unto the hole in the stujfe, unto halfe the length of the staffe ; and 
 to perfvurme that other half of the croppe, take a fayr shote of 
 btackc t/wrnn, crabbe tree, mrdeler, or of jenypre, kytte in the same 
 season, and well bethyd and streyghte, and frette theym togyder fetely, 
 too that the croppe maye juitly entre all into the sayd hole ^ thenne 
 shauf- your staffe, and make hym tapre were ; thtn vyrell the stnffe at 
 bothe tndeswith long hopis of yren, or laton, in the clennest wise, wyth 
 a Pyke at the nether ende, faxlnyd with a rennynge vyce, to take in and 
 out your croppe; thtnne set your cruppc an hand full within the ouer 
 ende of your staff?, in suche wise that it be as bigge there as in ony other 
 place about : thtnne urine, your croppe at thouer ende, downe to the 
 frette, wyth a lynr ofvj heeres, and dubbc the lyne, andfrette it faste in 
 the toppe wyth a buwe to fasten on your It/n: ; and thus shall ye make 
 you a rodde soo prevy, that ye may walke therwyth ; and there shall 
 noo man wyle where abowtc y goo. 
 
 Speaking of the Barbel, she says : The Barbyll is a swete fysshe; 
 but it is a quay mecte, and a peryllnu^for ni.iiinys body. For, comynly, 
 he yeuyth an introduxion to thefebres : and yf h< be tten rawe, 4 he may 
 be cause of mannys delhe, whyche hath oft be seen. And of the Carp, 
 
 (1) i. e. tycit about: the substantive plural, frett of a lute, is formed of 
 this verb. 
 
 (-2) A bird spit. 
 
 (3) Untie it. 
 
 (4) The usage of the fourteenth century, at which this caution is levelled, 
 cannot at this day but fill us with astonishment. What i- it to mandurale 
 and take into our stomachs the flesh of any animal without any kind of 
 culinary prepai ation, but to Iced like cannibals I The reflection on this 
 practice operated o strongly on the mind of the Hon. Robert B\ !<, that 
 he speaks in terms of abhorrence of the eating of raw oysters, in a book 
 entitled, Reflections, &c. which hereafter will be mentioned. 
 
 The neait-st approach, excepting the instance above, which in this age of 
 
XVI LIFE OF WALTON. 
 
 that it it a tlcynlousfusshc, but there ben but few* in Englonde. .hid 
 then/ore I wryte the lasse of hym. He is an euyllfysshe to take. For 
 Ae /> soo strcnge enarmyd in the mouthe, that there mayo noo ueke 
 karnays hold hym. 
 
 And as louchynge his baytes, I have but lytyll knowledge of it. And 
 me wereloth to wryt* more than I knotce, and have prouyd. But well I 
 vote, that the redde tcormc and the menow ben good baytes for hym at 
 all tymes, as I have herde saye of persones crttlyble, and also founde 
 wry ten in bokes of credence. 
 
 For taking the Pike, this lady directs her readers in the following 
 terms, via. 
 
 Takt a codlynge hoke ; and take a Roche, or afresshe Heeryng; 
 and a wyre myth an hole in the end*, and put it in at the mouth, and out 
 I the taylle, downe by the ridge of the fresshe Heeryng ; and thenne 
 put the lyne of your hoke in after, and drawe the hoke into the cheke of 
 the fresshe Heeryng ; then put a plumbe of lede upon your lyne a yerde 
 Ion f>e from your hoke, and ajlote in myd waye betwene; and caste it in a 
 pytte where the Pyko usyth : and this is the beste and moost surest 
 crafle of takynge the Pykc. Another manere takynge of hym there is ; 
 take a frotshe,* and put it on your hoke, at the ntcke, betwenc the 
 skynne and the body, on the backe half* and put on a fiote a yerde 
 therefro, and caste it where the Pyke haunt t/th, and ye shall haue hym. 
 Another manere : Take the some bayte, and put it in asa fetida, and 
 caste it in the water wyth a cor At and a corke, and ye shall not fay I of 
 hym. And yf ye lyst to haue a good sporte, thenne tye the corde to 
 a gose fote ; and ye shall se gode halynge, whether the gose or the 
 Pyke shall ha< the better. 
 
 The directions for making flies, contained in this hook, are, as one 
 would expect, very inartificial : we shall therefore only add, that the 
 authoress advises the angler to be provided with twelve different sorts ; 
 between which and Walton's twelve,* the difference is so very small, 
 as well in the order as the manner of describing them, that there can- 
 not remain the least doubt but he had seen, and attentively perused 
 this ancient treatise. 
 
 The book concludes with some general cautions, among which are 
 these that follow ; which at least serve to shew, how long Angling has 
 been looked on as an auxiliary to contemplation. 
 
 Also ye shall not use this forsayd crafty dysporte, for no couctysenes, 
 to the encreasynge and sparynge of your money oonly ; but pryncyp ally 
 for your solarr, and to cause the helthe of your body, and specyally of 
 your soule: for whanne ye purpoos to goo on your dysportes in 
 fysshynge, ye woll not desyre gretly many persons wyth you, whyohe 
 myghte lette you of your game. And thenne ye may serue God, 
 
 rational refinement we make to the Ravage practice that Rives occasion to 
 this note, is the eating of salted or pickled herrings or anchovies ; but for 
 thu it may be said in excuse, that there may possibly be in salt some 
 principle similar, in its operation on certain bodies, to Jlre ; at least, we 
 find that the purposes of culinary fire are sufficiently answered in the 
 process of coring herrings. 
 
 (I) Considering the time when this book was written, we may conclude, 
 that these could be hardly ajy other than Monkish manuscripts. 
 
 () Or Frog. Minshen's Dictionary. 
 
 (S) Fide, infra, Chap. V. 
 
LIFE OF WALTON. XV11 
 
 deuotctly, in sayenge ajfectuously youre customable prayer ; * and, thus 
 doynge, ye shall eschetce and voyde many vices. 
 
 But to return to the last-mentioned work of our author, The Com- 
 plete Angler: it came into the world attended with Encomiastic 
 Verses by several writers of that day ; 2 and had in the title-page, 
 though Walton thought proper to omit it in the future editions, this 
 apposite motto : 
 " SIMON PETER said, I go a fishing ; and they said, we also will go 
 
 withthee." John 21. 3. 
 
 And here occasion is given us to remark, that the circumstance of 
 time, and the distracted state of the kingdom at the period when the 
 book was written, reaching indeed to the publication of the third 
 edition thereof, are evidences of the author's inward temper and dis- 
 position ; for who but a man whose mind was the habitation of 
 piety, prudence, humility, peace and cheerfulness could delineate 
 such a character as that of the principal interlocutor in this dialogue ; 
 and make him reason, contemplate, instruct, converse, jest, sing, and 
 recite verses, with that sober pleasantry, that unlicentious hilarity, 
 that Pitcator does ? and this, too, at a time when the whole kingdom 
 was in arms; and confusion and desolation were carried to an ex- 
 treme sufficient to have excited such a resentment against the authors 
 of them, as might have soured the best temper, and rendered it, in no 
 small degree, unfit for social intercourse. 3 
 
 If it should be objected, that what is here said may be equally true 
 of an indolent man, or of a mind insensible to all outward accidents, 
 and devoted to its own ease and gratification, to this it may be an- 
 swered, that the person here spoken of was not such a man : on the 
 contrary, in sundry views of his character, he appears to have been 
 endowed both with activity and industry ; an industrious tradesman; 
 industrious in collecting biographical memoirs and historical facts, 
 and in rescuing from oblivion the memory and writings of many of 
 his learned friends : and, surely, against the suspicion of insensibility 
 in: must stand acquitted, who appears to have had the strongest at- 
 tachments, that could consist with Christian charity, both to opinions 
 and men ; to episcopacy, to the doctrines,-discipline, and the liturgy 
 of the established church ; and to those divines and others that fa- 
 voured the civil and ecclesiastical constitution of this country, the 
 subversion whereof, it was his misfortune both to see and feel. See- 
 ing, therefore, that amidst the public calamities, and in a state of 
 exile from that city where the earliest and dearest of his connections 
 had been formed, he was thus capable of enjoying himself in the 
 manner he appears to have done; patiently submitting to those evils 
 which he could not prevent, we must pronounce him to have been 
 
 (1) A note of the pious simplicity of former times, which united prayer 
 with recreation. 
 
 (2) This is a mistake ; it was upon the publication of the second edition, 
 that the commendatory verses appeared. 
 
 (3) Tins kind of reeiunient we cannot better estimate, than by a com- 
 parison thereof with its opposite affection, whatever we may call it ; which 
 in one instance, to wit, the restoration ot King Charles II. had such an 
 effect upon Mr. Ouphtred, tlu- mathematician, that, for joy on receiving 
 the news that the parliament had voted the king's return, he expired. 
 
LIFE OF WALTON. 
 
 an illustrious exemplar of the private and social virtues, and upon the 
 whole a vise and good man. 
 
 To these remarks, respecting the moral qualities of Walton, I add, 
 that his mental endowments were so considerable as to merit notice ; 
 it is true, that his stock of learning, properly so called, was not great; 
 yet were his attainments in literature far beyond what could be ex- 
 pected from a man bred to trade, and not to a learned profession ; 
 for let it be remembered, that besides being well versed in the study 
 of the holy scriptures, and the irrithifjs of the most eminent ilit hies of 
 his time he appears to have been well acquainted with history, ec- 
 clesiastical, civil, and natural ; to have acquired a very correct judg- 
 ment in poetry ; and by phrases of his own combination and invention, 
 to have formed a style so natural, intelligible, and elegant, as to have 
 had more admirers than successful imitators. 
 
 And although in the prosecution of his design to teach the con- 
 templative man the art of angling, there is a plainness and simplicity 
 of discourse, that indicates little more than bare instruction, yet is 
 there intermingled with it wit and gentle reprehension ; and we may 
 in some instances discover, that though he professes himself no 
 friend to scoffing, he knew very well how to deal with scoffers, and to 
 defend his art, as we see he does, against such as attempted to degrade 
 it; and particularly against those two persons in the dialogue, 
 Auceps and Venator, who affected to fear a long and watery discourse 
 in defence of his art the former of whom he puts to silence, and 
 the other he converts and takes for his pupil. 
 
 What reception in general the book met with, may be naturally 
 inferred from the dates of the subsequent editions thereof; the second 
 came abroad in 1655, the third in 1664, the fourth in 1668, and the 
 fifth and last in 1676. It is pleasing to trace the several variations 
 which the author from time to time made in these subsequent editions, 
 as well by adding new facts and discoveries, as by enlarging on the 
 more entertaining parts of the dialogue : And so far did he indulge 
 himself in this method of improvement, that, besides that in the se- 
 cond edition he has introduced a new interlocutor, to wit, Auceps, a 
 falconer, and by that addition gives a new form to the dialogue ; he 
 from thence 'takes occasion to urge a variety of reasons in favour of 
 his art, and to assert its preference as well to hawking as hunting. 
 The third and fourth editions of his book have several entire new 
 chapters ; and the fifth, the last of the editions published in his life- 
 time, contains no less than eight chapters more than the first, and 
 twenty pages more than the fourth. 
 
 Not having the advantage of a learned education, it may seem un- 
 accountable that Walton so frequently cites authors that have written 
 only in Latin, as Gesner, Cardan, Aldrovandus, Kondeletius, and even 
 Albertus Magnus; but here it maybe observed, that the voluminous 
 history of animals, of which the first of these was author, is in efjfect 
 translated into English by Mr. Edward Topsel, a learned divine; 
 chaplain, as it seems in the church of St. Botolph, Aldersgate to 
 Dr. N He. dean of Westminster. The translation was published in 
 1658, and containing in it numberless particulars concerning frogs, 
 serpents, caterpillars, and other animals, though not of fish, extracted 
 from the other writers above-named, and others with their names to 
 
LIFE OF WALTON. XiX 
 
 the respective facts it furnished Walton with a great variety of in- 
 telligence, of which in the later editions of his book he has carefully 
 availed himself: it was therefore through the medium of this transla- 
 tion alone, that he was enabled to cite the other authors mentioned 
 above ; vouching the authority of the original writers, in like manner 
 as he elsewhere does Sir Francis Bacon, whenever occasion occurs to 
 mention his Natural History, or any other of his works. Pliny was 
 translated to his hand by Dr. Philemon Holland, as were also Janus 
 Dubravius De Piscinis 8f Piscium Natura, and Lebault's Maison 
 Rustique, so often referred to by him in the course of his work. 
 
 Nor did the reputation of the Complete Angler subsist only in the 
 opinions of those for whose use it was more peculiarly calculated ; 
 but even the learned, either from the known character of the au- 
 thor, or those internal evidences of judgment and veracity contained 
 in it, considered it as a work of merit, and for various purposes 
 referred to its authority : Doctor Thomas Fuller in his Worthies, 
 whenever he has occasion to speak of fish, uses his very words. 
 Doctor Plot, in his History of Staffordshire, has, on the authority of 
 our author, related two of the instances of the voracity of the Pike, 
 mentioned Part I. Chap. 8. ; and confirmed them by two other signal 
 ones, that had then lately fallen out in that county. 
 
 These are testimonies in favour of Walton's authority in matters 
 respecting fish and fishing. And it will hardly be thought a diminu- 
 tion of that of Fuller, to say, that he was acquainted with, and a 
 friend of, the person whom he thus implicitly commends : a fact 
 which the following relation of a conference between them suffici- 
 ently proves. 
 
 Fuller, as we all know, wrote a Church History, which, soon after 
 its publication Walton having read applied to the author for 
 some information touching Hooker, whose Life he was then about to 
 write. Upon this occasion Fuller, knowing how intimate Walton was 
 with several of the bishops and ancient clergy, asked his opinion of 
 it, and what reception it met with among his friends ? Walton an- 
 swered, that he thought it would be acceptable to all tempers, 
 because there were shades in it for the warm, and sunshine for those 
 of a cold constitution : that with youthful readers, the facetious parts 
 would be proper to make the serious more palatable, while some 
 reverend old readers might fancy themselves in his History of the 
 Church as in a flower-garden, or one full of evergreens." ' And why 
 not/ said Fuller, ' the Church History so decked, as well as the 
 Church itself at a most holy season, or the Tabernacle of old at the 
 feast of boughs.' " That was but for a season," said Walton : " in 
 your feast of boughs, they may conceive, we are so overshadowed 
 throughout, that the parson is more seen than his congregation, and 
 this, sometimes, invisible to its own acquaintance, who may wander 
 in the search till they are lost in the labyrinth." ' Oh,' said Fuller, 
 ' the very children of our Israel may find their way out of this wilder- 
 ness.'" True," replied Walton, " as, indeed, they have here such a 
 Moses to conduct them." 
 
 (I) From a manuscript Collect ion of diverting sayings, stories, characters, 
 4r. in verse and prose, made about the year ltW6, by Charles Cotton, Esq. 
 
XX LIFE OF WALTON. 
 
 To pursue the subject of the Biographical Writings about two 
 years after the Restoration, Walton wrote the Life of Mr. Richard 
 Hooker, author of the Ecclesiastical Polity. He was enjoined to un- 
 dertake this work by his friend Doctor Gilbert Sheldon, ' afterwards 
 archbishop of Canterbury j who, by the way, "was an angler. Bishop 
 King, in a letter to the author,* says of this Life : " I have often seen 
 Mr. Hooker with my father, who was after bishop of London ; from 
 whom, and others at that time, I have heard most of the material 
 passages which you relate in the history of his lite." Sir William 
 Dugdale, speaking of the three posthumous books of the Ecclesiasti- 
 cal Polity, refers the reader" to that seasonable historical discourse, 
 lately compiled and published, with great judgment and integrity, by 
 that much deserving person, Mr. Isaac Walton." 3 In this Life we 
 are told, that Hooker, while he was at college, made a visit to the 
 famous Doctor Jewel, then bishop of Salisbury, his good friend and 
 patron : An account of the bishop's reception of him, and behaviour 
 at his departure as it contains a lively picture of his simplicity and 
 goodness, and of the plain manners of those times is given in the 
 note. * 
 
 The Life of Mr. George Herbert, as it stands the fourth and last 
 in the volume wherein that and the three former are collected, seems 
 to have been written the next after Hooker's : it was first published 
 in duodecimo, 1670. Walton professes himself to have been a 
 stranger as to the person of Herbert;* and though he assures us his 
 
 Mime time in the library of the Earl of Halifax. Vide Biographia Britan- 
 nira. SMI, note P. in margine. 
 
 The editors of the above work have styled this colloquy a ivltty con* 
 fabulation, but it seems remarkable for nothing but its singularity, which 
 consists in the starting of a metaphor and hunting it down. 
 
 (I) Walton's Epist. tothe reader of the Lives, in 8vo. 16TO. 
 
 (1) Before the Lin a. 
 
 (3) Short y leu- of the late Troubles in England, fol. 1601, p. 39. 
 
 (4) " As soon as he was perfectly recovered from this sickness, he took 
 a journey from Oxford to Exeter, to satisfy and see his good mother ; 
 being accompanied with a countryman and companion of his own college, 
 and both on loot ; which was, then, either more in fashion or want of 
 money, or their humility made it so: but on foot they went, and took 
 Salisbury in their way, purposely to see the good bishop, who made Mr. 
 Hooker and his companion dine with him at his own table; which Mr. 
 Hooker boasted of with much joy and gratitude, when he saw his mother 
 and friends. And at the bishop's parting with him, the bishop gave him 
 good counsel, and his benediction, but forgot to give him money, which, 
 when the bishop had considered, he sent a servant in all haste to call 
 Richard back to* him : and at Richard's return, the bishop said to him : 
 Richard! I sent for you back to lend you a horse, which hath carried me 
 many a mile, and, I thank God, with much ease; and presently delivered 
 into his hands a walking staff*, with which he professed he had travelled 
 through many parts of Germany ; and he said. Richard? J do not give, but 
 tend you my horse ; be sure you In honest, and bring my horse back to me at 
 your return this tray to Oxford. And 1 do now give you ten groats to 
 bear your charges to Exeter ; and here is ten groats more, which I charge 
 you to deliver to your mother ; and tell her, I send her a bishop's benediction 
 nith it, and beg the continuance of her prayers for me. And if you. bring my 
 horse back to me, I will give you ten groats more to carry you on foot to the 
 college: and so God bless you, good Richardl ' + Life ot Hooker, in the Col- 
 lection of Lives, edit. 1070. 
 
 (5) Introd. to Otrbtrt's Life. 
 
LIFE OF WALTON. XXI 
 
 life of him was a free-will-offering, i it abounds with curious inform- 
 ation, and is no way inferior to any of the former. 
 
 Two of these Lives; viz. those of Hooker and Herbert, we are told, 
 were written under the roof of Walton's good friend and patron, Dr. 
 George Morley, bishop of Winchester;* which particular seems to 
 agree with Wood's account, that, " after his quitting London, he 
 lived mostly in the families of the eminent clergy of that time." a And 
 who that considers the inoffensiveness of his manners, and the pains 
 he took in celebrating the lives and actions of good men, can doubt 
 his being much beloved by them ? 
 
 In the year 1670, these Lives were collected and published in oc- 
 tavo ; with a Dedication to the above bishop of Winchester ; and a 
 Preface, containing the motives for writing them : this preface is 
 followed by a Copy of Verses, by his intimate friend and adopted son, 
 Charles Cotton, of Beresford in Staffordshire, Esq. the author of the 
 Second Part of the Complete Angler, of whom further mention will 
 hereafter be made ; and by the Letter from bishop King, so often 
 referred to in the course of this Life. 
 
 The Complete Ang/er having, in the space of twenty-three years, 
 gone through four editions, Walton, in the year 1676, and in the 
 eighty-third of his age, was preparing a fifth, with additions, for 
 the press; when Mr. Cotton wrote a second part of that work : It 
 seems Mr. Cotton submitted the manuscript to Walton's perusal, who 
 returned it with his approbation, 4 and a few marginal strictures : And 
 in that year they came abroad together. Mr. Cotton's book had the 
 title of the Complete Angler s being Instructions how to angle for a 
 Trout or Grayling, in a clear stream; Part II. and it has ever since 
 been received as a Second Part of Walton's book. In the title-page, 
 is a cipher composed of the initial letters of both their names ; which 
 cipher, Mr. Cotton tells us, he had caused to be cut in stone, and set 
 up over a fishing-house, * that he had erected near his dwelling, on 
 the bank of the little river Dote, which divides the counties of Stafford 
 and Derby. 
 
 Mr. Cotton's book is a judicious supplement to Walton's ; for it 
 must not be concealed, that Walton, though he was so expert an 
 angler, knew but little of fly-fishing; and indeed he is so ingenuous 
 as to confess, that the greater part of what he has said on that sub- 
 ject was communicated to him by Mr. Thomas Barker,* and not the 
 result of his own experience. This Mr. Barker was a good-humoured 
 gossiping old man, and seems to have been a cook ; for he says," he 
 had been admitted into the most ambassadors* kitchens, that had come 
 to England for forty years, and drest fish for them;" for which, he 
 says, " he was duly paid by the Lord Protector."? He spent a 
 
 (1) Epistle to the Reader of the Collection of Lives. 
 
 (2) Dedication of the Lives. 
 
 (3) Zouch says that apartments for Walton and his daughters were re- 
 served both in the house of the bishop of Winchester, and in that ol the 
 bishop of Salisbury. 
 
 (4) See Walton's Letter to Cotton, before the Second Part. 
 
 (5) Vide, infra, Part II. 
 
 (6) Vide infra. 
 
 (7) Barker's Delight, p. 20. 
 
XXIV LIFE OF WALTON. 
 
 former, besides the pastoral simplicity that distinguishes it, is replete 
 with sentiments that edify ,-^and precepts that recommend, in du 
 most persuasive manner, the practice of religion, and the exercise of 
 patience, humility, contentedness, and other moral virtues. In this 
 view of it, the book might be said to be the only one of the kind, but 
 that I tind somewhat like an imitation of it extant in a tract entitled 
 Angling improved to Spiritual Utes, part of an octavo volume written 
 by that eminent person the Hon. Robert Boyle, an angler, as him- 
 self confesses, and published in 1665, with this title: " Occasional 
 Reflections upon several subjects ; whereto is premised a Discourse 
 about such kind of thoughts." 
 
 Great names are entitled to great respect. The character of Mr. 
 Boyle, as a devout Christian and deep philosopher, is deservedly in 
 high estimation ; and a comparison between his Reflections and 
 
 those of Walton, might seem an invidious labour but see the 
 
 irresistible impulse of wit ! the book here referred to, was written in 
 the very younger years of the author; and Swift, who had but little 
 learning himself, and was better skilled in party-politics than in ma- 
 thematics or physic*, respected no man for his proficiency in either, 
 and accordingly has not spared to turn the whole of it into ridicule. > 
 
 Walton was now in his eighty-third year, an age, which, to use his 
 own words, " might have procured him a writ of ease, and secured 
 him from all further trouble in that kind;" when he undertook to 
 write the Life of Doctor Robert Sanderson, bishop of Lincoln: 
 which was published together with Several of the bishop's pieces, 
 and a Sermon of Hooker't in octavo, 1677. < 
 
 And, since little has been said of the subjects of these several Lives, 
 it may not be amiss just to mention what kind of men they were 
 whom Walton, and indeed mankind in general, thought so well wor- 
 thy to be signalized by him. 
 
 Doctor JOHN DONNE was born in London, about the year 
 1573. At the age of eleven he was sent to Oxford; thence he was 
 
 (1) See his Meditation on a Broomstick. 
 
 (1) A discharge from tho ollice of a judge, or the state and degree of a 
 serjeant-al law. Dusdale's Ori^lne* Juridiciatts, 130. That HOIK! man, 
 and learned judge, Sir George Croke, had obtained ii some time before the 
 writing of Sander. ton's Life. Life of Sir George Croke, in the Preface to 
 hi, Report*, Vol. III. 
 
 (3) See the Letter from Bishop Barlow to Walton, at the end of Sander- 
 to*'* Life. 
 
 (4) The following carious particular, relating to King Charles the First, 
 is mentioned in this Life of Sanderson ; \vhich,as none of our historians 
 have taken notice of it, inhere given in Walton's own words: " And let 
 me here take occasion to tell the reader this truth, not commonly known, 
 that in one of these conferences this conscientious king told Dr. Sanderson, 
 or one of them that then wailed with him, that the remembrance of two 
 errors did much afflict him ; which were, his assent to the Earl of Straf- 
 ford's death, and the abolishing episcopacy in Scotland : and that, if God 
 ever restored him to be in a peaceable possession of his crown, he would 
 demonstrate his repentance by a public confession, and a voluntary pe- 
 nance, (I think barefoot) from the Tower of London, or Whitehall, to St. 
 Paul's church, and desire the people to intercede with God for his pardon. 
 I am sure one of them told it me, lives still, and will witness it. " Life 
 of Sanderson." 
 
LIFE OF WALTON. XXV 
 
 transplanted to Cambridge; where he applied himself very assidu- 
 ously to the study of divinity. At seventeen he was admitted of Lin- 
 coln's-Ihn ; but not having determined what profession to follow, and 
 being besides not thoroughly settled in his notions of religion, he 
 made himself master of the Romish controversy, and became deeply 
 skilled in the civil and canon law. He was one of the many young 
 gentlemen that attended the Earl of Essex on the Cales expedition ; at 
 his return from which, he became secretary to the Lord-chancellor 
 Ellesmere. Being very young, he was betrayed into some irregula- 
 rities, the reflection on which gave him frequent uneasiness, during 
 the whole of his future life : but a violent passion which he enter- 
 tained for a beautiful young woman, a niece of Lady Ellesmere, cured 
 him of these, though it was for a time the ruin of his fortunes ; for he 
 privately married her, and by so imprudent a conduct brought od 
 himself and his wife the most pungent affliction that two young per- 
 sons could possibly experience; he being, upon the representation of 
 Sir George Moor, the lady's father, dismissed from his attendance on 
 the lord-chancellor, and in consequence thereof involved in extreme 
 distress and poverty;! in which he continued till about 1614, when 
 having been persuaded to enter into holy orders, he was chosen 
 preacher to the Honourable Society of Lmcoln's-Inn, and soon after 
 appointed a King's chaplain. His attachment to the above Society, 
 and his love of a town residence among his friends, were so strong, 
 that although, as Walton assures us, he had within the first year after 
 his ordination, offers of no fewer than fourteen country benefices, he 
 declined them all. In his station of chaplain he drew on him the eyes 
 of the king, who, with some peculiar marks of favour, preferred him 
 to the deanery of St. Paul's; and shortly after he was, on the presenta- 
 tion of his friend, the Earl of Dorset, inducted into the vicarage of 
 St. Punstan's in the west : but the misfortunes attending his marriage 
 had not only broken his spirit, but so impaired his constitution, that 
 he fell into a lingering consumption, of which he died in 1631. Bo- 
 sides a great number of Sermons, and a Discourse on Suicide > he 
 has left, of his writings, Letters to several persons of honour, in 
 quarto, 1651 ; and a volume of Poems first published, and as there 
 is reason to suppose, by Walton himself, in 16S5, but last, in 1719> 
 among which are six most spirited Satires, several whereof Mr. Pope 
 has modernized. Walton compares him to St. Austin, as having, 
 like him, been converted to a life of piety and holiness ; and adds, that 
 for the greatness of his natural endowments, he had been said to re- 
 semble Picus of Miranda la, of whom story says, that he was rather 
 born than made WISE by study. 
 
 (1) In a letter of his to an intimate friend, is the following most affecting 
 passage : " There is not one person, but myself, well of my family : I have 
 already lost half a child ; and with that mischance of hers, my wife has 
 fallen into such a discomposure, as would afflict her too extremely, but 
 that the sickness of all her other children MU pities her ; of one of which , 
 in good faith, I have not much hope : and these meet with a fortune so ill 
 provided, for physic, and such relief, that if God should ease us with 
 burials, I know not how to perform even that. Bat I flatter myself with 
 this hope, that I am dying too ; for I cannot waste faster than by such 
 griefs." Life of Donne, in the Collection of Lives, edit. 1070, page 29. 
 
XXVI LIFE OF WALTON. 
 
 SIR HENRY WOTTON was born 1568. After he had finished 
 his studies at Oxford, he resided in France, Germany, and Italy ; and 
 at his return attended the Earl of Essex. He was employed by king 
 James the First in several foreign negociations, and went ambassador 
 to Venice. Towards the end of his life, he was made (having first 
 been admitted to deacon's orders) provost of Eton College, a 
 dignity well suited to a mind like his, that had \vithdrawn itself from 
 the world for the purpose of religious contemplation. He was 
 skilled in painting, sculpture, music, architecture, medals, chemistry, 
 and languages. In the arts of negociation he had few equals ; i and 
 in the propensities and attainments of a well-bred gentleman, no su- 
 perior. To which character, it may be added, that he possessed a 
 rich vein of poetry ; which he occasionally exercised in compositions 
 of the descriptive and elegiac kind, specimens whereof occur in the 
 course of this book. There is extant, of his writing, the volume of 
 Remain* heretofore mentioned ; collected and published, as the De- 
 dication tells us, by Walton himself ; containing among other valuable 
 tracts, his Elements of Architecture:* but the author's long residence 
 abroad had in some degree corrupted his style, which, though iu 
 many particulars original and elegant, is like Sir William Temple's, 
 overcharged with Gallicisms, and other foreign modes of expression. > 
 He was a torer of angling, and such a proficient in the art, that, as 
 he once told Walton, he intended to write a discourse on it : but 
 death prevented him. His reasons for the choice of this recreation 
 were, that it was, " after tedious study, a rest to his mind, a chearer 
 of his spirits, a diverter of sadness, a calmer of unquiet thoughts, a 
 moderator of passions, a procurer of contentedness ; and begat habits 
 of peace and patience. " 
 
 These sentiments of Sir Henry Wotton, which are given in his very 
 words, bespeak a mind habituated to reflection, and at ease in the en- 
 joyment of his faculties : but they fall short of that lovely portrait of 
 human happiness, doubtless taken from the image in his own breast, 
 which he has exhibited in the following beautiful stanzas, and which 
 I here publish without those variations from the original that in some 
 copies have greatly injured the sense, and abated the energy of them : 
 
 How happy is he born, or taught, 
 
 That serveth not another's will ! 
 Whose armour is his honest thought, 
 
 And simple truth his utmost skill ; 
 
 (1) To a person intended for a foreign embassy that came to him for 
 instruction, he gave this shrewd advice : " Ever," said he, " speak truth: 
 for if you do, yon shall never be believed, and 'twill put your adversaries 
 (who will still hunt counter) to a loss in all their disquisitions and under* 
 takings." See also his advice to Milton, concerning travel, in his Letter 
 prefixed to Milton's Comus. 
 
 (t) This treatise of Sir Henry's is, undoubtedly, the best on the subject 
 of any in the modern languages : a few years after his death it was trans- 
 lated into Latin, and printed at the end of Vitruvius, with an euloginm on 
 the author. 
 
 (3) As where he says, " At Augusta I took language that the princes 
 and states of the union had deferred that assembly." Kcliqu. Wotton, 
 edit. 1035. 
 
 4) Vide Walton's Epistle Dedicatory : *, infra, cap. I. 
 
LIFE OF WALTON. XXVII 
 
 Whose passions not his masters are ; 
 
 Whose son I is still prepar'd for death ; 
 Unty'd unto the world, with care 
 
 Of public fatne , or private brvath; 
 
 Who envies none that chance doth raise, 
 
 Nor vice : who never understood 
 How deepest wounds are given by praise ; 
 
 Nor, rules of state, but rules of good ; 
 
 Who hath his life from rumours freed ; 
 
 Whose conscience is his strong retreat ; 
 Whose state can neither flatterers feed, 
 
 Nor, ruin make oppressors great; 
 
 Who God doth, late and early, pray 
 
 More of his grace than gifts to lend ; 
 And entertains the harmless day, 
 
 With a religious book or friend. 
 
 This man is freed from servile bands 
 
 Of hope to rise, or fear to fall ; 
 Lord of himself, though not of lands; 
 
 And having nothing, yet hath all. 
 
 This worthy and accomplished gentleman died in the year 1639 ; 
 and is celebrated by Mr. Co wiry, in an elegiac poem, beginning 
 with these lines : 
 
 What shall we say since silent now is He, 
 Who when he spoke, all things would silent be ; 
 Who had so many languages in store, 
 That only Fame shall speak of him in more. 
 
 HOOKER, one of the greatest of English divines, is sufficiently 
 known and celebrated ; as a learned, able, and judicious writer, and 
 defender of our church, in his Treatise of the Laws of Ecclesiastical 
 Polity ; the occasion of writing which is at this day but little known; 
 and, to say the truth, has never been related with the clearness and 
 perspicuity necessary to render the controversy intelligible. In or 
 about the year 1 570 were published two small tracts severally en- 
 titled, a first and second Admonition to the Parliament, containing, 
 under the form of a remonstrance, a most virulent invective againt 
 the establishment and discipline of the church of England which 
 were answered by Dr. Whitgift, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury, 
 and defended by one Thomas Cartwright, the author of the second 
 Admonition. But the order and progress of the controversy will best 
 appear by the following state of it : 
 
 Admonition , first and second. 
 Answer thereto, by Whitgift. 
 
 1. Replie to the Answer, by T. C. [Thomas Cartwright.] 
 Defence of the Answer (against the Reply) by Whitgift. 
 
 2. A Second Replie of Cartwright against Whitgift's Second [De- 
 fence of the} Answer. 
 
 3. The rest of the Second Reply. 
 
 Whitgift being, it seems, weary of the dispute, remitted [committed] 
 the future conduct of it to Hooker; who took it up with an examin- 
 ation of the two Admonitions, and continued it through the subsequent 
 books of Cartwright, referring to the latter (a particular worthy to be 
 
XXV1I1 LIFE OF WALTON. 
 
 known ; for, without it, no one can tell who or what he is refuting) 
 by the initials " T. C." and the adjunct " lib." above-mentioned. 
 
 Here the matter rested, till the re-establishment of episcopacy and 
 the liturgy (both which, it is well known, were abolished by the 
 usurpers under Cromwell) revived the question of the lawfulness of 
 both the one and the other, and gave rise to a controversy that is 
 likely never to end. 
 
 The praise of Hooker's book is, that it is written with great force 
 of argument, and in a truly Christian temper ; that it contains a won- 
 derful variety of learning and curious information ; and for richness, 
 correctness, and elegance of style, may be justly deemed the standard 
 of perfection in the English language, i 
 
 This excellent man, Hooker, was by a crafty woman betrayed into 
 a marriage with her daughter ; a homely ill-bred wench, and, when 
 married, a shrew; who is more than suspected, at the instigation of 
 his adversaries, to have destroyed the corrected copy of the three last 
 books of his invaluable work, of which only the former five were pub- 
 lished by himself. He was some time Master of the Temple j but his 
 last preferment was to the rectory of Bishop's-Bourne, near Canter- 
 bury. In his passage from Gravesend to London, in the tilt-boat, he? 
 caught a cold; which brought on a sickness that put an end to his 
 days, in 1600, when he had but just completed his forty-seventh year. 
 
 HERBERT was of the noble family of that name; and a younger 
 brother of the first of modern deists, * the famous Edward lord 
 
 (I) It i worth remarking upon thi* dispute, liow the separatists have 
 shifted their ground : at first, both parties seemed to be agiced, that with- 
 out an ecclesiastical establishment of some kind or other, and a discipline 
 in the church to be exercised over its ministers and members, the Christian 
 religion could not subsist ; and the only question was, Which, of the two, 
 had the best warrant from scripture, and the usage of the primitive Church ; 
 a _< r>i nment by blskops, priests, and deacons ; or, by presbyters and lay 
 etders, exercising jurisdiction in provincial and parochial synods and 
 classes, over the several congregations within counties, or particular divi- 
 sions of the kingdoms 1 But of this kind of church government we now 
 hear nothing, except in the church of Scotland. All congregations are 
 now independent of each other, and every congregation is styled a church : 
 
 The father of this tenet, was Robinson, a pastor of an English 
 
 church at Leyden ; if not the original founder of the sect called Brotvnlsts, 
 now extinct; and the great maintainers of it; were the divines most 
 favoured by Cromwell in his usurpation, Goodwyn, Owen, Nye, Caryl, and 
 others. The presbyter ions, it seems, have approved it; and, giving up 
 their scheme of church government, have joined the independents ; and 
 both have chosen to be comprehended under the general denomination of 
 Dissenters. Vide Quick's A'ynodkon. Vol. II. 467. Calamy's Life of Baxter, 
 Vol. I. 47. Preface to Dr. Grey's Hudibrat. 
 
 (t) So truly termed ; as being the author of a treatise l>> Verltate 
 prout distinguitur a Rfvelatione, a vrrlsimili, tl possibill, A, falsd. Touch- 
 ing which book, and the religious opinions of the author, I shall here take 
 occasion to mention a fact that I find related in a collection of periodical 
 papers, entitled the Weekly Miscellany, published in 1736, in two vols. 8vo. 
 Lord Herbert, of Cherbury, being dangerously ill, and apprehensive that 
 his end was approaching, sent for Dr. Jeremy Taylor, and signified a desire 
 of receiving the sacrament at his hands : the doctor objected to him the 
 tenets contained in his writings, particularly those wherein he asserts the 
 sufficiency and absolute perfection of natural religion, with a view to shew 
 that any extraordinary revelation is needless; and exhorted him to retract 
 
LIFE OF WALTON, XXJX 
 
 Herbert of Cherbury. He was a king's scholar at Westminster, 
 and, after that, a fellow of Trinity-College, in Cambridge. In 1619, 
 he was chosen university orator ; and, while in that station, studied 
 the modern languages, with a view to the office of secretary-of-state : 
 but being of a constitution that indicated a consumption, and withal 
 of an ascetic turn of mind, he gave up the thoughts of a court life, 
 and entered into holy orders. His first preferment in the church was 
 a prebend in the cathedral of Lincoln ; and his next and last, the rec- 
 tory of Bemerton, near Salisbury. About 1630, he married a near 
 relation of the Earl of Danby; and died about 1635, aged forty-two, 
 without issue. 
 
 His elder brother, lord Herbert of Cherbury, mentions him in his 
 own Life ; and gives his character in the following words : " My bro- 
 ther George was so excellent a scholar, that he was made the public 
 orator of the university in Cambridge : some of whose English works 
 are extant, which, though they be rare in their kind, yet are far short 
 of expressing those perfections he had in the Greek and Latin tongues, 
 and all divine and human literature. His life was most holy and ex- 
 emplary ; insomuch that about Salisbury, where he lived beneticed for 
 many years, he was little less than sainted : he was not exempt from 
 passion and choler, being infirmities to which all our race is subject, 
 but. that one excepted, without reproach in his actions." 
 
 During his residence in the university, he was greatly celebrated 
 for his learning and parts. Bishop Hacket in his Life of the Lord- 
 keeper Hi/ fiams, page 175, mentions a strange circumstance of him ; 
 which, for the singular manner of relating it, take in his own words : 
 '' Mr. George Ht-rbert, being praelector in the rhetoric school at 
 Cambridge, anno 1618, passed by those fluent orators that domineered 
 in the pulpits of ATHENS and KOMB, and insisted to read upon an 
 oration of King JAMBS : which he analysed j shewed the concinnity of 
 the parts ; the propriety of the phrase ; the height, and power of it 
 to move affection* ; the style, UTTERLY UNKNOWN TO TUB ANCIENTS, 
 who could not conceive what kingly eloquence was ; in respect of 
 which, those noted Drmayoyi were but hirelings, and triobolary rhe- 
 toricians." 
 
 A collection of religious poems, entitled the Temple, and a small 
 tfact, Tin- l'i ii-st to the Temple; or, the Country Parson his Character, 
 with his Remains, are all of his works that are generally known to be 
 in print : but 1 have lately learned, that, not jnany months before his 
 decease, Herbert translated Cornaro's book Of temperance and long 
 fife; and that the same is to be found printed in 12mo. Cambridge, 
 1639 ; together with a translation, by another hand, of the Hygiasti- 
 con of Leonard Lessius. Among Herbert's Remains is a collection 
 of foreign proverbs translated into English, well worthy of a place, in 
 some future edition, with those of Kay. Lord Bacon dedicated to 
 
 tln-ni ; but his lordship refusing, the dor tor declared that he could not 
 iulinnii-trr so holy and solemn a right to an unbfllercr. 
 
 The doctor upon this left him ; and, conceiving hopes that his lordship's 
 sickness was not mortal, lie wrott- that discourse proving thai the n-li-ion 
 of Jt-Mis Chritl is from God, which is printed in his Dvctor Dubitaiitium, 
 and has lately been re-published by the truly reverend and learned Dr. 
 JUurd, now [1784] bisliopul Worcester. 
 
XXX LIFE OF WALTOIC. 
 
 him a Translation of certain of the Psalms into English metre. Vide 
 Lord Bacon's H'orkt, 4to. Vol. III. page 163. 
 
 In this Life, occasion is taken by the author to introduce an Ac- 
 count of an intimate friend of Herbert, Mr. Nicholas Farrar, and of a 
 religious establishment in his house, little less than monastic : from 
 which, and some scattered memoirs concerning it, the following ac- 
 count is compiled. 
 
 This singularly eminent person was the son of a wealthy East-India 
 merchant, and was born in London, in the year 1591. At the age of 
 six years, for the signs of a pious disposition observed in him, he was 
 called St. Nicholas. > From school he was, in his thirteenth year, sent 
 to Cambridge ; and after some time spent there, was elected a fellow 
 of Clare-Hall. About the age of twenty-six, he betook himself to 
 travel; and, visiting France, Italy, Spain, and the Low Countries, 
 obtained a perfect knowledge of all the languages spoken in the 
 western parts of Christendom ; as also of the principles and reasons of 
 religion, and manner of worship therein. In these his travels, he re- 
 sisted the persuasions of many who tempted him to join in communion 
 with the church of Rome; and remained stedfast in his obedience to 
 the church of England. Upon his return home, he, by the death of 
 his father, became enabled to buy land at Little Gidding, near Hunt- 
 ingdon, to the value of 500/. a-year;* where was a manor-house, and 
 a hall, to which the parish-church or chapel adjoined : here he set- 
 tled. And his father having been intimate with Sir Walter Raleigh, 
 Sir John Hawkins, and Sir Francis Drake, and other famous naviga- 
 torsy he was, in 1824, by means of some lords in the Virginia com- 
 pany, chosen a member of the house of commons ; in which capacity 
 he distinguished himself by his eloquence and activity : but having, in 
 a short trial of a public life, experienced the folly and vanity of worldly 
 pursuits, he took a resolution to abandon them : and, first, he made 
 suit to his diocesan, that his mother and he might be permitted to re- 
 store the titles of the rectory which had been impropriated ; and ac- 
 cordingly the church was endowed therewith; which was no sooner 
 done, than he, with the rest of the family, entered into a course of 
 mortification, devotion, and charity. The Society consisted of himself, 
 a very aged mother, four nieces, and other kindred; and servants: 
 and amounted in number to about thirty, exclusive of the neigh- 
 bouring clergy, who frequently resorted thither, and tor a week toge- 
 ther would join with, and assist, and ease them in their watch ings and 
 devotions. And this was their regimen : 
 
 The season of Lent, the Ember weeks, Fridays, and the Vigils of 
 Saxntt, they observed strictly ; exercising abstinence and prayer. 
 
 Mr. Farrar himself, who had been admitted to deacon's orders, 
 took upon him to be pastor of this little flock ; and accordingly, 
 
 (1) St. \irfwlas was Bishop of Myra in Lycia, and famous lor his early 
 piety, which, as the Romish legendaries telJ us, he manifested, by forbear- 
 ing to tuck on Wednesdays and Fridays. 
 
 (!) This is a mistake of Walton's, and is corrected in a Collection of 
 Papers relating to the PROTESTANT NUNNKRY of Little Guiding, at the end 
 of Ca4i Yiitdicia, edit. Hearne. The mother in her widowhood, about the 
 year 16*3, and not the son made the purchase. Among these papers, arc 
 sundry curious conversations of the young women. 
 
LIFE OF WALTON. 
 
 at ten and four every day, read Common Prayer in the church, which 
 for the purpose he had both repaired and adorned : besides which, he, 
 at the hour of six in the morning, constantly read mattins, either in 
 the church or an oratory in their common dwelling, the, manor-house. 
 
 These were but the ordinary exercises of devotion. The account 
 of their severities in watching is to come; for we are told that, aftA 
 these early prayers were ended, many of the family were accustomed 
 to spend some hours in singing hymns or anthems, sometimes in 
 church, and often to an organ in the oratory. Farther, those that 
 slept were oftentimes, by the ringing of a watch-bell in the night, 
 summoned to the church or oratory ; or, in extreme cold nights, to a 
 parlour in the house that had a fire in it ; where they betook them- 
 selves to prayers and lauding God, and reading those psalms that had 
 not been read in the day, for, it seems, their rule required, that 
 among them the whole psalter should be gone through once in every 
 twenty-four hours: and when any grew faint, the bell was rung, 
 sometimes after midnight, and, at the call thereof, the weary were 
 relieved by others, who continued this exercise until morning. And 
 this course of piety, accompanied with great liberality to the poor, 
 was maintained till the death of Mr. Farrar, in 1639. 
 
 The recreations of this society were suited to the different sexes : 
 for the males, running, vaulting, and shooting at butts with the long 
 bow ; for the females, walking, gardening, embroidery, and other 
 needle-works: and for both, music, vocal and instrumental; reading 
 Voyages, Travels, and Descriptions of Countries, Histories, and the 
 Book of Martyrs. Moreover, they had attained to great proficiency 
 in the art of binding and gilding Books; and with singular ingenuity 
 and industry, compiled a kind of Harmony of sundry parts of the 
 holy scriptures, by cutting out from different copies the parallel pas- 
 sages, pasting them in their order on blank pajK-r. and afterwards 
 binding them with suitable cuts in a volume. > And that their bene- 
 
 (1) They made three such books: one they presented to king Charles the 
 First, another to Charles the Second, one of which is now in the 
 library of St. John's College, Oxford; a third was in the custody of the 
 family in 1740. 
 
 This is the account which the authors of the Supplement to the IHogra- 
 phla Britannica, wherever they got it, give of these books [art. MAPI. K- 
 TOFT]; but one, more accurate, is to be found at the end of Hearne's 
 t nil Vindlcuf, which makes them seven in number : the third in order, 
 was by the compilers called " The whole law of God;" but Hearne, in 
 loc. cit. has given the title in terms that more fully declare its contents. 
 The book consists of sundry chapters of the Pentateuch, and other parts of 
 the Bible of the last translation, pasted down on leaves equal in size to the 
 largest Atlas ; together with such commentaries thereon as they could find 
 in the printed works of Mr. Farrar's friend, Dr. Thomas Jackson, and other 
 expositors: to these were added and pasted in the margin, from a small 
 impression of the New Testament all such passages in St. Paul's Epistles 
 as tend to the explanation ot the law, and particularly of the types : and 
 for the better illustration of the whole, were inserted ruts taken out of 
 printed books, and otherwise collected, referring to the subject matter of 
 the book amounting in number to upwards of twelve hundred. This 
 stupendous work was, in the month of March, 1776, purchased by the Rev. 
 Mr. Bourdillon, minister of the French proteslant church in Spitalfields, 
 at a sale of the library of the Rev. Mr. De Missy ; and is now, January, 
 1784, in his possession. At the same auction, was also sold to a bookseller, 
 
A\MI LIFE OF WALTON. 
 
 volence might be as diffusive as possible, a School was kept, in the 
 house, for Grammar, Arithmetic, and Music ; to which all the neigh- 
 bouring parents had permission to send their children. 
 
 It ia true, that this society excited a notion in some, that it was 
 little better than a Popish seminary; and there are extant, in the 
 Preface to Peter Langtoft's Chronicle, edit. Hearne, two tracts, in 
 which it is termed a reputed nunnery: but upon a visit made to it by 
 some inquisitive persons, nothing to warrant this suspicion appeared. 
 Whoever would know more of this singular institution, is referred to 
 the authorities mentioned at the bottom of this page; 1 in some of 
 which it will be found, that King Charles I. once honoured the house 
 with a visit : and that, LitUe Gidding being in the diocese of Lincoln, 
 Williams, at that time, being bbhop thereof, and their neighbour at 
 Bugden ; induced by motives of charity, at first perhaps mingled with 
 cunosity ; frequently did the same : when finding, there, nothing to 
 blame, and much to commend be more than once preached, and ex- 
 ercised his episcopal function of confirmation on the young people 
 there assembled. Two nieces of Mr. Farrar offered to make a vow of 
 perpetual chastity, with the solemnity of episcopal blessing and ratifi- 
 cation ; but the bishop, doubtless considering that vows which oblige 
 us to a perpetual conflict with our natural affections, do oftener prove 
 snares to the conscience of the votary than acceptable services in the 
 sight of God, dissuaded them from such an engagement; and, being 
 thus left at liberty, one of them was afterwards well bestowed on a 
 husband. 
 
 Mr. Nicholas Farrar, though the younger of two brothers, had, 
 it seems, the government of this fraternity : he is, by all that have 
 written of htm, celebrated as well for his learning as his piety : yet has 
 he left nothing of his writing, save a short Preface to his friend Her- 
 bert's Poemt, and a Translation of a book much applauded in his day, 
 The hundred and ten Considerations of Signior John Valdesso. 2 
 
 It is needless to add what was the subsequent fate of this harmless 
 society. Mr. Farrar died : the Rebellion broke out ; and when Po- 
 pery and superstition" was the cry, alas ! how could LitUe Gidding 
 
 for four guinea*, another book of the like kind, compiled by the same 
 persons, entitled " Actions, Doctrines, and oilier Passages touching our 
 Blea*edLord and Saviour Jesus Christ." The title at length, of this also, 
 is riven by Hearne in toe. cit. 
 
 (I) Preface to Peter Langtofi's Chron. edit. Hearne. Papers nt the end 
 of Vail Vtndici*. Hackrt's Life of Archbishop Williams, Part II pape 50, 
 Blogr. Brit, fiupplrmtnt. art. MAPLKTOFT. Life of Mr. Nicholas Farrar, 
 written by Dr. Turner, bishop of Ely, in the Christian's Magazine tor the 
 months of July, August, September, and October, 1761. 
 
 (t) John Valdessa was of noble extraction, by birth a Spaniard, a no]. 
 dier by profession, and a follower of the emperor Charles the Fifth. 
 Grown old, he obtained leave of the emperor to quit his service, assigning 
 as a reason for his request, this most sage and pious aphorism, " Oportet 
 inter ritfne got ia et diem mortis spat turn aliquod intercedere ;" or, to give 
 it in English, " It is fit that between the business of life and the day of death, 
 some space should intervene." The reflection on which is supposed to have 
 moved the emperor to resign his dignities, and betake himself to an ancetic 
 life. In his retirement, which was fo the city of Naples, Valdesso wrote 
 .the book above mentioned in the Castilian language; and the same being 
 translated into Italian by Caclius Sccundus Curio of Basil, was out of ili.a 
 language translated into English by Mr. Farrar. It was printed in 4to. at 
 Oxford, 1038, and is often enough to be met with. 
 
LIFE OF WALTON. XXXH1 
 
 hope to escape the calamities of the times ? in short, it was plundered 
 and desolated ! 
 
 All that the Farrars had restored to the [parochial] church, all that 
 they had bestowed in sacred comeliness, was seized upon as lawful 
 prey taken from superstitious persons : and finally, the owners them- 
 selves were compelled to flee away and disperse : in all which perse- 
 cutions we are told that, applying to their wretched circumstances the 
 words of the apostle, " they took joyfully the spoiling of their goods." 
 
 SANDERSON was a man of very acute parts, and famous for his 
 deep skill in casuistry : that sort of learning was formerly much cul- 
 tivated among the Romish divines, with a view to qualify the younger 
 clergy for the office of confession ; and it continued in fashion here, 
 longer after the Reformation than it was useful. In the year 1647 he 
 drew up the famous Oxford Reasons against the Covenant; which 
 discover amasing penetration and sagacity, and so distinguished him, 
 that at the restoration he was promoted to the bishopric of Lincoln. 
 In 1671 he, by virtue of a Commission from King Charles the Second, 
 assisted at a conference at the Savoy, between the episcopal clergy 
 and non-conforming divines, for settling a Liturgy; and, upon a re- 
 view of the book of Common Prayer that followed it, composed sun- 
 dry of the new collects and additional offices, it is said that the form 
 of general thanksgiving is in the number of the former ; and drew up 
 the Preface, " It hath been the wisdom of the church," Sfc. This 
 great man died in 1662. There are extant, of his works besides a 
 volume of Sermons, in folio a treatise, De Juramenti Promissorii 
 Obligatwne, which was translated into English by King Charles the 
 First, while a prisoner in the Isle of Wight; and several other pieces, 
 the titles whereof may be seen in the Catalogue of the Bodleian Li- 
 brary. Walton's acquaintance with him had a very early commence- 
 ment : and what degree of intimacy subsisted between them, will ap- 
 pear by the following account, which sufficiently characterizes the 
 humility of the good doctor, and the simplicity of honest Isaac. 
 " About the Ume of his printing this excellent Preface, [to his Sermons, 
 first | Tint fd in 1655,] I met him accidentally in London, in sad-co- 
 loured clothes, and, God knows, far from being costly. The place of 
 our meeting was near to Little Britain, where he had been to buy a 
 book, which he then had in his hand. We had no inclination to part 
 presently ; and therefore turned to stand in a corner, under a pent- 
 house; (for it began to rain;) and immediately the wind rose, and the 
 rain increased so much, that both became so inconvenient, as to force 
 us into a cleanly house; where we had bread, cheese, ale, and &fire, 
 for our money. This rain and wind were so obliging to me, as to 
 force our stay there, for at least an hour, to my great content and ad- 
 vantage; for in that time, he made to me many useful observations, 
 with much clearness and conscientious freedom." 9 
 
 It was not till long after that period when the faculties of men begin 
 to decline, that Walton undertook to write the Life of Sanderson : 
 
 (1) Epistle to the Hebrews, chap. x. verse 34. 
 (I) Life of Sanderson. 
 
XXXIV LIFE OF WALTON. 
 
 nevertheless, far from being deficient in any of those excellencies that 
 distinguish the former Lires, this abounds with the evidences of a 
 vigorous imagination, a sound judgment, and a memory unimpaired; 
 and for the nervous sentiments and pious simplicity therein displayed, 
 let the concluding paragraph thereof, pointed out to me by an emi- 
 nent writer,' and here given, serve as a specimen. 
 
 '* Thus, this pattern of meekness and primitive innocence changed 
 this for a better life : 'tis now too late to wish that mine may be like 
 his ; (for I am in the eighty-fifth year of my age; and God knows it 
 hath not ;) but I most humbly beseech Almighty God that my death 
 and I do as earnestly beg, that if any reader shall receive any 
 satisfaction from this very plain, and as true relation, he will be so 
 charitable as to say Amen." 
 
 Such were the persons, whose virtues Walton was so laudably 
 employed in celebrating : and surely he has done but justice in saying 
 that 
 
 " These were honourable men in their generations." 
 
 Ecctus. xliv. 7. 
 
 And yet so far was he from arrogating to himself any merit in this his 
 labour, that, in the instance of Dr. Donne's Life, he compares him- 
 self to Pompey's bondman who being found on the sea-shore, ga- 
 thering UP the scattered fragments of an old broken boat, in order to 
 burn the body of his dead master, was asked, " Who art thou that 
 preparest the funerals of Pompey the Great ?" hoping, as he says, 
 (hat if a like question should be put to him, it would be thought to 
 have in it more of frontier than disdain. 
 
 The above passage in scripture, assumed by Walton as a motto to 
 the collection of Lite*, may, with equal propriety, be applied to most 
 of his friends and intimates; -who were men of such distinguished 
 characters for learning and piety, and so many in number, 3 that it is 
 matter of wonder by what means a man in his station could obtain 
 admittance among so illustrious a society ; unless we will suppose, as 
 doubtless was the case, that his integrity and amiable disposition at- 
 tracted the notice and conciliated the affections of all with whom he 
 had any concern. 
 
 It is observable, that not only these, but the rest of Walton's friends, 
 were eminent royalist*; and that he himself was in great repute for 
 his attachment to the royal cause, will appear by the following rela- 
 tion taken from Ashmole's History of the Order of the Garter, page 
 228 ; where the Author, speaking of the ensigns of the order, says : 
 " Nor will it lie unfitly here remembered, by what good fortune the 
 present sovereign's Lesser George, set with fair diamonds, was pre- 
 
 (1) Dr. Samuel Johnson. 
 
 (*) Motto to the Collection of Lives. 
 
 (3) In the number of his intimate friends, we find Archbishop Usher, 
 Archbishop Sheldon, Bishop Morton, Bishop King, Bishop Barlow, Dr. 
 Fuller, Dr. Price, Dr. Woodlbrd, Dr. Featly, Dr. Holdsworth, Dr. Ham- 
 mond, Sir Edward Sandys, Sir Edward Bysh, Mr. Cranmer, Mr. Chilling- 
 xvmtli, Michael Dray ton, and that celebrated scholar and critic Mr. John 
 Hales, of Eton. 
 
LIFE OF WALTON. XXXV 
 
 served, after the defeat given to the Scotch forces at Worcester, ann. 
 4 Car. II. Among the rest of his attendants then dispersed, Colonel 
 Blague was one ; who, taking shelter at Blore-pipe-house in Stafford- 
 shire, where one Mr. George Barlow then dwelt, delivered his wife 
 this George, to secure. Within a week after, Mr. Barlow himself 
 carried it to Robert Milward, Esq. ; he being then a prisoner to the 
 parliament, in the garrison of Stafford ; and by his means was it hap- 
 pily preserved and restored ; for, not long after, he delivered it to Mr. 
 Isaac Walton, (a man well known, and as well beloved of all good 
 men ; and will be better known to posterity, by his ingenious pen, in 
 the Lives of Dr. Donne, Sir Henry Wotton, Mr. Richard Hooker, and 
 Mr. George Herbert,) to be given to Colonel Blague, then a prisoner 
 in the Tower ; who, considering it had already passed so many dan- 
 gers, was persuaded it could yet secure one hazardous attempt of his 
 own; and thereupon, leaving the Tower without leave-taking, hasted 
 the presentation of it to the present sovereign's hand." l 
 
 The religious opinions of good men are of little importance to 
 others, any farther than they necessarily conduce to virtuous practice; 
 since we see, that as well the different persuasions of Papist and Pro- 
 testant, as the several no less differing parties into which the Reformed 
 Religion is unhappily sub-divided, have produced men equally re- 
 markable for their endowments, sincere in their professions, and ex- 
 emplary in their lives ; but were it necessary, after what has been 
 above remarked of him, to be particular on this head, with respect to 
 our Author we should say, that he was a very dutiful son of the 
 Church of England ; nay further, that he was a friend to an hierarchy, 
 or, as we should now call such a one, a high-churchman ; for which 
 propensity of his, if it needs an apology, it may be said, That he had 
 lived to see hypochruy and fanaticism triumph in the subversion of 
 both our ecclesiastical and civil constitution, the important question 
 of toleration had not been discussed, the extent of regal prerogative, 
 and the bounds of civil and religious liberty, had never been ascer- 
 tained, and he, like many other good men, might look on the inte- 
 rests of the Church, and those of Religion, as inseparable. 
 
 Besides the Works of Walton above-mentioned, there are extant, 
 of his writing, Verges on the death of Dr. Donne, beginning, " Our 
 Donne is dead;*' Verses to his reverend friend the Author of the Sy- 
 n>i</f/ue, printed together with Herbert's Temple; 3 Verses before 
 Alexander Brome's Poems, octavo, 1646, and before Shirley's Poems, 
 octavo, 1646, and before Cartwright's Plays and Poems, octavo, 
 1651. He wrote also the following Lines under an engraving of Dr. 
 Donne, before his Poems, published in 1635. 
 
 This wax for youth, strength, mirth, and wit that time 
 Most count their golden age ,4 but was not thine : 
 
 (1) See also Dr. Plolt's Staffordshire, 311. 
 
 (2) If the intelligent reader doubts the truth of this position, let him 
 reflect on, and compare with each other, the characters of HOOKER, Father 
 PAUL, and Mr. RICHARD BAXTER. 
 
 (3) Vide infra, the SIGNATURE to the second Copy of Commendatory 
 Verses, and Chap. V. note. 
 
 (4) Alluding to his age, viz. eighteen, when the picture was painted from 
 which the print was taken. 
 
XXXVI LIFE OF WALTON. 
 
 *"hine was thy later years; so much refined 
 
 Prom youth's dross, mirth and \\ it, us thy pure mnul 
 
 Thought (like theanuels) nothing but the praise 
 
 Oi thy Creator, in those last, best days. 
 
 Witness this book, (thy emblem,) which begins 
 With love ; but ends with sighs and tears for sins. 
 
 Dr. Henry King, bishop of Chichester in a Letter to Walton, 
 dated in November, 1664, and in which is contained the judgment 
 (herein-before inserted) of Hales of Eton, on the Life of Dr. Donne 
 that Walton had, in the Life of Hooker, given a more short and 
 significant account of the character of this time, and also of archbi- 
 shop M /,//</>//. than he had received from any other pen, and that 
 he had also done much for Sir Htnry Sari/e, his contemporary and 
 familiar friend ; which fact does very well connect with what the late 
 Mr. Des Maizeaux, some years since related to a gentleman now de- 
 ceased, ' from whom myself had it, ri*. that there were then several 
 Letter $ of Walton extant, in the Ashmolean Museum, relating to a 
 life of Sir Henry Sari/e, which Walton had entertained thoughts of 
 writing. 
 
 1 also find, that he undertook to collect materials for a Life of Hales: 
 it seems, that Mr. Anthony Farringdon, minister of St. Mary Mag- 
 dalen, Milk Street, London, had begun to write the Life of this me- 
 morable person ; but dying before he had completed it, his |>apers 
 were sent to Walton, with a request from Mr. Fiilman, - who had pro- 
 posed to himself to continue und finish it, that Walton would furnish 
 him with such information as was to his purpose : Mr. Fulman did 
 not live to complete his design. But a Life of Mr. Hales, from other 
 materials, was compiled by tlie late Mr. Des Maizeaux, and published 
 b\ him in 1719. as a specimen of a new Biographical Dictionary. 
 
 A Letter of Walton, to Marriot his bookseller, upon this occasion, 
 was aent me by the late Rev. Dr. Birch, soon after the publication of 
 my first edition of the Complete Angler, containing the above facts; 
 i.. which the Doctor added, that after the year 1719, Mr. Fnlman's 
 papers came to the hands of Mr. Des Maizeaux, who intended in some 
 way or other, to avail himself of them : but he never published a 
 second edition of his Life of Hales; nor, for aught that I can hear, 
 have they ever yet found their way into the world. 
 
 In 1683, when he was ninety years old, Walton published Thealma 
 and Clearchus; a Pastoral history, in smooth and easy rerse, w in, ,, 
 long since by John Chalkhill, Esq.; an acquaintance and friend of 
 Edmund Spenser : to this poem he wrote a Preface, containing a very 
 amiable character of the author. 
 
 (1) William Oldys, e*q Norroy king at arms, author of the Life of Mr. 
 Cotton, pi- fixed to the Second Part, in the (ormer ediiions of this work. 
 
 (V) Mr. William Fulm:in, amanuensis to Dr. Henry Hammond. See him 
 in At ken. Oron. Vol. II. 923. Some specious arguments have been urged to 
 
 prove that this person was the author of the H hole Duty of Man, and I 
 once thought they had finally settled that long xRiiated question, " To 
 whom is the world obliged for that excellent work?" but I find a lull and 
 
 ample refutation of them, in a book entitled Memoirs of several Ladies of 
 Grt at Britain, by George Kallard, 4to. I75'2, p. 318, and that the weight of 
 evidence is greatly in favour of a lady deservedly celebrated by him, viz. 
 Dorothy, the wile of Sir John Pack'mgton, Bart, and daughter of Thomas 
 Lord Coventry, lord-keeper of the great seal, temp. Car. 1. 
 

PRIOR SILXSTBKO'S CttAJWEX., 
 
1ERE RESTtTH THE BODY 
 
 M* ISAAC WALTON 
 
 WHO DYED 
 
 1683 
 
 'one to reCurne noe 
 
 ose we \ 
 
 / ich rvill nc'rcJjc f/ona 
 
 Town 'elrvttJi etcrna/.l/tffe 
 
 //ocis mocfestisiicflcritn tli 
 
LIFE OF WALTON. XXXVll 
 
 He lived but a very little time after the publication of this poem j 
 for, as Wood says, he ended his days on the fifteenth day of December, 
 1683, in the great frost, at Winchester, in the house of Dr. Wtiliam 
 Hawkins, a prebendary of the church there, where he lies buried, i 
 
 In the cathedral of Winchester, tie. in a chapel in the south aisle, 
 called Prior Silksteed's chapel, on a large black flat marble-stoae, is 
 this inscription to his memory : the poetry whereof has very little to 
 recommend it : 
 
 HERB RESTETH THE BODY OP 
 
 MR. ISAAC WALTON, 
 
 WHO DYED THE FIFTEENTH OF DECEMBER, 
 
 1683. 
 
 Alas ! lie's gone before, 
 Gone to return no more. 
 Our panting breasts aspire 
 
 After their aged MI e ; 
 Whose well-spent life did last 
 Full ninety years and past. 
 
 Hut now he hatli begun 
 TliHl, which will ne'er be done. 
 
 Crown'd with eternal bliss, 
 
 We wish our souls with his. 
 
 VOTIS MODKST1S SIC FLBRUNT LIBKRt. 
 
 The issue of Walton's marriage were, a son, named Isaac ; and a 
 daughter, named, after her mother, /////-. This son was placed in 
 Christ-church college, Oxford; 8 and, having taken his degree of 
 bachelor-of-arts, travelled, together with his uncle, Mr. (afterwards 
 bishop) Ken, in the year 1674, being the year of the jubilee, into 
 France and Italy; and, as Cotton says, visited Rome and Venice. Of 
 this son, mention is made in the remarkable Will of Dr. Donne the 
 younger, (printed on a half-sheet,) in 1662 ; whereby he bequeathed 
 to the elder Walton all his father's writings, as also his common-place 
 book, which he says, may be of use to him if he makes him a scholar. 
 Upon the return of the younger Walton, he prosecuted his studies ; 
 and having finished the same, entered into holy orders ; and became 
 chaplain to Dr. Seth Ward, bishop of Sarum ; by whose favour he 
 attained to the dignity of a canon-residentiary of that cathedral. Upon 
 the decease of Bishop Ward, and the promotion of Dr. Gilbert Bur- 
 net to the vacant see, Mr. Walton was taken into the friendship and 
 confidence of that prelate ; and being a man of great temper and dis- 
 cretion, and for his candour and sincerity much respected by all the 
 clergy of the diocese, he became very useful to him in conducting the 
 affairs of the Chapter. 
 
 Old Isaac Walton having by his will bequeathed a farm and land near 
 Stafford, of about the yearly value of twenty pounds, to this his son 
 and his heirs for ever, upon condition, that if his said son should not 
 marry before he should be of the age of forty-one, or, being married, 
 should die before the said age, and leave no son that should live to the 
 age of twenty-one, then the same should go to the corporation of 
 
 (1) Athen. Oxon. Vol. I. col. 305. 
 
 (2) Vide Part II. Chap. VI. Athen, O*on. Vol. II. 989; Biogr. Brit. art. 
 KIN. 
 
LIFE OF WALTON. 
 
 Stafford, for certain charitable purposes; this son, upon his attain- 
 ment of that age without having married, sent to the mayor of Staf- 
 ford, acquainting him, that the estate was improved to almost double 
 its former value, and that upon his decease the corporation would be- 
 come entitled thereto. 
 
 Tfcis worthy person died, at the age of sixty-nine, on the 29th day 
 of December, 1719; and lies interred in the cathedral church of Sa- 
 lisbury. 
 
 Annt, the daughter of old Isaac Walton, and sister of the above 
 person, was married to Dr. IVWAcMt AneAfcw, a divine and ara- 
 bendary of Winchester, mentioned above ; for whom Walton, inTiis 
 will, expresses great affection, declaring that he loved him as his own 
 son : he died the 17th day of July, 1691, aged fifty-eight, leaving issue, 
 by his said wife, a daughter named Anne, and a son named FHOfcMft, 
 The daughter was never married, but lived with her uncle, the canon, 
 as his housekeeper, and the management of his domestic concerns : 
 she remained settled at Salisbury after his decease, until the 27th of 
 November, 1728, when she died, and lies buried in the cathedral. 
 
 M ///torn, the son of Dr. Ifmrkinx, and brother of the last mentioned 
 Anne, was bred to the study of the law ; and from the Middle Temple, 
 called to the bar ; but attained to no degree of eminence in his pro- 
 fession. He wrote and published in 8ro, anno 1713, A short Account 
 of the life of Bishop Ken, with a small specimen, in order to a publi- 
 cation of his FfbrAsat large; and, accordingly, in the year 1721, they 
 were published, in four volumes 8ro. From this Account, some of 
 the above particulars respecting the family connections of Walton are 
 taken. 
 
 I am informed, that this gentleman for several years laboured under 
 the affliction of incurable blindness, and that he died on the 29th day 
 of November, 1748. 
 
 A few moments before his death, our Author made his will, which 
 appears by the peculiarity of many expressions contained in it, as 
 well as by the hand ti . be of his own writing. As there is something 
 characteristic in this last solemn act of his life, it has been thought 
 proper to insert an authentic copy thereof in this account of him ; 
 postponing it, only to the following reflections on his life and character. 
 Upon a retrospect to the foregoing particulars, and a view of some 
 others mentioned in a subsequent letter 1 and in his Will, it will appear 
 that Walton possessed that essential ingredient in human felicity, mens 
 tana in corpore sano; for in his eighty-third year he professes a re- 
 solution to begin a pilgrimage of more than a hundred miles into a 
 country the most difficult and hazardous that can be conceived for an 
 aged man to travel in, to visit his friend Cotton, * and doubtless to en- 
 joy his favourite diversion of angling in the delightful streams of the 
 
 (1) See his Letter to Clutrlet Cotton, Esq. prefixed to the Second Part. 
 
 (t) To this journey he seems to have been invited l>y Mr. Cnitnn, in the 
 following beautiful Stanzas, printed with other of his Poems in 1689, 8vo. 
 and addressed to his dear and most worthy friend Mr. Isaac Walton. 
 
 Whilst in this cold and blust'ring clime, 
 Where bleak winds howl and tempests roar, 
 
 We pass away the roughest time 
 Has been of many years before ; 
 
LIFE OF WALTON. XXXix 
 
 Dove, and on the ninetieth anniversary of his birth-day, he, by his 
 Will, declares himself to be of perfect memory. * 
 
 As to his worldly circumstances notwithstanding the adverse acci- 
 dent of his being obliged, by the troubles of the times, to quit London 
 and his occupation they appear to have been commensurate, as well 
 to the wishes as the wants of any but a covetous and intemperate man ; 
 and, in his relations and connections, such a concurrence of circum- 
 stances is visible, as it would be almost presumption to pray for. 
 
 For not to mention the patronage of those many prelates and 
 dignitaries of the church, men of piety and learning, with whom he 
 lived in a close intimacy and friendship ; or, the many ingenious and 
 worthy persons with whom he corresponded and conversed ; or, the 
 
 Whilst from the most tempestuous nooks 
 
 The dullest blasts our peace invade, 
 And by great rains our smallest brooks 
 
 Are almost navigable made ; 
 Whilst all the ills are so improv'd, 
 
 Of this dead quarter of the year, 
 That even you, so much belov'd, 
 
 We would not now wish with us here : 
 
 In this estate, I say, it is 
 
 Some comfort to us to suppose, 
 That, in a better clime than this, 
 
 You, our dear friend, have more repose ; 
 
 And some delight to me the while, 
 
 Though nature now does weep in rain, 
 To think that I have seen her smile, 
 
 And haply may I do again. 
 
 If the all-ruling Power please 
 
 We live to see another Mm/, 
 We'll recompense an age of these 
 
 Foul days in one fine fishing day. 
 
 We then shall have a day or two, 
 
 Perhaps a week wherein to try 
 What the best roaster's hand can do 
 
 With the most deadly killing flie : 
 
 A day, with not too bright a beam, 
 
 A warm, but not a scorching sun, 
 A southern gale to curl the stream, 
 
 And, master, half our work is done. 
 
 There, whilst behind some bush we wart 
 
 The scaly people to betray, 
 We'll prove U just, with treacherous bait 
 
 To make the preying Trout our prey. 
 
 And think ourselves, in such an hour, 
 Happier than those, though not so high, 
 
 Who, like Leviathans, devour 
 Of meaner men the smaller fry. 
 
 This, my best friend, at my poor home 
 
 Shall be our pastime and our theme; 
 But then should you not deign to come, 
 
 You make all this a flatt'i ing dream. 
 
 (1) These, it must be owned, are words of course in a Will : but had the 
 fact been otherwise, he would have been unable to make such a judicious 
 disposition of his worldly estate as he had done, or with his own hand to 
 write so long an instrument as his Will. 
 
X LIFE OF WALTON. 
 
 esteem and respect, testified by printed letters and eulog-iums, which his 
 writings had procured him to be matched with a woman of an ex- 
 alted understanding, and a mild and humble temper ; to have children 
 of good inclinations and sweet and amiable dispositions, and to see 
 them well settled ; is not the lot of every man that, preferring a social 
 to a solitary life, chooses to become the head of a family. 
 
 But blessings like these are comparatively light, when weighed 
 against those of a mind stored, like his, with a great variety of useful 
 knowledge, and a temper that could harbour no malevolent thought 
 or insiduous design, nor stoop to the arts of fraud or flattery/ but 
 dispose him to love and virtuous friendship, to the enjoyments of in- 
 nocent delights and recreations, to the contemplation of the works of 
 Nature, and the ways of Providence, and to the still sublimcr pleasures 
 of rational piety. 
 
 It. possessing all these benefits and advantages, external and internal, 
 (together with a mental constitution, so happily attempered as to have 
 been to him a perpetual fountain of cheerfulness,* ) we can entertain 
 a doubt that Walton was one of the happiest of men, we estimate them 
 at a rate too low; and shew ourselves ignorant of the nature of that 
 felicity to which it is possible, even in this life, for virtuous and good 
 men, with the blessing of God, to arrive. 
 
 (I) rUeto/ra, in his Will. 
 
 (1) See his Preface, wherein he declares that though lie can be serious 
 at seasonable limes, he is a lover of innocent, harmless mirth, and that his 
 book to * picture ^ kit own dUfotUion. 
 

 
tfo tittle* 
 
 
 Bin no* a Difrourlr of 
 FISH and FISHING, 
 
 Not unworthv the ]x-niliil 
 
 m l^ter fat (I. Igoa/i/bfwj-tirul //V )'////,. 
 alfo wtf go vtilb }/.><<. John 'J.I 5, 
 
 i.v T.MaxeyJi>rKi(ti MAKKK >T. />/ 
 Z/////A///.V ciiuix ii v.jid. run 
 
LIFE OF WALTON. xli 
 
 COPY OF WALTON'S WILL. 
 
 August the ninth, one thousand six 
 hundred eighty-three. 
 
 5tt tfje Name Of (Soft, 3mf It, I IZAAK WALTON the 
 
 elder, of Winchester, being this present day, in the ninetyeth year of 
 my age, and in perfect memory, for which praised be God ; but con- 
 sidering how suddainly I may be deprived of both, do therefore make 
 this my last Will and Testament as followeth : And first, 1 do declare 
 my belief to be, that there is only one God, who hath made the whole 
 world, and me, and all mankind ; to whom I shall give an account of 
 all my actions, which are not to be justified, but I hope pardoned, for 
 the merits of my Saviour JESUS : And because the profession of Chris- 
 tianity does, at this time, seem to be subdivided into Papist and Protes- 
 tante, I take it, at least, to be convenient, to declare my belief to be, in 
 all points of faith, as the Church of England now professeth : and this 
 I do the rather, because of a very long and very true friendship with 
 some of the Roman Church. And for my worldly estate, (which I 
 have neither got by falsehood or flattery, or the extreme cruelty of the 
 law of this nation, 1 ) I do hereby give and bequeath it as followeth : 
 First, I give my son-in law, Doctor HAWKINS, and to ais WIFE ; to 
 them I give all my title and ri^lit of or in a part of a house and shop 
 in Paternoster-row, in London, which I hold by lease from tin- lord 
 bishop of London for about fifty years to come. And I do also give 
 to them all my right and title of or to a house in Chancery -lane, Lon- 
 don, wherein Mrs. Greinwood now dwelleth, in which is now about 
 sixteen years to come : I give these two leases to them, they saving 
 my executor from oil damage concerning the same. And I give to my 
 son IZAAK all my right and title to a lease of Norington farme, which 
 I hold from the lord bishop of Winton : And I do also give him all my 
 right and title to a farme or land near to Stafford, which I bought of 
 Mr. Walter Noell j 1 say, I give it to him and his heirs lor ever ; but 
 upon the condition following, namely ; if my son shall not marry be- 
 fore he shall be of age of forty-and-one years, or, being married, shall 
 dye before the said age, and leave no son to inherit the said farme or 
 land, or if his son or sons shall not live to attain the age of twenty 
 and one years, to dispose otherways of it, then I give the said farme 
 or land to the towne or corporation of STAFFORD, in which I was 
 borne, for the good and benefit of some of the said towne, as I shall 
 direct, and as followeth ; (but first note, that it is at this present time 
 rented for twenty-one pound ten shillings a-year, and is like to hold 
 
 (1) Alluding, perhaps, to that fundamental maxim of our law, fiitmmum 
 Jus est summa injuria. 
 
 d 
 
Xl LIFE OF WALTON. 
 
 the said rent, if care be taken to keep the barn and housing in repair ; 
 and I would have, and do give ten pound of the said rent, To bind out, 
 yearly, two boys, the sons of honest and poor parents, to be appren- 
 tices to some tradesmen or handy-craft men, to the intent the said 
 boys may the better afterward get their own living. And 1 do also 
 give five pound yearly, out of the said rent, to be given to some maid- 
 servant, that hath attained the age of twenty and one years, not less, 
 and dwelt long in one service, or to some honest poor-man's daughter, 
 that hath attained to that age, to be paid her at or on the day of her 
 marriage: and this being done, my will is, that what rent shall remain 
 of the said farme or land, shall be disposed of as followeth : first I do 
 give twenty shillings yearly, to be spent by the major of Stafford and 
 those that shall collect the said rent and dispose of it as I have and 
 shall hereafter direct ; and that what money or rent shall remain un- 
 M d of, shall be imployed to buy coals for some poor people, that 
 >h.ill most need them, in the said towne ; the said coals to be delivered 
 the /?**< iceeke in January, or in every first week in Februarys I say 
 then, because I take that time to be the hardest and most pinching times 
 with poor people ; and God reward those that shall do this without 
 partiality, and with honesty, and a good conscience. And if the said 
 major and others of the said towne of STAFFORD shall prove so neg- 
 ligent, or dishonest, as not to imploy the rent by me given as intended 
 and expreat in this my "ill. which God forbid, then I give the said 
 rent* and profits of the said farme, or land, to the towne, and chief 
 magistrates or governors, of ECLESHALL, to be disposed of by them 
 in such manner as I have ordered the disposal of it by the towne of 
 Stafford, the said farme or land being near the towne of Kelt-shall. 
 And I give to my son-in-law, Dr. HAWKINS, whom I love as my own 
 son; and to MY DAUGHTER, HIM WIFE; and my son IZAAIC; to each 
 of them a ring, with these words or motto ; " Lore my memory, I. \V. 
 obiit 
 
 to the Lord Bishop of WINTON a ring, with this motto ; " A mite for 
 a im//ion, /. W. obnt " and to the friends hereafter- 
 
 named, I give to each of them a ring with this motto ; A friend's 
 fareicett, 7. W. obiit " And my will is, the said rings 
 
 be delivered within forty days after my death : and that the price or 
 value of all the said rings shall be thirteen shillings and four-pence a 
 piece. I give to Dr. HAWKINS, Doctor Donne's Sermons, which I have 
 beard preacht, and read with much content. To my son IZAAK, I 
 L-i\.- Doctor Sibbs his Soul's Conflict; and to MY DAUGHTER his 
 Bruited Reed, desiring them to read them so as to be well acquainted 
 with them. And I also give unto HER all my books at Winchester 
 and Droxford, and whatever in those two places are, or I can call 
 mine, except a trunk of linen, which I give to my son IZAAK : but if 
 he do not live to marry, or make use of it, then I give the same to my 
 grand-daughter, ANNE HAWKINS. And I give MY DAUGHTER Doctor 
 Hall's Works, which be now at Farnham. To my son IZAAK I give 
 all my books, not yet given, at Farnham Castell ; and adeske of prints 
 and pictures; also a cabinet! near my bed's head, in which are some 
 
 (I; Thin book was an instrument in the conversion of Mr. Richard Baxter. 
 . CAlamy'a Life of him, \>*xe 7. 
 
LIFE OF WALTON. 
 
 little things that he will value, though of no great worth. And my 
 will and desire is, that he shall be kind to his aunt BEACIIAME, and his 
 aunt ROSE KEN ; by allowing the first about fifty shillings a-year. in or 
 for bacon and cheese, not nlore, and paying four pounds a-year to- 
 wards the boarding of her son's dyet to Mr. John Whitehead : for 
 his aunt Ken, I desire him to be kind to her according to her necessi- 
 tie and his own abilitie; and I commend one of her children, to 
 breed up as I have said I intend to do, if he shall be able to do it, as I 
 know he will; for they be good folke. I give to Mr. JOHN DARBY- 
 SHIRE the Sermons of Mr. Anthony Farringdon, or of Dr. Sanderson, 
 which my executor thinks fit. To my servant, THOMAS EDGILL, I 
 give five pound in money, and all my cloths, linen and woollen, except 
 one suit of cloths, which I give to Mr. HOLINSHED, and forty shillings 
 if the said Thomas be my servant at my death ; if not, my cloths only. 
 And I give my old friend, Mr. RICHARD MAKRIOT. ' ten pounds in 
 money, to be paid him within three months after my death ; and I 
 desire my son to shew kindness to him if he shall neede, and my son 
 can spare it. And I do hereby will and declare my son IZAAK to be 
 my sole executor of this my last will and testament ; and Doctor HAW- 
 KINS, to see that he performs it ; which I doubt not but he will. 1 
 desire my burial may be near the place of my death, and free from 
 any ostentation or charge, but privately. This I make to be my last 
 will, (to which I shall only add the codicil for rings,) this sixteenth day 
 of August, one thousand six hundred eighty-three, IZAAK WALTON. 
 Witness to this will. 
 
 The rings I give, are as on the other side. To my brother John 
 Ken ; to my Sitter his wife; to my brother, Doctor Ken; to my sister 
 Pye ; to Mr. Francis Morley ; to Mr. George Vernon; to his wife ; 
 to his three Daughters; to Mistris Nelson; to Mr. Richard Walton; 
 to Mr. Palmer ; to Mr. Taylor ; to Mr. Thomas Garrard; to the 
 Lord Bishop of Sanim; to Mr. Rede, his servant; to my cousin 
 Dorothy Kenrick; to my cousin Lewin; to Mr. Walter Higgs; to 
 Mr. Charles Cotton; to Mr. Richard Marryot: 22. To my brother 
 Beacham; to my Sister, hi* wife; to the lady Anne How; to Mrs. 
 King; Doctor Phillips's wife; to Mr. Valentine Harecourt; to Mrs. 
 Rliza Johnson; to Mrs. Mary Rogers; to Mrs. Eliza Mil ward; to 
 Mrs. Dorothy Wollop ; to Mr. Will. Milward, of Christ-church, Ox- 
 ford; to Mr. John Darby shire; to Mr. Undevill; to Mrs. Rock; to 
 Mr. Peter White; to Mr. John Uoyde; to my cousin CremseWs 
 Widow ; Mrs. Da/bin must not be forgotten : 16. IZAAK WALTON. 
 Note, that several lines are blotted out of this will, for they were twice 
 repeated, and that this will is now signed and sealed this twenty and 
 fourth day of October, one thousand six hundred eighty-three, in the 
 presence of us: Witness, ABRAHAM MARKLAND, Jos. TAYLOR, THO- 
 MAS CRAWLBY. 
 
 (I) Bookseller, and his Publisher. 
 
THE 
 
 EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 
 
 TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFUL 
 
 JOHN OFFLEY, ESQ. 
 
 Of MADELY MANOR, in the COUNTY cf STAFFORD. 
 
 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 ano 
 ther belief, that Angling is an Art: and you know that 
 art better than others; and that this 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 emu- 
 lation to be like you, and that emulation might beget an 
 industrious diligence to be so; but I know it is not attain- 
 
\1\ 1 
 
 EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 
 
 able by common capacities. And there be now many 
 men of great wisdom, learning, and experience, 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 practices 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 Wot- 
 ton (a dear lover of this art) has told me, that his inten- 
 tions 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 dis- 
 course being liable to so many exceptions; against which 
 you, Sir, might make this one, that it can contribute 
 nothing to your knowledge. 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 most affectionate Friend, 
 
 and most humble Servant, 
 Iz. WA. 
 
TO ALL 
 
 READERS OF THIS DISCOURSE, 
 
 BUT ESPECIALLY TO 
 
 THE HONEST ANGLER. 
 
 /f to tellthee these following truths, that I did 
 neither undertake, nor write, nor publish, and much less 
 own, this discourse to please myself: and, having been too 
 easily drawn to do all to please others* as I propose not the 
 gaining of credit by this undertaking, so I would not wil- 
 lingly lose any part of that to which I had a just title before 
 I begun it, and do therefore desire and hope, if I deserve 
 not commendations, yet I may obtain pardon. 
 
 And though this Discourse may be liable to some excep- 
 tions, yet I cannot doubt but that most readers may receive 
 so much pleasure or profit by it, as may make it worthy the 
 time of their perusal, if they be not too grave or too busy 
 men. And this is all the confidence that I can put on, con- 
 cerning the merit of what is here offered to their considera- 
 tion and censure; and if the last prove too severe, as I have 
 a liberty, so I am resolved to use it, and. neglect all sour 
 censures. 
 
 And I wish the reader also to take notice, that in writing 
 of it I have made myself a recreation of a recreation; and 
 that it might prove so to him, and not read dull and tedi- 
 ously, I have in several places mixed, not any* scurrility, 
 
WALTON TO THE READER. 
 
 but some innocent, harmless mirth, of which, ifthou be a 
 severe, sour-complexioned man, then I here disallow thee to 
 be a competent judge; for divines say, there are offences 
 given and offences not given but taken. 
 
 And I am the willinger to justify the pleasant part of it, 
 because though it is known I can be serious at all season- 
 able times, yet the whole discourse is, or rather was, a pic- 
 ture of my own disposition, especially in such days and 
 fanes as I have laid aside business, and gone a fishing with 
 honest Nat. and R. Roe ;' but they are gene, and with them 
 most of my pleasant hours, even as a shadow that passeth 
 away and returns not. 
 
 And next let me add this, that he that likes not the book, 
 should like the excellent picture of the Trout,* and some of 
 the other fish : which I may take a liberty to commend, 
 because they concern not myself. 
 
 Next let me tell the reader, that in that which is the more 
 useful part of this discourse, that is to say, the observations 
 of the nature and breeding, and seasons, and catching of 
 fish, I am not so simple as not to know, that a captious 
 reader may find exceptions against something said of some 
 of these; and therefore I must entreat him to consider, that 
 experience teaches us to know that several countries alter 
 the time, and I think almost the manner, of fishes' breeding, 
 but doubtless of their being in season; as may appear by 
 three rivers in Monmouthshire, namely, Severn, Wye, and 
 Usk, where Camden, Brit. f. 633, observes, that in the river 
 Wye, Salmon are in season from September to April ; and 
 
 (1) These persons ire supposed to have been related to Walton, from the cir- 
 cumstance of acopj, handed down, of his Lives ofDtnne, Sir H. Wotton, Hooker, 
 and Herbert, wherein is written by the Author on the frontispiece, " For my 
 cousin Roe." 
 
 (2) Thesj. Mates, for reasons assigned in the Preface to this Edition, have been 
 omitted. 
 
WALTON TO THE READER. xlix 
 
 we are certain, that in Thames and Trent, and in 7nost 
 other rivers, they be in season the six hotter months. 
 
 Now for the Art of catching fish, that is to say, How to 
 make a man that was none, to be an angler by a book ; he 
 that undertakes it, shall undertake a harder task than Mr. 
 Hales, a most valiant and excellent fencer, who in a printed 
 book called, A private School of Defence, undertook to 
 teach that art or science, and was laughed at for his labour. 
 Not but that many useful things might be learnt by that 
 book: but he was laughed at because that art was not to 
 be taught by words, but practice: and so must angling. 
 And note also, that in this discourse I do not undertake to 
 say all that is known, or may be said of it, but I undertake 
 to acquaint the reader with many things that are not 
 usually known to every angler ; and I shall leave gleanings 
 and observations enough to be made out of the experience 
 of all that love and practise this recreation, to which I shall 
 encourage them. For angling may be said to be so like 
 the mathematics, that it can never be fully learnt; at least 
 not so fully, but that there will still be more new experi- 
 ments left for the trial of other men that succeed us. 
 
 But I think all that love this game may here learn some" 
 thing that may. be worth their money, if they be not poor 
 and needy men ; and in case they be, I then wish them to 
 forbear to buy it; for I write not to get money, but for 
 pleasure, and this discourse boasts of no more; for I hate 
 to promise much, and deceive the reader. 
 
 And however it proves to him, yet I am sure I have found 
 a high content in the search and conference of what is here 
 offered to the reader's view and censure : I wish him as 
 much in the perusal of it, and so I might here take my 
 leave ; but will stay a little and tell him, that whereas it 
 
WALfON TO Tilt READER. 
 
 is said by many, that in fly-fishing for a Trout, the angler 
 must observe his twelve several flies for the twelve months 
 of the year: I say, he that follows that rule, shall be as 
 sure to catch fish, and be as wise, as he that makes hay by 
 the fair days in an almanack, and no surer ;for these very 
 flies that used to appear about and on the water in one 
 month of the year, may the following year come almost 
 a month sooner or later, as the same year proves colder 
 or hotter : and yet, in the following DISCOURSE, I have set 
 down the twelve flies that are iti reputation with many 
 anglers; and they may serve to give, him some observations 
 concerning them. And he may note, that there are in 
 WALES, and other countries, peculiar flies, proper to the 
 particular place or country ; ana* doubtless, unless a man 
 makes a fly to counterfeit that very fly in that place, he is 
 like to lose his labour, or much of it; but for the generality, 
 three or fow flies, neat and rightly made, and not too big, 
 serve for a Trout in most rivers, all the summer. And for 
 winter fly-fishing it is as useful as an almanack out of 
 date! And of these, because as no man is born an artist, 
 so no man is born an angler, I thought flt to give thee this 
 notice. 
 
 When I have told the reader, that in this fifth 1 impression 
 there are many enlargements, gathered both by my own 
 observation, and the communication with friends, I shall 
 stay him no longer than to wish him a rainy evening to 
 read this following discourse; and that, if he be an honest 
 angler, the east wind may never blow when he goes a fishing. 
 
 I. W. 
 
 (1) The fifth, as it is the last of the editions published in the author's life- 
 time, has been carefully followed in the present publication. Srr the Authoi's 
 Lift. 
 
COMMENDATORY VERSES. 
 
 TO 
 
 MY DEAR BROTHER, IZAAK WALTON, 
 
 UPON HIS 
 
 COMPLETE ANGLER. 
 
 ERASMUS in his learned Colloquies 
 Has mixt some toys, that by varieties 
 He might entice all readers : for in him 
 Each child may wade, or tallest giant swim. 
 And such is this discourse: there's none so low, 
 Or highly learn'd, to whom hence may not flow 
 Pleasure and information : both which are 
 Taught us with so much art, that I might swear 
 Safely, the choicest critic cannot tell,. 
 Whether your matchless judgment most excel 
 In angling or its praise : where commendation 
 First charms, then makes an art a recreation. 
 
 'Twas so to me ; who saw the cheerful spring 
 Pictur'd in every meadow, heard birds sing 
 Sonnets in every grove, saw fishes play 
 In the cool crystal streams, like lambs in May: 
 And they may play, till anglers read this book; 
 But after, 'tis a wise fish 'scapes a hook. 
 
 Jo. FLOUD, M r . of Arts. 
 
Hi COMMENDATORY VERSES. 
 
 TO THE 
 
 READER OF THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 
 
 FIRST mark the Title well: my Friend that gave it 
 Has made it good ; this book deserves to have jt. 
 For he that views it with judicious looks, 
 Shall find it full of art, baits, lines, and hooks. 
 
 The world the river is ; both you and 1, 
 And all mankind, are either fish or fry. 
 If we pretend to reason, first or last, 
 His baits will tempt us, and his hooks hold fast. 
 Pleasure or profit, either prose or rhyme, 
 If not at first will doubtless take in time. 
 
 Here sits, in secret, blest Theology, 
 Waited upon by grave Phylosophy 
 Both natural and moral; History, 
 Deck'd and adorn 'd with flowers of Poet i \ , 
 The matter and expression striving which 
 Shall most excel in worth, yet not seem rich. 
 There is no danger in his baits ; that hook 
 Will prove the safest, that is surest took. 
 
 Nor are we caught alone, but, which is best, 
 We shall be wholesome, and be toothsome drest ; 
 Hi.st to be fed, not to be fed upon : 
 And danger of a surfeit here is none. 
 The solid food of serious contemplation 
 Is sauc'd, here, with such harmless recreation, 
 That an ingenuous and religious mind 
 Cannot inquire for more than it may find 
 Ready at once preparM cither t'excite 
 Or satisfy a curious appetite. 
 
 More praise is due: tor 'tis both positive 
 And truth, which once was interrogative, 
 And utter'd by the poet, then, in jest- 
 fit pitcatorem piscis amare potest. 
 
 CH. HARVIE, Mr. of Arts. 1 
 
 (I) Suppoaed to be Christopher Harvie, for whom see Athcn. Oion. Vol. f. 
 vide ittfra, chap. v. 
 
COMMENDATORY VERSES. 
 TO 
 
 MY DEAR FRIEND, MR. IZ. WALTON, 
 
 In praise of Angling, which we both love. 
 
 DOWN by this smooth stream's wand'ring side, 
 
 Adorn'd and perfiim'd with the pride 
 
 Of Flora's wardrobe, where the shrill 
 
 Aerial choir express their skill, 
 
 First, in alternate melody, 
 
 And, then, in chorus all agree. 
 
 Whilst the charm 'd fish, as extasyM 
 
 With sounds, to his own throat deny M, 
 
 Scorns his dull element, and springs 
 
 I' 1h' air, as if his fins were wings. 
 
 ^Tis here that pleasures sweet and high 
 Prostrate to our embraces lie : 
 Such as to body, soul, or fame, 
 Create no sickness, sin, or shame : 
 Roses, not fenc'd with pricks, grow here ; 
 Vt sting to th* honey-bag is near : 
 But, what's perhaps their prejudice, 
 They difficulty want and price. 
 
 An obvious rod, a twist of hair, 
 With hook hid in an insect, are 
 Engines of sport would fit the wish 
 O' ill' Epicure, and fill his dish. 
 
 In this clear stream, let fall a grub ; 
 And, strait, take up a Dace or Chub. 
 F uY mud, your worm provokes a snig, 
 Which being fast, if it prove big, 
 The Gotham folly will be found 
 Discreet, ere ta'en she must be drown'd. 
 The Tench, physician of the brook, 
 In yon dead hole expects your hook ; 
 Which having first your pastime been, 
 Serves then for meat or medicine. 
 
COMMENDATOKY VEItSES. 
 
 A inl.ushM behind that root doth stay 
 A Pike ; to catch, and be a prey. 
 The treacherous quill in this slow stream 
 Betrays the hunger of a Bream. 
 And at that nimble ford, no doubt. 
 Your false fly cheats a speckled Trout. 
 
 When you these creatures wisely chuse 
 To practise on, which to your use 
 Owe their creation, and when 
 Fish from your arts do rescue men, 
 To plot, delude, and circumvent, 
 Ensnare, and spoil, is innocent. 
 Here by these crystal streams you may 
 Preserve a conscience clear as they; 
 And when by sullen thoughts you find 
 Your harassed, not busied, mind 
 In sable melancholy clad, 
 Distempered, serious, turning sad ; 
 Hence fetch your cure, cast in your bait, 
 AH anxious thoughts and cares will strait 
 Fly with such speed, they'll seem to be 
 Possest with the hydrophobie. 
 The water's calmness in your breast, 
 And smoothness on your brow, shall rest. 
 
 Away with sports of charge and noise, 
 And give me cheap and silent joys, 
 Such as Actaont game pursue, 
 Their fate oft makes the tale seem true. 
 The sick or sullen hawk, to-day. 
 Flies not ; to-morrow, quite away. 
 Patience and purse to cards and dice 
 Too oft are made a sacrifice : 
 The daughter's dower, th' inheritance 
 O* th* son, depend on one mad chance. 
 The harms and mischiefs which t If abuse 
 Of wine doth every day produce, 
 Make good the doctrine of the Turks, 
 That in each grape a devil lurks. 
 
COMMENDATORY VERSESv Jv 
 
 And by yon fading sapless tree, 
 'Bout which the ivy twin'd you see, 
 His fate's foretold, who fondly places 
 His bliss in woman's soft embraces. 
 All pleasures, but the angler's, bring 
 I' the tail repentance, like a sting. 
 
 Then on these banks let ine sit down, 
 Free from the toilsome sword and gown ; 
 And pity those that do affect 
 To conquer nations and protect. 
 My reed affords such true content, 
 Delights so sweet and innocent, 
 As seldom fall unto the lot 
 Of sceptres, though they're justly got. 
 
 1649. THO. WEAVER, Mr. of Arts, 
 
 TO THE READERS 
 
 OF MY MOST INGENUOUS FRIEND'S BOOK, 
 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 
 
 HE that both knew and writ the Lives of men, 
 Such as were once, but must not be again ; 
 Witness his matchless Donne and Wotton, by 
 Whose aid he could their speculations try : 
 
 He that conversed with angels, such as were 
 Ouldsworth ' and Featly. 2 each a shining star 
 Shewing the way to Bethlem ; each a saint, 
 Compar'd to whom our zealots, now, but paint. 
 
 He that our pious and learn'd Morlcy 3 knew, 
 And from him suck'd wit and devotion too. 
 
 (1) Dr. Richard Holdswortli. SPP au account of him in thr Fasti Oxan. 
 207 ; and in Ward's Lines of the Gretham Professors. 
 
 (2) Dr. Daniel IVatly.for whom se Athtn. Oxon. 603. 
 
 (3) Dr. George Motley, bishop of Winchester. 
 
vl COMMENDATORY VERSES, 
 
 He that from these such excellencies fetched, 
 That He could tell how high and far they reach'd ; 
 What learning this, what graces th' other had ; 
 And in what several dress each soul was clad. 
 
 Reader, this He, this fisherman, comes forth, 
 
 And in these fisher's weeds would shroud his worth. 
 
 Now his mute harp is on a willow hung, 
 
 With which, when finely touch'd, and fitly strung, 
 
 He could friends' passions for these times allay, 
 
 Or chain bis fellow anglers from their prey. 
 
 But now the music of his pen is still, 
 
 And he sits by a brook watching a quill : 
 
 Where with a fixt eye, and a ready hand, 
 
 He studies first to hook, and then to land 
 
 Some Trout, or Pearch, or Pike ; and having done, 
 
 Sits on a bank, and tells how this was won, 
 
 And that escap'd his hook, which with a wile 
 
 Did eat the bait, and fisherman beguile. 
 
 Thus whilst some TCX they from their lands arc thrown, 
 
 He joys to think the waters are his own ; 
 
 And like the Dutch, he gladly can agree 
 To live at peace now, and have fishing free. 
 
 Aprils, 1650. EDV. POWEL, M r . of Arts. 
 
 TO 
 
 MY DEAR BROTHER, MR. IZ. WALTON, 
 
 ON HIS 
 
 COMPLETE ANGLER. 
 
 THIS book is so like yon, and yon like it, 
 For harmless mirth, expression, art, and wit, 
 That I protest, ingenuously His true, 
 I love this mirth, art, wit, the book, and you. 
 
 ROB. FLOUD, C. 
 
[ tvii ] 
 
 LAUDATORUM CARMINA 
 
 CLARISSIMO AMICISSIMOQUE FRATRI, 
 
 DOMINO ISAACO WALTON, 
 
 ARTIS PISCATORIA PERITISSIMO. 
 
 UNICUS est medicus reliquorum piscis, et istis, 
 Fas quibus est medicum tangere, certa salus. 
 
 Hie typus est salvatoris mirandus JESU, 
 *Litera mysterium quselibet hujus habet. 
 
 Hunc cupio, hunc capias, (bone frater arundinis,) 
 fSolveret hie pro me debita, teque Deo. 
 
 Piscis is est, et piscator, mihi credito, qualem 
 Vel piscatorem piscis amare velit. 
 
 * IX8T2, PISCIS. 
 
 I 'IOTUC Jenu. 
 
 X Xfirroc Christtu. 
 
 e etov, Dei. 
 
 T Tloc, Ft/tux. 
 
 Z ZWT^ Salcator. 
 
 t Matt. XTti. 27. the last words of the chapter. 
 
 HENRY BAILEY, Artium Magister. 
 
Iviil LAUDATORUM CARMINA. 
 
 AD 
 
 VIRUM OPTIMUM ET PISCATOREM PERITISS1MIW. 
 
 ISAACUM WALTONUM. 
 
 MAGISTER artis docte piscatoriee, 
 Waltone, salve ! magne dux arundinis, 
 Sen tu rcducta valle solus ambulas, 
 Prcoterfluentes interim observans aquas. 
 Seu fortfc puri stans in amnis margine, 
 Sive in tenaci gramine & ripa sedeiis, 
 Fallis perita squameum pecus manu ; 
 
 te beatum ! qui procul negotiis, 
 Forique & urbis pulvere & strepitu cnrens, 
 
 1 AH ,K|Uf turbam, ad lent- manantes aquas 
 Vagos honesta fraud e pisces decipis. 
 Dura ceetera ergo pene gens mortalium 
 Aut rctia invicem sibi & technas struunt, 
 Donis, ut hamo, aut divites captant senes ; 
 Gregi natantum tu interim nectis dolos, 
 Voracem inescas advenam hamo lucium, 
 Avidamve percam parvulo alburno capis, 
 Aut verme niflfo, muscula aut truttam levi, 
 Cautumve cyprinum, & fere indocilem capi 
 Calamoque linoque, ars et hunc superat tua ; 
 Medicarave tincam, gobium aut esca trahis, 
 Gratum palato gobium, parvum licet ; 
 Pnedamve, non aeque salubrem barbulum, 
 Etsi ampliorem, et mystace insignem gravi. 
 
 Hae sunt tibi artes, dum annus & tempus sinunt , 
 Et nulla transit absque linca dies. 
 Nee sola praxis, sed theoria & tibi 
 Nota artis hujus ; unde tu simul bonus 
 
LAUDATORUM CARMINA. 
 
 Piscator, idem & scriptor ; & calami potens 
 
 Utriusque necdum & ictus, & tamen sapis. 
 
 Ut hamiotam nempe tironem instmas ! 
 
 Stylo eleganti scribis en Halieutica 
 
 Oppianus alter, artis & methodum tuae, & 
 
 Praecepta promis rite piscatoria, 
 
 Varias & escas piscium, indolem, & genus. 
 
 Nee tradere artem sat putas piscariam ; 
 
 (Virtutis est heec & tamen queedam schola 
 
 Patientiamque & temperantiam docet ;) 
 
 Documenta quin majora das, & regulas 
 
 Sublimioris artis, & perennia 
 
 Monimenta morum, vitae & exempla optima; 
 
 Dum tu profundum scribis Hookerum, & pium 
 
 Donnum ac disertum; sanctum & Herbertum, sacrum 
 
 Vatem ; hos videmus nam penicillo tuo 
 
 Graphice, et perita, Isaace, depictos manu. 
 
 Post fata factOB hosce per te Virbios. 1 
 
 O quee voluptas est legere in scriptis tuis ! 
 
 Sic tu libris nos, lineis pisces capis, 
 
 Musisque litterisque dum incumbis, licet 
 
 Intentus hamo, interque piscandum studes. 
 
 (1) " Virbius, quasi bis rtr," is an epithet applied to Hippolytus, because he 
 was by Diana restored to life after his death. Vide Ovidii Met. lib. xv. v. 536, 
 fyseq. Hoffmanni Lexicon UnivertaU, art. VIRBIUS. In this place it is 
 meant to express, that by Watton't skill in biography, those persons whose lives 
 he has written, are so accurately represented, as that, even afcer their deaths, 
 they are again, as it were, brought to life. 
 
LAUDATOHUM CAUM1NA. 
 ALIUD 
 
 AD ISAACUM WALTONUM, 
 
 VIRUM BT PISCATOREM OPTMUM. 
 
 ISA ACE) Made hue arte piscaturia; 
 Hac arte Petrus principi censum dedit ; 
 Hac arte princeps nee Petro multo prior, 
 Tranquillus ille, teste Tranquillo, 1 pater 
 Patriue, solebat recreare se lubens 
 Augustus, hamo instructus ac arundine. 
 Tu mine, Amice, proximum clari es decus 
 Post Csesarera hanii, gentis ac Halieuticse : 
 Euge, O professor, artis baud inglorioe, 
 Doctor catbedree, perlegens piscariam ! 
 Nee tu raagister, & ego discipulus tuus, 
 Nam candidatum & me ferunt arundinis, 
 Socium hac in arte nobilem nacti suraus. 
 Quid amplius, Wai tone, nam dici potest? 
 Ipse hamiota Dominus en orbis fuit ! 
 
 JACO. DUP. D.D. 
 
 (1) L e. Suctonitu TranquUlut. 
 
 (*) The contracting of surnames is a faulty practice : the above might stand 
 for " Duppa," but signifies " Duport." This person was a Fellow of Trinity 
 College, Cambridge, and Professor of Greek in that University. His father, John, 
 h*J a hand in the translation of King James's Bible. Fuller's Ch. Hist, book 
 X. p. 40. Dr. James Duport wrote, also, the Latin verses preceding these ; 
 -nd both copies are extant in a volume of Latin Poems by him, entitled Mulct 
 nted at Cambridge in 8<ro. 1070. 
 
THE 
 
 Complete 3nglcr* 
 
 PART I. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Conference betwixt an ANGLER, a HUNTER, and a FALCONER ; 
 each commending his Recreation. 
 
 PI8CATOR, VENATOR, AUCEPS. 
 
 Piscator. X OU are well overtaken, Gentlemen! A 
 good morning to you both! I have stretched my legs ufv 
 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 Thatch'd 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 com- 
 pany as far as Theobalds, 1 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. 
 
 (1) Theobalds, in the county of Hertford, a house built by Lord Burleigh, 
 and much improved by his on, Robert Earl of Salisbury, who exchanged it 
 with King James the First, for Hatfield. Cumd. Brit. Hertfordshire. Se 
 also Sir Anthony Weldon's Court and Char, of KtngMmtt, 51. 
 
2 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 Fen. Sir, we are all so happy as to have a fine, fresh, 
 coo), morning; and I hope we shall each be the happier 
 in the others 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 dis- 
 course, 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. 
 
 Yen. And, Sir, I promise the like. 
 
 Pise. 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. 
 
 Yen. 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 chace whatsoever : how- 
 soever, I mean to try it; for to-morrow morning we shall 
 meet a pack of Otter-dogs of noble Mr. Sadler's, 1 upon 
 Amwell-hill, who will be there so early, that they intend 
 to prevent the sun-rising. 
 
 Pise. Sir, my fortune has answered my desires, and 
 my purpose is to bestow a day or two in helping to 
 
 (1) Sir Henry Ctmunry, in --peaking of this gentleman, says, that " he delimited 
 much in Hawking and Hunting, and the pleasures of a couutry life ; was famous 
 for bis noble table, his pieat hospitality to his neighbours, and his abundant cha- 
 rity to the poor: and. after h* had lived to a great age, died on the twelfth day 
 of February, 1660, without issue; whereupon this manor descended to Walter 
 Lord Aston, the son and heir of Gertrude his sister." Hittor. Antiq. of 
 Hcrtf. p. 219 *. 
 
CHAP. I. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 3 
 
 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 breed of these 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. 
 
 Pise. 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 ? 
 
 Pise. I am, Sir, a Brother of the Angle, and there- 
 fore an enemy to the Otter : for you a/e 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, it is such a heavy, 
 contemptible, dull recreation. 
 
 Pise. You know, Gentlemen, it is an easy thing to 
 scoff at any art or recreation ; a little wit mixed with ill- 
 nature, confidence, and malice, will do it; but though 
 they often venture boldly, yet they are often caught, 
 even in their own trap, according to that of Lucian, 
 the father of the family of Scoffers. 
 
 Luciau, 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 
 
4 THE COMPLETE AWOLER. PART. I. 
 
 they are an abomination to mankind, let him that 
 thinks fit scoff on, and be a Scoffer still ; but I account 
 them enemies to me and 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, 
 whom we contemn and pity. Men that are taken to be 
 grave, because nature hath made them of a sour com- 
 plexion; 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 Ang- 
 lers 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 ingenious Mon- 
 taigne 1 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 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 ; which I may again tell you, 
 
 (1) In Apol. for Ralm. de Sebonde. 
 
CHAP. I. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 5 
 
 is so full of pleasure, that we need not borrow their 
 thoughts, to think ourselves happy. 
 
 Yen-, 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. 
 
 Pise. Sir, I hope you will not judge my earnestness to 
 be impatience : and for my simplicity, if by that you mean 
 a harmlessness, 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 Lord- 
 ship 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 spoke 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 commen- 
 
THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART 1. 
 
 dation 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 con- 
 cerning 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. 
 
 And first, for the Element that I use 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 ; there- 
 fore I think my Eagle is so justly styled 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 Dsedalus, 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 highway 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 
 
CHAP. 1. THE COMPLETE 
 
 accept of meat from my hand, to own me for her Master f 
 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 its 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, 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. 
 
 Nay more, the very birds of the air, those that be not 
 Hawks, are both so many and so useful and pleasant to 
 mankind, 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 hea- 
 venly voices: 1 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 
 
 (1) To these particulars may be added. That the Kings of Persia were wont 
 to hawk alter Butterflies with Sparrows and SUies, or Starlings, trained for the 
 purpose. Burton o.i Melancholy, l6M,p. COB, from the relations of Sir An- 
 thony Shirley. And we are also lo'd, that M. de Luisnes (afterwards Prime 
 Minister of Trance,) in the uonage of Lewis XIII. gained much upon him bj 
 milking Hawks catch little Birds, and by mukinj some of those little Birds again 
 catch Butterflies. Lift qfLord Herbert of Cherbury, p. IS*. 
 
THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART 1. 
 
 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 Blackbird and Thrassel with their melo- 
 dious 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 par- 
 ticular 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 instru- 
 mental throat, that it might make mankind to think mira- 
 cles are not ceased. He that at midnight, when the 
 very labourer sleeps securely, should hear, as I have 
 rery 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 Hea- 
 ven, 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 for his 
 Aviarie, 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. 
 
 This for the birds of pleasure, of which very much 
 more might be said. My next shall be of birds of political 
 
CHAP. I. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 9 
 
 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 it was, Pigeons are then 
 related to carry and recarry letters : And Mr. G. San- 
 dys, 1 in his Travels, relates it to be done betwixt Aleppo 
 and Babylon. 2 But if that be disbelieved, it is 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 ap- 
 peared 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, 1 Kings, xvii. 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. 8 And, to con- 
 
 (1) Mr. George Sandys, a very pious, learned, and accomplished gentleman. 
 was the youngest son of Dr. Edwin Sandys, Abp. of York. He published his 
 Travel* to the Holy Land, Egypt, and elsewhere, in folio, 1' 15 ; and made 
 an excellent Paraphrase on the Pnalitw, Canticle*, and Ecclcsiastes, in verse ; 
 and also translated Ovid's tlctamorphote*. He was one of the best versifiers 
 of thtt age, and died in id*'.'. 
 
 (2) " A thing usual it is betweene Tripoly and Aleppo, as betweene Aleppo 
 And Babylon, to make tame Doves the speedy transporters of their Le:iers; 
 which they wnp about their legs like jesses, trained thereunto at such time 
 i they have youn* ones, by bearing them from them in open cages. A fowle 
 of a notable memory. Nor is it a modern* invention. For we reade that 
 Thauronhoiies, by a pigeon stained with purple, gave notice of his victory at 
 the Olimpian games the selfe same day to his father in gina. By which 
 me* UPS also the Con-ul Hircus held intelligence with Decimus Brutus be- 
 sieged in Mutina. The like perhaps is meant by the Poet, when he saith 
 
 * Tanquam 8 divcrtis partibus Orbis 
 Ami- praecip.ti veoisset Epistolu prima.' Juv. Sat. c. 
 As if from pans removed farre, from some 
 A wofull Letter twiftly winged should come. 
 
 When the Christians besieged Acre, Saladine sent out one of these winged 
 scouts to confirm the courages of the besieged, with promise of a speedy re- 
 liefer when 1 know not by what chance or policy, intercepted, and furnished 
 with a contrary message, occasioned * sodaine surrender." Sandy*' Travel*, 
 fol. Land. J615. p. 209. 
 
 (3) Walton here mistakes the sease of two passes in Scripture, vis. Matt. iii. 
 16. and Luke iii. 22. in which the baptism of our Lord is related. The Mean- 
 
10 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I, 
 
 dude 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 Govern- 
 ment of their own commonwealth, 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; 1 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 natiom 
 
 The Gerfalcon and Jerkin, 
 
 The Falcon and Tassel-gentel, 
 
 The Laner and Laneret, 
 
 The Bockerel and Bockeret, 
 
 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, 
 
 ing of both is. that the Holy Spirit descended, as a Dore uses to descend upon 
 any U.inc, hovering, aod overshadowing it. Virfe Whit^y on Luke in. 22. 
 Dr. Hammond oo the passage, >nd lip. Taylor's Ductor Dubitantium, 254. 
 
 (1) See the Feminine Monarchy ; or Hutory of Beet, by Charles Butler, 
 4to. 1634. 
 
CHAP. I. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 11 
 
 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. 1 
 
 Gentlemen, if I should enlarge my discourse to the 
 observation 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 renovation of their feathers : their re- 
 claiming, dieting, and then come to their rare stories 
 of practice; 1 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 intreat you, Mr. Venator, to say what you are 
 able in the commendation 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. 
 
 Yen. 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, whole- 
 some, hungry trade. The Earth is a solid, settled ele- 
 ment; 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, plea- 
 
 (I) See Turbenrille, Latham, mnd Markham, on Falconry. 
 
12 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 sant 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 Fichat, the Fulimart, 1 the Ferret, the Pole-cat, the 
 Mouldwarp, 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 phy- 
 sic and the pleasure of mankind; and above all, to me 
 at least, the fruitful vine, of which when I drink mode- 
 rately, it clears my brain, chears my heart, and shar- 
 pens my wit. How could Cleopatra have feasted Mark 
 Antony with eight Wild Boars roasted whole at one sup- 
 per, 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 sum- 
 mer 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 commenda- 
 tions of the earth? That puts limits to the proud and 
 raging sea, and by that means preserves both mari and 
 beast, that it destroys them not, as we see it daily doth 
 
 (I) Dr. Skinner, in hit Etymologicon Lingua Anglicana, Lond. fol. 1fi~I, 
 voce. " Fulimart," gives us to understand, that tliis word is Vox qua, nus- 
 quantj *.m in libra the " Complete Angler," dicto occurrit. Upon which it 
 uy be observed, that Dame Juliana Barnes, io her Book of Hunting, ranks 
 the Fulmarde among the beasts of chace; and that both in the Dii.iior.tny of 
 Dr. Adam Littleton, and that of Phillips, entitled the World of Words, it 
 occurs: the first renders it Putorius, mus Punticus ; the latter a kind of 
 Polecat. In Jooius it is Fullmer, and said to be idtm quod Polecat ; but 
 in this interpretation they seem all to be mistaken, fur Wallou here mentions 
 the Polecat by name, as does also Dame Juliana Burnes in her book. 
 
CHAP. I. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 13 
 
 those that venture upon the sea, and are there ship- 
 wrecked, 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 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 in- 
 struments ! 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 lan- 
 guage and meaning of one another, as perfectly as we 
 know the voices of those with whom we discourse daily. 
 
 I might enlarge myself in the commendation of Hunt- 
 ing, 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 com- 
 pleteness and understanding of man ; especially of those 
 
14 
 
 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I, 
 
 creatures, which Moses m the Law permitted to the Jews, 
 which have cloven hoofs, and chew the cud; which 
 I shall forbear to name, because I will not be so un- 
 civil to Mr. Piscator, as not to allow him a time for 
 the commendation of Angling, which he calls an art; but 
 doubtless it is an easy, one : and Mr. Auceps, I doubt 
 we shall hear a watery discourse of it, but I hope it 
 will not be a long one. 
 
 Auc. And I hope so too, though I fear it will. 
 
 Pise. Gentlemen, let not prejudice prepossess you. 
 I confess 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 pro- 
 test 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 water is the eldest daughter of the creation, the ele- 
 ment upon which the spirit of God did first move, the 
 element which God commanded to bring forth living crea- 
 tures abundantly ; and without which, those that inhabit 
 the land, even all creatures that have breath in their nos- 
 trils, must suddenly return to putrefaction. Moses, the 
 great lawgiver 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 
 
CHAP. I. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 15 
 
 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 to- 
 gether exactly when the tree begins to grow, and then 
 weigh all together after the tree is increased from its 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 drachm 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 vege- 
 table. And this I take to be a fair testimony of the excel- 
 lency 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 advantageous to man, not only for the lengthen- 
 ing of his life, but for preventing of sickness ; for it is 
 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 col- 
 
16 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. FART I. 
 
 leges, for which we should be ashamed, hath doubtless 
 been the chief cause of those many putrid, shaking, inter- 
 mitting agues, unto which this nation of ours is now more 
 subject, than those wiser countries that feed on herbs, 
 sallets, 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 of fish. The Romans, in the height of 
 their glory, have made fish the mistress of all their enter- 
 tainments ; they have had music to usher in their Stur- 
 geons, Lampreys, and Mullets, which they would pur- 
 chase at rates rather to be wondered at than believed. He 
 that shall view the writings of Macrobius, 1 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 con- 
 fess I may easily do in this philosophical discourse ; I met 
 with most of it very lately, and I hope happily, in a confer- 
 ence with a most learned physician, Dr. Wharton, a dear 
 friend, that loves both me and my art of angling. But, 
 however, I will wade no deeper in these mysterious argu- 
 ments, but pass to such observations as I can manage 
 with more pleasure, and less fear of running into error. 
 
 (1) Anrelin* Macrobius, a learned writer of the fourlh century; he was 
 chamber l*in to the Emperor Theodosius. Fabricius makes it a question whether 
 he was a Christian or a Pagan. His works sre A Commentary on the Somnium 
 Scipionit of Cicero, in two books ; aud Saturnalia Convivia, in seven. Besides 
 these, be wa the Author of many, whirh are lost. 
 
 () Marcus Terentius Varro, a most learned Roman, contemporary with 
 Cicero, and author, as it is said, of near fire hundred volumes. He is one of 
 the best writers on agriculture. 
 
CPIAP. I THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 17 
 
 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 observations 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 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 consideration ! 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 Ipve 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 made in honour of his memory ! nay, to see the 
 very place in which St. Peter ' and he lie buried together ! 
 
 (1) The Protestants deny, not only that Si. Peter lies buried in the Vatican, 
 as the Romish writers assert, but that he ever wa at Rome. See the Hmturiu 
 Apostolica of Lud. Capellus. The sense of the Protestants on this point is 
 expressed in the following epigiam, alluding to the praenomen of Peter. 
 "Simon," and to the simony pucusrd in that city : 
 
 An I'etrus fueritt Roma, sub judice lis est, 
 Simonem Roma nemo fuisse negat. 
 
 Many that " /\er neVr saw Romt" declare. 
 But all roust own that Simon hath been there. 
 
 Of which that may be observed which I have heard said of libels, " the more 
 true the more provoking ;" and tUis the author. John Owen, the famous epigram- 
 
THE, COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 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, Jeru- 
 salem, 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. 
 
 Pise. 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 
 
 matist, found to his cost; for his uncle, a Papist, was so stung by these lines, 
 that, in revenge, he disinherited him, and doomed him to extreme poverty the 
 remainder of his life. Athen. Oxon. Vol. I. 471. The Romanists have also 
 taken thir revenge on the book that contains them, by inserting it in their 
 Index Erpurgatorint. Ibid. 
 
CHAP. I. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 19 
 
 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. 
 
 Pis. Sir, I did say so : and I doubt not but if you and T 
 did converse together but a few hours, to leave you pos- 
 sessed 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. 
 
 Yen. Pray, Sir, speak of them what you think fit, for 
 we have yet five miles to the Thatch'd-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 1 
 may become your scholar, and be instructed in the art 
 itself which you so much magnify. 
 
 Pise. O, Sir, doubt riot 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; 1 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, whe- 
 ther you be capable of learning it? for angling is. somewhat 
 like poetry, men are to be born so : I mean, with inclina- 
 tions to it, though both may be heightened by discourse 
 and practice : but he that hopes to be a good angler, must 
 lot only bring an inquiring, searching, observing wit, but 
 e must bring a large measure of hope and patience, and a 
 
 (1) This is m mistake : it was Auceps, and not Senator, that named the 
 awks; ana Auceps had before taken his leave of these his companions. 
 
20 THE COMPLETE AN3JLER. PART I. 
 
 love and propensity to the art itself; 1 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. 
 
 Yen. Sir, I am now become so full of expectation, 
 that I long much to have you proceed, and in the order 
 that you propose. 
 
 Pise. 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 Bclus, 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 
 
 (I) Haikham, in his Country Contentments, has a whole chapter on the sub- 
 ject of the Angler'* Apparel, and inward qualities ; some of which are, " Tint 
 he be a general scholar, and seen in all the liberal sciences; as a gt n/nmarian, 
 to know how to write, or discourse, of his art in true and fitting terms. He 
 should," says he, " have twcttneuofipeech, lo entice others to delight in an 
 exercise s > much laudable. He should have strength of argument, to defend 
 and maintain bit profession against envy and slander." Thou seest, reader, how 
 easily the author has 'dispatched Grammar, Rhetoric, and Logic, three of the 
 liberal sciences ; and his reasons are not a whit less convincing, with respect to 
 the other four. 
 
 A man would think, now. that with proper baits, good tackle in his pannier, 
 and so much science in his head, our angler would stand a pretty cood chance 
 to catch fish; but, alas ! those are little to the purpose, without the Christian 
 virtues of faith, hope, and charity; and unless two at least of the cardinal 
 virtues can be persuaded to go a-fithiog, the angler may as well stay at home; 
 for hear what Mr. Markham says as to fortitude; " Then must he be strong 
 and valiant; neither to be amazed with storms, nor affrighted with thunder: 
 and if he is not temperate, but has a gnawing stomach that will not endure 
 much fasting, but must observe hours; it troubleth the mind and body, and 
 loseth that delight which maketh the pastime only pleasing." 
 
 There is no doubt but Walton had this chapter of Markham in his eye; and as 
 there is a humorous solemnity in thus attempting to dignify an art, which surely 
 borrows as little of its perfections from learning as any that is practised, it was 
 thought it might divert the reader to quote it. 
 
CHAP. I. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 2] 
 
 by God's appointment or allowance, and his noble in- 
 dustry, 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 have 
 been written 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 of riches, or, wanting those virtues my- 
 self, boast that these were in my ancestors ; (and yet I 
 grant, that where a noble and ancient descent and such 
 merit 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 com- 
 mendation which I think it deserves. 
 
 And for that, I shall tell you, that in ancient times 
 a debate 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 
 
THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 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 ap- 
 plication 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 human 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, 
 ingenious, 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 contemplation, but will invite an angler to it ; 
 and this seems to be maintained by the learned Peter du 
 Moulin, 1 who, in his discourse of the fulfilling of Prophe- 
 cies, 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 cf the world, he might settle 
 
 (I) Dr. Peter du Moulin, Prel>em<ary of Canterbury, and author of several 
 piece* in the Romish controversy. 
 
CHAP. I. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 23 
 
 their mind in a quiet repose, and there make them fit for 
 revelation. 
 
 And this seems also to be intimated by the children of 
 Israel, (Ps. 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 1 says, that " rivers and 
 the inhabitants of the watery element were made for wise 
 men to contemplate, and fools to pass by without con- 
 sideration." 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 sate 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 
 
 (1) It has been said that the person here meant was John Valdtsw, mention- 
 ed in the Life of Walton preceding, and that the passage in the text occurs in 
 his Considerations ; but upon a careful perusal of that book for the purpose, no 
 such sentiment has been found. 
 
24 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 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, Jhat 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 its wonted calmness 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 thereabout 
 boast as the Spaniards do of their river Anus, that they 
 feed divers flocks 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 inns 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 philo- 
 sopher says, in the third chapter of his ninth book, that 
 in the Indian Sea, the fish called Balcena 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 feet long. He says there, that 
 these monsters appear in that sea, only when the tempes- 
 tuous 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 
 
CHAP. I. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 25 
 
 there are sometimes a thousand of these great Eels found 
 wrapt, 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 use 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 concern- 
 ing the dolphin, and other fish, as may be found also in 
 the 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 
 new seen, many collected by John Tradescant, 2 and others 
 
 (1) Meric, *ou of Isaac Caiaubon, horn at Geneva in. 15Q9. but educated at 
 Oxford, was, for his great learning, preferred to a Prebend in the Cathedral of 
 Canterbury, and the Rectory of Ickham near that city. Oliver Cromwell would 
 have engaged him, by a pension of 300/. a year, to write tht history of his time, 
 hut Catauboo refused it. Of many books extant of his writing, that mentioned 
 iu the text is one. He dird in 1(571, leaving behind him the character of a reli- 
 gious man, loyal to his Prince, exemplary iu his life and conversation, and very 
 charitable to the poor. Athen. Oxon. Vol. II. 485, edit. 1721. 
 
 (2) There were, it teems, three of the Tradttcantt, grandfather, father, and 
 son : the son is the person here meant : the two former were Gardeners to Queen 
 Elizabeth, and the latter to King Charles the First. They were all great bota- 
 nists, and collectors of natural and other curiosities, and dwelt at South Lam- 
 beth, in Surrey ; and dying there, were buried in Lambeth Church-yard. Mr. 
 Ashmole contracted an acquaintance with the last of them, and, together with 
 his wife, boarded at his house for a summer, during which Ashmole agreed for 
 the purchase of Tradescant s collection, and the same was conveyed to him by 
 a deed of gift from Tradr scant and his wife. Tradescant soon after died, and 
 Ashmole was obliged to file a bill in Chancery for the delivery of the curiosi- 
 ties, and succeeded in his suit. Mrs. Tradescaat. shortly after the pronouncing 
 the decree, was found drowned in her pond. This collection, with what additions 
 he afterwards mde to it, Mr. Ashmole gave to the University of Oxford, and 
 so became the Founder of the Athmolean Museum. A monument for the three 
 Tradescants, very curiously ornamented with sculptures, is to be seen in Lam- 
 beth Church-yard ; aud a representation thereof, in four plates, and also some 
 particulars of the family, are given in the Philosophical Transactions, Volume 
 LXII1. Part I. p. 79, <-t ttq. The monument, by the contribution of some 
 friends to their memory, was, in the year 1773, repaired ; and the following Line*, 
 formerly intended for an epitaph, inserted thereon : 
 
 Know, stranger ! ere thou pass, beneath this stone 
 Lies John Tradcscuiit, graudsire, father, son. 
 The last dy'd in his spring: the other two 
 Liv'd till they had travell'd art and nature thro'; 
 As by their choice collections m?.y appear, 
 Of what is rare in land, in seas, in air; 
 
26 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 added by my friend Elias Ashmole, Esq. who now keeps 
 them carefully and methodically at his house near to 
 Lambeth, near London, 1 as may get some belief of some 
 of the other wonders I mentioned. 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 Cony-fish, the Parrot-fish, the Shark, the 
 Poison-fish, Sword-fish, and not only other incredible^//, 
 but you may there see the Salamander, several sorts of 
 Barnacles, of Solan-Geese, the Bird of Paradise, such 
 sorts of Snakes, and such 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 
 
 Whilst they (as Homer'* Iliad, in nut) 
 A world of wonders iu one cloiri shut. 
 Thrie famous Antiquarians that had torn. 
 Both Gardeuers to the Rose and Lilly Quern 
 Transplanted now themselves, slrep here. And when 
 Angels shall with their trumpets wttkei) meu, 
 And fire shall purse the world, these hence shall rise. 
 And change their gardens for a Paradise. 
 
 The Tradescmitt were the first collectors of natural curiosities in this king- 
 dom; Ashmole, and Sii Ilitni Sloane, were the next; the generous spirit of 
 lhe*e per-on seems to haw been transfused into, and at present (J78I) t<> reside 
 in. a private Gealleonu of unbounded curiosity and li!>Tdlity. Sir Ashton 
 Lever; whose collections, lor beauty, vmiety. and copiousness, exceed all 
 description, and surpass every thing of the kind iu the known world. Hawkins. 
 
 After Sir Ash ion Lever's deth, this collection WHS iinpo:ed of by lottery, and 
 came into the bands of Mi. Paikinson, who, (iu lUrf)) sold the whole, in 
 separate lots, by pnMic auction. 
 
 (1) Ashmole was, at first, a Solicitor in Chancery : but marrying a lady with :< 
 large fortune, and being well skilled in history and antiquities, he was promoted 
 lo the office of Windsor Herald, and wrote the History of the Order of 
 tkc Garter, published in 167?. iu folio. But addicting himself to the then 
 fashionable studies of chemistry and judicial astrology ; and *s-ociating himself 
 with that silly, crack-brained enthusiast, J ,hn Aubrey, Esq of Surrey, and that 
 egregious impostor, Lilly the Astrologer, he became a dupe to the knavery of 
 the one, and the follies of both; and lost in a great measure the reputation he 
 had acquired by this, and other of his wiitings. Of his weakness and supersti- 
 tion, he has left on record this memorable instance: "llth Apiil, lfi8l. I took, 
 early in the morning, a good dose of elixir, and hung three spiders about my 
 neck; and they drove my ague away. Deogratiai." See Memoirs of the Life 
 of that Antiquarian, Eliot Ashmole, Etg. drawn up by himself by way of 
 diary, published by Charles Burman, Esq. IC.no. 1717. 
 
CHAP. I. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 27 
 
 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 l them. 
 
 We all acknowledge both thy power and love 
 To be exact, transcendant, and divine ; 
 Who dost so strangely and so sweetly move. 
 Whilst all things have their end, yet none but thine- . 
 
 Wherefore, most sacied 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 amaze- 
 ment of a contemplative reader, concerning the sea, the 
 rivers, and the fish therein contained! 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 crea- 
 tures inhabiting both in and about that element ; as to 
 the readers of Gesner, 2 Rondeletius, 3 Pliny, Ausonius, 4 
 
 (1) Equivalent to whom they are owing. 
 
 (2) Conrade Gesner, an eminent physician and naturalist, was born at Zurich 
 in 1515. His skill in botany ad natural history was such as procured him the 
 appellation of the Pliny qf Germany : and Beia, who knew him, scruples not to 
 assert, that he concentered in himself the learning of Pliny and Varro. Nor 
 was he more distinguished for his learning, than esteemed and beloved for that 
 probity and sweetness of manners, which rendered him conspicuous through the 
 course of his life. 
 
 (3) Guillaume Rondelel, an eminent physician, born at Montpelier in Lan- 
 guedoc, 1507. He wrote several books; and a treatise De Piscibus marinis, 
 where all that Walton has taken from him is to be found. He died very poor 
 of surfeit, occasioned by eating figs to excess, in 1566. 
 
 (4) Decitu Ausoniiu, a native of Bourdeaux ; was a Latin Poet, Consul of 
 Rome, and Preceptor to the Emperor Gratiaa. He died about 3QO. 
 
28 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PARTI. 
 
 Aristotle, and others, may be demonstrated. But I will 
 DM Barttu, in sweeten this discourse also out of a con- 
 templation in divine Du Bartas, 1 who says : 
 
 God quickened in the sen, and in the rivers, 
 So many fishes of so many features, 
 That in the waters we may see all creatures, 
 Even all that on the earth are to be found, 
 As if the world were in deep waters drowu'd. 
 - For seas a* well as skies have Sun, Moon, Stars ; 
 As well as air Swallows, Rooks, and Stares ; a 
 As well as earth Vines, Roses, Nettles. Melons, 
 Mushrooms, Pinks, Gilliflowers, and many millions 
 Of other plants, more rare, mure strange than tfisse, 
 As very fishes, living in the sea; 
 As also Rams, Calves, Horses. Hares, and Hog*, 
 Wolves. Urchins, Lions, Elephtnis, and Dogs; 
 Tea men and maids; and, which I most admire, 
 The mitred Bishop and the cowled Friar ;l 
 Of which, examples, bat a few years since, 
 Were shewn the Norway and Polonun prince. 
 
 O) Gitillaume tie Salutte, Sieur du Bartas, was a poet of great reputation in 
 Walton's time. He wrote, in French, a poem called Divine Weeks and Works: 
 whence the p*ssge in the text, and m<ny others cited in this work, are extracted. 
 This, with his oilier delightful works, was translated into English by Joshua 
 Sylvester. 
 
 (<) Or Starling*- Minsheu. 
 
 (3) This story of the Bishop-fish is told by Roodelettus, and vouched by Bel- 
 looius. Without taking much pains in the translation, it is as follows: " In 
 the year 1511, a fish was taken in Polonia, that represented a bishop. He 
 was brought to the king ; but seeming to desire to return to his own element, 
 the king commanded him to be carried back to the sea, into which he imme- 
 diately threw himself." Rondeletius had before related the story of a Monk- 
 fish, which is what Du Bartas means by the " cowled Friar." The reader 
 may see the portraits of these wonderful personages in Rwdclrtiwi; or, in the 
 Pasthumou$ Work* of tie tevereud and learned Mr. John Giegory, iu 4to. 
 Lond. 1663, pge ICl, 1i2, where they are exhibited. 
 
 Stow, in his AnnaU, p. 157, from the Chronicle of Radulphus Coggeshale, 
 gives the following relation of a tea-monster, uken on the coau or Suffolk, 
 temp. Hen. II. 
 
 " Near* onto Orford in Suffolk, certaine fishers of the sea tooke in their nets 
 a fish, having the shape of a man in all points : which fish was kept by Bar- 
 tlemew de Glaunville, cuttm of the castle of Orford, in the same castle, by 
 the space of six moneths ad more, for a wonder. He spake not a word. 
 All manner of meates he did eate, but most gieedily raw fish, after he had 
 crushed out the moisture. Oftentimes, he was brought to the church, where 
 he shewed no token* of adoration." " At length," says this author, " when 
 be was not well looked to, he stole away to the sea, and never after appeared." 
 The wisdom of these fishermen io taking the monster to church, calls to re- 
 membrance many instances of similar sagacity recorded of the wise men of 
 Gotham. Finding him so indevout, we may suppose them to have been ready 
 to exclaim with Caliban, in the Tempest, 
 
 " By this good light, a very shallow monster!" 
 
CHAP. I. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 29 
 
 These seem to be wonders; but have had so many 
 confirmations 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 con- 
 templation, 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 in again at her pleasure, according as she 
 sees some little fish come near to her; and 
 
 the Cuttle-fish,* being then hid in the gra- * Mont - 
 
 and others af- 
 
 vel, lets the smaller fish nibble and bite firm tins. 
 
 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 cer- 
 tain 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 yElian, 1 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 truly, 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 
 
 (1) CUiudiut JEliunus was burn at Praeue(e iu Italy, in the reign of the Em- 
 peror Adrian. He wrote De Animalium KaturA, and On Martial Diteiplinc. 
 
30 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 Sargus; which, because none can express it better than 
 he does, I shall 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 u-n suffice his ranging appetite, 
 
 Oor courting she-goats on the grassy shore. 
 
 Horning their husbands that had horns before. 
 
 And the same Author writes concerning the Can- 
 tharus, that which you shall also hear in his own words : 
 
 But, contrary, the constant Cautharus 
 Is ever constant to his faithful spouse ; 
 In nuptial duties, spending his chaxte life; 
 Mever loves any but his own dear wife. 
 
 Sir, but a little longer, and I have done. 
 
 Yen. Sir, take what liberty you think fit, for your 
 discourse seems to be music, and charms me to an 
 attention. 
 
 PMC. Why then, Sir, I will take a 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 outlive 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. 1 
 
 (1) Of Steam, it is also said, that, if either of a pair die, or be otherwise 
 separated from its mate, the other does not long survive; and that it is 
 chiefly for this reason, that the stealing of Swans is by our law made penal ; 
 so as that, *' He who stealeth a Swan in an open and common river, lawfully 
 marked ; the same Swan shall be hung in H house by the beak; and he who 
 stole it shall, in recompence thereof, give to the owner so much wheat as 
 may cover nil the Swan, by putting and turning the wheat npon the head of 
 the Swan, until the head of the Swan be covered with wheat." Coke's Rc- 
 portt. Part VII. The case of Swans. 
 
CHAP. I. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 31 
 
 And to parallel this land-rarity, and teach mankind 
 moral faithfulness, and to condemn those that talk of re- 
 ligion, and yet come short of the moral faith offish and 
 fowl, men that violate the law affirmed by St. Paul, 
 (Rom. ii. 14, 15,) to be writ in their hearts, and which, 
 he says, shall at the Last Day condemn and leave 
 them without excuse I pray hearken to 
 what Du Bartas sings, for the hearing of fiflh d * 
 such conjugal faithfulness will be music 
 to all chaste ears, and therefore 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, 1 
 As mad with wo, to shore she followeth, 
 Prest* to consort him, both in life and death. 
 
 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 cherish his own brood, but is senseless, though 
 they perish. And it is 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 im- 
 pression 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, Matt, 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 un- 
 covered, and exposed to become a prey and be devoured 
 by vermin or other fishes. But other fishes, as namely 
 
 (1) Or Fellow ; so Bed-pheer, Bed-fellow. 
 
 (2) Prcrt, from the French prCt, Lat. paratus, ready, prepared. So Psalm 
 104. old version : 
 
 lie make'lj his spirites as heralds to go, 
 And lightnings, to serve, we see alsoprejf. 
 Vide GLOSSARY to Robtrt of Gloucester mid to Peter Langtoft. edit. Hearne 
 
THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 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 contemplation of a 
 most serious and a most pious man. And, doubtless, 
 this made the prophet David say, " 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 Jit for the contem- 
 plation 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 unbeliev- 
 ing Jews; and, themselves to suffer for that Saviour 
 whom their forefathers and they had crucified; and, in 
 their sufferings, to preach freedom from the incum- 
 brances of the law, and a new way to everlasting life : 
 this was the employment of these happy fishermen. Con- 
 cerning which choice, some have made these observations : 
 First, that he never reproved these, for their employ- 
 ment or calling, as he did the Scribes and the Money- 
 changers. And secondly, he found that the hearts of 
 
CHAP. I. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 3S 
 
 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 irreproveable em- 
 ployment of fishing, and gave them grace to be his dis- 
 ciples, 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 
 (Matt, x.): 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 fisher- 
 men. 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 resurrection, as it is recorded in the 21st 
 chapter of St. John's gospel. 
 
 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 ingenious 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 amorous ; and after, 
 by God's appointment, wrote that Spiritual dialogue, or 
 
34 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 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 con- 
 trary, 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. 1 
 
 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 com- 
 pare it with the high, glorious, eloquent style of the pro- 
 phet 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 lan- 
 guage and high metaphors of St. Paul, who we may 
 believe was not. 
 
 And for the lawfulness of fishing : it may very well be 
 
 (1) Walton was a good Scripturist, and therefore can hardly be supposed to 
 have been ignorant of the passage in Isaiah, chap. xix. 8. " The fishers shall 
 mourn, and all they that cast angle upon the brooks shall lament, and they that 
 spread nets upon the water* sh*ll languish." Which words as they do but 
 imply the use of fish-hooks, he might think not directly to his purpose; but in 
 the translation of the above prophet by the learned Bishop Louth, who himself 
 assorts me that the word hook is truly rendered, the passage stands thus: 
 
 " And the fishers shall mourn and lament; 
 All those that cast the hook in the river, 
 Aad those that spread nets on the face of the waters shall languish." 
 
 The following passage Walton srems likewise to have forgotten when he 
 wrote die above, unless the reason before assigned induced him to reject it : 
 They take op all of them with the angle, they catch them in their net, and 
 gather then to their drag, therefore they rejoice and are glad." llabukkuk, 
 rhap. i. v. 15. 
 
CHAP. I. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 35 
 
 maintained 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, 1 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. 2 And let 
 me tell you, that in the Scripture, Angling is always taken 
 in the best sense ; and that though hunting may be some- 
 times so taken, yet it is but seldom to be so understood. 
 
 (1) A traveller, whose veracity Is much questioned. 
 
 (2) I must here to far differ from my author, as to say, that if Angling was 
 not contemptible in the day* of Mark Antony and Cleopatra, that illustrious 
 prostitute endeavoured to make it so. The fact related by Plutarch is the 
 following : 
 
 " It would be very tedious and trifling to recount all his follies : hut his fish- 
 ing must not be forgot. He went out one day to angle with Cleopatra ; and 
 bring so unfortunate as to catch nothing in the presence of his mistress, he was 
 very much vexed, and gave secrei orders to the 6shermen to dive under water, 
 and put fishes that had been fresh taken upon his hook. After he had drawn 
 op two or three, Cleopatra perceived tiie trick ; she pretended, however, to be 
 surprised at his good fortune and dexterity ; told it to all her friends, and in. 
 vited them to come and see htm fish the next day. Accordingly, a very large 
 company went out in the fishing vessels ; and as soon as Autony had let down 
 his line, she commanded one of her servants to be before-hand with Antony's, 
 and, diving into the water, to fix upon his hook a salted fish, one of those which 
 were brought from the Luiinc Sta." 
 
 The story here told affords matter of serious reflection. Behold here, two 
 persons of the highest rank, who had exhausted all the sources of delight, their 
 appetites palled, aud every gratification rendered tasteless, stooping to partake 
 of the recreations of the humbler kind, and, of tyrants, and persecutors of 
 their fellow-creatures, to become the deceivers of silly fish, aud of each other. 
 Doubtless we may suppose that long before, the tragical end, which they seve- 
 rally made, of a profligate and wicked life, they were grown tired aud sick of 
 the world ; and had frequent occasion to exclaim, and that with greater reason 
 than their Predecessor in worldly glory, that all the pomp and spleudour of 
 dominion, all the pomp aud authority resulting from regal grandeur, all am. 
 bilious enterprises, all merely human projects, pursuits, and pleasures, without 
 a tranquil and composed mind, such as Cod vouchsafes only to the meek and 
 humble, are vanity and vexation of Spirit. 
 
 D2 
 
THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 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 clergymen, 
 as being a harmless recreation, a recreation that invites 
 them to contemplation and quietness. 
 
 f 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 
 Dr. Whitaker ' was ; as indeed many others of great learn- 
 ing have been. But I will content myself with two me- 
 morable men, that lived near to our own time, whom I 
 also take to have been ornaments to the art of Angling. 
 
 The first is Dr. Nowel, some time dean of the cathedral 
 church of St. Paul, in London, where his monu- 
 ment stands yet undefaced ;* a man that, in the 
 
 (I) William PerA-in* was a learned divine, and a pious and painful Preacher; 
 Dr. William Whitaker, an able writer in the Romish controversy, and Regius 
 Professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge. They both flourished at 
 the latter end of the sixteenth century. I remark the extreme caution of our 
 author in this passage ; for he says not of Perkins, as he does of Whitaker, 
 that he was a practiser of, but only that he bestows (in some of his writings we 
 mast conclude) great commendations on angling. Perkins had the misfortune 
 to want the use of his right hand ; as we find intimated in this distich on him ; 
 Dfitera quamtumvitfuerat tibi manca, docendi 
 
 Pollebat mir& derteritatc tamen. 
 Though Nature hath thee of thy right hand bereft, 
 Right well thou writest with thy hand that's left. 
 And therefore can hardly he supposed capable of even baiting his hook. 
 
 The Fact retpectiug Wbitaker is thus attested by Dr. Fuller, in his Holy 
 State, book iii. chap. IS. " Fishing with an angle is to some rather a torture 
 than a pleasure, to stand an hour as mute as the fish they mean to take ; yet 
 herewithal Dr. Whitaker was much delighted." 
 
 To these examples of divines, lover* of Angling, I here add (1784) that of Dr. 
 Leigh, the present Master of Baliol College, Oxford, who, though turned of 
 ninety, makes it the recreation of his vacant hours. 
 
 (2) Dr. Alexander Nowel, a learned divine, and a famous preacher in the 
 reign of King Edw. VI. ; upon whose death he, with many other Protestants, 
 fled to Germany, where he lived many years. In 156l he was made dean of 
 St. Paul's; and in ir}01 died. The monument mentioned in the text was un- 
 doubtedly consumed, with the church, in the fire of London; but the inscrip- 
 tion thereon is preserved in Stow's Survey, edit. 1633, page 3(te. See Athen. 
 Oron. 313. An engraving of the monument itself is in Dugdale's History of 
 St. PavPs Cathedral 
 
CHAP. I. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 37 
 
 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. 1 I say, this good 
 man was a dear lover and constant practiser of Angling, 
 
 (1) The question who was the compiler of oar church Catechism, must, I 
 fear, be reckoned among the dc\id*rttta of our ecclesiastical history. It is cer- 
 tain that Nortel drew up two catechisms, a greater and a less ; the latter in the 
 Title, as it stands in the English translation, expressly directed " to be learned 
 of all youth, next after the " little Catechisme appoynted in the Booke of 
 Common Prayer" But, besides that both were originally written in Latin, 
 and translated by other hands, the lesser, though declared to be an abridge- 
 ment of the greater, was at least twenty times longer than that in the Common- 
 Prayer Book. And whereas Walton says, that in the reformation of Elizabeth, 
 the then Parliament enjoined Nowel to make a Catechism, 4c. and that he 
 made that which is printed in our old Service-book; the catechism in question 
 is to be found in both the Liturgies olEdw. VI. (the first whereof was set forth 
 in 1549.) and also in his Primer, printed in 1552 ; and Nowel is not enumerat- 
 ed among the compilers of the Service-book Further, both the Catechisms of 
 Nowel contain the doctrine of the sactaments; but that in the old Service- 
 book is silent on that head, and so continued, till, upon an objection of the 
 Puritans in the conference at Hampton Court, an explanation of the sacraments 
 was drawn up by Dr. John Overall, and printed in the next impression of the 
 Book of Common Prayer. It may further be remarked, that in the conference 
 above mentioned, the two Catechisms are contra-distinguished, in an expression 
 of Dr. Reynolds; who objected, that the Catechitm in the Common- Prayer 
 Book was too brief ; and that by Dean Nowel. too long for novices to learn by 
 heart. See Fuller's Ch. Hist, book x. page 14. 
 
 So much of Walton's assertion as respects the sanction given to a catechism 
 of Newel's is true : but it was the larger catechism, drawn up at the request of 
 secretary Cecil, and other great persons, that was so approved, and that not by 
 Parliament, but by a Convocation held anno 156t, temp, Eliz. See Strype's 
 Life of Archbishop Parker, SOS. 
 
 From all which particulars it must be inferred, that Walton's assertion, with 
 respect to the Catcchitm in the Service- Book, i, e. the Book of Common Prayer, 
 is a mistake; and although Strype, in his Memorials, Vol. II. page *4, con- 
 cludes a catechism of Nowel's (mentioned in the said book, page 368, et in loc 
 cit.) to be the church Catechism joined, ordinarily, with our Common Prayer, 
 he also must have misunderstood the fact. 
 
THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 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 recrea- 
 tion that became a churchman. 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 picture he 
 is drawn, leaning on a desk, with his Bible before him ; 
 and on one hand of him, his lines, hooks, and other 
 tackling, lying in a round ; and, on his other hand, are 
 his Angle-rods of several sorts; 1 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 neither impaired his hearing, 
 
 (1) Puller, in his Worthies, (Lancashire, page 115.) has thought it worth 
 recording of this pious and learned divine, and that in language so very quaint 
 a* to be bat just intelligible, that he was accustomed to fish in the Thames ; 
 and having one dajjeft his bottle of ale in the grass, on the bank of the river, 
 he found it some days after, no bottle but a gun, such the sound at the open- 
 ing thereof. And hence, with what degree of sagacity let the reader deter- 
 mine, he seems to derive the original of bottled ale in England. Could he 
 have shewn that the bottle was of leather, it is odds but he had attributed to 
 him the invention of that noble vehicle, and made. 
 
 ^ his soul in heaven to dwell, 
 For first devising the leatharn bottel; 
 
 as, in a fit of maudlin devotion, sings the author of a humorous and well- 
 known old ballad. 
 
CHAP. I. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 39 
 
 nor dimmed his eyes, nor weakened his memory, nor made 
 any of the faculties of his mind weak or useless." It is 
 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 undervaluer of 
 money, the late provost of Eton College, Sir Henry 
 Wotton, 1 (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 convince 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, " it was an employment for 
 his idle time, which was not then idly spent; for Ang- 
 ling was, after a tedious study, a rest to his mind, a 
 cheerer of his spirits, a diverter of sadness, 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 
 
 (1) Of whom ee an account in the L\fe of Walton. 
 
40 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 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 : 
 
 Tliis day dame Nature seem'd in love; 
 
 The lusty sap began to move ; 
 
 Fresh juice did stir th* embracing Vine* ; 
 
 And birds bad drawn their Valentines. 
 
 The jealous Trout, that low did lie, 
 
 Rose at a well-dissembled flie ; 
 
 There stood my friend, with patient skill, 
 
 Attending of las trembling quill 
 
 Already were the eaves possest 
 
 With the swift Pilgrim'si daubed nest ; 
 
 The grove* already did rejoice, 
 
 In Philomel's triumphing voice 
 
 The showers were short, the weather mild, 
 
 The morning fresh, the evening smil'd. 
 
 Joan take* her neat-rubb'd pail, and now, 
 She trip* to milk the sand-red Cow; 
 Where, for some sturdy foot-ball swain, 
 Joan strokes a syllabub or twain. 
 The fields mod garden* were beset 
 With Tulips, Crocus. Violet : 
 And now, though late, the modest Rose 
 Did more than half a blush disclose. 
 
 Thus all look* gay, and full of cheer, 
 
 To welcome the new-livery'd year. 
 
 These were the thoughts that then possessed the 
 undisturbed 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 f 
 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 j 
 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 Field* and Meadows green may view, 
 And daily by fresh Rivers walk at will, 
 
 Among the Daises and the Violets blue, 
 Red Hyacinth, and yellow Daffodil, 
 
 Purple Narcissus like the morning rays, 
 
 Pale Gander-grass, and azure Culver-keyes. 
 
 (1) The Swallow. 
 
CHAP. I. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 41 
 
 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 wat'ry clouds that in the air up-roll'd 
 
 With sundry kinds of painted colours fly; 
 And fair Aurora, lifting up her head. 
 Still blushing, rise from old Tithouus' bed. 
 
 The hills and mountains raised from the plains, 
 The plains extended level with the ground ; 
 
 The grounds divided into sundry veins, 
 The veins enclosed 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 rivulet* 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 intennixt, with verdant grass between; 
 
 The silver-scaled fish that softly swim 
 
 Within the sweet brook's crystal, wat'ry stream. 
 
 All these, aud 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 Thatch* d-house. And I must 
 be your debtor, if you think it worth your attention, for 
 the rest of ray promised discourse, till some other oppor- 
 tunity, and a like time of leisure. 
 
 Ven. Sir, you have angled me on with much pleasure to 
 the Thatch* d-house; and I now find your words true, 
 " that 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 
 
42 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 at it, we'll turn into it, and refresh ourselves with a cup 
 of drink, and a little rest. 
 
 Pise. Most gladly, Sir, and we'll drink a civil cup to 
 all the Otter-hunters that are to meet you to-morrow. 
 
 Yen. 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 hunt- 
 ing 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. 
 
 Pise. It is a match, Sir, I will not fail you, God wil- 
 ling, to be at Amwell-hill to-morrow morning before sun- 
 rising. 
 
CHAP. II. THE COMPLETE ANGLE*. 43 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Observations cf the OTTER and CHUB. 
 
 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. 
 
 Pise. 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 us compliment no longer, but join unto them. 
 Come, honest Venator, let us be gone, let us make haste; 
 I long to be going; 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 is the skin worth? 
 
 Hunt. It is 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. 
 
THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 PMC. I pray, honest Huntsman, let me ask you a 
 pleasant question; do you hunt a beast or a fish? 
 
 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 differ 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 Camdcn 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. 
 
 Yen. 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 
 
CHAP. II. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 45 
 
 on this side again, I warrant you, and the Otter too, it 
 may be. Now have at him with Kilbuck, for he vents again. 
 
 Yen. Marry ! so he does ; for, look ! he vents in that 
 corner. Now, now, Ringwood has him : now, he is gone 
 again, and has bit the poor dog. Now Sweetlips has her; 
 hold her, Sweetlips ! now all the dogs have her ; some 
 above, and some under water : but now, now she is tired, 
 and past losing. Come bring her to me, Sweetlips. Look! 
 it is a Bitch-otter, and she has lately whelp'd. 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! here- 
 about it was that she kennelled ; look you ! here it was 
 indeed ! for here's her young ones, no less than five : 
 come, let us kill them all. 
 
 Pise. No : I pray, Sir, save me one, and I'll try if I can 
 make her tame, as I know an ingenious gentleman in 
 Leicestershire, Mr. Nick. 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'll bear your charges this night, and you 
 shall bear mine to-morrow* for my intention is to accom- 
 pany you a day or two in fishing. 
 
 Pise. 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. 
 
 Pise. Let's be going, with all my heart. God keep you 
 
46 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 all, Gentlemen ; and send you meet, this day, with an- 
 other Bitch-otter, and kill her merrily, and all her young 
 ones too. 
 
 yen. Now, Piscator, where will you begin to fish? 
 
 PMC. We are not yet come to a likely place; I must 
 walk a mile further yet before I begin. 
 
 Fen. 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 ? 
 
 Pise. 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 there are no more Otter- 
 killers ; for I know that the want of Otter-killers, and the 
 not keeping 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. 
 
 Fen. Why, Sir, what be those that you call the fence- 
 months? 
 
 Pise. 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 weirs 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 the I. and the like in Richard the III. may see 
 several provisions made against the destruction of fish : 
 and though I profess no knowledge of the law, yet I am 
 sure the regulation of these defects might be easily 
 mended. But I remember that a wise friend of mine did 
 
CHAP. II. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 47 
 
 usually say, " that which is every body's business is no- 
 body's business :" If it were otherwise, there could not be 
 so many nets and fish, that are under the statute size, 
 sold daily amongst us ; and of which the conservators of 
 the waters should be ashamed. 1 
 
 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 
 unnatural fishermen; as namely, the Otters that I spake 
 of, the Cormorant, the Bittern, the Osprey, the Sea-gull, 
 the Hern, the King-fisher, the Gorara, the Puet, the 
 Swan, Goose, Duck, 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 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 companion Unit 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 com- 
 panion should have his charges borne ; and to such com- 
 pany I hope to bring you this night ; for at Trout-hall, 
 
 (1) About the year 1770, upon the trial of an indictment before me atllicks's 
 Hall, a basket was produced in evidence, containing flounders that had been 
 taken with unlawful nets in the river Thames, so small that scarce any one of 
 them would cover a half-crown-piece. The indictment was, for an affray, and 
 an assault on a person authorized to seize unstatutable nets; and the sentence 
 of the offender, a year's imprisonment in Newgate. 
 
48 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I, 
 
 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. WelU 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 oue 
 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 consider- 
 ation of a wise man. But of this no more ; for though I 
 love civility, yet I hate severe censures. I'll 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. 
 
 Pise. 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, reckoned the worst of fish ; yet 
 you shall see Til make it a good fish by dressing it. 
 
 Ven. Why, how will you dress him ? 
 
 Pise. I'll tell you by and by, when I have caught him. 
 Look you here, Sir, do you see ? (but you must stand 
 
CHAP. II. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 49 
 
 very close,) there lie upon the top of the water, in this 
 very hole, twenty Chubs. I'll catch only one, and that 
 shall be the biggest of them all : and that I will do so, I'll 
 hold you twenty to one : and you shall see it done. 
 
 Ven. Ay, marry ! Sir, now you talk like an artist ; and 
 I'll say you are one, wheji I shall see you perform what 
 you say you can do : but I yet doubt it. 
 
 Pise. 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'll warrant you, I'll bring him to you. 
 
 Ven. I'll sit down, and hope well ; because you seem to 
 be so confident. 
 
 Pise. Look you, Sir, there is a trial of my skill; there 
 he is; that very Chub, that I shewed you, with the white 
 spot on his tail. And I'll 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. 1 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 morn- 
 ing, yet I begin to be weary ; yesterday's hunting hangs 
 still upon me. 
 
 Pise. Well, Sir, and you shall quickly be at rest ; for 
 yonder is the house I mean to bring you to. 
 
 (1) A very homely, artless, and yet a picturesque scene; and I wish the 
 honest angler no worse entertainment than many such houses as this afford. 
 
 E 
 
50 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 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 days ago? But you must do me one 
 courtesy, it must be done instantly. 
 
 //c>/. I will do it, Mr. Piscator, and with all the speed 
 I can. 
 
 Pise. Now, Sir, has not my hostess made haste? and 
 does not the fish look lovely? 
 
 Yen. Both, upon my word, Sir; and therefore let's 
 say grace and fall to eating of it. 
 
 Pise. Well, Sir, how* do you like it? 
 
 Yen. 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. 
 
 Pise. What is it, I pray, Sir? You are so modest, that 
 methinks I may promise to grant it before it is asked. 
 
 Yen. 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. 
 
 Pise. 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 some- 
 what 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* 
 
CHAP. HI. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 51 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 How to fish for, and to dress, the CH A VENDER or CHUB. 
 
 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; nevertheless 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 
 E 2 
 
5* THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I* 
 
 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 their sweetness,) you will find the Chub (being dressed 
 in the blood, and quickly) to be such meat as will recom- 
 pense 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 broil- 
 ing, 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 com- 
 mended so much. But note again, that if this Chub that 
 you eat 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 rlean, 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 particu- 
 lar 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 floating near the top of the water. Get 
 two or three grasshoppers as you go over the meadow : 
 
CHAP. III. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 53 
 
 and get secretly behind the tree, and stand as free from 
 motion as is possible. Then put a grasshopper 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 Chub is the fearfulest 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, 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 lea- 
 ther-mouthed fishes, of which a hook does scarce ever 
 lose its hold; and therefore give him play enough be- 
 fore 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. 
 
 Yen. Truly, my loving master, you have offered me as 
 fair as I could wish. I'll 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. 
 
 Pise. Marry, and I am glad of it: I am li) to have 
 a towardly scholar of you. I now see, that witti advice 
 and practice, you will make an Angler in a short time. 
 Have but a love to it; and I'll warrant you. 
 
 Ven. But, master ! what if I could not have found 
 a grasshopper? 
 
 Pise. Then I may tell you, that a black snail, with 
 
64 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. JPART I, 
 
 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; ojr 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 Troat, 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 grass- 
 hopper, 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 espe- 
 cially with a grasshopper. 
 
 Ken. But before you go further, I pray, good master, 
 what mean you by a leather-mouthed fish ? 
 
 Pise. 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 
 Pearch, 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. 
 
 Ken. I thank you, good master, for this observation. 
 
CHAP. III. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 55 
 
 But now what shall be done with my Chub or Cheven 
 that I have caught? 
 
 Pise. Marry, Sir, it shall be given away to some poor 
 body; for I'll warrant you I'll 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 you 
 and God 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 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 grasshopper, on the top of a swift 
 stream, 1 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, 3 
 as a Trout will: of which I shall tell you more here- 
 after, and of divers other baits. But take this for a 
 rule, that, in hot weather, he is to be fished for towards 
 
 (1) In the Thames, above Richmond, the best way of using the grasshopper 
 for Chub, is to fish with it as with an artificial fly ; the first joints of the legs 
 must be pinched off; and in this way, when the weed is rotten, which is sel- 
 dom till September, the largest Dace are taken. 
 
 (2) Chub will also take small Gudgeons in the way you troll for Pike: the 
 hook ought not to be so heavy leaded upon the shank ; they gorge immediately 
 on taking the bail. 
 
56 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART. I. 
 
 the mid-water, or near 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 haying 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 hare been in the like kind. 
 
 You shall read in Seneca, his Natural Questions, Lib. 
 III. 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 
 staid too long from giving you some Observations of the 
 Trout, and how to fish for him, which shall take up 
 the nett of my spare time. 1 
 
 (1) The haunts of the Chub are streams shaded with trees : in summer, 
 deep holes, where they will sometimes float near the surface of the water, and 
 under the boughs on the side of a bank. 
 
 Their spawuiog time is towards the beginning of April ; they are in season 
 from about the middle of May, till the middle of February; bat are best in 
 winter. 
 
 At mid-water, and at bottom, use a float; at top, either dib, or, if you have 
 room, use the fly-line, as for Trout. 
 
 They are so eacer in biting, that, when they take the bait, you may hear 
 their jaws chop like those of a dog. 
 
CHAP. IV. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 57 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 Observations on the NATURE and BREEDING of the TROUT, 
 and how to fish for him. And the Milk-maid's Song. 
 
 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 dainti- 
 ness 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 bar- 
 ren 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 per- 
 fection 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 ours, 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 
 
 (1) Gerard Mercator, of Ruremond in Flanders, a man of so intense appli- 
 cation lo mathematical studies, that he neglected the necessary refreshments of 
 nature. He engraved with his owu hand, and coloured the maps to his geo- 
 graphical writings. He wrote several books of Theology; and died 1594. 
 
58 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 taken in the Lake of Geneva are a great part of the mer- 
 chandize of that famous city. And you are further to 
 know, that there be certain waters that breed Trouts 
 remarkable both for their number and smallness. I 
 know a little brook in Kent, that breeds them to a num- 
 ber 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 Salmon ; 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 Hast- 
 ings, 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, be- 
 cause 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 grasshoppers ' and some 
 
 (1) It IMS been said by naturalists, particularly by Sir Theodore Mayerne, in an 
 Epistle to Sir William Paddy, prefixed to the translation of Mouffet's Insect. 
 Theatr. printed with Topel's History of Four-footed Beasts and Serpents, that 
 
CHAP. IV. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 59 
 
 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, " 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, 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 are to note, that those 
 townsmen are yery punctual in observing the time of be- 
 ginning 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 are called half-year birds, and 
 not seen to fly in England for six months in the year, 
 
 the grasshopper has no mouth, but a pipe in his breast, through which it suck 
 the dew, which is its nutriment. There are two sorts, the green and the dun ; 
 some say there is a third, of a yellowish green. They are found in long grass, 
 from June to the end of September, and even in October, if the weather be 
 mild. In the middle of May, you will see, in the joints of rosemary, thistles, 
 and almost all the larger weeds, a white fermented froth, which the coun- 
 try people call Cuckoo Spit f in these the eggs of the grasshopper are depo- 
 sited ; and if you examine them, you shall never fail of finding a yellowish 
 insect, of about the size and shape of a grain of wheat, which, doubtless, is 
 the young grasshopper. A passage to this purpose, is in Leigh's History of 
 Lancashire, page 146. 
 
60 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 but (about Michaelmas) leave us for a hotter climate, 
 
 yet some of them that have been left 
 
 > .vir Fran, behind their fellows, have been found, 
 
 Bacon, Exper. 
 
 "'*.' many thousands at a time, in hollow trees, 
 
 or clay caves, where they have been 
 observed to live, and sleep out the whole winter, with- 
 out meat. And so Albertus ' observes, that there is one 
 kind of frog that hath her mouth natu- 
 rally shut up about the end of August, and 
 that she lives so all the winter : and 
 though it be strapge 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 birds of Paradise and 
 the chameleon are said to live, by the sun and the air. 4 
 
 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, 
 
 (1) Albert** Magnus, a German Dominican, and a very learned man. Ur- 
 ban IV. compiled him to accept of the bishopric of UatUbon. lie wrote a 
 treatise on the Secrets of Nature, aud twenty other volumes in folio; and 
 died at Cologne, ltt. 
 
 (2) Edward Topsel was the author of a History of Four-footed Beasts and 
 Serpents, collected oat of the works of Gesner, and other authors, in folio, 
 Load. I&5H. In this history he describes the several kinds of frogs; and in 
 page 721 thereof, cites from Aloertus the fact here related. See an account 
 of him in Walton's Life. 
 
 (.1) See Chap. VIII. 
 
 (4) That the Chameleon live* by the air alone is a vulgar error, it being 
 well known that its food is flies and other insect*. See Sir Tho. Brown's Enquiry 
 into fulgar and Common Errors, Book III. Chap. 21. About the year 
 1780, a living Chameleon was to be seen in the garden of the Company of 
 Apothecaries at Chelsea. And, at the same time, (1784,) an exanimated one, 
 in a state of excellent preservation, is open to public view among the quadru- 
 peds in Sir Ashlon Lever's inestimable collection of natural curiosities. 
 
CHAP. IV. THE COMPLETE ANGLES,. 61 
 
 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 
 consideration, is that the Trout is of a more sudden 
 growth than other fish. Concerning which, you are 
 also to take notice, that he 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 bis spawning, get, almost 
 miraculously, through weirs and flood-gates, against 
 the stream; 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 pastures 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 yon are to note, that till the sun gets to 
 such a height as to warm the earth and the water, the 
 
THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 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 lusty, and he is usually fatter and bet- 
 ter 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 TrouU 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 
 
CHAP. IV. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 63 
 
 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 it is 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 si/e: which you may rather believe, 
 if you consider that the little wren and titmouse will have 
 twenty young ones at a time, when, usually, the noble 
 hawk, or the musical thrassel or blackbird, 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 mat- 
 ter to catch a Trout than a Chub : for I have put on 
 patience, and followed you these two hours, and not 
 seen a fish stir, neither at your minnow nor your worm. 
 
 Pise. Well, scholar, you must endure worse luck 
 sometime, 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, 
 
64 THE COMPLETE ANOLSR. PART I. 
 
 Sir, now he is mine own : what say you now, is not this 
 worth all my labour and your patience ? 
 
 Fen. On my word, master, this is a gallant Trout; 
 what shall we do with him? 
 
 PMC. Marry, e'en eat him to supper: we'll 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 cheerful 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'll 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. 
 
 Pen. 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. 
 
 Pile. Nty, 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, there* 
 about 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! toward yonder high honeysuckle 
 hedge ; there we'll 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 ! tinder that broad beech-tree I sat down, when I 
 Wit last this way a-fishing. And the birds in the adjoin- 
 ing grove seemed to have a friendly contention with an 
 echo, whose dead voice seemed to live in a hollow tree 
 
CHAP. IV. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 65 
 
 near to the brow of that primrose-hill. There I sat view- 
 ing the silver streams glide silently towards their centre, 
 the tempestuous sea ; yet sometimes 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 possest my soul with 
 content, that I thought as the poet has happily exprest it, 
 
 I was for that time lifted above earth ; 
 And possest 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 ; it was that smooth song 
 which was made by Kit Marlow, 1 now at least fifty years 
 ago. And the milk-maid's mother sung an answer to it, 
 
 (1) Christopher Mnrlow was a poet of DO small eminence in his day, as may 
 be inferred from the frequent mention of him in the writings of his contempo- 
 raries. He was some time a student at Cambridge, urn 1 , after that, an actor on, 
 and writer for the stage. There are extant, of his writing, five Tragedies; and 
 . Poem that bears his name, entitled, Hero and Leander (possibly a translation 
 rrom Musaeus) which, he not living to complete it, was finished by Chapman. 
 The Song here mentioned is printed, with his name to it, in a Collection enti- 
 tled England's Helicon, Ho. l600, as is also the Answer, here said to be written 
 by Sir Walter Raleigh, but theie subscribed " Ignoto." Of Marlow it is said, 
 that he was the author of divers atheistical and blasphemous discourses; and 
 that in a quarrel with a serving rmu, his rival in a connection with a lewd 
 woman, he received a stab with a dagger, and shortly after died of the stroke. 
 Wood (from whom. At hen. Of oil. Vol. I. 338. and also from Beard's Theatre 
 of God's Judgments, this account is taken) says, that the end of this person 
 was noted by the Precisians ; but surely the Precisians are to be acquitted of 
 all blame, as having done nothing, more than asserted God's moral government 
 of the world, by noting in this instance, one example out of many, of the 
 natural tendency of impiety and profligacy to destruction and infamy. 
 
THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 
 
 PART 
 
 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 1 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. 
 
 MUk-w. Marry ! God requite you, Sir, and we'll eat it 
 cheerfully. And if you come this way a fishing two months 
 hence, a grace of God ! Ill give you a syllabub of new 
 verjuice, in a new made hay-cock, for it. And my Maud- 
 lin shall sing you one of her best ballads ; for she and I 
 both love all 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. 
 
 Pise. 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. 
 
 (I) The author seems here to have forgot himself; for, page 47, he says he 
 is to lodge at Trout-Ball. 
 
 (tt) There are some few exception* to this character of anglers : the greatest 
 and most wonderful revolution that ever happened in any state, I mean that in 
 Naples, in the year 1647, was brought about by an Angler : concerning whom 
 we are told, " that a young man, about twenty-four, happened to be in a corner 
 of the great market-place at Naples ; a sprightly man, of a middle stature, 
 black eyed, rather lean than fat. having a small tuft of hair ; he wore linen slops, 
 a blue waistcoat, and went barefoot, with a mariner's cap; but he was of a good 
 countenance, stout, and lively as could be. His profession was to angle for 
 little Jith with a cane, hook, and line. His name was Tomaso Audio, of 
 Amain, but vulgarly called Masaniello." See the History of the, Revolution 
 in Napltt, by Sig. Alessandro Oiraffi. 
 
}IAP. IV. ThE COMPLETE ANGLER. 67 
 
 \ 
 
 Milk-w. What song was it, I pray? Was it, Come, 
 Shepherds deck your herds ? or, As at noon Dulcina rested ? 
 or, Phillida flouts me? or Chevy Chace? or Johnny Arm- 
 strong ? or Troy Town ? ' 
 
 Pise. 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 will- 
 ing, 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'll 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 pleasure* prove. 
 That valleys, groves, or hills, or field, 
 Or woods, and sleepy 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, 
 EmbroiderM all with leaves of myrtle; 
 
 A gown made of the finest wool, 
 Which from our pretty lambs we poll; 
 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, 
 
 (1) See the songs ' As at Noon, 1 Chevy Chace' Johnny Armstrong,' and 
 Troy Town,' printed, after the most authentic copies, in Percy's Reliques of 
 Ancient English Poetry. ' Phillida floutt me" is to be found in an elegant 
 collection of songs entitled The Hive, in four volumes, small 8vo. Vol. II. 
 p,70. 
 
 F2 
 
(58 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 
 
 Thy silver dishes, for thy meat. 
 As precious as the Gods do eat, 
 Shall, ou an ivory table, be 
 FreparM 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. Til 
 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 wore 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; 
 When rivers rage, and rocks grow cold ; 
 Then Pkilomtl berometh dumb ; 
 And ge complains of care to come. 
 
 The flowers dn fade, and wanton fields 
 To wayward winter reckoning yields. 
 A honey tongue, a heart of gall, 
 Is fancy's spring but sorrow's fall. 
 
 (I) Dr. Warburton, in his Notes on The Merry Wives of Windsor, ascribes 
 this song to Sli *ksp*are : it is true, Sir Hugh Evans, in the third Act of that 
 play, sines four lines of it ; and it occurs in a Collection of f'otms said to be 
 Shakspetre's. printed by Thomas Cotes for John Benson, 12mo. 1640. with some 
 vacations. On the contrary, it is to be found, with the name of " Christopher 
 Mat low" to it. in England'* Helicon; and Walton has just said it was made 
 by Kit Marlon. The reader will judge of these evidences, as lie pleases. 
 
 As to the song itself, though a beautiful one, it is not so purely pastoral as it is 
 generally inouclil to be ; buckles of gold; cora/ clasps and amber studs, silver 
 dishes and irory tables, are luxuries ; and consist not with the parsimony and 
 simplicity of rural life and manners. 
 
 (?) Sir Thomas Overbury's character of " a fayre and happy milke-maid," 
 printed with his poem, entitled "The Wife," in 12oio. l6.*5. 
 
CHAP. IV. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 69 
 
 Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of roses, 
 Thy cap, thy kirtle, and tky 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 mo 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 cousin Betty. 
 
 Maud. I will, mother. 
 
 I married a wife of late, 
 The more's my unhappy fate : 
 I married her for love, 
 As ray fancy did me move. 
 And not for a worldly estate ' 
 
 Bat oh ! the green sickness 
 Soon changed her likeness ; 
 And all her beauty did fail. 
 But 'tis not so 
 With those that go 
 Thro* frost and snow, 
 As all men know. 
 And carry the milking-pail. 
 
 Pise. Well sung, good woman ; I thank you. I'll give 
 you another dish of fish one of these days ; and then beg 
 another song of you. Come, scholar! let Maudlin alone: 
 do not you offer to spoil her voice. 1 Look ! yonder comes 
 
 (1) The judgment of the author in this part of the dialogue is well worth 
 noting. We may observe, that the interlocutors are Ptscator and the Milk- 
 woman f and that the daughter, except when she sings, and signifies her obe- 
 dience to her mother in a speech of three words, is silent. It is pretty clear 
 that Venator, after the second song (charmed perhaps with the maidenly inno- 
 
70 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. .PARTI. 
 
 mine hostess, to call us to supper. How now ! is my 
 brother Peter come ? 
 
 Hostess. 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 at supper, for they be very hungry. 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 More Direction* how tofithfor, and how to make for the TROUT an 
 artificial Minnow and Flies ; with some merriment. 
 
 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 grasshopper; 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 coun- 
 tryman, and his name is Coridon; and he is a downright 
 witty companion, that met me here purposely to be plea- 
 sant 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'll be early up. 
 
 Pise. 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 
 
 ceoce, aad probably beauty, of the youog woman ; for we are told that she is 
 handsome) offers to kiss her ; and that Piwator, an elder and more discreet 
 man, checks him, lest he should offend her by too great familiarity. Such is 
 the decorum observable in this elegant work, 
 
CHAP. V. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 71 
 
 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. 
 
 Peter. 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 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. 
 
 Pise. 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 in- 
 crease answerable to your hopes : but, however, you shall 
 find me obedient, and thankful, and serviceable to my 
 best ability. 
 
 Pise. 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. 
 
 Cor. Indeed, honest friend, it looks well, and tastes 
 
72 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 well : 1 thank you for it, and so doth my friend Peter, or 
 else he is to blame. 
 
 Peter. Yes, and so I do ; we all thank you : and, when 
 we have supped, I will get my friend Condon 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. 1 
 
 Pise. I'll promise you I'll 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. 
 
 Cor. And then mine shall be the praise of a Country- 
 man's life. What will the rest sing of? 
 
 Peter. 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. 
 
 Yen. 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. 
 
 Pise. Tis a match, my masters. Let's e'en say grace, 
 
 (1) Parody en the adage, 
 
 4 It's merry in hall, 
 
 When beards wag all.' 
 i. e when all are eatiog. 
 
 () This song, beginning "Forth from my sad and darksome cell," with the 
 tatuic to it, set by Hen. Lawes, is printed in a book entitled Choice Ayres, 
 Songt, and Dialogues, tu ring to the Theorbo, Lute, and Bass Viol, folio, 
 1^75; and in Piayfbrd's Antidote against Melancholy, 8vo. 1669; also in Or. 
 Percy's Reliqucs of Ancient English Poetry , Vol. II. p. 35? ; but in the latter 
 with a mistake, in the last line of the third stanza, of the word Pentarckye 
 for Pentateuch. 
 
CHAP. V. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 73 
 
 and turn to the fire, drink the other cup to whet 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. 
 
 Peter. 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 And ! 
 
 Heigh trolollie loe, 
 
 Heigh trolollie 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 ; 
 
 Heigh Iroiollie lee, c. 
 The city full of wantonness, 
 And both are full of pride : 
 
 Then care away, <fcc. 
 
 But oh the honest countryman 
 Speaks truly from his heart, 
 
 Heigh trolollie lee, *c. 
 His pride it in bis tillage, 
 His horses, and his cart : 
 
 Then care away t fa. 
 
 - 
 
 Our cloathing is good shrcp-skins, 
 Gray russet for our wives; 
 
 Heigh trolollie lee, *c. 
 Tis warmth and not gay cloathing 
 That doth prolong our lives 
 
 Then care away, c. 
 
 The ploughman, tho' he labour hard, 
 Yet on the holy-day, 
 
 Heigh trolollie lee, 4c. 
 No emperor so merrily 
 Does pass his time awaj : 
 
 Then care away, 4c. 
 
 To recompense our tillage, 
 The heavens afford us showers ; 
 
 Heigh trolollie lee, c. 
 And for our sweet refreshment* 
 The earth affords us bowers : 
 Then care away, 4c. 
 
7.4 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 The cuckoo and the nightingale 
 Full merrily do siug, 
 
 Heigh troloUie lee, c. 
 And with their pleasant roundelays 
 Bid welcome to the spring : 
 
 Then cart away, 4#. 
 
 This is not half the happiness 
 The countryman enjoys ; 
 
 Ileigh troloUit lee, iff. 
 Though others think they have as much, 
 Yet he that says so lies : 
 
 Then come away, turn 
 
 Countryman with me 
 
 JO. CHALK HILL, i 
 
 Pise. 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 com- 
 panies, that you may make yourselves merrier for a little 
 than a great deal of money ; for " Tis the company and 
 not the charge that makes the feast ;" and such a com- 
 panion 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 plras'd with private sport, 
 Use tennis, some a mistress court : 
 
 But these delights I neither wish, 
 
 Nor envy, while I freely fish. 
 
 (I) John ChalkkiU, Esq. of whom mention is made in the Author's Life. 
 
CHAP. V, THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 7$ 
 
 Who Hants, 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 fetter'd 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 repait; 
 And thereunto my friend invite, 
 In whom I more than that delight : 
 
 Who is more welcome to my dish 
 
 Than to my angle was my fish* 
 
 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. 
 
T6 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 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. 
 
 Pise. 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. 
 
 Pise. And so say I. 
 
 Ven. And so say I. 
 
 Pise. 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 dish of meat or two against supper, for we 
 shall come home as hungry as hawks. Come scholar, 
 let's be going. 
 
 Yen. Well now, good master, as we walk towards the 
 river, give me direction, according to your promise, how 
 I shall fish for a Trout. 
 
 Pise. My honest scholar, I will take this very conve- 
 nient 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 crea- 
 tures, 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 par- 
 
CHAP. V. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 77 
 
 ticular 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 dung-hill, 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, 1 (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 
 
 (1) To avoid confusion, it may be necessary to remark, that the same kind of 
 worm i, in differrut places, known by different names : thus the marsh and the 
 meadow-worm are the same; and the lob-worm or twachel is also called the 
 dew-worm, and the garden-worm ; and the dock-worm is, in some places, called 
 the flag-worm. 
 
 The tag tail is found in March and April, in marled lands or meadows, after 
 a shower of rain ; or in a morning, when the weather is calm, and not cold. 
 
 To find the oak-worm, beat on an oak tree that grows over a high-way or bare 
 place; and they will fall for you to gather. 
 
 To find the dock-worm, go to an old pond or pit, and pull up some of the 
 flags ; shake the roots in the water ; and amongst the fibres that grow from the 
 roots you will find little husks, or cases, of a reddish or yellowish colour ; open 
 these carefully with a pin. and take from thence a little worm, pale and yellow, 
 or white, like a gentle, but longer and slenderer, with rows of feet down his 
 belly, aud a red head : this is the dock or flag worm ; an excellent bait for Gray, 
 ling, Tench, Bream, Carp, Roach, and Dace. 
 
78 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PARTI/ 
 
 shrubs, or of several kinds of birds in the air : of which I 
 shall say no more, but tell you, that what worms 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 fen- 
 Bel. 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. 1 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 I will only tell you 
 that that which is likest a buck's-horn is the best, except 
 
 (1) The following is also an excellent way ; viz. Take a piece of hop-sack, or 
 other very coarse cloth, and wash it clean, and let it dry ; then wet it in the 
 liquor wherein beef has been boiled, (but be careful that the beef is fresh, for 
 salt will kill the worms,) and wring it, but not quite dry ; put the worms into 
 this cloth, and lay them in an earthen pet, and let them stand from morning till 
 night; then take the worms from the cloth and wash it, and wet it again in 
 some of the liquor : do thus once M-day, aud you may keep worms in perfect 
 health, and fit for use, for near a month. 
 
 Observe that the lolworin, marsh worm, and red-worm, will bear more 
 scouring than any others, and are better for long keeping. 
 
 (2) Naturalists reckon abore two hundred. 
 
CHAP. V. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 79 
 
 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. 1 And 
 you may take notice, some say that camphire 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 ; 2 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. 
 
 (1) This practice was one of the common sports of school-hoys, at the time 
 Erasmus wrote his Colloquies. In that entitled Venatio, or Hunting, a com- 
 pany of them go abroad into the fields, and one named Laurence proposes fish- 
 ing; but having no worms, Bartholus objects the want of them, till Laurence 
 teUs him how he may get some. The dialogue is very natural and descriptive ; 
 and being but short, is here given. " Lnu. I should like to go a fishing ; I have 
 a neat hook. Barth. But where will you get baits? Lau. There are earth- 
 worms every where to be had. Barth. So there are, if they would but creep 
 out of the ground to you. Lau. I will make a great many thousands jump out 
 presently. Barth. How? by witchcraft? Lau. You shall see the art. Fill 
 this bucket with water: break these green shells of walnuts to pieces, and put 
 them into it ; wet the ground with the water. Now mind a little. Do you see 
 them coming out ? Barth. I see a miracle; I believe the armed men started 
 out of the earth after this manner, from the serpent's teeth that were sown." 
 
 The above exclamation is clearly an allusion to the fable in the second book 
 of Ovid's Metamorphoses ; where Cadmus, by scattering the serpent's teeth on 
 the ground, causes armed men to spring out of it. 
 
 (2) The running-line, so called because it runs along the ground, is made of 
 strong silk, which you may buy at the fishing-tackle shops : but I prefer hair, as 
 being less apt to tangle, and is thus fitted up. About ten inches from the end, 
 fasten a small cleft shot; then make a hole through a pistol or musket bullet, 
 according to the swiftness of the stream you fish in; and put the line through 
 it, and draw the bullet down to the shot : to the end of your line fasten an 
 Indian grass, or silkworm-gut, with a large hook. Or you may, instead of a 
 bullet, fix four large shot, at the distance of eight inches from the hook. The 
 running-line is used for Trout, Grayling, and Salmon-smelts; and is proper 
 only for streams and rapid waters. See Fart II. Chap. XI. 
 
80 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PAR? I. 
 
 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 weirs, 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 
 
CHAP. V. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 81 
 
 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 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 dan- 
 ger 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, 
 'ay-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 
 
82 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 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 160 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. 
 
 Now for Flies ; which is 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 tawney-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 contemplation 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 
 
CHAP. V. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 83 
 
 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 dtews 
 being thickened and condensed, are by the sun's genera- 
 tive heat, most of them, hatched, and in three days 
 made living creatures: 1 and these of several shapes and 
 colours; some being hard and tough, some smooth and 
 are horned in their head, some in their tail, some have 
 soft ; some none ; some have hair, some none : some 
 have sixteen feet, some less, and some have none: 
 but (as our Topsel hath with great diligence ^ Mg Histor 
 observed) those which have none, move upon of Serpents, 
 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. 3 And some affirm, that every plant has its par- 
 ticular fly or caterpillar, which it breeds and feeds. I 
 have seen, and may therefore affirm it, a green caterpillar, 
 cr worm, as big as a small peascod, which had fourteen 
 legs ; eight on the belly, four 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 knaws a bone : it lived thus, five or 
 six days, and thrived, and changed the colour two or three 
 
 ()) The doctrine of spontaneou* or equivocal generation is now universally 
 exploded ; and all the phenomena that seem to support it arc accounted for on 
 other principles. Sec Derliam's Phyi. Theol. Chap. IS, and the authorities 
 there cited. As also Mr. Ray's H'itdom of God manifested in the works of 
 the Creation, 2Q8, and Franc. Kedi, De Gen. Insect. 
 
 (2) Whoever is desirous of knowing more of Caterpillars, and of the several 
 flies produced by them, may consult Joannes Gocdartius DC Intectis, with the 
 Appendix of Dr. Lister, Land. 8vo. 1685. 
 
 G 2 
 
84 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 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 Sum- 
 mer, 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 in- 
 tended not to exceed an hour; 1 and yet that life is thus 
 made shorter by other flies, or by accident. 
 
 (1) That therr are creatures " whose life nature intended not to exceed an 
 hoar," is. I believe, not so we'l agreed, as that there are some whose existence 
 is determined in five or six. It is well known that the Ephemeron, that won- 
 derful instance of the care and providence of God, lives but fiom six iu the 
 evening till about eleven at night ; during which time it performs all the animal 
 (unctions; for. in the beginning of it* life, it sheds its coat; and that being 
 done, and the poor little animal thereby rendered light and agile, it upends the 
 rest of its short time in frisking over the waters : the female drops her eggs, 
 which are impregnated by the male ; these, being spread about, descend to the 
 bottom by their own gravity, and are hatched by the w-trnuh of the sun into 
 little worms, which make themselves cases in the clay, and feed on the same 
 without any need of parental care, fide Ephem. Vita, translated by Dr. 
 Tysson. front Swammerdam. See also Derham's Phys. Thtol. 247. 
 
 And to the truth of the assertion, that these shortlived animals shed their 
 coats, I myself am a witness; for, being a fishing one summer evening, at about 
 seven o'clock, I suddenly observed my cloaths covered with a number of very 
 small flies, of a whitish colour inclining to blue; they continued fixed while 
 I observed those on my left arm wriggle their bodies about, till at length they 
 disengaged themselves from their external coat, which they left, and flew away ; 
 bat what greatly astonished me was, that three whisks which each of these 
 creatures had at its tail, which were slenderer than the finest hair, and, but for 
 their whiteness, would have been scarcely perceptible, were left as entire and 
 unbroken as the less tender parts of the coat. 
 
 At the time when I was preparing for the press the first edition of this book, 
 I met fin a book entitled The Art of Angling improved in all its parts, espe- 
 cially Fly-fi.ihing. 12mo. Worcester, no date, by Richard Bowlker) with a 
 relation similar to this; which the author says was communicated to him by a 
 gentleman, an accurate observer of nature's productions; and giving credit to 
 the assertion, 1 inserted it as an extract from his book ; but I have since dis- 
 covered that the same had been communicated to the Royal Society by Mr. 
 Peter Collinson, a London tradesman, well known among botanists and collec- 
 tors of natural curiosities, in a Letter to their secretary, which was read the 
 Cist of January, 1744-5, and is printed in the Philosophical Transactions for 
 the year 1746, Numb. 481, page 329- 
 
 The letter is miserably written; and, in respect of the style, so ungrainma- 
 tical, and otherwise obscnre, as to need such interpolations as are here inserted, 
 to render it in any degree intelligible. 
 
CHAP. V. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 85 
 
 '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, 1 our 
 
 The author, walking by the side of the river at Winchester, May 26, 1744, 
 was shewn the May-fly, [conjectured to be the musca tripilii mentioned iu 
 Moufet, Insect. Theatr. p. Gl. and is questionless the grey drake,] which (he 
 says) lies all the year, but [except] a few days, in the bottom or sides of the 
 river, [we must suppose in its nymphatic state, like the cudis, straw -worm, and 
 other species of the iibella ;] and rising, when mature, to the surface of the 
 water, splits its case, and appears an animal ; [a fly he must mean ;] having a 
 slender body, and three long hairs at the tail, and four blackish veined trans- 
 parent shining wings, the under much the smaller, and the upper having four 
 black spots. He says, that having disengaged itself from its e.ruvia, [i.e. the 
 case above mentioned,] of which, he adds, he saw innumerable floating on the 
 water, the next business of this creature is flying a!>out to find a proper place 
 to fix on, as trees, rushes, #c. ; and that having fixed, it waits for another 
 change, which in two or three days is completed, and which he thus describes : 
 
 " The first hint I received of this wonderful operation, [i. e. the second trans- 
 formation,] I took from the appearance of their ejmvia: [he must here mean their 
 second cxuvia hereafter mentioned] hanging on the hedges. Of these, [not the 
 exuvitc, but the flies] I collected many; and puttiug them into boxes, could 
 easily discover when they were ready to put off their old cloaths, though so 
 lately put on." 
 
 He says, he had the pleasure to shew his friends one of these creatures, that 
 lie held on his finger all the while it performed this great work ; and that it was 
 surprising to see the back part of the fly split open, and produce a new l>irth, 
 [i. c. a new fly,] which left the case of the head, body, wings, legs, and even the 
 three-haired tail [of the old one,] behind it. He adds, that after it had reposed 
 itself awhile, it flew abroad with great briskness, to seek a mate. 
 
 After an enumeration of some particulars which I choose to omit, he says, he 
 observed that when the females were impregnated, they left the males, and be- 
 took themselves to the river; where darting up and down, they were seen to 
 ej. :t a cluster of eggs, which seemed a pale bluish speck, like a small drop of 
 milk, as they [the specks] were sinking to the bottom of the river; and that, 
 then, [when the flies had thus ejected their eggs,] by the elasticity of their tails 
 they sprung up, and darted down again, continuing so to do till, having ex- 
 hausted their stock of eggs, together with their strength, they were able to rise 
 no mere, and became an easy prey to the fish. This is the end of the females; 
 but of the males he says, that they never resort to the waters, but, after t.iey 
 have done their office, drop down, langubh, aud die, among the trees and 
 bushes. 
 
 The conclusion of his letter, for I am tired of abridging it, I give in Ihe 
 author's own words. " They appear at six o'clock in the evening. On the 26th 
 of May I perceived a few ; but the 27th, 28th, 29th, and 30th, it was a sight very 
 surprising and entertaining, to see the rivers teeming with innumerable pretty 
 nimble flying animals, aud almost every thing near covered with them : when I 
 looked up, the air was full of them as high as I could discern, and seemed so 
 thick, and always in motion; [the air he tells you, but he means the flies;] the 
 like it seems when one looks up and sees the snow coming down. And yet this 
 wonderful appearance, in three or four days alter the last of May, totally 
 disappeared." 
 
 (1) Ulyssts Aldrovandut, a great physician and naturalist of Bologna; he 
 wrote 120 books on several subjects, and a treatise DC Piscibus, published a( 
 Frauckfort, ifiK). 
 
86 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 Topsd, and others, say of the PALMER-WORM, Cater- 
 pillar : 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 parti- 
 cular feeding and nourishment, and that upon them they 
 usually abide ;) yet he observes, that this is called a pil- 
 grim, 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 herb or flower for his feeding, but will boldly and dis- 
 orderly wander up and down, and not endure to be kept 
 to a diet, or fixed to a particular place. 
 
 Nay, the very colours of caterpillars are, as one has ob- 
 served, very elegant and beautiful. I shall, for a taste of 
 the rest, describe one of them; which I will, some time 
 the next month, shew you feeding on a willow-tree ; and 
 you shall find him punctually to answer this very des- 
 cription: 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 St. 
 Andrew f s cross, or the letter X, made thus cross-wise, 
 and a 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 stiange shell or crust, called an aurclia : and so 
 ir Fra. lives a kind of dead life, without eating, all 
 the wi ^er. And as others of several 
 History, kinds turn to be several kinds of flies 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 : 
 
CHAP. V. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 87 
 
 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, tho' glowing ne'er so much. 
 
 So in the fire, in burning furnace, springs 
 The fly Pe.rait.sta with the naming wings : 
 Without the fire it dies ; in it, it joys, 
 Living in that which all things else destroys. 
 
 So slow Bodies underneath him sees, View Cerh. 
 
 In tit* icy islands, goslings hatch'd of trees ; Herbalanet 
 
 Whose fruitful leaves, falling into the water, Cam den. 
 Are turn'd, 'tis known, to living fowls soon after. 
 
 So rotten planks of broken ships do change 
 To barnacles. O transformation strange ! 
 Twas first a green tree; then, a broken hall; 
 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? 
 
 Pise. My honest scholar, it is now past five of the clock : 
 we will fish till nine ; and then go to breakfast. Go you 
 to yon 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. 
 
88 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART i. 
 
 Ven. I thank you, master. I will observe and practise 
 your direction as far as I am able. 
 
 Pise. Look you, scholar; you see I have hold of a good 
 fish : I now see it is a 1'rout. 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 for supper. 
 
 Fen. I am glad of that: but I have no fortune: sure, 
 master, yours is a better rod and better tackling. 
 
 Pise. Nay, then, take mine; and I will fish with yours. 
 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. 
 
 Pise. 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. 
 
 Pise. 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 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 fiddle-stick ; for you are to know, that 
 every one cannot make music with my words, which are 
 
CHAP. V. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 89 
 
 fitted to 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 
 fiddle-stick, 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 remem- 
 ber, 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 
 torn 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; 
 
 (1) Leonard Lessius, a very learned Jesuit, professor of divinity in the col- 
 lege of Jesuits at Louvain : he was born at Antwerp, 1554; and became very 
 famous for his skill in divinity, civil law, mathematics, physic, and history : he 
 wrote several theological tracts, and a book entitled, Hygiasticon , scu vera 
 ratio valetudinis bontf, vittc ad txtremam senectutem conservanda. See 
 Walton's Life prefixed. From this tract of Lessius, it is probable the passage 
 in the text is cited. He died 1623. 
 
90 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 for by that means they rob themselves of that pleasure 
 that hunger brings to poor men." And I do seriously 
 approve of that saying of yours, " that you had rather be 
 a civil, well-governed, well-grounded, temperate, poor ang- 
 ler, than a drunken lord :" but I hope there is none such. 
 However, I am certain of this, that I have been at many 
 Tery costly dinners that have not afforded me half the con- 
 tent that this has done ; for which I thank God and you. 
 
 And now, good master, proceed to your promised 
 direction for making and ordering my artificial fly. 
 
 Pise. My honest scholar, 1 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 ingenious brother of the angle, 
 an honest man, and a most excellent fly-fisher. 
 
 You are to note, that there are twelve kinds of artifi- 
 cial made Flies, to angle with upon the top of the water. 
 Note, by the way, that the fittest season of using these, 
 IB a blustering windy day, when the waters are so trou- 
 bled that the natural fly ctnnot 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 dangling 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 
 
CHAP. V. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 91 
 
 cock's hackle or tail. The SIXTH is the black-fly, in 
 May also : the body made of black wool, and lapt about 
 with the herle of a peacok'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, lapt about with yellow silk ; 
 the wings made of the feathers of the drake, or of the 
 buzzard. The ELEVENTH is the shell-fly, good in mid- 
 July: the body made of greenish wool, lapt about with 
 the herle 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, lapt 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 con- 
 demn 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, 1 a 
 
 (1) It is supposed that the reader is by this time not wholly ignorant who 
 this gentleman was, as mention is made of him in the Author's Life. We have 
 already given the Dedication to his Art of Angling ; and here now follow 
 some extracts from that humourous piece itself. Addressing himself to the 
 noble lord to whom his book is dedicated, he thus begins : 
 
 " Under favour, I will compliment, and put a case to your honour. 
 
 I met with a man; aud upon our discourse he fell out with me, having a 
 good weapon, but neither stomach nor skill : I say this man may come home 
 by Weeping-crou ; I will eaiue the clerk to toll his knell. It is the very 
 like case to the gentleman angler, that goelh to the river for his pleasure. 
 This angler hath neither judgment nor experience ; he may come home lightly 
 
92 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I* 
 
 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 
 
 laden at his leisure." " A man that goeth to the river for his pleasure, 
 
 must understand, when he comet li there, to set forth hit tackle. The first 
 thing he must do, is to observe the vind and sun for DAY, the moon, the 
 ttan, and the wanes of the air for Night, to set forth his tackles for day or 
 
 night; and accordingly to go for his pleasure, and some profit." " Now 
 
 I am determined to angle with ground-bails, and set my tackles to my rod, and 
 go to my pleasure. I begin at the uppermost part of the stream, carrying my 
 line with an upright band, feeling my plummet running truly on the ground 
 some leu inches from the hook, plumming my Hue according to the swiftness 
 of the stream I angle in; for one plummet will not serve for all streams; for 
 
 the true angling is, that the plummet run truly on the ground." 
 
 * My Lord sent to me, at suo-goiug-down, to provide him a good 
 dish of Trouts against the next morning, by six o'clock. 1 went to the door 
 to et How the vanes of the air vcre like to prove. I returned answer, that I 
 doubted not, Ood willing, but to be provided at the time appoint, d. I went 
 presently to the river, and it proved very dark : I threw out a line of three 
 ilk* and three bain twisted, for the uppermost part; and a line of two hairs 
 and two silks twisted, for the lower part with a good large hook. I baited my 
 book with two loUwortni, the four ends hanging as meet as I could guess them 
 in the dark. I fell to angle. It proved very dark, so that I had good sport ; 
 angling with the lob-worms as 1 do with the flies, on the top of the water : 
 Ton shall hear the fish rise at the top of the water ; then, you must loose a 
 alack line down to the bottom, as nigh as you can guess ; then hold your line 
 straight, feeling the fish bite ; give time, there is no doubt of losing the fish, 
 for there is not one amongst twenty but doth gorge the bait : the least stroke 
 you can strike fastens the hook, and makes the fish sure, letting the fish take 
 a turn or two ; yon may take him up with your hands. The night began to 
 alter and grow somewhat lighter ; I took off the lobworms, and set to my rod 
 white palmer fly made of a large hook ; I had good sport for the time, until 
 it grew lighter; so I took off the white palmer, and set to a red palmer, made 
 of a large hook : I had good sport until it grew very light ; then I took off the 
 red palmer, and set to a black palmer ; I had good sport, and made up the 
 dish of fish. So I pat up my tackles, and was with my lord at his time appointed 
 for the service. 
 
 " These three flies, with the help of the lob-worms, serve to angle all the 
 year for the night; observing the times a* I have shewed you in this night- 
 work ; the white fly for darkness, the red fly in media, and the blark fly for 
 lightness. This is the true experience for angling in the niaht ; which is the 
 surest angling of all, and killeth the greatest Trouts. Your lines may be 
 strong, but must not be longer than your rod. 
 
 " Now, having taken a good dish of Trouts, I presented them to my lord. 
 He having provided good company, commanded me to turn cook, and dress 
 them for dinner 
 
 " There comes an honest gentleman, a familiar friend, to me he was 
 an angler begins to compliment with me, and asked me how I did ? when I had 
 been angling? and demanded, in discourse, what was the reason I did not 
 relate in my book the dressing of his dish offish, which he loved ? I pray you, 
 Sir, what dish of Trout* was that ? He said, it was a dish of close-boiled 
 Trouts. battered with eggs. My answer was to him, that every scullion 
 drtneth that duJ against his will, because he cannot calvor them. I will 
 tell you, in short : Put your Trouts into the kettle when the kettle is set to the 
 
CHAP. V. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 93 
 
 the best to be of two pieces. 1 And let not your line 
 exceed (especially 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 great care. 
 
 + T 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 about the hook with the 
 same silk with which your hook was armed ; and having 
 
 fire, and let thorn boil gently, as many cooks do; and they shall boil close 
 enough ; which is a good dish, buttered with eggs, good for ploughmen, but not 
 for the palate. Sir, I hope I have given you satisfaction." 
 
 (1) For your Rod, and also for a Fly-l'ue, take the directions contained in 
 the Notts on Chap. XXI. 
 
94 TBB COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 made the silk fast, take the hackle of a cock or capon's 
 neck, or a plover's top, which is usually better: take oft' 
 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 ttill removing your 
 finger as you turn the silk about the hook, and still look- 
 ing, at every stop or turn, that your gold, or what mate- 
 rials 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 sees the T routs leap at a fly of that kind: and 
 then having always hooks ready-hung with him, and 
 having a bag also always with him, with bear's hair, or 
 the hair of a brown or sad-coloured heifer, hackles of a 
 cock or capon, several coloured 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 
 
CHAP. V. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 95 
 
 sad-coloured, to make the fly's head :) and there be 
 also other coloured feathers, both of little birds and 
 of speckled fowl: 1 I say, having those with him in a 
 
 (1) The Author not having particularly enumerated the Materials necessary 
 for Fly-making, it will not be improper, once for all, to do it here. And, first, 
 you must be provided with bear's hair of divers colours ; as grey, dun, light and 
 dark coloured, bright brown and that which shines; also camel's hair, dark, 
 light, and of a colour between both : badger's hair, or fur; spaniel's hair from 
 behind the ear, light and dark brown, blackish, and black : hog's down, which 
 may be had about Christmas, of butchers, or rather of those that make brawn ; 
 it should be plucked from under the throat, and other soft places of the hog; 
 and must be of the following colours, viz. black, red, whitish, and sandy; and 
 for other colours, you may get them dyed at a dvers: seal's fur is to be had at 
 the trunk-makers ; get this also dyed of the colours of cow's and calf's hair, in 
 all the different shades, from the light to the darkest brown ; you will then 
 never need cow's or calf's hair, both which are harsh, and will never work 
 kindly, nor lie handsomely : get also mohairs, black, blue, purple, white, violet; 
 Isabella, which colour is described in a note on Cotton's Flies for March; 
 Philomot, from feuille mort, a dead leaf; yellow, and orange: camlets, hoth 
 hair and worsted, blue, yellow, dun, light and dark brown, red, violet, purple, 
 black, horse-flesh, pink, and orange colours. Some recommend the hair of abor- 
 tive colts and calves; but seal's fur, dyed as above, is much better. 
 
 A piece of an old Turkey carpet will furnish excellent dubbing : untwist the 
 yarn, and pick out the wool, carefully separating the different colours, and 
 lay it by. 
 
 Some use for dubbing, barge-sail; concerning which, the reader is to know, 
 that the sails of West-country and other barges, w'aen old, are usually converted 
 into tilts, under which there is almost a continual smoak arising from the fire 
 and the steam of the beef-kettle, which all such barges carry, and which in time 
 dyes the tilt of a fine brown ; this would be excellent dubbing, but that the ma- 
 terial of these sails is sheep's wool, which soaks in the water, and soon becomes 
 very heavy : however, get of this as many different shades as you can: and have 
 'pal's fur and hog-wool dyed to match them ; which, by reason they are more 
 '. urgid, stiff, and light, and so float better, are, in most cases, to be preferred to 
 worsted, crewels, and, indeed, to every other kind of wool : and observe, that 
 the hog-wool is best for large, and the seal's fur for small flies. 
 
 Get also furs of the following animals, viz. the squirrel, particularly from his 
 tail ; fox-cub, from the tail, where it is downy and of an ash-colour; an old fox ; 
 an old otter; otter-cub; badger; fulimart, or filmert; a hare, from the neck, 
 where it is of the colour of withered fern ; and, above all, the yellow fur of the 
 martern, from off the gills or spots under the jaws. All these, and almost every 
 other kind of fur, are easily got at the furrier's. 
 
 Hackles are a very important article in fly making ; they are the long slender 
 feathers that hang from the head of a cock down his neck ; there may also be 
 fine ones got from near his tail ; be careful that they are not too rank, which 
 they are when the fibres are more than half an inch long, and for some purposes 
 these are much too big: be provided with these of the following colours, viz. 
 red, dun, yellowish, white, orange, and perfect black ; and whenever you meet, 
 alive or dead, with the cock of the game breed, whose hackle is of a strong brown- 
 red, never fail to buy him : but observe, that the feathers of a cock chicken, be 
 they ever so fine for shape and colour, are good for little ; for they are too 
 downy and weak to stand erect after they are once wet, and so are those of the 
 Bintam-cock. 
 Feathers are absolutely necessary for the wings and other parts of flies: get 
 
96 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART Ii 
 
 bag, 1 and trying to make a fly, though he miss at first, 
 yet shall he at last hit it better, even to such a perfection 
 
 therefore feathers from the back and other parts of the wild mallard, or drake; 
 the feathers of a partridge, especially those red ones that are in the tail ; feathers 
 from a cock pheasant's breast and tail; the wiugs of a blackbird, a brown hen, 
 of a starling, a jay, a land-rail, a throstle, a fieldfare, and a water-coot; the 
 feathers from the crown of the pewit, plover, or lap-wing ; green and copper- 
 coloured peacock's, and black ostrich, herle ; feathers from a heron's neck and 
 wings. And remember, that, in most instances, where the drake's or wild mal- 
 lard's feather is hereafter [in the text] directed, that from a starling's wing will 
 do much better, as being of a finer grain, and less spungy. 
 
 Be provided with marking-silk of all colours; fine, but very strong, flaw-silk; 
 gold and silver flatted wire, or twist ; a sharp knife; hooks of all sizes; hog's 
 bristles for loops to your flies; shoe-maker's wax ; a large needle to raise your 
 dubbing, when flatted with working; and a small, but sharp pair of scissars. 
 
 And lastly, if any materials required in the subsequent Lists of Flies may 
 have been omitted in the foregoing Catalogue, be careful to add them to your 
 former stock, as often as you shall find any such omissions. 
 
 Remember, with all your dubbing to mix bear's hair and hog's wool, which 
 are stiff, and not apt to imbibe the water, as the fine furs and most other kind 
 of dubbing do; and remember also, that martern's fur is the best yellow you 
 can use. 
 
 (1) The use of a Bag is attended with many inconveniences; of which, the 
 mixing and wasting your materUls are not the least : to prevent which, the fol- 
 lowing method is recommended. Take a piece of fine-grained parchment, of 
 even inches by nine, and fold it so that the size and proportion of it will be that 
 of a small octavo volume ; then open it, and through the first leaf, with a sharp 
 penknife and a ruler, make three cross cuts, at the same proportionable distance, 
 and with a needle and silk stitch the two leaves together: let each of the 
 margins be half an inch at least. 
 
 Then, with a pair of compasses, take the distance from A to B, and set it on 
 in the Kiddle of a small piece of parchment ; and likewise set on the same dis- 
 tance to the right and left ; and at each extremity cut off, with a penknife and 
 ruler, the spare parchment, observing that the sides are exactly parallel. 
 
 At about a quarter of an inch from the top, make a cut through the first and 
 third divisions, and with a pair of scissars snip out the loose pieces. 
 
 Be careful that the cats, and indeed all your work, are exactly square; and 
 when this is done, torn in the sides and ends of the parchment, so cut as before; 
 and press the folds with a folding-stick : and you have one pocket, which put 
 into the first partition. 
 
 Pursue the sane method with the small pockets, and those for the other par- 
 Utions; and in this manner proceed till you have completed six leaves, which 
 are to make the first of your book. The larger of these pockets are to hold hog's 
 wool, seal's fur, and bear's hair; and the smaller, the finer furs, which are those 
 of the martern, fox-cub, dec. 
 
 lu each of the six divisions, in every leaf, with a sadler's hollow punch, make 
 a hole ; to which end, take a thia narrow stick of beech, or any hardish wood ; 
 and when the pocket is in ils place, put the stick down into the pocket, and, 
 observing the centre of the division, give the punch a smart blow with a mal- 
 let: these holes will shew what is contained in each of the pockets. 
 
 The next leaf may be single : stitch it across with double silk diagonally, and 
 cross those stitches with others, and the spaces will be of a lozenge-shape; let 
 the stitches be half an inch in length : into these you are to tuck your dubbing, 
 when m-xed ready for use. 
 
CHAP. V. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 97 
 
 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, 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. 
 
 Pise. 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 
 
 The next leaf should be double, stitched with a margin as the others : and 
 through the first fold cut a lozenge, as big as the size will allow of: into this 
 you may tuck three or four wings of small birds, as the starling, the land-rail, 
 the throstle, &c. At the back of this leaf, sew two little parchment straps, of 
 half an inch wide, very strong ; through which put a small, but very neat and 
 sharp pair of scissars. 
 
 You may, on another single leaf, make four or five cross-bars of long stitches ; 
 through which, as well on the back as the fore-side, you may put large feathers, 
 namely, those of a cock-pheasant's tail, a ruddy-brown hen, &c. 
 
 The next three leaves should be double ; stitch them through the middle, 
 from bide to side ; and with the compasses describe a circle of about an inch 
 ; ad a half diameter : cut out the parchment within the circle. Under some of 
 Lie margins, when the leaves are stitched together, you may tuck peacock's and 
 ostrich herle ; and in others lay neatly the golden feathers of a pheasant's breast, 
 and the grey and dyed yellow mail of a mallard. 
 
 Three double leaves moie, with only two large pockets in each, may be allot- 
 ted for silk of various colours, gold and silver twist, and other odd things. The 
 other leaves you may fill with land-rail's and other small feathers, plovers' tops, 
 and red and black hackles. 
 
 The first and last leaves of your book may be double, stitched iu the middle 
 from side to side, but open at the edges; which will leave you four pockets like 
 those of a common pocket-book ; into which you may put hooks, and a small 
 piece of wax, wrapped in a bit of glove-leatber. 
 
 To the page that contains the mixed dubbings, there should be an Index, 
 referring to every division contained in it, and expressing what fly each mix- 
 ture is for. 
 
 When your book is thus prepared, send it to the binder with directions to 
 bind it as strong as possible ; let him leave a flap to one of the boards, and fasten 
 to it a yard of ribbon to tie it. 
 
 The usefulness and manifold conveniences of a book are apparent; and who- 
 ever will be at the pains of making such a one as this, will find it greatly pre- 
 ferable to a magazine-bag. 
 
 H 
 
98 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 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 the best. One 
 observes, that 
 
 when the wind Is sooth. 
 
 It blows your bait into a fish's mouth. 
 
 Next to that, the west wind is believed to be the best : 
 and having told you that the east wind is the worst, I 
 need not tell you which wind is the best in the third 
 degree : and yet, (as Solomon observes,) that " he that 
 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 super- 
 stitious : 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 comer it will and do its 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 any 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 willow- 
 ish colour ; darkening it in most places with waxed silk ; 
 or ribbed with black hair ; or, some 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 
 
CHAP. V. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 99 
 
 mallard's feather for the wings. 1 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, 2 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 HAW- 
 THORN-FLY : which is all black, and not big but very 
 small, the smaller the better. Or the oak-fly,* s ec the P rd- 
 the body of which is orange colour and black cedill P a - 
 crewel, with a brown wing. Or a fly made with a pea- 
 cock's feather is excellent in a bright day: 3 you must be 
 sure you want not in your magazine-bag the peacock's 
 
 (I) Some dub the Oak-fly, with black wool, and Isabella-coloured mohair, and 
 bright brownish bear's hair, warped on with yellow silk, but the head of an ash- 
 ct 'our ; others dab it with an orange, tawny, and black ground ; others with 
 blackish wool and gold-twist ; the wings of the brown of a mallard's feather. 
 Bowlker, in his Art of Angling, p. 63, says, " The body may be made of it bit- 
 tern's feather, and the wings of the feather of a woodcock's wing." 
 
 (?) This is impossible, unless you dib with the artificial as with the natural 
 fly, which is never practised. The method of throwing or casting is more par- 
 ticularly treated of, in the notes on Chap. V. Part II. 
 
 (3) A brother of the angle must always be sped 
 With three black palmers, and alto two red ; 
 And all made with hackles. In a cloudy day, 
 Or in windy weather, angle you may: 
 
 But morning and evening, if the day be bright : 
 And the chief point of all is to keep out of sight. 
 " In the month of May, none but the May-fly, 
 " For every month, one" is a pitiful lye. 
 
 The black Hawthorn-fly must be very small; 
 
 And the sandy hog's hair is, sure, best of all 
 
 (For the mallard-wing May-fly, and peacock's train, 
 
 Will look like the flesh-fly,) to kill Trout amain. 
 
 H2 
 
100 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 feather ; and grounds of such wool and crewel as will 
 make the grasshopper. And note, that usually the small- 
 est 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 found, and stands usually 
 with his head downward, that is to say, towards the 
 root of the tree: 1 the small black-fly, or Hawthorn-fly > 
 
 The Oak-fly it good, \f it have a brown wing. 
 So it the gras$hopper, that in July doth sing .- 
 With a gretn body make him, on a middlc-tiz'd hook, 
 But when you have catcht ftih, then play the good cook. 
 Compare Once more, my good brother, I'll speak in thy ear- 
 this with Ho f t rcj co,,',, md bear's wool, to float bett appear.- 
 SSiiSl And* doth your fur. \f rightly it fall : 
 WalioSr But ****' remember, Make two, and make .11.* 
 Preface. A tpecimen of Mr. Barker'* poetry f 
 
 (1) The Oak-fly it known alto by the names of the Ash-fly and the Woodcock. 
 fly; and in Shropshire it it called the cannon or Downhill-fly. Bowlker, in 
 hit Art of Angling, page 63, tays : " Thit fly, as I have lately been informed 
 br a gentleman of veracity, is bred in those little ball* which grow on the boughs 
 of large oaks, commonly called oak-apples; which he accidentally discovered, 
 by opening several of these balls which had been gathered in the winter, and 
 brought into the house; in each of which was found the cannon-fly, some of which 
 being enlivened by the warnith of the room immediately took flight, and fixed in 
 the window with the head downwards, the position they observe on the trees." 
 This discovery, by which the formation of galls is accounted for, as well as 
 the substances above-mentioned, was made long ago by the sagacious Malpighi, 
 who had with great diligence attended to the operations of insects in the act 
 of depositing their eggs ; and in his treatise De Gallis, he describes the bollow 
 instrument wherewith many flies are provided, with which they perforate the 
 tegument of leaves, fruits, or buds, and through the hollow of it inject their 
 eggs iolo the wounds which they have made, where, in process of time, they hatch 
 
CHAP. V. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 101 
 
 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 * See page 53. 
 may dape or dop, and also with a grasshop- 
 per, 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 (he earth and sky, 
 Sweet dews shall weep thy fail to-night, 
 for lliou must die. 
 
 Sweet rose, whose hue, angry and brave, 
 Bids the rash gazer wipe his cy, 
 Thy root is ever in its 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, 
 
 aud 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. 
 
 and are nourished ; and this he beheld one of these insects doing in the bud of 
 au oak. See Malpighi, dc GaUis, page 47- See also Dr. Plot's History of 
 Staffordshire, CC4. 
 
 And Dr. Derham says, he himself " had once the good fortune to see an oak- 
 ball ichneumon strike its tercbra into an oak-apple diveis time?, no doubt to 
 lay its eggs therein." Phys. Theol. Book viii. Chap. 6. Note bb. 
 
 There is no comparison between the first of these authorities and those of 
 the two persons last-mentioned : but it is pleasing to apply the accidental dis- 
 coveries of unlearned men to the confirmation of hypotheses of which they art 
 ignorant. 
 
1.02 
 
 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. FART. I. 
 
 Yen. I thank you, good master, for your good direc- 
 tion 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. Herbert'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. 
 
 Pise. Well, my loving scholar, and / am pleased to 
 know that you -are so well pleased with my direction and 
 discourse. 
 
 And since you like these verses of Mr. Herbert's so 
 well, let me tell you what a reverend and learned divine 
 that professes 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. 1 
 
 What! FRAY'* by the BOOK ? and COMMON ? Yes; why not? 
 
 The spirit of grace 
 And supplication 
 It not left free alone 
 
 For time and place, 
 
 But manner top: TO HEAD, OR SPEAK, by rote, 
 Is all alike :o him that prays, 
 lu's heart, what with his mouth he says. 
 
 They thai iu private, by themselves alooe, 
 
 Do pray, may take 
 What liberty they please, 
 In thusiug of the ways 
 
 Wherein to make 
 
 Their soul's most intimate affections known 
 To him that sees in secret, when 
 Th' are most cooceal'd from other men. 
 
 (I) This passace goes very near to unfold to us a secret in literary history, 
 vis. the name of the author of the Synagogue,* collection of poems, suppletory 
 to that of Mr. George Herbert entitled the Temple. For we nee " Ch. Harvie'' 
 subscribed to the ensuing EULOCIUM on the Common Prayer, WHICH is also 
 to be found in the Synagogue. And I find in the Athen. Oxon. Vol. I. 267. 
 a Christopher Hurtey; a Master of Arts, Vicar of Clifton iu Warwickshire; 
 born iu 1997. *nd who lived to 1663, and perhaps after. Further, the second 
 copy of commc ndaioi y verses, prefixed to this book, has the subscription " Ch. 
 
CHAP. V. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 103 
 
 But he that unto others leads the way 
 
 ID 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 tli' prayer be good, the commoner the better, 
 Prayer in the Church'* WORDS as well 
 As SENSE, of all prayers bears the bell. 1 
 
 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 ; 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 sat as quietly and as free from 
 cares under this sycamore, as Virgil's Tityrus and his 
 Melibo2us did under their broad beech-tree. No life, my 
 honest scholar, no life so happy and so pleasant as the 
 Afe of a well-governed angler; for when the lawyer is 
 swallowed up with business, and the statesman is pre- 
 
 Harvie, M. A." The presumption, therefore, is very strong, that both were 
 written by the Christopher Harvey above-mentioned. At the end of the Syna- 
 gogue are some verses subscribed ' Iz. Wa." 
 
 (]) These verses were written at or near the time when the Liturgy was 
 abolished by an ordinance of parliament, and while it was agitating, as a theo- 
 logical question, whether, of the two, pre- conceived or extemporary prayer 
 be most agreeable to the sense of Scripture ? In favour of the former, I have 
 heard it asserted by a very eloquent person, and one of the ablest writers both 
 in prose and verse now living, that he never, without premeditation, could 
 address his Maker in terms suited to his conceptions; and that of all written 
 composition he had found that of prayer to be the most 'difficult. Of the same 
 opinion is a very eminent prelate of this day; who, (being himself an excellent 
 judge of literature), in a conversation on the subject, declared it to me, at the 
 same time saying, that, excepting those in the Liturgy, he looked on the 
 prayers of Dr. Jeremy Taylor, that occur in the course of his works, as by (of 
 the most eloquent and energetic of any in our language. 
 
104 THE COMPLETE AKGLEK. PART I. 
 
 venting 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 1 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 re- 
 creation than angling." 
 
 I'll 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 holy-days." As I then sat on this very grass, I turned 
 my present thoughts into verse : 'twas a TPi'sA, which I'll 
 repeat to you.* 
 
 THE ANGLER'S WISH. 
 
 I in these flower j meads would be : 
 These crystal streams should solace me ; 
 To whose harmonious bubbling noise 
 I with my angle wonld rejoice : 
 Sit here, and see the turtle-dove 
 Court his chaste mate to acts of lore : 
 
 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 washed off by April showers : 
 Like Her- Here, hear my Kenna sing* a sons* ; 
 
 mit poor. There, sec a blackbird feed her youog, 
 
 (1) The person here mentioned I take to be Dr. William Butler, an eminent 
 physiciau or our author's time, styled by Fuller, in his Worthies, Suffolk, 67, 
 the Aesculapius of the age: he invented a medical drink, called " Dr. Butler's 
 Ale," which, if not now, was a very few years ago sold at certain houses in 
 London, that had his head for a sign. One of these was in Ivy-lane, aud ano- 
 ther in an alley leading from Coleman-slreet to Basinghall- street. He was a 
 great humourist; a circumstance in his character which, joined to his reputa- 
 tion for skill in his profession, might contribute to render him popular. 
 
 (2) We have here little less thau Walton's own word for it, that the follow- 
 ing beautiful Stanzas are of his writing. That he had in his mind a vein of 
 poetry, is noted in our Life, of him; to which let me add, that the name of his 
 supposed mistress, " Kenna," seems clearly to be formed from the maiden- 
 name of his wife, which was KEN. 
 
 (3) We see, by the Author's reference to the margin, that he wishes to hear 
 Kenoa, his mistress, sing the song " Like Hermit poor." This soni, was set 
 
CHAP. V. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 105 
 
 Or a Jeverock 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, r and a book, 
 Loiter long days near ShawfordJirook ; a 
 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 honeysuckle 
 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 
 
 to music by Mr. Nich. Laneare, an eminent master of Walton's time; (who, we 
 are told by Wood, was also an excellent painter ; and whose portrait is yet to 
 be seen in the Music-School at Oxford;) and is printed with the notes, in a 
 Collection entitled Select musical ayre* and dialogue, folio, 1653. 
 
 It was also set by Sig. Alfonso Ferabosco, and published in a collection of 
 his airs, in folio, 1609 ; but Laneare's composition is preferred. 
 
 There is no doubt but tlut this song was (and probably with Mrs. Walton) a 
 favourite one; for, some years after the Restoration, the three first words of it 
 ^ were become a phrase. The affected writer of the Lift of the iMrd-keeper 
 GuUdford, page 212 of that book, speaking of Sir Job Charleton, then chief- 
 justice of Chester, says, he wanted to speak with the King; and went to White- 
 hall, where, returning from his walk in St. James's park, he must pass; and 
 there he sat him down, " like hermit poor." And I also find, among the poems 
 of Mr. Pbineas Fletcher, hereafter mentioned, a metaphrase of the xliid Psalm; 
 which, we are told, may be sung to the tune of, " Like hermit poor." Further, 
 we meet with an allusion to this song in Hudibras, Part I. Canto ii. line 1169. 
 
 "That done, they ope the trap-door gate, 
 And let Crowdero down thereat; 
 Crowdero making doleful face, 
 Like hermit poor in pensive place." 
 
 (1) A friend conjectures this to be the name of his favourite dog. 
 
 (2) Shawford-brook, part of the river Sow, running through the very land 
 which Walton bequeathed in his will to the corporation of Stafford to find coals 
 for the poor: the right of fishery in which attaches to this little estate. 
 
 The house, described by Walton in his will, is now divided. The brook is a 
 beautiful winding stream, and the situation suth as would be likely to create 
 admiration in a mind like Walton's. 
 
106 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 gypsies ; and near to them sat a gang of beggars. The 
 gypsies 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 govern- 
 ment 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 
 corporation : and for the remaining twenty shillings, that 
 was to be divided unto four gentlemen gypsies, according 
 to their several degrees in their commonwealth. 
 
 And the first or chiefest gypsy was, by consent, to have 
 a third part of the twenty shillings ; which all men know 
 is 6s. Bd. 
 
 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 gypsy was to have a sixth part of 
 the 20s. which all men know to be 3s. 4rf. 
 As, for example, 
 
 3 times 6s. Sd. 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 
 gypsy, that though he gave to every one these said sums, 
 yet he kept one shilling of it for himself. 
 
 As for example, s. d. 
 
 6 8 
 5 
 4 
 3 4 
 
 make but- - - 19 
 
CHAP. V. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 107 
 
 But now you shall know, that when the four gypsies 
 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 gypsy envied him that 
 was the gainer ; and wrangled with him ; and every one 
 said the remaining Is. belonged to him : and so they fell 
 to so high a contest about it, as none that knows the faith- 
 fulness of one gypsy 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 
 gypsies were too wise to go to law, and did therefore 
 choose their choice friends Rook and Shark, and our late 
 English Gusman, ' to be their arbitrators and umpires. 
 And so they left this honeysuckle hedge, and went to 
 teJl 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 
 ^ mswered, by asking her, how she unript it if she let it 
 alone? and she confest 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 
 schismatic ; and sometimes all the beggars, (whose num- 
 ber was neither more nor less than the poets' nine muses,) 
 talked all together abput this ripping and unripping ; and 
 
 (1) Alluding to a work that appeared a few years before, entitled " The 
 English Guiman, or, the History of that unparalleled thief, James Hind," 
 written by George Fidge, 4to. Lond. 1652. 
 
 Hind made a considerable figure at the time of the great rebellion, and 
 fought, both at Worcester and Warrington, on the king's side. He was arrested 
 by order of the Parliament in 1651. 
 
108 THE COMPLETE ANGLlill. PART I. 
 
 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, l 
 created king of their corporation, was to lodge at an ale- 
 house, called Catchr-her-by-the-way y 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 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 tun, play beggars, play: 
 Here'* scraps enough to serve to^tay. 
 
 What ooue of viols is so sweet, 
 
 As when our merry clippers ring ? 
 What mirth doth want when beggars meet I 
 
 A beggar's life is for a king. 
 Eat, drink, and play ; sleep when we list ; 
 Go where we will, to stocks be mist. 
 
 Bright shines the sun, play beggars, play ; 
 
 Here's scraps enough to serve today. 
 
 The world is ours, and ours alone ; 
 
 For we alone have world at will. 
 We purchase not ; all is our own; 
 
 Both fields and streets we beggars fill. 
 
 Play beggars, play, play beggars, play; 
 
 Here's scraps enough to serve to-day. 
 
 A hundred herds of black and while 
 
 Upon our gowus 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. 
 
 (1) Th Comedy of The Royal Merchant, or Beggar's Bush, was written by 
 Beaumont and Fletcher, and uot by Ecu Jonsou. It has also been attributed 
 wholly to Fletcher. 
 
CHAP. V. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 109 
 
 Ven. I thank you, good master, for this piece of merri- 
 ment, and this song, which was well humoured by the 
 maker, and well remembered by you. 
 
 Pise. But, I pray, forget not the catch which you pro- 
 mised 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 learnt 
 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 de- 
 struction. 
 
 Ven. Oh me ! look you, master, a fish ! a fish ! Oh, alas, 
 master, I have lost her ! 
 
 Pise. I 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 run- 
 ning 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. 
 
 Pise. 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 
 
HO THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 many reasons to incline them to that belief. And to 
 make the wonder seem yet less, that hares change sexes, 
 note that Dr. Mer. Casaubon affirms, in his book Of cre- 
 dible and incredible things, that Gasper Peucerus, a 
 learned physician, 1 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 
 fresh water, and his not returning into the sea hath 
 altered him to another colour or kind, 1 am not able to 
 gay ; 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. 
 
 Yen. But, master, will this Trout which I had hold of 
 die ? for it is like he hath the hook in his belly. 
 
 Pise. 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 Condon. Come, now bait your 
 hook again, and lay it into the water, for it rains again; 
 and we will even retire to the sycamore-tree, and there 
 I will give you more directions concerning fishing, for I 
 would fain make you an artist. 
 
 Yen. Yes, good master, I pray let it be so. 
 
 Pise. Well, scholar, now we are sate 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. 
 
 (1) And mathematician, born at Lusatia, in 1525; he married the daughter 
 of Melaocthon, wrote many books on various subject*, and died lC02, aged 78. 
 
I 
 
 CHAP. V. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 
 
 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 close in the day as the timorous hare does in her form; 
 for the chief feeding of either is seldom in the day, but 
 ^isually in the night, and then the great Trout feeds 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 across 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 
 
112 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 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. 
 
 Yen. But, master, do not Trouts see us in the night? 
 
 Pise. 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 b 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 demon- 
 strating 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 dimi- 
 nution of it by the water." He also offers the like expe- 
 riment 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 r ) 
 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 
 dram. And, however, it shall be a rule for me to make 
 as little noise as I can when I am fishing until Sir Fran- 
 cis Bacon be confuted, which I shall give any man leave 
 to do. 1 
 
 (1) That fish hear, is confirmed by the authority of late writers: Swammer- 
 dam asserts it, and adds, that " they have a wonderful labyrinth of the ear for 
 that purpose." See Swamroerdam, Of Insects, edit. London, 1758, p. 50. A 
 clergyman, a friend of mine, assures roe, that at the abbey of St. Bernard, near 
 Antwerp, he saw Carp come at the whistling of the feeder. 
 
CHAP. V. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 113 
 
 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, 1 f. 360, quotes Pliny to report that one*of the 
 emperors had particular fish-ponds, and, in them, seve- 
 ral fish that appeared and came when they were called by 
 their particular names. 2 And St. James tells us, chap. 
 3. 7. that all things in the sea have been tamed by man- 
 kind. And Pliny tells us, lib. ix. 35. 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 fur- 
 ther confirmation from Martial, 3 lib. iv. Epigr. 30. who 
 writes thus: 
 
 Pitcutor, fugt; nt nocens, &c. 
 
 Angler! would'st thou bo guiltless ? then forbear; 
 For these are sacred fishes that swim here, 
 Who know their sovereign. and will lick his hand; 
 Than which none's greater in the world's command ; 
 Nay more, they've names, and, when they called are, 
 K Do to their several owner's call repair. 
 
 All the furthur use that I shall make of this shall be, to 
 
 (1) Tills book, which was published in folio, 1635, and is full of excellent 
 learning and good sense, contains an examination and censure of that common 
 error which philosophers have fallen into, " that there is in nature a perpetual 
 and universal decay ;'' the contrary whereof, after an extensive view of the 
 history of the physical and moral world, and a judicious and impartial compa- 
 rison of former ages with thai wherein the author lived, is with great force of 
 argument demonstrated. The reader may, in this book, meet with a relation of 
 that instance of Lord Cromwell's gratitude to Sig. Frescobaldi, a Florentine 
 merchant, which is given, in a dramatic form, in the History of Thomas Lord 
 Cromwell, published as Shakspeare's by some of the earlier editors of his works. 
 
 (2) Mons. Berneier, in his History of Indostan, reports the like of the Great 
 Mogul. 
 
 {3) The verses cited are as follow : 
 
 " Piscator, fuge ; ne nocens recedas, 
 Sacris piscibus lice natantur undee ; 
 Qui nflrunt dotuinum, manumque lambunt 
 I Hum, qu& niliil est, in orbe, tnajus ; 
 Quid, quod nomen habent ; tt ad magistri 
 Vocera quisque sui vcnit citatus." 
 
114 THE COMPLETE ANGLEU. PART I 
 
 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 Leominster, a town in Hereford- 
 shire, 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 ; 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 plea- 
 sure, concluded with Solomon, " Every thing is beauti- 
 ful in his season." 
 
 (I) The Trout delights in small purling rivers, and brooks, with gravelly bot- 
 t OBS and a swift stream. His haunt* are an eddy, behind a stone, a log, or a 
 bank that projects forward into the river, and against which the stream drires ; 
 a shallow between two streams ; or, towards the latter end of the summer, a 
 mill-tail. His hold is usually in the deep, under the hollow of a bank, or the 
 root of M tree. 
 
 The Trout spawns about the beginning of NoYember, and does not recover 
 till the beginning of March. 
 
 Walton has been so particular on the subject of Trout-fishing, that he has left 
 very little room to say any thing, by way of annotation, with respect to Baits. 
 or the method of uking this fish : yet there are some directions and observa- 
 tions pertinent to this chapter, which it would not be consistent with the 
 ntended copiousness and accuracy of this work to omit 
 
 When you fish for Urge Trout or Salmon, a winch will be .very useful : upon 
 the rod with which you use the winch, whip a number of small rings of about 
 an eighth of an inch diameter, and, at first about two feet distant from each 
 other, but, afterwards, diminishing gradually in their distances till you come 
 o the end ; the winch must be screwed ou to the butt of your rod : and round 
 be barrel let there be wound eight or ten yards of wove hair or silk line. 
 
CHAP. VI. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 115 
 
 I should, by promise, speak next of the Salmon; but 
 I will, by your favour, say a little of the Umber, or Gray- 
 ling; 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 Sal- 
 mon. 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 Obtertations on the UMBER or GRAYLING, and Directions how 
 to fish for him. 
 
 Piscator. THE Umber and Grayling are thought by 
 some to differ as the Herring and Pilchard do. But 
 though they may do so in other nations, I think those in 
 England differ nothing but in their names. Aldrovan- 
 dus says, they be of a Trout kind; and Gesner says, that 
 in his country, which is Switzerland, he is accounted the 
 choisest of all fish. And in Italy, he is, in the month of 
 J^fay, so highly valued, that he is sold 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 Gray- 
 ling so highly, that they say he feeds on gold ; and say, 
 
 When you have struck a fish that may endanger your tackle, let the line run, 
 and wind him up as he tires. 
 
 You will find great convenience in a spike, made of a piece of the greater 
 end of a sword-blade, screwed into the hither end of the butt of your rod : 
 when you have struck a fish, retire backwards from the river, and hy means of 
 the spike, stick the rod perpendicular in the ground ; you may then lay hold 
 on the line, and draw the fish to you, as you see proper. 
 
 When yoo angle for a Trout, whether with a fly or at the ground, you need 
 make but three or four trials in a place ; which if unsuccessful, you may con- 
 clude there are none there. 
 
 Walton, in speaking of the several rivers where Trout are found, has made 
 no mention of the Kennet ; which, undoubtedly, produces as good and as 
 many Trouts as any river in England. In the reign of King Charles the Second, 
 a Trout was taken in that river, near Newbury, with a casting.net, which 
 measured forty-five inches in length. 
 
 i2 
 
116 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 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 first being 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 in- 
 vite us to a joy and contentedness in feasting with her. 
 Whether this is a truth or not, it 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 swarthiness, or any 
 thing that breeds in the eyes. Salvian ' takes him 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: 
 hut I shall only tell you, that St. Ambrose, the glorious 
 bishop of Milan, who lived when the church kept fasting- 
 days, calls liim 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 
 
 (1) HippolUo Salviani, an Italian physician of the sixteenth century : he 
 wrote a treatise Dt Pitcibut, cum corum figtiri$, and died at Rome, 1572 , 
 
CHAP. VI. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 117 
 
 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, arid yet 
 rise again. He has been taken with a fly, made of the 
 red feathers of aparakita, 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. 1 And so I 
 
 k (1) The haunts of the Grayling aie so nearly the same with those of the 
 'Irout, tliat, in fishing for either, you may, in many rivers, catch both. 
 
 They tpawn about the beginning of April, when they lie, mostly, in sharp 
 streams. 
 
 Baits for the Grayling are chiefly the same as those for the Trout, except 
 the minnow, which he will not take so freely. He will also take gentles very 
 -eagerly. When you fish for him with a fly, you can hardly use one too small. 
 
 The Grayling is much more apt to rise than descend ; therefore, when you 
 angle for him alone, and not for the Trout, rather use a float, with the bait from 
 six to nine inches fn.rn the bottom, than the running-line. 
 
 The Grayling is fouud in great plenty in many rivers in the north, particu- 
 larly the Humber. And in the Wye, which runs through Herefordshire and 
 Monmouthshire into the Severn, I have taken, with an artificial fly, very large 
 ones; as also great numbers of a small, but excellent fish, of the Trout kind, 
 called a Last-spring; of which somewhat will be said in a subsequent note. 
 They are not easily to be got at without a boat, or wading ; for which reason, 
 those of that country use a thing they call a thorrocle, or truckle: in some 
 places it is called a coble, from the Latin corbula, a little l>asket : it is a bas- 
 ket shaped like the half of a walnuMhell, but shallower in proportion, and 
 covered on the outside with a borse's-hide ; it has a bench in the middle, and 
 will just hold one person, and is so light, that the countrymen will hang it on 
 their heads like a hood, and so travel with a small paddle which serves for a 
 stick, till tliey come to a river ; and then they launch it, and step in. There 
 is great difficulty in gelling into one of these truckles, for the instant you 
 
118 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 shall take my leave of him : and now come to some obser- 
 vations of the Salmon, and how to catch him. 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 Observation* on the SALMON; with Direction* 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 brackishness. He is said to breed or cast his spawn, 
 in most rivers, in the month of August: 1 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 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 stopt by flood-gates or weirs, or 
 lost in the fresh waters, then those so left behind by 
 degrees grow sick and lean, and unseasonable, and kip- 
 
 touch it with your foot it flies from you : and when you are in, the least incli- 
 nation of the body oversets it. It is very diverting to see how upright a man 
 is forced to tit in these vessels and to mark with what state and solemnity he 
 draws op the atone which serves for an anchor, when he would remove, and 
 leu it down tgaiu ; however, it is a sort of navigation that I would wish our 
 pisratory disciple never to attempt. 
 
 (1) Their usual time of spawning is about the latter end of August or the 
 beginning of September, but it is said that those in the Severn spawn in May. 
 
CHAP. VII. .THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 119 
 
 per, that is to say, have boney gristles grow out of their 
 lower chaps, not unlike a hawk's beak, which hinders 
 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. 
 
 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 pos- 
 sest 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 ob- 
 served, 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 
 
 (1) The migration of the Salmon and divert other sorts of fishes is analogous 
 to that ot Birds:, and Mr. Ray confirms Walton's assertion, by saying, that 
 Salmon will yearly ascend uj a river four or five hundred miles, only to cast 
 their spawn, and secure it in banks of sand till the young be hatched and 
 excluded ; and then return to sea again." // udom of God manifested in the 
 Works of the Creation, p. 130. 
 
 Jt 11. ay not be improper here to take notice, that in this, and several other 
 parts of the hook, U>e tacts related by the author do most remarkably coincide 
 with later discoveries of the most diligent and sagacious naturalists. 
 
120 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 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 weirs, 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 Pem- 
 brokeshire, where the river Tivy falls into the sea ; and 
 that the fall is so downright, 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 nota- 
 ble, that it is known, far, by the name of the Salmon-leap. 
 Concerning which, take this also out of Michael Drayton, 1 
 my honest old friend; as he tells it you, in his Polyolbion: ' 
 
 A 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 tho' within her bounds they meaut her to inclose; 
 Here, when the labouring fish does at the foot arrive, 
 And finds that by his strength he does but vainly strive ; 
 Hi* tail take* iu his mouth, and bending like a bow 
 That's to full compass drawn, aloft himself doth throw. 
 Then springing i his hi iht, us 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 ;ummersault 
 
 (1) An excellent poet, born in V/arwickshire, 1563. Among his works, which 
 re very numerous, is the Polyolbian. a choiographical description of the rivers, 
 mountains, forests, castles, &c. in this island. Though this poem has great 
 nerit, it is rendered much more valuable by the learned notes of Mr. Selden. 
 The author died in ifol , and lies buried among the poets in Westminster abbey. 
 
 (:) Dr. Warburton, in the Preface to his Shukipeare, speaking of this poem, 
 says it was written by one Drayton : a mode of expression very common with 
 great men, when they mean to consign the memory of others over to oblivion 
 and contempt. Bishop Bornet speaking of the negociatioos previous to the 
 peace of Uuerht, says, in like manner, that "one Prior was employed to finish 
 the treaty." But both tho.e gentlemen, in their witty perversion of an innocent 
 monosyllable, were but imitators of the Swedish ambassador, who complained 
 to Wl:itlocke, that a featy had been sent to br translated by one Mr. Milton, n. 
 blind man. Whitlocke's Mem. 633. 
 
CHAP. VII. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 121 
 
 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 summer- 
 sault 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 counties 
 have as fat, and as large as the river Thames, yet none 
 are of so excellent a taste. 1 
 
 And as I have told you, that Sir Francis Bacon ob- 
 serves, 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 Sam- 
 let 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 ribband, or some known 
 tape or thrad, in the tail of some young Salmons which 
 have been taken in weirs 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 
 Yronj 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 re- 
 turn 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. 
 
 (1) The following interesting article of intelligence appeared in one of the 
 London Journals, 18 April 1789: " The largest salmon ever caught was yester- 
 day brought to London. This extraordinary fish measured upwards of four 
 fe*t, from the point of the nose to the extremity of the tail ; and three feet 
 round the thickest part of the body : its weight was seventy pounds within a 
 few ounces. A fishmonger in the Minories cut it up at one shilling per pound, 
 and the whole was sold almost immediately." 
 
122 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 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 the She is : yet she is, at that time of looking less 
 kipper and better, as watry, and as bad meat. 
 
 And yet you are to observe, that as there is no general 
 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 Mon- 
 mouthshire, where they be in season, as Camden observes, 
 from September till April. But, my scholar, the observa- 
 tion of this and many other things 1 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 ob- 
 served 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, 
 
 (1) The Salmon delights io large- rapid rivers, especially such as have pebbly, 
 gravelly, and sometimes weedy bottoms. 
 
CHAP. VII. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 123 
 
 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. 1 
 
 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 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 re- 
 maining in that box an hour, or a like time, they had 
 
 (I) Baits for Salmon arc : lob-worms, for the ground; smaller worms aud bobs, 
 cad bait, and, indeed, most of the baits taken by the trout, at the top of the 
 water. And as to flies, remember to make them of the most gaudy colours, and 
 very lart;e. There is a fly called the horse-leech fly, which he is vpry fond of: 
 they are of various colours, have great heads, large bodies, very long tills, and 
 two (and some have three) pairs of wings, placed behind each other : in imitat- 
 ing tins fly, behind each pair of wings, whip the body about with gold or silver 
 twist, or both; and do the same by the head. Fish with it at length, as for 
 Trout and Grayling. If yon dib, do it with two or three butterflies of different 
 colours, or with some of the most glaring small flies you can find. 
 
124 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 incorporated a kind of smell that was irresistibly attrac- 
 tive, 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 hedens grandissimce inflicta 
 sudant balsamum oleo gelato, albicantiquc pcrsimilc, odoris 
 verb longt suavissimi." 
 
 " 'Tis supremely sweet to any fish, and yet assafcetida 
 may do the like." ' 
 
 (1) There is extant, though I have never been able to get a sight of it, a book 
 entitled, the Secrets of Angling, by 3. D.; at the end of which is the following 
 mystical recipe of " R. R." who possibly may be the " R. Roe" mentioned in the 
 Preface, [to Walton.] 
 
 To bliss thy bait, and make the fish to bite, 
 Lo! here's a meaus. if thou canst hit it right : 
 Take gum of life, well beat and laid to soak 
 Iry lu oil welt drawn from that* which kills the oak. 
 
 Fish where thou wilt, thou shall have sport thy fill ; 
 When others fail, thou shalt be sure to kill. 
 
 The ingenious author of the Angler's Sure Guide, published in 8vo. 1?06; in 
 the Preface, and elsewhere, ascribes this book to " that great practitioner, mas- 
 ter aud patron of angling, Dr. Donne." But I doubt as much, whether '.ie wab 
 
CHAP. VII. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 125 
 
 But in these 1 have no great faith ; yet grant it proba- 
 ble; 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 : espe- 
 cially not in this place, 1 
 
 I might here, before I take my leave of the Salmon, tell 
 you, 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 for- 
 bear to name, may be fish of another kind, and differ as 
 we know a Herring and a Pilchard do, a ) 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 
 
 an angler, as I do his being the author of the above book; neither of which cir- 
 cumstances would, I think, have been omitted by Walton, had the several facts 
 been true. 
 
 (1) The following intelligence appeared in one of the London papers, !21st 
 June, 1788, and should operate as a general caution against using, in the com- 
 position of baits, any ingredient prejudicial to the human constitution. "New- 
 castle, June 16. Last week, in Lancashire, two young men having caught a 
 large quantity of Trout by mixing the water in a small brook with lime, ate 
 heartily of the Trout at dinner the next day ; they were seized, at midnight, 
 with violent pains in the intestines ; and though medical assistance was imme- 
 diately procured, they expired before noon, in the greatest agonies." 
 
 (2) There is a fish, in many rivers, of the Salmon kind, which, though very 
 small, is thought by some curious persons to be of the same species; and this, I 
 take it, is the fish known by the different names of Salmon-Pink, Shedders, 
 Skeggers, Last-springs, and Gravel Last-Springs. But there is another small 
 fish very much resembling these in shape and colour, called the Gravel Last- 
 Spring, found only in the river Wye and Severn ; which is, undoubtedly, a dis- 
 tinct species ; These spawn about the beginning of September : and in the Wye 
 I have taken them with an ant-fly as fast as I could throw. Perhaps this is what 
 Walton calls the Tecon. 
 
126 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PARTI. 
 
 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. 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 
 on the LUCE or PIKE, with Directions how to fish 
 for him. 
 
 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 gene- 
 ration, and some not; as namely, of a weed called pick- 
 erel-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 is 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 in- 
 scription in that ring, being Greek, was interpreted by the 
 then Bishop of Worms. 1 But of this no more ; but that 
 
 (1) The story is told by Hakrwill, who in his " Apolojjie of the power and 
 providence of God." fol. O^f.l6S5. P. I. p. 145, says," I will close up this Chap- 
 ter with a relation of Gesner's, in his Epistle to the Emperor Ferdinand, prefixed 
 before his booke De Pitcibut, touching the long life of a Pike which was cast 
 into a pond or poole near Hailebnine in Swevia, with this inscription ingraven 
 upon a collar of brass fastened about his necke. Ego sum iUe pitcit huic stagno 
 omnium primus impontua per mundi rectorix Frederici Sccundi manus, 
 5 Octobris. anno 1230. I am that fish which was first of all cast into this poole 
 
CHAP, VIII. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 127 
 
 it is observed, that the old or very great Fikes 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 keep- 
 ers, 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-water wolf, by reason of his bold, 
 greedy, devouring disposition; which is so keen, that, 
 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 Killing- 
 worth pond, not far from Coventry. But I have been 
 assured by my friend Mr. Seagrave, 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 conclude 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." ' 
 
 by the hand of Fredericke the Second, governour of the world, the fift of Octo- 
 ber, in the year 1830. He was again taken up in the yeare 1497, and by the 
 inscription it appeared he had then lived there 267 jearcs." 
 
 (1) Bowlker, in hw Art of Angling before cited, page 9, gives the following 
 instance of the exceeding voracity of this fish : " My father catched a Pike in 
 Barn-Meer, (a large standing water in Cheshire) was an ell long, and weighed 
 thirty-five pounds, which he brought to the lord Cholmondeley : his lordship 
 ordered it to be turned into a canal in the garden, wherein were abundance of 
 
128 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 But if these relations be disbelieved, it is too evident to 
 be doubted, that a Pike will devour a fish of his own kind 
 
 several sorts of fish. About twelve mouths after, his lordship clraw'd the canal, 
 and found that this overgrown Pike had devoured all llie fish, except one large 
 Carp, that weighed between nine and ten pounds, aud thai was bitten in several 
 places. The Pike was then put into the canal again, together with abundance 
 of fish with him to feed upon, all which he devoured in less than a year's time; 
 and was observed by the gardener and workmen there, to take the ducks, and 
 other water-fowl, under water. Whereupon they .'hoi magpies and crows, and 
 threw them into the canal, which the Pike look before their eyes : of this they 
 acquainted their lord ; who, thereupon, ordered the slaughterman to (ling in 
 calves-bellies, chickens-guts, and such like garbage to him, to prey upon : but 
 being soon after neglected, he died, as supposed, for want of food. 
 
 The following relation was inserted as an article of news in one of the Lon- 
 don Papers, d Jan. 1765. 
 
 Extract qf a jMUrfrom Littleport, Dtc. 17. 
 
 " About ten days ago, a large Pike was cughl in ihe river Ouse, which 
 weighed upwards of 28 pounds, and was sold to a gentleman in the neighbour- 
 hood fora guinea. As the cook-maid was gutting the fish, she found, to her 
 grtmt astonishment, a watch with a black ribbon and two steel seals annexed, in 
 the body of the Pike ; the gentleman's bntler, upon opening the watch, found 
 the maker's name, Thomas Cranefield, Burnham, Norfolk. Upon a strict en- 
 quiry, it appears, that the said watch was sold to a gentleman's servant, who 
 was unfortunately drowued about six weeks ago, in his way to Cambridge, 
 between this place and South-Ferry. The watch is siill in the possession of 
 Mr. John Roberts, at the Cross-Keys in Liltleport, for the inspection of the 
 public." 
 
 And this in the same paper, the 25th of the same mouth and year. " On 
 Tuesday last, at Lillishall time-works, near Newport, a pool about nine yards 
 deep, which has not been fished for ages, was let off by means of level brought 
 up to drain the works, when an enormous Pike was found : he was drawn out 
 by a rope fastened round his head and gills, amidst hundreds of spectators, in 
 which service a great many men were employed : he weighed upwards of 170 
 pounds, and is thought to be the largest ever seen. Some time sgo, the clerk of 
 the parish was trollii.g in the above pool, when bis bait was seized by this furious 
 creature, which by a sudden jerk pulled him in, and doubtless would have 
 devoured him also, had he not, by wonderful agility and dexterous swimming, 
 escaped the dreadful jaw* of this voracious animal." 
 
 In Dr. Plot's Hittory of Staffordshire, C46, are sundry relations of Pike of 
 great -magnitude; one in particular, caught in the Tliame, an ell and two inches 
 long. 
 
 The following story, containing further evidence of the voracity of this fish, 
 wilh the addition of a pleasant circumstance, I met with in Fuller's Worthies, 
 Lincolnshire, page 14*. 
 
 " A cub Fox drinking out of the river Arnus in Italy, had his head seized on 
 by a mighty Pike, so that neither could free themselves, but were ingrapplcd 
 together. In this contest, a young man runs into the water, takes them out 
 both alive, and carrieth them to the Duke of Florence, whose palace was hard 
 by. The porter would not admit him, without a promise of sharing his full half 
 in what the duke should give him ; to which he (hopeless otherwise of entrance) 
 condescended. The duke, highly affected with the rarity, was about giving him 
 a good reward, which the other refused, desiring his highness would appoint 
 one of his guard to give him an hundred lashes, that so his porter might have 
 fifty according to his composition. And here my intelligence leaveth me, how 
 much farther the jest was followed." 
 
CHAP. VIII. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 129 
 
 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 appears to us to be cold, 
 can yet digest or put over any fish-flesh, by degrees, with- 
 out 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 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 same Author relates, from a book entitled Vox Piscia, printed in 1626, 
 that one Mr. Anderson, a townsman and merchant of Newcastle, talking wilh a 
 friend on Newcastle bridge, and fingering his ring, let it fall into the river; but 
 it having been swallowed by a fish, and the fish afterwards taken, the ring was 
 fonnd and restored to him. Worthies, Northumberland, 310. A like story is, 
 by Herodotus, related of Polycrates king of Samos. 
 
130 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 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 medicinable and useful for the good of man- 
 kind : but he observes, that the biting of a Pike is veno- 
 mous, 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, 
 ns the Pike is a fish, breeds but once in twelve months. 
 Vnd you are to note, that his time of breeding, or spawn- 
 ing, 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. 1 
 
 I'might say more of this, but it might be thought cu- 
 riosity 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. 
 
 (1) Very lale discoveries of naturalists contradict this hypothesis concerning 
 the generation of fishes, and prove that they are produced by the conjunction 
 of the male and female, as other animals are. See the Philosophical Transac- 
 tions, Vol. XLVIII. Part IT. for the year 175*. page 8?0. 
 
CHAP. YIII. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 131 
 
 But before I proceed further, I am to tell you, that 
 there is a great antipathy betwixt the Pike and some frogs : 
 and this may appear to the reader of Dubravius, a bishop 
 in Bohemia, 1 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 swoln 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 
 
 (1) Janus Dubravius Scala, bishop of Olmutz, in Moravia, in the sixteenth 
 century, was born at Pilsen, in Bohemia. The functions of the Bishopric did not 
 hinder him from bring an Ambassador into Sicily, then into Bohemia, and Presi- 
 dent of the chamber established to proceed against the rebels who had borne a 
 pprt in the troubles of Smalcald. Besides the above book, (the Latin title 
 whereof is, De Piscina Sf Piscium quiin eit aluntur nnturis.J he appears, by 
 the Bodleian Catalogue, to have written, in Latin, a History of Bohemia; and 
 an oration to Sigismund, king of Poland, exhorting him to make war on the 
 Turks. He seems to have practised the ordering of fish-ponds and the breeding 
 offish, both for delight and profit. Hoffman, who in his Lexicon has given his 
 name a place, says, he died with the reputation of a pious and learned prelate, in 
 1553, which last particular may admit of question ; for, if it be true, it makes all 
 his writings posthumous Publications, the earliest whereof bears date, anno 155p. 
 
 His book On Fish and Fish-ponds, in which are many pleasant relations, 
 was, in I5Q9, translated into English, and published in4to. by George Churchey, 
 Fellow of Lion's Inn, with the title of A new Book of good Husbandry, very 
 pleasant and of great profit, both for gentlemen and yeomtn, containing the 
 order and manner of making of fish-ponds, S(.c, 
 
 K 2 
 
132 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 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 ' 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 Fish- 
 ing-frogs, which the Dalmatians call the Water-devil, of 
 which 1 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 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 apprehended 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, 
 
 (I) Walton should hare said of the JJrrt book ; for there it is to be found. 
 
CHAP. VIII. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 133 
 
 by remembering the discourse of Dubravius. I will 
 therefore stop here ; and tell you, according to my pro- 
 mise, how to catch the 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 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 [they think] 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 pro- 
 ceed 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. Offish, 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 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 
 
134 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 at another scar near to his tail : then tie him about it 
 with thread, but no harder than of necessity, to prevent 
 hurtingthe 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 pre- 
 sent say no more of this; but come next to give you 
 some directions how to bait your hook with a. frog. 
 
 Ven. But, good master, did you not say even now, 
 that some frogs were venomous ; and is it not dangerous 
 to touch them? 
 
 Ptsc. 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 paddock, or frog-paddock, 
 which usually keeps or breeds on the land, and is very 
 large and boney, 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 win- 
 ter they turn to slime again, and that the next summer that 
 very slime returns to be a living crea- 
 
 * I !uSa!? k ture; ^ is is the P inion of Plin y- And * 
 
 Cardanus 1 undertakes to give a reason for 
 
 (1) Hieronymut Cardanua, an Italian physician, naturalist, and astrologer, 
 veil known by the many works he has published: he died at Rome, 1576. It 
 is said that he had foretold the day of his death ; and that, when it approached, 
 he suffered himself to die of hunger, to preserve his reputation. He had been 
 in England, and wrote a character of our Edward VI. 
 
CHAP. VIII. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 135 
 
 the raining of frogs : ! but if it were in my power, it should 
 rain none but water-frogs ; for those I think are not venom- 
 ous, especially the right water-frog, which, about Feb- 
 ruary 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 
 paddock-frog, never does. 
 
 Now 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 Wonderful 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 sow 
 the upper part of his leg, with only one stitch, to the arm- 
 ing-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 y6u 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 bait- 
 ing 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, 
 
 (J) There are many well. attested accounts of the raining of frogs : but Mr. 
 Ray rejects them as utterly false aud ridiculous ; and demonstrates the impos- 
 sibility or their production iu any such manner, Wisdom of God in the Crea- 
 tion, 310. See also Derhatn's Phys. Theol. 244. and Pennant's Zoology, 4to. 
 Lond. 1776. vol. iv. p JO. 
 

 136 TUB COMPLETE ANGLER- PART I. 
 
 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 fixt 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: 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 cross 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 chaced over a .pond. 1 And the like may be done 
 
 Cl) A rod twtlve feet long, and a ring of wire, 
 A winder and barrel, will help thy desire 
 In killing a Pike : bat the forked stick , 
 With a slit and a bladder; and that other fine trick, 
 Which our artists call snap, with a goose or a duck ; 
 Will kill two for one, if you have any luck : 
 
CHAP. VIII. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 137 
 
 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 tempta- 
 tion 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. 1 But 
 
 The gentry of Shropshire do merrily smile, 
 
 To see a goose and a belt the fish to beguile. 
 
 When a Pike SUDS himself, and a frogging doth go, 
 
 The two-inched hook is better, I know, 
 
 Than the ord'nary snaring. But still I must cry, 
 
 " When the Pike is at home, mind the rookery." 
 
 Barker's Art qf Angling, 
 
 (1) The Pike loves a still, shady , unfrequented water, and usually lies amongst 
 or near weeds ; such as flags, bulrushes, candocks, reeds, or in the green fog 
 that sometimes covers standing waters, though he will sometimes shoot out into 
 the clear stream. He is sometimes caught at the top, and in the middle; and 
 often, especially in cold weather, at the bottom. 
 
 Their time of spawning is about the end of February or the beginning of 
 March ; and chief season, from the end of May to the beginning of February. 
 
138 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 if this direction to catch a Pike thus do you no good, 
 yet I am certain this direction how to roast him when he 
 
 Pike* are called Jacks, till they become twenty-four inches long. 
 The baits for Pike, besides those mentioned by Walton, are a small trout; 
 the loarh and miller's-thumb ; the head end ot an eel, with the skin taken off 
 below the fins; a small jack; a lob-worm ; and in winter, the fat of bacon. 
 And notwithstanding what Walton and others My against baiting with a 
 pearch. it is confidently asserted, that Pikes have been taken with a small 
 pearch, when neither a roach nor bleak would tempt them. See the Angler's 
 Surt Guide, 158. 
 
 Observe that all your baits for Pike must be as fresh as possible. Living baits 
 you may take with you in a tin-kettle, changing the water often : and dead 
 ones should be carried In fresh bran, which will dry up that moisture that 
 otherwise would infect and rot them. y enable*. 
 
 It is strange that Walton has said so little of Trolling; a method of fishing 
 for Pike which ha* been thought worthy of a distinct treatise; for which me- 
 tiiod, and for the snap, take these directions ; and first for trolling : 
 
 And note, that in trolling, the head of the bait-fish must be at the bent of 
 the hook ; whereas in fishiug at the snap, the hook must come out at or near 
 liis tail. But the essential difference between these two methods is, that in the 
 former the Pike is always suffered to pouch or swallow the bait; but in the 
 lauer yon are to strike as soon as he has taken it. 
 
 The rod for trolling should be about three yards and a half long, with a ring 
 at the top for the line to run through ; or you may fit a trolliug-top to your 
 fly-rod, which need poly be stronger than the common fly-top. 
 
 Let your line be / green or sky-coloured silk, thirty yards in length, which 
 will make it necessary to use the winch, a* is before directed, with a swivel at 
 the end. 
 
 The common trolling-hook for a living bait consists of two large hooks, with 
 one common shank, made of one piece of wire, of about three quarters of an 
 inch long, placed bark to back, so that the points may not stand in the right 
 line, but incline so much inwards as that they with a shank may form an angle 
 Hi tie less than equilateral. At the top of the shank is a loop, left in the bend- 
 ing the wire to make the hook double, through which is put a strong twisted 
 brass wire, of about iz inches long ; and to this is looped another such link, 
 but both so loose that the hook and lower link may have room to play. To the 
 end of the line fasten a steel swivel. 
 To bait the hook, observe the direction* given by Walton. 
 But there is a sort of trolling-hook, different from that already described, 
 and to which it is thought preferable, which will require another management : 
 this is no more than two single hook* tied back to back with a strong piece of 
 gimp between the shanks. In the whipping the hooks and the gimp together, 
 make a small loop ; and take into it two links of chain of about an eighth of an 
 inch diameter, and into the lower link, by means of a small staple of wire, fasten 
 by the greater end a bit of lead of a conical figure, and somewhat sharp at the 
 point. These hooks are to be had at the fishing-tackle shops ready fitted up. 
 
 TJiis latter kind of hook is to be thus ordered, viz. put the lead into the mouth 
 of the bait-fish, and sew it up ; the fish will live some time ; and though the 
 weight of the lead will keep his head down, he will swim with near the same 
 ease as if at liberty. 
 
 But if you troll with a dead-bait, as some do, for a reason which the angler 
 will be glad to know, viz. that a living bait makes too great a slaughter among 
 the fish, do it with a hook, of which the following paragraph contains a descrip- 
 tion : 
 
CHAP. VIII. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 139 
 
 is caught is choicely good ; for I have tried it, and it is 
 somewhat the better for not being common. But with 
 
 Let the shank be about six inches long, and leaded from the middle as low 
 as the bent of the hook, to which a piece of very strong gimp must be fastened 
 by a staple, and two links of chain; the shank must be barbed like a dart, and 
 the lead a quarter of an inch square : the barb of the shank must stand like the 
 fluke of an anchor, which is placed in a contrary direction to that of the stock. 
 Let the gimp be about a foot long ; and to the end thereof fix a swivel. To 
 bait it, thrust the barb of the shank into the mouth of the bait-fish, and bring it 
 out at his side near the tail : when the barb is thus brought through, it cannot 
 return, and the fish will lie perfectly straight, a circumstance that renders the 
 trouble of tying the tail unnecessary. 
 
 Tin-re is yet another sort of trol ling-hook, which is, indeed, no other than 
 what most writers on this subject have mentioned ; whereas the others, here 
 described, are late improvements : and this is a hook, either single or double, 
 with a long shauk, leaded about three inchrs up the wire with a piece of lead 
 about a quarter of an inch square at the greater or lower end : fix to the shank 
 an armed-wire about eight inches long. To bait this hook, thrust your wire 
 into the mouth of the fish, quite through his belly, and out at his tail ; placing 
 the wire so that the point of the hook may be even with the belly of the bait 
 fish ; and then tie the tail of the fish with strong thread to the wire: some las- 
 ten it with a needle and thread, which is a neat way. 
 
 Both with the Troll and at the Snap, cut away one of the fins of the bait-fish 
 close at the gills, and another behind the vent on the contrary side ; which will 
 make it play the better. 
 
 The bait being thus fixed, is to be thrown in, and kept in constant motion in 
 the water, sometimes suffered to sink, then gradually raised; now drawn with 
 toe stream, and then against it; so as to counterfeit the motion of a small tish 
 in swimming. If a Pike is near, he mistakes the bait for a living fish, seizes it 
 with prodigious greedines, goes off with it to his hole, and in about ten minutes 
 pouches it. When he has thus swallowed the bait, you will see the line move, 
 which is fne signal for striking him; do this with two lusty jerks, and then play 
 him. 
 
 The other way of taking Pike, viz. with the Snap, is as follows : 
 
 Let the rod be twelve feet long, very strong and taper, with a strong loop at 
 the top to fasten your line to. Your line must be about a foot shorter than the 
 rod, and much stronger than the trolling-line. 
 
 And here it is necessary to be remembered, that there are two ways of snap- 
 ping for Pike, viz. with the Live And with the Dead-snap. 
 
 For the Live-snap, there is no kind of hook so proper as the double spring 
 hook. To bait it, nothing more is necessary than to hang the bait-fish fast by 
 the back fiu to the middle hook, where he- will live a long time. See the para- 
 graph above. 
 
 Of hooks for the Dead-snap, there are many kinds; but the one, which after 
 repeated trials has been found to excel all others hitherto known, we subjoin 
 the description and use of it as follows, viz. Whip two hooks, of about three- 
 eighths of an inch in the bent, to a piece of gimp, in the manner directed for 
 that trolling-hook. Tl en take a piece of lead, of the same size and figure as 
 directed for the trolliug-hook above-mentioned; and drill a hole through it 
 from end to end. To bait it, take a long needle, or wire; enter it in at the side, 
 about half an inch above the tail, and with it pass the gimp between the skin 
 and the ribs of the fish, bringing it out at his mouth : then put the lead over 
 the gimp, draw it down into the fish's throat, and press his mouth close, and 
 then, having a swivel to your line, hang on the gimp. 
 

 140 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 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. 
 
 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-savoury ; 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 
 
 In throwing the bait, observe the ruins given for trolling ; but remember, that 
 the more you keep it in motion the nearer it resembles a living fish. 
 
 When you have a bite, strike immediately, the contrary way to that which the 
 head of the Pike lies, or to which he goes with the bait : if you cannot find 
 which way bis head lies, strike upright with two smart jerks, retiring backwards 
 as fast as you can, till you have brought him to a landing-place, and then do as 
 before is directed. 
 
 There are various other methods, both of trolling and fishing at the snap, which, 
 if the reader is desirous to know, he may find described in the Complete Trailer, 
 by Ro. Noboes. I2mo. Irje. and the AngUr*i Sure Guidt, before-mentioned. 
 
 As the Pike spawns in March, and before that month rivers are seldom in 
 order for fishing, it will hardly be worth while to begin trolling till April: after 
 that the weeds will be apt to be troublesome. But the prime month in the year 
 for trolling is October; when the Pike are fattened by their summer's feed, the 
 weeds are rotted, and by the filling of the waters the harbours of the fish are 
 easily found. 
 
 Choose to troll in dear, and not muddy water, and in windy weather, if the 
 wind be not easterly. 
 
 Some se in trolling and snapping two or more swivels to their line, by means 
 whereof the twisting of the Hue is prevented, the bait plays more freely, and, 
 though dead, is made to appear as if live; which in rivers is doubtless an ex- 
 cellent way : but those who can like to fish in ponds or still waters, will find 
 very little occasion for more than one. 
 
 The Pike it alto to be caught with a minnow : for which method take the fol- 
 lowing directions : 
 
 Get a single hook, slender, and long in the shank ; let it resemble the shape 
 of a shepherd's crook ; put lead upon it. as thick near the bent as will go into a 
 Minnow's mouth ; place the point of the hcok directly up the face of the fish. 
 Let the rod be as long as you can handsomely manage, with a line of the same 
 length. Cast op and down, and manage it as when you troll with any other 
 bait. If, when the Pike hath taken your bait, he run to the end of the line be- 
 fore he hath gorged it, do not strike, but hold still only, and he will return 
 back and swallow it. But if you USA that bait with a troll, I rather prefer it 
 before any bait that I know. Vtnablex. 
 
 In landing a Pike, great caution is necessary ; for his bite is esteemed vcno- 
 mous. The best and safest hold you can take of him, is by the head ; in doing 
 which, place your thumb and finger in his eyes. 
 
CHAP. VIII. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 141 
 
 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 mixt, 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 as you possibly can. But take not 
 off 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 ancho- 
 vies, and butter mixt together ; and also with what mois- 
 ture 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 but- 
 ter, and to squeeze the juice of three or four oranges. 
 Lastly, you may either put it into the Pike, with the oys- 
 ters, two cloves of garlick, and take it whole out, when 
 the Pike is cut off the spit ; or, to give the sauce a hogoo, 
 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. 
 
 Let me next tell you, that Gesner tells us, there are no 
 
142 tllE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART la 
 
 Pikes in Spain, and that the largest are in the lake Thrasy- 
 
 mene 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 
 
 Thi* he hat taid 
 
 before, in chap. 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 rela- 
 tion, 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. 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 
 Observation* en the CARP ; with Directions how to fish for him. 
 
 Piscator. THE Carp is the queen of rivers ; a stately, a 
 good, and a very subtil 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 1 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 : 
 
 ()) For proof of tliis fact, we have the testimony of the Author of the Book 
 of Fishing with Hooke, and Line, 4to. Lond. 15QO, already mentioned fh the 
 Life of Walton ; who, though the initials only of his name are given in the title, 
 appears to have been Leonard Masral, the translator of a book of Planting and 
 Graffinf. 4to. 1589, 1599. and the Author of a book On Cattcl, *to. J5Q6. Fuller 
 in bis Worthies, Sussex, 11.1, seems to have confounded these two persons : the 
 latter of whom, in the tiact first above-mentioned, speaks of the former by report 
 only : besides which, they lived at the distanre of seventy years from each other, 
 and the Author of the book Of Fishing is conjectured to be a Hampshire man. 
 
CHAP. IX. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 143 
 
 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 dutks 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 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 a year, if there be no Pikes nor Perch 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. 
 
 (1) See, in the Life of Walton hereto prefixed, a passage extracted from the 
 book of Dame Juliana Barnes ; whereby it appears that in her time there were 
 Carps, though but few, in England. It seems, therefore, that Mr. Mascal of 
 Plumsted did not first bring hither Carps: but, as the curious in gardening do 
 by exotic plants, he naturalized this species of fish, and that about the aera men- 
 tioned in the above distich, " Hops and turkies," c. which elsewhere is read 
 thus: 
 
 Hops, reformation, turkies, carps, and beer, 
 
 Came into England all in one year. 
 
144 THE COMPLETE ANOLER. PART I. 
 
 The Carp, if he have water-room and good feed, will 
 grow to a very great bigness and length ; I have heard, to 
 much above a yard long. 1 It is said by Jovius, 5 who 
 hath writ of fishes, that in the lake Lurian, in Italy Carps 
 have thriven to be more than fifty pounds 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 it is observed 
 too, that he lives to the age of a hundred years. And 
 'tis also observed, that the crocodile is very long-liv'd ; 
 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. 3 
 
 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 circum- 
 stances. And as their breeding, 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 impossi- 
 ble they should be stole away from him ; and that when 
 
 (I) A lady now living, the widow of the late Mr. David Garrick, of Dniry- 
 lane theatre, once told me, that in her native country, Germany, she had seen 
 the head of a Carp served up at table, big enough to fill a large dish. 
 
 (2) Paulu* Jovius, an Italian historian of very doubtful authority : he lived 
 in the l6th century ; and wrote a small tract DC Romanis Piscibut. He died 
 at Florence. 1552. 
 
 (S) The author of the Angler's Sure Guide says, that he has taken Carp above 
 twenty-six inches long, in rivers; and adds, that they are often seen in England 
 aboT* thirty inches long. The usual length is from about twelve co fifteen or 
 sixteen inches. 
 
CHAP. IX. THE COMPLETE AXGLF.R. 145 
 
 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 old Carp remain- 
 ing. And the like I have known of one that had 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 forborn 
 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 occa- 
 sion, 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 sfck 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 the 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 obser- 
 vations 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 Hi*- 
 L 
 
146 
 
 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 
 tory 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 Palatine above a hundred years. 1 
 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, especi- 
 ally 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. 
 
 I told you that Sir Francis Bacon thinks that the Carp 
 lives but ten years: but Janus Dubravius has writ a 
 book Ofjish 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 fol- 
 low 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 that 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 her- 
 
 (I) Lately, viz. in one of the daily papers for the month of August 1?82, an 
 article appeared, purporting, that in the bason at Emanuel College, Cambridge, 
 a Carp was then living that had been in the water thirty six years; which, 
 though, rt <iadlost one eye. knew, and would constantly approach, its feeder. 
 (2) Vide, ante, y. 131, &c. 
 
CHAP. IX. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 147 
 
 vself 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 cost to make glass hives, and order them in 
 such a manner as to see how bees have bred and made 
 their honeycombs, 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 it is 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.) by 
 them reputed to be unclean. 
 
 Much more might be said out of him, and out of Aris- 
 totle, which Dubravius often quotes in his Discourse of 
 jfishes : but it might rather perplex than satisfy you ; and 
 therefore 1 shall rather choose to direct you how to catch, 
 than spend more time in discoursing either of the nature 
 or the breeding of this fish, or of any more circumstances 
 concerning him. But yet I shall remember you of what 
 I told you before, that he is a very subtil 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 
 
14S TltS COMPLETE ANGLER. PAKT I. 
 
 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 there- 
 fore being possest 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 bet- 
 ter and with more hope be fished for, you are to throw 
 into it, in some certain place, either grains, or blood mixt 
 with cow-dung or with bran ; or any garbage, as chicken's 
 guts or the like; and then, some of your small sweet pel- 
 lets 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 rabbit, or cat cut small; and bean-flour; and if that 
 
CHAP. IX. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 149 
 
 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, the sixth of an inch 
 square, it being soaked in or anointed with oil of petre, 
 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 better than any that I have ever 
 practised or heard of. And yet I shall tell you, that the 
 crumbs of white bread and honey made into a paste is a 
 good bait for a Carp; and you know, it is more easily 
 made. Arid having said thus much of the Carp, 1 my 
 
 (I) The haunts of the river dhrp are, in the winter months, the broadest and 
 most quiet parts of the river; but in summer, they lie in deep holes, nooks, and 
 
150 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART 1. 
 
 next discourse shall be of the Bream, which shall not 
 prove so tedious ; and therefore I desire ihe 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 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 pars- 
 ley, of each half a handful ; a sprig of rosemary, and ano- 
 ther of savoury ; 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 suffici- 
 
 reaches. near some scour, and under root* of tiees, hollow banks, and, till they 
 are near rotting, amongst ot near great beds of weed*, flags, &c. 
 
 Pood Carp caonot, with propriety, be said to have any haunts : ouly it is 
 to be noted, that they love fat rich soil, and never thrive in a cold hungiy 
 
 They breed three or four times a year : but their first spawning-time is the 
 beginning of May. 
 
 Baits for the Oarp are, all sorts of earth and dunghill-worms; flag-worms; 
 grasshoppers, though not at top; ox-brains; the pith of an ox's back-bone; 
 green peas; and red or black cherries, with the stones taken out. 
 
 Fish with strong tackle, very near the bottom, and with a fine grass or gut 
 next the book; and ue a goose-quill float. Never attempt to angle for the 
 Carp in a boat ; for they will not come near it. 
 
 It is said there are many Caip in the Thames, westward of London; and 
 that, about February they retire to the creeks in that river ; in some of which, 
 any above two feet long have been taken with an angle. Angler 'i Sure Guide, 
 
 p. 179- 
 
 Carp live the longest out of the water of any fish. It is a common practice iti 
 Holland to keep them alive for three weeks or a month, by hanging them in a 
 cool place, with wet moss in a net, and feeding them with bread steeped in 
 ilk ; taking care to refresh the animal now and then by throwing fresh water 
 over the net in which it is suspended. 
 
CHAP. X. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 151 
 
 ently 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. 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 Observations on 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 plea- 
 sant, 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 overstore 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 suck- 
 ing 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 
 
152 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 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 some- 
 thing, in point of believing it, to him that considers the 
 breeding or renovation of the silk-worm, and of many in- 
 sects. 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. 
 
 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 wel- 
 come." And it is noted, that the best part of a Bream is 
 his belly and head. 1 
 
 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 are many. First, 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 [Bream] will bite 
 freely. Or he will bite at a grasshopper with his legs 
 nipt 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 
 
 (1) The Bream, according to Sir William Dugdaie, appears to have been con- 
 sidered a great luxury in England, for in the ?tli of Lien. V. it was valued at 
 SOd. and he alto states that in 1464, " A Pye of four of them, in the expences 
 of two men employed for three days in taking them, in baking them, in flour, in 
 spires, and conveying it from Suttoo in Warwickshire, to the Earl of Warwick, 
 at Mydlam in the North Country, cost xvj*. ijrf." Hiit. Warw. p. 666. 
 
CHAP. X. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 153 
 
 most excellent ore, 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 even- 
 ing 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 srik, or silk and hair 
 lines; and as many large swan or goose-quill floats. 
 Then take a piece of lead made after the manner of a 
 carpenter's plummet, or the weight of a steel-yard, 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 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 
 
154 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 swim iii skulls 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 centinel ; 
 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 convenient 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 best. Then consider with yourself, whether 
 that water will rise or fall by the next morning, by rea- 
 son of any watermills near; and, according to your discre- 
 tion, 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 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 be- 
 
CHAP. X. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 155 
 
 tween both your hands ; it will sink presently to the bot- 
 tom ; 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 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 mid- 
 dle 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 
 
156 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 fishing, 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 them- 
 selves among the young fry that gather about and hover 
 over the bait. 
 
 The way to discern the Pike and to take him, if you 
 mistrust 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 
 [with] it ; and set it, alive, among your rods, two feet 
 deep from the cork, with a little red worm on the point 
 of the hook : then take a few crumbs of white bread, or 
 some of the ground-bait, and sprinkle it gentle 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 
 
CHAP. X. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 157 
 
 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 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. 1 B. A. 
 
 (I) The haunts of the Dream, a fish which the angler seldom meets with, are 
 the deepest and broadest parts of gentle soft streams, with sandy clayey bot- 
 toms ; and the broadest and most quiet places of ponds, and where there are 
 weeds. 
 
 They spawn about the beginning of July ; a little before which time they are 
 tost in season, though some think them best in September. 
 
 The baits for the Bream are, red-worms, small lob or marsh-worms, gentles, 
 and grasshoppers. 
 
 In general, they are to be fished for as Carp. 
 
158 THE COMPLETE AXGLER. PART I. 
 
 CHAP. XI. 
 
 Obtertatian* on the TENCH, and Adtice how to angle for him. 
 
 Piscator. THE Tench, the physician of fishes, is ob- 
 served to love ponds better than rivers, and to love pits 
 better than either: yet Camden observes, there is a 
 river in Dorsetshire 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 Solo- 
 mon, 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 cer- 
 tain 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. 
 
CHAP. XI. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 159 
 
 Well, this fish, besides his eating, is very useful, both 
 dead 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 phy- 
 sic and divinity that think themselves fit to meddle with 
 hidden secrets, and so bring destruction to their followers. 
 But I'll not meddle with therrij 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 ofjtshes, 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, directions how to catch this 
 fish, 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 mixt, 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, 1 he being a fish I have not often angled 
 for ; but I wish my honest scholar may, and be ever for- 
 tunate when he fishes. 
 
 (1) The haunts of the Tench are nearly the same will) those of the Carp. They 
 delight more in ponds than in rivers; and lie under weeds, near sluices, and 
 at pond heads. . 
 
 They spawn about the beginning of July; and are best in season from the 
 
160 THE COMPLETE ANCLF.K. PART I, 
 
 CHAP. XII. 
 on the PEARCH, and Direction* howtofithfor him. 
 
 Piscator. THE Pearch is a very good and a very bold- 
 hitin fish. He is one of the fishes of prey that, like the 
 Pike and Trout, carries his teeth in his mouth, which is 
 Tery large: and he dare venture to kill and devour seve- 
 ral other kinds of fish. He has a hooked or hog back, 
 which is armed with sharp and stiti l.nstles, 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 willingly; and you may there- 
 fore easily believe him to be a bold bit( r. 
 
 The Pearch is of great esteem in Italy, saith Aldrovan- 
 dus : and especially the least are there esteemed a dainty 
 dish. And Gesner prefers the Pearch anl I 'ike 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 hardofdigs- 
 tion. They abound more in the river Po, and in England, 
 
 wefftwint of September to the end of May. They will bite all the hot months ; 
 bt are ukea best io April and May. 
 
 There are no better bans for this fish than a middle-died lob-worm, or red. 
 worm, well scoured ; a gentle; a young wasp grub, boiled; or a green worm 
 book from the boughs of trees. 
 
 Use a strong grass, or got ; and a goose- quill float without a cork, except in 
 rivers ww*re the cork is always to be preferred. 
 
 FMi wry near the froood. Aod if you bait with gentles, throw io a few 
 at the taking erery fish, which will draw them to your hook, and keep them 
 

CHAP. XII. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 161 
 
 (says Rondeletius,) than other parts : and have in their 
 brain a stone, which is, in foreign parts, sold by apothe- 
 caries, being there noted to be very medicinable against 
 the stone in the reins. These be a part of the commen- 
 dations which some philosophical brains have bestowed 
 upon the freshwater-Pearch : yet they commend the Sea- 
 Pearch, which is known, by having but one fin on his 
 back, (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 feet 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 
 siting. 
 
 But bite the Pearch will, and that very boldly. And, 
 .s one has wittily observed, if there be twenty or forty in 
 
 hole, they may be, at one standing, all catched one 
 
162 
 
 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 after another; they being, as he says, like the wicked of 
 the world, not afraid, though their fellows and compa- 
 nions 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 dunghill wonn 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 Pearch with a min- 
 now, 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. 1 And now I think 
 
 (I) Although Pearch, like Trout, delight in clear swift rivers, with pebbly, 
 Cravrlly bottoms, they are often found in sandy, clayey oils: they love mo- 
 derately deep water, and frequent holes by the sides of or Dear little streams, 
 and the hollows under banks. 
 
 The Pearch spiwns about the beginning of March : the best time of the year 
 to ancle for him is from the beginning of May till me end of Jane, yet you may 
 continue to fit i tor him till the end of September: he. is hen taken in cloudy 
 windy weather, and, as some say, from seven to ten iu the forenoou, and from 
 two to -eveu in the alternooo. 
 
 Other baits far the Pearch are. loaches, miller Vthumbs, stickle-hacks ; small 
 lob, aod marsh, and red-worms, well scoured ; hone-beans, boiled ; cad-bait, 
 oaa-woras, bobs, at.d gentles. 
 
 Many of these fish are t*ken in the rivers about Oxford ; and the author of 
 Hie Angler's Sore Guide says, he once *w the figure of a Pearch, drawn with a 
 pencil on th. door of a house near that city, which was twenty-nine inches 
 long ; and was informed it was the true dimensions of a living Pearch. Angl. 
 Sure Guide, p. 155. 
 
CHAP. XII. THE COMPLETE ANG-LER. 163 
 
 best to rest mysejf ; for I have almost spent my spirits 
 with talking so long. 
 
 Ven. 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. 
 
 Pise. 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 smoothness 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 whispering ran, 
 Warm'd by thy eyes more than the sun; 
 And there the enamel'd fish will stay, 
 Begging themselves they may betray. 
 
 When thou wilt swim in that live bath, 
 Each fish, which every channel hath, 
 Most amorously to the* will swim, 
 Gladder to catch thee, than thou him. 
 
 If thou, to be so seen, beest loath 
 By sun or moon, thou dark'nest botli ; 
 And if mine eyes have leave to see, 
 I need not their light, having thee. 
 
 The largest Pearch are taken with a minnow, hooked with a good hold through 
 the back-fin, or rather through the upper-lip ; for the Pearch, by reason of tlia 
 figure of his mouth, cannot take the bait crosswise, as the Pike will. When you 
 fish thus, use a large cork-float, and lead your line about nine inches from the 
 bottom, otherwise the minnow will come to the top of the water ; but in the 
 ordinary way of fishing, let your bait hang within about six inches from the 
 ground. 
 
164 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 Let other* freeae with angling reeds, 
 And cat their leg* with shells and weeds, 
 Or treacherously poor fish beset 
 With strangling snares or window j net; 
 
 Let coarse bold hand*, from slimy nest, 
 The bedded 6sh in banks outwrest; 
 Let carious traitors sleave silk flies, 
 To 'witch poor wand'ring fishes eyes. 
 
 For the*, thoa need'st no such deceit, 
 For thou thyself art thine own bait : 
 That fish that is not catcht thereby, 
 Is wiser far, alas, than 1. 
 
 Ptsc. 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 obser- 
 vations 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 honeysuckle-hedge. 
 
 CHAP. XIII. 
 
 Obstrratkmt on the EEL, and other Fkh that want Scales;and how 
 to fit h 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 generation, 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 over- 
 flowing of the river Nilus ; or out of the putrefaction of 
 the earth, and divers other ways. Those that deny them 
 
CHAP. XIII. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 165 
 
 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 spawn ; for they say, that they are 
 certain that Eels have all parts fit for generation, like 
 other fish, 1 but so small as not to be easily discerned, by 
 reason of their fatness ; 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 bred, the off- 
 spring of Jove. I have seen, in the beginning of July, 
 in a liver 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 
 
 (1) That fishes are furnished with parts fit for generation cannot he doubted, 
 since it is a common practice to castrate them. See the method of doing it in 
 Phitos. Tram. Vol. XLVIH. Part II. for the >ear 1754, page 870. 
 
I'm THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 quotes venerable Bede, 1 to say, that in England there is 
 an island called Ely, by reason of the innumerable num- 
 ber of Eels that breed in it. But that Eels may be bred 
 as some worms, and some kind of bees and wasps an-, 
 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 Gerhard 3 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 cer- 
 tain 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 
 
 (I) Tto moat universal scholar of Ms tint : he was horn at Durham about 6? J, 
 and bred under Su John of Beverley. It if said, th-l Pope Sergius the First 
 inritrd bin to Rome ; thoafh others My, be never stirred out of his c. II. llr 
 w mmu of great virtue, and remarkable for a mot sweet and engaging dis- 
 poaittoa: he died in7H, and lie* buried at Durham. Hit works make right 
 olMBt* ia folio. See hi* Life in the Biogr. Britann. 
 
 (I) Mttthtmt do Looef, or L'Obel, ma eminent physicun and botanist of the 
 sixteenth century, was native of Lisle, in Flanders. He was a disciple of 
 Roodeletios; and being invited to London, by king James the First, published 
 there his Hitteria Plantarum, and died in the year l6lf>. Vide Hoffinaunl 
 ' Lexicon Untvcrtalf." art. " Matthi< Lobelias." This work is entitled 
 PlMtmrum scst Utirpittm Hutoria, and v*s first published at Antwerp in 1576, 
 od ropobluhed at London in 1605. He was author likewise of two other 
 works; the former of which has for its title Baltami, OpobaUami, Carpobal- 
 ***<, 4 XylobaUami t cummocortice,Erplnnatio. Lood. 15Q8; and the latter, 
 9Urptmm JUuttrationei. Lotc. 1655. 
 
 (3) The person here mentioned is John Gerard, one of the first of our Eng- 
 lish Botanists: he was by profession a Surgeon; and published, in 15y7, an 
 Herbal, in a large folio, dedicated to the lord treurer Burleigh ; and. two 
 yean after, a Catalogue of Plantt, Hcrbt, tee. to the number of eleven hun. 
 dred, railed and naturalized by himself in a large garden near his house in Hoi- 
 born. The la'ter is dedicated to Sir Walter Raleigh. 
 
CHAP. XIII. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 167 
 
 threescore years ; and that such useful and pleasant ob- 
 servations were made of this Lamprey, that Crassus the 
 orator, who kept her, lamented her death. And we read 
 in Doctor Hakewill, that Hortensius was seen to weep at 
 the death of a Lamprey that he had kept long, and loved 
 exceedingly. 1 
 
 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 they usually are, but get into the soft earth 
 or mud ; and there many of them together bed them- 
 selves, and live without feeding upon any thing, as I 
 have told you some swallows have been observed to do 
 in hollow trees, for those six cold 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; 2 
 and there bedded themselves : but yet, at last, a frost 
 killed them. And our Camden relates, that, in Lan- 
 cashire, fishes were digged out of the earth with spades, 
 where no water was near to the place. 3 I shall say little 
 
 (1) ihe Autlior, page 1J3, lias riled lio i, P.iuy an instance of liie fonduess of 
 Antonia, a woman, for a tame Lamprey, whicli the teiideiurss of her sex ini^lit 
 perhaps excuse ; but the sagacity and uocility of these creatuies s-eeni less wo- 
 deiful than tlie weakness of sncli meu as Crassu-* and Mortens. PS, iu brcowin:; 
 mourners for tlie death of au Eel. 
 
 Tl:e former or tlie two p> TSOIJS w,, for this his | u-.ill.ii. iu.it v, reproached in 
 tlie Senate of Rome by Domitius. in these words: " Foolish Crassus! you wept 
 for your Alurtnu'' [or Lamprey ] " fnat is mo:e," letorted Crassua, " than you 
 did for y.iur two wives." Lord Bacon's Apophthegms. 
 
 (2) Dr. Plot, in his History of Sttiffurdshirc, page 24C, mentions certain 
 wateis, and a pool, that wep stocl.e.i ny Fc-ls tl.at l.ad iioin watris the y liknl 
 nor travelled in arido, or over dry 1 md, to these other. 
 
 (3) Canuieu's telaliou is to ttiis effect; ri:. " fl.at, at a place called Settou, 
 iii tl:f above county, UI-OD turning up the turf, men find a black deadish water 
 with small fislxs therein." Britttntiia Lancashire. Fuller, who also reports 
 this strange fact, humorously says, "That tne men of inis place s;o a-nshiug 
 with spades and mattocks ; inkling, tlia' rishes :<re t'lus f )u:ul \.\ :in cou.it'y 
 about Htrajle.t aud Tius, in I'outus." Worthies, in Lancashire, 10?. 
 
168 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 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 
 kind of Eels are, say some, diversely 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 gene- 
 ration, 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. 1 
 But the Eel may be caught, especially, with a little, a 
 
 (1) To this truth, I myself can bear witness When I dwelt at Twickenham, 
 * large canal adjoined to my house, which I stocked will) fish. I had from time 
 to time brood* of ducks, which, with their young oues, took to the water. One 
 dry summer, when the canal was very low, we missed many young ducks, but 
 could not find out How they went. Resolving to make advantage of the low- 
 ness of the water to clean the canal, a work which had not been done for thirty 
 years before, I drained and emptied it, and found in the mud a great number of 
 large Eels. Some of them I reserved for the use of my family; which being 
 opened by the cook, surprised us all; for in the stomachs of several of them 
 were found, undigested, the necks and heads of young ducks, which doubtless 
 were those of the ducks we had missed. Uawkim. 
 
HAP. XIII. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 169 
 
 very little Lamprey, which some call a Pride, and may, 
 in the hot months, be found many of them in the river 
 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 other- 
 wise. 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 dis- 
 course. 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 
 daytime; for then they hide themselves under some covert; 
 or under boards or planks about flood-gates, or weirs, or 
 mills ; or in holes on the river banks : so that you, observ- 
 ing 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 
 
170 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PAltl I. 
 
 as you may conveniently ; and it is scarce to be doubted, 
 but if there be an Eel, within the si-lit 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, 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 : hav- 
 ing 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 mixt 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 as big as that which was caught in Peterborough 
 river, in the year 1667 ; which was a yard and three quar- 
 ters 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 
 
CHAP. XIII. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 171 
 
 drest, be not only excellent good, but more harmless than 
 any other way, yet it is certain that physicians account 
 the Eel dangerous meat ; 1 will advise you therefore, as 
 Solomon says of honey, Prov. xxv. " 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. 1 
 
 (I) The haunts of the Eel are, weeds, under roots, stumps of trees, holes, and 
 clefis of the earth, both in the banks and at the l-ottom, and iu the plain mud, 
 where thry lie with only their heads out, watching for prey. They are also 
 found under great stones, old timber, about flood-gates, weirs, budges, and old 
 mills. They delight in still waters, and in those that are foul and muddy; 
 though the smaller Eels are to be met with in all sorts of rivers and soils. 
 
 Although the manner in which Eels, and indeed all fish, are generated, is suf- 
 ficiently settled, as appears by the foregoing notes; there yet remains a ques- 
 tion undecided by naturalists; and that is, Whether the Eel be an oviparous or 
 a viviparous fish ? Walton inclines to the latter opinion. The following rela- 
 tion frem Bowlker may go near to determine the question : 
 
 " Being acquainted with an elderly woman, who had been wife to a miller 
 near fifty years, and much employed in dressing of Eels, I asked her whether 
 sh,e had ever found any spawn or eggs in those Eels she opened ? She said she 
 had never observed any ; but that he had sometimes found living Eels in them, 
 about the bipness of a small uredle ; and particularly, that she once took out 
 ten or twelve, and put them upon the table, and found them to be alive; which 
 was confirmed to me by the rest of the family. The time of the year when this 
 happened was, as they informed me, about a fortnight or three weeks after 
 Michaelmas; which makes me of opinion that they go down to the sea, or salt- 
 water, to prepare themselves for the work of propagating and producing their 
 young. To this 1 must add another observation of the same nature, that was 
 made by a gentleman of fortune not far from Ludlow, and in the commission of 
 the peace for the county of Salop; who going to visit a gentleman, his friend, 
 was shewn a very fine large Eel that was going to be dressed, about whose sides 
 and belly he observed a parcel of little creeping things, which at first made him 
 suspert it had been kept too long; but, upon nearer inspection, they were found 
 to he perfect little Eels, or Elvers : upon this it was immediately opened in the 
 sight of several other gentlemen, and iu the belly of it they found a lump about 
 as big as a nutmeg, consisting of an infinite number of those little creatures, 
 closely wrapt up together, which, being put into a bason of water, soon separa- 
 ted, and swam about the bason. This lie has often told to several gentlemen of 
 
7 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PAH T 1. 
 
 I might here speak of many other fish, whose shape and 
 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 
 
 credit in his neighbourhood, from some of whom I first received thii account : 
 bat 1 bare lately bad the atisfactioa of having it from hi* own month ; and 
 therefore I think tb> nay senre to pat the matter oat of all doubt, and may be 
 ufBcieiit to prove that Eels are of the viviparous kind." 
 
 Taking U for granted then that EeU do not (pawn, all we hare to tay iu this 
 place is. that though. our author tells us, they are never oat of season, yet, 
 M some My. they are beat in Winter, and wont in May. And it is to be noted 
 of E*l. tha: the longer they live, the belter they are. Angltr't Sure Guide, 
 p. I6. 
 
 Of baits for the Eel, the best are, loo-worn*, loach, minnows, small pope or 
 Dearth, with O- ins rat off; piece* of any fish, especially bleak, as being very 
 lucid ; with which I have taken very large ones. 
 
 As the angling for Eels is no very pleasant amusement, and is always at- 
 tended with great trouble and the risk of Uckle; many, while they angle for 
 other fish, Uy lines for the Eel. which they tie to weeds, flags. Ice. with marks 
 to find them by. Or. you may take a long packthread line, with a leaden weight 
 at the end. and hooks looped ou at a yard distance from each other : fasten one 
 end to the fl?s. or on the shore, *nd throw the lead out, and let the line lie 
 aoeae time. And in Dm way yoa may probably take a Pike. 
 
 iht river Rennet in Berkshire, the Stour in Dorsetshire, Irk in Lancashire, 
 and Aokbam in Lincolnshire, are famed for producing excellent Eels : the latter 
 to so f real a degree, as to give rise to the following proverbial rhyme : 
 
 Aokham Eel, and Witham Pike, 
 In all England is none sike. 
 
 Bat it is said, there are no Eels superior in goodness to those taken in tl.r 
 head of the New River near Islington ; and I myself have seen Eels, caught 
 there with a rod and Hue. of * very large sise. 
 Eels, contrary to all other fish, never swim up, bat always down the stream. 
 
CHAP. XIII. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 173 
 
 bluish worm, gotten out of marsh-ground or meadows, 
 which should be well scoured. 1 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 is 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 toward Ches- 
 ter, 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. 
 
 (1) The taking Flounders with a rod and line is a thing so accidental, that it 
 is hardly worth the mention. The same may be said of Smelts, which, in the 
 Thames, and other great rivers, are caught with a bit of any small fish, but 
 chiefly of their own species. In the month of August, about the year 1720, 
 such vast quantities of smelts came up the Thames, that women, and even chil- 
 dren, became anglers for them; and, as I have been told by persons who well 
 remember it, in one day, between London-bridge and Greenwich, not fewer 
 than two thousand persons were thus employed. 
 
THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 CHAP. XIV. 
 Obterta&mt on the BARBEL, and Directions how to fish for him. 
 
 Piscator. THE Barbel is so called, says Gesner, by 
 reason of his barb or wattles 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 hook'd : hut lie 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 wholesomcness 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 Hock 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 weirs ; 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 that time he 
 
CHAP. XIV. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 175 
 
 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 who 
 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. 1 
 
 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 run- 
 ning 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 Industrid Ani- 
 
 (1) Though the spawn of the Barbel is known to le of a poisonous nature, 
 ytu it is often taken by country people medicinally ; who find it, at once, a 
 most powerful emetic and cathartic. And, notwithstanding what is said of the 
 wholrsomeness of the flesh, with some constitutions it produces the same effects 
 at the spawn. About the month of September, in the year 1754, a servant of 
 mine, who had eaten part of a Barbel, though, as I had cautioned him, he ab- 
 stained from the spawn, was seized with such a violent purging and vomiting, 
 as had like to have cost him his life. Hawkins. 
 
176 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 maUum; 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. 1 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 
 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 linen 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 likrlier 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, doubt- 
 less, 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 
 
 (1) Graves, (which are the seduneM of tallow melted for the making of cau- 
 dle*,) enl into pieces, are CEcellrat groHDd-bait for Barbel, Gudgeon*, 
 Roach, and maoj other fish, if throw u in the night before you angle. 
 
CHAP. XIV. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 177 
 
 both ended together: and I shall give you but this obser- 
 vation, 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, 1 get into favour with Dr. Shel- 
 
 (I) Of the haunts of the Barbel, the author has spoken sufficiently. Barbel 
 spawn about the middle of April, and grow in season about a month after. 
 
 Baits for Barbel, other than what Walton has mentioned, are the young 
 brood of wasps, hornets, and humble bees. 
 
 In fishing for him, use a very strong rod, and a silk line with a shot and a 
 bullet, as directed for the Trout. Some use a cork float, which, if you do, be 
 sure to fish as close to the bottom as possible, so as the bait does not touch the 
 ground. . 
 
 In angling for lesser fish, the angler will sometimes find it a misfortune to 
 hook a Barbel ; a fish so sullen, that, with fine tackle, it is scarcely possible to 
 land one of twelve inches long. 
 
 A lover of angling told me the following story: Hewas fishing in the river Lea, 
 at the ferry called Jeremy's, and had hooked a large fish at the time when some 
 Londoners, with tin ir horses, were passing : they congratulated him on his suc- 
 cess, and got out of the ferryboat, but, finding the fish not likely to yield, mounted 
 their horses and rode off. The fact was, that, angling for small fiih, his bait 
 had been taken by a Barbel too big for the fisher to manage. Not caring to risk 
 his tackle, by attempting to raise him, he hoped to tire him, and, to that end 
 suffered himself to be led (to use his own expression) as a blind man is by his 
 dog, several yards up, and as many down the bank of the river, in short, for 
 so many hours, that the horsemen above-mentioned (who had been at Waltham- 
 stow, and dined) were returned; who, seeing him thus occupied, cried out, 
 " What, master, another large fish ? " No," says Piscator, it is the very 
 same." " Nay," says one of them, " that can never be; for it is five hours 
 sincewe crossed the river." And not believing him, they rode on their way. 
 At length our angler determined to do that which a less patient one would 
 have done long before : he made one vigorous effort to land his fish, broke his 
 tackle and lust him. 
 
 Fishing for Barbel is, at best, but a dull recreation. They are a sullen fish, 
 and bit*! but slowly. The angler drops in his bait ; the bullet, at the bottom of 
 the line, fixes it to one spot of the river. Tired with waiting for a bite, he 
 generally lays down his rod, and, exercising the patience of a setting-dog, waits 
 till he sees the top of his rod move ; then begins a struggle between him and 
 the fish, winch he calls his sport ; and that being over, he lands his prize, 
 fresh baits his hook, and lays i.i for another. 
 
 Living, some years ago, in a village on the banks of the Thames, I was used, 
 in the summer months, to be much in a boat on the river. It chanced that, at 
 Shppperton, wheie I hud been for a few days, I frequently passed an elderly 
 gentleman in his boat, who appeared to be fishing, at different stations for 
 Barbel. After a few salutations had passed between us, and we were become a 
 little acquainted, I took occasion to enquire of him what diversion he had met 
 with. "Sir," says he, " I have had but bad luck to-day, for 1 fish for Barbel, 
 and you know they are not to be caught like Gudgeons." " It is very true," an. 
 swered I; "but what you want in tale, I suppose you make up in weight." 
 
 N 
 
178 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PARTI. 
 
 don, 1 whose skill is above others; and of that, the poor 
 that dwell about him have a comfortable experience. 
 
 And now let's go and see what interest the Trout s 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? 
 
 Yen. Which you think fit, master. 
 
 Pi$c. Why, you shall take up that ; for I am certain, 
 by viewing the line, it has a fish at it. Look you, scho- 
 lar ! 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 towards 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. 
 
 Pea. Master, I like your motion very well ; and I think 
 it is now about milking-time ; and yonder they be at it. 
 
 Puc. 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. 
 
 MUJt-tr. 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 sylla- 
 bub of new verjuice ; and then you may sit down in a hay- 
 
 - Why. Sir." say* K." that is jo MM it happens : it i* true I like the sport, and 
 lev* to catch fth. bat mj gret delight i in going afttr them. I'll tell you 
 what. Sir." rootiooed he ; I mm a man in years. nd have used the sea all my 
 life. (* bad beea -n India captain,] bat I mean to fo no more ; and have bought 
 that little BOM* whirb you tee there," (pointing to it,] " for the take of fishing. 
 I f*t into thb boat" [which he was then mopping] - oo a Monday mornlug, and 
 foh oa till Satwday nifht. for Barbel, at I told you, for that is my delight; and 
 tbU 1 bar* dnwa for a month together, and in all that while have not had oo* 
 
 (I) Dr. Gilbert Sktldcm. warden of All Soali College; chaplain to king 
 Charie the First ; and. after the Restoration, archbishop of Canterbury. He 
 foaaded the theatre at Oford ; died in 1677. d lies buried under a stalely 
 MoaaMvr at Croydon, in Soirey. 
 
CHAP. XV. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 179 
 
 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 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. 
 
 Yen. 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. 
 
 Pise. I will, honest scholar. 
 
 CHAP. XV. 
 
 Observation* on 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 
 y< -a i ; and always in summer. He is commended for a 
 fish of excellent nourishment. 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 off from the hook if he be 
 once strucken. 
 
 They be usually scattered up and down every river in 
 N 2 
 
180 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 the shallows, in the heat of summer : but in autumn, when 
 the weeds begin to grow sour and 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 running line upon the ground, 
 without a cork, as a Trout is fished for ; and it is an excel- 
 lent way, if you have a gentle rod, and as gentle a hand. 1 
 
 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 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. 
 
 Yon 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 
 
 (I) ! fahiag for GvdfeoM. hare rk ; and every quarter of M boor rtke 
 tbe bottom of Uw river, and UM fish will flock thither in ho*li. 
 
CHAP. XV. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 181 
 
 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 ; l 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 hazel-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 ; 2 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. 
 
 (1) A rosary, or string of beads, is used by tl>* Roman-Catholic devotees to 
 assist them in numbering their Patcr-noitcrs, or prayers ; a Hue with many hooks 
 at small distances from each other, though it little resembles a string of beads, 
 is thence called a Pattr-nostcr Hoe. 
 
 (2) This is a common practice in England also. 
 
182 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 CHAP. XVI. 
 
 It of nothing ; or, that which it nothing worth. 
 
 Pwco/or. 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 
 togethef 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. 
 
 Pet. And Coridon and I have not had an unpleasant 
 day : and yet I have caught but five Trouts ; for, indeed, 
 we went to a good honest ale-kouse, 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 
 
CHAP. XVI. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 183 
 
 the catch that your scholar promised us ; or else, Coridon 
 will be dogged. 
 
 Pise. Nay, I will not be worse than my word ; you shall 
 not want my song, and I hope I shall be perfect in it. 
 
 Yen. 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. 
 
 Cor. Come, now for your song ; for we have fed heart- 
 ily. Come hostess, lay a few more sticks on the fire. And 
 now, sing when you will. 
 
 Pise. Well then, here's to you, Coridon; and now for 
 my song. 
 
 O the gallant fisher's life, 
 
 It is the best of any ; 
 Tis full of pleasure, void of strife, 
 And 'tis belov'd 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 oar backs, 
 To such streams 
 As the Thames, 
 ; % If we have the leisure. 
 
 When we please to walk abroad 
 
 For our recreation, 
 
 la 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. 
 
184 TH COMPLETE ANOLEU. I'.Mi 1 I. 
 
 We have gentles in horn, 
 
 We have paste and worms too ; 
 We can watch both night and morn, 
 Suffer rain and storms too : 
 
 Hone do here 
 
 Use to sircar : 
 
 Oaths do fray 
 
 IUh away: 
 
 We sit still. 
 
 And watch our quill ; 
 Fishers mint not wranglt. 
 
 If the so's excessive beat 
 
 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 pest an hour , 
 
 Under green willow. 
 That defends ns ftom a shower, 
 Making earth onr pillow : 
 
 Where we may 
 
 Think and pray 
 
 Before death 
 
 Scope our breath; 
 
 Other joys 
 
 Are but toys, 
 And to be lamented.* 
 
 JO. CHALK HILL. 
 
 This, U its kind, is a good song. The following, taken from Cotton's 
 Pocmt, 8vo. is to the same purpose; and well deserves place here. 
 
 L 
 
 Away to the brook, 
 
 All your tackle out-look. 
 Here's day that is worth a year's wishing. 
 
 See that all things be right, 
 
 For 'twould be a spight 
 To want tools when a mau goes a fishing. 
 
 II. 
 
 Your rod with tops two. 
 
 For the sme will not do 
 If your manner of angling you vary; 
 
 And foil well may yon think, 
 
 If you troll with a pink, 
 One too weak will be apt to miscarry. 
 
CHAP. XVI. THE COMPLETE ANGLER- 185 
 
 Ven. Well sung, master; this day's fortune and plea- 
 sure, 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 
 
 in. 
 
 'Then basket, neat made 
 By a master in 's trade, 
 
 In a belt at your shoulders must dangle ; 
 For none e'er was so vain 
 To wear this to disdain 
 
 Who a true brother was of the angle. 
 
 Next pouch must not fail, 
 
 Stuff 1 d as full as a mail, 
 With wax, crewels, silks, hair, furs, and feathers, 
 
 To make several flies 
 
 For the several skies, 
 That shall kill in despight of all weathers. 
 
 T. 
 
 The boxes and books 
 
 For your lines and your hooks, 
 And, though not for strict need notwithstanding, 
 
 Tour scissars and hone 
 
 To adjust your points on ; 
 With a net to be sure of your landing. 
 
 VI. 
 
 AH these being on, 
 
 Tis high time we were gone, 
 Down and upward, that all may have pleasure, 
 
 Till, here meeting at night, 
 
 We shall have the delight 
 'to discourse of our fortunes at leisure. 
 
 VII. 
 
 The day's not too bright, 
 
 And the wind hits us right, 
 And all nature does seem to invite us; 
 
 We have all things at will 
 
 For to second our skill, 
 As they all did conspire to delight us. 
 
 Tin. 
 
 On stream now, or still, 
 
 A large pannier we'll fill. 
 Trout and Grayling to rise are so willing; 
 
 I dare venture to say, 
 
 Twill be a bloody day, 
 And we all shall be weary of killing. 
 
186 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 believe he retired himself from talking with me that he 
 might be so perfect in this song ; was it not, master? 
 
 Pise. Yes, indeed, for it is many years since I learned 
 it; and having forgotten a part of it, I was forced to 
 
 A way, then, away. 
 
 We IOM sport by delay ; 
 Bat ant. leve mil our sorrow* behind u ; 
 
 If Mii Fortune should cone, 
 
 We ate all gone from home, 
 And a-Qshiog she never can find a*. 
 
 X. . 
 
 The angler it free 
 
 Fron Ue care* that Degree 
 Kind* iuelf with, o often, tormented : 
 
 And although we ihould .lay 
 
 Each a hundred a daj. 
 Tu a i laughter ned> ne'er be repented. 
 
 XI. 
 
 And though we dl.play 
 
 All our aru to betray 
 What were made for man's pleasure and diet, 
 
 Tet both prince* and state* 
 
 May for all our quaint baits. 
 Rule ibentseives and their people in quiet. 
 
 XII. 
 
 We scratch not our pates, 
 
 Nor repine at the rates 
 Our superiors impose on our living ; 
 
 But do frankly submit, 
 
 Knowing they have more wit 
 In demanding than we have in giving. 
 
 Xlll. 
 
 While quiet we sit. 
 We conclude all things fit; 
 
 Acquiescing with hearty submission; 
 For though simple, we know 
 That soft murmurs will grow, 
 
 At the last, unto downright sedition. 
 
 XI?. 
 We care not who says, 
 
 And intends it dispraise, 
 That an angler to a fool is next neighbour : 
 
 Let him prate ; what care we ? 
 
 We're as honest a* be ; 
 And so let him take that for his labour. 
 
CHAP. XVI. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 187 
 
 patch it up by the help of mine own invention ; who am 
 not excellent at poetry, as my part of the song may tes- 
 tify : 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 replications, 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 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: 1 
 
 XV. 
 
 We covet no wealth, 
 
 But the blessing of health, , , . 
 Aud that greater, good conscience within us. 
 
 Such devotion we bring^ 
 
 To our God, and our King, 
 That from either no offers can win us. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 While we sit and fish, 
 
 We pray, as we wish, 
 For long life to our king, James the Second. 
 
 Honest anglers then may, 
 
 Or they've very foul play, 
 Witli the best of good subjects be reckon'd. 
 
 (1) There is so much fine and useful morality included in this sentiment, 
 that to let it pass would he inexcusable in one who pretends to illustrate the 
 author's meaning, or display his excellencies. The precept which he evidently 
 meant to inculcate, is a very com tollable one, jeiz, that some of the greatest 
 pleasures human nature is capable of, lie open and in common to the poor as 
 well as the rich. It is not necessary that a man should have the fee-simple of 
 all the land iu prospect from Windsor Terrace, or Richmond Hill, to enjoy the 
 beauty of those two delightful situations; nor can we imagine that no one 
 
188 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 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 culverkeys 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 off, 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 others 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 exprest it, 
 
 IIil ! bleu esute of lowliness ; 
 
 Happy enjoyments of uch minds 
 As. rich in self-contented ness, 
 
 Can, like the reeds, in roughen winds, 
 By yielding make that blow but small 
 At which proud oaks and cedars fall. 
 
 but Lord Burlington was ever delighted in the view of bis roost elegant villa at 
 Cblswidu 
 
 But that excellent moralist, Dr. Francis Hotcheson, late of Glasgow, has a 
 paasage to this purpose, which is a much better comment on this reflection than 
 any we can five : " As often," says he, " as the more important offices of virtue 
 allow any intervals, our time is arreeably and honorably employed in history, 
 natural or civil ; in geometry, astronomy, poetry, painting, and music ; or such 
 entertainments as ingenious arts afford. And some of the swcttest enjoyments 
 of this sort require no property ; nor need we ever want the objects. If fami- 
 liarity abate* the pleasure of the more obvious beauties of nature, their more 
 exquisite inward structures may give new delights, and the stores of nature 
 are incxhautiHe." See hit tyttem of Moral Philosophy, book 1. chap. 7. 
 
CHAP. XVI. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 189 
 
 There came also into my mind at that time, certain 
 verses in praise of a mean estate and humble mind : they 
 were written by Phineas Fletcher ; l an excellent divine, 
 
 (1) It would be great injustice to the memory of tin's person, whose name is 
 now haidly known, lo pass by him without notice. The son of Giles Fletcher, 
 Doctor of Laws, and ambassador from Queen Elizabeth to the Duke of Mus- 
 covy. Phineai Fletcher was fellow of King's College, Cambridge, and the 
 author of a fine allegorical poem, entitled, the Purple Island, printed at Cam- 
 bridge, with other of his poems, in 4to. J6.33; from whence the passage in the 
 text, with a little variation, is taken. The reader will not be displeased with 
 a more entire quotation from that work; which, from its elegant pastoral sim- 
 plicity, I could wish to see equalled. 
 
 Let others trust the seas, dare death and hell, 
 Search either hide, vaunt of their scars and wounds; 
 
 Let others their dear breath (nay, silence) sell 
 To fools; aud (swoln, not rich) stretch out their bounds, 
 
 By spoiling those, that live, and wronging dead ; 
 
 That they may drink in pearl, and couch their head 
 
 In soft, but sleepless down ; in rich, but restlesse bed. 
 
 Oh ! let them in their gold quaff dropsies down; 
 
 Oh ! let them surfeits feast in silver bright; 
 While sugar hires the taste the brain to drown, 
 
 And bribes of sauce corrupt false appetite, 
 His master's rest, health, heart, life, soul to sell. 
 Thus plenty, fulness, sickness, ring their knell ; 
 Death weds and beds them ; first in grave, and then in hell. 
 
 But, ah ! let me, under some Kentish hill, 
 
 Near rolling Medway, 'mong my shepherd peers, 
 With fearless merry-make and piping, still 
 
 Sfccuraly pass my few and slow-pac'd years : 
 
 While yet the great Augustus * of our nation [ K. James I.J 
 
 Shuts up old Janus in this long cessation, 
 'Strength'uing our pleasing ease, aud gives us sure vacation. 
 
 There may I, master of a little flock, 
 
 Feed my poor lambs, and often change their fare. 
 My lovely mate shall tend my sparing stock, 
 
 And nurse my little ones with pleasing care, 
 Whose love and look shall speak their father plain. 
 Health be my feast ; heaven hope ; content my gain ; 
 So in my little house my lesser heart shall reign. 
 
 The beech shall yield a cool safe canopy, 
 
 While dowu I sit, and chaunt to th' echoing wood. 
 Ah ! siuging might I live, and singing die ; 
 
 So by fair Thames or silver Med way's flood, 
 The dying swan, when years her temples pierce, 
 In music-strains breathes out her life and verse; 
 Aud, chaunting her own dirge, tides on her watry hearse. 
 
 Purple liland, Canto I. 
 
 The innocence of angling, the delightful scenes with which it is conversant, 
 and its associated pleasures of ease, retirement, aud meditation, have been a 
 motive to the introduction of a new species of eclogue, where fishers are actors. 
 
190 THE COMPLEX* ANGLER. PARTI. 
 
 and an excellent 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 hope. no courtly fears him fright; 
 No begging wants lib middle fortune bit* : 
 Bat wet content exile* both misery and spite. 
 
 His certain life, that never can deceive him. 
 
 Is fall of thousand sweets, and rich content; 
 The MMoth-leav'd beeches in the 6eld receive him. 
 With coolest shade, till noon-tide's heat be spent. 
 His life is neither tost in bom'rous seas, 
 Or the vexatious world ; or lo*t in slothful ease. 
 Ple.i'd and fall blest he lives, when be his Ood can please. 
 
 His bed, more safe than soft, yields quiet sleeps, 
 
 While by his side bis faithful spouse hath place ; 
 Hh little son into Ills bosom creeps. 
 
 The lively pictare of his father's face. 
 Hit humble house or poor state ne'er torment him ; 
 Leas be coald like, if less his Ood 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 
 
 M shepherds are in the pastoral. Mr. Addlson, It is true, has censured San. 
 oaxarius for such an attempt : bat it is tn be remembered, that his are sea- 
 eclofae*. the very idea of which is sarely inconsistent with the ctlmuess and 
 tranquillity of the pastoral life ; pot to say, that oyster* and cray-fish are no 
 very elegant or persuasive bribe* to the favour of a mistress. But the ancient 
 writers of Pattoral t Bion. Theocritus, Motchus. and others, included, under that 
 species, the maaners of herdsmen, vine-dresers. and others ; aod why those of 
 Ashen are to be excluded, the legislators of Pattoral would do well to in~ 
 
 tmmm. 
 
 Of those who have attempted this kind of poetry, the above mentioned Mr. 
 Fletcher is one ; and in the seine volume with the PurpU Jtland are several 
 yioemi, which be calls Piscatory Eclogue*, from whence the following passage- 
 is attacted. 
 
 Ah ! would thoo koew'st bow much it better were 
 
 To bide among the simple fisher-swains. 
 Ho shrieking owl, no night-crow lodgeth here; 
 Nor is our simple pleasure mix'd with pxins. 
 Our sports begin with the beginning year, 
 In calms to poll the leaping fish to land ; 
 In roughs to sing, and dance along die golden sand. 
 
 I have a pipe which once thon lovedst well ; 
 
 (Was never pipe that gave a better sound ;) 
 Which oft to hear, fair Thetis from her cell. 
 Thetis the queen of seas, attended round 
 With hundred nymphs, and many powers that dwell 
 In th* ocean's rocky walls, came up to hear; 
 And gave me gifts, which still for thee lie hoarded here. 
 
CHAP. XVI. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 191 
 
 of an old catch, 1 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. 
 
 Here, with sweet bays, the lovely myrtles grow, 
 
 Where th' ocean's fair-cheek'd maidens oft repair; 
 Here to my pipe they danced on a row, 
 
 No other swain may come to note they're fair: 
 Yet my Ainyntas there with me shall go. 
 Proteus himself pipes to his flocks hereby, 
 Whom thou shalt hear, ne'er seen by any jealous eye. Eclogue I. 
 
 And besides Mr. Phineas Fletcher, a gentleman now living [1784,] the Rev. 
 Mr. Moses Browne has obliged the world with Piscatory Eclogues, which I would 
 recommend to all lovers of poetry and angling ; and am much mistaken if the 
 fifth of them, .entitled Rtnnock's Despair, is not by far the best imitation of 
 Milton's Lycidas that has ever yet appeared. 
 
 (1) The song here sung can in no sense of the word be termed a Catch. It 
 was probably set to music at the request of Walton, and is to be found in a book, 
 entitled. Select Ayres and Dialogues for one, two, and three Voyces; to the 
 Theorbo-lute and Basse Viol. By John Wilson and Charles Coleman, doctors 
 of music, Henry Lawes and others, fol. London, l65y. It occurs in the first 
 edition of Walton's book, published in 1653. 
 
 The reader is not to wonder at this motion of Venator's, nor that Piscator 
 so readily accepts it. At the time when Walton wrote, and long before, music 
 was so generally well understood, that a man who had any voice or ear was 
 always supposed to be able to sing his part in a madrigal or song, at sight. 
 Peacham requires of his gentlemau, only to be able " to sing his part sure, and 
 at the first sight; and withal, to play the same on the viol or lute." Compl. 
 Gent. 100. And Philomathes, in Morlcy's excellent Introduction to Practical 
 Music, in fol. Land. 1597, thus complains; [at the banquet of master Sophobu- 
 lus] " Supper being ended, and music-books, according to custom, being brought 
 to table, the mistress of the house presented me with a part, earnestly requesting 
 me losing. But when, after many excuses. I protested unfeignedly that I could 
 not, every one began to wonder; yea, some whispered toothers, demanding how 
 I was'brought up. So that, upon shame of mine ignorance, I go nowe to seek 
 out mine olde friend master Gnorimus, to make myself his scholar." 
 
 Another circumstance, which shews how generally music was formerly known 
 and practised in England, occurred to me upon the sight of an old Book of 
 Enigmas; to every one of which the author has prefixed a wooden cut of the 
 subject of the enigma. The solution to one of these is, A barber: and the cut 
 represents a barber's shop, in which there is one person sitting in a chair, under 
 the barber's hands ; while another, who is waiting for his turn, is playing on 
 the lute ; and on the side of the shop hangs another instrument of the lute or 
 cittern kind. The inference I draw from hence is, that, formerly, a lute was 
 considered as a necessary part of the furniture of a barber's shop, aud answered 
 the end of a newspaper, the now common amusement of waiting customers ; 
 which it would uever have done, if music had not, as is above observed, been 
 generally known and practised. 
 
 In an old comedy of Dekker's, entitled, " The Second Part of the Honest 
 Whore," printed in Dodsley's Collection, vol. iii. edit. 1780, Matheo, speaking 
 of his wife, terms her, " a barber's citterns for every serving-man to play 
 upon." 
 
 This instrument grew into disuse about the beginning of this century. Dr. 
 King, taking occasion to mention the barbers of his time, says, " that turning 
 
192 1MB COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 r>t I marry, Sir, this is music indeed ; this has cheer'd 
 my heart, and made me remember six verses in praise of 
 music, which I will speak to you instantly. 
 
 themselve* to perrivit-omking . they had forgot their cittern aud their music." 
 Workt of Dr. William King . vol. ii. p. 79- 
 
 Aod the knowledge of (hit fact will enable us to explain and justify a passage 
 ia Ba Joosou's comedy of The Silent Woman, which none of his aonotators 
 MM to hare understood. MoroM, in act III. scene A. of that play, after be 
 hat discovered thai hi* soppeaed wife caa Ulk, and that to the purpose too, 
 
 cries oat of Cntoertl, "That cursed barber ! 1 have named his cittern, that's 
 
 common to all men." Mr. Upton, ia his Note* on that play, supposes we 
 should read etrfciti, i. e. the common sink, the common sewer, cistern, or recep- 
 tacle : or, ite says* we may read cittern in a arose that has no relation to a 
 barber's shop. Bat whether the circumstance above mentioned does not render 
 ay such conjecture ueedle**, the ingenious reader will determine. 
 
 Mr. Henry Love*, who composed the motic to this song, was the Parcel) of 
 the age ne lived in: Mr. Waller has honoured him with Copy of Venn, in. 
 scribed -To Mr. Henry Law**, who had then new set a %ong of mine, In theytar 
 l13. n Aad Milton has celebrated his merit in an elegant sonnet " to Mr. II. 
 Law**, on hi Airs." Milton was an excellent judge and performer of music; 
 n particular which, a* it has been very Miperarially mentioned by the many 
 writer* of uls life, it may not be amis to enlarge on here. Aud first, we are to 
 knew, that ht affection to tbi* art was, in some sort, hereditary ; for his father 
 was not only a lover, bvta composer of music: the common melody, k nown by 
 the nm of York Pt*lm-twte, which most country chimes play, and half the 
 nure in this kingdom sing by way of lullaby, was of his composition, as appear* 
 by Raveuscroft's Collection of Ptalm4**c*. and other evidence*. He also 
 composed many madrigals, in four and five part*: some of which are to be seen 
 in the Trivmpki of Oriana, a collection of madrigal* to five and six voice*, 
 composed by divers author*. 4 to. Load. idOl ; and in other collections. And 
 lastly, it appears free* in* Ufe of Hilton, by his nephew Phillip*, prefixed to 
 a Translation of tome of hi* Letter* of Staff, printed in 18mo. lfiy, that Milton, 
 the rarber, composed an In Nomine of forty parts, for which he was rewarded, 
 by Pol.th prince to whom he presented it. with a gold mrdal and chain. And we 
 are also told, by the above-mentioned nephew of Milton, that, when he was upon 
 his travels, he collected a chest or two of choice masic book* of the best master* 
 flourishing at that time in Italy, namely. Luca Mareuxin, Mootoverde, Horatio 
 Vecchi, Cifra, the Prince of Veooia. and other*. 
 
 It should seem that Lawe* and Milton were well acquainted ; for the former 
 composed the original music to the Masque of Comut, and at the exhibition of 
 that performance at Lndlow-eastle. acted the part of the attendant Spirit. The 
 best account extant of him, except that in the Alkrn. Oxon. U contained in Mr. 
 Fentnn's note on the poem of Mr. Waller, above mentioned. 
 
 And. now 1 am upon this subject, I will tell the reader a secret ; which i*, 
 That music was in its greatest perfection in Europe from abont the middle of 
 the sixteenth to the beginning of the seventeenth century ; when, with M variety 
 of treble-Instruments, a vicious taste was intioduced, nd voe.jJ harmony re- 
 ceived its mortal wound. In this period flourished Palestriua, the Prince of 
 Venosa, and the several other author* above mentioned lo i.pve been collected 
 by Mil ion, and, to the immortal honour of this nation, our own Talli* and Byrd ; 
 and some years after, in the more elegant kinds of composition, such as mad- 
 rigals, canzonets, &c. Wilbye, Weelke*, Bennet, Morley, Bateson, and others, 
 whose works shew deep skill and fine invention. 
 
CHAP. XVI. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 193 
 
 Music ! miraculous rhet'ric, that speak'st sense 
 
 Without a tongue, excelling eloquence; 
 
 With what ease might thy errors be excas'd, 
 
 Wert thou as truly lov'd as th* art abus'd ! 
 
 But though dull souls neglect, and some reprove thee, 
 
 I cannot hate thee, 'cause the Angels love thee.i 
 
 Ven. And the repetition of these last verses of music 
 has called to my memory what Mr. Ed. Waller, a lover 
 of the angle, 2 says of love and music. 
 
 (I) See these Vtrsts, with some small variation, at the end of the book, en- 
 titled. Select Ayres and Dialogues, referred to from p. 105, n. ; with " W. D. 
 knight," under the bottom line, which I take to signify, that they were written 
 by Sir William Davenant. 
 
 And let me be excused, if, from the same book, I here insert the following 
 verses, on the subject of music, written by Mr. Thomas Randolph, and printed 
 among his Poems. 
 
 Music ! thou queen of souls, get up and string 
 Thy pow'rful lute; and some sad Requiem sing, 
 Till rocks requite thy echo with a groan, 
 And the dull cliffs repeat the duller tone: 
 Then on a sudden, with a nimble band, 
 Run gently o'er the chords, and so command 
 The pine to dance, the oak his roots forego, 
 The holm and aged elm to foot it too; 
 Myrtles shall raper, lofty cedars run, 
 And call the courtly palm to make up one; 
 Then in the midst of all their jolly train, 
 Strike a sad note, and fix them trees again." 
 
 (C) As the author's concern for the honour of angling induced him to enume- 
 rate such persons of note as were lovers of that recreation, the Reader will 
 allow me to add Mr. John Oay to the number. Any oue who reads the first 
 canto of Mis Georgic, entitled Rural Sports, and observes how beautifully and 
 accurately he treats the subject of fly-fishing, would conclude the author a pro- 
 ficient: but that it was his chief amusement, I have been assured by an intimate 
 friend of mine, who has frequently fished with him in the river Kennet, at Ames- 
 bury, in Wilts, the seat of his grace the Duke of Queensbury. 
 
 The Reader will excuse the following addition to this note, for the sake of 
 beautiful description of the materials used in fly-making, which is quoted from 
 the above-mentioned poem. 
 
 To frame the little animal, provide 
 
 All the gay hues that wait on female pride : 
 
 Let nature guide thee ; sometimes golden wire 
 
 The shining bellies of the fly require ; 
 
 The peacock's plumes thy tackle must not fail, 
 
 Nor the dear purchase of the sable's tail; 
 
 Each gaudy bird some slender tribute brings, 
 
 And lends the growing insect proper wings; 
 
 Silks of all colours must their aid impart, 
 
 And ev'ry fur promote the fisher's art : 
 
 So the gay lady, with expensive care, 
 
 Borrows the pride of land, of sea, of air; 
 
 Furs, pearls, and plumes, the glittering thing displays, 
 
 Dazzles our eyes, and easy hearts betrays." 
 
194 THE COUPLETS ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 White I lutrn to thy voice. 
 
 Cblorit. I feel my life decay ; 
 That powerful noise 
 
 Calif my fleeting soul away : 
 Oh 1 uppre that mafic ouod. 
 Which dmtroy* without a wound. 
 
 Peace. ChlorU, peace, or llagmg die. 
 That together you and I 
 To heaven may go ; 
 For all we know 
 Of what the bleued do above. 
 It, that they ting, and that they love. 
 
 Pise. 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 scho- 
 lar's catch over again ; and then each man drink the other 
 cup, and to bed ; and thank God we have a dry house 
 over our heads. 
 
 Pise. Well, now good night to every body. 
 
 Pet. And so say I. 
 
 Km. And so say I. 
 
 Cor. Good night to you all ; and 1 thank you. 
 
 
 Pise. Good-morrow, brother Peter; and the like to 
 you, honest Condon. 
 
 Come, my hostess says there is seven shillings 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 beholden to you ; 
 it will not be long ere Til see you again. And now, 
 brother Piscator, I wish you, and my brother your scholar, 
 a fair day and good fortune. Come Condon, this is our 
 way. 
 
CHAP. XVII. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 195 
 
 CHAP. XVII. 
 
 Of ROACH and DACE, and how to fish for them : and of Cadis. 
 
 Venator. GOOD master, as we go now towards London, 
 be still so courteous as to give me more instructions ; fop 
 I have several boxes in my memory, in which I will keep 
 them all very safe, there shall not one of them be lost. 
 
 Pise. 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 be- 
 cause we have so much time, and I have said so little of 
 Roach and Dace, I will give you some directions con- 
 cerning them. 
 
 Some say the Roach is so called from rutilus, which 
 they say signifies red fins. He is a fish of no great repu- 
 tation for his dainty taste ; and his spawn is accounted 
 much better than any 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 
 Ro % ach 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 ia 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 
 
 o2 
 
196 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART |. 
 
 from a Pilchard. And these bastard breed 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. 1 The Roach 
 
 (1) 1 know not what Roadies are cught below bridge; but above, I am sure 
 lhjr are wry large; for on the I5U> of September, 1754, at Hampton, I caaght 
 on* that ws fourteen inches and an eighth from rye to fork, and in weight 
 Wan rd but mn ouncr of two pound*. 
 
 The ea*on for fihiog for Roach in the Tinmen bfgim about the latter end 
 of Aucust. and continues much longer than It is either pleasant or safe to fish. 
 It requires some skill to hit the tin* of taking then exactly ; for all the summer 
 long they live on the weed, which they do not forsake, for the deeps, till it be- 
 Pmf* putrid, aud that is >ooner or Inter, accord ing as the season is wet or dry ; 
 for you are to know, that much rain hasten* the rottiug of the weed. I say it 
 requite* some skill to hit the time ; for the fishermen who live in all the towus 
 aloac the river, from Cbisvick to Staiort. are. about this time, nightly upon the 
 watch, a* soon a* the Ash cone out. to sweep than away with a drag-net : and 
 or poor patient ansler is left, bailing the ground and adjusting his tackle, to 
 catch thoaa ary fth which, perbap*. the night befoie had been cariied to 
 
 The Thanes, as well above as below London-bridge, was formerly much re. 
 sorted to by London anglers ; and, which is straoge to think on, considering the 
 smptoataotstew of the station, they were used to fish near the starlings of the 
 bndge. This will account for the many Ashiog.tarkle shops tbt were formerly 
 in Crooked laoe. which lead* to the bridge. In the memory of a person not 
 (of since living, a waterman that plied at Essex-tuir*. his name John Rreves, 
 got acomfottable living by attending antlers with his boat : his method was, to 
 watch when the shoal* of Roach came down from the country, and, when he had 
 found then, to go round to his customers and give them notice. Sometimes 
 they ettled opposite the Temple ; at other*, at Black-friars or Queen-httlie ; but 
 oat frequently about the Chalk-bill*. near Loodon.bridge. Hi* hire wa* two 
 shillioc* a tide. A certain aumber of penoos, who were accustomed thus to 
 employ him, raised a sum sufficient to buy him a waterman's coat, and silver 
 bsdga> the imaraii wharaof was. Himself, with an Angler, in his boat ;" and 
 ka had. annually, a BMW coat to the time of his death, which might be about 
 ON y**r ipO. 
 
 Sheppertoo aud Hampton are the place* chiefly resorted to by the Londoners, 
 who angle there in boats : at each there is a large deep, to which Roach are 
 attracted by raaetaut baiting. That at Hampton is opposite the church-yard ; 
 and in that cemetery lie* an angler, upon whose grave-stone is an inscription, 
 BOW nearly effaced , consisting of the** homely line*. 
 
 hi memory of Mr. Themes Tombs, goldsmith, of London, who departed this 
 life Aug. 12th, 1758, aged 63 years. 
 
 Each brother Bob, that sportive pastes here, 
 t' Pan** at this stone, and drop the silent tear, 
 For him who lov'd your harmless sport; 
 Who to this pitch did oft resort ; 
 Who in free converse oft would please, 
 With native humour, mirth and ease ; 
 His action* fora'd upon so just a plan, 
 Ha liv*d a worthy, died an honest man. 
 
 A particular ipot, called a Pitch, from the act of pitching or fattening tne 
 oattnere. 
 
CHAP. XVII. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 197 
 
 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 weir, 
 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 up 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 Qhub. 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, 
 
 Before I dismiss the t object of Thames-fishing, I will let the Reader know, 
 that formerly the fishermen inhabiting the villages on the banks of the Thames 
 were used to inclose certain parts of the riv r with what they called stops, but 
 which were in effect weirs or kideU, by stakes driven into the bed thereof; and 
 to these they tied wheels, creating thereby a current, which drove the fish into 
 those traps. This practice, though it may sound oddly to say so, is against 
 Afagna. Chaita, and is expressly prohibited by the 23d chapter of that statute. 
 In the year 1757, the Lord Mayor, Dickenson, sent the Water-Bailiff up the 
 Thames, in a barge well manned, and furnished witli proper implements; who 
 destroyed all those inclosures on this side Staines, by pulling up the stakes and 
 setting them adrift. 
 
198 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. FART 1. 
 
 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 ihe 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 that be too early in the year, then, doubtless, 
 you may find them in July, August, and most of Septem- 
 ber. 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 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 
 pot 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 
 not to fish less than a handful from the bottom. 
 
 1 shall next tell you a winter-bait for a Roach, a Dace, 
 pr Chub ; and it is choicely good. About All-hallantide, 
 (and so till frost comes,) when you see men ploughing up 
 
CHAP. XVII. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 199 
 
 heath ground, or sandy ground, or greenswards, then fol- 
 low 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. Gfather 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 ; 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 themselves, and be 
 always ready for use whensoever you incline to fish; and 
 these gentles may be thus created till after Michaelmas. 
 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 
 ihat time turn to be flies. 
 
200 TUB COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 But if you will 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 pat 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 
 from it, and yet leaving a kind of inward husk on the corn, 
 or else it is marr'd ; 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 cut 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 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 grow- 
 ing 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 email 
 
CHAP. XVII. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 201 
 
 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 inquiry, I found it did not answer the expecta- 
 tion 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 that fishes both 
 smell and hear, (as I have exprest in my former discourse :) 
 but there is a mysterious knack, which though it be much 
 easier than the philosopher's stone, yet it is not attainable 
 by common capacities, or else lies locked up in the brain 
 or breast of some chemical man, that, like the Rosicru- 
 cians, 1 will not yet reveal it. But let me nevertheless tell 
 you, that camphire, 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 dis- 
 course 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, 2 
 
 (1) Vidt infra, Part II. Chap. i. note. The Rosicrusians were a sect of 
 frantic enthusiasts, who sprung up in Germany about the beginning of the 14th 
 century : they professed to teach the art of making gold ; and boasted of a secret, 
 in their power, to protract the period of human life, and even to restore youth. 
 Their founder having been to the Hoi; Land, pretended to have learned all this 
 from the Arabs. They propagated their senseless philosophy by tradition ; and 
 revealed their mysteries only to a chosen few ; and to this practice the author 
 alludes. Lemery, in his book Of Chemist ry, has thus defined their art: "Art 
 tineartc; cvjtts principium mentiri, medium laborare, et finis mendicare." 
 An art without art; whose beginning is lying, whose middle is labour, and whose 
 end is beggary. 
 
 (2) Roach delight in gravelly or sandy bottoms : their haunts, especially as 
 winter approaches, are clear deep and still waters ; and at other times, they lie 
 iu and near the weeds, and under the shade of boughs. 
 
 They spawn about the latter end of May, when they are scabby and unwhole- 
 some : but they are again in order in about three weeks. The largest are taken 
 after Michaelmas; and their prime season is in February or March. 
 
 The Baits Jbr Roach, not already mentioned, are, cad-bait, and oak-worms, 
 for the spring ; in May, ant's-eggs; and paste made of the cramb of a new roll, 
 both white, and tinged with red, which is done by putting vermilion into the 
 water, wherewith you moisten it; this paste will do for the winter also. 
 
 The largest Roach in this kingdom are taken in the Thames, where many have 
 
20*2 TUB COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 and tell you, in the next place, how you are to prepare 
 your tackling : concerning which, I will, for sport sake, 
 
 been caught of two pound* and a half weight : but Roach of any cure are hardly 
 to be come at without a boat. 
 
 The hauoU of Dace aie. gravelly, sandy, and clayey bottoms; deep holes 
 that are shaded ; water lily leaves ; and under the foam caused by an eddy : in 
 hot weather, they are to be found on the shallows, and are then best taken with 
 an artificial fly, grasshoppers, or gentles, as hereafter directed. 
 
 Dace (>wo about the Utter end of March : and are in seaton about three 
 week* after: they are not very good till about Michaelmas, aitd are best in 
 Febntary. 
 
 Baits for Dace* other than those mentioned by Walton, are. the o-k-vrorm, 
 red. worm, brandling, gilt tail; and indeed any worm, bred on trees or bushes, 
 that is not too Wg for bb Mouth ; almost all kinds of Hies and caterpillars. 
 
 Though Dace are often caught with a float, Roach, yet they re not so 
 properly float-Ash : for they are to be taken with an artificial gnat, or ant-fly, 
 or indeed almost any other small fly in its season ; but in the Thames, above 
 (are caught with a natural green or dun grasshopper, nd 
 with (collet ; with both which you ate to fish as with aa artitii i.l 
 fly. They are not to be come at till about September, when the weeds begin to 
 rot ; hut when you have found where they lie, which, in a warm day, is generally 
 oo th- shallows, 'tis incredible what havock you may make : pinch off the first 
 joint of the grasshopper's left, pot the point of the hook in at the head, and 
 bring it owl at the tail; and in this way of fishing you will catch Chub, espe- 
 cially if you throw under the bought. 
 
 Bet this caa be done only in a boat ; for the management whereof, be provided 
 with a staff, and heavy stone fastened to a strong rope of four or five yards in 
 length : fasten the rope to the head of the boat, which, whether it be a punt or 
 wherry, b equity At for this purpose, and so drive down with the stream : 
 when yon roo>e to a shallow or other place where the fish are likely to lie, 
 drop the stone, and standing in the stern, throw right down the stream, and a 
 little to the tight and left : after trying about a quarter of an hour in a place, 
 with the stiff push the boat about five yards down, and so throw again. Use a 
 common fly-line, about ten yards long, with a strong single hair next the hook. 
 
 It b true, there b less certainty of catching in this way than with a float or 
 groood-b.it : for which reason. I would recommend It only to those who live 
 near the banks of that delighiiol river, between Windsor and I tie worth, who 
 have or cn command a bo*i for that purpose, and cn take advantage of a still, 
 warm, gloomy day ; and to sech it will afford much more diversion than the 
 ordinary inartificial method offiihiog in the deeps for Roach and Dace. 
 
 In fishing at bottom for Roach and Dace, nse for ground-bait bread soaked 
 about an hour in water, and an equal quantity of bran ; knead them to a tough 
 consistence, and make them up into btlls, with a <mll pebble in the middle : 
 and throw these balls in where you fish ; but be sure to throw them up the 
 stream, for otherwise they will draw the fish beyond the reach of your line. 
 
 Flab for Roach within six, and for Dace within three inches of the bottom. 
 
 Having enumerated the Baitt proper for every kind of fish in their respective 
 placet, it may not be amiss here to mention one which many authors speak of as 
 excellent for almost all fish ; and that is the spawn of Salmon, or large Trout. 
 Barker, who seems to have been the first that discovered it. recommends it to 
 bis patroo in the following terms : 
 Noble Lord, 
 
 " I have foand an experience of Uu>, which yon may angle with, and take 
 great store of this kind of osh. First, it is the best bait for a Trout that I have 
 
CHAP. XVII. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 203 
 
 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 aod my plummet, my whetstone and knife, 
 
 My basket, iny 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. 
 
 seen in all my time ; and will take great store, and not fail, if they be there. 
 Secondly, it is a special bait for Dace or Dare, good for Chub or Bottlin, or 
 Grayling. The bait is, the roe of a Salmon or Trout. If it be a large Trout 
 that the spawns be any thing great, you may angle for the Trout with this bait 
 as you angle with the brandling ; taking a pair of scissars, and cut so much as a 
 large hazel-nut, and bait your hook ; so fall to your sport, there is no doubt of 
 pleasure. If I had known it but twenty years ago, I would have gained a hun- 
 dred pounds only with that bait. I am bound in duty to divulge it to your 
 honour, and not to carry it to my grave with me. I do desire that mrn or qua- 
 lity should have it, that delight in that pleasure. The greedy angler will murmur 
 at me, but for that I care not. 
 
 " For the angling for the Scale-fish : They must angle either with cork or 
 quill, plumming their ground ; and with feeding with the same bait, taking them 
 [the spawns] as under, that they may spread abroad, that the fish may feed, and 
 come to your place : there is no doubt of pleasure, augliug with fine tackle ; as 
 single hair lines, at least five or six length long ; a small hook, with two or three 
 spawns. The bait will hold one week ; if you keep it on any longer you must 
 hang it up to dry a little : when you go to jour pleasure again, put the bait in 
 a little water, it will come in kind again." 
 
 Others, to preserve Salmon spawn, sprinkle it with a little salt, and lay it 
 upon wool in a pot, one layer of wool and another of spawn. It is said to be a 
 lovely bait for the winter or spring ; especially where Salmon are used to spawn ; 
 for thither the fish gather, aad there expect it. Ang. Vadt Mecum, 53. 
 
 To know at any time what bait fish are apt to take, open the belly of the first 
 you catch, and take out his stomach very tenderly ; open it with a sharp pen- 
 knife, and you will discover what he then feeds on. Vtnable, Ql. 
 
 The people who live in ihe fishing-towns along the banks of the Thames have 
 a method of dressing large Roach and Dace, which, as 'tis said, renders them 
 very pleasant and savoury food ; it is as follows : Without scaling the fish, lay 
 him on a gridiron, over a slow fire, and strew on him a little flour; when he 
 begins to grow brown, make a slit, not more than skin deep, in his back, from 
 head to tail, and lay him on again : when he is broiled enough, the skin, scales 
 and all, will peel off, and leave the flesh, which will have become very firm, 
 perfectly clean ; then open the belly, and take out the inside, and use anchovy 
 and butter for sauce. 
 
 Having promised the reader Mr. Barker's recipe for anointing boots and shoes, 
 (and having no further occasion to make use of his authority,) it is here given 
 in his own words. 
 
 "Take a pint of linseed-oil, with half a pound of mutton-suet, six or eight 
 ounces of bees-wax, and half a pennyworth of rosin : boil all this in a pipkin 
 together; so let it cool till it be milk -warm ; then take a little hair-brush, and 
 lay it on your new boots; but it is best that this stuff be laid on before the boot- 
 maker make* the boots ; then brush them once over after they come from him ; 
 as fur old boots, you must lay it on when your boots be dry." 
 
204 THJI COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 But you must hare all these tackling, and twice so 
 
 many more, 1 with which, if you mean to be a fisher, you 
 
 must store yourself; and to that pur- 
 
 / fctcc kfard tknt t At ' 
 
 pose I will go with you, either to Mr. 
 
 Margrave, who dwells amongst the 
 booksellers in St. Paul's Church-yard, 
 or to Mr. John Stubs, near to the Swan in Golding-lane: 
 
 (1) If yon go any great distance from home, you will find it necessary to 
 carry with you OMoy more thing* than are hrre enumerated ; most of which 
 may be very well contained in a wicker pauler of about twelve inches wide, and 
 eight high, of the fora, and pot Into a havking-bag. The following U a lilt of 
 the most material : a rod with spare top ; llnet rolled up, and neatly laid In 
 round flat boxes; par link*, single hairs, waxed thread and silk ; plummets of 
 various ; floats of all kinds, and spare raps ; worn-bugs, and a R entle-box ; 
 books of all stars, tome whipped to single hairs ; shot; shoemaker's wax, in a 
 very small gallipot covrrrd with a bit of leather ; a clearing-ring, tied to about 
 n yards of strong cord ; the use of this is to disengage your hook when it has 
 caught a weed. Ace. in which case take off the butt of your rod, and slip the 
 ring over the remaining joints, and, holding it by the cord, let it gently full ; a 
 landing net, the hoop whereof must be of iron, and made with joints to fold, 
 and a socket to bold a staff; take with you also surh baits as you intend to usr. 
 That you may keep your Ash alive be provided with a smal hoop.net, to draw 
 close to the lop. And never be without a sharp knife, and a pair of sctssars. 
 Aod if yoo mean to uw the Artificial fly, have your fly-book always with you. 
 
 And for the more convenient keeping and carriage of lines, links, single hairs, 
 Ate. take a piece of parchment or vellum, seven inches by ten : on the longer 
 sides, set off four inches ; od then fold it cross-wise, so as to leave a flap of two 
 inches, of which hereafter : then take eight or ten pieces of parchment, of seven 
 inches by four ; pot them into the parchment or vellum so folded, and sew up the 
 end* ; then cut the flap round. nc. and fold it down like a pocket-book : lastly, 
 you mjy. if yoo please, hind along the ends and round the flup with red tape. 
 
 Into this case, put lines coiled up, spare links, single hairs, and hooks ready 
 whipped and looped. 
 
 And having several of these cases, you my fill them with lines. &c. proper 
 for rvery kind of fishing ; always remembering to put into each of them a corger, 
 or small piece of caoe, of five inches lone, and a quarter of an inch wide, with 
 a notch at ech end ; with thU. when a fish has gorged your hook, you may, by 
 putting it down his throat till yon feel the hook, and holding the line tight 
 while you press it down, easily disengage it. 
 
 Aod if yoo should chance to break your top, or any other part of your rod, 
 take the following directions for mending it : Cut the two broken ends with a 
 long slope, so that they may fit neatly together; then spread some wax, very 
 thin, on each slope ; and with waxed thread or silk, according as the size of the 
 Iroken pan requires, bind them very neatly together. To fasten off, lay the 
 fore-finger of yoor left hand over the binding, aud with your richt make four 
 turns of the thread over it ; then pats the end of your thread between the under- 
 side of your finger and the rod. and draw your finger away ; lastly, with the 
 fore-finger aad thumb of yoor ritbt hand, take hold of the firnt of the turns, and, 
 gathering as much of it as you can, bind on till the three remaining turns are 
 wound off, and then take' hold of the eud which you had before brought 
 through, and then draw close. 
 
CHAP. XVII. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 205 
 
 they be both honest men, and will fit an angler with what 
 tackling he lacks. 1 
 
 Yen. Then, good master, let it be at , for he 
 
 is nearest to my dwelling. And I pray let's meet there 
 the ninth of May next, about two of the clock ; and I'll 
 want nothing that a fisher should be furnished with. 
 
 Pise. Well, and I'll not fail you, God willing, at th 
 time and place appointed. 
 
 Yen. I thank you, good master, and I will not fail 
 yon. 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. 
 
 For whipping on a hook take the following directions ; Place the hook 
 betwixt the fore-finger and thumb of your left hand, and with your right give 
 the waxed silk three or four turns round the shank of the hook; then lay the 
 end of the hair on the inside of the shank, and with your right band whip down ; 
 when you are within about four turns of the bent of the hook, take the shank 
 between the fore-finger and thumb of the left-hand, and place the silk close 
 by it, holding them both tight, and leaving the end to hang down; then draw 
 the other part of the silk into a large loop ; and, with your right-hand turning 
 backwards, continue the whipping for four turns, and draw the end of the silk 
 (which has all this while hung down under the root of your left thumb,) close, 
 and twitch it off. 
 
 To tie a mater-knot : lay the end of one of your hairs, about five inches or 
 less, over that of the other; and through the loop (which you would make to 
 tie them in the common way) pass the long and the short end of the hairs, 
 which will lie to the right of the loop, twice ; and, wetting the knot with your 
 tongue, draw it close, and cut off the spare hair. 
 
 (1) In some former editions of this book, the author has, in this place, men- 
 tioned Charles Kirby as a maker of excellent hooks; of whom take the follow- 
 ing account : He was famous for the neatness and form of his hooks ; when, 
 being introduced to prince Rupert, whose name frequently occurs in the history 
 of king Charles the First's reign, the prince communicated to him a method of 
 tempering them, which has been continued in the family to this time ; there being 
 a lineal descendant of the above-named Charles Kirby now (1760) living in Crow- 
 ther's-well-alley, near Aldersgate-street; whose hooks, for their shape and 
 temper, exceed all others. This story is the more likely to be true, as it is 
 well known that the German nobility, in the last century, were much addicted 
 to chemistry, and that to this prince Rupert the world is indebted for the in- 
 vention of scraping in mezzotinto. See a head of his scraping in Evelyn's 
 Sculpt ur a. 
 
206 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PAftT I. 
 
 Ptsc. 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 hear- 
 ing. 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 frumity 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 mostfsh is 
 a very tempting bait, being a little hardened on a warm 
 tile, and cut into fit pieces. 1 Nay, mulberries, and those 
 blackberries which grow upon briars, 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 fruits customarily dropt 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 in it. 
 
 You are also to know, that there be divers kinds of 
 CADIS, 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 Cha- 
 vender, or indeed for any great fish, for it is a large bait. 
 
 (I) See the Note in page 02. 
 
CHAP. XVII. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 207 
 
 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. 1 
 
 There is also another cadis, called by some a Straw- 
 worm, and by some a Ruff-coat,* whose house, . g^ i^fra, 
 or case, is made of little pieces of bents, and P- z 9, Note. 
 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 bris- 
 tles of a hedge-hog. 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 they 
 have their time also of turning to be flies later in sum- 
 mer; 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 
 
 (I) To preserve cadis, grasshoppers, caterpillars, oak-worms, or natural flies, 
 the following is an excellent method : Cut a round bough of fine green-barked 
 withy, about the thickness of one's arm; and, taking off the bark about a foot 
 in length, turn both ends together, into the form of a hoop, and fasten them 
 with a pack-needle and thread ; then stop up the bottom with a bung-cork : and 
 with a red-hot wire bore the bark full of holes ; into this put your baits : tie it 
 over with a colewort leaf; and lay it io the grass every night. In this manner 
 cadis may be kept till they turn to Hies. To grasshoppers you may put grass. 
 
208 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 has not leisure to search after, and, if he had, is not capa- 
 ble of learning. 1 
 
 I'll tell you, scholar; several countries have several 
 kinds of 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 
 
 (1) " The several sorts of phrygance, or cadews, in their rtympha or mag- 
 got ttate, thus boas* themselves ; ant sort in straws, called from thence straw- 
 worms; others, in two or more sticks laid parallel to ooe another, creeping at 
 the bottom of brooks ; others with a small bundle of pieces of rushes, duck- 
 weed, sticks, &c. glued together ; wherewith they float on the top, and can row 
 Ifeemaeives therein about the waters with the help of their feet : both these are 
 called cad- bait. Divtra torts there are, which the Reader may see a summary 
 of from Mr. Willoughby. in Raii Method. Irurct. p. 12, together with a good, 
 thoMfh very brief, description of the papilionaceous fly that comes from the cad- 
 bait cdew. It is a notable architectonic faculty, which all the variety of these 
 animals have, t gather ntch bod it* at are Jittot for their purpose, and then 
 to glut them together; son* to be heavier tb*u waten, that the animal may 
 remain at bottom, where its food is; (for which purpose they use stones, toge- 
 ther with sticks, rushes, Ike.) and some to be lighter than water, to float on the 
 Up, and gather its food from thence. These little houses look coarse, and shew 
 BO great artifice outwardly ; but are well tunnelled, and made within with a 
 hard tough paste, into which the hind part of the maggot in so fixed, that it can 
 draw its cell after it any where, without danger of leaving it behind; as also 
 thrust out its body to reach what it wanteth, or withdraw it into ils cell to guard 
 it against harms.* Phys. Theol. 2J*. 
 
 Thus much of cadis in general, as an illustration of what our author has said 
 on that subject. Bat to be more particular : 
 
 That which Walton calls the piper-cadis 1 have never seeu; but a very learned 
 and ingenious friend of nine, who has for fifty years past been an angler, and 
 a carious observer of aquatic productions, has furnished me with an Account 
 of that insect; which I shall give the reader in nearly his own words: 
 
 " The piper -cadit I take to be the largest of the tribe, and that it takes its 
 name not from any sound, but figure. I never met with it bat in rivers ruuning 
 poo beds of lime-stone or large pebbles; they are common in Northern and 
 Welch streams. The cadew itself is about an inch loog, aad in some above. The 
 cote is straight and rough ; the outward surface covered with gravel or sand; 
 the fistula, or pipe, in which it is contained, seems to be a small stick, of which 
 the pith was quite decayed, before the insect, in its state immediately succeed- 
 ing the agg, lodged itself. Advanced to an aurclia, which is generally ia 
 April, or the beginning of May, it leaves it) case and last covering, a sort of 
 thia skia resembling a fish's bladder, (aad this is likewise the method of the 
 whole genus, as far as I could ever observe,) and immediately paddles upon 
 she top of the water with its many legs. It seldom flies, though it has four 
 wings ; aad of these wings it is to be observed, that in ths infant state of the 
 insect, vis. for a week or longer, they are shorter than the body, bet afterwards 
 
CHAP. XVII. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 209 
 
 * 
 
 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 pre- 
 
 tbey grow to be full as long or longer. This is usually called, by sportsmen, 
 the stone-fly ; in Wales they name it the water-cricket, the size and colour 
 being like that insect." 
 
 As to the cock-spur, Bowlker expressly says, in his Art of Angling, p. 70, 
 that it produces the May-fly, or yellow cadew ; which I have ever understood 
 to be the green-drake. 
 
 That which Walton calls the straw-worm, or ruff-coat, though, by the way, 
 he certainly errs in making these terms synonymous, as will here-after be made 
 to appear, and which is described in Ray's Mcthodus intectorum, p. 12. is, I 
 take it, the roost common of any, and is found in the river Colne, near Uxbridge ; 
 the New River, near London ; the Waodle, which runs through Carshaltou in 
 Surrey; and in most other rivers. As to the straw-worm, 1 am assured, by 
 my friend above-mentioned, that it produces many and various flics ; namely, 
 that which is called, about London, the withy-fly, ash-coloured duns of several 
 shapes and dimensions, as also light and dark browns, all of them affording great 
 diversion in Northern streams. 
 
 It now remains to speak of the ntff-coat, which seems to answer so nearly 
 to the description which Walton has given of the cock-spur, viz. " that the caw 
 or house in which it dwells is made of small husks, and gravel and slime, most 
 curiously;" that there is no accounting for his making the term synonymous 
 with that of the straw-worm, which it does not in the least resemble : and yet, 
 that the ruff coat and the cockspur produce different flies, notwithstanding their 
 seeming resemblance, must be taken for granted, unless we will reject Bowlker's 
 authority, when he says the cock-spur produces the May-fly or yellow cadew, 
 which I own I see no reason to do. 
 
 But that I may not mislead the reader, I must inform him, that I take the 
 ruff-coat to be a species of cadis inclosed in a husk about an inch long, sur- 
 rounded by bits of stone, flints, bits of tile, &c. very near equal in their sixes, 
 and most curiously compacted together, like mosaic. 
 
 In the month of May, 1759, I took one of the insects last above described, 
 which had been found in the river Wandle, in Surrey, and put it into a small 
 box with sand at the bottom; and welted it five or six times a day, for five days; 
 at the end whereof, to my great amazement, it produced a lovely large fly, nearly 
 of the shape of, but less than a common white butterfly, with two pair of cloak- 
 wings, and of a light cinnamon colour. This fly, upon inquiry, I find is called, 
 in the North, the large light brown ; in Ireland, and some other places, it has 
 the name of the flame-coloured brown. And the method of 
 making it is given in the Additional List of Flies, under Sep- Appendix, 
 tember : where, from its smell, the reader will find it called No. 2. 
 
 the large foetid light brown. 
 
 And there are many other kinds of these wonderful creatures; as may be s*>en 
 in Mons. de Reaumur's Mimoirts pour tervir a I'Histoirt dea Intcctu, Tome 
 III. See also the APPENDIX, No. 1. 
 
210 THE COMPLETE 'ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 * 
 
 sently. 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, it is 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 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 
 hazel, 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 obser- 
 vations, 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 dili- 
 gence, and observation, and practice, and an ambition 
 to be the best in the art, that must do it. 1 I will tell you, 
 
 (I) The author has now done describing the several kinds offish, excepting 
 the few little one* that follow, with the methods of taking them ; but has said 
 liule or nothing of Float-JUhing: it may therefore not be amiss here to lay 
 dvwo some rales about it. 
 
 Let the rod be light aod stiff, aad withal so smart in the spring, as to strike 
 I the tip of the whale-bone. From fourteen to fifteen feet is a good length. 
 
 la places where you sometimes meet with Barbel, as at Shepperton and 
 Hampton, in Middlesex, the fittest line is one of six or seven hairs at top, and so 
 diminishing for two yards ; let the rest be strong Indian grass, to within about 
 half a yard of the hook, which raaj be whipped to a fine grass or silt-worm gut. 
 Aod ihis line will kill a fish of six pounds weight. 
 
 But lor mere Roach aod Dace-fishing, accustom yourself to a single-hair 
 line ; with which an artist m*y kill a fish of a pound and a half weight. 
 
 For jour float: In slow streams a neat round goose-quill is proper; but for 
 deep or rapid rivers, or in an eddy, the cork, shaped like a pear, is indisputably 
 the b*st, which should not in general exceed the size of a nutmeg; let not the 
 quill which you put through it be more than hilf an inch above and below the 
 cork: aod tins flout, though some prefer a swan's quill. ha great advantage 
 over a b*re quill; for the quill being defended from the water by the cork, does 
 ot soften; and the cork enables you to lead your line so heavily, as that the 
 hook sinks almost as soon as you put into the water; whereas, when you lead 
 but lightly, it doe* not go to the bottom till it is near the end of your swim. 
 Aad in leading your line*, be careful to balance them so nicely, that a very 
 
CHAP. XVII. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 211 
 
 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. 
 
 small touch will sink them t some use for this purpose lead shaped like a barley, 
 corn ; tut there is nothing better to lead with than shot, which you must have 
 ready cleft always with you ; remembering that when you fish fine, it is better 
 to have on your line a great number of small, than a few large, shot. 
 
 Whip the end of the quill round the plug with fine silk well waxed : this will 
 keep the water out of your float, and preserve it greatly. 
 
 In fishing with a float, your line must be about a foot shorter than your rod ; 
 for if it is longer, you cannot so well command your book when you come to 
 disengage your fish. 
 
 Pearch and Chub are caught with a float, and also Gudgeons; and sometimes 
 Barbel and Grayling. 
 
 For Carp and Tench, which are seldom caught but in ponds, use n very small 
 goose or a duck-quill float: and for ground-bait throw in, every now and then, 
 a bit of chewed bread. 
 
 For Barbel, the place should be baited the night before you fish, with graves, 
 which are the sediment of melted tallow, and may be had at the tallow-chan- 
 dler's. Use the same ground-bait, while you are fishing, as for Roach and 
 Pace. 
 
 In fishing with a float for Chub, in warm weather, fish at midwater ; in cool, 
 lower ; and in cold, at the ground. 
 
 p 2 
 
THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I, 
 
 CHAP. XVIII. 
 
 Of the MINNOW, or PENK; of the LOACH; of the BULL-HEAD, 
 or MILLER's-THUMB: and of the STICKLEBAG. 
 
 Piscator. THERE be also three or four other little fish 
 that I had almost forgot ; that are all 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 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 Min- 
 now 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 off, and their 
 guts taken out, and not washed after, they prove excel- 
 lent for that use ; that is, being fried with yolks of eggs, 
 the flowers of cowslips and of primroses, and a little tansy; 
 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 
 
CHAP. XVIII. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 213 
 
 streams: he grows not to be above a finger long, and no 
 thicker than is suitable to that length. This is not 
 unlike the shape of the Eel: he has a beard or wattles 
 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 Ges- 
 ner 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 sel- 
 dom, 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, 
 and 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 
 
 (1) Since Walton wrote, there has been brought into England, from Germany, 
 a species of small fish, resembling Carp in shape and colour, called Crusiam, 
 with which rv.ay ponds are now plentifully storked. 
 
 There have also been brought hither from China, those beautiful creatures 
 Gold and Silver Fish; the first are of an orange-colour, with very shining 
 scales, and finely variegated with black and dark brown: the Silver Fish are 
 of the colour of silver tissue, with scarle( fins, with which colour they arc 
 curiously marked in several parts of the body. 
 
 These fish are usually kept in ponds, basons, and small reservoirs of water ; 
 to which they are a delightful ornament. And it is now a very common prat- 
 
214 THE COMPLETE .ANGLER. PART I, 
 
 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 cuckow and swallow, and other half- 
 year birds, which first appear to us in April, spend their 
 six cold, winter, melancholy months. This fish 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 ! commend.s him much more 
 for his taste and nourishment, than for his shape or 
 beauty. 
 
 There is also a little fish called a STICKLEBAO, a fish 
 without scales, but hath his body fenc'd with several 
 prickles. I know not where he dwells in winter; nor 
 what he is good for in 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 wind-mill, 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 
 
 tice to keep them in a Urge glass-vessel like a punch bowl, with fine gravel 
 strewed at the bottom ; frequently changing the water, and feeding them with 
 bread nJ gentle*. 1 hose who can take more pleasure in angling for, than in 
 beholding them, which I confess I could never do, may catch them with gen- 
 tle* ; but though costly, they are but coarse food. 
 
 (1) Petrus Andreas Matthioltu, ol Sienna, an eminent physician of the six- 
 tveueh rentury, famous (or his Commentaries on some of the writings of Dios- 
 
CHAP. XVIII. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 215 
 
 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 does 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. 1 And the Loach 
 that I told you of will do the like: no bait is more tempt- 
 ing, 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 pre- 
 sent memory will afford me, concerning most of the 
 several fish that are usually fished for in fresh waters. 
 
 Ven. But, master, you have by your former civility 
 made me hope that you will make good your promise, 
 and say something 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. 
 
 (1) The Minnow, if used in this manner, is so tempting a bait, that few fish 
 are able to resist it. The present Enrl of told me, that in ihe month 
 
 of June last, at Kimptou IIoo, near Wellwyn, in Hertfordshire, he caught (with 
 a Minnow) a Rud, a fish described in page I'l , which, insomuch as the Hud is 
 not reckoned, nor does the situation of hit teeth, which are in his throat, be- 
 speak him to be a fish of prey, is a fact more extraordinary thau that related 
 by Sir George Hastings, in Chap. IV. of a Fordidgt Trout (of which kind of 
 fish none had ever been known to be taken with an angle), which he caught, 
 and supposed it bit for wantonness. 
 
216 THE COMPLETE ANGLEtt. PART 
 
 CHAP. XIX. 
 Of several RIVERS, and some Observation* on FISH. 
 
 Piscator. WELL, scholar, since the ways and weather 
 do both favour us, and that we 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 Doctor Heylin's Geography, 1 and others, in 
 number 325 ; but those of chiefest note he reckons and 
 describes as followeth. 
 
 The chief is T/tamisis, compounded of two rivers, 
 Thame and Isis; whereof the former, rising somewhat 
 beyond Thame in Buckinghamshire, and the latter near 
 Cirencester in Gloucestershire, meet together about Dor- 
 chester in Oxfordshire ; the issue of which happy conjunc- 
 tion is the Thamisis, or Thames ; * hence it flieth between 
 
 (1) It ihould be Dr. Heylin't Cosmography, a book well known. Great 
 conruMon arises from tli* want of a clear idea of the many words in our lan- 
 guage that have this termination; but it seems they are well understood by 
 some. About forty years ago, Mr. Jefferys, a printsellrr at the corner of St. 
 Martin's-laoe, and a great engraver of maps, got himself to be enrolled in the 
 list of the servants of Fiedenck. prince of Wales, by the designation of Geogra- 
 pher to his Koyal Highness. Rocque, who published the great map of London, 
 at that time a you 05 man, and desirous of an honourable adjunct to his name, 
 applied, shortly after, to the servants of the Prince, and, with t'.if tender of a 
 proper gratuity, solicited the tame appointment; but was given to understand 
 by them, that he was too late, for that the office of Geographer was disposed 
 of; but they, (probably bearing the chink of his money) comforted him by 
 saying, that they could set him down in terms of their own invention, either 
 Topographer, or Chorographer,to bis Royal Highness the Prince. The charms 
 of these sonorous appellations were too strong to be resisted. Mr. Rocque, 
 therefore, after due deliberation upon a matter so important, made choice of the 
 former; and, in addition to his name, caused it to be painted on the front of 
 his shop in the Strand. 
 
 (9) Though the current opinion is. that the Thames had its name from the 
 conjunction of Thame aud liw, it plainly appears that the 7m was always 
 called Thames, or Tcrru, before it came near the Tame. Gibbon's Camden, 
 edit 1753. p. 99 
 
 And as to the head of the Thame, although it is generally supposed to be in 
 Oxfordshire, Camden (whom we may suppose Walton followed), Brit. 215, says 
 it is in Buckinghamshire. 
 
 But what shall we say to the following account which Lambarde has adopted ? 
 
CHAP. XIX. THE COMPLETE ANGLEll. 217 
 
 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 1 poet thus truly spake : 
 
 Tot compos, 4;c. 
 
 We saw so many uoods and princely bowers, 
 Sweet fields, hiave palaces, a.nd stately towers; 
 So many gardens drest with curious care, 
 That Thames with royal Tiber may compare. 
 
 2. The second river of note is Sabrina, or Severn : it 
 hath its beginning in Plinilimmon-hill, in Montgomery- 
 shire ; and his end seven miles from Bristol ; washing, in 
 the mean space, the walls of Shrewsbury, Worcester, and 
 Gloucester, and divers other places and palaces of note. 
 
 " Tame (sayeth Leland) springe:h out of the hilles of Hertfordshire, at a place 
 called Bulburne, a few miles from Pcolye, (the house of a family of gentlemen 
 called Verneys); it runneth from thence to Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, and 
 to Tame (a market-town in Oxfordshire, whearunto it gyveth the name,) then 
 passinge under Whrtley-biidge, it cometh to Dorchester, and hard by joyneth 
 with Isis, or Ouse, and from that place joyneth with it in name also." Diction, 
 arium Topographicum,voceTKAME. 
 
 Unfortunately, Leland's manuscript has lost twenty-five leaves in that part 
 of it where one might expect to find this passage. But the following extract, 
 from an author of great authority, and wliohadaseat in the county of Hertford, 
 will determine the question. 
 
 " The Thame (the most famous river of England) issues from three heads, in 
 the parish of Tring ; the first rises in an orchard, near the parsonage-house; the 
 second in a place called Dundell; and the other proceeds from a spring named 
 Bulbourne, which last stream joins the other waters at a place called New- 
 mill; whence all, gliding together in one current, through Puttenham in this 
 county, pass by Aylesbury (a fair market-town in Buckinghamshire) to Etherop, 
 (an ancient pleasant seat of that noble family of the Dormers, earls of Caernar- 
 von ;) and crossing that county, by Notley-abbey, to Thame, (a market-town in 
 Oxfordshire, which borrows its name from tins river,) hasteneth away by 
 Whateley-bridge to Dorchester, (an ancient episcopal seat,) and thence congra- 
 tulates the Is; but both emulating each other for the name, and neither 
 yielding, they are complicated by that of Thamitis." Sir Henry Chauocy's 
 Historical Antiquities of Hertfordshire, p. 2. See also the later Maps of 
 Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire. 
 
 (I) Who this German poet was I cannot find; but the verses, in the original 
 Latin, are iu Heylin's Cosmography, page 240, and are as follow : 
 Tot compos, sylvas, tot regia tecta, tot hortos, 
 Artifici cicultoi dextra, tot vidimus arcet ; 
 Ut nunc Ausonio, Thamisis, cum Tibride certtt. 
 
218 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 3. Trent, so called from 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 cestuarium 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 river Dravus, 
 Savus, Tibiscus, and divers others) changeth his name into 
 this of Humberabus, as the old geographers call it. 
 
 4. Medway, a Kentish river; famous for harbouring the 
 royal navy. 
 
 5. Tweed t 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. 1 These, and the rest of principal note, are thus 
 comprehended in one of Mr. Drayton's Sonnets. 
 
 Our floods' quern, Thamtv. for ships and swans is crown'd; 
 
 And stately Severn for her shore is prais'd ; 
 The crystal Trent, for fords and fih rmown'd ; 
 
 And Avon't fame to Albion's cliffs is rais'd. 
 
 Carlegian Chester Taunts her holy Dee ; 
 
 York many wonder* of her Oute can tell ; 
 The Peak, her Dove, whose baoks so fertile be. 
 And Krat will say her Medway doth excel. 
 
 (I) It would have been beside the author's purpose, and indeed inconsistent 
 with the brevity of his work, to have Riven such a description and history of the 
 riven of this kingdom, as some readers would wish for. Such, however, may 
 find, in Sclden's NoUn on the Polyolbion, a great variety of curious and useful 
 learning on the subject. And it were to be wished that some person skilled 
 like Leland, Camden, Lambarde, or that excellent person above mentioned, in 
 the antiquities of this country, if any such there are, would undertake the 
 delightful task of surveying them, and giving their history. 
 
 In the meanwhile we would recommend to our angler the use of a map of the. 
 county where he fishes ; by means whereof he may see the rivers contained in 
 it, with their courses; which is peihaps as much as a mere angler need know 
 about the matter. 
 
JHAP. XIX. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 219 
 
 Cotswold commends her Ixis to the Tame ; 
 
 Our Northern borders boast of Tweed's fair flood; 
 Our Western parts extol their Willy's fme, 
 
 And the old Lea b'rags 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 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 commu- 
 nicate it ; one that loves me and my art ; one to whom I 
 have been beholden for many of the choicest observations 
 
 (1) " LEEflu. Ly^an, Saxon. Luy, Mar. [fortan Marcellinus] Lea, Poly- 
 doru. The name of the water which (runnyn betwene Ware tnd London) 
 devydethe, for a prent part of the way, Essex and Hertfordshire. It begynnethe 
 aear a place called Whitchurche ; and from thence, pastinge by Hertford, Ware, 
 and Waltham, openethe into the Thatnise at Ham in Essex ; wheare the place 
 is, at this d*y, called Lee Mouthc. It hathe, of longe tyme, home vessells 
 from London, 20 miles towarde the head ; for, in tyme of Kwige Alfrede, the 
 Danes entered Leymouthe, and fortified, at a place adjoyninge to this ryver, 
 20 myles from London; where, by fortune, Kinge Alfrede passioge by, espied 
 that the channel! of the ryver might be in such sorte weakened, that they should 
 want water to return withe their shippes : he caused therefore the water to be 
 abated by two greate trendies, and settinge the Londoners upon thetro, he made 
 theim batteil: wherein they lost four of their capitaines, and a great nomber of 
 their common touldiers ; the. reste flyinge into the castle which they had builte. 
 Not longe after, they weare so pressed that they forsoVe all, and left their 
 shippes as a pray to the Londoners; which breakinge some, and burninge other, 
 conveyed the rest to London. This castle, for the distance, might seme Htrt- 
 forde; but it was same oilier upon that banke, which had no longe continu- 
 ance; for Edward the elder, and son of this Alfrede, builded Hertforde not 
 longe after." Vide LambarJe's Dictionarium Topographicum, voce LEE. 
 Dray ton's Polyolbion, Song the Twelfth, and the first Note thereon. 
 
 Other authors, who confirm this fact, also add, That for the purpose aforesaid 
 he opened the mouth of the river. See Sir William Dugdale's History of the 
 tmbiinkine, and draining the Fens, and Sir John Spelman's Lift of Alfred 
 the Great, published by Hearne, in 8vo. 1709; the perusal of which last-named 
 author will leave the reader in very little doubt but that these trenches are the 
 very same that now branch off from the river between Temple-Mills aud Old- 
 Ford, aud, crossing the Stratford road, enter the Thames, together with the prin- 
 cipal stream, a little below Blackwall. 
 
220 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 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 had lately dissected 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 Sopham, 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 ours, 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. 
 
CHAP..XX. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 221 
 
 CHAP. XX. 
 
 Of FISH-PONDS, and how to order them. 
 
 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. 1 
 
 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 amd 
 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 endan- 
 ger 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 
 
 (1) A translation of this work under the title of " Maison Rustique, or the 
 Country Farme, compiled by Charles Steuens and John Liebault, Doctors of 
 Physicke, and translated into English by Richard Surflet," appeared in quarto, 
 Land. irJOO : and a second edition, with large additions, by Oervase Markham, 
 fol. Lond. 1616. 
 
222 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 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 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 
 themselves, 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 ex- 
 tremity 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 bulrushes, 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 sometimes 
 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. 
 
CHAP. XX. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 223 
 
 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 
 believe him, though we know frogs are usually eaten in 
 his 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, af- 
 frightens, 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 marie- 
 pits, or pits that have clean clay bottoms; or in new ponds, 
 
224 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART. I. 
 
 or ponds that lie dry a winter season, than in old ponds that 
 be full of mud and weeds. 1 
 
 (I) It is observable, that the author has said very little of pond-fishing; 
 which is, iu truth, a dull recreation; and to which 1 have heard it objected, that 
 fish in ponds are alreafly caught. Nevertheless, I find that in the canal at St. 
 James's Park, which, though a large one, is vet a poud, it was, iu the reign of 
 Charles If. the practice of ladies to angle. 
 
 " Beneath a shole of silver fishes glides, 
 And plays about the gilded barges' sides; 
 The ladies, angling in the chrysul lake, 
 Feast on the waters with the prey they take : 
 At once victorious with their Hues and eyes, 
 They make the fishes and the men their prize." 
 
 WALLER. Poem on St. James's Park, 
 lately improved by his ifajetty. 
 
 As the method of ordering fish-ponds is now very well known, and there are 
 few books of gardening but what give ome directions about it, it is hoped the 
 reader will think the following quotation from Bowlker sufficient, by way of 
 annotation on this chapter. 
 
 Wneu you intend to stock a pool with Carp or Tench, make a close cthcring 
 hedge, across the bead of the pool, about a yard distance of the dam, and about 
 three feet above the water; which is the best refuge for them I know of, and 
 the only method to preserve pool-fish ; because if any one attempts to rob the 
 pool. addie the water, or disturbs it with nets, most of the fish, if not all, im- 
 mediately fly between the hedge and the data, to preserve themselves : and in 
 all pools where there are such shelters and shades, the fish delight to swim 
 backwards and forwards, through and round the same, rubbing and sporting 
 themselves therewith. This hedge ought to be made chiefly of orls, and not too 
 close; the boughs long and straggling towards the dam; by which means you 
 may feed and ratten them as you please. The best baits for drawing them toge- 
 thcr, at first, are, maggots, or young wasp*; the next are, bullock's brains and 
 lob-worms, chopped together, and thrown into the pools in large quantities, 
 about two boor* before sun-set, summer and winter. By thus using these 
 ground. baits, once a day, for a fortnight together, the fish will come as con- 
 stantly and naturally to the place as cattle to their fodder; and to satisfy your 
 cariosity, and to convince you herein, after you have baited the pool for some 
 time, as directed, take about the quantity of a two-penny loaf of w beaten bread, 
 cat it into slices, and wet it; then throw it into the pool where you had baited, 
 and the Carp will feed upon it: after you have used the wet bread three or 
 fear mornings, then throw some dry bread in, which will lie on the top of the 
 water; and if you watch, out of sight of the fish, you will presently s^e them 
 swim to it, and suck it in. I look upon wheateu bread to be the best food for 
 them, though barley or oaten bread is very good. If theie be Tench and Pearch 
 in the same pond, they will feed upon the four former baits, and not touch the 
 bread. Indeed there is BO pool-fish so su* and nice as a Carp. When the water 
 is disturbed, Carp will fly to the safest shelter they can ; which I one day ob- 
 served, when assisting a gentleman to fish his pool ; for another person disturbed 
 Che water by throwing thecasting.net, but caught never a Carp ; whereupon two 
 or three of us stripped and went into the pool, which was provided with such a 
 sort of a hedge in it as is before described, whither the Carp had fled for safety ; 
 then fishing with our hands on both sides the hedge, that is, one on either side, 
 we catched what quantity of Carp was wanting." Bowlker, p. 6'2. 
 
 The reader may also consult a book published about the year 17VZ, intitled, 
 
CHAP. XXI. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 225 
 
 Well, Scholar, I have told 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 thattwice two is four. 
 I will therefore put an end to this discourse; and we 
 will here sit down and rest us. 
 
 CHAP. XXI. 
 
 Directions for maMng of a line, and for the colouring of both Rod 
 and Line. 
 
 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 Totten- 
 ham, 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. 1 
 
 A Discourse of Fish and Fish-ponds, by a Person of Honour ; who, I have 
 beeu told by one who knew him, was the Hon. Roffer North, author of the Life 
 of the Lord Keeper Guildford. See before, page 105. 
 
 (1) The author having said nothing about choosing or making Rods in any 
 part of hu book, it wa thought proper to insert the following direction*. For 
 
 Q 
 
226 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. . PART I. 
 
 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: fora 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, 
 
 iihing at the bottom, whether with running-line or float, the reed or cane, 
 rod is. on account of iu lightness and elasticity, the best, especially if you 
 angle for those fish which bite but tenderly, as Roach and Dace. And of these 
 there are rods that put up. and make a walking-stick. There are others in 
 many joints, that put up together in a bag. and are therefore called bag-rods ; 
 there last are very useful to travel with, as they take but little room. Next to 
 these is the hsel ; but that is moie apt to warp than the cane ; these, as also 
 excellent fly-iods, are to be had at all the fishing-tackle shops in London, and 
 thereloie need DO particular description : only be careful, whenever you be- 
 speak a rod of reed or cane, that the workman does not rasp down into the 
 bark which grows round the joints, a fault which the makers of rods are often 
 guilty of; the consequence whereof is, that the rod is thereby made weaker at 
 the joints than elsewhere; and there being no bark to repel the wet, it soon rots, 
 and, whenever yon hook a large fish, ceitaiuly breaks. 
 
 But if you live iu the country, and are forced to make your own rods, take 
 these direction*: 
 
 Between the tatter end of November and Christmas, when the sap is goun 
 down into the roots of tree*, gather the ffraightest hasels you can find, for stocks; 
 and let them, at the greatest end, be about an inch or moie in diameter: at the 
 aame time gather shoots of a less sixe, for middle pieces, and tops: tic them 
 together in a bundle, and let them lie on a dry floor : at the end of fifteen or 
 sixteen months, match them together ; and to the slender ends of the tops, after 
 cutting off about eight or ten inches, whip a fine taper piece of whalebone of 
 that length : then cut the ends of the stock, the middle-piece, and the top, with 
 long slant, so that they may join exactly to each oilier ; and spread some 
 shoemaker's-wax, very thin, over the slants ; bind them neatly with strong waxed 
 thread ; and, lastly, fix a strong loop of horse-hair to the whalebone. Let the 
 rod. so made, lie a week to settle, before you use it. In this manner, also, you 
 are to make a fly-rod ; only observe that the latter must be much slenderer from 
 the end of the stock, than the former. 
 
 But for the neatest fly-rod yon caa make, get a yellow whole-deal board that 
 is free from knots, cut off about seven feet of the best end, and saw it into some 
 square breadths ; let a joiner plane off the angles, and make it perfectly round, 
 a little tapering, and this will serve for the stock ; then piece it to a fine 
 straight hasel, of about six feet long, and then a delicate piece of fine-grained 
 yew, planed round like an arrow, and tapering, with whale-bone, as before, of 
 about two feet in length. There is no determining precisely the length of a fly- 
 rod ; but oue of fourteen feet is as long as can be well managed with one hand. 
 To colour the stock, dip a feather in aqna-fortis, and with your hand chafe it 
 into the deal, and it will be of a cinnamon colour. 
 
 Bnt before you attempt this sort of work, you must be able to bind neatly, 
 and fasten off; for which directions are given in the Notes on Chap. XVII. 
 
 When the season is over, and jou have done with your rods, take them to 
 pieces, and bind the joints to a strait pole, and let them continue so bound till 
 the season returns for using them again. See more directions about the fly- 
 rod. Part 1 1. Chap. V. 
 
 Rods, for Barbel, Carp, and other large fish, should be of hasel, and propor- 
 tionally stronger than those for Roacb and Dace. And note, that for fly-fishing 
 
CHAP. XXI. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 227 
 
 and full of galls 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 break all together, which hairs of an un- 
 equal 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 fish- 
 ing 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 
 
 the bamboo-cane it excellent. Screws to rods are not only heavy, and apt to 
 I e out of repair, but they are absolutely unnecessary ; and the common way of 
 inserting one joint in another is sufficiently secure, if the work be true. 
 
 Our forefathers were wont to pursue even their amusements with great for* 
 mality. An Angler of the last age must have his Jlthing -coat, which, if not 
 black, was at least of a very dark colour; a black velvet cap, like those which 
 jockies now wear, only larger ; and a rod with a stock as long as a halbert : 
 and thus equipped, would he stalk forth with the eyes of a whole neighbour- 
 hood upon him. 
 
 But in these later days, bag-rods have been invented, which the angler nay 
 easily conceal, and do not proclaim to all the world where be is going. Those 
 for float-fishing are now become common ; bat this invention has lately been ex- 
 tended to rods for fly-fishing ; and here follows a description of such a neat, 
 portable, and 'useful one, as no angler that has once tried it will ever be with, 
 out. 
 
 Let the joints be four in number, and made of hiccory, or some such very 
 tough wood, and two feet four inches in length, the largest joint not exceed- 
 ing half an inch in thickness. The top must be bamboo shaved. And for the 
 stock, let it be of ash, full in the grasp, of an equal length with the other joints; 
 and with a strong ferule at the smaller endjf made to receive the large joint, 
 which must be well shouldered and fitted to it with the utmost exactness. 
 
 This rod will go into a bag, and lie very well concealed in a pocket in the 
 lining of your coat, on the left side, made straight on purpose to receive it. 
 
 Q2 
 
228 THL COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 this is most visible in a seven-hair line, one of those which 
 hath always a black hair in the middle. ' 
 
 (1) Your liar, whether it be a running-Hoe, or for float-fishing, had best be 
 of hair; unless you fish for Barbel, and then it must be of strong tilk. And 
 the latter (the line for float-fishing) must be proportioned to the general size of 
 the fish you expect; always temembering that the single hair is to ba preferred 
 for Roach or Dace-fishing. But the fly-line is to be very stiong; aud, for the 
 greater facility in throwing, should be eighteen or twenty hairs ut the top, and 
 so diminishing insensibly to the hook. There are lines now to be had at the 
 fishing-tackle shops that have no joints, but wove in one piece. 
 
 But notwithstanding this aud other improvement), perhaps some may still 
 choose to mke their own Hues. lu which case, if they prefer those twisted 
 with the finger*, they need oaly observe the rules given by the author for that 
 purpose. But, for greater neatness and expedition, I would recommend an 
 engine lately invented, which is now to be had at almost any fishing-tackle 
 shop in London : it consists of a large horizontal wheel and three very small 
 one*, inclosed in a brass box about a quarter of an inch thick, aud two inches 
 in diameter; the axis of each of the small wheels is continued through the un- 
 der-sivla of the box, and is formed into a hook ; by means of a strong screw it 
 may be fixed in any post or partition, and is set in motion by a small wiuch in 
 the centre of the box. 
 
 To twist links with this engine, take as many hairs as you intend each shall 
 consist of, and, dividing them into three parts, tie each parcel to a bit of fine 
 twine, about six inches long, doubled, and put through the aforesaid hooks; 
 then take a piece of lead, of conical figure, two inches high, and two in diame- 
 ter at the base, with a hook at the apex or point; tie your three parcels of hair 
 into one knot, and to this, by the hook, hang the weight. 
 
 Lattlv, Utk* jw***, *r lrgr, hotttc-coih , ami cut into the sides, at equal 
 
 distance* three grooves ; and placing it so as to receive each divisiou of hair, 
 begin to twist : you will find the link begin to twist with great evenness at the 
 lead ; as it eiows tighter, shift the cork a little upwards ; and when the whole 
 is sufficiently twisted, take out the cork, and tie the link into a knot; and so 
 proceed till you have twisted links sufficient for your line, observing to lessen 
 the number of hairs in each link in such proportion as that the line may be 
 
 When yon use the fly, yon will find it necessary to continue your line to a 
 greater degree of fineness: in order to which, supposing the line to be eight 
 yards in length, fasten a piece of three or four twisted links, tapering till it 
 tftozx* of the sice of a fine grass; and to the end of this fix your hook-link, 
 which should be either of very fine grass, or silk-worm gut. A week's practice 
 will enable a learner to throw one of these lines ; and he may lengthen it, by a 
 yard at a time, at the greater end, till he can throw fifteen yards neatly, till when 
 he is to reckon himself bnt a novice. 
 
 For the colonr, you must be determined by that of the river you fish in : but 
 I have found that a line of the colour of pepper and salt, when mixed, will suit 
 any water. 
 
 Many inconveniences attend the use of twisted (open) hairs for your hook- 
 line : see Part II. Chap. V. Silk-worm gut is both fine and very strong; bat 
 then it is apt to fray ; though thzsfmay, in some measure, be prevented by wax- 
 ing it well. 
 
 Indian, or sea-grass, makes excellent hook lines ; and though some object to 
 it, as being apt to grow brittle, and to kink in using, with proper management 
 
CHAP. XXI. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 229 
 
 And for dyeing 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 alum; 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 purpose ; 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 alum ; 
 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 marigolds, 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 is the best material for the purpose yet known, especially if ordered in the 
 following manner: 
 
 Take as many of the finest you ran get, as you please : put them into any 
 vessel; and pour therein tl>e scummed fat of a pot, wherein fresh, but by no 
 means salt meat has been boiled : when they have lain three or four hours, take 
 them out one by one, an<t, stripping the grease off with your finqrr and thumb 
 (but do not wipe them) stretch each crass a< lorg as it will yield; coil them 
 up in rinqs, and lay them by; and you will find them become near as small, 
 full as round, and much stronger than the best single hairs you can get. To 
 preserve them moist, keep them in a pieceW bladder well oiled; and before 
 you use them let them soak about half an nwiir in water; or, in your walk to 
 the river-side, put R length of it into your mouth. 
 
 If your crass is coarse, it will fall heavily in the water, and scare away the 
 fish ; on which account gut has the arlvintaze. But after all, if your grass be 
 fine and round, it is tht best thing you can use. 
 
230 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I, 
 
 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, which is only good when 
 the weeds rot, then put in more marigolds; and abate 
 most of the copperas, or leave it quite out, and take a 
 little verdigris 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 bris- 
 tle, or a brush or pencil whilst it is hot : that being quite 
 dry, take white-lead and a little red-lead, and a little coal- 
 black, so much as altogether will make an ash-colour; 
 grind these altogether with linseed-oil; let it be thick, 
 and lay it thin upon the wood with a brush or pen- 
 cil: this do for the ground of any colour to lie upon 
 wood. 
 
 For a green, take pink and verdigris, 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 tho- 
 roughly 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-Cioss, 
 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 J^ive 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. 
 
CHAP. XXI. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 231 
 
 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 dis- 
 asters 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 insup- 
 portable burthen of an accusing tormenting conscience; 
 a misery that none can bear: and therefore let us praise 
 Him for 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 se- 
 curely; 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 
 it is 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 
 
232 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PAKT I. 
 
 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, there- 
 fore, 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 his friend, to see a country fair; where he saw 
 ribbons, and looking-glasses, and nut-crackers, and fid- 
 dles, 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 Dio- 
 genes hath no need!" And truly it is so, or might be so, 
 with very many who vex and toil themselves 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 neigh- 
 bour, 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 neigh- 
 bour's was. And I knew another to whom God hud given 
 
CHAP. XXI. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 233 
 
 health and plenty; but a wife that nature had made pee- 
 vish, 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 oppo- 
 sitions, 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 pu- 
 nishment, 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 con- 
 tent 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 himself 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 be the 
 poor in spirit, for theirs 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 
 
234 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 of heaven: but in the mean time, he, and he only, pos- 
 sesses the earth, as he goes towards that kingdom of 
 heaven, by being humble and cheerful, and content with 
 what his good God has alloted 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 alloted 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 
 thankfulness; 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 con- 
 fessing of his sins and unworthiness, and such thankful- 
 ness 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 us not 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 its full glory, 
 either at the rising or setting of it, he would be so trans- 
 
CHAP. XXI. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 235 
 
 ported and amazed, and so admire the glory of it, that 
 he would not willingly turn his eyes from that first ravish- 
 ing 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, 
 because they be so common, most men forget to pay their 
 praises: but let not us; because it is a sacrifice so pleas- 
 ing 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, [meekness and thankfulness] 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 con- 
 tentedly poor : but be sure that your riches be justly got, 
 or you spoil all. For it is well said by Cans sin, 1 " 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 cannnot buy; and therefore 
 
 (1) Nicholas Causrin. a native of Troyes in Champagne, wrote a book called 
 The Holy Court : of which there is an English translation in folio. He was 
 t steemed a person of great probity ; and of such a spirit, that he attempted to 
 displace Cardinal Richelieu; but that minister proved too hard for him, and 
 501 him banished. He returned to Paris after the Cardinal's death, and died 
 there in the convent of Jesuits, July 1651. 
 
236 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. . PART I. 
 
 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 1 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. 
 
 Yen. Well, Master, I thank you for all your good direc- 
 tions; 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 finger; 'tis such a 
 contexture of woodbines, sweetbriar, jessamine, and myr- 
 tle ; and so interwoven, as will secure us both from the 
 sun's violent heat, and from the approaching shower. 
 And being sat down, I will requite a part of your cour- 
 tesies with a bottle of sack, milk, oranges, and sugar; 
 which, all put together, make a drink like nectar; indeed, 
 too good for any 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 among some of Sir Henry Wot- 
 ton'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. 
 
 0) Dr. Donne. 
 (?) See Reliqiri* Wottoniitna, nvo. 1605. 
 
CHAP. XXI. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 237 
 
 Quivering fears, heart-tearing cares, 
 Anxious bighs, uutiinely tears, 
 
 Fly, fly to courts, 
 
 Fly lo fond worldlings' sports, 
 Where strain' d Sardonic smiles i are glosiug 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. 
 
 Abased 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 blust'ring care could never tempest make, 
 
 Nor murmurs e'er come nigh us, 
 
 Saving of fountains that glide by us. 
 
 Here's no fantastic mask, nor dance, 
 Bat of our kids that frisk and prance ; 
 
 Nor wars are seen, 
 
 Unless upon the green 
 
 Two harmless lambs are butting one the other, 
 Which done, both bleating run, each to his mother: 
 
 Aud wounds are never found, 
 
 Save what the plough-share 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 book ; 
 
 Nor envy, unless 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 bean. 
 
 (1) Feigned, or forced smiles, from the word-Sardon, the name of a herb, resem- 
 bling smallage, and* growing in Sardinia, which being eaten by men, contracts 
 the muscles, and exciUs laughter, even to death. Vide Erasmi Adagia, tit. Ristu. 
 
238 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 Bleat silent groves, oh may you be, 
 For ever, miiih's best nursery ! 
 
 May pure contents 
 
 For tver pitch their tents 
 
 Upon these downs, these mends, these rucks, these mountains, 
 And peace stilt slumber by tUvae purling fountains : 
 
 Which we my every year 
 
 Meet, when we come a fishing here. 
 
 Pise. 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 with 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 possest with happy thoughts at the time of their com- 
 posure. 
 
 Farewell ye gilded follies, pleasing troubles; 
 Farewell ye hoaonr'd rigs, ye, glorious bubbles ; 
 Fame's but a hollow echo ; Gold, pure clay; 
 Honour the darling but of one short day ; 
 Beauty, (th* eye's idol,) but a damatk'd skin ; 
 State, but a golden prison, to live in 
 And torture free-born minds ; embroidered Trains, 
 Merely but pageants for proud swelling veins; 
 And Blood allied to greatness is alone 
 Inherited, not porrnas'd, nor our own. 
 
 Fane, Honour, Beauty, State. Train, Blood and Birth, 
 
 Arc but the fading blossoms of the eaith. 
 
 I would be great, but that the snn 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. 
 
CHAP. XXI. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 239 
 
 Would the World DOW adopt me for her heir : 
 
 Would beauty's Queeu 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 call'd "great master" 
 
 In the loose rhimes 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 miue ; 
 
 And hold one minute of this holy leisure 
 
 Beyond the riches of this empty pleasure. 
 
 (1) An angel is a piece of coin, value ten shillings. The words to " vie an- 
 gels" are a metonymy, and signify to compare wealth. In the old ballad of the 
 Beggar's Daughter of BethnaLGrcen, a competition of this kind is introduced : 
 a young knight, about to marry the beggar's daughter, is dissuaded from so 
 unequal a match by some gentlemen, his relations, who urge the poverty of her 
 father : the beggar challenges them to drop angels with him, and fairly empties 
 the purses of them all. The contest, and its issue, are related io the fol- 
 lowing stanzas, part of the ballad. 
 
 Then spake the blind beggar; " Although I be poore, 
 Yett rayle not against my child at my own door: 
 Though she be not decked in velvet and pearle, 
 Yett I will dropp angeUt with you for my girle . 
 
 And then, if my gold may better her birthe, 
 And equall the gold that you lay on the earth, 
 Then neyther rayle nor grudge you, to see 
 The blind beggar's daughter a ladj to bee. 
 
 But first you shall promise, and have itt well knowoe, 
 The gold that you drop shall all be your owne." 
 With that they replyed. ' Contented bee wee.' 
 " Then here's" (quoth the beggar), ' for prettye Bessec." 
 
 With that, an angell he cast on the ground ; 
 
 And dropped, in angells, full three thousand pound ; 
 
 And oftentimes (it was proved most plain,) 
 
 For the gentleman's one the beggar dropt twayue; 
 
 Soe that the place wherein they did sitt, 
 With gold it was covered, every whitt : 
 The gentlemen, then, having dropt all their store, 
 Sayd, < Now, beggar, hold, for we have no more ; 
 
 ' Thou hast fulfilled thy promise aright.' 
 
 " Then marry my girl," quoth he to the knight ; 
 
 " And here," added he, " 1 will now throwe you downe 
 
 A hundred pounds more, to buy her a gowne." 
 
 The neighbourhood of Bethnal-Green is seldom without a public-house with 
 a sign representing The Beggar, and the Dissuade of the match, dropping 
 gold ; the Young-woman, and the Knight her lover, standing between them. 
 
240 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 
 
 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 prmy'r-book. now, shall b<3 my looking-glass, 
 In which 1 will adore sweet virtue's face. 
 Here dwell no hateful looks, no palace-ores, 
 No broken vows dwell here, nor pale-fac'd fers ; 
 Then here Til sit, and sigh my hot love's folly, 
 And learn t'aflfecl an holy melancholy : 
 
 And if contentment b 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 kind- 
 ness 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 
 conversation and the art you have taught me, I ought 
 ever to do the like; for, indeed, your company and dis- 
 course have been so useful and pleasant, that, I may truly 
 say, I have only lived since I enjoyed them and turn'd 
 angler, and not before. Nevertheless, here I must part 
 with you ; here in this now sad place, where I was so 
 
 (1) To the many short poems, abounding with fine moral sentiments, contained 
 in this book. I here add the following lines of Mr. Cow ley, translated from Mar. 
 tial, Lib. II. Epig. S3; which, far surpassing the original, exhibit a lovely 
 picture of contented mind ; and, for the manly spirit of independence that 
 breathe* in them, I have never yet seen equalled by any in our own language. 
 
 Would you be free ? Tis yoor chief wish yoo say. 
 Come on I'll shew thee. friend, the certain way. 
 If to no feasts abroad thou lov'st to go, 
 Whilst bounteous God does bread at home bestow ; 
 If thou the goodness of thy cloaths dost prize 
 By thine own use, and not by others eye*; 
 If (only safe from weathers) thou caust dwell 
 In a small house, but a convenient shell ; 
 If thou, without a sigh, or golden wish, 
 Canst look upon thy beechcn bowl and dish ; 
 If in thy mind such power and greatness be, 
 The Persian king's a slave, eoropar'd with tbte. 
 
CHAP. XXI. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 241 
 
 happy as first to meet you : but I shall long for the ninth 
 of May; for then I hope again to enjoy your beloved com- 
 pany, 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; neverthe- 
 less I will make it as short as I can, by my hopes and 
 wishes : and, my good Master, I will not forget the doc- 
 trine which you told me Socrates taught his scholars, 
 that they should not think to be honoured so much for 
 being philosophers, as to honour philosophy 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 reso- 
 lution. And as a pious man advised his friend, that, to 
 beget mortification, he should frequent churches, and 
 view monuments, and charnel-houses, and then and there 
 consider how many dead bodies time had piled up at the 
 gates of death: so when I would beget content, and 
 increase confidence in the power, and wisdom, and pro- 
 vidence of Almighty God, I will walk the 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. 
 
 Pise. 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." 1 Thess. iv. 11. 
 
 END OF PART I. 
 
IT is imagined that the several descriptions of RIVER- 
 FISH, contained in the foregoing pages, are abundantly 
 sufficient for the information of any mere Angler. But 
 those who are curious to know the essential differences 
 between the various species, are hereby recommended to a 
 work entitled Ichthyographia, s. Historia Piscium, by 
 Francis Willughby, Esq. fol. Oxon. 1686; and to a post- 
 humous work of that learned man and excellent naturalist, 
 the Reverend Mr. John Ray, entitled Synopsis Methodica 
 Avium et Piscium, published by Dr. Derham, in Octavo, 
 1713. 
 
 And whereas in page 208, n. it is hinted, that the history 
 (/AQUATIC INSECTS is but little known; and this stupen- 
 dous branch of natural science is well worthy of further 
 investigation; the reader is hereby directed to the perusal 
 of the Life of the Ephemeron, an insect little differing 
 from our green, and grey drake, translated from the Low 
 Dutch of Dr. Swammerdam, by Dr. Edw. Tyson, London, 
 Quarto, 1681. And for his further information on this 
 subject, we have added, as the first number of the Appen- 
 dix to this work, a translation of a Synopsis of these 
 creatures, drawn out from the observations of the above 
 Mr. Willughby, and exhibited in Mr. Ray's Methodus 
 Insectorum, mentioned by Dr. Derham in his Physico- 
 Theology, page 234. 
 
 It is not for the improvement of Angling alone, that the 
 above authors are referred to : the study of the works of 
 nature is the most effectual way to open and enlarge the 
 R2 
 
( 244 ) 
 
 nind, and excite in us the affections of reverence and gra- 
 titude towards that Being whose wisdom and goodness are 
 discernible in the structure of the meanest reptile. Further , 
 " The wisdom of God receives small honour from those 
 vulgar heads that rudely stare about, and with a gross 
 rusticity admire his works : those highly magnify him, 
 whose judicious inquiry into his acts, and deliberate re- 
 search into his creatures, return the duty of a devout and 
 learned admiration." Religio Medici, Sect. 13, 
 

 
THE 
 
 COMPLETE ANGLER 
 
 BEING 
 
 INSTRUCTIONS HOW TO ANGLE 
 
 FOR A 
 
 TROUT OR GRAYLING, 
 
 IN A CLEAR STREAM. 
 PART H. 
 
 Qui mihi non credit, facial licet ipse pericium : 
 El fuerit scriptis aequior ille meis. 
 
 LONDON : 
 PRINTED FOR JAMES SMITH, 163, STRAND. 
 
 1822. 
 
SOME ACCOUNT 
 
 LIFE* AND WRITINGS 
 
 OP 
 
 CHARLES COTTON, Esq. 
 
 V^HARLES COTTON, Esq. was descended from an honourable 
 family, of the town and county of Southampton. His grandfather 
 was Sir George Cotton, Knight; and his grandmother, Cassandra, the 
 heiress of a family named Mac Wifliamt: the issue of their marriage 
 were, a daughter named Cassandra, who died unmarried ; and a son, 
 named Chanes, who, settling at Ovingden, in the county of Sussex, 
 married Olive t the daughter of Sir John Stanhope, of Elvaston, in the 
 county of Derby, Knight, half-brother to Ph.Hp the first Earl of Ches- 
 terfield, and ancestor of the present Earl of Harrington, and by her 
 ic CHARLES, the author of the ensuing Dialogues.* 
 
 Of the elder Charles, we learn, from unquestionable authority, that 
 he was, even when young, a person of distinguished parts and accom- 
 plishments; for in the enumeration of those eminent persons whom 
 Mr. Hyde, afterwards the Lord-chancellor Clarendon, chose for his 
 friends and associates, while a student of the law, we find Mr. Cotton 
 mentioned, together with Ben Jonson, Mr. Selden, Mr. John Vaughan, 
 afterwards lord-chief-justice, Sir Kenelm Digby, Mr. Thomas May, 
 the translator of Lucan, and Thomas Carew the poet. The charac- 
 ters of these several persons are exhibited, with the usual elegance 
 and accuracy of their author, in the Life of Edward Earl of Claren- 
 don, written by himself, and lately published. That of Mr. Cotton 
 here follows. 
 
 " CHARLES COTTON was a gentleman born to a competent fortune; 
 
 (1) It has been thought proper to omit the Letter to the Editor in the 
 earlier of the former impressions, and to give the Life of Mr. Cotton in ano- 
 ther form, retaining, nevertheless, such facts as are best ascertained, and 
 seem in any degree worthy of credit. 
 
 (4) The above is the account of Mr. Cotton's descent, as given by Mr. 
 Oldys in the former editions: but it agrees not, in what respects his being 
 descended, by the mother's side, from the family of Mac Williams, with 
 Collins';} account of Sir John Stanhope, in his Peerage, under the article 
 STANHOPE, Karl of Chesterfield. 
 
248 LIFE OF COTTON. 
 
 and so qualified in his person and education, that for many yesrs he 
 continued the greatest ornament of the town, in the esteem of those 
 who had been best bred. His natural parts were very great; his wit 
 flowing in all the parts of conversation ; the super-structure of learn- 
 ing not raised to a considerable height : but having passed some years 
 in Cambridge, and then in France, and conversing always with learned 
 men, his expressions were ever proper and significant, and gave great 
 lustre to his discourse upon any argument; so that he was thought 
 by those who were not intimate with him, to have been much better 
 acquainted with books than he was. He had all those qualities which 
 in youth raise men to the reputation of being fine gentlemen ; such a 
 pleasantness and gaiety of humour, such a sweetness and gentleness 
 of nature, and such a civility and ddightfulness in conversation, that 
 no man, in the court or out of it, appeared a more accomplished 
 person : all these extraordinary qualifications being supported by as 
 extraordinary a clearness of courage and fearlessness of spirit, of 
 which he gave too often manifestation. Some unhappy suits in law, 
 and waste of his fortune in those suits, made some impression on his 
 mind; which, being improved by domestic afflictions, and those in- 
 dulgences to himself which naturally attend those afflictions, rendered 
 hi* age less reverenced than his youth had been, and gave his best 
 friends cause to have wished that he had not lived so long." 
 
 The younger Mr. Cotton was born on the 28th day of April, 1630 ; 
 and having, as we must suppose, received such a school education as 
 qualified him for an university, he was sent to Cambridge, where also 
 his father had studied : he had for his tutor Mr. Ralph Rawson, once 
 a fellow of Brazen-nose college, Oxford, but who had been ejected 
 from his fellowship by the Parliament visitors, in 1648. This person 
 he has gratefully celebrated, in a Translation of an Ode of Johannes 
 Secundus. 
 
 What was the course of his studies, whether they tended to qualify 
 him for either of the learned professions, or to furnish him with those 
 endowments of general learning and polished manners which are re- 
 quisite in the character of a gentleman, we know not : it is, however, 
 certain, that in the university he improved his knowledge of the Greek 
 and Roman classics, and became a perfect master of the French and 
 Italian language*. 
 
 But whatever were the views of his father in placing him at Cam- 
 bridge, we find not that he betook himself, in earnest, to the pursuit 
 of any lucrative profession : it is true, that in a poem of his writing, 
 be hints that he had a smattering of the Law, which he had gotten 
 
 More by practice than reading: 
 
 By sitting o' ill' bench i while others were pleading. 
 
 But it is rather probable, that, returning from the university to his 
 father's, he addicted himself to the lighter kinds of study, and the im- 
 provement of a talent in poetry, of which he found himself possessed; 
 and also that he might travel abroad ; for, in one of his poems, * he 
 
 (1) Probably, in his more advanced years, at session*, as a justice of the 
 peace in his county. 
 <*) The Wond*r$ of the Peak. 
 
LIFE OF COTTON. 249 
 
 says he had been at Roan. His father having married a lady of a 
 Derbyshire family, and she being the daughter and heiress of Edward 
 Beresford, of Beresford and Enson in Staffordshire, and of Bendy in 
 the county of Derby ; it may be presumed, that the descent of the 
 family-seat at Beresford to her, might have been the inducement with 
 her husband to remove, with his family, from their first settlement at 
 Ovingden, to Beresford, i near Ashbourne in Derbyshire, and in the 
 neighbourhood of the Dove, a river that divides the counties of 
 Derby and Stafford, and of which the reader will be told so much 
 hereafter. 
 
 And here we may suppose the younger Mr. Cotton, tempted by the 
 vicinity of a river plentifully stored with fish of the best kinds, to have 
 chosen angling for his recreation; and looking upon it to be, what 
 Walton rightly terms it, an Art, to have applied himself to the im- 
 provement of that branch of it, fishing with an artificial fly. To this 
 end he made himself acquainted with the nature of aquatic insects, 
 with the forms and colours of the several flies that are found on or 
 near rivers, the times of their appearance and departure, and the me- 
 thods of imitating them with furs, silks, feathers, and other materials: 
 in all which researches he exercised such patience, industry, and in- 
 genuity, and succeeded so well, that having, in the following l)m- 
 logues, communicated to the public the result of his experience, he 
 must be deemed the great improver of this elegant recreation, and a 
 benefactor to his posterity. 
 
 There is reason to think, that, after his leaving the university, he 
 was received into his father's family; for we are told that his father, 
 being a man of bright parts, gave him themes and authors whereon 
 to exercise his judgment and learning, even to the time of his entering 
 into the state of matrimony; - the first fruit of which exercises was, 
 as it seems, his Elegy on the gallant Lord Derby. 3 
 
 In 1656, being then twenty-six years of age, and before any patri- 
 mony had descended to him, or he had any visible means of subsisting 
 a family, he married a distant relation, Isabella, daughter of Sir Tho- 
 mas Hutch inson, of Owthorp, in the county of Nottingham, Knt. 4 The 
 distress in which this step might have involved him was averted by 
 the death of his father, in 1658, an event that put him into possession 
 of the family estate : but from the character of his father, as given by 
 Lord Clarendon, it cannot be supposed but that it was struggling with 
 law-suits, and laden with incumbrances. 
 
 The great Lord Falkland was wont to say, that he pitied unlearned 
 gentlemen in rainy weather. Mr. Cotton might possibly entertain 
 the same sentiment; for, in this situation, we find that his employ- 
 ments were, STUDY, for his delight and improvement; and FISHING, 
 for his recreation and health ; for each of which several employments 
 we may suppose he chose the fittest times and seasons. 
 
 In 1660 he published A Panegyric to the Km^s most Excellent 
 Majesty, a prose Pamphlet, in folio, a copy of which is preserved in 
 the Library at the British Museum. 
 
 In 1663 he published the Moral Philosophy of the Stoics, translated 
 
 (1) Beresford is in the hundred of Totmanslow, in Staffordshire. 
 
 (2) Oldy's Life, xii. (3) Ibid. (4) Ibid. xiii. 
 
250 LIFE OF COTTON. 
 
 - 
 
 from the French of Monsieur de Vaix, president of (lie Parliament of 
 Provence, in obedience, as the Preface informs us, to a command of 
 his father; doubtless with a view to his improvement in the science 
 of morality: and this, notwithstanding the book had been translated 
 by Dr. James, the first keeper of the Bodleian Library, above three- 
 score years before. 
 
 His next publication was Scarronidfg, or Vkrrjil Trarestie, being 
 the first book of Virgil's .Etam, in English burlesque, 8vo. 1664. 
 Concerning which, and also the fourth book, tr;m-'."' I by him, and 
 afterwards published, it may be sufficient to say, that, lor degrading 
 sublime poetry into doggrel, Scarron's example is no authority ; and 
 that, were the merit of this practice greater than many men think it, 
 those who admire the wit, the humour, and the learning of Hud if. nix, 
 cannot but be disgusted at the low buffoonery, the forced wit, and the 
 coarseness and obscenity of the F<r/yi/ Trarestie ; and yet the poem 
 has its admirers, is commended by Sir John Suckling, in his Session 
 of the Poeti, and has passed fourteen editions. 
 
 To say the truth, the absurdity of that species of the mock epic, 
 which gives to princes the manners of the lowest of their inferiors, 
 feat never been sufficiently noticed. In the instance before us, how is 
 the poet embarrassed, when he describes Dido as exercising regal au- 
 thority, and at the same time employed in the meanest of domestic 
 office* ; and yttneas. a person of royal descent, as a clown, a comman- 
 der, and a common sailor! In the other kind of burlesque, viz. 
 where the characters are e/etated, no such difficulty interposes : grant 
 but to Don Quixote and Sancho, to Hudibras and Ralpho, the stations 
 which Cervantes and Butler have respectively assigned them, and all 
 their actions are consistent with their several characters. 
 
 Soon after, be engaged in a more commendable employment; a 
 translation of the Hutory of the Life of the Duke d'Etpernon, from 
 1598, where D'Avila's history ends, to 1642, in twelve books: in 
 which undertaking he was interrupted by an appointment to some 
 place or post, which he hints at in the Preface, but did not hold long; 
 as also by a sickness that delayed the publication until 1670, when the 
 book came out in a folio volume, with a handsome Dedication to Dr. 
 Gilbert Sheldon, archbishop of Canterbury. 
 
 .In the same year, being the fortieth of his age, and having been 
 honoured with a captain's commission in the army, he was drawn, 
 by some occasion of business or interest, to visit Ireland : which event 
 he has recorded, with some particular circumstances touching the 
 coarse of his life, in a burlesque poem, called A Voyage to Ireland, 
 carelessly written, but abounding in humorous description, as will 
 appear by the following extract therefrom : 
 
 A guide I had got, who demanded great vails 
 For conducting me over the mountains of Wales; 
 Twenty good shillings, which sure very large is ; 
 Yet that would not serve, bat I must !x;ar his charges: 
 4 nd yet, for all that, rode astride on a >>eat 
 The worst that e'er went on three legs, 1 protest ; 
 It certainly was the most ugly of jades; 
 His hips and his rump made a right ace of spades ; 
 His sides were two ladders, well spur-gal I'd withal ; 
 His neck was a helve, and his head was a mall : 
 
LITE OF COTTOX. 251 
 
 4 
 
 For his colour, uiy pains and your trouble I'll spare, 
 
 For the creature was wholly denuded of hair, 
 
 And, except for two things, as bare as my nail, 
 
 A tuft of a mane and a sprig of a tail. 
 
 Now, such as the beast was, e'en such was the rider, 
 
 With a head like a nutmeg, and legs like a spider, 
 
 A voice like a cricket, a look like a rat, 
 
 The brains of a goose, and the heart of a cat. 
 
 E'en such was my guide, and his beast : let them pass, 
 
 The one for an horse, and the other an ass. 
 
 In this poem, he relates, with singular pleasantry, that, at Chester, 
 coming out of church, he was taken notice of by the Mayor of the 
 city, for his rich garb, and particularly a gold belt that he then wore ; 
 and by him invited home to supper, and very hospitably entertained. 
 
 In the same year, and also the year after, more correctly, he pub- 
 lished a translation of the Tragedy, entitled, Les Horaces, i. e. the 
 Horatii, from the French of Pierre Corneille; and, in 1674, the Fair 
 one of Tunis, a novel, translated also from the French ; as also a 
 translation of the Commentaries of Blaise de M ontluc, marshal of 
 France, a thrasonical gascon (as Lord Herbert has shewn, in his 
 History of Hen. VIII.) far better skilled in the arts of flight than of 
 battle. 
 
 In 1675, Mr. Cotton published two little books; The Planter's 
 Manual, being Instructions for cultivating all sorts of fruit-trees, 
 8vo.; and a Burlesque of sundry select Dialogues of Lucian, with the 
 title of Burlesque upon Burlesque, or the Scoffer scoffed, I2mo. 
 which has much the same merit as the Virgil Travestie. 
 
 Angling having been the favourite recreation of Mr. Cotton for 
 many years before this, we cannot but suppose that the publication 
 of such a book as the Complete Angler of Mr. Walton had attracted 
 his notice, and probably excited in him a desire to become acquainted 
 with the author ; and that, setting aside other circumstances, the ad- 
 vantageous situation of Mr. Cotton, near the finest Trout-river in the 
 kingdom, might conduce to beget a great intimacy between them. 
 For certain it is, that before the year 1676 they were united by the 
 closest ties of friendship : Walton, as also his son, bad been frequent 
 visitants to Mr. Cotton, at Beresford ; who, for the accommodation of 
 the former, no less than of himself, had erected a fishing-house on 
 the bank of the river, with a stone in the front thereof, containing a 
 cipher that incorporated the initials of both their names. 
 
 These circumstances, together with a formal adoption, by Walton, 
 of Mr. Cotton for his aon, that will be explained in its place, were 
 doubtless the inducements with the latter to the writing of a Second 
 Part of the Complete dngler, and, therein, to explain more fully the 
 art of PISHING either with a NATURAL or an ARTIFICIAL fly, M also 
 the various methods of MAKING THE LATTER. The Book, as the 
 author assures us, was written in the short space of ten days ; and 
 first came abroad, with the fifth edition of the First Part, in the above 
 year, 1676, and ever since the two Parts have been considered as 
 one book. 
 
 The Second Part of the Complete Angler is, apparently, an imita- 
 tion of the First. It is a course of dialogues ; between the Author, 
 shadowed under the name of Piscator, and a Traveller, the very per- 
 
252 LIFE OF COTTON. 
 
 | 
 
 son distinguished in the First Part by the name of Venator, and whom 
 Walton of an HUNTER had made on ANGLER : in which, besides the 
 instructions there given, and the beautiful scenery of a wild and ro- 
 mantic country therein -displayed, the urbanity, courtesy, and hospi- 
 tality of a well-bred country gentleman are represented to great ad- 
 vantage. 
 
 This book might be thought to contain a delineation of the author's 
 character; and dispose the reader to think that he was delighted with 
 his situation, content with his fortunes, and, in short, one of the 
 happiest of men : but his next publication speaks a very different 
 language ; for living in a country that abounds, above all others in 
 this kingdom, in rocks, caverns, and subterraneous passages, (objects 
 that, to some minds, afford more delight than stately woods and 
 fertOe plains, rich inclosures, and other, the milder beauties of rural 
 nature.) he seems to have been prompted by no other than a SULLEN 
 CURIOSITY to explore the secrets of that nether world ; and, surveying 
 it rather with wonder than philosophical delight, to have given way 
 to his disgust, in a description of the dreary and terrific scenes around 
 and beneath him, in a poem (written, as it is said, in emulation of 
 Hobbe's Df MirabUibus Pecci) entitled The Wonders of the Peak. 
 This be first published in 1681 ; and, afterwards, with a new edition 
 of the I ' >*tie and the Burlesque of Luctan. 
 
 The only praise of this poem, is the truth of the representations 
 therein contained ; for it is a mean composition, inharmonious in the 
 versification, and abounding in expletives. Of the spirit in which it 
 is written, a judgment may be formed from the following lines, part 
 of the exordium : 
 
 Durst I expostulate with Providence, 
 
 I then should ask u herein the innocence 
 
 Of my poor undr signing infancy, 
 
 Could Heuv'n offend to such a black degree, 
 
 As for th' offence to damn me to a place 
 
 Where nature only suffers, in disgrace. 
 
 and these other, equally splenetic : 
 
 Environ'd round with nature's shame* and ills, 
 
 Black heaths, wild rocks, black crags, and naked hills. 
 
 So far was Mr. Cotton from thinking, with the Psalmist, " that his 
 lot was fallen in a fair ground, or that he had a goodly heritage/' 
 
 But a greater, and, to the world, a more beneficial employment, at 
 this time solicited his attention, The old translation of Montaigne's 
 Essays, by the " resolute" John Florio, as he styled himself, was be- 
 come obsolete ; and the world was impatient for a new one. Mr. 
 Cotton not only understood French with a critical exactness, but was 
 well acquainted with the almost barbarous dialect in which that book 
 is written : and the freedom of opinion, and general notions of men 
 and things, which the author discovers, perhaps falling-in with Mr. 
 Cotton's sentiments of human life and manners, he undertook, and in 
 1685 gave to the world, in a translation of that author, in three vo- 
 lumes 8vo. one of the most valuable books in the English language 
 in short, a translation that, if it does not (and many think it does in 
 some respects) transcend, is yet nothing inferior to the original. And, 
 
 (1) Vide Part II. chap. l. p. 275. 
 
LIFE OF COTTON. 253 
 
 indeed, little less than this is to be inferred from the testimony of the 
 noble Marquis to whom it is dedicated : who concludes a letter of his 
 to Mr. Cotton with this] elegant encomium, " Pray believe, that he 
 who can translate such an author, without doing him wrong, must 
 not only make me glad, but proud of being his very humble servant, 
 HALIFAX." 
 
 These are the whole of Mr. Cotton's writings, published in his life- 
 time. Those that came abroad after his decease, were, Poems on se- 
 veral Occasions, 8vo. 1689, a bookseller's publication, tumbled into 
 the world without preface, apology, or even correction, that will be 
 spoken of hereafter; and a Translation, from the French of the 
 Memoirs of the Sieur de Pontis, published in 1694, by his son, Mr. 
 Beresford Cotton, and by him dedicated to the then Duke of Ormond, 
 as having been undertaken, and completed, at the request of the old 
 Duke, his grace's grandfather. 
 
 It is too much to be feared, that the difficulties he laboured under, 
 and, in short, the straitness of his circumstances, were the reasons 
 ih.u induced Mr. Cotton to employ himself in writing ; and, in that, 
 so much more in translation than original composition. For, first, 
 by the way, they are greatly mistaken, who think that the business of 
 writing for booksellers is a new occupation ; it is known, that Greene, 
 Peacham, and Howel, for a great part of their lives, subsisted almost 
 wholly by it : though perhaps Mr. Cotton is the first instance of a 
 gentleman by descent, and the inheritor of a fair estate , being reduced 
 by a sad necessity to write for subsistence. But, secondly, whether 
 through misfortune, or the want of economy, or both, it may be col- 
 lected from numberless passages in his writings, that Mr. Cotton's 
 circumstances were narrow; his estates incumbered with mortgages; 
 and his income less than sufficient for its maintenance in the part, 
 and character of a gentleman : why, else, those querulous exclama- 
 tions against the clamour of creditors, the high rate of interest, and 
 the extortions of usurers, that so frequently occur in his poems ? 
 From which several particulars, it seems a natural, and at the same 
 time a melancholy inference, that he was not to say an author a 
 translator, probably, for hire; but, certainly, by profession. 
 
 It is, of all employments, one of the most painful, to enumerate the 
 misfortunes and sufferings of worthy and deserving men ; and, most 
 so, of such as have been distinguished for either their natural or ac- 
 quired endowments : but truth, and the laws of biographical history, 
 oblige all that undertake that kind of writing, to relate as well the ad- 
 verse, as the prosperous events in the lives of those whom they mean 
 to celebrate ; else, we would gladly omit to say, that Mr. Cotton was, 
 during the whole of his life, involved in difficulties. Lord Clarendon 
 says of his father, that " he was engaged in law-suits, and had wasted 
 his fortune :" and it cannot be supposed but that his son inherited, in 
 some degree, the vexation and expense of uncertain litigation, toge- 
 ther with the paternal estate ; and might, finally, be divested of great 
 part of it: farther we may suppose, that the easiness of his nature, 
 and a disposition to oblige others, amounting even to imbecility, laid 
 him open to the arts of designing men, and gave occasion to those 
 complaints of ingratitude and neglect which we meet with in his 
 eclogues, odes, and other of his writings. 
 
254 LIFE OF COTTON. 
 
 It is true, that he was never reduced by necessity to alienate the 
 family estate : nor were his distresses uniformly extreme; but they 
 were at times severely pungent. It is said, that the numerous pecu- 
 niary engagements into which he had entered, drew upon him the 
 misfortune of personal restraint ; and that during his confinement in 
 one of the city prisons, he inscribed, on the wall of his apartment 
 therein, these affecting lines : 
 
 A prison is a place of cure, 
 
 Wherein no one can thrive ; 
 A touchstone sure to try a friend; 
 
 A grave for men alive. 
 
 And to aggravate these his afflictions, he had a wife whom he appears 
 to have tenderly loved, and of whom, in an ironical poem, entitled the 
 Joys of Marriage, he speaks thus handsomely : 
 
 Yet with me 'tis out of season 
 To complain thus without reason, 
 Since the best and sweetest fair 
 IA allotted to my share : 
 But, alas I I love her so, 
 That my love creates my woe ; 
 For if she be out of humour, 
 Straight, displeas'd I do presume her, 
 And would give the world to know 
 What it is offends her so ; 
 Or if she be discontented, 
 Lord ! how am I then tormented I 
 And am ready to persuade her 
 That I have unhappy made her ; 
 But if sick, then I am dying, 
 Meat and med'cine both defying. 
 
 This lady, the, delight of his heart, and the partner of his sorrows, he 
 had the misfortune to lose ; bat at what period of his life, is not 
 certain. 
 
 We might flatter ourselves, that his sun set brighter than it rose ; 
 for his second marriage, which was with the Countess Dowager of 
 Ardirlass, who possessed a jointure of fifteen hundred a-year, and sur- 
 vived him, might suggest a hope that he might have been, thereby, 
 enabled to extricate himself out of the greatest of his difficulties, and 
 in reality to enjoy that tranquillity of mind which he describes with so 
 much feeling, in the Stames Jrreguliers: but this supposition seems 
 to be contradicted by a fact, which the act of administration of his 
 effects, upon his decease, discloses, viz. that the same was granted 
 " to Elizabeth Bludworth, his principal creditrix ; the honourable 
 Mary Countess Dowager of Ardglass, his widow ; Beresford Cotton, 
 Esq., Olive Cotton, Catharine Cotton, Jane Cotton, and Mary Cotton, 
 his natural and lawful children, first renouncing." 
 
 The above act bearing date the 12th day of September, 1687, fixes, 
 perhaps, within a few days, die day of his death ; and describes him 
 as having lived in the parish of St. James, Westminster : it also ascer- 
 tains his issue, which were all by his first lady. 
 
 There is a tradition current in bis neighbourhood, that he had, by 
 sarcastic expression in his writings, so offended an aunt of his, 
 
LIFE OF COTTON. 255 
 
 that she revoked a clause in her will, whereby she had bequeathed to 
 him an estate of five hundred pounds a -year: but as two unlikely 
 circumstances must concur to render such a report credible, great 
 imprudence in himself, and want of charity in her ; and there is no 
 such offensive passage to be found in any of his writings ; we may 
 presume the tradition to be groundless. 
 
 Of the future fortunes of his descendants little is known ; save that, 
 to his son, Beresford Cotton, was given a company in a regiment 
 of foot, raised by the Earl of Derby for the service of King William ; 
 and that one of his daughters became the wife of that eminent divine, 
 Dr. George Stanhope, dean of Canterbury, who from his name, the 
 same with that of Mr. Cotton's mother, is conjectured to have been 
 distantly allied to the family. 
 
 The above are the most remarkable particulars that at this time 
 are recoverable of the life of Mr. Cotton. His moral character is to 
 be collected, and indeed does naturally arise, out of the several senti- 
 ments contained in his writings ; more especially those in the Collec- 
 tion of his Poems above-mentioned ; which, consisting of all such 
 Verses of his as the publishers could get together, as namely, 
 Eclogues, Odes, and Epistles to his friends, and Translations from 
 Ausonious, Catullus, Martial, Mons. Maynard, Corneille, Benserade, 
 Guarini, and others ; if perused with a severe and indiscriminating 
 eye, may, perhaps, be thought to reflect no great credit on his me- 
 mory : for many of them are so inexcusably licentious as to induce a 
 suspicion, that the author was but too well practised in the vices of 
 the town : and yet it may be said of the book, that it contains the only 
 good POEMS he ever wrote. 
 
 It is true, that for the looseness of his writings, and, if we may 
 judge by them, of his manners, he deserves censure : but, at the same 
 time, it is to be noted, that he was a warm and steady friend, and a 
 lover of such as he thought more worthy than himself; of which last 
 quality, his attachment to Mr. Walton affords the clearest proof. 
 
 Nor did it derogate from the character of honest old Isaak, to con- 
 tract and cherish an intimacy with one who, being of the cavalier 
 party, might have somewhat of the gallant, not to say the rake, in 
 him, and be guilty of some of those practices which it was the em- 
 ployment of Isaak's life and writings to discountenance. Mr. Cotton 
 was both a wit and a scholar; of an open, cheerful, and hospitable 
 temper; endowed with fine talents for conversation, and the courtesy 
 and affability of a gentleman : and was, withal, as great a proficient 
 in the art, as a lover of the recreation, of angling : these qualities, 
 together with the profound reverence which he uniformly entertained 
 for his father Walton, could not but endear him to the good old man; 
 whose charitable practice it was, to resolve all the deviations from 
 that rule of conduct which he had prescribed himself, not into vicious 
 inclination, but error. 
 
 But notwithstanding this creditable connection, and the qualities 
 above ascribed to him, Mr. Cotton's moral cliaracter must appear 
 very ambiguous to any one that shall reflect on the subjects by him 
 chosen for the exercise of his poetical talent: a burlesque of an epic 
 poem ; a version of the most licentious of Luc ian's dialogues ; and a 
 
256 LIFE OF COTTON. 
 
 ludicrous delineation of some of the most stupendous works of nature; 
 in all which, we meet with such foul imagery, such obscene allu- 
 sions, such offensive descriptions, such odious comparisons, such 
 coarse sentiment, and such filthy expression, as could only proceed 
 from a polluted imagination, and tend to excite loathing and contempt. 
 On the other hand, there are, in his Poems on sereraf occasion*, 
 verses, to ladies in particular, of so courtly and elegant a turn, that, 
 baiting their incorrectness, they might vie with many of Waller and 
 Cowley : others there are, that bespeak him to have had a just sense of 
 honour, loyalty, and moral rectitude ; as do these that follow, penned 
 by him with a view to preserve the memory of a deceased friend. 
 
 Virtue, in those good times that bred good men, 
 No testimony crav'd, of tongue or pen ; 
 No marble columns, nor engraven brass, 
 To tell the world that such it person was ; 
 For then each pious act, to fair descent, 
 Stood for the worthy owner'* monume nt : 
 But in this chanre oY manner-sand of states, 
 Good names, though writ in marble, have their fates; 
 Such is the harh'ious HIM! irrevVent rge 
 That arms the rauble of this impious aue. 
 
 Yt-i may this hapuy stone, that bears a name, 
 Such as no bold survivor dares to claim, 
 To apes yet unborn, unblemish'd stand, 
 Safe from the stroke of an inhuman hand. 
 Here, reader! here a PORT'S sad relics lie," 
 To teach the careless world mortality ; 
 Who. while he mortal wa*, umivall'd stood, 
 The crown and glory of his unlienl blood ; 
 Fit f<>r his prince's and his country's trust; 
 Piou* to God, and to his neighbour just; 
 A loyal husband to his lair-' end, 
 A gracious father, and a faithful friend ; 
 Belov'd he liv'd, and died o'ercharg'd with years, 
 Fuller of honour than of stiver hairs. 
 And, to sum up hi* viriu-*, this was he 
 Who was what all we should, but cannot be* 
 
 To this it may be added, that in sundry part* of his writings, and 
 even in his poems, the evidences of piety in the author are discernible : 
 among them is a paraphrase on that noble and sublime hymn, the 
 eighth psalm. And in the poem entitled Stame$ Irreyu/iers, are the 
 following lines: 
 
 Dear solitude! the soul's best friend, 
 That man acquainted with himself 'dust make, 
 And all his Maker's wonders, to intend ; 
 With Ihee 1 here converse at will, 
 And would be glad to do so still, 
 For it is thou, alone, that keep'st the soul awake. 
 
 And lastly, in the following book, he, in the person of Pixcalor, thus 
 utters his own sentiment of a practice which few that love fishing, and 
 have not a sense of decorum, not to say of religion, would in these 
 days of licence forbear : " A worm is so sure a bait at all times, that, 
 
 (1) On a monument of Robert Port, Esq. in the church of Ham, in the 
 county of Stafford. 
 
LIFE OF COTTON. 257 
 
 excepting in a flood, 1 would I had laid a thousand pounds that I did 
 not kill fish, more or less, with it, winter or summer, every day in the 
 year; those days always excepted that upon a more serious account 
 always ought so to be :" ' whence it is but just to infer, that the de- 
 light he took in fishing was never a temptation with him to profane 
 the sabbath. 
 
 The inconsistencies above pointed out, we leave the perusers of his 
 various writings to reconcile ; with this remark, that he must have 
 possessed a mind well stored with ideas, and habituated to reflections, 
 who could write such verses as immediately follow this account, and, 
 in many respects, have been an amiable man, whom WALTON could 
 choose for his friend, and adopt for his son. 
 
 J. H. 
 
 (1) Chap. 11. 
 
CONTENTATION 
 
 Directed to my dear Father and most worthy Friend, 
 MR. ISAAC WALTON. 
 
 i. 
 HBAV'H, what an age is this ! what race 
 
 Of giants is sprung np, that dare 
 Thus fly in the Almighty's face, 
 
 And with his providence make war ! 
 
 n. 
 1 can go no where bat I meet 
 
 With malecontents and mutineers ; 
 As if, in life, was nothing sweet, 
 
 And we must blessings reap in tear*. 
 
 ill* 
 
 O senseless man 1 that murmurs still 
 For happiness ; and does not know, 
 
 Even though he might enjoy his will, 
 What he would have to make him so. 
 
 Is it true happiness to be, 
 By undiscerning fortune, plac'd 
 
 In the most eminent degree, 
 Where few arrive, and none stand fast? 
 
 Titles and wealth are fortune's toils, 
 Wherewith the vain themselves ensnare ; 
 
 The great are proud of borrow'd spoils, 
 The miser's plenty breeds his care : 
 
 VI. 
 
 The one supinely yawns to rest, 
 
 Th' other eternally doth toil : 
 Each of them equally a beast, 
 
 A pamperM horse, or lab'ring moil. 
 
 VII. 
 
 The tit ,,i,i,i,> 's oft dhgrac'd, 
 
 By public hate, or private frown ; 
 
 And he whose hand the creature rais'd, 
 Has yet a foot to kick him down. 
 
 S 2 
 
260 LIFE OF COTTON. 
 
 The drudge who would all get, all save, 
 Like a brute bean both feeds and lies ; 
 
 Prone to the earth, he digs his grave, 
 And in the very labour dies. 
 
 Excess of ill-got, ill-kept pelf, 
 Does only death and danger breed ; 
 
 Whilst one rich worldling starves himself, 
 With what would thousand others feed : 
 
 By which we see that wealth and power, 
 Although they make men rich and great, 
 
 The sweets of life do often sour, 
 And gull ambition with a cheat. 
 
 Nor is he happier than those 
 Who, in a moderate estate, 
 
 Where he might safely live at ease, 
 Has lusts that are immoderate ; 
 
 For he, by those desires misled, 
 Quits his own vine's securing shade, 
 
 Tex pose his naked empty head 
 To all the storms man's peace invade. 
 
 Nor is he happy, who is trim 
 Trick'd up in favours of the fair : 
 
 Mirrors which ev'ry breath may dim ; 
 Birds caught in ev'ry wanton snare. 
 
 Woman, man's greatest woe or bliss, 
 Does ofter far than serve, enslave ; 
 
 And, with the magic of a kiss, 
 Destroys whom she was made to save. 
 
 XV. 
 
 Oh fruitful grief! the world's disease ; 
 
 And vainer man to make it so, 
 Who gives his miseries increase 
 
 By cultivating his own woe. 
 
 There are no ills but what we make, 
 By giving shapes and names to things ; 
 
 Which is the dangerous mistake 
 That causes all our sufferings : , 
 
LIFE OF COTTON. 261 
 
 We call that sickness which is health ; 
 
 That persecution, which is grace ; 
 That poverty, which is true wealth ; 
 
 And that dishonour, which is praise. 
 
 Providence watches over all, 
 And that with an impartial eye ; 
 
 And if to misery we fall, 
 Tis through our own infirmity. 
 
 Tis want of foresight makes the bold 
 Ambitious youth to danger climb ; 
 
 And want of virtue, when the old 
 At persecution do repine. 
 
 Alas ! our time is, here, so short, 
 
 That in what state so'er 'tis spent, 
 Of joy, or woe, does not import, 
 . Provided it be innocent : 
 
 But we may make it pleasant too, 
 If we will take our measures right ; 
 
 And not what Heav'n has done undo, 
 By an unruly appetite. 
 
 XXII. 
 
 Tis contentation that, alone, 
 Can make us happy here below; 
 
 And, when this little life is gone, 
 Will lift us up to heav'n too. 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 A very little satisfies 
 
 An honest and a grateful heart ; 
 And who would more than will suffice, 
 
 Does covet more than is his part. 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 That man is happy in his share, 
 Who is warm clad and cleanly fed ; 
 
 Whose necessaries bound his care, 
 And honest labour makes his bed : 
 
 Who, free from debt, and clear from crimes, 
 Honours those laws that others fear : 
 
 Who ill of princes, in worst times, 
 Will neither speak himself, nor hear : 
 
262 IIPE OF COTTON. 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 Who from the busy world retires, 
 To be more useful to it still, 
 
 And to no greater good aspires, 
 But only the eschewing ill :. 
 
 XXVII. 
 
 Who, with his angle, and his books, 
 Can think the longest day well spent, 
 
 And praises God, when back he looks, 
 And finds that all was innocent. 
 
 XXTIII. 
 This man is happier far than he 
 
 Whom public business oft betrays, 
 Through labyrinths of policy, 
 
 To crooked and forbidden ways : 
 
 XXIX. 
 
 , The world is full of beaten roads, 
 
 But yet so slippery withal, 
 That where MM walks secure, 'tis odds 
 A hundrfd and a hundred fall. 
 
 XXX. 
 
 Untrodden paths are then the best, 
 When the frequented are unsure; 
 
 And be comes soonest to his real 
 Whose journey has been moat secure. 
 
 XXXI. 
 
 It is content, alone, that makes 
 Our pilgrimage a pleasure here : 
 
 And who buys sorrow cheapest, takes 
 An ill commodity too dear. 
 
 XXXII. 
 
 But he has fortune's worst withstood, 
 And happiness can never miss ; 
 
 Can covet nought but where he stood ; 
 And thinks him happy where he is. 
 
TO 
 
 MY MOST WORTHY FATHER 1 AND FRIEND, 
 
 MR. IZAAK WALTON, THE ELDER. 
 
 SIR, 
 
 BEING you were pleased, some years past, to grant me 
 your free leave to do what I have here attempted; and 
 observing you never retract any promise when made in 
 favour even of your meanest friends; I accordingly expect 
 to see these following particular Directions for the taking 
 of a Trout, to wait upon your better and more general 
 Rules for all sorts of Angling. And though mine be nei- 
 ther so perfect, so well digested, nor indeed so handsomely 
 couch'd, as they might have been, in so long a time as 
 since your leave was granted, yet I dare affirm them to 
 be generally true : and they had appeared too in some" 
 
 (1) It was a practice with the pretended masters of the Hermetic science, to 
 adopt favourite persons for tbeir sons, to whom they imparted their secrets. 
 Ashmole, in his Diary, p. 25, says, " Mr. Backhouse told me, I must now needs 
 be his sou, because he had communicated so many secrets to me." Aud a little 
 after, p. C~. " My father Backhouse, lying sick in Fleet-street, told me, in syl- 
 lables, the true matter of the philosopher's stone, which he bequeathed to roe 
 as a legacy." See more of this practice, and of the tremendous solemnities 
 with which the secret was communicated, in Ashmole's Theat. Chem. Brit. 
 p. 440. 
 
 And, in imitation of this practice, Ben Jonson adopted several persons his 
 sons, to the number of twelve or fourteen; among whom were, Cartwright, Ran- 
 dolph, and Alexander Brome. And it should seem, by the text, that Walton 
 followed the above-mentioned examples, by adopting; Cotton for his son. 
 
264 
 
 thing a neater dress, but that I was surprized with the 
 sudden news of a'sudden new edition of your Complete 
 Angler; so that, having but a little more than ten days 
 time to turn me in, and rub up my memory, (for in truth, 
 I have not, in all this long time, though I have often 
 thought on't, and almost as often resolv'd to go presently 
 about it), I was forced, upon the instant, to scribble what 
 I here present you: which I have also endeavoured to 
 accommodate to your own method. And, if mine be clear 
 enough for the honest brothers of the angle readily to 
 understand, (which is the only thing I aim at,) then I have 
 my end; and shall need to make no further apology; a 
 writing of this kind not requiring, (if I were master of any 
 such thing), any eloquence to set it off, or recommend it; 
 so that if you, in your better judgment, or kindness rather, 
 can allow it passable, for a thing of this nature, you will 
 then do me honour if the Cypher fix'd and carv'd in the 
 front of my little fishing-house, may be here explained : 
 and to permit me to attend you in public, who, in private, 
 have ever been, am, and ever resolve to be, 
 
 SIR, 
 Your most affectionate 
 
 Son and Servant, 
 
 CHARLES COTTON. 
 Bcrisford, 10th 
 of March, 107. 
 
TO 
 
 MY MOST HONOURED FRIEND, 
 
 CHARLES COTTON, ESQ. 
 
 SIR, 
 
 You now see I have returned you your very pleasant 
 and useful Discourse of The Art of Fly-fishing, printed 
 just as it was sent me ; for I have been so obedient to 
 your desires, as to endure all the praises you have ven- 
 tured to fix upon me in it. And when I have thank'd you 
 for them, as the effects of an undissembled love, then, 
 let me tell you, Sir, that I will really endeavour to live 
 up to the character you have given of me, if there were 
 no other reason, yet for this alone,- that you, that love 
 me so well, and always think what you speak, may not, for 
 my sake, suffer by a mistake in your judgment. 
 
 And, Sir, I have ventured to fill a part of your margin, 
 by way of paraphrase, for the reader's clearer understand- 
 ing the situation both of your fishing-house, and the plea- 
 santness of that you dwell in. And I have ventured also 
 to give him a Copy of Verses that you were pleased to 
 send me, now, some years past, in which he may see a 
 
266 
 
 good picture of both ; and so much of your own mind too, 
 as will make any reader, that is blest with a generous 
 soul, to love you the better. I confess, that for doing 
 this you may justly judge me too bold: if you do, I will 
 say to too; and so far commute for my offence, that, 
 though I be more than a hundred miles from you, and in 
 the eighty-third year of my age, yet I will forget both, 
 and next month begin a pilgrimage to beg your pardon ; 
 for I would die in your favour, and till then will live, 
 
 SIR, 
 Your most affectionate 
 
 Father and Friend, 
 
 IZAAC WALTON. 
 London, 
 April 29, 1676. 
 
THE RETIREMENT. 
 
 STANZES IRREGULIERS, 
 
 TO 
 
 MR. IZAAK WALTON. 
 
 FAREWELL, thou busy world, and may 
 
 We never meet again ; 
 Here I can eat, and sleep, and pray, 
 And do more good in one short day 
 Than he who his whole age oat-wears 
 Upon the most conspicuous theatres, 
 Where nought bat vanity and vice appears. 
 
 Good God ! how sweet are all things here I 
 How beautiful the fields appear! 
 How cleanly do we feed and lie I 
 Lord I what good hoars do we keep ! 
 
 How quietly we sleep ! 
 What peace, what unanimity ! 
 How innocent from the lewd fashion 
 Is all our business, all our recreation ! 
 
 Oh, how happy here'* oar leisure ! 
 Oh, how innocent our pleasure I 
 Oh, ye vallies, Oh, ye mountains ! 
 Oh, ye groves, and crystal fountains, 
 
 How I love, at liberty, 
 By turns, to come and visit ye ! 
 
 IT. 
 
 Dear solitude, the soul's best friend, 
 
 That man acquainted with himself dost make. 
 
 And all his Maker's wonders t'intend : 
 
 With thee I here converse at will, 
 
 And would be glad to do so still, 
 
 For it is thou alone that keep'st the soul awake. 
 
 How calm and quiet a delight 
 
 Is it, alone, 
 To read, and meditate, and write, 
 
 By none offended, and offending none? 
 To walk, ride, sit, or sleep at one's own ease I 
 And, pleasing a man's self, none other to displease. 
 
269 STANZES IRREGULIERS. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Oh my beloved nymph, fair Dove ; 
 Princess of rivers, how I love 
 
 Upon thy flowery bank* to lie ; 
 And view thy silver stream, 
 When gilded by a summer's beam ! 
 And in it, all thy wanton fry, 
 
 Playing at liberty : 
 And with my angle, upon them 
 
 The all of treachery 
 I ever learnt, industriously to try. 
 
 Such streams Hume's yellow Tyber cannot show, 
 The Iberian Tag us, or Ligurian Po, 
 The Ifaese, the Danube, and the Rhine 
 Are puddle-water all compared with thine : 
 And Loire's pure streams yet too polluted are 
 With thine, much purer, to compare : 
 The rapid Garonne, and the winding Seine, 
 
 Are both too mean. 
 Beloved Dove, with thee 
 
 To vie priority ; 
 y, Tame and Isis, when conioit 
 And lay their trophies at thy silver feet. 
 
 Nay, Tame and Ii, when conjom'd, submit. 
 
 Oh my beloved rocks ! that rise 
 
 To awe the earth and brave the skies, 
 
 Prom some aspiring mountain's crown, 
 
 How dearly do I love, 
 Giddy with pleasure, to look down ; 
 And. from the vales, to view the noble heights above I 
 Oh my beloved caves ! from dog-stars heat 
 And all anxieties, my safe retreat: 
 What safety, privacy, what true delight, 
 In the ailificial night. 
 Your gloomy entrails make, 
 
 Have I taken, do I take ! 
 How oft when grief has made me fly, 
 To hide me from society 
 Ev'n of my dearest friends, have I, 
 
 In your recesses' friendly shade. 
 
 All my sorrows open laid, 
 And my most secret woes intrusted to your privacy I 
 
 IX. 
 
 Lord ! would men let me alone. 
 What an over-happy one 
 
 Should I think myself to be; 
 Might I in this desert place, 
 (Which most men in discourse disgrace,) 
 
 Live but nndistnrb'd and free I 
 Here, in this despit'd recess, 
 
 Would I, maugre winter's cold, 
 And the summer's worst excess, 
 Try to live-out to sixty full years old ; i :\ 
 And, all the while, 
 
 Without an envious eye 
 
 On any thriving under fortune's smile, 
 Contented live, and then, contented die. 
 
 C. C. 
 
 (1) Tun he did not; for he was born 1030, aud died in 1067. Sre the 
 Actou*t of kit lAfe prefixed. 
 
THE 
 
 omplete 3itglrr. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 A Conference between a COUNTRY-GENTLEMAN, a Proficient 
 in Fly-fishing, and a TRAVELLER. 
 
 PISCATOR JUNIOR, AND VIATOR. 
 
 Piscator. IOU are happily overtaken, Sir: may a 
 man be so bold as to inquire, how far you travel this 
 way? 
 
 Viator. Yes sure, Sir, very freely ; though it be a ques- 
 tion I cannot very well resolve you, as not knowing my- 
 self how far it is to Ashborn, where I intend to-night to 
 take up my inn. 
 
 Pise. Why then, Sir, seeing I perceive you to be a 
 stranger in these parts, I shall take upon me to inform 
 you, that from the town you last came through, called 
 Brelsford, 1 it is five miles : and you are not, yet, above 
 half a mile on this side. 
 
 Viat. So much! I was told it was but ten miles from 
 Derby ; and, methinks, I have rode almost so far already. 
 
 Pise. O, Sir, find no fault with large measure of good 
 land; which Derbyshire abounds in, as much as most 
 counties of England. 
 
 (1) Brailsford. 
 
272 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART II. 
 
 Viat. ' It may be so ; and good land, I confess, affords 
 a pleasant prospect : but by your good leave, Sir, large 
 measure of foul way is not altogether so acceptable. 
 
 Pise. True, Sir; but the foul way serves to justify the 
 fertility of the soil, according to the proverb, " There is 
 good land where there is foul way :" and is of good use 
 to inform you of the riches of the country you are come 
 into, and of its continual travel and traffic to the country- 
 town you came from : which is also very observable by 
 the fulness of its road, and the loaden horses you meet 
 every-where upon the way. 
 
 Viat. Well, Sir! I will be content to think as well of 
 your country as you would desire. And I shall have a 
 great deal of reason both to think and to speak very well 
 of you, if I may obtain the happiness of your company to 
 the fore-mentioned place, provided your affairs lead you 
 that way, and that they will permit you to slack your 
 pace, out of complacency to a traveller utterly a stranger 
 in these parts, and who am still to wander further out of 
 my own knowledge. 
 
 Pise. Sir, you invite me to my own advantage. And 
 I am ready to attend you, my way lying through that 
 town ; but my business, that is my home, some miles be- 
 yond it : however, I shall have time enough to lodge you 
 in your quarters, and afterwards to perform my own jour- 
 ney. In the mean time, may I be so bold as to inquire 
 the end of your journey ? 
 
 Viat. Tis into Lancashire, Sir; and about some busi- 
 ness of concern to a near relation of mine : for I assure 
 you, I do not use to take so long journeys as from Essex 
 upon the single account of pleasure. 
 
 Pise. From thence, Sir! I do not then wonder you 
 should appear dissatisfied with the length of the miles, 
 and the foulness of the way : though I am sorry you 
 should begin to quarrel with them so soon ; for believe 
 
CHAP. I. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 273 
 
 me, Sir, you will find the miles much longer, and the way 
 much worse, before you come to your journey's end. 
 
 Viat. Why ! truly, Sir ! for that I am prepared *o ex- 
 pect the worst ; but methinks the way is mended since I 
 had the good fortune to fall into your good company. 
 
 Pise. You are not obliged to my company for that, 
 but because you are already past the worst, and the 
 greatest part of your way to your lodging. 
 
 Viat. I am very glad to hear it, both for the ease of 
 myself and my horse; but, especially, because I may 
 then expect a freer enjoyment of your conversation : 
 though the shortness of the way will, I fear, make me lose 
 it the sooner. 
 
 Pise. That, Sir, is not worth your care : and I am sure 
 you deserve much better, for being content with so ill 
 company. But we have already talked away two miles 
 of your journey ; for, from the brook before us, that runs 
 at the foot of this sandy hill, you have but three miles to 
 Ashborn. 
 
 Viat. I meet, every-where in this country, with these 
 little brooks ; and they look as if they were full of fish : 
 have they not Trouts in them ? 
 
 Pise. That is a question which is to be excused in a 
 stranger, as you are : otherwise, give me leave to tell you, 
 it would seem a kind of affront to our country, to make a 
 doubt of what we pretend to be famous for, next, if not 
 before, our malt, wool, lead, and coal ; for you are to un- 
 derstand, that we think we have as many fine rivers, 
 rivulets, and brooks, as any country whatever ; and they 
 are all full of Trouts, and some of them the best (it is 
 said) by many degrees, in England. 
 
 Viat. I was first, Sir, in love with you ; and now shall 
 
 be so enamoured of your country, by this account you 
 
 give me of it, as to wish myself a Derbyshire man, or at 
 
 least that I might live in it : for you must know I am a 
 
 T 
 
274 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART II. 
 
 pretender to the angle, and, doubtless, a Trout affords 
 the most pleasure to the angler of any sort of fish what- 
 ever; and the best Trout s must needs make the best 
 sport : but this brook, and some others I have met with 
 upon this way, are too full of wood for that recreation. 
 
 Pise. This, Sir! why this, and several others like it, 
 which you have past, and some that you are like to pass, 
 have scarce any name amongst us : but we can shew you 
 as fine rivers, and as clear from wood or any other incum- 
 brance to hinder an angler, as any you ever saw ; and for 
 clear beautiful streams, Hantshire itself, by Mr. Izaac 
 Walton's good leave, can shew none such ; nor I think 
 any country in Europe. 
 
 Vint. You go far, Sir, in the praise of your country 
 rivers, and I perceive have read Mr. Walton's Complete 
 Angler, by your naming of Hantshire; and I pray what 
 is your opinion of that book ? 
 
 Pise. My opinion of Mr. Walton's book is the same 
 with every man's that understands any thing of the art of 
 angling, that it is an excellent good one ; and that the 
 fore-mentioned gentleman understands as much of fish 
 and fishing as any man living. But I must tell you, fur- 
 ther, that I have the happiness to know his person, and 
 to be intimately acquainted with him ; and in him to know 
 the worthiest man, and to enjoy the best and the truest 
 friend any man ever had : nay, I shall yet acquaint you 
 further that he gives me leave to call him Father, and I 
 hope is not yet ashamed to own me for his adopted Son. 
 [Swp.261.] 
 
 Viat. In earnest, Sir, I am ravished to meet with a 
 friend of Mr. Izaac Walton's, and one that does him so 
 much right in so good and true a character: for I 
 must boast to you, that I have the good fortune to know 
 him too, and came acquainted with him much after the 
 same manner I do with you ; that he was my master, who 
 
CHAP. I. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 275 
 
 first taught me to love Angling, and then to become an 
 Angler; and, to be plain with you, I am the very man 
 deciphered in his book under the name of Senator; for I 
 was wholly addicted to the Chace, till he taught me as 
 good, a more quiet, innocent, and less dangerous diversion. 
 
 Pise. Sir, I think myself happy in your acquaintance ; 
 and before we part, shall entreat leave to embrace you. 
 You have said enough to recommend you to my best opi- 
 nion : for my father Walton will be seen twice in no man's 
 company he does not like, and likes none but such as he 
 believes to be very honest men, which is one of the best 
 arguments, or at least of the best testimonies I have, that 
 I either am, or that he thinks me one of those, seeing I 
 have not yet found him weary of me. 
 
 Viat. You speak like a true friend ; and, in doing so, 
 render yourself worthy of his friendship. May I be so 
 bold as to ask your name ? . 
 
 Pise. Yes surely, Sir, and, if you please, a much nicer 
 
 question : my name is , and I intend to stay long 
 
 enough in your company, if I find you do not dislike 
 mine, to ask your's too. In the mean time, (because we 
 are DOW almost at Ashborn,) I shall freely and bluntly 
 tell you, that I am a brother of the angle too, and, perad- 
 venture, can give you some instructions, How TO ANGLE 
 POR A TROUT IN A CLEAR RIVER, that my father Walton 
 himself will not disapprove, though he did either pur- 
 posely omit, or did not remember them, when you and he 
 sat discoursing under the sycamore-tree. [See p. 89.] 
 And, being you have already told me whither your jour- 
 ney is intended, and that I am better acquainted with 
 the country than you are ; I will heartily and earnestly 
 entreat you will not think of staying at this town, but go 
 on with me six miles further to my house, where you shall 
 be extremely welcome ; it is directly in your way, we have 
 
 T2 
 
276 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART II. 
 
 day enough to perform our journey, and, as you like your 
 entertainment, you may there repose yourself a day or 
 two, or as many more as your occasions will permit, to 
 recompense the trouble of so much a longer journey. 
 
 Viat. Sir, you surprise me with so friendly an invita- 
 tion upon so short acquaintance ; but how advantageous 
 soever it would be to me, and that my haste, perhaps, is 
 not so great but it might dispense with such a divertise- 
 ment as I promise myself in your company, yet I cannot, 
 in modesty, accept your offer, and must therefore beg 
 your pardon : I could otherwise, I confess, be glad to 
 wait upon you, if upon no other account but to talk of 
 Mr. I. Walton, and to receive those instructions you say 
 you are able to give me foi the deceiving a Trout ; in 
 which art I will not deny but that I have an ambition to 
 be one of the greatest deceivers : though I cannot forbear 
 freely to tell you, that I think it hard to say much more 
 than has been read to me upon that subject. 
 
 Pise. Well, Sir, I grant that, too ; but you must know 
 that the variety of rivers require different ways of angling: 
 however, you shall have the best rules I am able to give, 
 and I will tell you nothing I have not made myself as 
 certain of, as any man can be in thirty years experience ; 
 (for so long I have been a dabbler in that art ;) and that, 
 if you please to stay a few days, you shall, in a very great 
 measure, nee made good to you. But of that hereafter ; 
 and now, Sir, if I am not mistaken, I have half overcome 
 you : and that I may wholly conquer that modesty of 
 your's, I will take upon me to be so familiar as to say, 
 you must accept my invitation, which, that you may the 
 more easily be persuaded to do, I will tell you that my 
 house stands upon the margin of one of the finest rivers 
 for Trouts and Grayling in England ; that I have lately 
 built a little fishing-house upon it, dedicated to anglers, 
 
CHAP. I. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 277 
 
 over the door of which, you will see the two first letters 
 of my father Walton's name and mine twisted in cypher; * 
 that you shall lie in the same bed he has sometimes 
 been contented with, and have such country entertain- 
 ment as my friends sometimes accept, and be as welcome, 
 too, as the best friend of them all. 
 
 Viat. No doubt, Sir, but my master Walton found good 
 reason to be satisfied with his entertainment in your 
 house ; for you who are so friendly to a mere stranger, 
 who deserves so little, must needs be exceeding kind and 
 free to him who deserves so much. 
 
 Pise. Believe me, no : and such as are intimately ac- 
 quainted with that gentleman know him to be a man who 
 will not endure to be treated like a stranger. So that 
 his acceptation of my poor entertainment has ever been 
 a pure effect of his own humility and good-nature, and 
 nothing else. But, Sir, we are now going down the Spit- 
 tle-hill into the town ; and therefore let me importune 
 you suddenly to resolve, and (most earnestly) not to 
 deny me. 
 
 Viat. In truth, Sir, I am so overcome by your bounty, 
 that I find I cannot, but must render myself wholly to be 
 disposed of by you. 
 
 Pise. Why that's heartily and kindly spoken, and I as 
 heartily thank you. And, being you have abandoned 
 yourself to my conduct, we will only call and drink a 
 glass on horseback at the Talbot, and away. 
 
 Viat. I attend you. But what pretty river is this, that 
 runs under this stone bridge ? has it a name ? 
 
 Pise. Yes, it is called Henmore ; 3 and has in it both 
 
 (1) See the Title-page of Part II. 
 
 (2) At tint time it was commonly so called, because it flowed through Hen. 
 moor ; but iu proper name is Schoo Brouk. See a singular contest regarding 
 the right of fishing in this brook, as repotted in Burrows, 2279. Richard Ila^ix-, 
 Esq. of Ashborn, t>. Uriah Corded, E.q. of Clifton. 
 
278 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART 11. 
 
 Trout and Grayling: but you will meet with one or two 
 better anon. And so soon as we are past through the 
 town, 1 will endeavour, by such discourse as best likes 
 you, to pass away the time till you come to your ill 
 quarters. 
 
 Viat. We can talk of nothing with which I shall be 
 more delighted than of rivers and angling. 
 
 Pise. Let those be the subjects then. But we are now 
 come to the Talbot: what will you drink, Sir? ale or 
 wine? 
 
 Viat. Nay, I am for the country liquor, Derbyshire ale, 
 if you please ; for a man should not, methinks, come from 
 London to drink wine in the Peak. 
 
 Puc. You are in the right : and yet, let me tell you, 
 you may drink worse French wine in many taverns in 
 London than they have sometimes at this house. What 
 ho ! bring us a flagon of your best ale. And now, Sir, 
 my service to you : a good health to the honest gentleman 
 you know of, and you are welcome into the Peak. 
 
 Viat. I thank you, Sir, and present you my service 
 again, and to all the honest brothers of the angle. 
 
 Pise. I'll pledge you, Sir : so, there's for your ale, and 
 farewell. Come, Sir, let us be going, for the sun grows 
 low, and I would have you look about you as you ride ; 
 for you will see an odd country, and sights that will seem 
 strange to you. 
 
CHAP. II. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 279 
 
 CHAP. IJ. 
 
 An Account of the principal RIVERS in Derbyshire. Viator lodges 
 at Piscator'* House. 
 
 Piscator. So, Sir, now we have got to the top of the 
 hill out of town, look about you, and tell me how you 
 like the country. 
 
 Viat. Bless me ! what mountains are here ! are we not 
 in Wales? 
 
 Pise. No, but in almost as mountainous a country : 
 and yet these hills, though high, bleak, and craggy, breed 
 and feed good beef and mutton above ground, and afford 
 good store of lead within. 
 
 Viat. They had need of all those commodities to make 
 amends for the ill landscape : but I hope our way does 
 not lie over any of these, for I dread a precipice. 
 
 Pise. Believe me, but it does ; and down one, especi- 
 ally, that will appear a little terrible to a stranger ; though 
 the way is passable enough, and so passable that we who 
 are natives of these mountains, and acquainted with them, 
 disdain to alight. 
 
 Viat. I hope, though, that a foreigner is privileged to 
 use his own discretion, and that I may have the liberty 
 to entrust my neck to the fidelity of my own feet, rather 
 than to those of my horse, for I have no more at home. 
 
 Pise. Twere hard else. But, in the mean time, I think 
 'twere best, while this way is pretty even, to mend our 
 pace, that we may be past that hill I speak of, to the end 
 your apprehension may not be doubled for want of light 
 to discern the easiness of the descent. 
 
 Vit.t. I am willing to put forward as fast as my beast 
 will give me leave, though I fear nothing in your company. 
 But what pretty river is this we are going into ? 
 
280 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART II, 
 
 Pise. Why this, Sir, is called Bently -brook, 1 and is full 
 of very good Trout and Grayling, but so encumbered with 
 wood in many places as is troublesome to an angler. 
 
 yiat. Here are the prettiest rivers, and the most of them, 
 in this country that ever I saw, do you know how many 
 you have in the country ? 
 
 Pwc. I know them all, and they were not hard to reckon, 
 were it worth the trouble : but the most considerable of 
 them I will presently name you. And to begin where we 
 now are, for you must know we are now upon the very 
 skirts of Derbyshire, we have, first, the river Dove, that 
 we shall come to by and by, which divides the two coun- 
 ties of Derby and Stafford for many miles together, and 
 is so called from the swiftness of its current, and that 
 swiftness occasioned by the declivity of its course, and by 
 being so straitened in that course betwixt the rocks, by 
 which (and those very high ones) it is, hereabout, for four 
 or live miles, confined into a very narrow stream ; a river 
 that from a contemptible fountain, which I can cover with 
 my hat, by the confluence of other river?, rivulets, brooks, 
 and rills, is swelled, before it falls into Trent, a little 
 below Eggington, where it loses the name, to such a 
 breadth and depth as to be in most places navigable, 
 were not the passage frequently interrupted with fords 
 and weirs ; and has as fertile banks as any river in Eng- 
 land, none excepted. And this river, from its head for a 
 mile or two, is a black water, as all the rest of the Derby- 
 shire rivers of note originally are, for they all spring from 
 the mosses ; but is in a few miles travel so clarified by the 
 addition of several clear and very great springs, bigger 
 than itself, which gush out of the lime-stone rocks, that 
 before it comes to my house, which is but six or seven 
 
 (I) A mrro* swift stream, two miles beyond Ashbourn, in the present lii 
 Ad, bat cooudeiably ueaier to it in (he old road. 
 
CHAP. II. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 281 
 
 miles from its source, you will find it one of the purest 
 crystalline streams you have seen. 1 
 
 Viat. Does Trent spring in these parts ? 
 
 Pise. Yes, in these parts; not in this county, but some- 
 where towards the upper end of Staffordshire, I think not 
 far from- a place called Trentham ; and thence runs down, 
 not far from Stafford, to Wolsly-bridge, and washing the 
 skirts and purlieus of the forest of Needwood, runs down 
 to Burton in the same county ; thence it comes into this, 
 where we now are, and running by Swarkston and Dun- 
 nington, receives Derwent at Wildon ; and, so, to Not- 
 tingham ; thence, to Newark ; and, by Gainsborough, to 
 Kingston upon Hull, where it takes the name of Humber, 
 and thence falls into the sea ; but that the Map will best 
 inform you. 
 
 Viat. Know you whence this river Trent derives its 
 name? 
 
 Pise. No, indeed ; and yet I have heard it often dis- 
 coursed upon : when some have given its denomination 
 from the fore-named Trentham, though that seems rather 
 a derivative from it; others have said it is so called from 
 thirty rivers that fall into it, and there lose their names ; 
 which cannot be, neither, because it carries that name 
 from its very fountain, before any other rivers fall into it: 
 others derive it from thirty several sorts of fish that breed 
 there ; and that is the most likely derivation : but be it 
 how it will, it is doubtless one of the finest rivers in the 
 
 (1) Between Beresford Hall and Ashbourn lies Dove Dale, whose crested 
 cliffs ami swift toireuts aie again noticed by Mr. Cotton in his Wondert nf the. 
 Peak. Through this singularly deep valley the Dove runs for about two miles, 
 changing its course, its motion, ami its appearance perpetually ; never less than 
 ten, ami rarely so many as twenty yards in width; making a couti.'aod noise 
 by rolling over or falling among loose stones. The rocks which form its sides, 
 are hewed up in enormous piles, sometimes connected with each other and 
 sometime* detached ; some perforated in natural cavities, others adorned with 
 i..u., : ,- ; with lure and turn- i tall rock, having nothing to relieve tU- bareness 
 of .its appearance but a niounUin-ash flourishing at the top. The grandeur of 
 its scenery is probably unrivalled in England. 
 
282 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART II. 
 
 world, and the most abounding with excellent Salmon, 
 and all sorts of delicate fish. 
 
 Fiat. Pardon me, Sir, for tempting you into this di- 
 gression : and then proceed to your other rivers, for I am 
 mightily delighted with this Discourse. 
 
 Pise. It was no interruption, but a very seasonable 
 question ; for Trent is not only one of our Derbyshire 
 rivers, but the chief of them, and into which all the rest 
 pay the tribute of their names, which I had, perhaps, 
 forgot to insist upon, being got to the other end of the 
 county, had you not awoke my memory. But 1 will now 
 proceed. And the next river of note, for I will take them 
 as they lie eastward from us, is the river Wye ; I say of 
 note, for we have, two lesser betwixt us and it, namely 
 Lathkin and Bradford; of which Lathkin is, by many 
 degrees, the purest and most transparent stream that I 
 ever yet saw, either at home or abroad, and breeds, it is 
 said, the reddest, and the best Trouts in England : but 
 neither of these are to be reputed rivers, being no better 
 than great springs. The river Wye, then, has its source 
 near unto Buxton, a town some ten miles from hence, 
 famous for a warm bath, and which you are to ride 
 through in your way to Machhester : a black water, too, 
 at the fountain, but, by the sime reason with Dove, be- 
 comes very soon a most delicate clear river, and breeds 
 admirable Trout and Grayling, reputed by those, who, by 
 living upon its banks are partial to it, the best of any : 
 and this, running down by Ashford, Bakewell, and Had- 
 den, at a town a little lower, called Rowsly, falls into 
 Derwent, and there loses its name. 1 The next in order is 
 
 (I) By this it appears, that there are two rivers in England that bear the name 
 of Wye: the forner fPyc, occasionally mentioned, p. 117, n. ICC, I '.'5, u. aud 
 elsevhere in this work, has, as well as tbe Severn, it* head in the Plinlinur.no 
 hill, on the borders nl Montgomery and Cardiganshire ; from whence, at iis Latin 
 name. Vaga, isnpoits, wandering through part of Brecknockshire, it, near tbe 
 Hay, enters Herefordshire, and at Morditord, within lour miles of Hereford, 
 
CHAP. II. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 283 
 
 Derwent, a black water too, and that not only from its 
 fountain but quite through its progress, not having these 
 crystal springs to wash and cleanse it which the two fore- 
 mentioned have, but abounds with Trout and Grayling, 
 such as they are, towards its source, and with Salmon 
 below. And this river, from the upper and utmost part 
 of this county, where it springs, taking its course by 
 Chatsworth, Darley, Matlock, Derby, Burrow-Ash, and 
 Awberson, falls into Trent, at a place called Wildon; and 
 there loses its name. The east side of this county of 
 Derby is bounded by little inconsiderable rivers, as Awber, 
 ErowaySj and the like, scarce worth naming, but trouty 
 too ; and further we are not to enquire. But, Sir, I have 
 carried you, as a man may say, by water, till we are now 
 come to the descent of the formidable hill I told you of 
 (at the foot of which runs the river Dove, which I cannot 
 but love above all the rest) ; and therefore prepare your- 
 self to be a little frightened. 
 
 Viat. Sir, I see you would fortify me that I should not 
 shame myself : but I dare follow where you please to lead 
 me. And I see no danger yet ; for the descent, methinks, 
 is thus far green, even, and easy. 
 
 Pise. You will like it worse presently, when you come 
 to the brow of the hill : and now we are there, what 
 think you ? 
 
 Viat. What do I think ? why I think it the strangest 
 place that ever (sure !) men and horses went down ; and 
 that, if there be any safety at all, the safest way is to 
 alight. 
 
 receives die Lug ; from thence, pissing on to Ross, it enters Monmouthshire, 
 and falls into the Severn below Chrpst >w. 
 
 It abounds with that small spedrs offish called Last-springs; (for which see 
 page 125, n,) and also with Grayling. 
 
 And here it may be necessary to remark, tlMt the names of Avon, Oiue, 
 Stoure, aod some others, are common to many rivets in England, as that of 
 DuUis is to numbers in Wales. See Koict on the Polyolbion, Song the sixth. 
 
284 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART II. 
 
 Pise. I think so too, for you who are mounted upon 
 a beast not acquainted with these slippery stones : and 
 though 1 frequently ride down, 1 will alight too to bear 
 you company and to lead you the way. And, if you 
 please, my man shall lead your horse. 
 
 Viat. Marry, Sir ! and thank you too : for I am afraid 
 I shall have enough to do to look to myself: and with my 
 horse in my hand should be in a double fear, both of 
 breaking my neck, and my horse's falling on me, for it is 
 as steep as a penthouse. 
 
 Pise. To look down from hence it appears so, I con- 
 fess : but the path winds and turns, and will not be found 
 so troublesome. 
 
 Viat. Would I were well down though ! Hoist thee ! 
 there's one fair 'scape ! these stones are so slippery I can- 
 not stand ! yet again ! I think I were best lay my heels in 
 my neck and tumble down. 
 
 Pise. If you think your heels will defend your neck, 
 that is the way to be soon at the bottom. But give me 
 your hand at this broad stone, and then the worst is past. 
 
 Viat. I thank you, Sir, I am now past it, I can go my- 
 self. What's here ? the sign of a bridge ? Do you use to 
 travel with wheelbarrows in this country ? 
 
 Pise. Not that I ever saw, Sir ! why do you ask that 
 question ? 
 
 Viat. Because, this bridge certainly was made for no- 
 thing else : why ! a mouse can hardly go over it : 'tis not 
 two fingers broad. 
 
 Pise. You are pleasant, and I am glad to see you so ; 
 but I have rid over the bridge many a dark night. 
 
 Viat. Why, according to the French proverb, and 'tis 
 a good one, among a great many of worse sense and 
 sound that language abounds in, Ce que Dieu garde, est 
 bien garde, ' They whom God takes care of, are in safe 
 protection:" but, let me tell you, I would not ride over it 
 
CHAP. II. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 285 
 
 for a thousand pounds, nor fall off it for two : and yet I 
 think I dare venture on foot, though if you were not by 
 to laugh at me, I should do it on all four. 
 
 Pise. Well, Sir, your mirth becomes you, and I am 
 glad to see you safe over, and now you are welcome into 
 Staffordshire. 
 
 Viat. How, Staffordshire! What do I there, trow? 
 there is not a word of Staffordshire in all my direction. 
 
 Pise. You see you are betrayed into it, but it shall be 
 in order to something that will make amends ; and 'tis 
 but an ill mile or two out of your way. 
 
 Viat. I believe all things, Sir, and doubt nothing. Is 
 this your beloved river Dove? Tis clear and swift, indeed, 
 but a very little one. 
 
 Pise. You see it, here, at the worst : we shall come to 
 it anon again, after two miles riding, and so near as to 
 lie upon the very banks. 
 
 Viat. Would we were there once : but I hope we have 
 no more of these Alps to pass over. 
 
 Pise. No, no, Sir, only this ascent before you, which 
 you see is not very uneasy, and then you will no more 
 quarrel with your way. 
 
 Viat. Well, if ever I come to London, of which many 
 a man there, if he were in my place, would make a ques- 
 tion, I will sit down and write my travels ; and like Tom 
 Coriate, 1 print them at my own charge. Pray what do 
 you call this hill, we came down? 
 
 (1) Tom Coriate lived io the reign of King James the First; and, as Wood 
 calls him, was the whetstone of all the wits of that age : and, indeed, the allu- 
 sions to him, and to the singular oddness of his character are numberless. He 
 travelled almost over Europe on foot; and in that tour walked 900 mile* with 
 one pair of shoes, which he got mended at Zurich. Afterwards he visited 
 Turkey, Persia, and the Great Mogul's dominions, travelling in so frugal a 
 manner, that as he tells his mother, in a letter to her in his ten mouths' 
 travels, between Aleppo and the Mogul's court, he spent but three pounds ster- 
 ling ; living remarkably well for about two pence sterling a day ; and of that 
 three pounds he elsewhere says, he was cozened of no less than ten shillings 
 sterling by certain Christians of the Armenian nation ; so that, indeed, he spent 
 
THE COMPLETE ANGLF.R. PART II. 
 
 Pise. We call it Hanson-Toot. 
 
 Viat. Why, farewell Hanson-Toot ! I'll no more on 
 thee : Til go twenty miles about, first : Pub ! I sweat tbat 
 my shirt sticks to my back. 
 
 Pise. Come, Sir, now we are up the hill ; and now how 
 do you? 
 
 Viat. Why, very well, I humbly thank you, Sir, and 
 warm enough, I assure you. What have we here, a 
 church ? As I'm an honest man, a very pretty church ! 
 Have you churches in this country, Sir ? 
 
 Pise. You see we have : but had you seen none, why 
 should you make that doubt, Sir ? 
 
 bat fifty shillings in hit ten month'* travels. ID these his travels, he attained to 
 great proficiency both in the Persian and Indottan languages; in the former, he 
 Bade ad pronounced an oration to the Great Mogul ; and his skill in the latter, 
 be took occasion to Manifest in the following very signal instance. In the er- 
 vice of the English ambassador, then resident, was a woman of Indo&tan, a 
 laundress, whose frequent practice it was to scold, brawl, and rail, from sun. 
 rising to son-set. This formidable shrew did Coriale one day undertake to scold 
 with, io her own language ; and succeeded so well in the attempt, that, by 
 eight of the clock io the morning.. he had totally silenced her, leaving; her not a 
 word to speak. See A Voyage to East-India, by Edward Terry, chaplain to 
 Sir Tbo. Row, ambassador io the Great Mogul, 12mo. lf>55. 
 
 Partner it appears, that he was a sealous champion for the Christian religion 
 gainst the Mahometans and Pagans, in the defence whereof, he sometimes 
 risqned bis life. In Turkey, when a priest, as the custom is, was proclaiming 
 from a mosque-tower that Mahomet was a true prophet, Tom, in the fury of his 
 Ml. and in the face of the whole city, told the priest he lytd, and that hit 
 prophet wot an impostor t and at a city railed Mohan, in the East- Indies, he 
 ia public disputed with a Mahometan, who had railed him Giaur, or infidel, in 
 UMM words : " But I pray thee. teU me, thou Mahometan ! doit thou, in sad- 
 neu, crnU me Oiaar ? That I do, quoth he : Then, quoth I, in very sober sad- 
 SCM. I retort that shameful word in thy throat ; and tell thee plainly, that 
 I mm a Mussulman, and thou art a Giaur." He concludes thus : " Co to then, 
 Hum false believer, tince by thy injurious imputation laid on me, in that 
 thou called* me Giaur. thou hast provoked me to speak thus. I pray 
 thee t let thit mine answer be a warning for thee not to scandalize me in the 
 ', : for the Christittn religion which J profess, is so dear 
 
 unto me. that neither thou, nor any other Mahometan, shall, 
 teat free, emit me Giaur, but Chat I shall quit you with an answer much to 
 the wonder of those Mahometans. Dixi." 
 
 He died of the flax occasioned by drinking sack at Surat, in 1617 : having 
 published bis European travels io a quarto volume, which he called his Crudi- 
 ties; and to this circumstance the passage in the text is a manifest allusion. See 
 Mken. Oxon. Vol. I. Cot. 422; Purchase's Pilgrim, Part I. Book 4. Chap. 17; 
 Coriaie's Letter from the Court of the Great Mogul, quarto, l6l6; and, 
 above all. Terry's Voyage before cited, the author whereof was, as he himself 
 asserts, bis chamber-fellow, or tent-mate, in East-India. 
 
CHAP. II. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 287 
 
 Viat. Why, if you will not be angry, I'll tell you ; I 
 thought myself a stage or two beyond Christendom. 
 
 Pise. Come ! come ! we'll reconcile you to our country, 
 before we part with you ; if shewing you good sport with 
 angling will do it. 
 
 Viat. My respect to you, and that together, may do 
 much, Sir : otherwise, to be plain with you, I do not find 
 myself much inclined that way. 
 
 Pise. Well, Sir, your raillery upon our mountains has 
 brought us almost home ; and look you where the same 
 river of Dove has again met us to bid you welcome, and 
 to invite you to a dish of Trouts to-morrow. 
 
 Viat. Is this the same we saw at the foot of Penmen- 
 Maure ? It is a much finer river here. 
 
 Pise. It will appear yet much finer to-morrow. But 
 look you, Sir, here appears the house, that is now like to 
 be your inn, for want of a better. 
 
 Viat. It appears on a sudden, but not before 'twas look f d 
 for ; it stands prettily, and here's wood about it too, but 
 so young, as appears to be of your own planting. 
 
 Pise. It is so, will it please you to alight, Sir ? And 
 now permit me, after all your pains and dangers, to take 
 you in my arms, and to assure you, that you are infinitely 
 welcome. 
 
 Viat. I thank you, Sir, and am glad with all my heart 
 I am here; for, in downright truth, I am exceeding weary. 
 
 Pise. You will sleep so much the better ; you shall pre- 
 sently have a light supper, and to bed. Come, Sirs, lay 
 the cloth, and bring what you have presently, and let the 
 gentleman's bed be made ready in the mean time in my 
 father Walton's chamber. And now, Sir, here is my ser- 
 vice to you ; and, once more, welcome ! 
 
 Viat. I marry, Sir, this glass of good sack has refresh'd 
 me. And I'll make as bold with your meat ; for the trot 
 has got me a good stomach. 
 
THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART II* 
 
 Pise. Come, Sir, fall to then ; you see my little supper 
 is always ready when I come home, and I'll make no 
 stranger of you. 
 
 Viat. That your meal is so soon ready, is a sign your 
 servants know your certain hours, Sir ; I confess I did not 
 expect it so soon : but now 'tis here, you shall see I will 
 make myself no stranger. 
 
 Pise. Much good do your heart : and I thank you for 
 that friendly word : and now, Sir, my service to you in a 
 cup of More-Land's ale ; for you are now in the More- 
 Lands, but within a spit and a stride of the Peak. Fill 
 my friend his glass. 
 
 Viat. Believe me you have good ale in the More-Lands, 
 far better than that at Ashborn. 
 
 Pise. That it may soon be ! for Ashborn has, (which is 
 a kind of riddle,) always in it, the best malt and the worst 
 ale in England. Come, take away, and bring us some 
 pipes, and a bottle of ale : and go to your own suppers. 
 Are you for this diet, Sir? 
 
 Viat. Yes, Sir, I am for one pipe of tobacco ; and I 
 perceive yours is very good by the smell. 
 
 Pise. The best I can get in London, I assure you. 1 But 
 
 (1) It should seem bj what Walton says. Chap. X. that he was a smoker: 
 aod the reader tees, by the passage in the text, that Piicator, by whom we are 
 to understand Cotton himself, is so curious as to have his tobacco from London. 
 
 Smoking, or as the phrase was, taking tobacco, was, in Queen Elizabeth's and 
 her successor's time, esteemed the greatest of all foppery. Ben Jonson, who 
 mortally hated it, has numberless sarcasms against smoking and smokers ; all 
 which are nothing , compared to those contained in that work of our King James 
 the First, A Counter-blast to Tobacco. Nor was the ordinary conversation of 
 this monarch less fraught with reasons aud invectives against the use of that 
 weed, as will appear from the following saying of his, extracted from A Collec- 
 tion of Witty Apothegms, delivered by kirn and othert, at several times, and 
 on tundry occasion*, published in I2mo. 1071. 
 
 "That tobacco wot the lively image and pattern of hell; for that it had, by 
 allusion, in it all the parts and vices of the world whereby hell may be gained ; 
 to wit : Pint. It wot a moke; so are the vanities of this world. Secondly, It 
 deUghteth them who take it; so do the pleasures of the world delight the men 
 of the world. Thirdly. It maketh men drunken, and light in the head; so 
 do the vanities of the world : men are drunken therewith. Fourthly, He that 
 taketh tobacco taith he cannot leave it, it doth bewitch him: even so the 
 
CHAP. II. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 289 
 
 Sir, now you have thus far complied with my designs, as 
 to take a troublesome journey into an ill country, only to 
 satisfy me ; how long may I hope to enjoy you ? 
 
 Viat. Why truly, Sir, as long as I conveniently can ; 
 and longer, I think you would not have me. 
 
 Pise. Not to your inconvenience by any means, Sir : 
 but I see you are weary, and therefore I will presently wait 
 on you to your chamber, where, take counsel of your pil- 
 low ; and, to-morrow, resolve me. Here, take the lights ; 
 and pray follow them, Sir : Here you are like to lie ; and 
 now I have shewed you your lodging, I beseech you, 
 command any thing you want, and so I wish you good 
 rest. 
 
 Viat. Good night, Sir. 
 
 pleasures of the world make men loath to leave them, they are For the most part 
 o inchanted with them. And farther, besides all this, It it like hell in the very 
 substance of it, for it is a stinking loathsome thing ; and so is hell. Aud fur- 
 ther, his Majesty professed that,n*re he to invite the devil to dinner, he should 
 have three dishes ; I. A pig; 2. A pole of ling and mustard; and 3. A pipe of 
 tobacco for digesture." 
 
 In a Poem printed anno 1619, written by Samuel Rowley, I meet with the 
 following humorous lines, uttered, by two good fellows, lovers of drinking and 
 tobacco; and, since that time, printed on a London tobacconist's paper ; 
 
 I am as dry as ever was March dust ; 
 1 have one groat, and I will spend it just. 
 O honest fellow! if that thou say'st so, 
 Lo ! here's my groat, and my tobacco too. 
 
 T conclude this note on smoking, which, by this time, may have made the 
 reader laugh, with the mention of a fact that may go near to make him weep, 
 which the people of Herefordshire have by tradition. In that county, to signify 
 the last or concluding pipe that any one means to smoke at a sitting, they use 
 the term a Kemble Pipe, alluding to a man of the name of Kemble, who in the 
 cruel persecution under that merciless bigot queen Mary, being condemned for 
 heresy, in his walk of some miles from the prison to the stake, amidst a crowd 
 of weeping friends, with the tranquillity and fortitude of a primitive martyr, 
 ftuiokcd a pipe of tobacco ! 
 
290 THK COMPLETE ANGLER. PART II. 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 Conference, containing a description of Mr. Cotton'' 8 Fishing-house, 
 tcith his Apology for writing a Supplement to Wo/ton's Book. 
 
 Piscator. GOOD morrow, Sir: what! up and drest, so 
 early? 
 
 Viator. Yes, Sir, I have been drest this half-hour : for 
 I rested so well, and have so great a mind either to take, 
 or to see a Trout taken in your fine river, that I could no 
 longer lie a-bed. 
 
 PMC. I am glad to see you so brisk this morning, and 
 so eager of sport: though I must tell you this day 
 proves so calm, and the sun rises so bright, as promises 
 no great success to the angler : but, however, we'll try, 
 and, one way or other, we shall, sure, do something. 
 What will you have to your breakfast, or what will you 
 drink this morning? 
 
 Viat. For breakfast I never eat any, and for drink am 
 very indifferent ; but if you please to call for a glass of 
 ale, I'm for you : and let it be quickly if you please, for 
 I long to see the little fishing-house you spoke of, and to 
 be at my lesson. 
 
 Pise. Well, Sir, you see the ale is come without calling ; 
 for though I do not know yours, my people know my 
 diet, which is always one glass so soon as I am drest, 
 and no more, till dinner : and so my servants have served 
 you. 
 
 Viat. My thanks! And now, if you please, let us look 
 out this fine morning. 
 
 Pise. With all my heart. Boy, take the key of my 
 fishing-house, and carry down those two angle-rods in the 
 hall-window, thither, with my fish-pannier, pouch, and 
 
CHAP. III.. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 291 
 
 landing-net; and stay you there till we come. Come, 
 Sir, we'll walk after, where, by the way, I expect you 
 should raise all the exceptions against our country you 
 can. 
 
 Viat. Nay, Sir, do not think me so ill-natur'd nor so 
 uncivil : I only made a little bold with it last night to 
 divert you, and was only in jest. 
 
 PMC. You were then in as good earnest as I am now 
 with you ; but had you been really angry at it, I could 
 not blame you : for, to say the truth, it is not very taking 
 at first sight. But look you, Sir, now you are abroad, 
 does not the sun shine as bright here as in Essex, Mid- 
 dlesex, or Kent, or any of your southern counties ? 
 
 Viat. 'Tis a delicate morning, indeed, and I now think 
 this a marvellous pretty place. 
 
 PMC. Whether you think so or no, you cannot oblige 
 me more than to say so : and those of my friends who 
 know my humour, and are so kind as to comply with it, 
 usually flatter me that way. But look you, Sir, now you 
 are at the brink of the hill, how do you like my river; the 
 vale it winds through, like a snake; and the situation of 
 my little fishing-house? 
 
 Viat . Trust me, 'tis all very fine ; and the house seems, 
 at this distance, a neat building. 
 
 PMC. Good enough for that purpose. And here is a 
 bowling-green too, close by it; so though I am myself n 
 very good bowler, I am not totally devoted to my owi 
 pleasure, but that I have also some regard to other men's. 
 And now, Sir, you are come to the door : pray walk in, 
 and there we'll sit, and talk as long as you please. 
 
 Viat. Stay, what's here over the door? PISCATORIBUS 
 SACRUM.* Why then, I perceive I have 
 some title here ; for I am one of them, 
 thousrh one of the worst. And here, of the 'fishing home* has 
 
 ' Been described ; futt the 
 below it, IS the Cypher* tOO you Spoke pleasantness of the river, 
 
 2 u 
 
292 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART II. 
 
 of; and 'tis prettily contrived. Has ************ eadou* 
 
 J about it, cannot ; unl,*-. 
 
 my master Walton ever been here to r p u* *<*. **- 
 
 Mr. Cotton's father, 
 
 see it; for it seems new built? 1 fcMqplMmiMNft 
 
 Pise. Yes, he saw it cut in the stone before it was set 
 up ; but never in the posture it now stands : for the house 
 was but building when he was last here, and not rais'd 
 so high as the arch of the door. And I am afraid he will 
 not see it, yet : for he has lately writ me word, he doubts 
 his coming down this summer; which, I do assure you, 
 was the worst news he could possibly have sent me. 
 
 Pita/. Men must sometimes mind their affairs to make 
 more room for their pleasures. And 'tis odds he is as 
 much displeas'd with the business that keeps him from 
 you, as you are that he comes not. But I am the most 
 pleased with this little house, of any thing I ever saw : it 
 stands in a kind of peninsula too, with a delicate clear 
 river about it. I dare hardly go in, lest I should not like 
 it so well within as without: but, by your leave, I'll try. 
 Why, this is better and better, fine lights, finely wains- 
 coted, and all exceeding neat, with a marble table and 
 all in the middle ! 
 
 (1) ! !?. Mr. White, since of Cnckhowel, favoured Sir John Hawkins with 
 description of the Fishing .House. The account he gave of It was, that it wu 
 of atooe, and the room inside a coke of fifteen feet ; that it was paved with 
 black ad while marble, and that in the middle was a square black marble table 
 lapported by two stone feet. The room was wainscoted with carious mould- 
 ^iags that divided the panocls up to the deling. In the larger panoels were 
 ^represented, in painting, some of the most pleasant of the adjacent scenes, with 
 persons fishing ; and in the smaller, the various sorts of tackle nd implements 
 *ed isi aagttag. In the further corner, on the left, was a fire-place with a 
 chimney; on the right a large beaofet, with folding doors, whereon were the 
 portrait* of Mr. Cotton with a boy-servant, and Walton iu the dress of the time. 
 Underneath was a cup-board ; on the door whereof, the figures of a Trout and 
 of a Grayling were well pourtrayed. At this time the edifice was in but indif- 
 ferent condition; the paintings, and even the wainscoting, in many places, being 
 much decayed. 
 
 Since the above period Beresford Hall has been visited, and the Fishing-House 
 seems to kav suffered by the lapse of time, and was fast falling into decay. 
 The glass frost the windows gone, the pavement removed, and the wainscot de- 
 stroyed. The inscription was still legible over the door, and the date 1074. 
 Fhe cypher also of Walton and Cotton ou the key-stone of the arch of the door 
 (represented in the title-page of the second pan; waa still legible. 
 
CHAP. HI. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 293 
 
 Pise. Enough, Sir, enough; I have laid open to you 
 the part where I can worst defend myself, and now you 
 attack me there. Come, boy, set two chairs ; and whilst 
 I am taking. a pipe of tobacco, which is always my break- 
 fast, we will, if you please, talk of some other subject. 
 
 Fwf.^None fitter, then, Sir, for the time and place, 
 than those instructions you promis'd. 
 
 Pise. I begin to doubt, by something I discover in you, 
 whether I am able to instruct you or no; though, if you 
 are really a stranger to our clear northern rivers, I still 
 think I can : and therefore, since it is yet too early in the 
 mcrniqg at this time of the year, to-day being but the 
 seventh of March, to cast a fly upon the water, if you 
 will direct me what kind of fishfng for a Trout I shall 
 read you a lecture on, I am willing and ready to obey 
 you. 
 
 Fiat. Why, Sir, if you will so far oblige me, and that 
 it may not be too troublesome to you, I would entreat 
 you would run through the whole body of it; and I will 
 not conceal from you that I am so far in love with you, 
 your courtesy, and pretty More-Land seat, as to resolve 
 to stay with you long enough by intervals, for I will not 
 oppress you, to hear all you can say upon that subject. 
 
 Pise. You cannot oblige me more than by such a pro- 
 mise: and therefore, without more ceremony, I will begin 
 to tell you, that my father Walton having read to you 
 before, it would look like a presumption in me, (and, per- 
 adventure, would do so in any other man,) .to pretend to 
 give lessons for angling after him, who, I do really be- 
 lieve, understands as much of it at least as any man in 
 England, did I not pre-acquaint you, that I am not 
 tempted to it by any vain opinion of myself, that I am 
 able to give you better directions ; but having, from my 
 childhood, pursued the recreation of angling in very clear 
 rivers, truly, I think, by much, (some of them, at least) 
 
'294 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART II. 
 
 the clearest in this kingdom, and the manner of angling 
 here with us, by reason of that exceeding clearness, being 
 something different from the method commonly used in 
 others, which, by being not near so bright, admit of 
 stronger tackle, and allow a nearer approach to the 
 stream, I may peradventure give you some instructions, 
 that may be of use, even in your own rivers, and shall 
 bring you acquainted with more flies and shew you how 
 to make them, and with what dubbing too, than he has 
 taken notice of in his COMPLETE ANGLER. 
 
 Viat. I beseech you, Sir, do; and if you will' lend me 
 your steel, 1 will light a pipe the while, for that is, com- 
 monly, my breakfast in a morning, too. 
 
 CHAP. IV 
 QfA*ytt*gfor TROUT or GRAYLING. 
 
 Piscator. WHY, then Sir, to begin methodically, as a 
 master in any art should do, (and I will not deny, but 
 that I think myself a master in this) I shall divide Any- 
 lingfur TROUT, or GRAYLING, into these three ways ; at 
 the top; at the bottom ; and in the middle. Which three 
 ways, though they are all of them, (as I shall hereafter 
 endeavour to make it appear,) in some sort common to 
 both those kinds of fish ; yet are they not so generally 
 and absolutely so, but that they will necessarily require 
 a distinction, which, in due place, I will also give you. 
 
 That which we call angling at the top, is with a fly ; at 
 the bottom, with a ground-bait ; in the middle, with a 
 minnow or ground-bait. 
 
 Angling at the top is of two sorts ; with a quick fly, or 
 with an artificial fly. 
 
CHAP. IV. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 295 
 
 That we call Angling at the bottom, is also of two 
 sorts ; by hand, or with a cork or float. 
 
 That we call Angling in the middle, is also of two 
 sorts ; with a Minnow, for a Trout, or with a ground-bait 
 for a Grayling. 
 
 Of all which several sorts of angling, I will, if you can 
 have the patience to hear me, give you the best account 
 I can. 
 
 Viat. The trouble will be yours, and mine the pleasure 
 and the obligation : I beseech you therefore to proceed. 
 
 PMC. Why then first of fly-fishing. 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 Of Fly-fishing. 
 
 Piscator. FLY-fishing, or fishing at the top, is, as I said 
 before, of two sorts ; with a natural and living fly, or with 
 an artificial and made fly. 
 
 First then, of the NATURAL FLY ; of which we gene- 
 rally use but two sorts ; and those but in the two months 
 of May and June only ; namely, the Green-drake, and 
 the Stone-fly: though I have made use of a third, that 
 way, called the Chamblet-fly , with very good success, for 
 Grayling, but never saw it angled with by any other, after 
 this manner, my master only excepted, who died many 
 years ago, and was one of the best anglers that ever I 
 knew. 
 
 These are to be angled with, with a short line, not much 
 more than half the length of your rod, if the airbe still ; 
 or with a longer very near, or all out, as long as your rod, 
 if you have any wind to carry it from you. And this way 
 
296 TH* COMPLETE ANGLER. PART II. 
 
 of fishing we call DAPING, DABBING, or DIBBINO; 
 wherein you are always to have your line flying before 
 you up or down the river, as the wind serves, and to 
 angle as near as you can to the bank of the same side 
 whereon you stand, though where you see a tish rise near 
 you, you may guide your quick fly over him, whether in 
 tin- middle, or on the contrary side ; and if you are pretty 
 well out of sight, either by kneeling, or the interposition 
 of a bank or bush, you may almost be sure to raise, and 
 take him too, if it be presently done ; the fish will, other- 
 wise, peradventure be removed to some other place, if it 
 be in the still deeps, where he is always in motion, and 
 roving up and down to look for prey, though, in a stream, 
 you may always almost, especially if there be a 
 stone near, find him in the same place. Your line ought 
 in this case to be three good hairs next the hook ; both 
 by reason you are, in this kind of angling, to expect 'the 
 biggest fish, and also that, wanting length to give him 
 line after he is struck, you must be forced to tug for it: 
 to which I will also add, that not an inch of your line 
 being to be suffered to touch the water in dibbing, it may 
 be allowed to be the stronger. I should now give you a 
 description of those flies, their shape and colour ; and, 
 then, give you an account of their breeding; and withal, 
 shew you how to keep and use them : but shall defer 
 them to their proper place and season. 
 
 Viat. In earnest, Sir, you discourse very rationally 
 of this affair, and I am glad to find myself mistaken in 
 you ; for, in plain truth, I did not expect so much from 
 you. 
 
 Pise. Nay, Sir, 1 can tell you a great deal more than 
 this : and will conceal nothing from you. But 1 must 
 now to the second way of Angling at the top ; which is 
 
 (1) SM, in Chap. VII. May, Art. 11. directions how to bait with the Green- 
 4rakt * > . 
 
I 
 
CHAP. V. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 297 
 
 with an ARTIFICIAL FLY, which also I will shew you 
 how to make before I have done : but, first, shall acquaint 
 you, that, with this, you are to angle with a line longer 
 by a yard and a half, or sometimes two yards, than your 
 rod : and with both this and the other in a still day, 
 in the streams, in a breeze that curls the water, in the 
 still deeps, where (excepting in May and June, that the 
 best Trouts will lie in shallow streams to watch for prey, 
 and even then too) you are like to hit the best fish. 1 
 
 For the length of your ROD, you are always to be go- 
 verned by the breadth of the river you shall chuse to 
 angle at : and for a Trout-river, one of five or six yards 
 long is commonly enough ; and longer (though never so 
 neatly and artificially made) it ought not to be, if you 
 intend to fish at ease ; and if otherwise, where lies the 
 sport ? 
 
 Of these, the best that ever I saw, are made in York- 
 shire ; which are all of one piece, that is to say, of se- 
 veral, six, eight, ten, or twelve pieces, so neatly pieced 
 and tied together with fine thread below and silk above 
 as to make it taper like a switch, and to ply with a true 
 bent to your hand. And these, too, are light, being 
 made of fir-wood for two or three lengths nearest to the 
 hand, and of other wood nearer to the top, that a man 
 might, very easily, manage the longest of them that ever 
 I saw, with one hand. And these, when you have given 
 over angling for a season, being taken to pieces and laid 
 up in some dry place, may afterwards be set together 
 again in their former postures, and will be as strait, sound, 
 and good, as the first hour they were made, and being 
 laid in oil and colour, according to your master Walton's 
 direction, will last many years. 
 
 The length of your LINE, to a man that knows how to 
 
 (1) For Fishing with two or more flics : see note on p. 298. 
 
298 THl COMPLETE ANGLER. PART. II. 
 
 handle his rod, and to cast it, is no manner of incum- 
 brance, excepting in woody places and in landing of a 
 fish, which every one that can afford to angle for pleasure 
 has somebody to do for him. And the length of line is 
 a mighty advantage to the fishing at distance ; and to 
 fish fine and far-off, is the first and principal rule for 
 Trout-angling. 1 
 
 Your line in this case should never be less, nor ever 
 exceed, two hairs next to the hook; for one (though some, 
 I know, will pretend to more art than their fellows,) is 
 indeed too few, the least accident, with the finest hand, 
 being sufficient to break it: but he that cannot kill a 
 Trout of twenty inches long with two, in a river clear of 
 wood and weeds, as this and some others of ours are, 
 deserves not the name of an Angler. 3 
 
 Now, to have your whole line as it ought to be, two of 
 the first lengths nearest the hook should be of two hairs 
 a-piece ; the next three lengths above them of three ; the 
 next three above them of four; and, so, of five, and six, 
 and seven, to the very top: by which means, your rod and 
 tackle will, in a manner, be taper from your very hand to 
 your hook ; your line will fall much better and straighter, 
 and cast your fly to any certain place to which the hand 
 and eye shall direct it, with less weight and violence, that 
 would otherwise circle the water, and fright away the fish. 
 
 In casting your line, do it always before you, 3 and so 
 
 (I) An artist ay easily throw twelve yar.ls of line, with one hand ; aud with 
 two. be maj as easily throw eighteen. 
 
 (?) See the direction for jour rod and line, in the notes on Cbap. XXI. 
 Parti. 
 
 (.1) Till yon are a proficient, every throw will go near to cost you a hook : 
 therefore practise for some time without one. Hawkint. 
 
 Management of the lint, when Fihing either with oue fly, or two or more 
 Jtiet. Wurn you have fixed your rod properly with your winch thereon, [see 
 p. 114. n. describing Winch and Ring*,] and brought your line from it through 
 the rings of your rod, loop on to it, by the strongest end, your foot-length ; 
 which should be about three yard* and a half long; made of good, strong, siuglr 
 silk-worm gut, well tied, and the knots neatly whipped, running a (very little) 
 iner towards the bottom. eud, at which place there must be, a neatly-whipped 
 
CHAP. V. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 299 
 
 that your fly may first fall upon the water, and as little of 
 your line with it as is possible: though if the wind be stiff, 
 you will then, of necessity, be compelled to drown a good 
 part of your line, to keep your fly in the water. And in 
 casting your fly you must aim at the further, or nearer 
 bank, as the wind serves your turn, which also will be 
 with and against you, on the same side, several times in 
 an hour, as the river winds in its course, and you will 
 be forced to angle up and down by turns accordingly, 
 but endeavour, as much as you can, to have the wind, 
 evermore, on your back. And always be sure to stand as 
 far off the bank as your length will give you leave when 
 you throw to the contrary side : though when the wind 
 
 loop : then take your end-fly, or stretcher, which should be made with oue or two 
 lengths of good level cut, full as fine as, or H little finer than, the bottom link 
 of your foot-length, lied and whipped neatly together, and looped nicely at the 
 end : loop this to the end of your gut-length : and then, your drop-fly just 
 above a knot, where whipped, about a yard from the end-fly, to hang from the 
 line, not more thau two or three inches. If you chuse to fish for more, keep 
 them all about the same distance. And observe that if your droppers be larger 
 than, or even as large as, your stretcher, you will not be able to throw a good 
 line : but a beginner should never use more than one fly. _ 
 
 When thus prepared, let out thr line, about half as long / ,7* 
 
 again as the rod : and holding the rod, properly in one J "\ 
 
 hand, and the line just above the fly, in the other, give 
 your rod a motion from right to left : and as you move the rod backwards, in 
 order to throw out the line, dismiss the line from your hand at the same time ; 
 and try several throws, at this length. Then let out more line ; and try that: 
 still using more and more, till you can manage any length needful : but about 
 nine yards is quite, sufficient for a learner to practise with. And observe that 
 in raiting your line, in order to throw it again, you should wave the rod a little 
 round your head, and not bring it directly backwards : nor must you return the 
 line too soon, nor until it has streamed its full length behind you, or you will 
 certaiuly whip off your end-fly. There is great art in making your line fall light 
 on the water, and shewing the flies well to the fish. The best way that I ran 
 direct is, that when you have thrown out your line, contriving to let it fall 
 lightly and naturally, you should raise your rod gently, and by degrees ; some- 
 times with a kind of gentle tremulant flourish, which will bring the flies on a 
 little towards you ; still letting them go down with the stream, but never draw 
 them against it, for it is unnatural : and before the line comes too near you, 
 throw out again. When you see a fish rise at a natural fly. throw about a yard 
 above him, but not directly over his head ; and let your fly (or flies) move gently 
 towards him, which will shew it to him in a more natural form, and tempt him 
 the more to take it. Experience and observation alone, however, can make an 
 angler a complete adept in the art, so as to ei able him to throw his fly behind 
 bushes and trees, into holes, under banks, and other places mentioned as the 
 Trout'* haunts, and where the best fish are to be found. Taylor's Art of 
 Angling. 
 
300 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART II. 
 
 will not permit you so to do, and that you are constrained 
 to angle on the same side whereon you stand, you must 
 then stand on the very brink of the river, and cast your 
 fly to the utmost length of your rod and line, up or down 
 the river, as the gale serves. 
 
 It only remains, touching your line, to enquire whether 
 your two hairs next to the hook are better twisted or open ? 
 And for that I should declare that I think the open way 
 .the better, because it makes less shew in the water, but 
 that I have found an inconvenience or two, or three, that 
 have made me almost weary of that way ; of which one is, 
 that, without dispute, they are not so strong open as 
 twisted ; ' another, that they are not, easily, to be fastened 
 of so exact an equal length in the arming that the one 
 will not cause the other to bag, by which means a man 
 has but one hair upon the matter to trust to; and the last 
 is, that these loose flying hairs are not only more apt to 
 catch upon every twig, or beat, they meet with, but more- 
 over, the hook, in falling upon the water, will, very often, 
 rebound and fly back betwixt the hairs, and there stick, 
 (which, in a rough water especially, is not presently to be 
 discerned by the angler,) so as the point of the hook shall 
 stand reversed; by which means your fly swims backward, 
 makes a much greater circle in the water, and till taken 
 home to you and set right, will never raise any fish, or, if 
 it should, I am sure, but by a very extraordinary chance, 
 can hit none.' 
 
 Having done with both these ways of fishing at the 
 top, the length of your rod, and line, and all, I am next 
 to teach you how to make a fly ; and, afterwards, of what 
 
 (1) ID the original, the words are twisted at open, contrary to what is, 
 evidently, from the connection, the Authoi's meaning : the Editor has therefore 
 transposed the words. 
 
 (2) This and the other inconveniences mentioned in this paragraph, are effec- 
 tually avoided by the use of a fine grass, or gut, of a><out half a yard !ong, ne*t 
 the hook. See Notes on Chap. XXI. Part I. p. 28. 
 
CHAP. V. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 301 
 
 dubbing you are to make the several flies I shall hereafter 
 name to you. 
 
 In making a fly, then, which is not a hackle or palmer- 
 fly, (for of those, and their several kinds, we shall have 
 occasion to speak every month in the year,) you are, first, 
 to hold your hook fast betwixt the fore-finger and thumb 
 of your left hand, with the back of the shank upwards, 
 and the point towards your fingers' ends; then take a 
 strong small silk of the colour of the fly you intend to 
 make, wax it well with wax of the same colour too, to 
 which end you are always, by the way, to have wax of all 
 colours about you, and draw it betwixt your finger and 
 thumb to the head of the shank; and then whip it twice 
 or thrice about the bare hook, which, you must know, is 
 done, both to prevent slipping, and also that the shank of 
 the hook may not cut the hairs of your towght, which 
 sometimes it will otherwise do. Which being done, take 
 your line, and draw it likewise betwixt your finger and 
 thumb, holding the hook so fast, as only to suffer it to 
 pass by, until you have the knot of your towght almost 
 to the middle of the shank of your hook, on the inside of 
 it ; then whip your silk twice or thrice about both hook 
 and line as hard as the strength of the silk will permit. 
 Which being done, strip the feather for the wings propor- 
 tionable to the bigness of your fly, placing that side 
 downwards which grew uppermost before upon the back 
 of the hook, leaving so much only as to serve for the 
 length of the wing of the point of the plume lying reversed 
 from the end of the shank upwards : then whip your silk 
 twice or thrice about the root end of the feather, hook, 
 and towght; which being done, clip off the root-end of 
 the feather close by the arming, and then whip the silk 
 fast and firm about the hook and towght, until you come 
 to the bend of the hook, but not further as you do at 
 London, and so make a very unhandsome, and, in plain 
 
30*2 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PAKT II. 
 
 English, a very unnatural and shapeless fly. Which being 
 done, cut away the end of your towght, and fasten it. 
 And then take your dubbing which is to make the body 
 of your fly, as much as you think convenient, and holding 
 it lightly, with your hook, betwixt the finger and thumb 
 of your left hand, take your silk with the right, and twist- 
 ing it betwixt the ringer and thumb of that hand, the 
 dubbing will spin itself about the silk, which when it has 
 done, whip it about the armed-hook backward, till you 
 come to the setting-on of the wings. And then take the 
 feather for the wings, and divide it equally into two parts ; 
 and turn them back towards the bend of the hook, the 
 one on the one side, and the other on the other of the 
 shank; holding them fast in that posture betwixt the fore- 
 finger and thumb of the left hand: which done, warp 
 them so down as to stand and slope towards the bend of 
 the hook ; and having warped up to the end of the shank, 
 hold the fly fast betwixt the finger and thumb of your left 
 hand, and then take the silk betwixt the finger and thumb 
 of your right hand; and, where the warping ends, pinch 
 or nip it with your thumb-nail, against your finger, and 
 strip away the remainder of your dubbing from the silk : 
 and then with the bare silk, whip it once or twice about ; 
 make the wings to stand in due order ; fasten, and cut it 
 off. After which, with the point of a needle, raise up the 
 dubbing gently from the warp ; twitch off the superfluous 
 hairs of your dubbing; leave the wings of an equal length, 
 your fly will never else swim true ; and the work is done. 
 And this way of making a fly, which is certainly the best 
 of all other, was taught me by a kinsman of mine, one 
 Captain Henry Jackson; a near neighbour; an admirable 
 fly-angler ; by many degrees the best fly-maker that ever 
 I yet met with. 1 And now that I have told you how a fly 
 
 (I) There peeds nothing mote to be said of these Directions, than that hun- 
 dreds have, by means of them alone, become excellent fly-makers. 
 For makiof a palmer, or hackle, see the Notes on Chap. VII. 
 
CHAP. V. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 303 
 
 is to be made, you shall presently see me make one, with 
 which you may peradventure take a Trout this morning, 
 notwithstanding the unlikeliness of the day ; for it is now 
 nine of the clock, and fish will begin to rise, if they will 
 rise to-day. I will walk along by you, and look on. And, 
 after dinner, I will proceed in my lecture of fly-fishing. 
 
 Viat. I confess I long to be at the river; and yet I could 
 sit here all day to hear you : but some of the one, and 
 some of the other, will do well ; and I have a mighty am- 
 bition to take a Trout in your river Dove. 
 
 Pise. I warrant you shall : I would not, for more than 
 I will speak of, but you should', seeing I have so extolled 
 my river to you : nay I will keep you here a month, but 
 you shall have one good day of sport before you go. 
 
 Viat. You will find me, I doubt, too tractable that way; 
 for, in good earnest, if business would give me leave, and 
 that it were fit, I could find in my heart to stay with you 
 for ever. 
 
 Pise. I thank you, Sir, for that kind expression. And 
 now let me look out my things to make this fly. 
 
304 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART II. 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 Flthing at the top continued. farther Direction* for Fit/ -making. 
 Time when the GRAYLING w in season. Rock in Pike-Pool. 
 
 Piscator. BOY ! come, give me my dubbing-bag here 
 presently; and now, Sir, since I find you so honest a man, 
 I will make no scruple to lay open my treasure before you. 
 
 Viator. Did ever any one see the like ! what a heap of 
 trumpery is here ! certainly never an angler in Europe has 
 his shop half so well furnished as you have. 
 
 Pise. You, perhaps, may think now, that I rake toge- 
 ther this trumpery, as you call it, for shew only, to the 
 end that such as see it (which are not many, I assure you) 
 may think me a great master in the art of angling : but 
 let me tell you, here are colours (as contemptible as they 
 seem here) that are very hard to be got, and scarce any 
 one of them which, if it should be lost, I should not mi--, 
 and be concerned about the loss of it too, once in the 
 year. But look you, Sir, amongst all these I will chuse 
 out these two colours only ; of which, this is bear's hair r 
 this darker, no great matter what ; but I am sure I have 
 killed a great deal of fish with it ; and with one or both 
 of these, you shall take Trout or Grayling this very day, 
 notwithstanding all disadvantages, or my art shall fail me. 
 
 Viat. You promise comfortably, and I have a great 
 deal of reason to believe every thing you say : but I wish 
 the fly were made, that we were at it. 
 
 Pise. That will not be long in doing : and pray observe 
 then. You see, first, how I hold my hook ; and thus I 
 begin. Look you, here are my first two or three whips 
 about the bare hook ; thus I join hook and line ; thus I 
 put on my wings ; thus I twirl and lap on my dubbing ; 
 
CHAP. VI. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 305 
 
 thus I work it up towards the head ; thus I part my wings; 
 thus I nip my superfluous dubbing from my silk ; thus 
 fasten; thus trim and adjust my fly. And there's a fly 
 made ; and now how do you like it ? 
 
 Viat. In earnest, admirably well ; and it perfectly re- 
 sembles a fly : but we about London make the bodies of 
 our flies both much bigger and longer, so long as even 
 almost to the very beard of the hook. 
 
 Pise. I know it very well, and had one of those flies 
 given me by an honest gentleman, who came with my 
 father Walton to give me a visit ; which (to tell you the 
 truth) I hung in my parlour-window to laugh at : but, Sir, 
 you know the proverb, " They who go to Rome, must do 
 as they at Rome do ;" and believe me, you must here make 
 your flies after this fashion, or you will take no fish. Come, 
 I will look you out a line, and you shall put it on, and 
 try it. There, Sir, now I think you are fitted ; and now 
 beyond the farther end of the walk you shall begin : I see, 
 at that bend of the water above, the air crisps the water 
 a little: knit your line first here, and then go up thither, 
 and see what you can do. 
 
 Viat . Did you see that, Sir ? 
 
 Pise, Yes, I saw the fish : and he saw you too, which made 
 him turn short. You must fish further off, if you intend to 
 have any sport here ; this is no New River, let me tell you. 
 That was a good Trout, believe me : did you touch him. 
 
 fiat. No, I would I had, we would not have parted so. 
 Look you, there was another : this is an excellent fly. 
 
 Pise. That fly I am sure would kill fish, if the day were 
 right : but they only chew at it, I see, and will not take 
 it. Come, Sir, let us return back to the fishing-house : 
 this still water, I see, will not do our business to-day : 
 you shall now, if you please, make a fly yourself, 1 and 
 
 (1) To make a fly is so essential, that he hardly deserves the name of an 
 angler, who cannot do it. There are many who will go to a tackle-shop, und 
 
306 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART II. 
 
 try what you can do in the streams with that: and I 
 know a Trout taken with a fly of your own making, will 
 please you better than twenty with one of mine. Give me 
 that bag again, sirrah: look you, Sir, there is a hook, 
 towght, silk, and a feather for the wings : be doing with 
 those, and I will look you out a dubbing that I think 
 will do. 
 
 Vint. This is a very little hook. 
 
 Pise. That may serve to inform you, that it is for a 
 very little fly, and you must make your wings accordingly; 
 for as the case stands, it must be a little fly, and a very 
 little one too, that must do your business. Well said ! 
 believe me, you shift your fingers very handsomely. I 
 doubt I have taken upon me to teach my master. So, 
 here's your dubbing now. 
 
 Viat. This dubbing is very black. 
 
 Pitc. It appears so in hand ; but step to the doors and 
 hold it up betwixt your eye and the sun, and it will ap- 
 pear a shining red ; let me tell you, never a man in Eng- 
 land can discern the true colour of a dubbing any way 
 but that ; and therefore choose always to make your flies 
 on such a bright sun-shine day as this, which also you 
 may the better do, because it is worth nothing to fish in. 
 Here, put it on ; and be sure to make the body of your fly 
 as slender as you can. Very good ! upon my word, you 
 have made a marvellous handsome fly. 
 
 Viat. I am very glad to hear it ; 'tis the first that ever 
 1 made of this kind, in my life. 
 
 Pise. Away, away ! You are a doctor at it : but I will 
 
 tell the muter of it, as Dapper doe* Subtle in the Alchtmut, that they want a 
 Jljt; for which they have a thing put into their hands that would pose a natu- 
 ralist tn 6od a resemblance for : though, when particular directions have been 
 given. I have known them excellently made by the persons employed by the 
 fishing-tackle makers in London. But do thou, my honest friend, learn to 
 make thy own flies; and be assured, that in collecting and arranging the mate- 
 rials, and imitating the various shape* and colours of these admirable creatures, 
 toere is little less pleasure than even in catching fish. 
 
CHAP. VI. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 307 
 
 not commend you too much, lest I make you proud. 
 Come, put it on ; and you shall now go downward, to 
 some streams betwixt the rocks, below the little foot- 
 bridge you see there, and try your fortune. Take heed 
 of slipping into the water as you follow me under this 
 rock. So now you are over : and now throw in. 
 
 Fiat. This is a fine stream indeed. There's one ! I 
 have him. 
 
 Pise. And a precious catch you have of him ; pull him 
 out ! I see you have a tender hand. This is a diminutive 
 gentlemen ; e'en throw him in again, and let him grow 
 till he be more worthy your anger. 
 
 Viat. Pardon me, Sir, all's fish that comes to the hook, 
 with me now. Another ! 
 
 Pise. And of the same standing. 
 
 Viat. I see I shall have good sport now. Another ! and 
 a Grayling. Why you have fish here at will. 
 
 Pise. Come, come, cross the bridge ; and go down the 
 other side, lower, where you will find finer streams and 
 better sport, I hope, than this. Look you, Sir, here is a 
 fine stream now. You have length enough ; stand a little 
 further off, let me entreat you ; and do but fish this stream 
 like an artist, and peradventure a good fish may fall to 
 your share. How now ! what ! is all gone ? 
 
 Viat. No, I but touch't him ; but that was a fish worth 
 taking. 
 
 Pise. Why now let me tell you, you lost that fish by 
 your own fault, and through your own eagerness and 
 haste ; for you are never to offer to strike a good fish, if 
 he do not strike himself, till first you see him turn his 
 head after he has taken your fly, and then you can never 
 strain your tackle in the striking, if you strike with any 
 manner of moderation. Come, throw in one again, and 
 fish me this stream by inches ; for I assure you, here arc 
 very good fish : both Trout and Grayling lie here ; and at 
 x 2 
 
308 THE COMPLETE ANGLER, PART II. 
 
 that great stone on the other side, 'tis ten to one a good 
 Trout gives you the meeting. 
 
 Viat. I have him now : but he is gone down towards 
 the bottom. I cannot see what he is, yet he should be a 
 good fish by his weight ; but he makes no great stir. 
 
 Pise. Why then, by what you say, I dare venture to 
 assure you 'tis a Grayling, who is one of the deadest- 
 hearted fishes in the world; and the bigger he is, the more 
 easily taken. Look you, now you see him plain ; I told 
 you what he was. Bring hither that landing-net, boy. 
 And now, Sir, he is your own ; and, believe me, a good 
 one; sixteen inches long I warrant him: I have taken 
 none such this year. 
 
 Viat. I never saw a Grayling before look so black. 
 
 Pise. Did you not? why then let me tell you, that you 
 nerer saw one before in right season ; for then a Grayling 
 is very black about his head, gills, and down his back ; 
 and has his belly of a dark grey, dappled with black spots, 
 as you see this is ; and I am apt to conclude that from 
 thence he derives his name of Umber. Though I must 
 tell you, this fish is past his prime, and begins to decline, 
 and was in better season at Christmas than he is now. 
 But move on; for it grows towards dinner-time; and there 
 is a very great and fine stream below, under that rock 
 that fills the deepest pool in all the river, where you are 
 almost sure of a good fish. 
 
 Viat. Let him come, I'll try a fall with him. But I had 
 thought that the Grayling had been always in season with 
 the Trout, and had come in and gone out with him. 
 
 Pise. Oh no ! assure yourself a Grayling is a winter- 
 fish ; but such a one as would deceive any but such as 
 know him very well indeed ; for his flesh, even in his worst 
 season, is so firm, and will so easily calver, that in plain 
 truth he is very good meat at all times : but in his perfect 
 eason (which, by the way, none but ih overgrown Gray- 
 
CHAP. VI. THE COMPLETE ANGLER, 309 
 
 ling will ever be) I think him so good a fish, as to be little 
 inferior to the best Trout that ever I tasted in my life. 
 
 Viat. Here's another skip-jack ; and I have raised five 
 or six more at least whilst you were speaking. Well, go 
 thy way, little Dove ! thou art the finest river that ever I 
 saw, and the fullest of fish. Indeed, Sir, I like it so well, 
 that I am afraid you will be troubled with me once a year, 
 so long as we two live. 
 
 Pise. I am afraid I shall not, Sir : but were you once 
 here a May or a June, if good sport would tempt you, I 
 should then expect you would sometimes see me ; for you 
 would then say it were a fine river indeed, if you had 
 once seen the sport at the height. 
 
 Viat. Which I will do, if I live, and that you please to 
 give me leave. There was one, and there another. 
 
 Pise. And all this in a strange river, and with a fly of 
 your own making ! why what a dangerous man are you t 
 
 Viat. I, Sir : but who taught me ? and as Damatas 
 says by his man Dorus, so you may say by me, 
 
 If any man such praises have, 
 What then have I that taught the knave?' 
 
 But what have we got here ? a Rock springing up in the 
 middle of the river ! this is one of the oddest sights that 
 ever I saw. 
 
 Pise. Why, Sir, from that Pike * that you see standing 
 up there distant from the rock, this is called Pike-Pool. 
 And young Mr. Izaac Walton was so pleas'd with it, as 
 to draw it in landscape, in black and white, in a blank 
 
 (1) Sidney's .Arcadia. 
 
 (2) Tis a rock, in the fashion of a spire-steeple, and almost as big. It stands 
 in the midst of the liver Dove ; and not far from Mr. Cotton's house, below 
 which place this delicate river takes a swift career betwixt many mighty rocks, 
 much higher and bigger than St. Paul's church before 'twas burnt. And this 
 Dove being oppos'd by one of the highest of them, has, at last, for c'd itself a way 
 through it; and after a mile's concealment, appears again with more glory and 
 beauty than before that opposition, running through the most pleasant valleys 
 and most fruitful meadows that this nation can justly boast of. Walton, 
 
310 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART II. 
 
 book I have at home, as he has done several prospects of 
 my house also, which I keep for a memorial of his favour, 
 and will shew you when we come up to dinner. 
 
 Viat. Has young master Izaac Walton been here, too? 
 
 Pise. Yes, marry has he, Sir, and that again and again 
 too ; and in France since, and at Rome, and at Venice, 
 and I can't tell where ; but I intend to ask him a great 
 many hard questions so soon as I can see him, which will 
 be, God willing, next month. In the mean time, Sir, to 
 come to this fine stream at the head of this great pool, 
 you must venture over these slippery, cobbling stones. 
 Believe me, Sir, there you were nimble, or else you had 
 been down. But now you are got over, look to yourself: 
 for, on my word, if a fish rise here, he is like to be such 
 a one as will endanger your tackle. How now ! 
 
 Viat. I think you have such command here over the 
 fishes, that you can raise them by your word, as they say 
 conjurors can do spirits, and afterward make them do 
 what you bid them ; for here's a Trout has taken my fly ; 
 I had rather have lost a crown. What luck's this ! he was 
 a lovely fish, and turned up a side like a Salmon. 
 
 Pise. O Sir, this is a war where you sometimes win, 
 and must sometimes expect to lose. Never concern your- 
 self for the loss of your Fly ; for ten to one I teach you 
 to make a better. Who's that calls ? 
 
 Serv. Sir, will it please you to come to dinner ? 
 
 Pt$c. We come. You hear, Sir, we are called : and now 
 take your choice, whether you will climb this steep hill 
 before you, from the top of which you will go directly 
 into the house, or back again, over these stepping stones, 
 and about by the bridge. 
 
 Viat. Nay, sure the nearest way is best; at least my 
 stomach tells me so ; and I am now so well acquainted 
 with your rocks, that I fear them not. 
 
 Pise. Come then, follow me. And so soon as we have 
 
CHAP. VII. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 311 
 
 din'd, we will down again to the little house : where I will 
 begin, at the place I left off, about fly-fishing, and read 
 you another lecture ; for I have a great deal more to say 
 upon that subject. 
 
 Viat. The more the better; I could never have met 
 with a more obliging master, my first excepted. Nor such 
 sport can all the rivers about London ever afford, as is to 
 be found in this pretty river. 
 
 Pise. You deserve to have bette'r ; both because I see 
 you are willing to take pains, and for liking this little so 
 well ; and better I hope to shew you before we part. 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 FISHING AT THE TOP. Ftiet for the Months of January, February, 
 March, April, and part of May ; including, under May, particular 
 Directions for baiting with the Green-Drake. 
 
 Viator. COME, Sir, having now well din'd, and being 
 again set in your little house, I will now challenge your 
 promise, and entreat you to proceed in your instruction 
 for fly-fishing : which, that you may be the better encou- 
 raged to do, I will assure you, that I have not lost, I think, 
 one syllable of what you have told me; but very well re- 
 tain all your directions, both for the rod, line, and making 
 a fly, and now desire an account of the flies themselves. 
 
 Pise. Why, Sir, I am ready to give it you, and shall 
 have the whole afternoon to do it in, if nobody come in 
 to interrupt us; for you must know, (besides the unfitness 
 of the day,) that the afternoons, so early in March, sig- 
 nify very little to angling with a fly, though with a min- 
 now, or a worm, something might (I confess) be done. 
 
 To begin, then, where J left off, My father Walton tells 
 
312 TUK COMPLETE ANGLE E. PART II. 
 
 us of but twelve artificial flies only, to angle with at the 
 top, and gives their names ; of which some are common 
 with us here ; and I think I guess at most of them by his 
 description, and I believe they all breed and are taken in 
 our rivers, though we do not make them either of the 
 same dubbing or fashion. And it may be in the rivers 
 about London, which I presume he has most frequented, 
 and where 'tis likely he has done most execution, there 
 is not much notice taken of many more : but we are ac- 
 quainted with several others here, though perhaps I may 
 reckon some of his by other names too ; but if I .do, I shall 
 make you amends by an addition to his catalogue. And 
 although the fore-named great master in the art of ang- 
 ling, for so in truth he is, tells you that no man should, 
 in honesty, catch a Trout till the middle of March, yet I 
 hope he will give a man leave sooner to take a Grayling, 
 which, as I told you, is in the dead months in his best 
 season : and do assure you, (which I remember by a very 
 remarkable token,) I did once take upon the sixth day of 
 December one, and only, one, of the biggest Graylings, 
 and the best in season, that ever I yet saw or tasted ; and 
 do usually take Trouts too, and with a fly, not only before 
 the middle of this month, but almost every year in Febru- 
 ary, unless it be a very ill spring indeed ; and have some- 
 times in January, so early as New-year's tide, and in 
 frost and snow, taken Grayling in a warm sunshine day 
 for an hour or two about noon ; and to fish for him with a 
 grub, it is then the best time of all. 
 
 I shall therefore begin my fly-fishing with that month, 
 (though, I confess, very few begin so soon, and that such 
 as are so fond of the sport as to embrace all opportunities 
 can rarely in that month find a day fit for their purpose,) 
 and tell you, that, upon my knowledge, these flies in a 
 warm sun, for an hour or two in the day, are certainly 
 taken. 
 
CHAP. VII. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 313 
 
 JANUARY. 
 
 1. A RED BROWN with wings of the male of a mallard 
 almost white ; the dubbing of the tail of a black long- 
 coated cur, such as they commonly make muffs of; for 
 the hair on the tail of such a dog dyes, and turns to a red 
 brown, but the hair of a smooth-coated dog of the same 
 colour will not do, because, it will not dye, but retains its 
 natural colour. 1 And this fly is taken, in a warm sun, this 
 whole month through. 
 
 2. There is also a very little BRIGHT-DUN GNAT, as 
 little as can possibly be made, so little as never to be 
 fish'd with, with above one hair next the hook ; and this 
 is to be made of a mixt dubbing of marten's fur, and the 
 white of a hare's scut, with a very white and small wing ; 
 and it is no great matter how fine you fish, for nothing 
 will rise in this month but a Grayling ; and of them I 
 never, at this season, saw any taken with a fly, of above 
 a foot long, in my life : but of little ones about the big- 
 ness of a smelt, in a warm day, and a glowing sun, you 
 may take enough with these two flies ; and they are both 
 taken the whole month through. 
 
 FEBRUARY. 
 
 1. Where the RED BROWN of the last month ends, 
 ANOTHER, almost of the same colour, begins with this ; 
 saving that the dubbing of this must be of something a 
 blacker colour, and both of them warpt-on with red silk. 
 The dubbing that should make this fly, and that is the 
 truest colour, is to be got off the black spot of a hog's 
 ear : not that a black spot in any part of the hog will not 
 afford the same colour, but that the hair in that place is, 
 by many degrees, softer, and more fit for the purpose. 
 His wing must be as the other ; and this kills all this 
 month, and is called the LESSER RED-BROWN. 
 
 (1) The dubbing is to be warped on as No. 1, in February, infra. 
 
314 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART II. 
 
 2. This month, also, a PLAIN-HACKLE,' or palmer-fly, 
 made with a rough black body, either of black spaniel's 
 fur, or the whirl of an ostrich feather, and the red hackle 
 of a capon over all, will kill, and, if the weather be right, 
 make very good sport. 
 
 3. Also a LESSER HACKLE, with a black body, also 
 silver twist over that, and a red feather over all will till 
 your pannier, if the month be open, and not bound up in 
 ice and snow, with very good fish; but, in case of a frost 
 and snow, you are to angle only with the smallest gnats, 
 browns, and duns you can make; and with those are only 
 to expect Graylings no bigger than sprats. 
 
 4. In this month, upon a whirling-round water, we 
 have a GREAT HACKLE, the body black, and wrapped 
 with a red feather of a capon untrimmed ; that is, the 
 whole length of the hackle staring out ; (for we sometimes 
 barb the hackle-feather short all over ; sometimes barb it 
 only a little, and sometimes barb it close underneath,) 
 leaving the whole length of the feather on the top or back 
 of the fly, which makes it swim better, and, as occasion 
 serves, kills very great fish. 
 
 5. We make use, also, in this month, of another GREAT 
 HACKLE, the body black, and ribbed over with gold- 
 twist, and a red feather over all ; which also does great 
 execution.' 
 
 6. Also a GREAT DUN, made with dun bear's hair ; 
 and the wings, of the grey feather of a mallard near 
 unto his tail; which is absolutely the best fly can be 
 
 (I) The author it now in the month of February ; during which are taken, 
 the Plain Hackle ; which we would recommend to be made of black oitrich 
 herl, warped, or tied down, to the dubbibg with red silk, and a red tock'i 
 hackle oter all. 
 
 () Gold-tvift HackU; the tame dabbing, warping, and hackle, with gold 
 twist. 
 
 These hackles are Ulten chiefly from nine to eleven in the morning, and from 
 one to three in UM afternoon. They will do for any month in the year, and 
 upon any water. 
 
CHAP. VII. THE COMPLETE ANGLER, 315 
 
 thrown upon a river this month, and with which an angler 
 shall have admirable sport. 
 
 7. We have also this month the GREAT BLUE DUN, 
 the dubbing of the bottom of bear's hair next to the roots, 
 mixt with a little blue camlet; the wings, of the dark 
 grey feather of a mallard. 
 
 8. We have also this month a DARK BROWN, the dub- 
 bing, of the brown hair off the flank of a brended cow ; 
 and the wings, of the grey drake's feather. 
 
 And note, that these several hackles, or palmer-flies, 
 are some for one water and one sky, and some for ano- 
 ther : and according to the change of those, we alter their 
 size and colour. And note also, that both in this and all 
 other months of the year, when you do not certainly know 
 what fly is taken, or cannot see any fish to rise, you are 
 then to put on a small hackle, if the water be clear, or a 
 bigger if something dark, until you have taken one; and, 
 then thrusting your finger through his gills, to pull out his 
 gorge, which being open'd with your knife, you will then 
 discover what fly is taken, and may fit yourself accord- 
 ingly- 1 
 
 For the MAKING of a Hackle, or a Palmer-fly, my 
 father Walton has already given you sufficient direction.* 
 
 (1) You may also observe, that the fish never rise eager) y and freely at any sort 
 of flie, until that kind come to the water's iie; for though 1 have often, at the 
 first coming-in of some flies, (which 1 judged they loved best), gotten several 
 of them, yet I could never find that they did much (if at all) value them, until 
 those sorts of flies began to flork to the river's side, and were to be found on 
 the trees and bushes there in great numbers. Venablts, p. 15. 
 
 When you first come to the river in the morning, with your rod beat upon the 
 bushes or boughs which hung over the waters; and by their falling upon the 
 waters, you will see what sorts of flies are there in greatest numbers ; if divers 
 sorts, and equal in number, try them all, and you will quickly find which they 
 most desire. Sometimes they change their flie (but its not very usual) twire or 
 thrice in one day ; but, ordinarily, they seek not for another sort of flie, till they 
 have, for some days, even glutted themselves with a former kind, which is com- 
 monly when those flies die and go out. VtnabLen, p. 16. 
 
 (2) But, with Mr. Cotton's good leave, he has not; nor has any author that 
 I know of: unless we are to take that for a palmer which Walton has given 
 directions for making, p. 93; which 1 can never do till I see what I have never 
 yt seen, viz. Caterpillars with wings. Rejecting, therefore, wings as unnato- 
 
316 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART II. 
 
 MARCH. 
 
 For this month you are to use all the same hackles and 
 flies with the other ; but you are to make them less. 
 
 ral and absurd, supposing you would make the plain hackle or palmer, which 
 are trim* of the same import, the method of doing it is as follow*, viz. 
 
 Hold your hook in a horisoutal position, with the shank downwards, and the 
 beat or it between the fore-finger and thumb of your left hand ; and, huving a 
 fio bristle, and other material*, lying by you, lake half a yard of fine red mark- 
 ing silk, well waxed, and with your right hand give it four or five turns about 
 the shank of the hook, inclining the turn* to the right hand : when you ate near 
 the end of the thank, turn it into such a loop as you are hereafter directed to 
 make for fattening off. and draw it tight, leaving the ends of the silk to hung 
 down at each end of the hook. Having singed the end of your bristle, lay the 
 same along on the inside of the thank of the hook, a* low a* the bent, and whip 
 four or tve ttmws round; the* singeing the other end of the bristle to a fit length, 
 turn it over to the back of the shauk, and. pinching it into a proper form, w Inp 
 down and fasten off. as before directed ; which will bring both ends of the silk 
 Into the bent. After you have waxed your silk again, uke three or four strands 
 of an ostrich feather; and holding them and the bent of the hook as at first 
 directed, the feather* to v or left hand, and the roots in the bent of your book, 
 with that end of the silk which you jost BOW waxed, whip them three or four limes 
 round, and fatten off; then turning the feathers to the light, and twisting them 
 aad the silk willi yoor fore-fiagar and thumb, wind them round the shank of' the 
 hook, still supplying the short strands with new ones, as they fail, till you c<.me 
 to the end aud fasten off. When you have so done, clip off the ends of the fea- 
 then, aad trim the body of the palmer small at the extremities, and full in the 
 middle, and wax both ends of your silk, which are now divided, and lie at either 
 aad of the hook. 
 
 Lay your work by you ; and taking a strong bold hackle with fibres about half 
 an inch loo;, straighten the stein very carefully, and, holding the small rn.l l>r. 
 tween the fore-finger and thumb of your left hand, with those of the right stroke 
 the fibres the contrary way to that which they naturally lie; and taking the 
 hook, and holding it as before, lay the point of the hackle ioto the bent of the 
 book, with the hollow (which is the palest) side upwards, and whip it very fast 
 to ita place : io doing whereof, be. mreful not to tie in many of the fibre* ; 
 or if you should chance to do so, pick them out with the point of a very large 
 oodle. 
 
 When the hackle is thus made fast, the utmost care, and nicety i* necessary 
 in winding it on; for if you fail in this, your fly is spoiled, and you must begin 
 all again: to prevent which, keeping the hollow or pale side to your left hand, 
 and. as much as possible, the wide of the stem down oa the dunning, wind the 
 hackle twice round ; and holding fast what you have so wouud, pick out the loose 
 bres which you may have taken in. and make another turn ; then lay hold of 
 the hackle with the third and fourth fingers of your left hand, with wnich you 
 My extend it while you dien<;*gft the loose fibres as before. 
 
 In this manner proceed till you come to within an eighth of an inch of the 
 eod of the shank, where you wi'l find ao end of silk ha clog; KI d t>y which 
 tiip* you will find the fibre* at the great end of the hackle something discom- 
 posed ; clip these off close to the stem, and with the end of your middle finger 
 press the stem close to the book, while, with the fore-finger of your right hxnd, 
 you turn the silk into a loop ; which, when you have twice put over the end of 
 the shank of the hook, loop and all, your work is safe. 
 
 wax that end of the silk which you now used, and turn it over as 
 
CHAP. VII. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 317 
 
 1. We have, besides, for this month a little Dnn, 
 called a WHIRLING DUN,' (though it is not the Whirling 
 Dun, indeed, which is one of the best flies we have ;) 
 and for this, the dubbing must be of the bottom fur of t 
 squirrel's tail; and the wing of the grey feather of a drake. 
 
 2. Also a BRIGHT BROWN; the dubbing either of the 
 brown of a spaniel, or that of a red cow's flank, with a 
 grey wing. 
 
 before, till you have taken up nearly all that remained of the hook, observing 
 to lay the turns neatly side by side ; and, lastly, clip off the ends of the silk. 
 Thus you will have made a bait that will catch Trout of the largest size, in any 
 water in England. 
 
 It is true, the method above described will require some variation in the case 
 of gold-aud-silver-twist palmers ; in the making whereof, the management of 
 the twist is to be considered as another operation; but this variation will ug- 
 gest itself to every reader, as will also the method of making those flies, con- 
 tained in the uotrs, that have hackle under the wings; which else we should 
 have added to Cotton'* directions for making a Ay, which he gives Viator in the 
 fishing, house. See Chap V. 
 
 (1) Great Whirling Dun. Dub with fox-cub's or squirrel's fur, well mixed 
 with about a sixth part of the finest hog's wool ; warp with pale-orange wings, 
 very large, taken from the quill-feather of a ruddy hen ; the he-ad to be fastened 
 with ash-colour silk; a red cock's hackle, at full length, may be wrapped under 
 the wings, and a turn or two lower towards the tail. 
 
 Tim is a killing fly, and is to be seen rising out of the hedges in mostTrout 
 rivers, late in the evening, seldom before sun-set, and continues ou the water 
 till midnight, or after. It is found iu most of the warm months ; but kills chiefly 
 in a blustering warm evening, from the middle of May to the end of July. 
 
 The directions of Mr. Cotton for making flies are to be considered as the very 
 basis and foundation of that art, no author before him having ever treated the 
 subject so copiously and accurately as he has done: what improvements have 
 been made since his time, have been handed about in manuscript lists, but have 
 hardly ever been communicated to the public. 
 
 A reverend, worthy, and ingenious friend of mine, a lover of angling, who 
 has practised that and the art of fly-making these thirty years, and is the gentle- 
 man mentioned in the note p. 208, has generously communicated to me the result 
 of his many years experience, in a list of a great number of flies not mentioned 
 by Cotton, with some variations in the manner of making those described in the 
 text. And as to these deviations.it is hoped they will be considered as improve- 
 ments ; since I am authorized to say, that the above gentleman has, in the mak- 
 ing of flies, made it a constant rule to follow nature. 
 
 Part of this list is, for very obvious reasons, wrought into the form of notes 
 on thnt of Mr. Cotton ; and the rest, with another very valuable Catalogue, com- 
 posed by a North-country Angler, and communicated to me by the same gentle- 
 man, make Nos. II. and III. of the Appendix to this Volume. 
 
 The reader will there also find No. IV. a List of Flies formerly published in 
 the Angler's Vadt Mtcum, so often referred to in the course of this work : and 
 though the flies therein contained are said to be, chiefly, of use in stony, I have 
 tried some of them, especially the duns, in other rivers, and found them to be 
 excellent. 
 
318 THl COMPLETE ANGLER. PART II. 
 
 3. Also a WHITISH DUN ; made of the roots of camel's 
 hair ; and the wings, of the grey feather of a mallard. 
 
 4. There is also for this month a fly called the THORN- 
 TREE FLY; the dubbing an absolute black, mixt with 
 eight or ten hairs of Isabella-coloured * mohair; the body 
 as little as can be made, and the wings of a bright mal- 
 lard's feather. An admirable fly, and in great repute 
 amongst us for a killer. 
 
 6. There is, besides this, another BLUE DUN;* the 
 dubbing of which it is made, being thus to be got. Take 
 a small tooth-comb, and with it comb the neck of a black 
 greyhound, and the down that sticks in the teeth will be 
 the finest blue that ever you saw. The wings of this fly 
 can hardly be too white ; and he is taken about the tenth 
 of this month, and lasteth till the four and twentieth. 
 
 6. From the tenth of this month also, till towards the 
 end, is taken a little BLACK GNAT. The dubbing, either 
 of the fur of a black water-dog, or the down of a young 
 black water-coot; the wings, of the male of a mallard as 
 white as may be ; the body as little as you can possibly 
 make it, and the wings as short as his body. 
 
 (1) ItabcUa, Speai* di color* cb partecipa del bianco e del giallo. Altirri'a 
 Dictionary. A kind of whitish yellow. or,aome say, buff-colour a little toiled. 
 
 How it en> by this name will appear from the following anecdote, for which 
 I am obliged to a very ingenious and learned lady. The Archduke Albertus, 
 who bad married the Infaa:a Isabella, daughter of Philip the Second, king of 
 Spain, with whom he had the Low Countries in dowry, in the year l602, having 
 determined to lay siege to Ostend, then in possession of the heretics, his pious 
 princess, who attended him in that expedition, made a vow, that till it was taken 
 be would never change her clothes. Contrary to expectation, as the story says, 
 it waa three years before the place was reduced ; in which time hex Highness's 
 linen bad acquired the above-mentioned hue. 
 
 () Blue, or Violet Dun. Dub with the roots of a fox-cub's tail, and a very 
 little blue-violet worsted ; warp with pale yellow silk ; wing, of the pale part 
 of a starling's feather. This fly is taken from eight to eleven, and from one to 
 three. 
 
 This fly, which is also called the Ash-coloured Dun, and Blue Dun, is pro- 
 duced from a cadis; it is so very small, that the hook, known at the shops by 
 the sue No. 9, is full big enough for it, if not too big. The shape of the fly is 
 exactly the same with that of the Green-Drake. So early in the year as Feb- 
 ruary, they will drop on the water before, eight in the morning ; and Trouts at 
 the largest sue, as well as snail ones, will rise at them very eagerly. 
 
CHAP. VII. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 319 
 
 7. From the sixteenth of this month also, to the end of 
 it, we use a BRIGHT BROWN; the dubbing for which is 
 to be had out of a skinner's lime-pits, and of the hair of 
 an abortive calf, which the lime will turn to be so bright, 
 as to shine light gold; for the wings of this fly, the feather 
 of a brown hen is best. Which fly, is also taken till the 
 tenth of April. 
 
 APRIL. 
 
 All the same hackles and flies that were taken in March 
 will be taken in this month also, with this distinction only 
 concerning the flies, that all the browns be lapt with red 
 silk, and the duns with yellow. 
 
 1. To these a SMALL BRIGHT BROWN, made of spa- 
 niel's fur, with a light-grey wing, in a bright day, and a 
 clear water, is very well taken. 
 
 2. We have, too, a little 1 DARK BROWN; the dubbing 
 of that colour, and some violet camlet mixt; and the 
 wing of a grey feather of a mallard. 
 
 3. From the sixth of this month to the tenth we have 
 also a fly called the VIOLET-FLY; made of a dark violet 
 stuff; with the wings, of the grey feather of a mallard. 
 
 4. About the twelfth of this month comes in the fly 
 called the WHIRLING-DUN,* which is taken every day, 
 
 (1) Dark Brown. Dub with the hair of a dark-brown spaniel, or calf, that 
 looks ruddy by bring exposed to wind and weather; warp with yellow; wing, 
 dark starling's feather. Taken from eight to eleven. This is a good fly, and to 
 be seen in most rivers; but so variable in its hue, as the season advances, that 
 it requires the closest attention to the natural fly to adapt the materials for mak- 
 ing it artificially, which is also the rase with the Violet or Ash-coloured Dun. 
 When this fly first appears, it is nearly of a chocolate colour, from which, by the 
 middle of May, it has been observed to deviate to almost a lemon colour. 
 Northern anglers call it, by way of eminence, the Dark Brown; others call it 
 the Four-winged Brown : it has four wings, lying flat on its back, something 
 longer than the body, which is longish, but not taper. This fly must be made 
 on a smallish hook, viz. No. 8, or Q. 
 
 (2) Little Whirling-Dun. The body fox-cub, and a little light ruddy-brown 
 mixed : warp with grey or ruddy silk ; a red harkle under the wing ; wing of a 
 land-rail, or ruddy-brown chicken, which is better. This is a killing-fly in a 
 blustering day, as the great whirling-dun is in the evening and late at night. 
 
320 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART II. 
 
 about the mid-time of day, all this month through, and, 
 by fits from thence to the end of June ; and is commonly 
 made of the down of the fox-cub, which is of an ash 
 colour at the roots next the skin, and ribbed about with 
 yellow silk ; the wings, of the pale grey feather of a mal- 
 krd. 
 
 5. There is also a YELLOW DUN,' the dubbing of 
 camel's hair, and yellow camlet or wool, mixt, and a 
 white grey wing. 
 
 6. There is also this month another LITTLE BROWN, 
 besides that mentioned before, made with a very slender 
 body; the dubbing of dark brown and violet camlet, mixt, 
 and a grey wing; which, though the direction for the 
 making be near the other, is yet another fly, and will 
 take when the other will not, especially in a bright day 
 and a clear water. 
 
 7. About the twentieth of this month comes in a fly 
 called the HORSE-FLESH-FLY; the dubbing of which is 
 a blue mohair, with pink-coloured and red tammy mixt f 
 a light coloured wing, and a dark brown head. This fly 
 is taken best in an evening, and kills from two hours 
 before sun-set till twilight, and is taken the month through. 
 
 MAY. 
 
 And now, Sir, that we are entering into the month of 
 May, I think it requisite to beg not only your attention, 
 but also your best patience, for I must now be a little 
 tedious with you, and dwell upon this month longer than 
 ordinary ; which that you may the better endure, I must 
 tell you, this month deserves and requires to be insisted 
 on, forasmuch as it alone, and the next following, afford 
 
 (I) YtlUn Dun. Dub with a small quantity of pale yellow crewel, mixed 
 with fox-cut down from the tail, and warp witli yellow; wing of a palish star- 
 haf ' faathtf. Take* from eight to eleven, and from two to four. See more of 
 tlie Yellow Bon in the Appendix, No. IV. 
 
CHAP. VII. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 321 
 
 more pleasure to the fly-angler than all the rest: and here 
 it is that you are to expect an account of the Green-drake 
 and Stone-fly, promised you so long ago, and some others 
 that are peculiar to this month and part of the month fol- 
 lowing, and that (though not so great either in bulk or name) 
 do yet stand in competition with the two before-named, 
 and so that it is yet undecided amongst the anglers to 
 which of the pretenders to the title of the May-fly it does 
 properly and duly belong. Neither dare I, (where so 
 many of the learned in this art of angling are got in dis- 
 pute about the controversy,) take upon me to determine ; 
 but I think I ought to have a vote amongst them, and 
 according to that privilege shall give you my free opinion, 
 and peradventure, when I have told you all, you may 
 incline to think me in the right. 
 
 Viat. I have so great a deference to your judgment in 
 these matters, that I must always be of your opinion ; 
 and the more you speak, the faster I grow to my atten- 
 tion, for I can never be weary of hearing you upon this 
 subject. 
 
 Pise. Why that's encouragement enough; and now 
 prepare yourself for a tedious lecture; but I will first 
 begin with the flies of less esteem, (though almost any 
 thing will take a Trout in May, that I may afterwards 
 insist the longer upon those of greater note and reputa- 
 tion. Know, therefore, that the first fly we take notice of 
 in this month, is called 
 
 1. The TURKEY-FLY; the dubbing ravelled out of 
 some blue stuff, and lapt about with yellow silk, the wings 
 of a grey-mallard's feather. 
 
 2. Next, a GREAT HACKLE, or PALMER-FLY ; with 
 a yellow body, ribbed with gold-twist, and large wings of 
 a mallard's feather dyed yellow, with a red capon's hac- 
 kle over all. 
 
 Y 
 
3*22 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART II. 
 
 3. Then a BLACK FLY; the dubbing of a black spa- 
 niel's fur, and the wings, of a grey mallard's feather. 
 
 4. After that, a LIGHT BROWN, with a slender body, 
 the dubbing twirled upon small red silk, and raised with 
 the point of a needle, that the ribs or rows of silk 
 may appear through the wings of the grey feather of a 
 mallard. 
 
 5. Next a LITTLE DUN; the dubbing of a bear's dun 
 whirled npon yellow silk, the wings of the grey feather of 
 a mallard. 
 
 6. Then a WHITE GNAT, with a pale wing, and a 
 black head. 
 
 7. There is also in this month a fly called the PEA- 
 COCK-FLY, the body made of a whirl of a peacock's fea- 
 ther, with a red head, and wings of a mallard's feather. 
 
 8. We have then another very killing fly, known by 
 the name of the Duw-CuT; 1 the dubbing of which is a 
 bear's dun, with a little blue and yellow mixt with it, a 
 large dun wing, and two horns at the head, made of the 
 hairs of a squirrel's tail. 
 
 9. The next is a COW-LADY, a little fly, the body of a 
 peacock's feather, the wing of a red feather, or strips of 
 the red hackle of a cock. 
 
 10. We have then the COW-DUNG-FLY; the dubbing 
 light brown and yellow mixt; the wing, the dark grey 
 feather of a mallard. And note, that besides these above- 
 mentioned, all the same hackles and flies, the hackles 
 only brighter, and the flies smaller, that are taken in April, 
 will also be taken this month, as all Browns and Duns: 
 and now I come, to my Stone-fly and Green-drake, which 
 are the matadores for Trout and Grayling, and in their 
 
 (I) Dun-Cut. Dub with hearVcub fur. and a little yellow and green crewel, 
 warp with yellow or green : wing, of a land-rail. Towards the evening of a. 
 showery day this i* a great kilter. 
 
CHAP. VII. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 323 
 
 season kill more fish in our Derbyshire rivers, than all 
 the rest, past and to come, in the whole year besides. 
 
 But first I am to tell you, that we have four several 
 flies which contend for the title of the May-fly, namely, 
 the GREEN-DRAKE; the STONE-FLY; the BLACK-FLY; 
 and the LITTLE YELLOW MAY-FLY. 
 
 And all these have their champions and advocates to 
 dispute and plead their priority ; though I do not under- 
 stand why the two last-named should ; the first two having 
 so manifestly the advantage, both in their beauty and the 
 wonderful execution they do in their season. 
 
 11. Of these the GREEN-DRAKE comes in about the 
 twentieth of this month, or betwixt that and the latter 
 end, (for they are sometimes sooner, and sometimes later, 
 according to the quality of the year,) but never well taken 
 till towards the end of this month, and the beginning of 
 June. The STONE-FLY comes much sooner, so early as 
 the middle of April, but is never well taken till towards 
 the middle of May, and continues to kill much longer 
 than the Green-drake stays with us, so long as to the end 
 almost of June ; and, indeed, so long as there are any of 
 them to be seen upon the water ; and sometimes in an 
 artificial fly, and late at night, or before sunrise in a morn- 
 ing, longer. 
 
 Now both these flies, and I believe many others, though 
 I think not all, are certainly and demonstratively bred in 
 the very rivers where they are taken; our cadis or cod- 
 bait, which lie under stones at the bottom of the water, 
 most of them turning into those two flies, and being 
 gathered in the husk, or crust, near the time of their 
 maturity, are very easily known and distinguished, and 
 are of all other the most remarkable, both for their size, as 
 being of all other the biggest, (the shortest of them being 
 a. full inch long or more,) and for the execution they 
 do, the Trout and Grayling, being much more greedy 
 
 Y2 
 
324 THE COMPLETE AWOLER. PART II. 
 
 of them than of any others ; and indeed the Trout never 
 feeds fat, nor comes into his perfect season, till these flies 
 come in. 
 
 Of these the GREEN-DRAKE never discloses from his 
 husk, till he be first there grown to full maturity, body, 
 wings, and all ; and then he creeps out of his cell, but with 
 his wings so crimpt and ruffled, by being prest together 
 in that narrow room, that they are for some hours totally 
 useless to him ; by which means he is compelled either to 
 creep upon the flags, sedges, and blades of grass, (if his 
 first rising from the bottom of the water be near the banks 
 of the river) till the air and sun stiffen and smooth them : 
 or if his first appearance above water happen to be in the 
 middle, he then lies upon the surface of the water, like a 
 ship at hull, (for his feet are totally useless to him there, 
 and he cannot creep upon the water as the Stone-fly can,) 
 until his wings have got stiffness to fly with, if by some Trout 
 or Grayling he be not taken in the interim, (which ten to 
 one he is,) and then his wings stand high, and clos'd exact 
 upon his back, like the butterfly, and his motion in flying 
 is the same. His body is in some, of a paler, in others of a 
 darker yellow, (for they are not all exactly of a colour) 
 ribb'd with rows of green, long, slender, and growing 
 sharp towards the tail, at the end of which he has three 
 long small whisks of a very dark colour, almost black, 
 and his tail turns up towards his back like a mallard, 
 from whence, questionless, he has his name of the Green- 
 drake. These (as I think I told you before) we commonly 
 dape, or dibble with; and having gathered great store of 
 them into a long draw box, with holes in the cover to 
 give them air, (where also they will continue fresh and 
 vigorous a night or more) we take them out thence by 
 the wings, and bait them thus upon the hook. We first 
 take one, (for we commonly fish with two of them at a 
 time,) and putting the point of the hook into the thickest 
 
CHAP. VII. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 325 
 
 part of his body, under one of his wings, run it directly 
 through, and out at the other side, leaving him spitted 
 cross upon the hook; and then taking the other, put him 
 on after the same manner, but with his head the contrary 
 way; in which posture they will live upon the hook, and 
 play with their wings, for a quarter of an hour or more: 
 but you must have a care to keep their wings dry, both 
 from the water, and also that your fingers be not wet when 
 you take them out to bait them, for then your bait is spoil'd. 
 
 Having now told you how to angle with this fly alive, 
 I am now to tell you next how to make an artificial fly, 
 that will so perfectly resemble him, as to be taken in a 
 rough windy day, when no flies can lie upon the water, 
 nor are to be found about the banks and sides of the river, 
 to a wonder; and with which you shall certainly kill the 
 best Trout and Grayling in the river. 
 
 The artificial Green-drake ' then is made upon a large 
 hook, the dubbing camel's hair, bright bear's hair, the soft 
 down that is combed from a hog's bristles, and yellow 
 camlet, well mixt together ; the body long, and ribbed 
 about with green silk, or rather yellow, waxed with green 
 wax, the whisks of the tail of the long hairs of sables, or 
 fitchet, and the wings of the white-grey feather of a mal- 
 lard, dyed yellow, which also is to be dyed thus: 
 
 Take the root of a barbary tree, and shave it, and put 
 to it woody viss, with as much alum as a walnut, and 
 boil your feathers in it with rain water ; and they will be 
 of a very fine yellow. 
 
 I have now done with the Green-drake, excepting to 
 tell you, that he is taken at all hours, during his season, 
 
 (1) Green-drake, or May-fly. The body of seal's fur, or yellow mohair, a 
 little cub-fox down, and hog's wool, or light brown from a Turkey-carpet, 
 mixed; warp with pale yellow, or red cock's hackle, under the wings; wings 
 of a mallard's feather, dyed yellow ; three whisks in his uil from a sable muff. 
 Taken all day, but chiefly from two to four in the afternoon. 
 
326 THE COMPLETE ANOLER. PART II. 
 
 whilst there is any day upon the sky; and with a made- 
 fly I once took, ten days after he was absolutely gone, in 
 a cloudy day, after a shower, and in a whistling wind, 
 five and thirty very great Trouts and Graylings, betwixt 
 five and eight of the clock in the evening, and had no less 
 than five or six flies, with three good hairs apiece, taken 
 from me in despite of my heart, besides. 
 
 12. I should now come next to the Stone-fly, but there 
 is another gentleman in my way, that must of necessity 
 come in between, and that is the GREY-DRAKE, which in 
 all shapes and dimensions is perfectly the same with the 
 other, but almost quite of another colour, being of a 
 paler, and more livid yellow, and green, and ribb'd with 
 black quite down his body, with blark shining wings, and 
 so diaphanous and tender, cobweb-like, that they are of 
 no manner of use for daping; but come in, and are taken 
 after the Green-drake, and in an artificial fly kill very well, 
 which fly is thus made : ' the dubbing of the down of a 
 hog's bristles and black spaniel's fur mixed, ard ribb'd 
 down the body with black silk, the whisks of the hairs of 
 the beard of a black cat, and the wings of the black grey 
 feather of a mallard. 
 
 And now I come to the STONE-FLY; but am afraid I 
 have already weaned your patience ; which if 1 have, I 
 beseech you freely tell me so, and I will defer the remain- 
 ing instructions for fly-angling till some other time. 
 
 Viat. No, truly, Sir, 1 can never be weary of hearing 
 you. But if you think fit, because I am afraid I am too 
 troublesome, to refresh yourself with a glass and a pipe, 
 you may afterwards proceed, and I shall be exceedingly 
 pleased to hear you. 
 
 (1) Grey Drake. The body of an absolute white ostrich feather ; the end of 
 the body towards the uil of peacock's herl; warping of an ash. colour, with 
 silver twist mod black hackle ; wing of a dark grey feather of a mallard. A 
 very killing fly. especially towards the evening, when the fish are glutted with 
 the Green-drake. 
 
CHAP. VIII. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 327 
 
 Pise. I thank you, Sir, for that motion; for, believe me, 
 I am dry with talking: here, boy! give us here a bottle 
 and a glass; and, Sir, my service to you, and to all our 
 friends in the South. 
 
 Viat. Your servant, Sir; and I'll pledge you as hear- 
 tily; for the good powdered-beef I eat at dinner, or some- 
 thing else, has made me thirsty. 
 
 vCHAP. VIII. 
 
 FISHING AT THE TOP continued. Flies for the end of May, and for the 
 following Months till December; containing, under May, Instruc- 
 tion* when to dope with the Stone-fly. 
 
 Viator. So, Sir, I am now ready for another lesson, so 
 soon as you please to give it me. 
 
 Pise. And I, Sir, as ready to give you the best I can. 
 Having told you the time of the Stone-fly's coming in, 
 and that he is bred of a cadis in the very river where he 
 is taken, 1 I am next to tell you, that 
 
 13. This same STONE-FLY has not the patience to con- 
 tinue in his crust, or husk, till his wings be full grown ; 
 but so soon as ever they begin to put out, that he feels 
 himself strong, (at which time *.ve call him a Jack) 
 squeezes himself out of prison, and crawls to the top of 
 some stone, where if he can find a chink that will receive 
 him, or can creep betwixt two stones, the one lying hol- 
 low upon the other, (which, by the way, we also lay so 
 purposely to find them) he there lurks till his wings be 
 full grown; and there is -your only place to find him; (and 
 from thence doubtless he derives his name;) though, for 
 
 (1) Chap. VII. Nun. 11. 
 
328 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART II. 
 
 want of such convenience, he will make shift with the hol- 
 low of a bank, or any other place where the wind cannot 
 come to fetch him off. His body is long, and pretty thick, 
 and as broad at the tail, almost, as in the middle: his 
 colour a very fine brown, ribbed with yellow, and much 
 yellower on the belly than the back: he has two or 
 three whisks also at the tag of his tail, and two little 
 horns upon his head: his wings, when full grown, are 
 double, and flat down his back, of the same colour, but 
 rather darker than his body, and longer than it, though 
 he makes but little use of them ; for you shall rarely see 
 him flying, though often swimming and paddling with 
 several feet he has under his belly, upon the water, with- 
 out stirring & wing. But the Drake will mount steeple- 
 height into the air; though he is to be found upon flags 
 and grass too, and indeed every where, high and low, near 
 the river; there being so many of them in their season 
 as, were they not a very inoffensive insect, would look 
 like a plague : and these drakes (since I forgot to tell you 
 before, I will tell you here) are taken by the fish to that 
 incredible degree, that upon a calm day you shall see the 
 still deeps, continually, all over circles by the fishes 
 rising, who will gorge themselves with those flies, till they 
 purge again out of their gills: ' and the Trouts are at that 
 time so lusty and strong, that one of eight or ten inches 
 long will then more struggle and tug, and more endanger 
 your tackle, than one twice as big in winter. But pardon 
 this digression. . 
 
 This Stone-fly then we dape or dibble with as with the 
 Drake, but with this difference, that whereas the Green- 
 Drake is common both to stream and still, and to all hours 
 of the day, we seldom dape with this bat in the streams, 
 
 (I) I have canght Trout to full of then, that, in taking hjm off the hook, 
 have prut oat or bis throat a lump of then a* big as a walnut. 
 
CHAP. VIII. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 329 
 
 (for in a whistling wind, a made-fly, in the deep, is better,) 
 and rarely, but early and late, it not being so proper for the 
 mid-time of the day ; though a great Grayling will then take 
 it very well in a sharp stream, and here and there, a Trout 
 too, but much better toward eight, nine, ten, or eleven of 
 the clock at night, at which time also the best fish rise, 
 and the later the better, provided you can see your fly ; 
 and when you cannot, a made-fly will murder, which is to 
 be made thus : the dubbing, of bear's dun with a little 
 brown and yellow camlet very well mixt, but so placed 
 that your fly may be more yellow on the belly and towards 
 the tail, underneath, than in any other part; and you are 
 to place two or three hairs of a black cat's beard on the 
 top of the hook, in your arming, so as to be turned up 
 when you warp on your dubbing, and to stand almost up- 
 right, and staring one from another ; and note, that your 
 fly is to be ribbed with yellow silk; and the wings long, 
 and very large, of the dark grey feather of a mallard. 
 
 14. The next May-fly is the BLACK-FLY; made with 
 a black body, of the whirl of an ostrich-feather, ribbed 
 with silver-twist, and the black hackle of a cock over all; 
 and is a killing fly, but not to be named with either of the 
 other. 
 
 15. The last May -fly (that is of the four pretenders, 1 ) 
 is the LITTLE YELLOW MAY-FLY; in shape exactly the 
 same with the Green-Drake, but a very little one, and of 
 as bright a yellow as can be seen : which is made of a 
 bright yellow camlet, and the wings of a white-grey fea- 
 ther died yellow. ' 
 
 16. The last fly for this month, (and which continues 
 all June, though it comes in the middle of May,} is the 
 fly called the CAMLET-FLY, in shape like a moth, with 
 fine diapered or -water wings, and with which (as I told 
 
 (1) See p. 323. 
 
330 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART II. 
 
 you before) I sometimes used to dibble; and Grayling will 
 rise mightily at it. But the artificial fly (which is only in 
 use amongst our anglers) is made of a dark-brown shin- 
 ing camlet, ribbed over with a very small light green silk; 
 the wings, of the double-grey feather of a mallard ; and 
 'tis a killing fly for small fish. And so much for May. 
 
 JUNE. 
 
 From the first to the four-and-twentieth, the Green - 
 drake and Stone-fly are taken as I told you before. 
 
 1. From the twelfth to the four-and-twentieth, late at 
 night, is taken a fly called the OWL-FLY:' the dubbing 
 of a white weasel's tail; and a white-grey wing. 
 
 2. We have then another dun, called the BARM-FLY, 
 from its yeasty colour. The dubbing of the fur of a yel- 
 low dun cat, and a grey wing of a mallard's feather. 
 
 3. We have also a HACKLE with a purple body, whipt 
 about with a red capon's feather. 
 
 4. As also a GOLD-TWIST HACKLE with a purple body, 
 whipt about wit ha red capon's feather. 
 
 5. To these we have, this month, a FLESH-FLY. The 
 dubbing of a black spaniel's fur and blue wool mixed, 
 and a grey wing. 
 
 6. Also another little FLESH-FLY, the body made of 
 the whirl of a peacock's feather, and the wings of the grey 
 feather of a drake. 
 
 7. We have, then, the PEACOCK -FLY, the body and 
 wing both made of the feather of that bird. 
 
 8. There is also the flying-ant, or ANT-FLY, the dub- 
 bing of brown and red camlet mixt, with a light-grey 
 wing. 
 
 9. We have likewise a BROWN GNAT, with a very sien- 
 
 na Hhitc Miller, or Owl-Fly. The body of white ostrich her!, whit* hackle, 
 and i!ver-twut, if you please; wing of the white feather of a Ume duck. Taken 
 from suo-sct till tea at nigbl, and from two lo four in the morning. 
 
 
CHAP. VIII. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 331 
 
 der body of brown and violet camlet well mixt, and a light 
 grey wing. 
 
 10. And another little BLACK GNAT,' the dubbing of 
 black mohair, and a white grey wing. 
 
 11. As also a GREEN GRASSHOPPER, the dubbing of 
 green and yellow wool mixt, ribbed over with green silk, 
 and a red capon's feather over all. 
 
 12. And, lastly, a little DUN GRASSHOPPER, the body 
 slender, made of a dun camlet and a dun hackle at the 
 
 top. 
 
 JULY. 
 
 First, all the small flies that were taken in June are also 
 taken in this month. 
 
 1. We have then the ORANGE-FLY,* the dubbing of 
 orange wool, and the wing of a black feather. 
 
 2. Also a little WHITE DUN, the body made of white 
 mohair, and the wings, blue, of a heron's feather. 
 
 3. We have likewise this month a WASP-FLY, made 
 either of a dark brown dubbing, or else the fur of a black 
 cat's tail, ribbed about with yellow silk, and the wing of 
 the grey feather of a mallard. 
 
 4. Another fly taken this month is a BLACK HACKLE, 
 the body made of the whirl of a peacock's feather, and a 
 black hackle -feather on the top. 
 
 5. We have also another, made of a peacock's whirl 
 without wings. 
 
 6. Another fly also is taken this month, called the SHELL- 
 FLY, the dubbing of yellow-green Jersey wool, and a 
 little white hog's hair mixt, which I call the palm-fly, and 
 
 (1) Black Gnat. The body extremely small, of black mohair, spaniel's fur, 
 or ostrich feather; wing, of the lightest part of a starling or mallard's feather. 
 A very killing fly in an evening, after a shower, in rapid rivers ; as in Derbyshire 
 or Wales. 
 
 (2) Orange-Fly. The body of raw orange silk, with a red or black barkle; 
 gold twist may be added; warp with orange. Taken when the May-fly is 
 almost over, and also to the end of June, especially in hot gloomy weather. 
 
330 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART II. 
 
 do believe it is taken for a palm, that drops off the wil- 
 lows into the water ; for this fly I have seen Trouts take 
 little pieces of moss, as they have swam down the river; 
 by which I conclude that the best way to hit the right 
 colour is to compare your dubbing with the moss, and mix 
 the colours as near as you can. 
 
 7. There is also taken, this month, a BLACK BLUE 
 DUN, the dubbing of the fur of a black rabbit mixt with 
 a little yellow, the wings of the feather of a blue pigeon's 
 wing. 
 
 AUGUST. 
 
 The same flies with July. 
 
 1. Then another ANT-FLY, the dubbing of the black 
 brown hair of a cow, some red warpt in for the tag of his 
 tail, and a dark wing. A killing Fly. 
 
 2. Next, a fly called the FERN-FLY, the dubbing of 
 the fur of a hare's neck, that is of the colour of fern or 
 bracken, with a darkUh grey wing of a mallard's feather. 
 A killer too. 
 
 3. Besides these we have a WHITE HACKLE, the body 
 of white mohair, and warped about with a white hackle- 
 feather; and this is, assuredly, taken for thistle-down. 
 
 4. We have also, this month, a HARRY-LONG-LEGS ;' 
 the body made of bear's dun and blue wool mixt, and a 
 brown hackle feather over all. 
 
 Lastly, in this month, all the same browns and duns 
 are taken that were taken in May. 
 
 SEPTEMBER. 
 
 This month the same flies are taken that are taken in 
 April. 
 
 (I) Harry.Long.Leg9. Made of lightish bear** hir, and a dunnish hackle; 
 add a few hairs of light-blue mohair, and a little fox-cob dowo ; warp with 
 light-grey or ple blue silk ; the head large. Taken chiefly in a cloudj windy day. 
 I have formerly, in the river* near London, bad grrat svcce**, fishing with a long 
 line, and the bead of this insect only. 
 
CHAP. VIII. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 333 
 
 1. To which I shall only add a CAMEL-BROWN fly, 
 the dubbing pulled out of the lime of a wall, whipt about 
 with red silk ; and a darkish grey mallard's feather for 
 the wing. 
 
 2. And one other for which we have no name; but it 
 is made of the black hair of a badger's skin, mixt with the 
 yellow softest down of a sanded hog. 
 
 OCTOBER. 
 
 The same flies are taken this month that were taken in 
 March. 
 
 NOVEMBER. 
 
 The same flies that were taken in February are taken 
 this month also. 
 
 DECEMBER. 
 
 Few men angle with the fly this month, no more than 
 they do in January : but yet, if the weather be warm (as 
 I have known it sometimes in my life to be, even in this 
 cold country, where it is least expected) then a brown, 
 that looks red in the hand, and yellowish betwixt your eye 
 and the sun, will both raise and kill in a clear water and 
 free from snow-broth : but, at the best, it is hardly worth 
 a man's labour. 1 
 
 (1) Some, in making a fly, work it upon anil fasten in immediately to the hook- 
 link, whether it be of gut, grass, or hair : others whip, on the shank of the hook, 
 a stiff hog's bristle bent into a loop : and concerning these methods there are 
 different opinions. 
 
 I confess the latter, except for small flies, seems to me the more eligible way ; 
 and it has this advantage, that it enables you to keep your flies in excellent 
 order; to do which, string them, each species separately, through the loops, 
 upon a fine piece of cat-gut, of about seven inches long; and string also thereon, 
 through a large pin-hole, a very small ticket of parchment, with the name of the 
 fly written on it : tie the cat-gut into a ring ; and lay them in round flat boxes, 
 with paper between each ring. And when you use them, having a neat loop at 
 the lower end of your hook-link, you may put them on and take them off at 
 pleasure. 
 
 In the other way, you are troubled with a great length of hook-link, which, if 
 you put even but few flies together, is sure to tangle, and occasion great trouble 
 and loss of time. And as to an objection which some make to a loop, that the fish 
 set it, and therefore will not take the fly, you may be assured there is nothing in it. 
 
THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART II. 
 
 And now, Sir, I have done with Fly-fishing, or Angling 
 at the top, excepting, once more, to tell you, that of all 
 these (and I have named you a great many very killing 
 flies) none are fit to be compared with the Drake and 
 Stone-fly, both for many and very great fish; and yet 
 there are some days that are by no means proper for the 
 sport And in a calm you shall not have near so much 
 sport, even with daping, as in a whistling gale of wind, 
 for two reasons, both because you are not then so easily 
 discovered by the fish, and also because there are then 
 but few flies that can lie upon the water ; for where they 
 have so much choice, you may easily imagine they will 
 not be so eager and forward to rise at a bait, that both 
 the shadow of your body, and that of your rod, nay of 
 your very line, in a hot calm day, will, in spite of your 
 best caution, render suspected to them : but even then, 
 in swift streams, or by sitting down patiently behind a 
 willow bush, you shall do more execution than at almost 
 any other time of the year with any other fly : though one 
 may sometimes hit of a day when we shall come home 
 very well satisfied with sport with several other flies. But 
 with these two, the Green-Drake and the Stone-fly, I do 
 verily believe, I could, some days in my life, had I not 
 been weary of slaughter, have loaden a lusty boy ; and 
 have sometimes, I do honestly assure you, given over 
 upon the mere account of satiety of sport ; which will be 
 no hard matter to believe, when I likewise assure you, 
 that with this very fly, I have, in this very river that runs 
 by us, in three or four hours, taken thirty, five-and-thirty, 
 and forty of the best Trouts in the river. What shame 
 and pity is it then, that such a river should be destroyed 
 by the basest sort of people, by those unlawful ways of 
 fire and netting in the night, and of damming, groping, 
 spearing, hanging, and hooking by day ; which are now 
 grown so common, that though we have very good laws 
 
CHAP. VIII. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 335 
 
 to punish such offenders, every rascal does it, for aught 
 I see impune. 
 
 To conclude, I cannot now, in honesty, but frankly tell 
 you, that many of these flies I have named, at least so 
 made as we make them here, will peradventure do you no 
 great service in your southern rivers ; 1 and will not conceal 
 from you, but that I have sent flies to several friends in 
 London, that, for aught I could ever hear, never did any 
 great feats with them ; and therefore if you intend to profit 
 by my instructions, you must come to angle with me here 
 in the Peak : and so, if you please, let us walk up to 
 supper ; and to-morrow, if the day be windy, as our days 
 here commonly are, His ten to one but we shall take a 
 good dish of fish for dinner. 
 
 (1) The reader may rest assured, that with some or other of these flies, espe- 
 cially with the palmers or hackles, the great dun, dark brown, early (and 
 late) bright brown, the black-gnat, yellow-dun, great whirling-dun, dun-cut, 
 green and grey-drake, camlet-fly, cow-diingfty, little ant-fly, badger-fly, and 
 fern fly, he shall catch Trout, Grayling, Chub, aud Dace, io any water in 
 England or Wales ; always remembering that in a strange water lie first tries the 
 plain, gold, silver, aud peacock hackle. Of the truth of this he need not doubt, 
 when he is told, tint, in the year 1764. a gentleman who went into Wales, to fish 
 with tlif flies last above mentioned, made as above i* directed, did, in about six 
 weeks lime, kill near a thousand brace of Trout and Grayling, as appeared to 
 him by an account in writing, which he kept of each day's success. In confirma- 
 tion whereof, and as a proof how the rivers in Wales abound with fish, the reader 
 will find in the Appendix, No. V. a like account, kept by another person, of fish, 
 to an astonishing amount, caught by him, in a series of years, in some of the Welch 
 rivets; which account was sent by him to Mr. Bartholomew Lowe, fishing-tackle 
 maker, io Drury-lane, 24th Feb. 1766, and is inserted in his own words. 
 
336 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART II. 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 
 FIy-fi*Ht*g in trim/y walker, test in the still Deeps. 
 
 Pitcator. A GOOD day to you, Sir; 1 see you will always 
 be stirring before me. 
 
 Fiat. Why, to tell you the truth, I am so allured with 
 the sport I had yesterday, that I long to be at the river 
 again ; and when I heard the wind sing in my chamber- 
 window, could forbear no longer, but leap out <>t' hod, and 
 had just made an end of dressing myself as you came in. 
 
 Pise. Well, I am both glad you are so ready for t h.- day, 
 and that the day is so fit for you. And look you, 1 hav* 
 made you three or four flies this morning; this silvn -uvisi 
 hackle, this bear's dun, this light brown, and this dark 
 brown, any of which I dare say will do; but you may try 
 them all, and see which does best : only I must ask your 
 pardon that I cannot wait upon you this morning, a litth 
 business being fallen out, that for two or three hours will 
 deprive me of your company ; but I'll come call you home 
 to dinner, and my man shall attend you. 
 
 Viat. Oh, Sir, mind your affairs by all means. Do but 
 lend me a little of your skill to these fine flies, and, unless 
 it have forsaken me since yesterday,' I shall find luck of 
 my own, I hope, to do something. 
 
 Pise. The best instruction I can give you, is, that seeing 
 the wind curls the water, and blows the right way, you 
 would now angle up the still deep to-day ; for betwixt the 
 rocks where the streams are, you would find it now too 
 brisk; and besides, I would have you take fish in both 
 waters. 
 
 Viat. Ill obey your direction, and so a good morning 
 to you. Come, young man, let you and I walk together. 
 But hark you, Sir, I have not done with you yet ; I expect 
 another lesson for angling at the bottom, in the afternoon. 
 
 Pitc. Well, Sir, 111 be ready for you. 
 
CHAP. X. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 Directions how to dress a Trout and Grayling. 
 
 Piscator. OH, Sir, are you returned? you have but just 
 prevented me. I was coming to call you. 
 
 Viat. I am glad then I have sav'd you the labour. 
 
 Pise. And how have you sped ? 
 
 Viat. You shall see that, Sir, presently ; look you, Sir, 
 here are three brace * of Trouts, one of them 9 Spoke Kke a 
 the biggest but one that ever I killed with a south, coun- 
 fly in my life ; and yet I lost a bigger than 
 that, with my fly to boot ; and here are three Graylings, 
 and one of them longer by some inches than that I took 
 yesterday, and yet I thought that a good one too. 
 
 Pise. Why you have made a pretty good morning's 
 work on't; and now, Sir, what think you of our river 
 Dove? 
 
 Viat. I think it to be the best Trout-river in England ; 
 and am so far in love with it, that if it were mine, and that 
 I could keep it to myself, I would not exchange that water 
 for all the land it runs over, to be totally debarred from't. 
 
 Pise. That compliment to the river, speaks you a true 
 lover of the art of angling. And now, Sir, to make part 
 of amends for sending you so uncivilly out alone this 
 morning, I will myself dress you this dish of fish for your 
 dinner: walk but into the parlour, you will find one book 
 or other, in the window, to entertain you the while : and 
 you shall have it presently. 
 Viat. Well, Sir, I obey you. 
 
 Pise.. Look you, Sir, have I not made haste? 
 Viat. Believe me, Sir, that you have ; and it looks so 
 well, I long to be at it. 
 
 Pise. Fall to then : now, Sir, what say you, am I a 
 tolerable cook or no ? 
 
338 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART II. 
 
 fiat. So good a one, that I did never eat so good fish 
 in my life. This fish is infinitely better than any I ever 
 tasted of the kind in my life. Tis quite another thing 
 than our Trouts about London. 
 
 Pise. You would say so, if that Trout you eat of were 
 in right season : but pray eat of the Grayling, which, upon. 
 my word, at this time, is by much the better fish. 
 
 Viat. In earnest, and so it is. And I have one request 
 to make to you, which is, that as you have taught me to 
 catch Trout and Grayling, you will now teach me how to 
 dress them as these are drest, which, questionless, is of all 
 other the best way. 
 
 Pise. That I will, Sir, with all my heart; and am glad 
 you like them so well as to make that request. And they 
 are drest thus : 
 
 Take your Trout, wash, and dry him with a clean nap- 
 kin ; then open him, and having taken out his guts, and 
 all the blood, wipe him very clean within, but wash him 
 not ; and give him three scotches with a knife to the bone, 
 on one side only. After which take a clean kettle, and 
 put in as much hard stale beer, (but it must not be dead,) 
 vinegar, and a little white wine, and water, as will cover 
 the fish you intend to boil: then throw into the liquor a 
 good quantity of salt, the rind of a lemon, a handful of 
 sliced horse-radish root, with a handsome little fagot of 
 rosemary, thyme, and winter-savory. Then set your 
 kettle upon a quick fire of wood : and let your liquor boil 
 up to the height before you put in your fish : and then, if 
 there be many, put them in one by one, that they may not 
 so cool the liquor as to make it fall. And whilst your 
 fish is boiling, beat up the butter for your sauce with a 
 ladle-full or two of the liquor it is boiling in. And being 
 boiled enough, immediately pour the liquor from the fish : 
 and being laid in a dish, pour your butter upon it ; and 
 strewing it plentifully over with shaved horse-radish, and 
 
CHAP. XI. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 339 
 
 a little pounded ginger, garnish your sides of your dish, 
 and the fish itself, with a sliced lemon or two, and serve 
 it up. 
 
 A Grayling is also to be drest exactly after the same 
 manner, saving that he is to be scaled, which a Trout 
 never is : and that must be done either with one's nails, 
 or very lightly and carefully with a knife, for fear of bruis- 
 ing the fish. And note, that these kinds offish, a Trout 
 especially, if he is not eaten within four or five hours after 
 he be taken, is worth nothing. 
 
 But come, Sir, I see you have din'd; and therefore, if 
 you please, we will walk down again to the little House, 
 and there I will read you a lecture of Angling at the bottom. 
 
 CHAP. XI. 
 Of ANGLING AT THE BOTTOM for Trout or Grayling. 
 
 Viator. So, Sir, now we are here, and set, let me have 
 my instructions for angling for Trout and Grayling at the 
 bottom ; which though not so easy, so cleanly, nor (as 'tis 
 said) so genteel a way of fishing as with a fly, is yet, if I 
 mistake not, a good holding way, and takes fish when 
 nothing else will. 
 
 Pise. You are in the right, it does so : and a worm is 
 so sure a bait at all times, that, excepting in a flood, I 
 would I had laid a thousand pounds that I did not kill 
 fish, more or less, with it, winter or summer, every day 
 throughout the year ; those days always excepted, that 
 upon a more serious account always ought so to be. But 
 not longer to delay you, I will begin, and tell you, that 
 Angling at the bottom is, also, commonly, of two sorts 
 (and yet there is a third way of angling with a ground- 
 bait, and to very great effect too, as shall be said here- 
 after,) namely, by hand ; or with a cork or float. 
 
340 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART II, 
 
 That we call Angliny by hand, is of three sorts. 
 
 The first with a line about half the length of the rod, a 
 good weighty plumb, and three hairs next the hook, which 
 we call a running-line, and with one large brandling, or a 
 dew-worm of a moderate size, or two small ones of the 
 first, or any other sort, proper for a Trout, of which my 
 father Walton has already given you the names, and 
 saved me a labour; or, indeed, almost any worm whatever ; 
 for if a Trout be in the humour to bite, it must be such a 
 worm as I never yet saw, that he will refuse ; and if you 
 fish with two, you are then to bait your hook thus : You 
 are first, to run the point of your hook in at the very head 
 of your first worm, and so down through his body till it 
 be past the knot, and then let it out, and strip the worm 
 above the arming, (that you may not bruise it with your 
 fingers) till you have put on the other, by running the 
 point of the hook in below the knot, and upwards through 
 his body towards his head, till it be but just cover'd with 
 the head, which being done, you are then to slip the first 
 worm down over the arming again, till the knots of both 
 worms meet together. 
 
 The second way of angling by hand, and with a running 
 line, is with a line something longer than the former, and 
 with tackle made after this same manner. At the utmost 
 extremity of your line, where the hook is always placed in 
 all other ways of angling, you are to have a large pistol 
 or carabine bullet, into which the end of your line is to be 
 fastened with a peg or pin, even and close with the bullet ; 
 and, about half a foot above that, a branch of line, of two 
 or three hand fu Is long, or more for a swift stream, with a 
 hook at the end thereof, baited with some of the fore-named 
 worms, and, another half a foot above that, another arm'd 
 and baited after the same manner, but with another sort of 
 worm, without any lead at all above: by which means you 
 will always certainly find the true bottom in all depths; 
 
CHAP. XI. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 341 
 
 which with the plumbs upon your line above you can 
 never do, but that your bait must always drag whilst you 
 are sounding (which in this way of angling must be con- 
 tinually), by which means you are like to have more 
 trouble, and peradventure worse success. And both these 
 ways of angling at the bottom are most proper for a dark 
 and muddy water, by reason, that in such a condition of 
 the stream, a man may stand as near as he will, and nei- 
 ther his own shadow nor the roundness of his tackle will 
 hinder his sport. 
 
 The third way of angling by hand with a ground-bait, 
 and by much the best of all other, is, with a line full as 
 long, or a yard and a half longer than your rod ; with no 
 more than one hair next the hook, and for two or three 
 lengths above it ; and no more than one small pellet or 
 shot for your plumb ; your hook, little ; your worms, of 
 the smaller brandlings, very well scoured ; and only one 
 upon your hook at a time, which is thus to be baited : the 
 point of your hook is to be put in at the very tag of his 
 tail, and run up his body quite over all the arming, and 
 still stript on an inch at least upon the hair; the head 
 and remaining part hanging downward. And with this 
 line and hook, thus baited, you are evermore to angle 
 in the streams, always in a clear, rather than in a troubled 
 water, and always up the river, still casting out your 
 worm before you with a light one-handed rod, like an ar- 
 tificial fly, where it will be taken, sometimes at the top, or 
 within a very little of the superficies of the water, and 
 almost always before that light plumb can sink it to the 
 bottom ; both by reason of the stream, and also that you 
 must always keep your worm in motion by drawing still 
 back towards you, as if you were angling with a fly. And 
 believe me, whoever will try it, shall find this the best 
 way of all other to angle with a worm, in a bright water 
 especially. But then his rod must be very light and pliant, 
 
342 THfc COMPLETE ANGLER. PART II. 
 
 and very true and finely made, which, with a skilful hand, 
 will do wonders, and in a clear stream is undoubtedly the 
 best way of angling for a Trout or Grayling with a worm, 
 by many degrees, that any man can make choice of, and 
 of most ease and delight to the angler. To which let me 
 add, that if the Angler be of a constitution that will suffer 
 him to wade, and will slip into the tail of a shallow stream, 
 to the calf of the leg or the knee, and so keep off the bank, 
 he shall almost take what fish he pleases. 
 
 The second way of angling at the bottom is with a 
 Cork or Flout. And that is also of two sorts ; with a 
 worm, or with a grub or cadis. 
 
 With a Worm, you are to ha?e your line within a foot, 
 or a foot and a half, as long as your rod ; in a dark water 
 with two, or if you will with three, but in a clear water 
 never with above one hair next the hook, and two or three 
 for four or five lengths above it ; and a worm of what size 
 you please : your plumbs fitted to your cork, your cork to 
 the condition of the river (that is, to the swiftness or 
 slowness of it,) and both, when the water is very clear, 
 as fine as you can ; and then you are never to bait with 
 above one of the lesser sort of brandlings ; or if they are 
 very little ones indeed, you may then bait with two, after 
 the manner before directed. 
 
 When you angle for a Trout, you are to do it as deep, 
 that is, as near the bottom as you can, provided your bait 
 do not drag, or if it do, a Trout will sometimes take it in 
 that posture. If for a Grayling, you are then to fish further 
 from the bottom ; he being a fish that usually swims nearer 
 to the middle of the water, and lies always loose ; or, how- 
 ever, is more apt to rise than a Trout, and more inclined 
 to rise than to descend even to a ground-bait. 
 
 With a Grub or Cadis, you are to angle with the same 
 length of line, or if it be all out as long as your rod 'tis 
 not the worse, with never above one hair, for two or three 
 
CHAP. XI. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 343 
 
 lengths next the hook, and with the smallest cork or 
 float, and the least weight of plumb you can that will but 
 sink, and that the swiftness of your stream will allow ; 
 which also you may help, and avoid the violence of the 
 current, by angling in the returns of a stream, or the 
 eddies betwixt two streams, which also are the most likely 
 places wherein to kill a fish in a stream, either at the top 
 or bottom. 
 
 Of Grubs for a Grayling, the ash-grub, which is plump, 
 milk-white, bent round from head to tail, and exceeding 
 tender, with a red head, or the dock-worm, or grub of a 
 pale yellow, longer, lanker, and tougher than the other, 
 with rows of feet all down his belly, and a red head also, 
 are the best ; I say for a Grayling, because although a 
 Trout will take both these, the ash-grub especially, yet 
 he does not do it so freely as the other, and I have usually 
 taken ten Graylings for one Trout with that bait; though 
 if a Trout come, I have observed that he is commonly a 
 very good one. 
 
 These baits we usually keep in bran, in which an ash- 
 grub commonly grows tougher, and will better endure 
 baiting; though he is yet so tender, that it will be neces- 
 sary to warp in a piece of a stiff hair with your arming, 
 leaving it standing out about a straw-breadth at the head 
 of your hook, so as to keep the grub either from slipping 
 totally off when baited, or at least down to the point of 
 the hook, by which means your arming will be left wholly 
 naked and bare, which is neither so sightly, nor so likely 
 to be taken; though to help that (which will however 
 very oft fall out) I always arm the hook I design for this 
 bait with the whitest horse-hair 1 can choose; which, 
 itself, will resemble and shine like that bait, and conse- 
 quently will do more good, or less harm, than an arming 
 of any other colour. These grubs are to be baited thus: 
 the hook is to be put in under the head or chaps of the 
 
344 .THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART II. 
 
 bait, and guided down the middle of the belly, without 
 suffering it to peep out by the way, (for then the ash-grub 
 especially will issue out water and milk till nothing but 
 the skin shall remain, and the bend of the hook will 
 appear black through it,) till the point of your hook come 
 so low, that the head of your bait may rest, and stick 
 upon the hair that stands out to hold it, by which means 
 it can neither slip of itself, neither will the force of the 
 stream nor quick pulling out, upon any mistake, strip it 
 off. 
 
 Now the cadis or cod-bait (which is a sure killing bait, 
 and for the most part by much surer than either of the 
 other) may be put upon the hook, two or three together; 
 and is sometimes (to very great effect) joined to a worm, 
 and sometimes to an artificial fly, to cover the point of 
 the hook ; but is always to be angled with at the bottom 
 (when by itself especially) with the finest tackle; and is, 
 for all times of the year, the most holding bait of all 
 other whatever, both for Trout and Grayling. 
 
 There are several other baits, besides these few I have 
 named you, which also do very great execution at the 
 bottom; and some that are peculiar to certain countries 
 and rivers, of which every angler may in his own place 
 make his own observation; and some others that I do not 
 think fit to put you in mind of, because I would not cor- 
 rupt you, and would have you, as in all things else I 
 observe you to be a very honest gentleman, a fair angler. 
 And so much for the second sort of Angling for a Trout 
 at the bottom. 
 
 Viat. But, Sir, I beseech you give me leave to ask you 
 one question: Is there no art to be used to worms, to 
 make them allure the fish, and in a manner compel them 
 to bite at the bait? 
 
 Pise. Not that I know of; or did I know any such 
 secret, I would not use it myself, and therefore would 
 
CHAP. XI. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 345 
 
 not teach it you. Though I will not deny to you, that in 
 ray younger days I have made trial of oil of ospray, oil of 
 ivy, camphire, asafoetida, juice of nettles, and several 
 other devices that I was taught by several anglers I met 
 with, but could never find any advantage by them; and 
 can scarce believe there is any thing to be done that way : 
 though I must tell you, I have seen some men who I 
 thought went to work no more artificially than I, and have 
 yet, with the same kind of worms I had, in my own sight 
 taken five, and sometimes ten to one. But we'll let that 
 busines alone, if you please; and because we have time 
 enough, and that I would deliver you from the trouble of 
 any more lectures, I will, if you please, proceed to the last 
 way of Angling for a Trout or Grayling, which is in the 
 middle ; after which I shall have no more to trouble you 
 with. 
 
 Viat. Tis no trouble, Sir, but the greatest satisfaction 
 that can be; and I attend you. 
 
346 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART II. 
 
 CHAP. XII. 
 Of ANGLING IN THE MIDDLE for Trout or Grayling. 
 
 Piscator. ANGLING in the middle, then, for a Trout or 
 Grayling, is of two sorts; with a Pink or Minnow for a 
 Trout; or with a Worm, Grub, or Cadis, for a Grayling. 
 
 For the first It is with a minnow, half-a-foot or a 
 foot within the superficies of the water. And as to the 
 rest that concerns this sort of angling, 1 shall wholly refer 
 you to Mr. Walton's directions, who is undoubtedly the 
 best angler with a minnow in England; only, in plain 
 truth, I do not approve of those baits he keeps in salt/ 
 unless where the living ones are not possibly to be had, 
 (though I know he frequently kills with them, and, 
 peradventure, more than with any other, nay I have seen 
 him refuse a living one for one of them,) and much less 
 of his artificial one;* for though we do it with a counter- 
 feit Hy, methinks it should hardly be expected that a man 
 should deceive a fish with a counterfeit fish. Which 
 having said, I shall only add (and that ont of my own 
 experience,) that I do believe a Bull-head, with his gill- 
 fins cut off, (at some times of the year especially) to be 
 a much better bait for a Trout than a minnow, and a 
 Loach much better than that : to prove which I shall only 
 tell you, that I have much oftener taken Trouts with a 
 bull-head or a loach in their throats (for there a Trout 
 has questionless his first digestion) than a minnow; and 
 that one day especially, having angled a good part of the 
 day with a minnow, and that in as hopeful a day, and as 
 fit a water, as could be wished for that purpose, without 
 
 (1) Sc* p. til. (C) Set V . 81. 
 
CHAP. XII. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 347 
 
 raising any one fish, I at last fell to it with a worm, and 
 with that took fourteen in a very short space ; amongst 
 all which there was not, to my remembrance, so much as 
 one that had not a loach or two, and some of them three, 
 four, five, and six loaches in his throat and stomach ; 
 from whence I concluded, that had I angled with that 
 bait, I had made a notable day's work of it. 
 
 But after all, there is a better way of angling with a 
 minnow than perhaps is fit either to teach or to practise; 
 to which I shall only add, that a Grayling will certainly 
 rise at, and sometimes take a minnow, though it will be 
 hard to be believed by any one who shall consider the 
 littleness of that fishes mouth, very unfit to take so great 
 a bait; but it is affirmed by many that he will sometimes 
 do it, and I myself know it to be true ; for though I never 
 took a Grayling so, yet a man of mine once did, and 
 within so few paces of me, that I am as certain of it as I can 
 be of any thing I did not see, and (which made it appear 
 the more strange) the Grayling was not above eleven 
 inches long. 
 
 I must here also beg leave of your master, and mine, 
 not to controvert, but to tell him, that I cannot consent 
 to his way of throwing in his rod to an overgrown Trout, 
 and afterwards recovering his fish with his tackle : for 
 though I am satisfied he has sometimes done it, because 
 he says so, yet I have found it quite otherwise: and 
 though I have taken with the angle (I may safely say) 
 some thousands of Trouts in my life, my top never snapt, 
 though my line still continued fast to the remaining part 
 of my rod (by some lengths of line curled round about my 
 top, and there fastened, with waxed silk, against such an 
 accident), nor my hand never slacked, or slipped by any 
 other chance, but I almost always infallibly lost my fish, 
 whether great or little, though my hook came home again. 
 And I have often wondered how a Trout should so suddenly 
 
348 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART II. 
 
 disengage himself from so great a hook as that we bait with 
 a minnow, and so deep bearded as those hooks commonly 
 are, when I have seen by the fore-nam'd accidents, or the 
 slipping of a knot in the upper part of the line, by sudden 
 and hard striking, that though the line has immediately 
 been recovered, almost before it could be all drawn into 
 the water, the fish clear'd and gone in a moment. And yet, 
 to justify what he says, I have sometimes known a Trout, 
 having carried away a whole line, found dead three or 
 four days after, with the hook fast sticking in him; but 
 then it is to be supposed he had gorged it, which a Trout 
 will do, if you be not too quick with him when he comes at 
 a minnow, as sure and much sooner than a Pike : and I 
 myself have also, once or twice in my life, taken the same 
 fish, with my own rly sticking in his chaps, that he had 
 taken from me the day before, by the slipping of a hook in 
 the arming. But I am very confident a Trout will not be 
 troubled two hours with any hook that has so much as one 
 handful of line left behind with it, or that is not struck 
 through a bone, if it be in any part of his mouth only: nay, 
 I do certainly know that a Trout, so soon as ever he feels 
 himself pricked, if he carries away the hook, goes imme- 
 diately to the bottom, and will there root, like a hog upon 
 the gravel, till he either rub out or break the hook in the 
 middle. And so much for this sort of angling in the mid- 
 dle for a Trout. 
 
 The second way of angling in the middle is with a worm, 
 grub, cadis, or any other ground-bait, for a Grayling; 
 and that is with a cork, and a foot from the bottom, a 
 Grayling taking it much better there than at the bottom, 
 as has been said before; and this always in a clear water, 
 and with the finest tackle. 
 
 To which we may also, and with very good reason, add 
 the third way of angling by hand with a ground-bait; as a 
 third way of fishing in the middle, which is common to 
 
CHAP. XII. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 349 
 
 both Trout and Grayling; and, as I said before, the best 
 way of angling with a worm of all other I ever tried what- 
 ever. 
 
 And now, Sir, I have said all I can at present think of 
 concerning Angling for a Trout and Grayling, and I doubt 
 not have tired you sufficiently: but I will give you no more 
 trouble of this kind whilst you stay, which I hope will be 
 a good while longer. 
 
 Viat. That will not be above a day longer; but if I live 
 till May come twelvemonth, you are sure of me again, 
 either with my Master Walton or without him; and in the 
 mean time shall acquaint him how much you have made 
 of me for his sake, and I hope he loves me well enough 
 to thank you for it. 
 
 Pise. I shall be glad, Sir, of your good company at the 
 time you speak of, and shall be loath to part with you 
 now, but when you tell me you must go, I will then wait 
 upon you more miles on your way than I have tempted 
 you out of it, and heartily wish you a good journey. 
 
350 Till LAWS OF ANGLING. 
 
 A SHORT DISCOURSE, by way of POSTCRIPT, touching the LAWS of 
 
 A NO LINO. 1 
 
 Mr GOOD FRIEND, 
 
 I CANNOT but tender my particular thanks to 
 you, for that yon have been pleased, by three editions of 
 your COMPLETE ANGLER, freely to dispense your dear- 
 bought experience to all the lovers of that art; and have 
 thereby so excellently vindicated the legality thereof, as 
 to divine approbation, that if I should go about to say 
 more in that behalf, it indeed were to light a candle to 
 the sun. But since all pleasures (though never so inno- 
 cent in themselves) lose that stamp, when they are either 
 pursued with inordinate affections, or to the prejudice of 
 another, therefore, as to the former, every man ought to 
 endeavour, through a serious consideration of the vanity 
 of worldly contentments, to moderate his affections there- 
 unto, whereby they may be made of excellent use, as 
 some poisons allayed are in physic; and, as to the latter, 
 we are to have recourse to the known laws, ignorance 
 whereof excuseth no man, and therefore, by their direc- 
 tions, so to square our actions, that we hurt no man, but 
 keep close to that golden rule " To do to all men as we 
 would ourselves be done unto." 
 
 Now concerning the Art of Angling, we may conclude, 
 Sir, that as you have proved it to be of great antiquity, so 
 I find it favoured by the laws of this kingdom ; for where 
 provision is made by our Statutes primo Elizab. cap. 17. 
 against taking fish by nets that be not of such and such a 
 
 (1) Thi Ditcourte was first published with, and wu printed at the end of, 
 the third Edition of Walton's book : but, as the subject matter of it relates as 
 well to Cotton's part as the other, it was thought proper to transpose it. 
 
THE LAWS OF ANGLING. 351 
 
 size there set down, yet those law-makers had so much 
 respect to anglers, as to except them, and leave them at 
 liberty to catch as big as they could, and as little as they 
 would catch. And yet, though this Apostolical recreation 
 be simply in itself lawful, yet no man can go upon another 
 man's ground to fish without his licence, but that he is a 
 trespasser. But if a man have licence to enter into a 
 close or ground for such a space of time, there, though 
 he practise angling all that time, he is not a trespasser, 
 because his fishing is no abuse of his licence: but this is 
 to be understood of running streams, and not of ponds 
 or standing pools ; for in case of a pond or standing pool, 
 the owner thereof hath a property in the fish, and they are 
 so far said to be his, that he may have trespass for the 
 fish against any one that shall take them without his 
 licence, though it be upon a common, or adjoining to the 
 king's highway, or adjoining to another man's ground 
 who gives licence. But in case of a river, where one or 
 more have libera piscaria only, it is otherwise; for there 
 the fishes are said to beferce naturd; and the taking of 
 them with an angle is not trespass, for that no man is 
 said to have a property in them till he have caught them; 
 and then it is a trespass for any to take them from him. 
 But this is not to be understood of fishes confined to a 
 man's own ground by gates or otherwise, so that they can- 
 not pass away but may be taken out or put in at pleasure; 
 for in that case the party hath a property in them, as in 
 the case of a standing pool. 
 
 But where any one hath separalis piscaria, as in Child 
 and GreenhdVs Case in Trin. 15, Car. 1, in the King's 
 Bench, there it seemeth that the fish may be said to be his, 
 because no man else may take them whilst they are within 
 his several fishing. Therefore what is meant by a several 
 fishing is necessary to be considered. And though the 
 difference between a free fishing and a several fishing be 
 
352 THE LAWS OF ANGLING. 
 
 often treated of in the antient books of the law ; and some 
 opinions will have the difference to be great, and others 
 small, or nothing at all, yet the certainest definition of a 
 several fishing is, * Where one hath the royalty, and 
 owneth the ground on each side of the water;' which 
 agreeth with Sir William Calthorps case, where an action 
 was brought by him against another for fishing in his 
 several fishing, &c. ; to which the defendant pleaded, that 
 the place wherein the trespass was supposed to be done 
 contained ten perches of land in length, and twenty 
 perches in breadth, which was his own freehold at the 
 time when the trespass was supposed to be done, and 
 that he fished there as was lawful for him to do; and this 
 was adjudged a good plea by the whole court: and upon 
 argument in that very case, it was agreed, that no man 
 could have a several fishing but in his own soil, .and that 
 free fishing may be in the soil of another man, which was 
 all agreed unto by Littleton, our famous English Lawyer. 
 So that from all this may be drawn this short conclusion, 
 that if the angler take care that he offend not with his 
 feet, there is no great danger of his hands. 
 
 But there are some covetous rigid persons, whose souls 
 hold no sympathy with those of the innocent anglers, hav- 
 ing either got to be lords of royalties, or owners of lands 
 adjoining to rivers ; and these do, by some apted clownish 
 nature and education for the purpose, insult and domi- 
 neer over the innocent angler, beating him, breaking his 
 rod, or at least taking it from him, 1 and sometimes impri- 
 soning his person as if he were a felon. Whereas a true- 
 
 (1) There U BO reading this passage without figuring to one's imagination the 
 poor, humble, patient angler, standing still and defenceless, while the merciless 
 lord of the MOOT is laying him on with a stick, perhaps the butt of his own rod, 
 or a worse weapon. I will not dispute with the author, whether the meekness 
 and submission of the poor fisher upon this occasion are very becoming or not ; 
 bnt this sort of passive valour is rather to be admired thao imitated. Yet ha* 
 the angler his remedy, as the reader will see a few lines below. 
 
THE LAWS OF AttGLINfc. 353 
 
 bred gentleman scorns those spider-like attempts, and will 
 rather refresh a civil stranger at his table, than warn him 
 from coming on his ground upon so innocent an occasion. 
 It would therefore be considered how far such furious 
 drivers are warranted by the law, and what the angler 
 may (in case of such violence) do in defence of himself. 
 If I come upon another man's ground without his licence, 
 or the licence of the law, I am a trespasser, for which the 
 owner may have an action of trespass against me: and if 
 I continue there after warning to depart by the owner, or 
 his servant thereunto authorised, the owner, or his servant 
 by his command, may put me off by force, but not beat 
 me, but in case of resistance by me, for then I (by resist- 
 ing) make the assault; but if he beat me, I not resisting, in 
 that case he makes the assault, and I may beat him in de- 
 fence of myself, and to free myself from his violence. 1 And 
 in case I shall leave my rod behind in his ground, he may 
 take it damage feasant, but he can neither take it from my 
 person by force, nor break it, but he is a trespasser to me; 
 which seems clear by the case of Reynell and Champer- 
 noon; 3 where Reynell brought an action of trespass 
 against Champernoon, for taking and cutting his nets. 
 The defendant justified, for that he was seized in fee of 
 a several fishing; and that the plaintiff with others 
 endeavoured to row upon his water r and with the nets to 
 catch his fish ; and that for the safeguard of his fishing 
 he took and cut the nets and oars : to which plea the 
 plaintiff demurred, and there it was adjudged by the 
 whole court, that he could not by such colour cut the 
 
 <l) Agreeable to the rule conuined in this barbarous distich : 
 Res dare pro rebus, pro verbis verka soUmus, 
 Pro bufis bufcu, pro trvfa rtddere tn/fas. 
 Things mutt be recompense with things, buffers with btowei, 
 And words with words, and taunts with inocks and mo we*. 
 
 Dalton't Country Justice, Chap. 7*. 
 (2) Mich. 7 Car. 1. Cro. Car. CC8. 
 2 A 
 
354 THE LAWS OF ANGLING. 
 
 nets and oars ; and judgment was thereupon given for the 
 plaintiff. 
 
 Doubtless our fore-fathers well considered, that man 
 to man was a wolf/ and therefore made good laws to keep 
 us from devouring one another; and amongst the rest a 
 very good Statute was made in the three-and-fortieth 
 year of Queen Elizabeth, whereby it is provided, that in 
 personal actions in the courts at Westminster (being not 
 for land or battery), when it shall appear to the judges 
 (and be so by them signified) that the debt or damages 
 to be recovered amount not to the sura of forty shillings 
 or above, the said judges shall award to the plaintiff no 
 more costs than damages, but less, at their discretion. 
 
 And now, with my acknowledgment of the advantage 
 I have had both by your friendship and your BOOK, I wish 
 nothing may ever be that looks like an alteration in the 
 first, nor any thing in the last, unless, by reason of the 
 useful pleasure of it, you had called it the ARCADIA of 
 ANGLING, for it deserves that title; and I would deserve 
 the continuance of your friendship. 
 
 Co*tm*at*m gg the Ducottne by Sir JOHN HAWKINS. 
 
 Since the writing the foregoing discourse, the laws of 
 this country relative to Fish and Fishing have undergone 
 such alterations as would alone justify an addition to it : 
 but as it has, of late, been objected to all laws that assign 
 an exclusive right in any of the creatures of God to parti- 
 cular ranks or orders of men, that they savour of barba- 
 rism, and are calculated to serve the purposes of tyranny 
 and ambition, it wa* thought necessary to trace the matter 
 farther back, and shew from whence laws of this kind 
 derive their force. And though it is not imagined that 
 
 (1) A Melancholy truth so oofrenallj acknowledged at to have given occasion 
 i e the provtrb, Home komM lujnu. Vide Eratmi Adagia. 
 
THE LAWS OF ANGLING. 
 
 355 
 
 speculative arguments will operate upon men of licenti- 
 ous principles, yet as the general tenor of this work sup- 
 poses the angler to be endued with reason, and under the 
 dominion of conscience, it may not be amiss to state the 
 obligation he is under to an observance of such laws, and 
 to point out to him the several instances where he cannot 
 pursue his recreation without the risque of his quiet. 
 
 Property is universally allowed to be founded on occu- 
 pancy, the very notion of which implies industry, or some 
 act in the occupant of which no stranger has a right to 
 avail himself: he that first took possession of an unculti- 
 vated tract of land, provided it was no more than neces- 
 sary for the subsistence of himself and his family, became 
 thereby the proprietor of such land. 
 
 Mr. Locke illustrates this doctrine by an elegant in- 
 stance : " The water running in the fountain," says he, 
 " is every one's ; but that in the pitcher is his who draws 
 it." On Government, Book II. Chap. V. Sect. 29. 
 
 And, if this reasoning be admitted in the case of land 
 which is ranked among the immoveable objects of pro- 
 perty, it is much stronger in favour of things moveable, 
 the right of which is at once claimed, and fortified by an 
 actual possession and separation from that common mass 
 in which they were originally supposed to exist. 
 
 But notwithstanding the innumerable appropriations 
 which in the present civilized state of the world appear 
 to have been made, there are many things which may yet 
 be said to be in common, and in a state of natural liberty; 
 in this class we may rank creatures /era; naturd, beasts of 
 chace, many kinds of fowl, and al\ fish. The fisherman 
 in Plautus admits, that none of the fish were his, while 
 they remained in their proper element, and insists only 
 on his right to those which he had caught. Rudens, 
 Act 4, Scene 3. And both the Jewish and Roman law- 
 2x2 
 
356 THE LAWS OF ANOLINO. 
 
 yers assert that wild beasts and fish belong only to those- 
 \vh.> take them. 1 
 
 This notion has led many persons to imagine, that , 
 even DOW, there subsists a general community of these 
 creatures ; and that, at this day, every one has a right to 
 take them to his own use wherever he finds them. Not 
 to insist, that if all men promiscuously were permit- 
 ted the exercise of this right, it would be of very little 
 benefit to any, it may suffice to say, that there are few 
 civilized countries that have not found it necessary either 
 for promoting some public good, or averting some public 
 mischief, to controul it by express prohibitions ; and how 
 far such prohibitions are deemed lawful and binding on 
 the consciences of those on whom they are imposed, will 
 appear by consulting the authorities in the margin.* 
 And it is worth noting, that Laws made to prohibit the 
 taking of creatures fera nahtrd, by persons unqualified, 
 do not take from a man any thing which is his own ; but 
 they barely forbid the use of certain methods of acquisi- 
 tion, which the law of nature might, perhaps, allow of. 
 Puffendorfde Jure Nat. et Gent. Lib. IV. Cap. 6. 6. 8 
 
 Agreeable to the principles here laid down, we find, 
 that the laws of most countries, at least of this, have as- 
 signed the property in the creatures in question to parti- 
 cular persons. Thus to royal fish, which are Whales and 
 
 (I) Seld. Dt Jurt Nat. tt Gent. Just* Ducip. Ebr*or. Lib. IV. Cap. 4. 
 lnm. Lib. II. Tit. I. Dt rerum divitiorte et acquirendo eartim Dominic. 
 However. th'. U to be understood only in cases wherein there is no law to for- 
 bid it. Or or. De Jurt Belli ac Tacit, Lib. II Cap. 2. f ft. 
 
 (t) PaffeixWf De Jurt Nut. et Gent. Lib. IV. Cap. 6. * 6. Gudelin Dt Jurt 
 m*mimf. Lib. II. Cap. . D. Lib. XLI.TU. 2. DC acquirend.vel admittend. 
 flltmi. SM alto Oarcilauo d> la Vefa, Comm Reg. Lib. VI. Cap. fi. Where 
 il to id. Uiat io Pem. hunting, by the inferior tort, it prohibited, lest, tajs the 
 aathor, - en betaking tbeaueUe* to the. pleasure of the field, should delight io 
 a coatinaed course of sports, aod so neglect the accessary provision and maln- 
 teaaorc of their fassilirs." 
 
 (S) Sac also Arnold Finn, ad sect 13. De Rtr. Dnn. and Ziegter on Cro- 
 KM, Lib. 1 1. 
 
THE LAWS OF ANGLING. 357 
 
 Sturgeons, the king is entitled by his prerogative ; l and 
 the property of fish in rivers, or, at least, a right to take 
 them, is, in many places, given to corporations ; as, with 
 us, the fishery of the river Thames is granted to the City 
 of London ; and the Townsmen of Hungerford, in Berk- 
 shire, claim a right of fishing in that part of the river 
 Kennet, called their common water, under a grant from 
 John of Gaunt, who, we may suppose, derived it from the 
 Crown : 2 but in most instances fish belong to the owner 
 of the soil. 
 
 These principles being recognised, and property once 
 settled, it is easy to see the necessity and the justice of 
 fencing it with positive laws. Accordingly, in this coun- 
 try, judicial determinations have, from time to time, been 
 made, ascertaining the rights of persons to fisheries ; and 
 these, together with the several statutes enacted to pre- 
 vent the destruction of fish, compose the body of Laws 
 relating to Fish and Fishing : the former, by way of sup- 
 plement to the foregoing Discourse, are here laid down ; 
 and the latter will be referred to. 
 
 The property which the Common Law gives in river- 
 fish uncaught, is of that kind which is called special, or 
 qualified property ; which see defined by Lord Coke, in 
 his Reports, Part VII. fo. 17. b. and is derived out of the 
 right to the place or soil where such fish live : so that 
 supposing them, at any given instant, to belong to one 
 person, whenever they resort to the soil or water of ano- 
 ther, they become his property, and so in infinitum. 
 
 And to prove that this notion of a fluctuating or tran- 
 sitory property is what the law allows, we need only 
 apply it to the case of the water in a river ; which is so 
 
 (1) 1 Coke 16. The Case of Swans. 
 
 (2) The townsmen of Hungerford have a horn, holding about a quart, the in- 
 tcription whereon affirms it to have been given by John of Gaunt, with the 
 Rial-fishing (so it is therein expressed) in a certain part of the river. Gibi, 
 Camden, 166. 
 
368 THE LAWS OF ANGLINO. 
 
 constantly passing from the soil of one to another, that 
 no roan can, in strictness, be said to go twice to the same 
 river ; and yet, by a grant of any given quantity of land 
 covered with water, which is the only legal designation of 
 a river, not only a certain tract of the river, but the fish 
 contained in it, shall pass. See Coke *n Littleton, 4. a. 
 
 In the Register, a very ancient law-book, we find two 
 writs relating to fish ; the one, for the unlawful taking of 
 fish in a several fishery, and the other, in a free fishery, 
 And of these in their order. 
 
 A several Fishery it that which a man is entitled to in 
 respect of his being the owner of the soil, and is what no 
 one can have in the land of another, unless by special 
 grant or prescription : and whoever shall fish in such a 
 several fishery, without a licence, is liable to an action of 
 trespass, in which the plaintiff may well demand '< where- 
 fore in the plaintiffs several fishery the defendant was 
 fishing, and his fishes took," &c. for though the fish be 
 fer* naturd, yet being taken in the water of the owner of 
 the river, they are said to be At* fish, without saying in 
 his soil or water, 3d Coke'* Reports, 653. Child and 
 GreenhiWs case : but he must set forth the nature and 
 number of the fish taken, 6 Coke's Reports, 35. Playters 
 case, and 3d Coke IS. 
 
 A free Fishery is a right to take fish in the water and 
 soil of another, and is derived out of a several fishery. 
 If one seized of a river, grants, without including the soil, 
 a several fishery, or, which amounts to no more than 
 that, his water, a right of fishing passes, and nothing 
 else. Plowden's Commentary, 164, b. Coke on Little- 
 ton, 4 b. And the word several, in such case, is synony- 
 mous with sole, and that in so strict a sense, that by such 
 a grant not only strangers, but even the owner of the 
 soil, is excluded from fishing there. Co. Litt. 122. a. 
 And further, where one prescribes to have a several fish- 
 
THE LAWS OF ANGLING. 359 
 
 ery in a water, which prescription always supposes a 
 grant precedent, the owner of the soil, as much as a 
 stranger, is liable to an action if he fishes there : 2 Roll. 
 258. the case of Foriston and Cratchrode in the Common 
 Pleas. Mich. 29 and 30 Eliz. But here the writ shall 
 vary from that in the case of a several fishery, and demand 
 " wherefore the defendant, in the free fishery of the 
 plaintiff, at N., without the licence and consent of the 
 plaintiff, was fishing," &c. expressing the nature and 
 number of the fish taken : but because the soil does not 
 pass by such a grant, and the fish are ferce naturd, he 
 shall not call them his fish, as in the former instance. 
 See the case of Child and Greenhill, above cited. 
 
 The doctrine deducible from these principles is, that 
 that which united with the soil would be a several fish- 
 ery, when severed by grant, though the grant be of a 
 several, or sole, and not of a free fishery in terminis, be- 
 comes a free fishery. 
 
 There is yet another case that I shall mention, which 
 will give the intelligent reader a clear notion of this mat- 
 ter. A man grants to one, or more, a liberty ofjishiny: 1 
 here nothing but a naked right to fish passes, and the 
 remedy against a trespasser is not severed from the soil ; 
 the owner whereof, and not the grantee, may maintain 
 an action, and may also fish himself. Co. Litt. 122. a. 
 
 As common of fishing may be appendant to land, so 
 also there may be a joint- tenancy, or a tenancy in com- 
 mon of a fishery. 1 Inst. 186. b. 
 
 Having thus shewn in what cases the angler, in the 
 
 (1) I find in Dngd. Want. 1142, in margine, an account of the following 
 grant, which for its singularity deserves notice. 
 
 31 Hen. III. "Thomas de Clinton, of Aminton, levied a fine to Phil. Mar- 
 mion, that he and his heirs, his wife, and their heirs, might, when they came to 
 Tamworth, or to their castle at Middleton, fish with a boat any where in his 
 water at Aminton, with one net, called ajfcu-net, ziid&tramil and sayna : for 
 which liberty he gave him six marks of silver." 
 
360 THE LAWS OF ANGLING. 
 
 pursuit of his recreation, may become a trespasser, let us 
 next consider how far he is, by taking fish, in danger of 
 committing Larceny ; for that the taking fish out of a 
 pond without the consent of the owner, falls within my 
 Lord Coke's definition of that crime, no one can doubt 
 that reads it. His words are, " Larceny is the felonious, 
 and fraudulent taking and carrying away, by any man or 
 woman, of the mere personal goods of another ; neither 
 from the person nor by night in the house of the owner," 
 34 Inst. 107. and a little after, 109, he expressly says, 
 " Larceny may be committed of fishes in a pond." 
 
 Now, though to make the taking any personal thing 
 felonious, reason and the law require that the party should 
 do \l ttntmo furandi, see Brae ton, Lib. Z.fol. 150. Fleta, 
 Lib. ] . Cap. 36. which we will suppose no angler to be 
 possessed with : yet whether by the word pond we are to 
 understand ponds at large, is perhaps of some conse- 
 quence for him to know. 
 
 It is a rule in law that personal goods, and things 
 severed from the freehold, shall go to the executors, and 
 not to the heir. Wentworth's Office of an Executor, 
 Chap. 5. and so shall fish in a trunk, or the like, ibid. 
 but Lord Coke, in his Commentary on Littleton, fol. 8, 
 tells us, that fish in a pond shall go with the inheritance, 
 because, says h, " they were at their liberty, and could 
 not be gotten without industry, as by nets or engines." 
 
 From hence we may conclude, that fish in ponds can- 
 not be said to be mere personal goods ; and then it follows 
 as a consequence, that of such fish larceny cannot be 
 committed : and we may further conclude that the word 
 ponds, in the above passage, must mean only stew- ponds, 
 cisterns, or other such small receptacles, of fish. 
 
 Many wholesome laws have, from time to time, been 
 enacted, to prevent the destruction of fish : but they are 
 so numerous, that I must refer the reader to the Statutes 
 
THE LAWS OF ANGLING. 361 
 
 at large, or to the Abridgment published by a late worthy 
 and learned friend of mine, John Cay, Esq. deceased. 
 
 He may also see a Discourse on the laws concerning 
 Angling, and for preservation of Jish, at the end of the 
 Angler's Sure Guide, written, as it seems, by the Author 
 of that book, with the learning and accuracy of an able 
 lawyer. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 No. I. 
 
 Water insects 
 that cover 
 themselves 
 with cases, 
 have a case 
 either. . . . 
 
 , being affixed 
 to stones; and have a 
 body either 
 
 Or no 
 
 adhering 
 butsmaO 
 
 M-.M-* ..r 
 H:M -.ir,.|;' 
 
 which 
 are either 
 
 [Referred to from the end of PART I.] 
 
 A Synopsis of AQUATIC INSECTS covering themselves with cases. 
 
 Round, with little threads 
 
 on the sides; or 
 Flat, and mere compress- 
 ed,without little th reads. 
 
 Or moreabif, portable and migratory, called " phryga- 
 MM," rti/yo, ' a cad-case," which is furnished with 
 little threads, as well on the back as the sides, by 
 His whereof thev adhere (irmly to their cases, ex- 
 cepting only their head and feet; with three small 
 protuberances projecting beyond the feet, which 
 they can erect or put forth at pleasure, to hinder 
 their cases from pressing down on their heads as 
 ^ they creep, and troubling them. 
 "Straw* ag- f Parallel, f The greater being two inches 
 .-I u tm. i- f const i tut ^ long, 
 led : and J ing two ^The/*rand most common, 
 those ei-^ species; ( called straw-worms. 
 ther. ... I Or transverse and shorter, with sometimes 
 ^- small stones and shells intermixed. 
 
 ul i little worms within , called cod bait 
 r With somewhat larger stones ad. 
 he ring to the sides of the case, 
 but never to the fore or back 
 part of it : whence it necessarily 
 appears flat and compressed. 
 
 2 J fine sand; ^ - v 0r Wltn no flones adhering to the 
 
 which sides ; but with a case extending 
 
 on each side into a narrow mar- 
 gin or border, like wings; and 
 the case is more flat and cotn- 
 L L pressed than the former. 
 
 Or crooked, or rather resembling a horn : for the cases of 
 these are crooked, and one extremity is larger, the other 
 less. Of these I have known four different species, viz. the 
 black, large and small ; and ash-colour, large and small. 
 All these produce flies with large wings, like those of butterflies. 
 The nymph* of these (which are to spring from those small worms, 
 and which like torsoises carry their houses about with them, within 
 which they turn into nympha, from which nymphee afterwards 
 spring little flies,) Dr. Swammerdam refers to his fourth order of 
 transmutations, whereas, in my opinion, they belong to the third, 
 because they change their skin twice. 
 
 Another translation of this Synopsis, too copious to be here in- 
 serted, together with many curious particulars concerning Aquatic 
 Insects, is to be found in the KaturoJ History of Northamptonshire, 
 by the Rev. John Morton, chap. 7. 
 
 Or/al 
 
 either 
 
APPENDIX. 363 
 
 No. II. 
 
 [Referred to from Part 11. page 317, n.] 
 
 FEBRUARY. PEACOCK HACKLE. Peacock's herl 
 alone, or interchanged with ostrich herl; warping, red 
 silk; red cock's hackle over all. It may be varied by a 
 black cock's hackle and silver twist. Taken chiefly from 
 nine to eleven in the morning, and from one to three in 
 the afternoon. 
 
 This, and the several other hackles which we have here 
 and hereafter described, being most tempting baits, should 
 always be first tried when the angler comes to a strange 
 river ; and not changed till he has found out, and is certain, 
 what particular fly is upon the water. 
 
 MARCH. GREEN PEACOCK HACKLE. Greenish herl 
 of a peacock; warping, green silk; a black hackle over all. 
 Taken from eight to eleven in the morning. 
 
 ASH-COLOURED DUN. Dub with the roots of a fox- 
 cub's tail; warp with pale yellow silk; wing, of the pale 
 part of a starling's feather. Taken from eight to eleven, 
 and from one to three. 
 
 This fly, which is also called the VIOLET DUN, and 
 BLUE DUN, is to be found on almost every river; some 
 particulars of it have been mentioned in the note. Part II. 
 p. 318; but here follow some observations on it, which 
 deserve to be attended to. It varies much in its colour, 
 according to the season of the year: in March and Sep- 
 tember it is called, and that very properly, the Violet Dun, 
 for it has often that hue ; and therefore in the passage 
 above referred to we have directed the mixing blue-violet 
 crewel with the fox-cub down. In April it assumes a 
 pale-ash colour; and in May is of a beautiful lemon- 
 colour, both body and wings. In June and July it is blue- 
 black ; and from July it insensibly varies, till it becomes 
 of its primitive colour, violet dun, which it never fails to 
 do by September. 
 
 APRIL. PEARL-COLOUR, or HERON DUN. Dub with 
 the yellowish or ash-coloured herl of a heron ; warp 
 with ash-coloured silk. Wing, from the short feather of 
 a heron, or from a coot's wing of an ash-colour. Morning 
 and afternoon. 
 
364 APPENDIX. 
 
 BLUE DUN. Dub with the fur of a water-rat ; warp 
 with ash-colour. Wing, of a coot's feather. Morning and 
 afternoon. 
 
 MAY. SILVER-TWIST HACKLE. Dub with the herl 
 of an ostrich feather; warp with dark green, silver twist, 
 and black cock's hackle over all. Taken from nine to 
 eleven, especially in a showery day. 
 
 SOOTY DUN. Dub with black spaniel's fur, or the herl 
 of an ostrich ; warp with green. Wing, the dark part of a 
 land-rail or coot. Taken best in a showery day, as also in 
 April or June. 
 
 LIGHT FLAMING or SPRING BROWN. Dub with light 
 brown of a calf; warp with orange colour; wing of a pale 
 grey mallard's feather. Taken chiefly before sun-set in a 
 warm evening : a good fly. 
 
 AUI.oo|h much u Mid to the Firtt P*U of thr forgoing Dblogutt. [p. 99] 
 of tiw OaL-flj. thr Author h. v i*ro bat rvry tuprfiril detention or it. nd 
 Ml direction* for mrnklaf it mn r itrem*! v im ( >ei frr| ; wr would tliriHoK- rrrom- 
 the .kin it ftrr tht D.iu.il y, ul that mccoidiof to thr following 
 
 OAK FLY. By some called the Ash-fly, (by others, erro- 
 neously, the Hawthorn-fly.) The head, which is large, of 
 an ash-colour; the upper part of the body greyish, with 
 two or three hairs of bright brown mixed, and a very little 
 light blue, and sometimes a hair or two of light green ; 
 tbe tail part is greyish mixed with orange ; wing, of a 
 mottled brown feather of a woodcock, partridge, or brown 
 hen ; hook No. 8 or 9. This is the fly which is seen much 
 in March, April, May, and June, on the body of ash-trees, 
 oaks, willows, and thorns growing near the water, standing 
 with its head downwards. It is an excellent fly, but dif- 
 ficult to imitate, being of many colours, unequally mixed. 
 It takes chiefly in the morning : it does not seem to come 
 from any cadis, for it never drops in great numbers on the 
 water; and the wings are short, and lie flat on the back, 
 like the blue-bottle, or large flesh-fly. 
 
 ORAXGE-TAWNEY, ORANGE-BROWN, CAMLET-FLY, 
 ALDER-FLY, WITHY-FLY, or BASTARD CADIS. Dub 
 with dark brown spaniel's hair, or calf's hair that shines, 
 or barge-sail; warp with deep orange; black hackle under 
 the wing. Wing, of a darkish feather of a mallard or star- 
 ling. Taken chiefly in a morning, before the Green-drake 
 comes upon the water. 
 
 HUZZARD. Dub with pale lemon-coloured mohair, or 
 ostrich-feather dyed yellow ; warp with yellow ; gold twist 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 and yellow hackle over all. Wing, of a very pale mallard's 
 feather dyed of a lemon-colour; the wings large, and 
 longer than the body, lying flat on the back. Taken in a 
 blustering day, before the May-fly comes in. A fly little 
 known, but the most beautiful of the insect species that 
 frequent the water. It is larger than the Green-drake ; of 
 a beautiful lemon-colour, both body and wings, which are 
 four in number, and lie close to its back. It is to be met 
 with in but few rivers, and is therefore esteemed a great 
 curiosity : in those rivers that produce them, they appear 
 in great numbers about the latter end of April ; at which 
 time, and afterwards, the Trouts rise at them very eagerly : 
 doubtless this is a true water-fly ; it is supposed to be 
 produced from a very large cadis. 
 
 DEATH DRAKE. The body, one herl of black ostrich 
 and two of peacock; silver twist; black hackle. Wing, of 
 the dark feather of a mallard, of a copper colour. Taken 
 chiefly in an evening, when the May-fly is almost gone. 
 
 YELLOW MILLER, or OWL-FLY. The body of a yellow 
 martern's fur, or ostrich herl dyed buff colour. Wing, of 
 the ruddy feather of a young peacock's wing, or pale brown 
 chicken. Taken from sun-set till ten at night, and from 
 two till four in the morning. 
 
 JUNE. The May-flies, most of them, as above. 
 
 JULY. MIDDLING BROWN. Made of calf's hair 
 twisted upon pale yellow silk, for the silk to appear. Wing, 
 of a mallard's feather. 
 
 DARK BROWN. Warp with red silk, with a deep orange 
 tag at the tail. Wing, of a mallard's feather. 
 
 WILLOW CRICKET, or SMALL PEACOCK FLY. A herl 
 of a green peacock's feather ; warp with green silk. Wing, 
 of a starling's feather longer than the body. A morning 
 fly, especially for Grayling in rapid rivers. 
 
 PISMIRE. The body, some few reeves of a cock-phea- 
 sant's tail-feather, or ruddy barge-sail, or brown carpet, 
 or old bear's-hair, towards the roots, tanned with the 
 weather; one peacock's herl may be twisted with it: warp 
 with ruddy silk. Wing, the light part of a starling's fea- 
 ther, left longer than the body. A killing fly after an 
 emmet-flight, but not before. 
 
306 APPENDIX. 
 
 AUGUST. The Pismire through this month ; as also 
 the other flies of the last month. 
 
 SEPTEMBER. LARGE rariD LIGHT BROWN. The 
 body of light calf or cow's hair, or seal's fur dyed of the 
 colour ; warp with ruddy or orange-coloured silk. Wing, 
 of a ruddy brown chicken large and long. A killing fly 
 in a morning. This fly is much upon Hackney river, and 
 is much ruddier there than elsewhere. In the Thames, I 
 have caught with it Dace of the largest size, and in great 
 numbers. Somewhat of its history is given in the Notes, 
 p. '202, 203. 
 
 No. III. 
 
 [Referred to from Part II. page SIS, a.] 
 
 JANUARY. SPRING BLACK. Body, black wool of a 
 sheep's face, with or without a greenish peacock's herl ; 
 wmrp with brown silk. Wing, the prey feather of a mallard. 
 
 SECOND SPRING BLACK. Body, the very blackest part 
 of the darkest hare's scut you can procure ; with or without 
 a greenish peacock's herl; warp with ash-coloured silk. 
 Wine, of a fieldfare's feather. This and the other Spring 
 Black are best taken in bright weather. 
 
 BLOA' HERL. Body, black rabbit's scut; black of a 
 hare's scut; greenish peacock's herl; warp with brown 
 silk. Wing, the light part of a fieldfare's feather. 
 
 BLACK HACKLE. Body, pale yellow silk; with a black 
 cock's hackle turned about it. 
 
 DUN HACKLE. Body, dun-coloured silk; with a dun 
 cock's hackle. 
 
 FEBRUARY. The same flies as are directed for the 
 preceding month. 
 
 MARCH. The same flies as are directed for the pre- 
 ceding months ; and also the 
 
 TURKEY FLY, or MARCH FLY. Body, brown foal's 
 hair, tops of the wings of a woodcock, some ruddy, others 
 
 (I) This is ft north-country word, nd, as I an told, signifies a colour resem- 
 bling that of a mole's back, which has a hloish (loss. I find it thus explained. 
 ia a Catalog oe of local words communicated in a Letter from Mr. Thoresby, of 
 Leeds, to Mr. Ray : " Bloa. black and blur." Pkilotophical Uttcri. between 
 the UarMd Mr. Ray, and serf ral of his iofenioas correspondents, Octavo 1713 
 p. Ml. 
 
APPENDIX* 367 
 
 grey, well mixed together; warp with pink and yellow, or 
 pink and light-coloured brown silk, twisted together. 
 Wing, of a pheasant-cock's feather. 
 
 N. B. This, it is supposed, is the Cob-fly, so much cried up in Wales. 
 
 APRIL. LIGHT BLOA. Body, light fox-cub fur, a little 
 light foal's hair ; a little squirrel's bloa, and the whitish 
 yellow of the same, all these well mixed together ; warp 
 with yellow silk. Wing, of a light fieldfare's feather. 
 
 DUN. Body, dunnest filmert 1 or martern's fur, Indian 
 fox-dun, light dun fox-cub, coarse hair of the stump of a 
 squirrel's tail, of abrightish brown or a yellowish cast; warp 
 with yellow silk. Wing, the light feather of a fieldfare. 
 
 PLAIN HACKLE. Body, black ostrich herewith red or 
 black cock's hackle over it; and, in hot weather, add gold 
 twist. 
 
 RED HACKLE. Body, red silk and gold twist, and a 
 red cock's hackle, till June : afterwards use orange silk for 
 the body. An excellent fly. 
 
 N. U. This is more properly the Orange-fly. It resembles in colour a Seville 
 orange. Wings may he added, either of a ruddy hen or chicken, or of the softest 
 feather of a rook's wing : the first will give it an orange, the latter, a dunnish 
 hue. It has four wings, two next the body, of a very dark grey colour, and two 
 serving as a case over them, sometimes of a dirty blackish colour and sometimes 
 of an orange colour. 
 
 BLOA WATCiiET 2 is a small fly, and appears on the 
 water in a cold day. (Hook No. 9 or 10.) The body, fur 
 of a water-rat, black part of a hare's scut, the pale roots 
 cut off, a very little brown bear's hair ; warp with pale 
 brown or olive-coloured silk. Wing, of a hen blackbird. 
 
 YELLOW WATCIIET. Body, water-rat's fur, the blackest 
 part of a hare's scut, greenish yellow crewel for feet; warp 
 with green silk. Wing, the lightest part of a blackbird's 
 feather. Hook No. 9 or 10. 
 
 KNOTTED GREY GNAT. Body, darkest part of a hare's 
 scut, dark brown foal's hair, dark fur of the black of an 
 old fox ; warp with grey silk. Wing, the bloa feather of 
 a fieldfare. 
 
 GREEN- TAIL. Body, dark part of a hare's scut, and 
 darkest bloa fur of an old fox ; light part of a squirrel's 
 
 (1) Filmert. This is the animal which Walton, p. 12, calls thefulimart; but 
 the former is a name by which it is very well known at the furriers. 
 
 (2) Watchet ; Color caruleut albicans, Skinner. Pale or sky-blue. 
 
368 APPENDIX. 
 
 tail, and a hair or two of the coarse brownish part of it 
 for feet; warp with ash-coloured silk. Wing, of a hen 
 pheasant. 
 
 SAND FLY. Body, dark brown foal's hair, a little bloa 
 squirrel's fur, and the whitish yellow of the same; warp 
 with yellow silk. Wing, the light part of a fieldfare's 
 feather. 
 
 MAY. The nine foregoing flies directed for April ; and 
 also the BLOA HERL. Body, fox's fur, dark part of a 
 hare's scut, greenish herl of a peacock (if the weather is 
 warm for the season, otherwise little or none of the greenish 
 berl); warp with brown silk. Wing, of a starling's feather. 
 
 DUN. Body, dunnish bloa fur of an old fox, mixed 
 with pale yellow, the ends of the hairs of an old fox almost 
 red, some coarse hairs taken out of the tail or brush ; warp 
 with yellow. Wing, starling's feather. 
 
 STONE GNAT. Body, the roots of the darkest part of a 
 hare's scut, the top or ends being cut off; warp with ash- 
 coloured silk. Wing, a blackbird's feather. 
 
 LIGHT BLOA. Body, light fur of an old fox, mixed 
 with pale yellow crewel ; warp with pale yellow silk. Wing, 
 light feather of a jay. 
 
 ORANGE BROWN. Body, orange-coloured wool, with 
 bright brown bear's hair mixed ; warp with orange silk. 
 Wing, of a starling's feather. 
 
 PEACOCK HACKLE. Body, peacock's ruddy herl ; red 
 cock's hackle ; warp with red silk. 
 
 BLACK HERL. Body, black herl of an ostrich, and 
 ruddy herl of a peacock, twisted together ; warp with brown 
 silk. Wing, the light feather of a fieldfare. 
 
 PEWET, or LAPWING'S TOPPING. Body, peacock's 
 herl, and that of a lapwing's crown feather, twisted toge- 
 ther; warp with red silk. Wing, the red feather of a 
 partridge's tail. 
 
 RED HERL. Body, two herls of a peacock, twisted to- 
 gether; warp with ruddy silk. Wing, the red feather of 
 a partridge's tail. 
 
 JUNE. The Dun, Stone-gnat, Light bloa, Orange 
 brown, Peacock hackle, Black herl, Pewet's topping, and 
 Red herl of the last month, go also through this. There 
 are likewise taken the 
 
NO. III. APPENDIX. 369 
 
 WHITTERISH. Body, the root end of the white part of 
 a hare's scut, light grey foal's hair, or camel's hair, towards 
 the tail, the dark part of a hare's scut with some brown 
 hairs mixed; peacock's herl for the head ; warp with white 
 silk. Wing, the feather of a sea-mew. 
 
 LIGHT GREY. Body, fur of the inner part of a rabbit's 
 leg, the lightest of the dark part of a hare's scut; warp 
 with ash-coloured silk. Wings, light grey mallard's feather. 
 
 J UL Y. The Peacock hackle, Black herl, Pewet's top- 
 ping, and Red herl of May and June, and the Whitterish 
 and Light grey of the last month, serve also for this. 
 And to those add the 
 
 BROWN. Body, hair of a very light brown, or reddish 
 calf or spaniel, and light bear's hair, mixed ; warp with 
 pale orange. Wing, the feather of a land-rail. 
 
 AUGUST. The Peacock hackle, and the three fol- 
 lowing flies of May and the two subsequent months, and 
 the Brown of the last month, serve also for this : in which 
 also are taken the 
 
 GREY FLY. Body, light grey foal's hair mixed with 
 the dark part of a hare's scut; warp with grey silk. 
 Wing, a hen-pheasant's feather. 
 
 BLACK ANT-FLY. Body, darkest part of a hare's scut, 
 and dark brown wool, or sheep's russet, equally mixed, 
 and one single ruddy herl of a peacock, all twisted to- 
 gether ; warp with copper-coloured silk. Wing, a field- 
 fare's feather. 
 
 BROWN ANT-FLY. Body, bright brown bear's hair, 
 much weather-beaten. Almost of an orange-colour to- 
 wards the tail; and, therefore, a few hairs of a light 
 brown, or flame-coloured calf or spaniel's hair, to be ad- 
 ded in the tail part; warp with orange-coloured-silk. 
 Wing, the light feather of a fieldfare or starling. 
 
 NOTE. The Black and the Brown An* Fly I have studied to imitate with 
 other materials, (and have found them succeed very well,) made as 
 follows : 
 
 Black Ant. Brown bear's hair, and a little grey squir- 
 rel's hair next the roots, peacock herl ; warp with copper- 
 colour or ash. 
 
 Brown Ant. Light barge-sail, seal's fur and brown 
 bear's hair, peacock herl ; warp with orange. Wings of 
 this and the former, starling's feather ; longer than the 
 body. 
 
 2 B 
 
370 APPENDIX. NO. IV. 
 
 No. IV. 
 
 (Referred to from Part 11. page 30, n.) 
 
 FEBRUARY. PRIME DUN. Dubbing of the down 
 of a fox-cub, warped with sad ash-colomr'l silk. Wings, 
 of the feather got from the quill of a ' shepstare's wing. 
 This fly is made little : but there is another, made of the 
 same dubbing, la|ger by far. 
 
 MARCH. The same flies as arc taken in February 
 will be taken in March ; and also those hereafter men- 
 tioned. 
 
 MOORISH BROWN. Dubbing, of the wool of a black 
 sheep : warped with red silk. Wings, of the feather got 
 from a partridge win. 
 
 PALM FLY. Dubbing, of the hair of a brown spaniel, 
 got on the outside of the ear, and a little sea-green wool 
 mixed ; warped with brown cloth-coloured silk. Wings, 
 of a shepstare's quill-feather. 
 
 GREEN-TAIL. Dubbing, of the brown hair of a spa- 
 niel, got on the outside of the ear ; but a little, in the end 
 of the tail, must be all of sea-green wool, without mixture. 
 Wings, as the last. 
 
 APRIL. BRIGHT BEAR. Dubbing, of bright bear's 
 hair warped with sad cloth-coloured silk. Wings, of a 
 shepstare's cjuill feather. Others dub the body with yel- 
 low silk, which is better. 
 
 YELLOW DUN. Dubbing, of yellow wool, and ash- 
 coloured fox-cub down mixed together ; dubbed with yel- 
 low silk. Wings, of the feather of a shepstare's quill. 
 Others dub it with dun bear's hair, and the yellow fur got 
 from a martern's skin, mixed together, and with yellow 
 silk. Wings, of a shepstare's quill feather. 
 
 Make two other flies, their bodies dubbed as the last ; 
 but in the one mingle sanded hog's bown, and in the 
 other black hog's down. Whigs, of a shepstare's quill 
 feather. 
 
 And there is also taken an excellent fly, made of dun 
 bear's hair, yellow martern's fur, sanded hog's down, and 
 
 (l) The reader is to note, that thtptturc, ttare, and ttarling, are word* sy- 
 nonymous : -aid. Minsheu't Diet. voceSure. 
 
NO. IV. APPENDIX. 371 
 
 black hog's down, all mixed in an equal proportion toge- 
 ther ; warped with yellow silk. Wings, of the feather of 
 a shepstare's quill. 
 
 These several flies, mentioned for April, are very good, 
 and will be taken all the Spring and Summer. 
 
 MAY. THORN FLY. Dubbing, of black lamb's wool; 
 warped with black silk. Wings, of a mallard's light grey 
 feather. 
 
 NOTE. That in all instances where mallard's feathers are directed to be 
 used for wings, they must be those of the wild, and not the tame 
 mallard. 
 
 KNOP FLY. Dubbing, of the down of an otter-cub 
 and the herl of a peacock; warped with black silk. 
 Wings, of the light grey feather of a mallard. 
 
 FERN-BUD. This fly is got on fern, and the natural 
 one is very good to dib with. It has a short thick body, 
 of a very sad greenish colour, and two pairs of wings ; 
 the uppermost are hard, and sometimes taken off, but the 
 undermost diaphonous. And it is dubbed with the herl 
 of a peacock, and very sad green silk. Wings, of the 
 feather of a fieldfare's quill got out of the wing. 
 
 LITTLE DUN. Dubbing, of an otter's fur; warped 
 with ash-coloured silk. Wings, of a shepstare's quill- 
 feather. 
 
 YELLOW MAY-FLY. Dubbing, of yellow wool, mixed 
 with yellow fur of a martern ; warped with yellow silk. 
 Wings, of the lightest- coloured feather of a throstle. 
 
 JUNE. BLACK MIDGE, or GNAT. Dubbing, of the 
 down of a mole ; warped with black silk. Wings, of a 
 light grey shepstare's quill-feather. 
 
 GREY MIDGE, or GNAT. Dubbing, of the down of a 
 sad grey cat, or sad grey camel's hair ; warped with grey 
 silk. Wings, of the grey feather of a mallard. 
 
 PURPLE FLY. Dubbing, of purple wool, and a little 
 bear's hair mixed, sometimes no bear's hair at all. Wings, 
 of a shepstare's quill feather. Warped with purple silk. 
 
 SAND FLY. Dubbing, of the wool gotten off the flank 
 of a black sheep ; warped with black silk. Wings, of the 
 sad-coloured feather of a throstle-quill. Others make 
 the body of the feather of a heron's neck. 
 
 MACKERIL. Dubbing, of light brown camel's hair 
 warped with black silk. Wings, of a red cock's feather. 
 2 B2 
 
372 APPENDIX. NO. V. 
 
 JULY. BLUB DUN. Dubbing, of the down of a 
 water -mouse, and the bluish dun of an old fox, mixed 
 together; warped with sad ash-coloured silk. Wings, of 
 a shepstare's quill feather. 
 
 AUGUST. Buss BROWN. Dubbing, of the light 
 brown hair of a cur. The head, black. Wings, of the 
 feather of a red hen. Warped with orange-coloured silk. 
 
 HEARTH FLY. Dubbing, of the worn of an old black 
 sheep; with some grey hairs in it for the body and head. 
 Wings, of a light shepstare's quill-feather; warped-on 
 with black silk. 
 
 PISMIRE FLY. Dubbing, of bright brown bear's 
 hair ; warped with red silk. Wings, of the saddest-co- 
 loured shepstare's quill-feather. A good fly. 
 
 SEPTEMBER. LITTLE BLUE DUN. Dubbing, of 
 the down of a mouse, for body and head ; warped with 
 sad ash-coloured silk. Wings, of a sad-coloured shep- 
 stare's quill feather. 
 
 No. V. 
 
 (Referred to from Part II. page MS, n.) 
 Tll TEAKS, OWE MONTR, AWD FITB OATS* A WO LI WO. 
 
 FISH taken in the counties of Carmarthen and 
 Glamorgan, commencing llth April, 
 1753, to the 10th April, 1754, inclu- 
 sive 
 
 Ditto in the counties of Pembroke, Carmarthen,) 
 
 Glamorgan, and Derby, from llth> 3758 
 April, 1754, to 24th October following > 
 
 1756 Ditto in the counties of York, Salop, and > 3739 
 
 Glamorgan .... . . $ 
 
 1757 Fish taken in the county of Glamorgan . 9272 
 
 1758 Ditto in the counties of Glamorgan, > 77( - 2 
 
 Brecon, Radnor, and Hereford . . S 
 
 1759 Ditto in the same counties .... 3490 
 
 1760 Ditto in the county of Glamorgan . . 2150 
 
 1761 Ditto in the same county .... 2522 
 
 1762 Ditto in the counties of Glamorgan and . > 3^3 
 
 Carmarthen $ 
 
 1763 Ditto in the county of Carmarthen . . 3158 
 
NO. VI. APPENDIX. 373 
 
 1764 Ditto in the county of Carmarthen, to 23d 3 
 
 July, being my last day's angling in > 1814 
 the principality 
 
 The whole given to the public 47120 
 
 The rich, the poor, the sick, and the healthy, have 
 tasted of the labour of my hands. 
 
 In the first nine months in the year 1751, I took in the 
 counties of Pembroke and Carmarthen above a thousand 
 trouts : and though I have taken trouts in every month 
 in the year since, yet I could not, in any one year, reach 
 that number. Perhaps I have done it before 1751 ; but I 
 did not then keep an account all the year round, only 
 noted those days in which I had diversion more than 
 common. 
 
 N. B. There were some pike and chub, eel and floun- 
 der taken, which* are not noted in the above account. 1 
 
 No. VI. 
 
 Additional RULES and CAUTIONS. 
 
 I. WHEN you have hooked a fish, never suffer him to 
 run out with the line ; but keep your rod bent, and as 
 near perpendicular as you can : by this method the top 
 plies to every pull he makes, and you prevent the strain- 
 ing of your line, for the same reason. 
 
 II. Never raise a large fish out of the water by taking 
 the hair to which your hook is fastened, or indeed any 
 part of the line, into your hand ; but either put a landing- 
 net under him, or, for want of that, your hat : you may 
 indeed, in fly-fishing, lay hold of your line to draw a fisn 
 to you, but this must be done with caution. 
 
 III. Your silk for whipping hooks and other fine work 
 
 (I) If I had the honour of an acquaintance with this keeu and laborious 
 Sportsman, I might possibly at times have checked him in the ardour of his pur- 
 suit, by reminding him of that excellent maxim, " No. quid nimis," i. e. Nothing 
 too much. The pleasure of angling consists not so much in the number of fish 
 we catch, as in the exercise of our art, the gratification of our hopes, and the 
 reward of our skill and ingenuity : were it possible for an angler to be sure of 
 every cast of his fly, so that for six hours together his hook should never come 
 home without a fish at it, angling would be no more a recreation than the saw- 
 ing of stone, or the pumping of water. 
 
374 
 
 APPENDIX. NO. VI. 
 
 must be very small ; use it double, and wax it, and indeed 
 any other kind of binding, with shoemaker's wax, which 
 of all wax is the toughest, and holds best : if your wax is 
 too stiff, temper it with tallow. 
 
 IV. If for strong fishing you use grass, which when 
 you can get it fine is to be preferred to gut, remember 
 always to soak it about an hour in water before you use 
 it ; this will make it tough, and prevent its kinking. 
 
 V. Whenever you begin fishing, wet the ends of the 
 joints of your rod, which, as it makes them swell, will 
 prevent their loosening. And, 
 
 VI. If you happen with rain or otherwise to wet your 
 rod, so that you cannot pull the joints asunder, turn the 
 ferule a few times round in the flame of a candle, and 
 they will easily separate. 
 
 VII. Before you fix the loop of bristle to your hook in 
 order to make a fly, to prevent its drawing, be sure to 
 singe the ends of it in the flame of a candle ; do the same 
 by the hair to which at any time you whip a hook. 
 
 VIII. Make flies in warm weather only, for in cold 
 your waxed silk will not draw. 
 
 IX. In rainy weather, or when the season for fishing is 
 over, repair whatever damage your tackle has sustained. 
 
 X. Never regard what bunglers and slovens tell you ; 
 but believe that neatness in your tackle, and a nice and 
 curious hand in all your work, especially in fly-making, 
 are absolutely necessary. 
 
 XI. Be ever so provided as to be able to help yourself 
 in all exigences ; nor deem it a small incivility to inter- 
 rupt your companion in his sport, by frequently calling 
 to him to lend you a plummet or a knife, or to supply 
 you with a hook, a float, a few shot, or any thing else 
 that you ought to be furnished with before you set out 
 for your recreation. 
 
 XII. Never fish in any water that is not common, with- 
 out leave of the owner, which is seldom denied to any but 
 those who do not deserve it. 
 
 XIII. If at any time you happen to be overheated with 
 walking or other exercise, avoid small liquors, especially 
 water, as you would poison, and rather take a glass of 
 rum or brandy ; the instantaneous effects whereof, in cool- 
 ing the body and quenching drought, are amazing. 
 
NO. VI. APPENDIX. 375 
 
 XIV. Never be tempted in the pursuit of your recrea- 
 tion to wade, at least not as I have seen some do, to the 
 waist. This indiscreet practice has been known to bring 
 on fevers that have terminated in abscesses, and endan- 
 gered the loss of a limb. 
 
 XV. Never, to preserve the character of an expert 
 Angler, be guilty of that mean practice of buying fish * 
 of such of ycur fellow sportsmen as have had better suc- 
 cess than yourself; thereby giving occasion for that bitter 
 sarcasm, the more bitter for being true, "They were 
 caught with a silver hook." 
 
 XVI. Remember that the wit and invention of mankind 
 were bestowed for other purposes than to deceive silly 
 fish ; and that however delightful angling may have been 
 made to appear by the foregoing pages, it ceases to be 
 innocent when used otherwise than as a mere recreation. 
 
 XVII. Lastly, when seated under a shady tree, on the 
 side of a pleasant river, or moving about on the banks of 
 it, thou art otherwise pursuing thy recreation ; when the 
 gliding of waters, the singing of birds, the bleating of 
 flocks, the lowing of cattle, and the view of delightful 
 prospects, and the various occupations of rural industry, 
 shall dispose thee to thought and reflection ; let the beau- 
 ties of nature, the power, wisdom, and goodness of the 
 Almighty, as manifested in the production of his crea- 
 tures, the order and course of his providence in their pre- 
 servation, the rewards of a good life, and the certainty of 
 thy end, be the subjects of thy meditation. 
 
 (1) There are others to whom this caution against buying fish may be useful. 
 One of the greatest temptations to the fishing with unlawful nets in the Thames 
 wear London, is the high price which by an artifice some of the scaly kinds of 
 fish, that is to >ay, roach and dace, are made to fetch ; for the takers of such 
 first scrape off the scales, and sell them by the pound to the necklace-makers 
 (who make thereof a kind of amalgama, with which they cover wax beads, and 
 thereby imitate pearls;) and having so done, they cry the smallest and very re- 
 fuse of the fish about the streets, and sell them to ignorant housekeepers for 
 gudgeons. 
 
376 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 NO. VII, 
 
 No. VII. 
 ECLOGA PISCATORIA. 
 
 [A METASTASIO, 
 CANDIDA vitae 
 Gaudia nescit 
 Ah miser! ille, 
 Qui requievit 
 Littore nunquam 
 Mcllis arenas 
 Pone reclinis ; 
 Grata Favoni 
 Quum levis aura, 
 Vetpere sero 
 Fiuctibus ort a. 
 Flamine leni 
 Pectore muleens 
 iEquora crispat: 
 Nox ubi fuscis 
 Evolat alls, 
 Quot micat ardent 
 lenibus aether 
 Unda relucet, 
 Fractaque Phoebes 
 iEauore glauco 
 Ludit imago 
 Lactea, splendet 
 Sub tremebundo 
 Lumine pontus. 
 Et tua, Triton, 
 Buccina torta 
 Nocte silenti 
 Littora complet, 
 (Blanda palustris 
 Fistula cede, 
 Pan, licet Areas 
 Inflet avenam!) 
 Saxaque lat^ 
 Reddere discunt 
 Doridos ignes, 
 Leucothoesve, 
 Vel Galatheee 
 
 ut (licit nr.\ 
 
 Grata Sicano 
 Furta sub antro, 
 Quee fovet ulnis 
 Acida Divum; 
 Dumque natanti 
 Lumine languens 
 Murmure leni, 
 Basia sugens 
 Comprimit arete 
 Pectore pectus 
 Aurea nymph^ ; 
 Spretus amator 
 (Ardua moles) 
 Heu fremit atrox 
 Ore cruento, 
 Cunctaque late 
 Voce tonanti 
 Semifer implet: 
 (Scylla relatrat 
 . I it M. i remugit) 
 Turn furibundis 
 Passibus errans, 
 San guinolen turn 
 Luminis orbcm 
 Seeve volutans, 
 Singula lustrat, 
 Cernere si qua 
 Possit amantes, 
 Raptaque dextra 
 Pallida membra 
 Fulminis instar 
 Fragens heu ! heu ! 
 Vindice saxo. 
 
 Ergo age tandem 
 Spernere mitte 
 Gurgitis almi 
 Littora grata, 
 Gratior ipsa 
 
NO. VII. 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 377 
 
 Rustica Phylli, 
 Ipsa Dione, 
 Jpsa puelli 
 Arcitenentis 
 Aurea mater, 
 Aurea qvge nunc 
 Ore nitenti 
 Numina captat; 
 Blanda marines 
 Filia spumee 
 Edita ponto est: 
 Nunc quoque pontum 
 (jEthere spreto) 
 Ssepe revisens, 
 Alite curru 
 Diva serenis 
 Labitur undis, 
 Collaque olorum 
 
 Floribus atque 
 
 Flectit habena ; 
 -/Eolus Euro 
 
 Lora frementi 
 
 Contrahit arete ; 
 
 At tibi laxat, 
 
 Alme Favoni, 
 
 Prupureisque 
 
 Exsilis alls. 
 
 Moxque reportans 
 
 Conjugis horto 
 
 Sive rosarum 
 
 Vel hyacinth i 
 
 Fundis odores. 
 
 Grandia cete 
 
 Guadia vasta 
 
 Saltibus eduut 
 
 Incompostis, 
 
 O Venus alma, 
 
 Teque salutant, 
 
 Et maris sequor 
 
 Impete Iseto 
 
 Sydera ad alta 
 Naribus efflant. 
 
 O mea vita, 
 Ocyus adsis, 
 Molle latusque 
 Littore fulta, 
 Prospice mecum 
 Colle propinquo 
 Subsilientes 
 Lanigerarum 
 Ubera circum 
 Molliter agnas; 
 Pendula lino 
 Et tibi dextram 
 Armet arundo; 
 Hamus aduncus 
 Fluctuet unda : 
 Mox genus ecce 
 Omne natantum 
 (Squammea pubes 
 Ex latebrosis 
 Advena fundis) 
 Preepete pinna 
 Trans maris eequor 
 Ultro requiret 
 Humid a nostree 
 Lina puellse ; 
 Crine madentes 
 Et tibi fundent 
 Naiades udse 
 Divite dextra, 
 Mille colorum 
 Munera conchas, 
 Saguine multo 
 Tincta coralla 
 Gurgitis imi 
 Splendida dona, 
 Doridos almas 
 Laeve tributum. 1 
 
 (1) This eclogue, which on account of its excellence is here inserted, was 
 commuuu-atfd by a learned friend to the rditor of this work (1760); but it does 
 not occur in any of the editions of Mctastasio's Works. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Page 
 
 AUDISON. Mr. - - ItfO 
 
 A.r, praise of the Rtemeot of - 6 
 Alfred. Kin*, alien the Count, 
 
 of the River Ue - . 219 
 Aldrovaodns Ulysses . 85 
 
 Ame*. the Prophet, mm Angler M 
 Aujler. the Ap|*rrl of an - n. CO 
 dress of io iLe l*l Aft w. 7 
 
 ' wuh . -104 
 
 Angling allowed to Churchmen 36 
 
 .UW* Of - . 350 
 
 Uoes la praise of. by 
 
 Jo. Davot , eeq. . - 4O 
 
 , practised bj Lad**, in 
 
 Sc. James's Park, io Chlr 
 II.'s Reif n - - . 4 
 
 Ani.Fly . 332 
 
 Aatfcooy and Cleopatra Made 
 
 Angling Recreation - . 35 
 Aotoua Ui Wife of Drusat - 1 IS 
 Apnl, artificial File* for - - 319 
 ApoeUee. Igfcr of them Fishermen 3? 
 Arufieial-Fly Mperior lo.o.tur.l 
 OM i. wiodj Weather - sc-i 
 
 ffliee, material* oee. 
 
 aarj to make . . 96 
 
 AUboam, Derbyabir* - - 2?5 
 Ah.rub - - -346 
 
 Do* 313 
 
 attd by tome Aof lert 
 to make BaiU attractive 12* 
 Au fi u*t, artificial Flies for -332 
 
 Bails, how to ascertain what Bait 
 
 Fih are apt to ukc - 201 
 
 . a, efl0cU of the use of im- 
 proper > - - M. 185 
 
 the Oil of Ivy-berriM, &c. 
 
 Mid to attract Fub;1iow to use n. 123 
 Bait - - - 206 
 
 Barbel, bow to fih for 174 
 
 Spaw,* or, daugeioiu 175 
 
 ^ how to bait for - - 176 
 
 Pg 
 Barbel, hU haunt* - . . 177 
 
 Anecdotes relating to llir, n.\b. 
 
 Barker, Air. Tliomat, hit diiei - 
 
 lions for Fly-risliing yi 
 
 Barm- Fly - - 33U 
 
 Barnes, or Berne rs, Dame Julyuns xiv 
 Bede, an accouot of . 166 
 
 Beggars, curious division of mo 
 
 ney by . 100 
 
 ' daughter of Betluul- 
 
 green, extract from the ballad 
 of - . - - 239 
 
 Bentley Brook . . 280 
 
 Beresford Hall - - 81 
 
 Bishop-fish, story of the - '.a 
 
 , an account of the n. 28 
 BUck-fly - . 322 
 
 Black hackle - 331 
 
 Bleak, how to fish fur - 1UO 
 Bloa herl fly - 366 
 
 Blue duo - - 332 
 
 Book for materials for Fly-makiog 96 
 Boteler, Dr. an accouot of is. 104 
 Bowlker, Richard 84 n. 127, n. 224 
 Bream. Observations on, and Di- 
 rections bow io calch 151 
 considered a great rarity 
 
 in Henry V.'s lime - . n. 152 
 Brown Gnat, how to make - 330 
 Browne, Moses <. 1'ji 
 
 Cadis, Yellow, bow to bail with 
 for Trout - .210 
 
 Worm* - - - 206 
 
 Camlci Fly - - - 329 
 
 Camel Brown Fly - - 333 
 
 Cardaous Ilieronymus - n. 134 
 
 Carp, how to fish for - - 142 
 
 - when brought to England 143 
 
 . amazing sue of, in Germany 144 
 
 deslroyed by Frogs - 146 
 
 i how Io dress - 150 
 
 Ground-bail fur Carp 148, 154 
 
 breed best in Ponds with 
 
 other Fian - - > 223 
 
 Casaubon, Dr. - n. 25 
 
INDEX, 
 
 379 
 
 Caussin, Nicholas 
 Chalkliill's, John, Angling Song, 
 by Author of Songs on Angling 
 Chamblet-Fly 
 Char, where caught 
 Chub, how to fish for 
 
 how 10 dress - 
 
 Claudius, Klianus 
 Coble, Basket so named 
 
 Page 
 235 
 
 74 
 95 
 
 - 173 
 . 51 
 
 - 52 
 n. 29 
 
 n. 117 
 
 - 207 
 209 
 885 
 
 73 
 
 Cl ) 
 
 CO 
 
 Corkspur Worms - ' 
 
 Colue, Ruff-coat or Straw -Worm 
 Coiiate, Tom, Accouut of 
 Coiidon's Soug 
 
 Cork or Float-fishing 
 Cony- Fish 
 Cotton, Charles, the Elder, Lord 
 Clarendon's Character of - 248 
 
 Jun *ent to College ib. 
 
 Life of - - ib. 
 
 's Fishing-House, a De- 
 scription of 290, 292 
 
 '> Stanzas entitled Conteu- 
 
 Utiou, addressed to Walton 259 
 
 publishes the 2d part of the 
 
 Complete Augler - - 2?1 
 
 Author and Translator of 
 
 various Works - 2*2 
 
 Criticism on Ditto - 53 
 
 Cow-Dung Fly - 322 
 
 Cow-Lady Fly - 322 
 
 Cowley, Lines by - * n. 240 
 
 Cuttle-Fish - -29 
 
 D 
 Dace, how to fish for .195 
 
 some Baits as Roach - 202 
 
 Dapiug, Dabbing, or Dibbing - 296 
 Dark Brown Fly - n. 319 
 
 Dead- Bait for Pike - 137 
 
 December, artificial Flies for - 333 
 Derbyshire, famous for Trout - 273 
 _ account of the prin- 
 cipal Riveis in - -279 
 Dew-Worm - -77 
 Dock-Worm - - 77 
 Donne, Dr. John xxiv 
 Dove River, famous for Trout 
 
 and Grayling 
 Drake-Fly, dark - - 91 
 
 Drayton, Michael 120 
 
 Du liartas, Lins of 28 
 
 Dubravius, Janus . - - 131 
 
 Ducks destructive to the Spawn 
 
 and young Fry in Fish- Ponds - 223 
 Duo-Fly, great - - 90, 314 
 
 little - - - 317 
 
 Blue 315 
 
 Dun Cut Fly 
 
 - Grass-hopper 
 
 Page 
 
 - 322 
 
 - 331 
 
 iarth, Commendation of - 11 
 
 Eels, various kinds of - - 168 
 
 - destructive to young Ducks ib. 
 . Singling fur - 169 
 
 - how to dress - - 170 
 the large one caught at Pe- 
 terborough - - ib. 
 haunts of the n. 171 
 
 considered dangerous Food ib. 
 
 - how bred Baits for - 172 
 how to fish tor - - ib. 
 
 Emanuel College, Cambridge, a 
 
 Carp of a great age at - 146 
 Epliemeron, an Account of the n. 84 
 
 Esperon, Life of the Duke d' 250 
 
 Feathers principal \y used in mak- 
 
 ing Flies - 05 
 
 February, artificial Flics for 313 
 Fence Months - 46 
 
 Fern-bud fly - - 336 
 
 - Fly ' . . -332 
 Fields near Leomiuster, peuli- 
 
 nrity of ... 114 
 
 Fish, the hearing of - n. 112 
 
 - furnished with Parts of Ge- 
 neration ; reference to Works on 130 
 
 uncommon, dissected by 
 
 Wliarton - - , , 
 Fishing, at the Top V . ., 
 
 - continued 
 
 220 
 311 
 327 
 334 
 
 unlawful manner of 
 
 - Ponds, and how to order 
 them - n. 221,224 
 
 Flesh Fly - , , . , . 3S) 
 
 Fletcher, Phiueas, Account of lj 
 
 . Extract from his Purple 
 
 Island > n. 189 
 
 Flies, the kind used for Trout- 
 
 Fishing . . ; 83, (JO 
 
 Flies of Prey - - - 84 
 
 -- natural, for Fishing with - 2y5 
 Float Fishing - > n. 210 
 
 Flounder, how to catch - - 172 
 Fly, artificial, how to make 297, 301 
 
 - kinds noticed by Walton 90, 91 
 
 - Fishing, Cotton's Directions. 
 
 for .... cy5 
 
 . mode of throwing 
 the Line ' - 28-9 
 
 -- in windy Weather, 
 best in the still deeps - 336 
 
380 
 
 1NDF.X. 
 
 Page 
 
 Frogs destroy the young Fry in 
 Fish-Poods . nS 
 
 several kinds of, dettruc- 
 
 live to Pike . is 
 
 Fulimart or Frlnurt . . 1C 
 
 Oarrkk, Mrs. . -144 
 
 Gay, John, a lover of Angling n. 199 
 
 Extract from his Rural Sports ib. 
 
 Gentles, how to breed, and me- 
 thod of keep.og . . 199 
 Oeocge, the Lesser, preserved by 
 
 Wahon . - - xxxiv 
 
 Gerard, John, aa Account of - n. 106 
 Geraer, Conrade, Account of - n. 27 
 Goat, Blight Daa. - - SIS 
 
 Gold and Silver Fish - n 211 
 
 Grass. Indian, how to use . st. 8 
 Grasshopper 58 
 
 Green, how to make SSI 
 Graves, Med a* a Bait - * 170 
 
 Grayling, or Ueaber, Directions 
 howtoishfor .115 
 
 the best Baits for . 1 17 
 
 whea ! Baasea . SOI-8 
 
 Great Dan-Fly " .114 
 
 Blue Dew-Fly - 115 
 
 Wbirttof Dua.Fly 
 - Hactle Fly 
 Greea Peacock Hackle - 
 
 w. 117 
 
 - StI 
 
 - StfS 
 
 - S.It 
 . 07 
 
 Grasshopper 
 
 - Tail- Fly - 
 
 Drake-Fit - K 
 
 - bow to ouke an anlftcial S5 
 Grey Drake ^ . 
 -- Fly - H.3t6 
 Grub. good BeJt for Roach. Dace, 
 
 Jte. ... 199 
 
 O %, OnreiUoM oo the, 179 
 CjfitM. csjrioM Division of 
 
 Money by a Gang of - 106-107 
 
 Hackle. Fly. lesser . 51* 
 Main, how to die 9 
 Hakewtll. Dr. .IIS 
 Hanson. Toot J . <86 
 Harry Loag-Lecs-Fly - . SS2 
 Harvie. Ch. Venes by - - 10* 
 Hawks, fee several kinds of, de- 
 scribed 10 
 Hawthorn-Fly 99 
 Hearing of Fih 1 12 
 Hearth-Fly - .T? 
 HcnoKwr, or Schow Brook - 277 
 
 Herbert, George - xx 
 
 Verses by - 27 
 
 Mr. Verses by - - 101 
 
 Lord, of Cherbury 7 
 
 Hermit-Fish '-9 
 Hrrn, or Heron, caught with a 
 
 Hook baited - 181 
 Hind, James, the English Gus- 
 
 man, an Account of n. 107 
 
 Hook, method of Whipping ou a 05 
 Hooker, Richard, Biographical 
 
 Account of - xx 
 
 Horseflesh-Fly - - S0 
 Hortensius weeps at the Death 
 
 of a Lamprey - 107 
 
 Hunting, the Commendation of 11 
 
 Uuxurd-Fly - - 304 
 
 I J 
 
 Jacks, Pikes so called - - 136 
 James 1. an Enemy to Tobacco 288 
 January, artificial Flies for - SIS 
 Indian Grass for Hook line. - 228 
 Johnson, Ben, an enemy to To- 
 bacco - - - 288 
 Isabella Colour described - SI5 
 Jone, artificial Flies for - - SSO 
 July, diuo - S31 
 
 Kennet River - - 115 
 
 King, Hen. Bishop of Chichestrr xxxvi 
 Kipper, Explanation of the Word 119 
 Kirby, Charles, Maker of excel- 
 lent Hooks n. 205 
 KnopFly . - S71 
 Knotted Grey Guat - - S6? 
 
 Lamprey, its longevity - 167 
 Last Spring, a species of the 
 
 Trout - - - n. 125 
 
 Laves, Mr. Henry, Account of n. 92 
 Laws of Angliug - S50 
 
 Lea River, Walton's principal 
 
 resort - xi 
 
 Lebault, Mons. Author of " Mai- 
 son Rostique" - 2C1 
 Ledger bait - - MS 
 Lesser Hackle Fly - - 314 
 Lessins, Leonard, Account of - Hy 
 Lever, Sir Ashton . 26 
 Like hermit poor,' Song of - 104 
 Line, how to throw in fly-fishing 298*9 
 Line, direction* for making 225, 227 
 
INDEX. 
 
 381 
 
 Live Baits 
 
 for Pike 
 
 Page 
 
 - 133 
 - ib. 
 
 -' 139 
 
 - 213 
 
 Live snap 
 
 Loach, the, how to fish for 
 
 Lobel, Matthias de, an Account 
 
 of - . - n. 166 
 
 Lob-worm - - 77 
 
 Luce or Pike, Observations on, 
 
 and directions how to fish for 126 
 
 MackerilFly . - 371 
 
 Macrobius Aurelius - - l6 
 
 March, artificial flies for - 3l6 
 
 Markham, Gervaise - 20,225 
 
 Marlow, Christopher - - n. 65 
 
 Martial, Epigram of 113 
 
 Masaniello - - n. 66 
 
 Materials for Fly-making n. g5 
 Mattliiolus, Petrus Andreas n. 214 
 
 May artificial flies - - 320 
 May-fly, how to make an artificial g.1 
 
 Mcdway, river - - 218 
 
 Mercator Gerard - n. 57 
 
 Milkmaid's song *- 67 
 
 answer - 68-9 
 
 Miller's Thumb, or Bull's head 213 
 
 Minnow or Penk, how to bait 
 
 with - -> - 80 
 . how to fish for 
 
 how to dress 212 
 
 Monk Fish - - 28 
 
 Moorish Fly 82 
 
 Morelands - - 288 
 
 Moss, various kinds of 78 
 
 Moulin, Peter du . t2 
 
 Mullet - 31 
 
 N 
 
 Natural Fly, of fishing with a 100,295 
 New River, the best Eels taken in 172 
 Night-Fishing for Trout - 92 
 
 Nightingale, its singing described 8 
 North, Hon. Roger, Discourse of 
 
 Fisli and Fish-ponds - - 225 
 Northumberland Trout - 60 
 
 November, Artificial Flies for - 333 
 Nowel. Dr. Dean of St. Paul's, 
 
 some Account of - - n. 36 
 
 Oak-Fly - - -99,100 
 
 Oak-Worm - n. 77 
 
 October, Artificial Flies for - 333 
 Offley, John - - - xlv 
 
 Oils used for Baits 123, 137, 149 
 
 Page 
 Oldys, W. the first biographer of 
 
 Cotton '. - 47 
 
 Orange- Fly . - 331 
 
 Ouer, Observations on the - 43 
 Ouse, large Pike caught in the 
 
 river - 128 
 
 Owl-Fly - - -330 
 
 Palmer-Fly, to make a - 314 
 
 Palmer, or plain Hackle, how to 
 
 make a 
 Palmer- Worm 
 Parrot-Fish 
 Pastes for Chub 
 
 Carp 
 
 Tench 
 
 Roach, &c. 
 
 n. 315 
 
 - 55 
 
 - 148 
 
 - 159 
 
 - 197 
 n. 181 
 
 - 322 
 
 - 330 
 160 
 
 nil 
 
 Paternoster Line 
 Peacock-Fly 
 
 how to make a 
 Pearch, directions how to catch 
 has a medicinal quality 
 
 Baits for - 162 
 
 Pearl colour, or Heron Dun - 363 
 Penk. or Minnow, Observations 
 
 on the - . -no, 212 
 
 Peucerus, Gaspar - - 110 
 
 Pigeons, the carriers of Letters 9 
 Pike, or Luce, Observations on, 
 and directions how to fish 
 for . 126, 135 
 
 their great age - - n. ib. 
 
 their voracity - 127 
 
 remarkable one taken at 
 
 Newport - n. 128 
 
 the bite of venomous - 130 
 
 said to be destroyed by 
 
 Frogs - - 132 
 
 Pool, Description of - 309 
 
 Piscator's Song 183 
 in praise of An- 
 gling . - 75 
 Piper Cadis - - n. 208 
 Pismire Fly - 365 
 Plain Hackle Fly - - 367 
 Poison. Fish - - - fl 
 Pope, or Ruffe, Observations on 176 
 Prime Dun- Fly - 370 
 Purple-Fly - - - 371 
 
 R 
 
 Randolph, Mr. Thomas, Quota- 
 tion from his Poems - n. 193 
 Red Brown Lesser - - 313 
 R?d Brown-Fly - ib. 
 
382 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Red Hackle-Fly 
 Red Herl-Fly 
 Reltquac Wottoolanaj 
 Riven, Observations on several, 
 aod oa FUh 
 
 the principal in England 
 
 in one of Drmyloo's 
 
 Page 
 
 967 
 Soft 
 
 xn 
 
 810 
 
 218 
 
 UM Wooden of. cootem- 
 
 m 
 m 
 
 the largest caoght in the 
 
 M. 19* 
 
 . Baits for 197. 
 
 . their haunts . 801 
 
 Rocqoe asade Topographer to 
 
 Frederick. Prince of Wale* is. tl 
 Rod. Directions for colooriog 225, 230 
 
 the choice of - n. 225 
 
 how to wake nutffi 
 beat made 10 Yorkshire, 
 
 -length of - 297 
 
 RoskrvtUos CO1 
 
 RoTalMerchaj^CowMdvoftbe 1C8 
 Roddy. Fly - - -90 
 
 Raff-Coat, a specie* of Cadia 9 
 Ratfe, or Pope, how to fish for 
 Roooing-Uae, Description of 
 
 8*d ToWow-Fly - 
 
 r. Mr. .o Account of 
 
 - n. 2 
 
 4fi 
 03 
 
 Saady*. Mr. O. Account of tha 
 Travel* of - . 9 
 
 bow to fish for bias 
 
 Migration of - M 
 
 the largest caoght la the 
 . - H 
 
 giiael the de- 
 Spawn oaed for Bait - 
 
 Seboo Brook 
 
 r. Artificul Flic* for - SM 
 Sh'.wford Brook - 109 
 
 Sheldon. Dr. Gilbert - - 178 
 
 ShalUFly - 91. 
 
 Sbapperton and HuDptoo. fre- 
 quented by the Londoners - n. 196 
 Silver Tvut'llarkle - 
 
 Small Bright Brown Fly 
 
 SoiKlioc for EeU - 100 
 
 Spawn of moil Fih an eicellent 
 . 5 . C06 
 
 Sooty Duo-Fly S^* 
 
 Sticklebag, the, food bait for 
 Tr\>ot - - - 14 
 
 Fly - - - 90, K 
 
 Worm - 09 
 
 Irreguliers. addressed 
 to laaak Walton Sfi? 
 
 St. Peter, a denial of his having 
 
 been at ROOM - 7 
 
 Swans - - .90 
 
 Tackle re.juuiie for an Angler 20C-3 
 Teach. Observations on, and ad- 
 vice how to angle for 158 
 
 Core performed by the 
 
 application of - - 159 
 
 the physician of Fishes - 159 
 
 Thamee, Origin of the name - C 16 
 
 Lines in praise of 217 
 
 where It take* it* rite n. 217 
 Thatched House in Hoddesdoo 1 
 Theobald's, a Description of - Ib. 
 Thorn-Fly -371 
 
 Thorn-tree-Fly 318 
 
 Tobacco, King James the Pint's 
 
 hatred of .288 
 
 Tradeacants, Account of the 7 
 Treatyse of Fishing wyth an Angle lv 
 Trolling, Directions for * 138 
 
 Trolling for Pike - n. 138 
 
 Trout, Sticklebat a good Bait for 213 
 vat ioui places where found 58 
 
 the haunts of, aod time of 
 
 spawning - n. 114 
 
 Observations on the nature 
 
 and breeding of the - - 57 
 
 Further Directions how to 
 
 fish for - - 70 
 
 or Grayling, bow to angle 
 
 for - - 29* 
 
 ___ how to dress 3.17 
 how to angle 
 
 for, at the bottom 
 
 for. by hand 
 
 for in the middle 
 
 how to angle 
 how to angle 
 Loach a good 
 
 339 
 
 bait for 
 Torker-Fly 
 Tweed. River 
 Tjne River 
 
 346 
 
 .147 
 321 
 218 
 ib. 
 
 Umber, or Grayling. Observa- 
 tions oa, and how to fish for 115 
 
INDEX. 
 
 383 
 
 V 
 
 
 Page 
 
 
 Page 
 
 Worms, how to make appear - 79 
 
 Valdesso, John 
 
 - n. 106 
 
 Cadis - C06 
 
 Varro, Marcus Terentius 
 
 . tf 
 
 Cockspur - - COT 
 
 Violet Dun-Fly 
 
 - 363 
 
 Straw - - ib. 
 
 Violet-Fly 
 
 . 319 
 
 how to preserve - n 207 
 
 
 
 method of making them 
 
 W 
 
 
 rise - - 79 
 
 Walking Bait 
 Walton. Isaac, the Life of 
 
 - 133 
 ix 
 
 Wotton, Sir Henry - - 39 
 
 Bionr3.phicfil 
 
 
 Wasp-Fly - 9' S31 
 
 Account of - - 24 
 
 Water, the element of, commended 14 
 Whartou, Dr. * - - 219 
 Whirling Dun-Fly 3'9 
 White Dun-Fly - 331 
 White Gnat - 322 
 
 of Angling, by, from the Reli- 
 qua: Wottonianae - - 237 
 Farewell to the 
 
 Vanities of the World - 238 
 
 White Hackle 
 
 - 332 
 
 Wye River, in Monmouthshire - 122 
 
 White Miller, or Owl-Fly 
 
 330 
 
 Y 
 
 Whitish Dun-Fly 
 Whitterish-Fly 
 
 - 318 
 - 369 
 
 Yellow, or Greenish Fly - 90 
 
 Weirs, or Kidels 
 
 - 197 
 
 Dun-Fly - - n. 32O 
 
 Wind, Observations on 
 
 9 
 
 May-Fly - - 329 
 
 the best for fishing 
 Withy-Fly 
 Worms, how to keep 
 
 28 
 - 364 
 - 78 
 
 Miller, or Owl Fly - 365 
 . Watchet-Fly - 367 
 Yelvers, the name for young Eels 165 
 
 THE END. 
 
 DIRECTIONS TO THE BINDER. 
 
 Head of Walton to face the Title-page. 
 
 Groups of Fish to face the Advertisement, after First Title. 
 
 Fac-Simile Title-page 1653 to face Page xli. 
 
 SU Alban's Abbey xiv 
 
 Prior Silksteed's Chapel !..!"!."xvii 
 
 Walton's Tomb-Stone ibid. 
 
 Madeley Manor , e> xlv. 
 
 Dibbing for Chub '....'../.'."I! 53 
 
 Fly-Fishing for Trout "... ..........*."... 82 
 
 Pearch-Fishing .......'.. 160 
 
 Barbel-Fishing '.'..I'..!!.!. 174 
 
 Fac-Simile of Walton and Cotton's Hand-writing .'..".'.'". 242 
 
 Head of Cotton 545 
 
 Dapiug for Trout 096 
 
 Fly-Fishing ' .,35 
 
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