EVERYMAN'S LIBRARY 
 EDITED BY ERNEST RHYS 
 
 ESSAYS 
 
 THE COM PLEAT ANGLER 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION 
 
 BY ANDREW LANG 
 
THIS is NO. TO OF 
 
 LIBI^I^. THE PUBLISHERS WILL 
 BE PLEASED TO SEND FREELY TO ALL 
 APPLICANTS A LIST OF THE PUBLISHED 
 AND PROJECTED VOLUMES ARRANGED 
 UNDER THE FOLLOWING SECTIONS.* 
 
 TRAVEL ? SCIENCE ? FICTION 
 
 THEOLOGY & PHILOSOPHY 
 
 HISTORY ^ CLASSICAL 
 
 FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 
 
 ESSAYS ^ ORATORY 
 
 POETRY & DRAMA 
 
 BIOGRAPHY 
 
 REFERENCE 
 
 ROMANCE 
 
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 LONDON: J. M. DENT & SONS, LTD. 
 NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & CO. 
 
ANGLER 
 8BY IZAAK 
 
 WALTON, 
 
 LONDON &LTORONTO 
 PUBLISHED BYJ M DENT 
 &.SONS DP &.IN NEWYORK 
 BY E P DUTTON & CO 
 

 FIRST ISSUE OF THIS EDITION . March 1906; 
 REPRINTED .... July 1906; ^4/>n7 1908; 
 
 January 1911; December 1913; 
 
 September 1916; February 1920 
 
To write on Walton is, indeed, to hold a candle 
 to the sun. The editor has been content to give a 
 summary of the chief, or rather the only known, 
 events in Walton's long life, adding a notice of his 
 character as displayed in his Biographies and in The 
 Compleat Angler, with comments on the ancient 
 and modern practice of fishing, illustrated by pas- 
 sages from Walton's foregoers and contemporaries. 
 Like all editors of Walton, he owes much to his 
 predecessors, Sir John Hawkins, Oldys, Major, 
 and, above all, to the learned Sir Harris Nicolas. 
 The text here reprinted is, in the main, that of Sir 
 Harris Nicolas, which was printed from Walton's 
 Fifth Edition, 1676, the last that was revised by 
 the author. 
 
viii The Complete Angler 
 
 HIS LIFE 
 
 The few events in the long life of Izaak Walton 
 have been carefully investigated by Sir Harris 
 Nicolas. All that can be extricated from docu- 
 ments by the alchemy of research has been selected, 
 and I am unaware of any important acquisitions 
 since Sir Harris Nicolas's second edition of 1860. 
 Izaak was of an old family of Staffordshire yeomen, 
 probably descendants of George Walton of Yox- 
 hall, who died in 1571. Izaak's father was Jarvis 
 Walton, who died in February 1595-6; of Izaak's 
 mother nothing is known. Izaak himself was born 
 at Stafford, on August 9, 1593, and was baptized 
 on September 21. He died on December 15, 1683, 
 having lived in the reigns of Elizabeth, James I., 
 Charles I., under the Commonwealth, and under 
 Charles II. The anxious and changeful age through 
 ^ which he passed is in contrast with his very pacific 
 character and tranquil pursuits. 
 
 Of Walton's educationjiothingis known, except 
 on the evidence of hiswritmgsT He may have read 
 Latin, but most ftf~the-beoks he cites had English 
 translations. Did he learn his religion from "his 
 mother or his nurse " ? It will be seen that the 
 free speculation of his age left him untouched:^ 
 perhaps his piety was awakened, from childhood, 
 under the instruction of a pious mother. Had he 
 been orphaned of both parents (as has been sug- 
 gested) he might have been less amenable to au- 
 thority, and a less notable example of the virtues 
 which Anglicanism so vainly opposed to Puritanism. 
 His literary begirvmngs_^i^t)bscure. There exists 
 a copy of a worl^ The Loves of Amos and Laura^ 
 written by S. P., published in 1613, and again in 
 1619. The edition of 1619 is dedicated to " Iz, 
 _ 
 
 " Thou being cause it is as now it is " ; 
 
Introduction ix 
 
 the Dedication does not occur in the one imperfect 
 known copy of 1613. Conceivably the words, "as 
 now it is " refer to the edition of 1619, which might 
 have been emended by Walton's advice. But there 
 are no emendations, hence it is more probable that 
 Walton revised the poem in 1613, when he was a 
 man of twenty, or that he merely advised the author 
 to publish : 
 
 11 For, hadst thou held thy tongue, by silence might 
 These have been buried in oblivion's night ". 
 
 S. P. also remarks : 
 
 " No ill thing can be clothed in thy verse " ; 
 
 hence Izaak was already a rhymer, and a harmless 
 one, under the Royal Prentice, gentle King Jamie. 
 By this time Walton was probably settled in 
 London. A deed in the possession of his bio- 
 grapher, Dr. Johnson's friend, Sir John Hawkins, 
 shows that, in 1614, Walton held half of a shop 
 on the north side of Fleet Street, two doors west 
 of Chancery Lane : the other occupant was a hosier. 
 Mr. Nicholl has discovered that Walton was made 
 free of the Ironmongers' Company on Nov. 12, 
 1618. He is styled anjronmonger in his marriage 
 licence. The facts are given in Mr. Marston's Life 
 of Walton, prefixed to his edition of The Compleat 
 Angler (1888). It is odd that a prentice iron- 
 monger should have been a poet and a critic of 
 poetry. Dr. Donne, before 1614, was Vicar of St. 
 Dunstan's in the West, and in Walton had a parish- 
 ioner, a disciple, and a friend. Izaak greatly loved 
 the society of the clergy : he connected himself with 
 Episcopal families, and had a natural taste for a 
 Bishop. Through Donne, perhaps, or it may be 
 in converse across the counter, he made acquaint- 
 ance with Hales of Eton, Dr. King, and Sir Henry 
 Wotton, himself an angler, and one who, 
 
x The Complete Angler 
 
 Donne and Izaak, loved a ghost story, and had 
 several in his family. Drayton, the river-poet, 
 author of the Polyolbion^ is also spoken of by 
 Walton as " my old deceased friend ". 
 
 On Dec. 27, 1626, Walton married, at Canter- 
 bury, Rachel Floud, a niece, on the maternal side, 
 by several descents, of Cranmer, the famous Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury. The Cranmers were inti- 
 mate with the family of the judicious Hooker, and 
 Walton was again connected with kinsfolk of that 
 celebrated divine. Donne died in 1631, leaving to 
 Walton, and to other friends, a bloodstone engraved 
 with Christ crucified on an anchor : tne seal is im- 
 pressed on Walton's will. When Donne's poems 
 were published in 1633, Walton added commend- 
 atory verses : 
 
 " As all lament 
 (Or should) this general cause of discontent ". 
 
 The parenthetic " or should " is much in Walton's 
 manner. " Witness my mild pen, not used to up- 
 braid the world," is also a pleasant and accurate 
 piece of self-criticism. " I am his convert/' Walton 
 exclaims. In a citation from a manuscript which 
 cannot be found, and perhaps never existed, Walton 
 is spoken of as " a very sweet poet in his youth, 
 and more than all in matters of love ". * Donne had 
 been in the same case : he, or Time, may have con- 
 verted Walton from amorous ditties. Walton, in 
 an edition of Donne's poems of 1635, writes of 
 
 11 This book (dry emblem) which begins 
 With love ; but ends with tears and sighs for sins ". 
 
 The preacher and his convert had probably a 
 similar history of the heart : as we shall sec, Walton, 
 
 1 The MS. was noticed in The Freebooter^ Oct. 18, 1823, but 
 Sir Harris Nicolas could not find it, where it was said to be, 
 among the Lansdowne MSS. 
 
like the Cy 
 
 Introduction xi 
 
 like the Cyclops, had known love. Early in 1639, 
 Wotton wrote to Walton about a proposed Life of 
 Donne, to be written by himself, and hoped "to 
 enjoy your own ever welcome company in the^x 
 approaching time of the Fly and the Cork ". Wotton ^ 
 was a fly-fisher; the cork, or float, or "trembling 
 quill," marks Izaak for the bottom-fisher he was. x 
 Wotton died in December 1639; Walton prefixed 
 his own Life of Donne to that divine's sermons 
 in 1640. He says, in the Dedication of the re- 
 print of 1658, that "it had the approbation of our 
 late learned and eloquent King," the martyred 
 Charles I. Living in, or at the corner of, Chan- 
 cery Lane, Walton is known to have held parochial 
 office : he was even elected " scavenger ". He had the 
 misfortune to lose seven children of whom the last 
 died in 1641 his wife, and his mother-in-law. In 
 1644 he left Chancery Lane, and probably retired 
 from trade. He was, of course, a Royalist. Speak- 
 ing of the entry of the Scots, who came, as one of 
 them said, "for the goods, and chattels of the 
 English/ 1 he remarks, " I saw and suffered by it ". * 
 He also mentions that he "saw" shops shut by 
 their owners till Laud should be put to death, in 
 January 1645. In his Life of Sanderson, Waltojn 
 vouches for an anecdote of " the knowing and coil* 
 scientious King," Charles, who, he says, meant to 
 do public penance for Stafford's death, and for 
 the abolishing of Episcopacy in Scotland. Bui 
 the condition, " peaceable possession of the Crown, 
 was not granted to Charles, nor could have been 
 granted to a prince who wished to rein trod uce Bish- 
 ops in Scotland. Walton had his information from 
 Dr. Morley. On Nov. 25, 1645, Walton probably 
 
 1 The quip about "goods and chattels" was revived later, in 
 the case of a royal mistress. 
 
 * 
 
xii The Complete Angler 
 
 wrote, though John Marriott signed, an Address to 
 the Reader, printed, in 1646, with Quarles's Shep- 
 ^erd's Eclogues. The piece is a little idyll in prose, 
 "'and " angle, lines, and flies " are not omitted in the 
 description of "the fruitful month of May," while 
 Pan is implored to restore Arcadian peace to 
 Britannia, "and grant that each honest shepherd 
 may again sit under his own vine and fig-tree, and 
 feed his own flock," when the King comes, no doubt. 
 *' About" 1646 Walton married Anne, half-sister 
 of Bishop Ken, a lady " of much Christian meek- 
 nesse". Sir Harris Nicolas thinks that he only 
 visited Stafford occasionally, in these troubled years. 
 He mentions fishing in " Shawford brook " ; he was 
 likely to fish wherever there was water, and the 
 brook flowed through land which, as Mr. Marston 
 shows, he acquired about 1656. In 1650 a child 
 was born to Walton in Clerkenwell ; it died, but 
 another, Izaac, was born in September 1651. In 
 1651 he published the Reliquiae Wottonianae^ with 
 a Memoir of Sir Henry Wotton. The knight had 
 valued Walton's company as a cure for " those 
 splenetic vapours that are called hypochondriacal ", 
 Worcester fight was on September 3, 1651; the 
 king was defeated, and fled, escaping, thanks to a 
 stand made by Wogan, and to the loyalty of 
 Mistress Jane Lane, and of many other faithful 
 adherents. A jewel of Charles's, the lesser George, 
 was preserved by Colonel Blague, who intrusted 
 it to Mr. Barlow of Blore Pipe House, in Stafford- 
 shire. Mr. Barlow gave it to Mr. Milward, a Royal- 
 ist prisoner in Stafford, and he, in turn, intrusted 
 it to Walton, who managed to convey it to Colonel 
 Blague in the Tower. The colonel escaped and 
 the George was given back to the king. Ashmole, 
 who tells the story, mentions Walton as " well 
 beloved of all good men". This incident is, perhaps, 
 
Introduction xiil 
 
 the only known adventure in the long life of old 
 Izaak. The peaceful angler, with a royal jewel in 
 his pocket, must have encountered many dangers 
 on the highway. He was a man of sixty when 
 he published his Compleat Angler in 1653, an d so 
 secured immortality. The quiet beauties of his 
 manner in his various biographies would only have 
 made him known to a few students, who could 
 never have recognised Byron's "quaint, old, cruel 
 coxcomb" in their author. "The whole discourse 
 is a kind of picture of my own disposition, at least 
 of my disposition in such days and times as I allow 
 myself when honest Nat. and R. R. and I go a-fishing 
 together." Izaak speaks of the possibility that his 
 book may reach a second edition. There are now 
 editions more than a hundred ! Waltonians should 
 read Mr. Thomas Westwood's Preface to his Chron- 
 icle of the Compleat Angler: it is reprinted in Mr. 
 Marston's edition. Mr. Westwood learned to admire 
 Walton at the feet of Charles Lamb: 
 
 " No fisher, 
 But a well-wisher 
 To the game," 
 
 as Scott describes himself. 1 
 
 Lamb recommended Walton to Coleridge; "it 
 breathes the very spirit of innocence, purity, and 
 simplicity of heart ; ... it would sweeten a man's 
 temper at any time to read it ; it would Christian- 
 ise every angry, discordant passion ; pray make your- 
 self acquainted with it" (Oct. 28, 1796.) Accord- 
 
 1 Sir Walter was fond of trout-fishing, and in his Quarterly 
 review of Davy's Salmonia, describes his pleasure in wading' 
 Tweed, in " Tom Fool's light " at the end of a hot summer day. 
 In salmon-fishing he was no expert, and said to Lockhart that he- 
 must have Tom Purdie to aid him in his review of Salmonia. 
 The picturesqueness of salmon-spearing by torchlight seduced* 
 Scott from the legitimate sport. 
 
xiv The Complete Angler 
 
 ing to Mr. Westwood, Lamb had " an early copy/' 
 found in a repository of marine stores, but not, 
 even then, to be bought a bargain. Mr. Westwood 
 fears that Lamb's copy was only Hawkins's edition 
 of 1760. The original is extremely scarce. Mr. 
 Locker had a fine copy ; there is another in the 
 library of Dorchester House : both are in their 
 primitive livery of brown sheep, or calf. The book 
 is one which only the wealthy collector can hope, 
 with luck, to call his own. A small octavo, sold at 
 eighteenpence, The Compleat Angler was certain to 
 be thumbed into nothingness, after enduring much 
 from May showers, July suns, and fishy companion- 
 ship. It is almost a wonder that any examples 
 of Walton's and Bunyan's first editions have sur- 
 vived into our day. The little volume was meant to 
 find a place in the bulging pockets of anglers, and 
 was well adapted to that end. The work should be 
 reprinted in a similar format : quarto editions are 
 out of place. 
 
 The fortunes of the book, the fata libelli^ have 
 been traced by Mr. Westwood. There are several 
 misprints (later corrected) in the earliest copies, as 
 (p. 88) Fordig " for " Fordidg," (p. 152) " Pudoch " 
 for "Pudock". The appearance of the work was 
 advertised in The Perfect Diurnal (May 9-16), and 
 in No. 154 of The Mercurius Politicus (May 19-26), 
 also in an almanack for 1654. Izaak, or his pub- 
 lisher Marriott, cunningly brought out the book at a 
 season when men expect the Mayfly. Just a month 
 before, Oliver Cromwell had walked into the House 
 of Commons, in a plain suit of black clothes, with 
 grey stockings. His language, when he spoke, was 
 reckoned unparliamentary (as it undeniably was)/ 
 and he dissolved the Long Parliament. While 
 Marriott was advertising Walton's work, Cromwell 
 was making a Parliament of Saints, " faithful, fearing 
 
Introduction xv 
 
 God, and hating covetousness ". This is a good 
 description of Izaak, but he was not selected. In 
 the midst of revolutions came The Compleat Angler 
 to the light, a possession for ever. Its original 
 purchasers are not likely to have taken a hand 
 in Royalist plots or saintly conventicles. They 
 were peaceful men. A certain Cromwellian trooper, 
 f Richard Franck, was a better angler than Walton, 
 and he has left to us the only contemporary and 
 contemptuous criticism of his book : to this we shall 
 return, but anglers, as a rule, unlike Franck, must 
 have been for the king, and on Izaak's side in con- 
 troversy. 
 
 Walton brought out a second edition in 1655. He 
 rewrote the book, adding more than a third, sup- 
 pressing Viator, and introducing Venator. New 
 plates were added, and, after the manner of the 
 time, commendatory verses. A third edition ap- 
 peared in 1 66 1, a fourth (published by Simon Gape, 
 not by Marriott) came out in 1664, a fifth in 1668 
 (counting Gape's of 1664 as a new edition), and in 
 1676, the work, with treatises by Venables and 
 Charles Cotton, was given to the world as The Uni- 
 versal Angler. Five editions in twelve years is not 
 bad evidence of Walton's popularity. But times 
 now altered. Walton is really an Elizabethan : he 
 has the quaint freshness, the apparently artless musics/ 
 of language of the great age. He is a friend of 
 " country contents " : no lover of the town, no keeff* 
 student of urban ways and mundane men. A new 
 taste, modelled on that of the wits of Louis XIV., 
 had come in : we are in the period of Dryden, and 
 approaching that of Pope. 
 
 There was no new edition of Walton till Moses 
 Browne (by Johnson's desire) published him, with 
 "improvements," in 1750. Then came Hawkins's 
 edition in 1760. Johnson said of Hawkins, " Why, 
 
 b 
 
xvi The Complete Angler 
 
 ma'am, I believe him to be an honest man at the 
 bottom ; but, to be sure, he is penurious, and he is 
 mean, and it must be owned he has a degree of 
 brutality, and a tendency to savageness, that cannot 
 easily be defended ". 
 
 This was hardly the editor for Izaak ! However, 
 Hawkins, probably by aid of Oldys the antiquary 
 (as Mr. Marston shows), laid a good foundation for 
 a biography of Walton. Errors he made, but Sir 
 Harris Nicolas has corrected them. Johnson him- 
 self reckoned Waltori^JLtves as ''jone^-his most 
 favouritejbo>ks ". v TTe^preferfe^ the life of Donne, 
 and justly complained that Walton's stor^of Donne's 
 visjon-e-his absent >yife had been left out of a 
 modern edition. He explained Walton's friendship 
 with persons of higher rank by his being " a great 
 panegyrist ". 
 
 The eighteenth century, we see, came back to 
 Walton, as the nineteenth has done. He was pre- 
 cisely the author to suit Charles Lamb. He was re- 
 printed again and again, and illustrated by Stoddart 
 and others. Among his best editors are Major 
 (1839), " Ephemera" (1853), Nicolas (1836, 1860), 
 and Mr. Marston (1888). 
 
 The only contemporary criticism known to me 
 is that of Richard Franck, who had served with 
 Cromwell in Scotland, and, not liking the aspect of 
 changing times, returned to the north, and fished 
 from the Esk to Strathnaver. In 1658 he wrote 
 his Northern Memoirs, an itinerary of sport, heavily 
 cumbered by dull reflections and pedantic style 
 Franck, however, was a practical angler, especially 
 for salmon, a fish of which Walton knew nothing : he 
 also appreciated the character of the great Montrose. 
 He went to America, wrote a wild cosmogonic work, 
 and The Admirable and Indefatigable Adventures 
 of the Nine Pious Pilgrims (one pilgrim catches a 
 
Introduction xvii 
 
 trout!) (London, 1708). The Northern Memoirs 
 of 1658 were not published till 1694, Sir Walter 
 Scott edited a new issue, in 1821, and defended 
 Izaak from the strictures of the salmon-fisher. 
 Izaak, says Franck, "lays the stress of his argu- 
 ments upon other men's observations, wherewith he 
 stuffs his indigested octavo ; so brings himself under 
 the angler's censure and the common calamity of 
 a plagiary, to be pitied (poor man) for his loss of 
 time, in scribbling and transcribing other men's 
 notions. ... I remember in Stafford, I urged his 
 own argument upon him, that pickerel weed of itself 
 breeds pickerel (pike)." Franck proposed a rational 
 theory, "which my Compleat Angler no sooner 
 deliberated, but dropped his argument, and leaves 
 Gesner to defend it, so huffed away. . . ." "So 
 note, the true character of an industrious angler 
 more deservedly falls upon Merrill and Faulkner, 
 or rather Izaak Ouldham, a man that fished salmon 
 with but three hairs at hook, whose collections and 
 experiments were lost with himself," a matter 
 much to be regretted. It will be observed, of 
 course, that hair was then used, and gut is first 
 mentioned for angling purposes by Mr. Pepys. In- 
 deed, the flies which Scott was hunting for when he 
 found the lost MS. of the first part of Waverley are 
 tied on horse-hairs. They are in the possession of 
 the descendants of Scott's friend, Mr. William Laid- 
 law. The curious angler, consulting Franck, will 
 find that his salmon flies are much like our own, but 
 less variegated. Scott justly remarks that, while 
 Walton was habit and repute a bait-fisher, even 
 Cotton knows nothing of salmon. Scott wished 
 that Walton had made the northern tour, but Izaak 
 would have been sadly to seek, running after a fish 
 down a gorge of the Shin or the Brora, and the dis- 
 comforts of the north would have finished his career. 
 
xviii The Complete Angler 
 
 In Scotland he would not have found fresh sheets 
 smelling of lavender. 
 
 \/ Walton was in London " in the dangerous year 
 1655 " * e speaks of his meeting Bishop Sander- 
 son there, " in sad-coloured clothes, and, God knows, 
 far from being costly ". The friends were driven by 
 wind and rain into " a cleanly house, where we had 
 bread, cheese, ale, and a fire, for our ready money. 
 The rain and wind were so obliging to me, as to 
 force our stay there for at least an hour, to my great 
 content and advantage ; for in that time he made to 
 me many useful observations of the present times 
 with much clearness and conscientious freedom." 
 It was a year of Republican and Royalist con- 
 spiracies : the clergy were persecuted and banished 
 from London. 
 
 No more is known of Walton till the happy year 
 1660, when the king came to his own again, and 
 Walton's Episcopal friends to their palaces. Izaak 
 produced an " Eglog," on May 29 : 
 
 " The king ! The king's returned ! And now 
 Let's banish all sad thoughts, and sing : 
 We have our laws, and have our king." 
 
 If Izaak was so eccentric as to go to bed sober 
 on that glorious twenty-ninth of May, I greatly 
 misjudge him. But he grew elderly. In 1661 he 
 chronicles the deaths of " honest Nat. and R. Roe, 
 they are gone, and with them most of my pleasant 
 hours, even as a shadow that passeth away, and 
 returns not". On April 17, 1662, Walton lost his 
 second wife : she died at Worcester, probably on a 
 visit to Bishop Morley. In the same year, the 
 bishop was translated to Winchester, where the 
 palace became Izaak's home. The Itchen (where, 
 no doubt, he angled with worm) must have been 
 his constant haunt. He was busy with his Life oi 
 
Introduction xix 
 
 Richard Hooker (1665). The peroration, as it were, 
 was altered and expanded in 1670, and this is but 
 one example of Walton's care of his periods. One 
 beautiful passage he is known to have rewritten*' 
 several times, till his ear was satisfied with its 
 cadences. In 1670 he published his Life of George 
 Herbert. " I wish, if God shall be so pleased, that 
 I may be so happy as to die like him." In 1673, 
 in a Dedication of the third edition of Reliquiae 
 Wottonianae, Walton alludes to his friendship with 
 a much younger and gayer man than himself, 
 Charles Cotton (born 1630), the friend of Colonel 
 Richard Lovelace, and of Sir John Suckling: the 
 translator of Scarron's travesty of Virgil, and of 
 Montaigne's Essays. Cotton was a roisterer, a man 
 at one time deep in debt, but he was a Royalist, a 
 scholar, and an angler. The friendship between 
 him and Walton is creditable to the freshness of 
 the old man and to the kindness of the younger, 
 who, to be sure, laughed at Izaak's heavily dubbed 
 London flies. " In him," says Cotton, " I have the 
 happiness to know the worthiest man, and to enjoy 
 the best and the truest friend any man ever had." 
 We are reminded of Johnson with Langton and 
 Topham Beauclerk. Meanwhile Izaak the younger 
 had grown up, was educated under Dr. Fell at 
 Christ Church, and made the Grand Tour in 1675, 
 visiting Rome and Venice. In March 1676 he 
 proceeded M.A. and took Holy Orders. In this 
 year Cotton wrote his treatise on fly-fishing, to be 
 published with Walton's new edition ; and the 
 famous fishing house on the Dove, with the blended 
 initials of the two friends, was built. In 1678, 
 Walton wrote his Life of Sanderson. . . . "'Tisnow 
 too late to wish that my life may be like his, for 
 I am in the eighty-fifth year of my age, but I 
 humbly beseech Almighty God that my death may 
 
xx The Complete Angler 
 
 be ; and do as earnestly beg of every reader to say 
 Amen !" He wrote, in 1678, a preface to Thealma 
 and Clearchus (1683). The poem is attributed to 
 John Chalkhill, a Fallow of Winchester College, 
 who died, a man of eighty, in 1679. Two f his 
 songs are in The Compleat Angler. Probably the 
 attribution is right : Chftlkhill's tomb commemorates 
 a man after Walton's own heart, but some have 
 assigned the volume ^o Walton himself. Chalkhill 
 is described, on the title-page, as " an acquaintant 
 and friend of Edmund Spencer," which is im- 
 possible. 1 
 
 On August 9, 1683, Walton wrote his will, "in 
 the neintyeth year of my age, and in perfect 
 
 memory, for which praised be God ". IJgprofesses 
 
 the AnglicaaJaith, despite " a very longan 
 
 trew friendshipTor some of the Roman Church ". 
 
 His worldly estate he has acquired "neither by 
 falsehood or flattery or the extreme crewelty of the 
 law of this nation ". His property was in two houses 
 in London, the lease of Norington farm, a farm near 
 Stafford, besides books, linen, and a hanging cabinet 
 inscribed with his name, now, it seems, in the pos- 
 session of Mr. Elkin Mathews. A bequest is made 
 of money for coals to the poor of Stafford, " every 
 last weike in Janewary, or in every first weike in 
 Febrewary ; I say then, because I take that time to 
 be the hardest and most pinching times with pore 
 people". To the Bishop of Winchester he be- 
 queathed a ring with a posy, "A Mite for a 
 Million M . There are other bequests, including ten 
 pounds to " my old friend, Mr. Richard Marriott," 
 Walton's bookseller. This good man died in peace 
 with his publisher, leaving him also a ring. A ring 
 
 1 There is an edition by Singer, with a frontispiece by Waine- 
 wright, the poisoner. London, 1820. 
 
Introduction xxi 
 
 was left to a lady of the Portsmouth family, " Mrs. 
 Doro. Wallop." 
 
 Walton died, at the house of his son-in-law, Dr. 
 Hawkins, in Winchester, on Dec. 15, 1683: he is 
 buried in the south aisle of the Cathedral. The Ca- 
 thedral library possesses many of Walton's books, 
 with his name written in them. 1 His Eusebius 
 (1636) contains, on the flyleaf, repetitions, in various 
 forms, of one of his studied passages. Simple as he 
 seems, he is a careful artist in language. 
 
 Such are the scanty records, and scantier relics, 
 of a very long life. Circumstances and inclination 
 combined to make Walton choose the fallentis 
 semita vitae. Without ambition, save to be in the 4 
 society of good men, he passed through turmoil, 
 ever companioned by content. For him existence 
 had its trials : he saw all that he held most sacred 
 overthrown ; laws broken up ; his king publicly 
 murdered ; his friends outcasts ; his worship pro- 
 scribed ; he himself suffered in property from the 
 raid of the Kirk into England. He underwent 
 many bereavements : child after child he lost, but 
 content he did not lose, nor sweetness of heart, nor 
 belief. His was one of those happy characters 
 which are never found disassociated from unques- 
 tioning faith. Of old he might have been the 
 ancient religious Athenian in the opening of Plato's 
 Republic, or Virgil's aged gardener. The happiness 
 of such natures would be incomplete without re- 
 ligion, but only by such tranquil and blessed soulsj 
 can religion be accepted with no doubt or scruple, 
 no dread, and no misgiving. In his Preface to 
 Thealma and Clearchus Walton writes, and we may 
 use his own words about his own works : " The 
 Reader will here find such various events and rewards 
 
 1 Nicolas, i. civ. 
 
xxii The Complete Angler 
 
 of innocent Truth and undissembled Honesty, as is 
 like to leave in him (if he be a good-natured reader) 
 more sympathising and virtuous impressions, than 
 ten times so much time spent in impertinent, crit- 
 ical, and needless disputes about religion ". Walton 
 relied on authority ; on " a plain, unperplexed cate- 
 chism ". In an age of the strangest and most dis- 
 sident theological speculations, an age of Quakers, 
 Anabaptists, Antinomians, Fifth Monarchy Men, 
 Covenanters, Independents, Gibbites, Presbyterians, 
 and what not, Walton was true to the authority of 
 the Church of England, with no prejudice against 
 the ancient Catholic faith. As Gesner was his 
 authority for pickerel weed begetting pike, so the 
 Anglican bishops were security for Walton's creed. 
 To him, if we may say so, it was easy to be 
 saved, while Bunyan, a greater humorist, could be 
 saved only in following a path that skirted madness, 
 and "as by fire". To Bunyan, Walton would have 
 seemed a figure like his own Ignorance ; a pilgrim 
 who never stuck in the Slough of Despond, nor 
 met Apollyon in the Valley of the Shadow, nor 
 was captive in Doubting Castle, nor stoned in 
 Vanity Fair. And of Bunyan, Walton would have 
 said that he was among those Nonconformists who 
 "might be sincere, well-meaning men, whose indis- 
 creet zeal might be so like charity, as thereby to 
 cover a multitude of errors". To Walton there 
 seemed spiritual solace in remembering " that we 
 have comforted and been helpful to a dejected or 
 distressed family 1 '. Bunyan would have regarded 
 this belief as a heresy, and (theoretically) charitable 
 deeds "as filthy rags". Differently constituted, 
 these excellent men accepted religion in different 
 ways. Christian bows beneath a burden of sin; 
 Piscator beneath a basket of trout. Let us be 
 grateful for the diversities of human nature, and the 
 
Introduction xxiii 
 
 dissimilar paths which lead Piscator and Christian 
 alike to the City not built with hands. Both were 
 seekers for a City which to have sought through 
 life, in patience, honesty, loyalty, and love, is to 
 have found it. Of Walton's book we may say : 
 
 " Landis amove twnes ? Sunt certa piacula quae te 
 Ter pure lecto poterunt recreare libello". 
 
 WALTON AS A BIOGRAPHER 
 
 It was probably by his Lives, rather than, in the 
 first instance, by his Angler > that Walton won the 
 liking of Dr. Johnson, whence came his literary 
 resurrection. It is true that Moses Browne and 
 Hawkins, both friends of Johnson's, edited The 
 Compleat Angler before 1775-1776, when we find 
 Dr. Home of Magdalene, Oxford, contemplating a 
 " benoted " edition of the Lives ^ by Johnson's ad- 
 vice. But the Walton of the Lives is, rather than 
 the Walton of the Angler, the man after Johnson's 
 own heart. The Angler is " a picture of my own 
 disposition" on holidays. The Lives display the 
 same disposition in serious moods, and in face of 
 the eternal problems of man's life in society. John- 
 son, we know, was very fond of biography, had 
 thought much on the subject, and, as Bos well notes, 
 "varied from himself in talk," when he discussed 
 the measure of truth permitted to biographers. " If 
 a man is to write a Panegyrick, he may keep vices 
 out of sight ; but if he professes to write a Life y he 
 must represent it as it really was." Peculiarities 
 were not to be concealed, he said, and his own were 
 not veiled by Boswell. " Nobody can write the life 
 of a man but those who have eat and drunk and 
 lived in social intercourse with him." " They only 
 who live with a man can write his life with any 
 
xxiv The Complete Angler 
 
 genuine exactness and discrimination; and few 
 people who have lived with a man know what to 
 remark about him." Walton had lived much in the 
 society of his subjects, Donne and Wotton ; with 
 Sanderson he had a slighter acquaintance ; George 
 Herbert he had only met ; Hooker, of course, he 
 had never seen in the flesh. It is obvious to every 
 reader that 
 
 ^ 
 
 are his best. IrT~Donne's Life he feels that he is 
 writmg^of an English St. Austin, "for I think 
 none was so like him before his conversion ; none so 
 like St. Ambrose after it : and if his youth had the 
 infirmities of the one, his age had the excellencies 
 of the other ; the learning and holiness of both ". 
 
 St. Augustine made free confession of his own in- 
 firmities of youth. With gtat4elicacy Walton lets 
 Donne also confess himself, printing^ letter in which 
 he declines to take Holy Orders, because his course of 
 life when very young had been too notorious. Deli- 
 cacy and tact are as notable in Walton's account of 
 Donne's poverty, melancholy, and conversion through 
 the blessed means of gentle King Jamie. Walton 
 had an awful loyalty, a sincere reverence for the 
 office of a king. But wherever he introduces King 
 James, either in his Donne or his Wotton, you see 
 a subdued version of the King James of The For- 
 tunes of Nigel. The pedantry, the good nature, the 
 touchiness, the humour, the nervousness, are all 
 here. It only needs a touch of the king's broad 
 accent to set before us, as vividly as in Scott, the 
 interviews with Donne, and that singular scene when 
 Wotton, disguised as Octavio Baldi, deposits his long 
 rapier at the door of his majesty's chamber. Wotton, 
 in Florence, was warned of a plot to murder James 
 VI. The duke gave him "such Italian antidotes 
 against poison as the Scots till then had been 
 strangers to": indeed, there is no antidote for a 
 
Introduction xxv 
 
 dirk, and the Scots were not poisoners. Introduced 
 by Lindsay as " Octavio Baldi," Wotton found his 
 nervous majesty accompanied by four Scottish 
 nobles. He spoke in Italian ; then, drawing near, 
 hastily whispered that he was an Englishman, and 
 prayed for a private interview. This, by some art, 
 he obtained, delivered his antidotes, and, when James 
 succeeded Elizabeth, rose to high favour. Izaak's < 
 suppressed humour makes it plain that Wotton had 
 acted the scene for him, from the moment of leav- 
 ing the long rapier at the door. Again, telling how 
 Wotton, in his peaceful hours as Provost of Eton, 
 intended to write a Life of Luther, he says that 
 King Charles diverted him from his purpose to at- 
 tempting a History of England "by a persuasive 
 loving violence (to which may be added a promise 
 of 500 a year) ". He likes these parenthetic touches, 
 as in his description of Donne, "always preaching 
 to himself, like an angel from a cloud, but in none 1 '. 
 Again, of a commendation of one of his heroes he 
 says, "it is a known truth, though it be in verse". 
 A memory of the days when Izaak was an amorist, 
 and shone in love ditties, appears thus. He is 
 speaking of Donne : 
 
 " Love is a flattering mischief ... a passion that carries us to 
 commit errors with as much ease as whirlwinds remove feathers." 
 
 " The tears of lovers, or beauty dressed in sadness, are observed 
 to have in them a charming sadness, and to become very often too 
 strong to be resisted." 
 
 These are examples of Walton's sympathy: his 
 power of portrait-drawing is especially attested by 
 his study of Donne, as the young gallant and poeC 
 the unhappy lover, the man of state out of place and 
 neglected ; the heavily burdened father, the con- 
 scientious scholar, the charming yet ascetic preacher 
 and divine, the saint who, dying, makes himself, in 
 his own shroud, an emblem of mortality. 
 
xxvi The Complete Angler 
 
 As an example of Walton's style, take the famous 
 vision of Dr. Donne in Paris. He had left his wife 
 expecting her confinement : 
 
 ' Two days after their arrival there, Mr. Donne was left alone 
 in that room in which Sir Robert and he, and some other friends, 
 had dined together. To this place Sir Robert returned within half 
 an hour, and as he left, so he found Mr. Donne alone, but in such 
 an ecstacy, and so altered as to his looks, as amazed Sir Robert to 
 behold him ; insomuch that he earnestly desired Mr. Donne to de- 
 clare what had befallen him in the short time of his absence. To 
 which Mr. Donne was not able to make a present answer : but, after 
 a long and perplexed pause, did at last say, * I have seen a dreadful 
 vision since I saw you : I have seen my dear wife pass twice by me 
 through this room, with her hair hanging about her shoulders, and 
 a dead child in her arms ; this I have seen since I saw you '. To 
 which Sir Robert replied, * Sure, sir, you have slept since I saw 
 you ; and this is the result of some melancholy dream, which I 
 desire you to forget, for you are now awake'. To which Mr. 
 Donne's reply was, * I cannot be surer that I now live than that I 
 have not slept since I saw you : and I am as sure that at her second 
 appearing she stopped, and looked me in the face, and vanished. 
 . . .' And upon examination, the abortion proved to be the same 
 day, and about the very hour, that Mr. Donne affirmed he saw 
 her pass by him in his chamber. 
 
 " . . . And though it is most certain that two lutes, being both 
 strung and tuned to an equal pitch, and then one played upon, the 
 other, that is not touched, being laid upon a table at a fit distance, 
 will (like an echo to a trumpet) warble a faint audible harmony in 
 answer to the same tune ; yet many will not believe there is any 
 such thing as a sympathy of souls, and I am well pleased that 
 every reader do enjoy his own opinion. ..." 
 
 He then appeals to authority, as of Brutus, St. 
 Monica, Saul, St. Peter : 
 
 M More observations of this nature, and inferences from them, 
 might be made to gain the relation a firmer belief; but I forbear : 
 lest I, that intended to be but a relator, may be thought to be an 
 engaged person for the proving what was related to me, ... by 
 one who had it from Dr. Donne ". 
 
 Walton was no Boswell ; worthy Boswell would 
 have cross-examined Dr. Donne himself. 
 Of dreams he writes : 
 
 " Common dreams are but a senseless paraphrase on our waking 
 thoughts, or of the business of the day past, or are the result of our 
 
Introduction xxvii 
 
 over engaged affections when we betake ourselves to rest." . . . 
 Yet " Almighty God (though the causes of dreams be often un- 
 known) hath even in these latter times also, by a certain illu- 
 mination of the soul in sleep, discovered many things that human 
 wisdom could not foresee ". 
 
 Walton is often charged with superstition, and 
 the enlightened editor of the eighteenth century ex- 
 cised all the scene of Mrs. Donne's wraith as too 
 absurd. But Walton is a very fair witness. Donne, 
 a man of imagination, was, he tells us, in a perturbed 
 anxiety about Mrs. Donne. The event was after 
 dinner. The story is, by Walton's admission, at 
 second hand. Thus, in the language of the learned 
 in such matters, the tale is " not evidential ". Walton 
 explains it, if true, as a result of " sympathy of souls " 
 what is now called telepathy. But he is content 
 that every man should have his own opinion. In 
 the same way he writes of the seers in the Wotton 
 family : " God did seem to speak to many of this 
 family" (the Wottons) "in dreams," and Thomas 
 Wotton's dreams " did usually prove true, both in 
 foretelling things to come, and discovering things 
 past". Thus he dreamed that five townsmen and 
 poor scholars were robbing the University chest at 
 Oxford. He mentioned this in a letter to his son at 
 Oxford, and the letter, arriving just after the robbery, 
 led to the discovery of the culprits. Yet Walton 
 states the causes and nature of dreams in general 
 with perfect sobriety and clearness. His tales of this 
 sort were much to Johnson's mind, as to Southey's. 
 But Walton cannot fairly be called "superstitious," 
 granting the age in which he lived. Visions like 
 Dr. Donne's still excite curious comment. 
 
 To that cruel superstition of his age, witchcraft, I 
 think there is no allusion in Walton. Almost as 
 uncanny, however, is his account of Donne's pre- 
 paration for death : 
 
xxviii The Complete Angler 
 
 " Several charcoal fires being first made in his large study, he 
 brought with him into that place his winding-sheet in his hand, 
 and having put off all his clothes, had this sheet put on him, and 
 so tied with knots at his head and feet, and his hands so placed 
 as dead bodies are usually fitted, to be shrouded and put into 
 their coffin or grave. Upoti.jthis^urn he thus stood^with his eyes 
 shut, and with so much of the sheeT7urne3~aside asrnight show 
 his lean, pale, and death-like face, which was purposely turned 
 towards the east, from which he expected the second coming of 
 his and our Saviour Jesus. In this posture he was drawn at his 
 just height, and, when the picture was fully finished, he caused it 
 to be set by his bedside, where it continued, and became his hourly 
 object till death." 
 
 Thus Donne made ready to meet the common 
 
 fate : 
 
 41 That body, which once was a temple of the Holy Ghost, is 
 now become a small quantity of Christian ashes. But I shall see 
 it reanimated." 
 
 This is the very voice of Faith. Walton was, 
 indeed, an assured believer, and to his mind, the 
 world offered no insoluble problem. But we may 
 say of him, in the words of a poet whom he 
 quotes : 
 
 " Many a one 
 
 Owes to his country his religion ; 
 And in another would as strongly grow 
 Had but his nurse or mother taught him so ", 
 
 In his account of Donne's early theological studies 
 of the differences between Rome and Anglicanism, 
 it is manifest that Izaak thinks these differences 
 matters of no great moment. They are not for 
 simple men to solve : Donne has taken that trouble 
 for him; besides, he is an Englishman, and 
 
 " Owes to his country his religion ". 
 
 He will be no Covenanter, and writes with dis- 
 gust of an intruded Scots minister, whose first 
 action was to cut down the ancient yews in the 
 churchyard. Izaak's religion, and all his life, were 
 
Introduction xxix 
 
 rooted in the past, like the yew-tree. He is what 
 he calls " the passive peaceable Protestant ". " The 
 common people in this nation," he writes, "think 
 they are not wise unless they be busy about what 
 they understand not, and especially about religion " ; 
 as Bunyan was busy at that very moment. In 
 Walton's opinion, the plain facts of religion, and of 
 consequent morality, are visible as the sun at noon- 
 day. The vexed questions are for the learned, and 
 are solved variously by them. A man must follow 
 authority, as he finds it established in his own 
 country, unless he has the learning and genius of 
 a Donne. To these, or equivalents for these in 
 a special privy inspiration, " the common people" 
 of his day, and ever since Elizabeth's day, were 
 pretending. This was the inevitable result of the 
 translation of the Bible into English. Walton 
 quotes with approval a remark of a witty Italian on 
 a populace which was universally occupied with 
 Free-will and Predestination. The fruits Walton 
 saw, in preaching Corporals, Antinomian Trusty 
 Tompkinses, Quakers who ran about naked, barking, 
 Presbyterians who cut down old yew-trees, and a 
 Parliament of Saints. Walton took no kind of joy 
 in the general emancipation of the human spirit. 
 The clergy, he confessed, were not what he wished 
 them to be, but they were better than Quakers, 
 naked and ululant. ^To love God and his neighbour, 
 and to honour the king, was Walton's unperplexed 
 religion. Happily he was saved from the view of 
 the errors and the fall of James II., a king whom it 
 was not easy to honour. His social philosophy was 
 one of established rank, tempered by equity and j 
 Christian chanty. If anything moves his tranquil 
 spirit, it is the remorseless greed of him who takes 
 his fellow-servant by the throat and exacts the 
 uttermost penny. How Sanderson saved a poor 
 
xxx The Complete Angler 
 
 farmer from the greed of an extortionate landlord, 
 Walton tells in his Life of the prelate, adding this 
 reflection : ) 
 
 44 It may be noted that in this age there are a sort of people so 
 unlike the God of mercy, so void of the bowels of pity, that they 
 love only themselves and their children ; love them so as not to 
 be concerned whether the rest of mankind waste their days in 
 sorrow or shame ; people that are cursed with riches, and a mis- 
 take that nothing but riches can make them and theirs happy ". 
 
 Thus Walton appears, this is " the picture of his 
 own disposition," in the Lives. He is a kind of 
 antithesis to John Knox. Men like Walton are not 
 to be approached for new " ideas ". They will 
 never make a new world at a blow : they will never 
 enable us to understand, but they can teach us to 
 endure, and even to enjoy, the world. There ex- 
 ample is alluring : - 
 
 " Even the ashes of the just 
 Smell sweet, and blossom in the dust ". 
 
 THE COMPLEAT ANGLER 
 
 Franck, as we saw, called Walton " a plagiary ". 
 He was a plagiary in the same sense as Virgil and 
 Lord Tennyson and Robert Burns, and, indeed, 
 Homer, and all poets. The Compleat Angler y the 
 father of so many books, is the child of a few. 
 Walton not only adopts the opinions and advice of 
 the authors whom he cites, but also follows the 
 manner, to a certain extent, of authors whom he 
 does not quote. His very exordium, his key-note, 
 echoes (as Sir Harris Nicolas observes) the open- 
 ing of A Treatise of the Nature of God (London, 
 1599). The Treatise starts with a conversation be- 
 tween a gentleman and a scholar : it commences : 
 
 Gent. Well overtaken, sir ! 
 
 Scholar. You are welcome, gentleman. 
 
Introduction xxxr 
 
 A more important source is The Treatyse of Fyssk- 
 ynge wyth an Angle, commonly attributed to Dame 
 Juliana Barnes (printed at Westminster, 1496). 
 A manuscript, probably of 1430-1450, has been 
 published by Mr. Satchell (London, 1883). This 
 book may be a translation of an unknown French 
 original. It opens : 
 
 "Soloman in hys paraboles seith that a glad spirit maket a 
 flowryng age. That ys to sey, a feyre age and a longe" (like 
 Walton's own), *' and sith hyt ys so I aske this question, wyche 
 bynne the menys and cause to reduce a man to a mery spryte." 
 The angler "schall have hys holsom walke and mery at hys 
 owne ease, and also many a sweyt eayr of divers erbis and flowres 
 that schall make hym ryght hongre and well disposed in hys body. 
 He schall heyr the melodies melodious of the ermony of byrde : 
 he schall se also the yong swannes and signetes folowing ther 
 eyrours, duckes, cootes, herons, and many other fowlys with ther 
 brodys, wyche me semyt better then all the noyse of houndes, and 
 blastes of homes and other gamys that fawkners or hunters can 
 make, and yf the angler take the fyssche, hardly then ys ther no 
 man meryer then he in his sprites." 
 
 This is the very " sprite " of Walton ; this has that ^ 
 vernal and matutinal air of opening European litera- 
 ture, full of birds' music, and redolent of dawn. 
 This is the note to which the age following Walton 
 would not listen. 
 
 In matter of fact, again, Izaak follows the ancient 
 Treatise. We know his jury of twelve flies: the 
 Treatise says: 
 
 11 These ben the xij flyes wyth whyche ye shall angle to the 
 trought and graylling, and dubbe like as ye shall now here me tell. 
 
 " Marche. The donne fly, the body of the donne woll, and the 
 wyngis of the pertryche. Another donne flye, the body of blacke 
 woll, the wyngis of the blackyst drake; and the lay under the 
 wynge and under the tayle." 
 
 Walton has : 
 
 " 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." 
 
 
xxxii The Complete Angler 
 
 Again, the Treatise has : 
 
 Angustc. The drake fly. The body of black wall and lappyd 
 abowte wyth blacke sylke : winges of the mayle of the blacke 
 drake wyth a blacke heed." 
 
 Walton has : 
 
 41 The twelfth is the dark drake-fly, good in August : the body 
 made w.th black wool, lapt about with black silk, his wings are 
 made with the mail of the black drake, with a black head." 
 
 This is word for word a transcript of the fifteenth 
 century Treatise. But Izaak cites, not the ancient 
 Treatise r , but Mr. Thomas Barker. * Barker, in fact, 
 gives many more, and more variegated flies than 
 Izaak offers in the jury of twelve which he rendered, 
 from the old Treatise, into modern English. Sir 
 Harris Nicolas says that the jury is from Leonard 
 Mascall's Booke of Fishing with Hooke and Line 
 (London, 1609), but Mascall merely stole from the 
 fifteenth-century book. In Cotton's practice, and 
 that of The Angler's Vade Mecum (1681), flies were 
 as numerous as among ourselves, and had, in many 
 cases, the same names. Walton absurdly bids us 
 " let no part of the line touch the water, but the fly 
 
 \only ". Barker says, " Let the fly light first into the 
 Vater ". Both men insist on fishing down stream, 
 
 / which is, of course, the opposite of the true art, for 
 fish lie with their heads up stream, and trout are 
 best approached from behind. Cotton admits of 
 fishing both up and down, as the wind and stream 
 may serve : and, of course, in heavy water, in Scot- 
 land, this is all very well. But none of the old 
 anglers, to my knowledge, was a dry-fly fisher, 
 and Izaak was no fly-fisher at all. He took what 
 he said from Mascall, who took it from the old 
 
 1 Barker's Delight; or t The Art of Angling. 1651, 1657, 1659, 
 London. 
 
Introduction xxxiii 
 
 Treatise, in which, it is probable, Walton read, and 
 followed the pleasant and to him congenial spirit of 
 the mediaeval angler. All these writers tooled with 
 huge rods, fifteen or eighteen feet in length, and 
 Izaak had apparently never used a reel. For 
 salmon, he says, "some use a wheel about the 
 middle of their rods or near their hand, which is 
 to be observed better by seeing one of them, than 
 by a large demonstration of words ". 
 
 Mr. Westwood has made a catalogue of books 
 cited by Walton in his Compleat Angler. There is 
 ^lian (who makes the first known reference to 
 fly-fishing); Aldrovandus, De Piscibus (1638); 
 Dubravius, De Piscibus (1559); and the English 
 translation (1599); Gerard's Herball( 163 3) ; Gesner, 
 De Piscibus (s.a.) and Historia Naturalis (1558); 
 Phil. Holland's Pliny (1601); Rondelet, De Pisci- 
 bus Marines (1554) ; Silvianus, Aquatilium Historiae 
 (1554): these nearly exhaust Walton's supply of 
 authorities in natural history. He was devoted, as 
 we saw, to authority, and had a childlike faith in the 
 fantastic theories which date from Pliny. " Pliny 
 hath an opinion that many flies have their birth, or 
 being, from a dew that in the spring falls upon the 
 leaves of trees." It is a pious opinion ! Izaak is 
 hardly so superstitious as the author of The Angler's 
 Vade Mecum. I cannot imagine him taking " Man's 
 fat and cat's fat, of each half an ounce, mummy finely 
 powdered, three drams," and a number of other 
 abominations, to " make an Oyntment according to 
 Art, and when you Angle, anoint 8 inches of the 
 line next the Hook therewith". Or, "Take the 
 Bones and Scull of a Dead-man, at the opening 
 of a Grave, and beat the same into Pouder, and 
 put of this Pouder in the Moss wherein you keep 
 your Worms, but others hke Grave Earth as well" 
 No doubt grave earth is quite as efficacious. 
 
xxxiv The Complete Angler 
 
 These remarks show how Izaak was equipped in 
 books and in practical information : it follows that 
 his book is to be read, not for instruction, but for 
 human pleasure. 
 
 So much for what Walton owed to others. For 
 all the rest, for what has made him the favourite of 
 schoolboys and sages, of poets and philosophers, he 
 is indebted to none but his Maker and his genius. 
 That he was a lover of Montaigne we know ; and, 
 had Montaigne been a fisher, he might have written 
 somewhat like Izaak, but without the piety, the 
 perfume, and the charm. There are authors whose 
 living voices, if we know them in the flesh, we seem 
 to hear in our ears as we peruse their works. Of 
 such was Mr. Jowett, sometime Master of Balliol 
 College, a good man, now with God. It has ever 
 seemed to me that friends of Walton must thus 
 have heard his voice as they read him, and that it 
 reaches us too, though faintly. Indeed, we have 
 here " a kind of picture of his own disposition," as 
 he tells us Piscator is the Walton whom honest 
 Nat. and R. Roe and Sir Henry Wotton knew on 
 fishing-days. The book is a set of confessions, 
 without their commonly morbid turn. " I write 
 not for money, but for pleasure," he says ; methinks 
 he drove no hard bargain with good Richard 
 Marriott, nor was careful and troubled about 
 royalties on his eighteenpenny book. He regards 
 scoffers as " an abomination to mankind," for indeed 
 even Dr. Johnson, who, a century later, set Moses 
 Browne on reprinting The Compleat Angler, broke 
 his jest on our suffering tribe. " Many grave, 
 serious men pity anglers," says Auceps, and Venator 
 styles them "patient men," as surely they have 
 great need to be. For our toil, like that of the 
 husbandman, hangs on the weather that Heaven 
 sends, and on the flies that have their birth or being 
 
Introduction xxxv 
 
 from a kind of dew, and on the inscrutable caprice 
 of fish ; also, in England, on the miller, who giveth 
 or withholdeth at his pleasure the very water that 
 is our element. The inquiring rustic who shambles 
 up erect when we are lying low among the reeds, 
 even he disposes of our fortunes, with whom, as 
 with all men, we must be patient, dwelling ever 
 
 " With close-lipped Patience for our only friend, 
 Sad Patience, too near neighbour of Despair ". 
 
 O the tangles, more than Gordian, of gut on a 
 windy day ! O bitter east wind that bloweth down/ 
 stream! O the young ducks that, swimming be- 
 tween us and the trout, contend with him for the 
 blue duns in their season ! O the hay grass behind 
 us that entangles the hook ! O the rocky wall that 
 breaks it, the boughs that catch it ; the drought 
 that leaves the salmon-stream dry, the floods that 
 fill it with turbid, impossible waters ! Alas for the 
 knot that breaks, and for the iron that bends ; for 
 the lost landing-net, and the gillie with the gaff that 
 scrapes t'ne fish! Izaak believed that fish could ^ 
 hear ; if they can, their vocabulary must be full of 
 strange oaths, for all anglers are not patient men. 
 A malison on the trout that " bulge " and " tail," on 
 the salmon that "jiggers," or sulks, or lightly 
 gambols over and under the line. These things, 
 and many more, we anglers endure meekly, being 
 patient men, and a light world fleers at us for our 
 very virtue. 
 
 Izaak, of course, justifies us by the example of 
 the primitive Christians, and, in the manner of the 
 age, drowns opposition in a flood of erudition, out 
 of place, but never pedantic ; futile, yet diverting ; 
 erroneous, but not dull. 
 
 " God is said to have spoken to a fish, but never V. 
 to a beast." There is a modern Greek phrase, " By 
 
xxxvi The Complete Angler 
 
 the first word of God, and the second of the fish ". 
 As for angling, " it is somewhat like poetry : men 
 are to be born so " ; and many are born to be both 
 rhymers and anglers. But, unlike many poets, the 
 angler resembles "the Adonis, or Darling of the 
 Sea, so called because it is a loving and innocent 
 fish," and a peaceful ; " and truly, I think most 
 anglers are so disposed to most of mankind ". 
 
 Our Saviour's peculiar affection for fishermen is, 
 of course, a powerful argument. And it is certain 
 that Peter, James, and John made converts among 
 the twelve, for " the greater number of them were 
 found together, fishing, by Jesus after His Resur- 
 rection". That Amos was "a good-natured, plain 
 fisherman," only Walton had faith enough to believe. 
 He fixes gladly on mentions of hooks in the Bible, 
 omitting Homer, and that excellent Theocritean 
 dialogue of the two old anglers and the fish of gold, 
 which would have delighted Izaak, had he known 
 it ; but he was no great scholar. "And let me tel! 
 you that in the Scripture, angling is always taken 
 in the best sense," though Izaak does not dwell on 
 Tobias's enormous capture. So he ends with com- 
 mendations of angling by Wotton, and Davors 
 (Dennys, more probably) author of The Secrets of 
 Angling (1613). To these we may add Words- 
 worth, Thomson, Scott, Hogg, Stoddart, and many 
 minor poets who loved the music of the reel. 
 
 Izaak next illustrates his idea of becoming mirth, 
 which excludes "Scripture jests and lascivious jests," 
 both of them highly distasteful to anglers. Then he 
 comes to practice, beginning with chub, for which 
 I have never angled, but have taken them by mis- 
 adventure, with a salmon fly. Thence we proceed 
 to trout, and to the charming scene of the milkmaid 
 and her songs by Raleigh and Marlowe, " I think 
 much better than the strong lines that are now in 
 
Introduction xxxvii 
 
 fashion in this critical age/ 1 for Walton, we have 
 said, was the last of the Elizabethans, and the new 
 times were all for Waller and Dryden. "Chevy 
 Chace" and " Johnny Armstrong 11 were dear to 
 Walton as to Scott, but through a century these 
 old favourites were to be neglected, save by Mr. 
 Pepys and Addison. Indeed, there is no more 
 curious proof of the great unhappy change then 
 coming to make poetry a mechanic art, than the 
 circumstance that Walton is much nearer to us, in 
 his likings, than to the men between 1670 and 1770. 
 Gay was to sing of angling, but in " the strong lines 
 that are now in fashion ". All this while Piscator 
 has been angling with worm and minnow to no 
 purpose, though he picks up "a trout will fill six 
 reasonable bellies" in the evening. So we leave 
 them after their ale, ''in fresh sheets that smell of 
 lavender". Izaak's practical advice is not of much 
 worth ; we read him rather for sentences like this : 
 " I'll tell you, scholar : when I sat last on this prim- 
 rose 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 upon, but only on holy-days'". He did not 
 say, like Fox, when Burke spoke of " a seat under 
 a tree, with a friend, a bottle, and a book," " Why 
 a book ? " Izaak took his book with him a practice 
 in which, at least, I am fain to imitate this excellent 
 old man. 
 
 As to salmon, Walton scarcely speaks a true word 
 about their habits, except by accident. Concerning 
 pike, he quotes the theory that they are bred by 
 pickerel weed, only as what " some think ". In 
 describing the use of frogs as bait, he makes the 
 famous, or infamous, remark, " Use him as though 
 you loved him . . . that he may live the longer." 
 A bait-fisher may be a good man, as Izaak was, but 
 
xxxviii The Complete Angler 
 
 it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a 
 needle. As coarse fish are usually caught only with 
 bait, I shall not follow Izaak on to this unholy and 
 unfamiliar ground, wherein, none the less, grow 
 flowers of Walton's fancy, and the songs of the old 
 poets are heard. The Compleat Angler \ indeed, is a 
 book to be marked with flowers, marsh-marigolds 
 and fritillaries, and petals of the yellow iris, for the 
 whole provokes us to content, and whispers that 
 word of the apostle, " Study to be quiet ". 
 
 FISHING THEN AND NOW 
 
 Since Maui, the Maori hero, invented barbs for 
 hooks, angling has been essentially one and the 
 same thing. South Sea islanders spin for fish with 
 a mother-of-pearl lure which is also a hook, and 
 answers to our spoon. We have hooks of stone, 
 and hooks of bone ; and a bronze hook, found in 
 Ireland, has the familiar Limerick bend. What 
 Homer meant by making anglers throw " the horn 
 of an ox of the stall" into the sea, we can only 
 guess ; perhaps a horn minnow is meant, or a little 
 sheath of horn to protect the line. Dead bait, live 
 bait, and imitations of bait have all been employed, 
 and jElian mentions artificial Mayflies used, with a 
 very short line, by the Illyrians. 
 
 But, while the same in essence, angling has been 
 improved by human ingenuity. The Waltonian 
 angler, and still more his English predecessors, 
 dealt much in the home-made. The Treatise of 
 the fifteenth century bids you make your " Rodde " 
 of a fair staff even of a six foot long or more, as ye 
 list, of hazel, willow, or " aspe " (ash ?), and u beke 
 hym in an ovyn when ye bake, and let him cool 
 and dry a four weeks or more ". The pith is taken 
 out of him with a hot iron, and a yard of white 
 
Introduction xxxix 
 
 hazel is similarly treated, also a fair shoot of black- 
 thorn or crabtree for a top. The butt is bound with 
 hoops of iron, the top is accommodated with a noose, 
 a hair line is looped in the noose, and the angler is 
 equipped. Splicing is not used, but the joints have 
 holes to receive each other, and with this instrument 
 " ye may walk, and there is no man shall wit where- 
 about ye go ". Recipes are given for colouring and 
 plaiting hair lines, and directions for forging hooks. 
 "The smallest quarell needles" are used for the 
 tiniest hooks. 
 
 Barker (1651) makes the rod "of a hasel of one 
 piece, or of two pieces set together in the most con- 
 venient manner, light and gentle ". He recommends 
 the use of a single hair next the fly, "you shall 
 have more rises," which is true, " and kill more fish," 
 which is not so likely. The most delicate striking 
 is required with fine gut, and with a single hair 
 there must be many breakages. For salmon, Bar- 
 ker uses a rod ten feet in the butt, " that will carry 
 a top of six foot pretty stiffe and strong**. The 
 "winder," or reel, Barker illustrates with a totally 
 unintelligible design. His salmon fly "carries six 
 wings " ; perhaps he only means wings composed 
 of six kinds of feathers, but here Franck is a better 
 authority, his flies being sensible and sober in colour. 
 Not many old salmon flies are in existence, nor 
 have I seen more ancient specimens than a few, 
 chiefly of peacocks 1 feathers, in the fly-leaf of a 
 book at Abbotsford ; they were used in Ireland by 
 Sir Walter Scott's eldest son. The controversy as 
 to whether fish can distinguish colours was unknown 
 to our ancestors. I am inclined to believe that, for 
 salmon, size, and perhaps shade, light or dark, with 
 more or less of tinsel, are the only important points. 
 Izaak stumbled on the idea of Mr. Stewart (author 
 of The Practical Angler} saying, "for the gener- 
 
xl The Complete Angler 
 
 ality, three or four flies, neat, and rightly made, and 
 not too big, serve for a trout in most rivers, all the 
 summer' 1 . Our ancestors, though they did not fish 
 with the dry fly, were intent on imitating the insect 
 on the water. As far as my own experience goes, 
 if trout are feeding on duns, one dun will take them 
 as well as another, if it be properly presented. But 
 my friend Mr. Charles Longman tells me that, after 
 failing with two trout, he examined the fly on the 
 water, an olive dun, and found in his book a fly 
 which exactly matched the natural insect in colour. 
 With this he captured his brace. 
 
 Such incidents look as if trout were particular to 
 a shade, but we can never be certain that the angler 
 did not make an especially artful and delicate cast 
 when he succeeded. Sir Herbert Maxwell intends 
 to make the experiment of using, duns of impossible 
 and unnatural colours ; if he succeeds with these, 
 on several occasions, as well as with orthodox flies, 
 perhaps we may decide that trout do not distinguish 
 hues. On a Sutherland loch, an angler found that 
 trout would take flies of any colour, except that of 
 a light-green leaf of a tree. This rejection decidedly 
 looked as if even Sutherland loch trout exercised 
 some discrimination. Often, on a loch, out of three 
 flies they will favour one, and that, perhaps, not the 
 trail fly. The best rule is : when you find a 
 favourite fly on a salmon river, use it : its special 
 favouritism may be a superstition, but, at all events, 
 salmon do take it. We cannot afford to be always 
 making experiments, but Mr. Herbert Spencer, 
 busking his flies the reverse way, used certainly to 
 be at least as successful with sea trout as his less 
 speculative neighbours in Argyllshire. 
 
 In making rods, Walton is most concerned with 
 painting them : " I think a good top is worth pre- 
 serving, or I had not taken care to keep a top 
 
Introduction xli 
 
 above twenty years ". Cotton prefers rods " made 
 in Yorkshire," having advanced from the home- 
 made stage. His were spliced, and kept up all 
 through the season, as he had his water at his own 
 door, while Walton trudged to the Lee and other 
 streams near London, when he was not fishing the 
 Itchen, or Shawford Brook. The Angler's Vade 
 Mecum recommends eighteen-feet rods : preferring 
 a fir butt, fashioned by the arrow-maker, a hazel 
 top, and a tip of whalebone. This authority, even 
 more than Walton, deals in mysterious " Oynt- 
 ments" of gum ivy, horse-leek, asafcetida, man's fat, 
 cat's fat, powdered skulls, and grave earth. A 
 ghoulish body is the angler of the Vade Mecum. 
 He recommends up-stream fishing, with worm, in 
 a clear water, and so is a predecessor of Mr. 
 Stewart. "When you have hooked a good fish, 
 have an especial care to keep the rod bent, lest he 
 run to the end of the line" (he means, as does 
 Walton, lest he pull the rod horizontal) " and break 
 either hook or hold." An old owner of my copy 
 adds, in manuscript, " And hale him not to near ye 
 top of the water, lest in flaskering he break ye line ". 
 This is a favourite device of sea trout, which are 
 very apt to " flasker " on the top of the water. The 
 Vade Mecum, in advance of Walton on this point, 
 recommends a swivel in minnow-fishing: but has 
 no idea of an artificial minnow of silk. I have 
 known an ingenious lady who, when the bodies of 
 her phantom minnows gave out, in Norway, supplied 
 their place successfully with bed-quilting artfully 
 sewn. In fact, anything bright and spinning will 
 allure fish, though in the upper Ettrick, where large 
 trout exist, they will take the natural, but perhaps 
 never the phantom or angel minnow. I once tried 
 a spinning Alexandra fly over some large pond 
 trout They followed it eagerly, but never took 
 
xlii The Complete Angler 
 
 hold, on the first day ; afterwards they would not 
 look at it at all. The Vade Mecum man, like Dr. 
 Hamilton, recommends a light fly for a light day, 
 a dark fly for a dark day and dark weather ; others 
 hold the converse opinion. Every one agrees that 
 the smallness of the flies should be in proportion to 
 the lowness of the water and the advance of summer. 1 
 Our ancestors, apparently, used only one fly at a 
 time ; in rapid rivers, with wet fly, two, three, or, in 
 lochs like Loch Leven, even four are employed. 
 To my mind more than two only cause entangle- 
 ments of the tackle. The old English anglers knew, 
 of course, little or nothing of loch fishing, using bait 
 in lakes. The great length of their rods made reels 
 less necessary, and they do not seem to have waded 
 much. A modern angler, casting upwards, from 
 the middle of the stream, with a nine-foot rod, 
 would have astonished Walton. They dealt with 
 trout less educated than ours, and tooled with much 
 coarser and heavier implements. They had no fine 
 scruples about bait of every kind, any more than 
 the Scots have, and Barker loved a lob-worm, fished 
 on the surface, in a dark night. He was a pot- 
 fisher, and had been a cook. He could catch a 
 huge basket of trout, and dress them in many 
 different ways, broyled, calvored hot with ant- 
 chovaes sauce, boyled, soused, stewed, fried, battered 
 with eggs, roasted, baked, calvored cold, and 
 marilled, or potted, also marrionated. Barker 
 instructs my Lord Montague to fish with salmon roe, 
 
 *I have examined all the Angling works of the period known 
 to me. Gilbert's Angler's Delight (1676) is a mere pamphlet; 
 William Gilbert, gent., pilfers from Walton, without naming 
 him, and has literally nothing original or meritorious. The book 
 is very scarce. My own copy is *' uncut," but incomplete, lacking 
 the directions for fishing " in Hackney River ". Gervase Mark- 
 ham, prior to Walton, is a compiler rather than an original 
 authority on angling. 
 
Introduction xli ii 
 
 a thing prohibited and very popular in Scotland. 
 " If I had known it but twenty years agoe, I would 
 have gained a hundred pounds onely 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 de- 
 sire that men of quality should have it that delight 
 in that pleasure: the greedy angler will murmur at 
 me, but for that I care not." Barker calls salmon 
 roe "an experience I have found of late: the best 
 bait for a trout that I have seen in all my time," 
 and it is the most deadly, in the eddy of a turbid 
 water. Perhaps trout would take caviare, which is 
 not forbidden by the law of the land. Any un- 
 scrupulous person may make the experiment, and 
 argue the matter out with the water-bailie. But, in 
 my country, it is more usual to duck that official, 
 and go on netting, sniggling, salmon-roeing, and 
 destroying sport in the sacred name of Liberty. 
 
 Scots wha fish wi* salmon roe, 
 Scots wha sniggle as ye go, 
 Wull ye stand the Bailie ? No t 
 Let the limmer die I 
 
 Now's the day and now's the time, 
 Poison a' the burns wi' lime, 
 Fishing fair's a dastard crime, 
 We're for fishing free I 
 
 " Ydle persones sholde have but lyttyl mesure in 
 the sayd disporte of fysshyng," says our old Treatise, 
 but in southern Scotland they have left few fish to 
 dysporte with, and the trout is like to become an 
 extinct animal. Izaak would especially have dis- 
 liked Fishing Competitions, which, by dint of the 
 multitude of anglers, turn the contemplative man's 
 recreation into a crowded skirmish ; and we would 
 repeat his remark, "the rabble herd themselves 
 together" (a dozen in one pool, often), "and en- 
 deavour to govern and act in spite of authority ". 
 
xliv The Complete Angler 
 
 For my part, had I a river, I would gladly let all 
 honest anglers that use the fly cast line in it, but, 
 where there is no protection, then nets, poison, 
 dynamite, slaughter of fmgerlings, and unholy baits 
 devastate the fish, so that " Free Fishing " spells no 
 fishing at all. This presses most hardly on the 
 artisan who fishes fair, a member of a large class 
 with whose pastime only a churl would wish to 
 interfere. We are now compelled, if we would catch 
 fish, to seek Tarpon in Florida, Mahseer in India: 
 it does not suffice to " stretch our legs up Totten- 
 ham Hill". 
 
 ANDREW LANG. 
 
 The following is a list of Walton's works : 
 
 Life of Donne (prefixed to Sermons), ijyo; issued separately, 
 ^658. Life of Sir Henry Wotton (" Reliquiae Wottonianae "), 
 1651, 1654, 1672, 1685. The Compleat Angler, or the Contem- 
 plative Man's Recreation, 1653 ; second edition (with alterations), 
 1655 ; 1661, 1668, 1676 (with Second part by Cotton and third by 
 Col. R. Venables). Life of Hooker, 1665 ; second edition prefixed 
 to Hooker's ' Ecclesiastical Polity," 1666 ; 1676, 1682. Life of 
 George Herbert, ijo. Collected Edition of Lives, 1670, 1675. 
 Life of Robert Sanderson, i8. Of the numerous editions of 
 "The Compleat Angler " may" be noted: by Sir John Hawkins 
 (with earliest biography), 1760 (many editions) ; Illustrated Edition 
 (with biography), by Sir Nicholas Harris Nicolas, 1836; by R. B. 
 Marston (with life), 1888 ; Tercentenary, J. E. Harting, 1893 ; by 
 Andrew Lang, 1896. The "Lives," Ed. A. H. Bullen (Bohn), 
 1884 ; Austin Dobson (Temple Classics), 1898. 
 
THE COMPLEAT ANGLER 
 OF IZAAK WALTON 
 
Simon Peter said, I go a fishing : and they said f 
 We also will go with thee." JOHN xxi. 3. 
 
To the Right worshipful 
 
 JOHN OFFLEY 
 
 of Madeley Manor, in the County of Stafford 
 E squire > My most honoured Friend 
 
 SIR, I have made so ill use of your former 
 favours, as by them to be encouraged to en- 
 Teat, that they may be enlarged to the patron- 
 age 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 
 oien of another belief, that Angling is an Art : 
 and you know that Art better than others , 
 and that this is truth is demonstrated by the 
 fruits of that pleasant labour which you enjoy, 
 when you purpose to give rest to your mind, 
 and divest yourself of your more serious busi- 
 
 cs, and, which is often, dedicate a day or 
 two to this recreation. 
 
 At which time, if common Anglers should 
 
 A 
 
2 The Complete Angler 
 
 attend you, and be eyewitnesses of the sue* 
 cess, not of your fortune, but your skill, it 
 would doubtless beget in them an emulation 
 to be like you, and that emulation might be- 
 get an industrious diligence to be so ; but I 
 know it is not attainable by common capaci- 
 ties : 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 Fish- 
 ing, 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 Wotton, a dear lover of this Art, 
 has told me, that his intentions were to write 
 a Discourse of the Art, and in praise of An- 
 gling ; and doubtless he had done so, if death 
 had not prevented him ; the remembrance of 
 which had 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; 
 
The Epistle Dedicatory 3 
 
 , tinst which you, Sir, might make this one, 
 __iat it can contribute nothing to YOUR know- 
 ledge. And lest a longer epistle may diminish 
 your pleasure, I shall make this no longer 
 than to add this following truth, that I am 
 really, Sir, your most affectionate Friend, and 
 most humble Servant. Iz. WA. 
 

 THE EPISTLE TO THE READER 
 
 To all Readers of this discourse, but especially 
 to the honest Angler 
 
 I THINK fit to tell thee 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 willingly lose 
 any part of that to which I had a just title before I 
 began 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 
 exceptions, 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, concerning 
 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 j\ 
 a recreation; and that it might prove so to him,]) 
 and not read dull and tediously, I have in several 
 
6 The Complete Angler 
 
 places mixed, not any scurrility, but some innocent; 
 harmless mirth, of which, if thou 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 seasonable times, yet the whole Discourse 
 is, or rather was, a picture of my own disposition, 
 especially in such days and times as I have laid 
 aside business, and gone a-fishing with honest Nat 
 and R. Roe; but they are gone, 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 con- 
 sider, that experience teaches us to know that 
 several countries alter the time, and I think, almost 
 the manner, of fishes 1 breeding, but doubtless of 
 their being in season ; as may appear by three 
 rivers in Monmouthshire, namely, Severn, Wye, 
 and Usk, where Camden observes, that in the river 
 Wye, Salmon are in season from September to 
 April ; and we are certain, that in Thames and 
 Trent, and in most other rivers, they be in season 
 the six hotter months. 
 
 Now for the Art of catching fish, that is to say, 
 
The Epistle to the Reader 7 
 
 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 learned 
 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 ac- 
 quaint 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 Mathe- 
 maticks, that it can never be fully learnt ; at least 
 not so fully, but that there will still be more new 
 experiments left for the trial of other men that suc- 
 ceed us. 
 
 But I think all that love this game may here , ^ 
 learn something that may be worth their money,' v / 
 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 confer- 
 ence 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 is said by 
 many, that in fly-fishing for a Trout, the Angler 
 must observe his twelve several flies for the twelve 
 
8 The Complete Angler 
 
 months of the year, I say, he that follows that rule, 
 1 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 those 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 Dis- 
 course, I have set down the twelve flies that are in 
 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 particu- 
 lar place or country ; and 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 four 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 fit to give 
 thee this notice. 
 
 When I have told the reader, that in this fifth 
 impression there are many enlargements, gathered 
 both by my own observation, and the communica- 
 tion 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. 
 
THE FIRST DAY 
 
 A Conference betwixt an Angler \ a Falconer^ 
 and a Hitnter, eack commending his Re- 
 creation 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 PISCATOR, VENATOR, AUCEPS 
 
 PlSCATOR. You are well overtaken, Gentlemen ! A 
 good morning to you both ! I have stretched my 
 legs up Tottenham Hill to overtake you, hoping 
 your business may occasion you towards Ware 
 whither I am going this fine fresh May morning. 
 
 VENATOR. Sir, I, for my part, shall almost 
 answer your hopes ; for my purpose is to drink 
 my morning's draught at the Thatched House in 
 Hoddesden ; 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 1 have scarce 
 had time to ask him the question. 
 
 AUCEPS. Sir, I shall by your favour bear you 
 company as far as Theobalds, 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. 
 
 VENATOR. Sir, we are all so happy as to have a 
 
 9 
 
io The Complete Angler 
 
 fme 3 fresh, cool 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, know- 
 ing that, as the Italians say, " Good company in a 
 journey makes the way to seem the shorter ". 
 
 AUCEPS. It may do so, Sir, with the help of good 
 discourse, which, methinks, we may promise from 
 you, that both look and speak so cheerfully : and 
 for my part, I promise you, as an invitation to it, 
 that I will be as free and open hearted as discretion 
 will allow me to be with strangers. 
 
 VENATOR. And, Sir, I promise the like. 
 
 PlSCATOR. 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. 
 
 VENATOR. Sir, mine is a mixture of both, a little 
 business and more pleasure ; for I intend this day 
 to do all my business, and then bestow another day 
 or two in hunting the Otter, which a friend, that I 
 go to meet, tells me is much pleasanter than any 
 other chase whatsoever : howsoever, I mean to try 
 it; for to-morrow morning we shall meet a pack 
 of Otter-dogs of noble Mr. Sadler's, upon Amwell 
 Hill, who will be there so early, that they intend 
 to prevent the sunrising. 
 
 PlSCATOR. Sir, my fortune has answered my 
 desires, and my purpose is to bestow a day or two 
 in helping to destroy some of those villanous 
 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 pen- 
 sions from the King, to encourage them to destroy 
 
The First Day 1 1 
 
 the very breed of those base Otters, they do so 
 much mischief. 
 
 VENATOR. 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. 
 
 PlSCATOR. Oh, Sir, if they do, it is not so much 
 to me and my fraternity, as those base vermin the 
 Otters do. 
 
 AUCEPS. Why, Sir, I pray, of what fraternity are 
 you, that you are so angry with the poor Otters ? 
 
 PlSCATOR. I am, Sir, a Brother of the Angle, 
 and therefore an enemy to the Otter : for you are 
 to note, that we Anglers all love one another, and 
 therefore do I hate the Otter both for my own, and 
 their sakes who are of my brotherhood. 
 
 VENATOR. 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. 
 
 AUCEPS. And I profess myself a Falconer, and 
 have heard many grave, serious men pity them, it 
 is such a heavy, contemptible, dull recreation. 
 
 PlSCATOR. 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, ac- 
 cording to that of Lucian, the father of the family 
 of Scoffers : 
 
 Lucian, well skilled in scoffing, this hath writ, 
 Friend, that's your folly, which you think your wit : 
 This you vent oft, void both of wit and fear, 
 Meaning another, when yourself you jeer. 
 
 If to this you add what Solomon' says of Scoffers, 
 that they are an abomination to mankind, let him 
 that thinks fit scoff on, and be a Scoffer still ; but 
 
12 The Complete Angler 
 
 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 complexion ; money-getting 
 men, men that spend all their time, first in getting, 
 and next, in anxious care to keep it ; men that are 
 condemned to be rich, and then always busy or 
 discontented : for these poor rich-men, we Anglers 
 pity them perfectly, and stand in no need to borrow 
 their thoughts to think ourselves so happy. No, 
 no, Sir, we enjoy a contentedness above the reach 
 of such dispositions, and as the learned and ingenu- 
 ous Montaigne says, like himself, freely, <c 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? 11 
 
 Thus freely speaks Montaigne concerning Cats ; 
 and I hope I may take as great a liberty to blame 
 any man, and laugh at him too, let him be never so 
 grave, that hath not heard what Anglers can say in 
 the justification of their Art and Recreation ; which 
 I may again tell you, is so full of pleasure, that we 
 need not borrow their thoughts, to think ourselves 
 happy. 
 
The First Day 13 
 
 VENATOR. 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. 
 
 PlSCATOR. 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 
 lordship safely conveyed to them in a piece of 
 parchment no bigger than your hand, though several 
 sheets will not do it safely in this wiser age ; I say, 
 Sir, if you take us Anglers to be such simple men 
 as I have 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 pre- 
 judice, have possessed you with against that laudable 
 and ancient Art ; for I know it is worthy the know- 
 ledge and practice of a wise man. 
 
 But, Gentlemen, though I be able to do this, I am 
 not so unmannerly as to engross all the discourse 
 to myself; and, therefore, you two having declared 
 yourselves, the one to be a lover of Hawks, the 
 other of Hounds, I shall be most glad to hear what 
 you can say in the commendation of that recreation 
 which each of you love and practise ; and having 
 
14 The Complete Angler 
 
 heard what you can say, I shall be glad to exercise 
 your attention with what I can say concerning my 
 own recreation and Art of Angling, and by this 
 means we shall make the way to seem the shorter : 
 and if you like my motion, I would have Mr. 
 Falconer to begin. 
 
 AUCEPS. 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 recrea- 
 tion. It stops not the high soaring of my noble, 
 generous Falcon ; in it she ascends to such a height, 
 as the dull eyes of beasts and fish are not able to 
 reach to ; their bodies are too gross for such high 
 elevations ; in the Air my troops of Hawks soar up 
 on high, and when they are lost in the sight of men, 
 then they attend upon and converse with the Gods ; 
 therefore I think my Eagle is so justly 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 Daedalus, to have her wings scorched by the 
 sun's heat, she flies so near it, but her mettle makes 
 her careless of danger ; for she then heeds nothing, 
 but makes her nimble pinions cut the fluid air, and 
 so makes her highway over the steepest mountains 
 and deepest rivers, and in her glorious career looks 
 with contempt upon those high steeples and mag- 
 nificent palaces which we adore and wonder at; 
 from w r hich height, I can make her to descend by 
 a word from my mouth, which she both knows and 
 obeys, to accept of meat from my hand, to own me 
 
The First Day 15 
 
 for her Master, to go home with me, and be willing 
 the next day to afford me the like recreation. 
 
 And more ; this element of air which I profess to 
 trade in, the worth of it is such, and it is of such 
 necessity, that no creature whatsoever not only 
 those numerous creatures that feed on the face of 
 the earth, but those various creatures that have 
 their dwelling within the waters, every creature 
 that hath life in 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 inspir- 
 ing and expiring organ of any animal be stopped, 
 it suddenly yields to nature, and dies. Thus neces- 
 sary 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 heavenly voices : I will not 
 undertake to mention the several kinds of Fowl by 
 which this is done : and his curious palate pleased 
 by day, and which with their very excrements afford 
 him a soft lodging at night : These I will pass by, 
 but not those little nimble musicians of the air, that 
 warble forth their curious ditties, with which nature 
 hath furnished them to the shame of art. 
 
 As first the Lark, when she means to rejoice, ta 
 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 em* 
 
1 6 The Complete Angler 
 
 ployment, 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 
 melodious voices bid welcome to the cheerful 
 Spring, and in their fixed months warble forth such 
 ditties as no art or instrument can reach to ! 
 
 Nay, the smaller birds also do the like in their 
 particular seasons, as namely the Laverock, the 
 Tit-lark, 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 musick out of her little in- 
 strumental throat, that it might make mankind to 
 think miracles are not ceased. He that at midnight, 
 when the very labourer sleeps securely, should hear, 
 as I have very often, the clear airs, the sweet des- 
 cants, the natural rising and falling, the doubling 
 and redoubling of her voice, might well be lifted 
 above earth, and say, " Lord, what musick hast 
 thou provided for the Saints in Heaven, when 
 thou affordest bad men such musick on Earth ! " 
 
 And this makes me the less to wonder at the 
 many Aviaries in Italy, or at the great charge of 
 Varro's Aviary, the ruins of which are yet to be seen 
 in Rome, and is still so famous there, that it is reck- 
 oned 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 use. I think it is not to be doubted that 
 Swallows have been taught to cany 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. Sandys, in his Travels^ 
 
The First Day 17 
 
 relates it to be done betwixt Aleppo and Babylon. 
 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 appeared 
 to be sea ; and the Dove proved a faithful and com- 
 fortable 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, after a kind 
 of miraculous manner, he did it by Ravens, who 
 brought him meat morning and evening. Lastly, 
 the Holy Ghost, when he descended visibly upon 
 our Saviour, did it by assuming the shape of a 
 Dove. And, to conclude 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 la- 
 borious Bee, of whose prudence, policy, and regular 
 government of their own commonwealth, I might 
 say much, as also of their several kinds, and how 
 useful their honey and wax are both for meat and 
 medicines to mankind ; but I will leave them to 
 their sweet labour, without the least disturbance, 
 believing them to be all very busy at this very time 
 amongst the herbs and flowers that we see nature 
 puts forth this May morning. 
 
 And now to return to my Hawks, from whom I 
 have made too long a digression. You are to note, 
 that they are usually distinguished into two kinds ; 
 namely, the long-winged, and the short-winged 
 Hawk : of the first kind, there be chiefly in use 
 amongst us in this nation, 
 
 The Gerfalcon and Jerkin, 
 
 The Falcon and Tassel-gentle, 
 
 The Laner and Laneret, 
 
 B 
 
1 8 The Complete Angler 
 
 The Bockerel and Bockeret, 
 
 The Saker and Sacaret, 
 
 The Merlin and Jack Merlin, 
 
 The Hobby and Jack : 
 There is the Stelletto of Spain, 
 
 The Bloocl-red Rook from Turkey. 
 
 The Waskite from Virginia : 
 And there is of short-winged Hawks, 
 
 The Eagle and Iron, 
 
 The Goshawk and Tarcel, 
 
 The Sparhawk and Musket, 
 
 The French Pye of two sorts : 
 
 These are reckoned Hawks of note and worth ; but 
 we have also of an inferior rank, 
 
 The Stanyel, the Ringtail, 
 
 The Raven, the Buzzard, 
 
 The Forked Kite, the Bald Buzzard, 
 
 The Hen-driver, and others that I forbear to 
 
 name. 
 
 Gentlemen, if I should enlarge my discourse to 
 the 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 re- 
 novation of their feathers : their reclaiming, dieting, 
 and then come to their rare stories of practice ; I 
 say, if I should enter into these, and many other 
 observations that I could make, it would be much, 
 very much pleasure to me : but lest I should break 
 the rules of civility with you, by taking up more 
 than the proportion of time allotted to me, I will 
 here break off, and entreat you, Mr. Venator, to say 
 what you are able in the commendation of Hunting, 
 to which you are so much affected ; and if <time 
 will serve, I will beg your favour for a further en- 
 largement of some of those several heads of which 
 I have spoken. But no more at present. 
 
The First Day 19 
 
 VENATOR. 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, wholesome, hungry trade. The Earth 
 is a solid, settled element ; an element most uni- 
 versally beneficial both to man and beast ; to men 
 who have their several recreations upon it, as horse- 
 races, hunting, sweet smells, pleasant 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, 
 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 
 physick and the pleasure of mankind ! and above 
 all, to me at least, the fruitful vine, of which when I 
 drink moderately, it clears my brain, cheers my 
 heart, and sharpens my wit. How could Cleopatra 
 have feasted Mark Antony with eight wild Boars 
 roasted whole at one supper, and other meat suit- 
 able, if the earth had not been a bountiful mother ? 
 But to pass by the mighty Elephant, which the 
 Earth breeds and nourisheth, and descend to the 
 least of creatures, how doth the earth afford us a 
 doctrinal example in the little Pismire, who in the, 
 summer provides and lays up her winter provision, ' 
 and teaches man to do the like ! The earth feeds 
 and carries those horses that carry us. If I would 
 be prodigal of my time and your patience, what 
 might not I say in commendations of the earth? 
 
2O The Complete Angler 
 
 That puts limits to the proud and raging sea, and 
 by that means preserves both man and beast, that 
 it destroys them not, as we see it daily doth those 
 that venture upon the sea, and are there shipwrecked, 
 drowned, and left to feed Haddocks ; when we that 
 are so wise as to keep ourselves on earth, walk, and 
 talk, and live, and eat, and drink, and go a hunting : 
 of which recreation I will say a little, and then 
 leave Mr. Piscator to the commendation of Angling. 
 
 Hunting is a game for princes and noble persons ; 
 it hath been highly prized in all ages ; it was one 
 of the qualifications that Xenophon bestowed on 
 his Cyrus, that he was a hunter of wild beasts. 
 Hunting trains up the younger nobility to the use 
 of manly exercises in their riper age. What more 
 manly exercise than hunting the Wild Boar, the 
 Stag, the Buck, the Fox, or the Hare? How doth 
 it preserve health, and increase strength and activity ! 
 
 And for the dogs that we use, who can commend 
 their excellency to that height which they deserve ? 
 How perfect is the hound at smelling, who never 
 leaves or forsakes his first scent, but follows it 
 through so many changes and varieties of other 
 scents, even over, and in, the water, and into the 
 earth ! What music doth a pack of dogs then make 
 to any man, whose heart and ears are so happy as 
 to be set to the tune of such instruments ! How will 
 a right Greyhound fix his eye on the best Buck in a 
 herd, single him out, and follow him, and him only, 
 through a whole herd of rascal game, and still know 
 and then kill him ! For my hounds, I know the 
 language of them, and they know the language and 
 meaning of one another, as perfectly as we know 
 the voices of those with whom we discourse daily. 
 
 I might enlarge myself in the commendation of 
 Hunting, and of the noble Hound especially, as also 
 of the docibleness of dogs in general ; and I might 
 
The First Day 21 
 
 make many observations of land -creatures, that for 
 composition, order, figure, and constitution, approach 
 nearest to the completeness and understanding of 
 man ; especially of those creatures, which Moses in 
 the Law permitted to the Jews, which have cloven 
 hoofs, and chew the cud ; which I shall forbear to 
 name, because I will not be so uncivil to Mr. Piscator, 
 as not to allow him a time for the commendation of 
 Angling, which he calls an art ; but doubtless 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. 
 
 AUCEPS. And I hope so too, though I fear it 
 will. 
 
 PlSCATOR. Gentlemen, let not prejudice prepos- 
 sess 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 protest against 
 it. But, pray remember, I accuse nobody ; for as 
 I would not make a " watery discourse," so I would 
 not put too much vinegar into it ; nor would I raise 
 the reputation of my own art, by the diminution or 
 ruin of another's. And so much for the prologue to 
 what I mean to say. 
 
 And now for the Water, the element that I trade 
 in. The water is the eldest daughter of the crea- 
 tion, the element upon which the Spirit of God did 
 first move, the element which God commanded to 
 bring forth living creatures abundantly ; and without 
 which, those that inhabit the land, even all creatures 
 that have breath in their nostrils, must suddenly re- 
 turn to putrefaction. Moses, the great lawgiver and 
 chief philosopher, skilled in all the learning of the 
 
22 The Complete Angler 
 
 Egyptians, who was called the friend of God, and 
 knew the mind of tjjie Almighty, names this element 
 the first in the creation : this is the element upon 
 which the Spirit of God did first move, and is the 
 chief ingredient in the creation : many philosophers 
 have made it to comprehend all the other elements, 
 and most allow it the chiefest in the mixtion of all 
 living creatures. 
 
 There be that profess to believe that all bodies 
 are made of water, and may be reduced back again 
 to water only ; they endeavour to demonstrate it 
 thus: 
 
 Take a willow, or any like speedy growing plant, 
 newly rooted in a box or barrel full of earth, weigh 
 them all together exactly when the tree begins to 
 grow, and then weigh all together after the tree is 
 increased from its first rooting, to weigh a 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, arid not to be 
 from any other element ; and they affirm, they can 
 reduce this wood back again to water; and they 
 affirm also, the same may be done in any animal 
 or vegetable. And this I take to be a fair testi- 
 mony of the excellency of my element of water. 
 
 The water is more productive than the earth. 
 Nay, the earth hath no fruitfulness without showers 
 or dews ; for all the herbs, and flowers, and fruit, 
 are produced and thrive by the water ; and the very 
 minerals are fed by streams that run under ground, 
 whose natural course carries them to the tops of 
 many high mountains, as we see by several springs 
 breaking forth on the tops of the highest hills ; and 
 this is also witnessed by the daily trial and testi- 
 mony of several miners. 
 
The First Day 23 
 
 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 lengthening of his life, but for the 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 colleges, 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, salads, 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 appointed fish to be the chief diet for the best 
 commonwealth that ever yet was. 
 
 And it is observable, not only that there are fisfy 
 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 offish. The Romans, 
 in the height of their glory, have made fish the mis- 
 tress of all their entertainments; they have had 
 musick to usher in their Sturgeons, Lampreys, and 
 Mullets, which they would purchase at rates rather 
 to be wondered at than believed. He that shall 
 view the writings of Macrobius, or Varro, may be 
 confirmed and informed of this, and of The incredible 
 value of their fish and fish-ponds. 
 
 But, Gentlemen, I have almost lost myself, which 
 I confess I may easily do in this philosophical 
 discourse ; I met with most of it very lately, and, I 
 hope, happily, in a co'nference with a most learned 
 physician, Dr. JWharton, a. dear friend, that loves 
 both me and my art of Angling. But, however, f 
 will wade no deeper into these mysterious argu- 
 ments, but pass to such observations as I can man- 
 
24 The Complete Angler 
 
 age with more pleasure, and less fear of running 
 into error. But I must not yet forsake the waters, 
 by whose help we have so many known advantages. 
 
 And first, to pass by the miraculous cures of our 
 known baths, how advantageous is the sea for our 
 daily traffick, without which we could not now sub- 
 sist. How does it not only furnish us with food 
 and physick for the bodies, but with such observa- 
 tions 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 
 ivhat pleasure is it to see the monuments of Livy, 
 the choicest of the historians ; of Tully, the best of 
 orators ; and to see the bay trees that now grow out 
 of the very tomb of Virgil ! These, to any that love 
 learning, must be pleasing. But what pleasure is 
 it to a devout Christian, to see there the humble 
 house in which St. Paul was content to dwell, and 
 to view the many rich statues that are made in 
 honour of his memory ! nay, to see the very place 
 in which St. Peter and he lie buried together! 
 These are in and near to Rome. And how much 
 more doth it please the pious curiosity of a 
 Christian, to see that place, on which the blessed 
 Saviour of the world was pleased to humble him- 
 self, and to take our nature upon him, and to con- 
 verse with men : to see Mount Sion, Jerusalem, and 
 
The First Day 25 
 
 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 ! Gentlemen, 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 
 
 s- thank you for your patience. 
 
 AUCEPS. 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. 
 
 PISCATOR. Well, now, Mr. Venator, you shall 
 neither want time, nor my attention to hear you 
 enlarge your discourse concerning hunting. 
 
 VENATOR. Not I, Sir : I remember you said that 
 Angling itself was of great antiquity, arid a perfect 
 art, and an art not easily attained to ; and you have 
 so won upon me in your former discourse, that I am 
 very desirous to hear what you can say further con- 
 cerning those particulars. 
 
 PISCATOR. Sir, I did say so : and I doubt not 
 but if you and I did converse together but a few 
 hours, to leave you possessed with the same high 
 and happy thoughts that now possess me of it ; not 
 
26 The Complete Angler 
 
 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. 
 
 VENATOR. Pray, Sir, speak of them what you 
 think fit, for we have yet five miles to the Thatched 
 House ; during which walk, I dare promise you, my 
 patience and diligent attention shall not be wanting/ 
 And if you shall make that to appear which you 
 have undertaken, first, that it is an art, and an art 
 worth the learning, I shall beg that I may. attend 
 you a day or two a-fishing, and that I may become 
 your scholar, and be instructed in the art itself which 
 you so much magnify. 
 
 PlSCATOR. O, Sir, doubt not but that Angling is 
 an art ; is it not an art to deceive a Trout with an 
 artificial Fly ? a Trout ! that is more sharp-sighted 
 than any Hawk you have named, and more watch- 
 ful and timorous than your high-mettled Merlin is 
 bold ? and yet, I doubt not to catch a brace or two 
 to-morrow, for a friend's breakfast : doubt not there- 
 fore, Sir, but that angling is an art, and an art worth 
 your learning. The question is rather, whether you 
 be capable of learning it ? for angling is somewhat 
 like poetry, men are to be born so : I mean, with 
 inclinations to it, though both may be heightened 
 by discourse and practice : but he that hopes to be 
 a good angler, must not only bring an inquiring, 
 searching, observing wit, but he must bring a large 
 - measure of hope and patience, and a love and pro- 
 pensity to the art itself; but having once got and 
 practised it, then doubt not but angling will prove 
 to be so pleasant, that it will prove to be, like virtue, 
 a reward to itself. 
 
 VENATOR. Sir, I am* now become so full of ex- 
 pectation, that 1 long much to have you proceed, 
 and in the order that you propose. 
 
 PlSCATOR. Then first, for the antiquity of An- 
 
The First Day 27 
 
 gling, of which I shall not say much, but only this ; 
 some say it is as ancient as Deucalion's flood : others, 
 that Belus, who was the first inventor of gotfly and 
 virtuous recreations, was the first inventor of An- 
 gling : 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 pos- 
 terity : others say that he left it engraven on those 
 pillars which he erected, and trusted to preserve the 
 knowledge of the mathematicks, musick, and the 
 rest of that precious knowledge, and those useful 
 arts, which by God's appointment or allowance, and 
 his noble industry, were thereby preserved from 
 perishing in Noah's flood. 
 
 These, Sir, have been the opinions of several men, 
 that have possibly endeavoured to make angling 
 more ancient than is needful, or may well be 
 warranted ; but for my part, I shall content myself 
 in telling you, that angling is much more ancient 
 than the incarnation of our Saviour ; for in the 
 Prophet Amos mention is made of fish-hooks ; and 
 in the book of Job, which was long before the days 
 of Amos, for that book is said to 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 myself, 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 
 
28 The Complete Angler 
 
 I profess to love and practise, I shall be the gladder 
 that I made an accidental mention of the antiquity 
 of it, of which I shall say no more, but proceed to 
 that just commendation which I think it deserves. 
 
 And for that, I shall tell you, that in ancient 
 times a debate hath risen, and it remains yet unre- 
 solved, whether the happiness of man in this world 
 doth consist more in contemplation or action? 
 Concerning which, some have endeavoured to 
 maintain their opinion of the first ; by saying, that 
 the nearer we mortals come to God by way of 
 imitation, the more happy we are. And they say, 
 that God enjoys himself only, by a contemplation 
 of his own infiniteness, eternity, power, and good- 
 ness, 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 ap- 
 pear in their commentaries upon the words of our 
 Saviour to Martha. 
 
 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 
 physick, and the application of it, both for the ease 
 and prolongation of man's life ; by which each man 
 is enabled to act and do good to others, either to 
 serve his country, or do good to particular persons : 
 and they say also, that action is doctrinal, and 
 teaches both art and virtue, and is a maintainer of 
 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, ingenuous, quiet, and 
 harmless art of angling. 
 
The First Day 29 
 
 And first, I shall tell you what some have ob- 
 served, 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 main- 
 tained by the learned Peter du Moulin, who, in his 
 discourse of the fulfilling of Prophecies, observes, 
 that when God intended to reveal any future events 
 or high notions to his prophets, he then carried 
 them either to the deserts, or the sea-shore, that 
 having so separated them from amidst the press of 
 people and business, and the cares of the world, he 
 might settle their mind in a quiet repose, and there 
 make them fit for revelation. 
 
 And this seems also to be imitated by the 
 children of Israel, who having in a sad condition 
 banished all mirth and musick 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. AJU! 
 
 And an ingenious Spaniard says, that " rivers and 
 the inhabitants of the watery element were made 
 for wise men to contemplate, and fools to pass by 
 without consideration". And though I will not 
 rank myself in the number of the first, yet give me 
 leave to free myself from the last, by offering to 
 you a short contemplation, first of rivers, and then 
 of fish ; concerning which I doubt not but to give 
 you many observations that will appear very con- 
 siderable : I am sure they have appeared so to me, 
 and made many an hour pass away more pleasantly, 
 as I have sat quietly on a flowery bank by a calm 
 river, and contemplated what I shall now relate to 
 you. 
 
 And first concerning rivers ; there be so many 
 
30 The Complete Angler 
 
 wonders reported and written of them, and of* trie 
 several creatures that be bred and live in them, arjd 
 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 drunk, cause madness, 
 some drunkenness, and some laughter to death. The 
 river Selarus in a few hours turns a rod or wand 
 to stone : and our Camden mentions the like in 
 England, and the like in Lochmere in Ireland. 
 There is also a river in Arabia, of which all the 
 sheep that drink thereof have their wool turned into 
 a vermilion colour. And one of no less credit than 
 Aristotle, tells us of a merry river, the river Elusina, 
 that dances at the noise of musick, for with musick 
 it bubbles, dances, and grows sandy, and so continues 
 till the musick 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 
 runs swiftly all the six days of the week, arid stands 
 still and rests all their sabbath. 
 
 But I will lay aside my discourse of rivers, and tell 
 you some things of the monsters, or fish, call them 
 what you will, that they breed and feed in them. 
 Pliny the philosopher says, in the third chapter of 
 his ninth book, that in the Indian Sea, the fish called 
 
The First Day 31 
 
 Balaena 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 tempestuous winds 
 oppose the torrents of water falling from the rocks 
 into it, and so turning what Jay at the bottom to be 
 seen on the water's top. And he says, that the 
 
 ~ people of Cadara, an island near this place, make 
 the timber for their houses of those fish bones. He 
 -there tells us, that there are sometimes a thousand of 
 these great Eels found wrapt or interwoven together. 
 He tells us there, that it appears that dolphins love 
 musick, 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 concerning 
 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 now seen, many collected by John 
 Tradescaht, and others added by my friend Elias 
 Ashmole, Esq., who now keeps them carefully and 
 methodically at his house near to Lambeth, near 
 London, as may get some belief of some of the 
 other wonders I 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 in- 
 credible fish, but you may there see the Salamander, 
 several sorts of Barnacles, of Solan-Geese, the Bird 
 of Paradise, such sorts of Snakes, and such Birds 1 - 
 
32 The Complete Angler 
 
 nests, and of so various forms, and so wonderfully 
 made, as may beget -wonder and amusement in any 
 beholder ; and so many hundred of other rarities in 
 that collection, as will make the other wonders I 
 spake of, the less incredible ; for, you may note, that 
 the waters are Nature's store-house, in which she 
 locks up her wonders. 
 
 But, Sir, lest this discourse may seem tedious, I 
 shall give it a sweet conclusion out of that holy poet, 
 Mr. George Herbert his divine " Contemplation on 
 God's Providence". 
 
 Lord ! who hath praise enough, nay, who hath any ? 
 None can express thy works, but he that knows them ; 
 And none can know thy works, they are so many, 
 And so complete, but only he that owes them. 
 
 We all acknowledge both thy power and love 
 To be exact, transcendant, and divine ; 
 Who dost so strangely and so sweetly move, 
 Whilst all things have their end, yet none but thine. 
 
 Wherefore, most sacred Spirit 1 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, wherein, 
 for height of poetry and wonders, the prophet David 
 seems even to exceed himself, how doth he there 
 express himself in choice metaphors, even to the 
 amazement of a contemplative reader, concerning 
 the sea, the rivers, and the fish therein 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 creatures inhabiting both 
 in and about that element ; as to the readers of 
 Gesner, Rondeletius, Pliny, Ausonius, Aristotle, and 
 others, may be demonstrated. But I will sweeten 
 
The First Day 33 
 
 this discourse also out of a contemplation in divine 
 Du Bartas, who says ; 
 
 God quickened in the sea, and in the rivers, 
 
 So many fishes of so many features, 
 
 That in the waters we may see all creatures, 
 
 Even all that on the earth are to be found, 
 
 As if the world were in deep waters drown'd. 
 
 For seas as well as skies have Sun, Moon, Stars ; 
 
 As well as air Swallows, Rooks, and Stares ; 
 
 As well as earth Vines, Roses, Nettles, Melons, 
 
 Mushrooms, Pinks, Gilliflowers, and many millions 
 
 Of other plants, more rare, more strange than these, 
 
 As very fishes, living in the seas ; 
 
 As also Rams, Calves, Horses, Hares, and Hogs, 
 
 Wolves, Urchins, Lions, Elephants, and Dogs ; 
 
 Yea, Men and Maids ; and, which I most admire, 
 
 The mitred Bishop and the cowled Friar : 
 
 Of which, examples, but a few years since, 
 
 Were shewn the Norway and Polonian prince. 
 
 These seem to be wonders ; but have had so many 
 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 contemplation, than their different natures, 
 inclinations, and actions ; concerning which, I shall 
 beg your patient ear a little longer. 
 
 The Cuttle-fish will cast a long gut out of her 
 throat, which, like as an Angler doth his line, she 
 sendeth forth, and pulleth 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 gravel, 
 lets the smaller fish nibble and bite the end of it ; 
 at which time she, by little and little, draws the 
 smaller fish so near to her, that she may leap upon 
 her, and then catches and devours her : and for this 
 reason some have called this fish the Sea-angler. 
 
 And there is a fish called a Hermit, that at a 
 certain age gets into a dead fish's shell, and, like a 
 hermit, dwells there alone, studying the wind and 
 weather ; and so turns her shell, that she makes it 
 c 
 
34 The Complete Angler 
 
 defend her from the injuries that they would bring 
 upon her. 
 
 There is also a fish called by ^Elian the Adonis, 
 or Darling of the Sea; so called, because it is a lov- 
 ing 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 
 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 observa- 
 tions out of authors that have been great and industri- 
 ous 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 not suffice his ranging appetite, 
 Goes courting she-goats on the grassy shore, 
 Horning their husbands that had horns before. 
 
 And the same author writes concerning the 
 Cantharus, that which you shall also hear in his 
 own words : 
 
 But, contrary, the constant Cantharus 
 Is ever constant to his faithful spouse ; 
 In nuptial duties, spending his chaste life ; 
 Never loves any but his own dear wife. 
 
 Sir, but a little longer, and I have done. 
 
 VENATOR. Sir, take what liberty you think fit, 
 for your discourse seems to be musick, and charms 
 me to an attention. 
 
 PlSCATOR. Why then, Sir, I will take a little 
 liberty to tell, or rather to remember you what is 
 
The First Day 35 
 
 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. 
 
 And to parallel this land-rarity, and teach man- / 
 kind moral faithfulness, and to condemn those that 
 talk of religion, and yet come short of the moral x< 
 faith of, fish and fowl, men that violate the law 
 affirmed by St. Paul 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 such conjugal 
 faithfulness will be musick 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, 
 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 consider- 
 able, that the Hen, which, because she also takes 
 any Cock, expects it not, who is sure the chickens 
 be her own, hath by a moral impression her care 
 and affection to her own brood more thn doubled, 
 even to such a height, that our Saviour, in express- 
 ing his love to Jerusalem, 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 
 
36 The Complete Angler 
 
 that cast their spawn on flags or stones, and then 
 leave it uncovered, and exposed to become a prey 
 and be devoured by vermin or other fishes. But 
 other fishes, as namely the Barbel, take such care 
 for the preservation of their seed, that, unlike to 
 the Cock, or the Cuckoo, they mutually labour, both 
 the spawner and the melter, to cover their spawn with 
 sand, or watch it, or hide it in some secret place, un- 
 frequented by vermin or by any fish but themselves. 
 
 Sir, these examples may, to you and others, seem 
 strange ; but they are testified, some by Aristotle, 
 some by Pliny, some by Gesner, and by many others 
 of credit; and are believed and known by divers, 
 both of wisdom and experience, to be a truth ; and 
 indeed are, as I said at the beginning, fit for the con- 
 templation of a most. serious and a most pious man. 
 And, doubtless, this made the prophet David say, 
 "They that occupy themselves in deep waters, see 
 the wonderful works of God " : indeed such wonders, 
 and pleasures too, as the land affords not. 
 
 And that they be fit for the contemplation of the 
 most prudent, and pious, and peaceable men, seems 
 to be testified by the practice of so many devout and 
 contemplative men, as the Patriarchs and Prophets 
 of old ; and of the Apostles of our Saviour in our 
 latter times, of which twelve, we are sure, he chose 
 four that were simple fishermen, whom he inspired, 
 and sent to publish his blessed will to the Gentiles ; 
 and inspired them also with a power to speak all 
 languages, and by their powerful eloquence to beget 
 faith in the unbelieving Jews ; and themselves to 
 suffer for that Saviour, whom their forefathers and 
 they had crucified ; and, in their sufferings, to preach 
 freedom from the incumbrances of the law, and a 
 new way to everlasting life : this was the employ- 
 ment of these happy fishermen. Concerning which 
 choice, some have made these observations: 
 
The First Day 37 
 
 First, that tye never reproved these, for their em- 
 ployment or calling, as he did the Scribes and the 
 Money-changers. And secondly, he found that the 
 hearts of such men, by nature, were fitted for con- 
 templation and quietness ; men of mild, and sweet, 
 and peaceable spirits, as indeed most Anglers are : 
 these men our blessed Saviour, who is observed to 
 love to plant grace in good natures, though indeed 
 nothing be too hard for him, yet these men he chose 
 to call from their irreprovable employment of fish- 
 ing, and gave them grace to be his disciples, and to 
 follow him, and do wonders ; I say four of twelve. 
 
 And it is observable, that, it was our Saviour's will 
 that these, our four fishermen, should have a priority 
 of nomination in the catalogue of his twelve Apostles, 
 as namely, first St. Peter, St. Andrew, St. James, and 
 St. John ; and, then, the rest in their order. 
 
 And it is yet more observable, that when our 
 blessed Saviour went up into the mount, when he 
 left the rest of his disciples, and chose only three to 
 bear him company at his Transfiguration, that those 
 three were all fishermen. And it is to be believed, 
 that all the other Apostles, after they betook them- 
 selves 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 
 twenty-first 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 ap- 
 pointed 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 
 
38 The Complete Angler 
 
 conversion, was remarkably carnally amorous ; and 
 after, by God's appointment, wrote that spiritual 
 dialogue, or holy amorous love-song the Canticles, 
 betwixt God and his church : in which he says, 
 " his beloved had eyes like the fish-pools of Hesh- 
 bon". 
 
 And if this hold in reason, as I see none to the 
 contrary, then it may be probably concluded, that 
 Moses, who I told you before writ the book of Job, 
 and the Prophet Amos, who was a shepherd, were 
 both Anglers ; for you shall, in all the Old Testa- 
 ment, find fish-hooks, I think but twice mentioned, 
 namely, by meek Moses the friend of God, and by 
 the humble prophet Amos. 
 
 -^Concerning which last, namely the prophet Amos, 
 I shall make but this observation, that he that shall 
 read the humble, lowly, plain style of that prophet, 
 and compare it with the high, glorious, eloquent 
 style of the prophet Isaiah, though they be both 
 equally true, may easily believe Amos to be, not 
 only a shepherd, but a good-natured plain fisher- 
 man. Which I do the rather believe, by comparing 
 the affectionate, loving, lowly, humble Epistles of 
 St. Peter, St. James, and St. John, whom we know 
 were all fishers, with the glorious language and high 
 metaphors of St. Paul, who we may believe was not 
 And for the lawfulness of fishing: it may very 
 well be 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, 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 l 
 
The Pirst Day 39 
 
 the midst of their wonderful glory, used Angling as 
 a principal recreation. And let me tell you, that in 
 the Scripture, Angling is always taken in the best 
 sense ; and that though hunting may .be sometimes 
 so taken, yet it is but seldom to be so understood. 
 And let me add this more: he that views the 
 ancient Ecclesiastical Canons, shall find hunting to 
 be forbidden to Churchmen, as being a turbulent, 
 toilsome, perplexing recreation ; and shall find 
 Angling allowed to clergymen, as being a harmless 
 recreation, a recreation that invites them to con- 
 templation and quietness. 
 
 I might here enlarge myself, by telling you what 
 commendations 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 learning have been. But I will con- 
 tent myself with two memorable men, that lived 
 near to our own time, whom I also take to have 
 been ornaments to the art of Angling. 
 
 The first is Dr. Nowel, sometime dean of the 
 cathedral church of St. Paul, in London, where his 
 monument stands yet undefaced ; a man that, in 
 the reformation of Queen Elizabeth, not that of 
 Henry VIII., was so noted for his meek spirit, deep 
 learning, prudence, and piety, that the then Parlia- 
 ment and Convocation, both, chose, enjoined, and 
 trusted him to be the man to make a Catechism for 
 public use, such a one as should stand as a rule for 
 faith and manners to their posterity. And the 
 good old man, though he was very learned, yet 
 knowing that God leads us not to heaven by many, 
 nor by hard questions, like an honest Angler, made 
 that good, plain, unperplexed Catechism which is 
 printed with our good old Service-book. I say, this 
 good man was a dear lover and constant practiser 
 of Angling, as any age can produce : and his 
 
4O The Complete Angler 
 
 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 An- 
 gling; and, also, for I have conversed with those 
 which have conversed with him, to bestow a tenth 
 part of his revenue, and usually all his fish, 
 amongst the poor that inhabited near to those 
 rivers in which it was caught; saying often, "that 
 charity gave life to religion " : and, at his return to 
 his house, would praise God he had spent that day 
 free from worldly trouble ; both harmlessly, and in 
 a recreation that became a 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 ; and by them 
 this is written, "that he died 13 Feb. 1601, being 
 aged ninety-five years, forty-four of which he had s 
 been Dean of St. Paul's church ; and that his age 
 neither impaired his hearing, 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 under- 
 valuer of money, the late provost of Eton College, 
 Sir Henry Wotton, a man with whom I have often 
 fished and conversed, a man whose foreign employ- 
 
The First Day 41 
 
 ments 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 then not idly spent " ; for 
 Angling was, after 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 arid patience in those that 
 professed and practised it ". Indeed, my friend, you 
 will find Angling to be like the virtue of humility, 
 which has a calmness of spirit, and a world of other 
 blessings attending upon it. 
 
 Sir, this was the saying of that learned man. 
 And I do easily believe, that peace, and patience, 
 and a calm content, did cohabit in the cheerful 
 heart of Sir Henry Wotton, because I know that 
 when he was beyond seventy years of age, he made 
 this description of a part of the present pleasure that 
 possessed him, as he sat quietly, in a summer's 
 evening, on a bank a-fishing. It is a description of 
 the spring ; which, because it glided as soft and 
 sweetly from his pen, as that river does at this time, 
 by which it was then made, I shall repeat it unto 
 you: 
 
 This day dame Nature seem'd in love ; 
 The lusty sap began to move ; 
 Fresh juice did stir th' embracing vines; 
 And birds had drawn their valentines. 
 
 The jealous trout, that low did He, 
 Rose at a well-dissembled fly ; 
 There stood my Friend, with patient skill, 
 Attending of his trembling quill. 
 
42 The Complete Angler 
 
 Already were the eves possest 
 With tiie swift pilgrim's daubed nest ; 
 The groves already did rejoice, 
 In Philomel's triumphing voice : 
 
 The showers were short, the weather mild, 
 The morning fresh, the evening smil'd. 
 Joan takes her neat-rubb'd pail, and now, 
 She trips to milk the sand-red cow ; 
 
 Where, for some sturdy foot-ball swain, 
 Joan strokes a syllabub or twain. 
 The fields and gardens were beset 
 With tulips, crocus, violet ; 
 
 And now, though late, the modest rose 
 Did more than half a blush disclose. 
 Thus all looks gay, and full of cheer, 
 To welcome the new-livery'd year. 
 
 These were the thoughts that then possessed the 
 undisturbed mind of Sir Henry Wotton. Will you 
 hear the wish of another Angler, and the com- 
 mendation of his happy life, which he also sings in 
 verse : viz. Jo. Davors, Esq. ? 
 
 Let me live harmlessly, and near the brink 
 Of Trent or Avon have a dwelling-place ; 
 
 Where I may see my quill, or cork, down sink 
 With eager bite of Perch, or Bleak, or Dace ; 
 
 And on the world and my Creator think : 
 
 Whilst some men strive ill-gotten goods t* embrace \ 
 
 And others spend their time in base excess 
 
 Of wine, or worse, in war and wantonness. 
 
 Let them that list, these pastimes still pursue, 
 And on such pleasing fancies feed their fill ; 
 
 So I the fields and meadows green may view, 
 And daily by fresh rivers walk at will, 
 
 Among the daisies and the violets blue, 
 Red hyacinth, and yellow daffodil, 
 
 Purple Narcissus like the morning rays, 
 
 Pale gander-grass, and azure culver-keys. 
 
 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 First Day 43 
 
 The watery 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 Tithonus' bed. 
 
 The hills and mountains raised from the plains, 
 The plains extended level with the ground, 
 
 The grounds divided into sundry veins, 
 
 The veins inclos'd with rivers running round ; 
 
 These rivers making way through nature's chains, 
 With headlong course, into the sea profound; 
 
 The raging sea, beneath the vallies low, 
 
 Where lakes, and rills, and rivulets do flow : 
 
 The lofty woods, the forests wide and long, 
 Adorned 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 intermixt, with verdant grass between ; 
 
 The silver-scaled fish that softly swim 
 
 Within the sweet brook's crystal, watery stream. 
 
 All these, and many more of his creation 
 
 That made the heavens, the Angler oft doth see ; 
 
 Taking therein no little delectation, 
 
 To think how strange, how wonderful they be : 
 
 Framing thereof an inward contemplation 
 To set his heart from other fancies free ; 
 
 And whilst he looks on these with joyful eye, 
 
 His mind is rapt above the starry sky. 
 
 Sir, I am glad my memory has not lost these last 
 verses, because they are somewhat more pleasant 
 and more suitable to May-day than my harsh dis4 
 course. And I am glad your patience hath held 
 out so long as to hear them and me, for both 
 together have brought us within the sight of the 
 Thatched House. And I must be your debtor, if 
 you thfnk it worth your attention, for the rest of my 
 promised discourse, till some other opportunity, and 
 a like time of leisure. 
 
 VENATOR. Sir, you have angled me on with 
 much pleasure to the Thatched House ; and I now 
 find your words true, " that good company makes 
 
44 The Complete Angler 
 
 the way seem short " ; for trust me, Sir, I thought 
 we had wanted three miles of this house, till you 
 showed it to me. But now we are at it, we'll turn 
 into it, and refresh ourselves with a cup of drink, 
 and a little rest. 
 
 PlSCATOR. Most gladly, Sir, and we'll drink a 
 civil cup to all the Otter-hunters that are to meet 
 you to-morrow. 
 
 VENATOR. That we will, Sir, and to all the lovers 
 of Angling too, of which number I am now willing 
 to be one myself ; for, by the help of your good 
 discourse and company, I have put on new thoughts 
 both of the art of Angling and of all that profess 
 it ; and if you will but meet me to-morrow at the 
 time and place appointed, and bestow one day with 
 me and my friends, in hunting the Otter, I will 
 dedicate the next two days to wait upon you ; and 
 we too will, for that time, do nothing but angle, and 
 talk of fish and fishing. 
 
 PlSCATOR. It is a match, Sir, I will not fail you, 
 God willing, to be at Amwell Hill to-morrow 
 morning before sun-rising. 
 
THE SECOND DAY 
 
 On the Otter and the Chub 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 PISCATOR, VENATOR, HUNTSMAN, AND HOSTESS 
 
 VENATOR. My friend Piscator, you have kept time 
 with my thoughts ; for the sun is just rising, and I 
 myself just now come to this place, and the dogs 
 have just now put down an Otter. Look ! down at 
 the bottom of the hill there, in that meadow, 
 chequered with water-lilies and lady-smocks; there 
 you may see what work they make ; look ! look ! 
 you may see all busy; men and dogs; dogs and 
 men ; all busy. 
 
 PISCATOR. 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 doing ; no 
 reasonable hedge or ditch shall hold me. 
 
 VENATOR. Gentleman Huntsman, where found 
 you this Otter ? 
 
 HUNTSMAN. 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 
 
 45 
 
46 The Complete Angler 
 
 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 be- 
 fore sunrise, 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. 
 
 VENATOR. Why, Sir, what is the skin worth? 
 
 HUNTSMAN. It is worth ten shillings to make 
 gloves ; the gloves of an Otter are the best fortifi- 
 cation for your hands that can be thought on against 
 wet weather. 
 
 PlSCATOR. I pray, honest Huntsman, let me ask 
 you a pleasant question : do you hunt a beast or a 
 fish? 
 
 HUNTSMAN. 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 break- 
 fast : 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 a 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 Corn- 
 wall; where there have been so many, that our 
 
The Second Day 47 
 
 learned Camden says there is a river called Ottersey, 
 which was so named by reason of the abundance of 
 Otters that bred and fed in it. 
 
 And thus much for my knowledge of the Otter ; 
 which you may now see above water at vent, and 
 the dogs close with him ; I now see he will not 
 last long. Follow, therefore, my masters, follow ; 
 for Sweetlips was like to have him at this last vent. 
 
 VENATOR. Oh me! all the horse are got over 
 the river, what shall we do now? shall we follow 
 them over the water ? 
 
 HUNTSMAN. No, Sir, no ; be not so eager; stay 
 a little, and follow me ; for both they and the dogs 
 will be suddenly on this side again, I warrant you, 
 and the Otter too, it may be. Now have at him 
 with Kilbuck, for he vents again. 
 
 VENATOR. 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. 
 
 HUNTSMAN. Come, Gentlemen ! come, all! let's 
 go to the place where we put down the Otter. Look 
 you ! hereabout it was that she kennelled ; look you ! 
 here it was indeed ; for here's her young ones, no 
 less than five : come, let us kill them all. 
 
 PlSCATOR. 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. Nich. Segrave, has 
 done ; who hath not only made her tame, but to catch 
 fish, and do many other things of much pleasure. 
 
48 The Complete Angler 
 
 HUNTSMAN. 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 to- 
 gether. 
 
 VENATOR. Come, my friend Piscator, let me in- 
 vite you along with us. I'll bear your charges this 
 night, and you shall bear mine to-morrow ; for my 
 intention is to accompany you a day or two in fish- 
 ing. 
 
 PlSCATOR. Sir, your request is granted ; and I 
 shall be right glad both to exchange such a courtesy, 
 and also to enjoy your company. 
 
 THE THIRD DAY 
 
 VENATOR. Well, now let's go to your sport of 
 Angling. 
 
 PlSCATOR. Let's be going, with all my heart. 
 God keep you all, Gentlemen ; and send you meet, 
 this day, with another Bitch-otter, and kill her 
 merrily, and all her young ones too. 
 
 VENATOR. Now, Piscator, where will you begin 
 to fish ? 
 
 . PlSCATOR. We are not yet come to a likely 
 place ; I must walk a mile further yet before I 
 begin. 
 
 VENATOR. 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? 
 
 PlSCATOR. 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- 
 
The Third Day 49 
 
 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 absti- 
 nence, will be forced to eat flesh, or suffer more in- 
 conveniences than are yet foreseen. 
 
 VENATOR. Why, Sir, what be those that you 
 call the fence-months ? 
 
 PlSCATOR. 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 na- 
 ture, change the fresh for salt water. He that shall 
 view the wise Statutes made in the I3th of Edward 
 the First, and the like in Richard the Second, 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 usually say, " that which is 
 everybody's business is nobody'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. 
 
 But, above all, the taking fish in spawning-time 
 may be said to be against nature : it is like 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 besides 
 such unnatural fishermen; as namely, the Otters 
 that I spake of, the Cormorant, the Bittern, the 
 D 
 
50 The Complete Angler 
 
 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 com- 
 panion that feasts the company with wit and mirth, 
 and leaves out the sin which is usually mixed with 
 them, he is the man ; and indeed such a companion 
 should have his charges borne ; and to such com- 
 pany I hope to bring you this night ; for at Trout- 
 hall, not far from this place, where I purpose to 
 lodge to-night, there is usually an Angler that 
 proves good company, And let me tell you, good 
 company and good discourse are the very sinews of * 
 virtue. But for such discourse as we heard last 
 night, it infects others : the very boys will learn to 
 talk and swear, as they heard mine host, and 
 another of the company that shall be nameless. I 
 am sorry the other is a gentleman, for less religion 
 will not save their souls than a beggar's : I think/ 
 more will be required at the last great day. Well ! 
 you know what example is able to do ; and I know 
 what the poet says in the like case, which is worthy 
 to be noted by all parents and people of civility : 
 
 many a one 
 
 Owes to his country his religion ; 
 And in another, would as strongly grow, 
 Had but his nurse or mother taught him so. 
 
The Thifd Day 51 
 
 This is reason put into verse, and worthy the con- 
 sideration of a wise man. But of this no more ; for 
 though I love civility, yet I hate severe censures. 
 Ill 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. 
 
 VENATOR. Oh, Sir! a Chub is the worst fish 
 that swims ; I hoped for a Trout to my dinner. 
 
 PlSCATOR. 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 I'll make it a good fish by dressing it. 
 
 VENATOR. Why, how will you dress him ? 
 
 PlSCATOR. I'll tell you by-and-by, when I have 
 caught him. Look you here, Sir, do you see ? but 
 you must stand very close, there lie upon the top 
 of the water, in this very hole, twenty Chubs. I'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. 
 
 VENATOR. Ay, marry! Sir, now you talk like 
 an artist ; and I'll say you are one, when I shall see 
 you perform what you say you can do : but I yet 
 doubt it. 
 
 PlSCATOR. 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. 
 
f 
 
 52 The Complete Angler 
 
 VENATOR. I'll sit down ; and hope well, because 
 you seem to be so confident. 
 
 PlSCATOR. Look you, Sir, there is a trial of my 
 skill ; there he is : that very Chub, that I showed 
 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. 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. 
 
 VENATOR. Come, Sir, with all my heart, for 
 I begin to be hungry, and long to be at it, and 
 indeed to rest myself too ; for though I have walked 
 but four miles this morning, yet I begin to be 
 weary; yesterday's hunting hangs still upon me. 
 
 PlSCATOR. Well, Sir, and you shall quickly be at 
 rest, for yonder is the house I mean to bring you to. 
 
 Come, hostess, how do you ? Will you first give 
 us a cup of your best drink, and then dress this 
 Chub, as you dressed my last, when I and my 
 friend were here about eight or ten days ago? 
 But you must do me one courtesy, it must be done 
 instantly. 
 
 HOSTESS. I will do it, Mr. Piscator, and with 
 all the speed I can. 
 
 PlSCATOR. Now, Sir, has not my hostess made 
 haste? and does not the fish look lovely? 
 
 VENATOR. Both, upon my word, Sir ; and there- 
 fore let's say grace and fall to eating of it. 
 
 PlSCATOR. Well, Sir, how do you like it? 
 
 VENATOR. 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. 
 
The Third Day 53 
 
 PlSCATOR. What is it, I pray, Sir ? You are so 
 modest, that methinks I may promise to grant it 
 before it is asked. 
 
 VENATOR. 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. 
 
 PlSCATOR. Give me your hand ; from this time 
 forward I will be your Master, and teach you as 
 much of this art as I am able ; and will, as you 
 desire me, tell you somewhat of the nature of mo. c t 
 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. 
 
THE THIRD DAY continued 
 
 Hoiv to fish for, and to dress, the Chavender 
 or Chub 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 PISCATOR AND VENATOR 
 
 PlSCATOR. 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 con- 
 veniently, 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. 
 54 
 
The Third Day 55 
 
 Being thus dressed, you will find him a much 
 better dish of meat than you, or most folk, even 
 than anglers themselves, do imagine : for this dries 
 up the fluid watery humour with which all Chubs do 
 abound. But take this rule with you, That a Chub 
 newly taken and newly dressed, is so much better 
 than a Chub of a day's keeping after he is dead, that 
 I can compare him to nothing so fitly as to cherries 
 newly gathered from a tree, and others that have 
 been bruised and lain a day or two in water. But 
 the Chub being thus used, and dressed presently; 
 and not washed after he is gutted, for note, that 
 lying long in water, and washing the blood out of 
 any fish after they be gutted, abates much of their 
 sweetness; you will find the Chub, being dressed 
 in the blood, and quickly, to be such meat as will 
 recompense your labour, and disabuse your opinion. 
 Or you may dress the Chavender or Chub thus : 
 When you have scaled him, and cut off his tail 
 and fins, and washed him very clean, then chine or 
 slit him through the middle, as a salt-fish is usually 
 cut ; then give him three or four cuts or scotches on 
 the back with your knife, and broil him on charcoal, 
 or wood coal, that are free from smoke ; and all the 
 time he is a-broiling, baste him with the best sweet 
 butter, and good store of salt mixed with it. And, 
 to this, add a little thyme cut exceedingly small, or 
 bruised into the butter. The Cheven thus dressed 
 hath the watery taste taken away, for which so many 
 except against him. Thus was the Cheven dressed 
 that you now liked so well, and commended so much. 
 But note again, that if this Chub that you 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 clean, and his body not 
 washed after he is gutted, as indeed no fish should 
 be. 
 
56 The Complete Angler 
 
 Well, scholar, you see what pains I have taken to 
 recover the lost credit of the poor despised Chub. 
 And now I will give you some rules how to catch 
 him : and I am glad to enter you into the art of 
 fishing by catching a Chub, for there is no fish better 
 to enter a young Angler, he is so easily caught, but 
 then it must be this particular way : 
 
 Go to the same hole in which I caught my Chub, 
 where, in most hot days, you will find a dozen or 
 twenty Chevens floating near the top of the water. 
 Get two or three grasshoppers, as you go over the 
 meadow : 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 fearfullest 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 ot 
 the leather-mouthed fishes, of which a hook does 
 scarce ever lose its hold ; and therefore give him 
 play enough before you offer to take him out of the 
 water. Go your way presently ; take my rod, and 
 do as I bid you ; and I will sit down and mend my 
 tackling till you return back. 
 
 VENATOR. Truly, my loving master, you have 
 
The Third Day 57 
 
 offered me as fair as 1 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 
 yours was. 
 
 PlSCATOR. Marry, and I am glad of it: I am 
 like to have a towardly scholar of you. I now see, 
 that with advice and practice, you will make an 
 Angler in a short time. Have but a love to it ; 
 and Pll warrant you. 
 
 VENATOR. But, master ! what if I could not 
 have found a grasshopper? 
 
 PlSCATOR. Then I may tell you, That a black 
 snail, with his belly slit, to show his white, or a 
 piece of soft cheese, will usually do as well. Nay, 
 sometimes a worm, or any kind of fly, as the ant- 
 fly, the flesh-fly, or wall-fly ; or the dor or beetle, 
 which you may find under cow-dung; or a bob, 
 which you will find in the same place, and in time 
 will be a beetle ; it is a short white worm, like to 
 and bigger than a gentle ; or a cod-worm ; or a 
 case-worm ; any of these will do very well to fish 
 in such a manner. 
 
 And after this manner you may catch a Trout 
 in a hot evening : when, as you walk by a brook, 
 and shall see or hear him leap at flies, then, if you 
 get a grasshopper, put it on your hook, with your 
 line about two yards long ; standing behind a bush 
 or tree where his hole is : and make your bait stir 
 up and down on the top of the water. You may, 
 if you stand close, be sure of a bite, but not sure to 
 catch him, for he is not a leather-mouthed fish. 
 And after this manner you may fish for him with 
 almost any kind of live fly, but especially with a 
 grasshopper. 
 
 VENATOR. But before you go further, I pray, good 
 master, what mean you by a leather-mouthed fish ? 
 
58 The Complete Angler 
 
 PlSCATOR. By a leather-mouthed fish, I mean 
 such as have their teeth in their throat, as the Chub 
 or Cheven: and so the Barbel, the Gudgeon, and 
 Carp, and divers others have. And the hook being 
 stuck into the leather, or skin, of the mouth of such 
 fish, does very seldom or never lose its hold : but 
 on the contrary, a Pike, a Perch, or Trout, and so 
 some other fish, which have not their teeth in their 
 throats, but in their mouths, which you shall observe 
 to be very full of bones, and the skin very thin, and 
 little of it. I say, of these fish the hook never takes 
 so sure hold but you often lose your fish, unless he 
 have gorged it. 
 
 VENATOR. I thank you, good master, for this 
 observation. But now what shall be done with my 
 Chub or Cheven that I have caught ? 
 
 PlSCATOR. 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, 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 
 
The Third Day 59 
 
 paste for the winter months, at which time the Chub 
 is accounted best, for then it is observed, that the 
 forked bones are lost, or turned into a kind of 
 gristle, especially if he be baked, of cheese and 
 turpentine. He will bite also at a minnow, or penk, 
 as a Trout will : of which I shall tell you more 
 hereafter, and of divers other baits. But take this 
 for a rule, that, in hot weather, he is to be fished for 
 towards the mid-water, or near the top ; and in 
 colder weather, nearer the bottom ; and if you fish 
 for him on the top, with a beetle, or any fly, then 
 be sure to let your line be very long, and to keep 
 out of sight. And having told you, that his spawn 
 is excellent meat, and that the head of a large 
 Cheven, the throat being well washed, is the best 
 part of him, I will say no more of this fish at the 
 present, but wish you may catch the next you fish 
 for. 
 
 But, lest you may judge me too nice in urging to 
 have the Chub dressed so presently after he is 
 taken, I will commend to your consideration how 
 curious former times have been in the like kind. 
 
 You shall read in Seneca, his Natural Questions ', 
 that the ancients were so curious in the newness of 
 their fish, that that semed 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 next of my 
 spare time. 
 
THE THIRD VAX continued 
 
 On the Nature and Breeding of the Trout \ 
 and how to fish for him 
 
 * CHAPTER IV 
 
 PISCATOR, VENATOR, MILK-WOMAN, MAUDLIN, 
 HOSTESS 
 
 PISCATOR. The Trout is a fish highly valued, both 
 in this and foreign nations. He may be justly said, 
 as the old poet said of wine, and we English say of 
 venison, to be a generous fish : a fish that is so like 
 the buck, that he also has his seasons ; for it is ob- 
 served, 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 con- 
 tend with all fresh water fish, as the Mullet may with 
 all sea fish, for precedency and daintiness of taste ; 
 and that being in right season, the most dainty 
 palates have allowed precedency to him. 
 
 And before I go farther in my discourse, let me 
 tell you, that you are to observe, that as there be 
 some barren does that are good in summer, so there 
 be some barren Trouts that are good in winter ; but 
 there are not many that are so ; for usually they be 
 60 
 
The Third Day 61 
 
 in their perfection in the month of May, and decline 
 with the buck. Now you are to take notice, that in 
 several countries, as in Germany, and in other parts, 
 compared to ours, fish do differ much in their big- 
 ness, and shape, and other ways ; and so do Trouts. 
 It is well known that in the Lake Leman, the Lake 
 of Geneva, there are Trouts taken of three cubits 
 long ; as is affirmed by Gesner, a writer of good 
 credit: and Mercator says, the Trouts that are 
 taken in the Lake of Geneva are a great part of 
 the merchandize of that famous city. And you are 
 further to know, that there be certain waters that 
 breed Trouts remarkable, both for their number 
 and smallness. I know a little brook in Kent, that 
 breeds them to a number incredible, and you may 
 take them twenty or forty in an hour, but none 
 greater than about the size of a Gudgeon. There 
 are also, in divers rivers, especially that relate to, 
 or be near to the sea, as Winchester, or the Thames 
 about Windsor, a little Trout called a Samlet, or 
 Skegger Trout, in both which places I have caught 
 twenty or forty at a standing, that will bite as fast 
 and as freely as Minnows : these be by some taken 
 to be young Salmons ; but in those waters they 
 never grow to be bigger than a Herring. 
 
 There is also in Kent, near to Canterbury, a 
 Trout called there a Fordidge Trout, a Trout that 
 bears the name of the town where it is usually 
 caught, that is accounted the rarest of fish ; many 
 of them near the bigness of a Salmon, but known 
 by their different colour ; and in their best season 
 they cut very white : and none of these have been 
 known to be caught with an angle, unless it were 
 one that was caught by Sir George Hastings, an 
 excellent angler, and now with God : and he hath 
 told me, he thought that Trout bit not for hunger 
 but wantonness ; and it is the rather to be believed, 
 
6 2 The Complete Angler 
 
 because both he, then, and many others before him, 
 have been curious to search into their bellies, what 
 the food was by which they lived ; and have found 
 out nothing by which they might satisfy their curi- 
 osity. 
 
 Concerning which you are to take notice, that it 
 is reported by good authors, that grasshoppers and 
 some fish have no mouths, but are nourished and take 
 breath by the porousness of their gills, man knows 
 not how : and this may be believed, if we consider 
 that when the raven hath hatched her eggs, she 
 takes no further 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 very punctual in observing the 
 time of beginning to fish for them ; and boast much, 
 that their river affords a Trout that exceeds all 
 others. And just so does Sussex boast of several 
 fish; as, namely, a Shelsey Cockle, a Chichester 
 Lobster, an Arundel Mullet, and an Amerly Trout 
 
 And, now, for some confirmation of the Fordidge 
 Trout : you are to know that this Trout is thought 
 to eat nothing in the fresh water ; and it may be the 
 better believed, because it is well known, that swal- 
 lows, and bats, and wagtails, which are called half- 
 year birds, and not seen to fly in England for six 
 months in the year, but about Michaelmas leave us 
 for a hotter climate, yet some of them that have 
 
The Third Day 63 
 
 been left behind their fellows, have been found, 
 many thousands at a time, in hollow trees, or clay 
 caves, where they have been observed to live, and 
 sleep out the whole winter, without meat. And so 
 Albertus observes, That there is one kind of frog 
 that hath her mouth naturally shut up about the end 
 of August, and that she lives so all the winter : and 
 though it be strange to some, yet it is known to too 
 many among us to be doubted. 
 
 And so much for these Fordidge Trouts, which 
 never afford an angler sport, but either live their 
 time of being in the fresh water, by their meat 
 formerly gotten in the sea, not unlike the swallow 
 or frog, or, by the virtue of the fresh water only ; 
 or, as the birds of Paradise and the cameleon are 
 said to live, by the sun and the air. 
 
 There is also in Northumberland a Trout called 
 a Bull-trout, of a much greater length and bigness 
 than any in these southern parts ; and there are, in 
 many rivers that relate to the sea, Salmon-trouts, as 
 much different from others, both in shape and in 
 their spots, as we see sheep in some countries differ 
 one from another in their shape and bigness, and in 
 the fineness of the 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 
 
64 The Complete Angler 
 
 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, especi- 
 ally before, the time of his 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 you are to note, That till the sun gets 
 to such a height as to warm the earth and the water, 
 the Trout is sick, and lean, and lousy, and unwhole- 
 some ; 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 Third Day 65 
 
 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 better meat at the end of that month than at 
 any time of the year. 
 
 Now you are to know that it is observed, that 
 usually tne best Trouts are either red or yellow ; 
 though some, as the Fordidge Trout, be white and 
 yet good ; but that is not usual : and it is a note 
 observable, that the female Trout hath usually a less 
 head, and a deeper body than the male Trout, and 
 is usually the better meat. And note, that a hog 
 back and a little head, to either Trout, Salmon or 
 any other fish, is a sign that that fish is in season. 
 
 But yet you are to note, that as you see some 
 willows or palm-trees bud and blossom sooner than 
 others do, so some Trouts be, in rivers, sooner in 
 season : and as some hollies, or oaks, are longer 
 before they cast their leaves, so are some Trouts, in 
 rivers, longer before they go out of season. 
 
 And you are to note, that there are several kinds 
 of Trouts : but these several kinds are not con- 
 sidered 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 ; arid 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 
 
 
66 The Complete Angler 
 
 thrive to be big ; that breeds very many more than 
 others do, that be of a larger size : which you may 
 rather believe, if you consider that the little wren and 
 titmouse will have 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. 
 
 VENATOR. Trust me, master, I see now it is a 
 harder matter 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. 
 
 PlSCATOR. 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, Sir, now he is mine 
 own : what say you now, is not this worth all my 
 labour and your patience ? 
 
 VENATOR. On my word, master, this is a gallant 
 Trout ; what shall we do with him ? 
 
 PlSCATOR. 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. 
 
The Third Day 69 
 
 VENATOR. A match, good master, let's go Vas 
 that house, for the linen looks white, and smells Oat 
 lavender, and I long to lie in a pair of sheets that i 
 smell so. Let's be going, good master, for I am ' 
 hungry again with fishing. 
 
 PlSCATOR. Nay, stay a little, good scholar. I 
 caught my last Trout with a worm ; now I will put 
 on a minnow, ari8 try a quarter of an hour about 
 yonder trees for another ; and, so, walk towards our 
 lodging. Look you, scholar, thereabout we shall 
 have a bite presently, or not at all. Have with you, 
 Sir: o' my word I have hold of him. Oh! it is a 
 great logger-headed Chub ; come, hang him upon 
 that willow twig, and let's be going. But turn out 
 of the way a little, good scholar! 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 ! under that broad beech-tree I sat down, 
 when I was last this way a-fishing ; and the birds 
 in the adjoining grove seemed to have a friendly 
 contention with an echo, whose dead voice seemed 
 to live in a hollow tree near to the brow of that 
 primrose-hill. There I sat viewing the silver streams 
 glide silently towards their centre, the tempestuous 
 sea ; yet 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. 
 
66 The Complete Angler' 
 
 I left this place, and entered into the next 
 Qeld, 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, now at least fifty years 
 ago; and the milk-maid's mother sung an answer to 
 it, which was made by Sir Walter Raleigh, in his 
 younger days. They were old-fashioned poetry, 
 but choicely good ; I think much better than the 
 strong lines that are now in fashion in this critical 
 age. Look yonder ! on my word, yonder, they both 
 be a-milking again. I will give her the Chub, and 
 persuade them to sing those two songs to us. 
 
 God speed you, good woman ! I have been a-fish- 
 ing ; and am going to Bleak Hall to my bed ; and 
 having caught more fish than will sup myself and 
 my friend, I will bestow this upon you and your 
 daughter, for I use to sell none. 
 
 MILK- WOMAN. 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! I'll 
 give you a syllabub of new verjuice, in a new-made 
 hay-cock, for itl And my Maudlin shall sing you 
 one of her best oallads ; for she and I both love all 
 J anglers, they be such honest, civil, quiet men. In 
 the meantime will you drink a draught of red cow's 
 milk ? you shall have it freely. 
 
 PlSCATOR. 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. 
 
The Third Day 69 
 
 MILK-WOMAN. What song was it, I pray? Was 
 it, " Come, Shepherds, deck your herds " ? or, " As at 
 noon Dulcina rested " ? or, " Philiida flouts me " ? or, 
 "Chevy Chace"? or, "Johnny Armstrong"? or, 
 " Troy Town " ? 
 
 PiSCATOR. 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-WOMAN. O, I know it now. I learned the l 
 first part in my golden age, when I was about the \ 
 age of my poor daughter ; and the latter part, which j 
 indeed fits me best now, but two or three years ago, / 
 when the cares of the world began to take hold of / 
 me : but you shall, God willing, hear them both ; 
 and sung as well as we can, for we both love anglers. 
 Come, Maudlin, sing the first part to the gentlemen, 
 with a merry heart ; and I'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 pleasures prove, 
 That valleys, groves, or hills, or fields, 
 Or woods, and steepy mountains yields ; 
 
 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 j 
 And, then, a thousand fragrant posies ; 
 A cap of flowers, and a kirtle, 
 Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle; 
 
 A gown made of the finest wool, 
 Which from our pretty lambs we pull ; 
 Slippers, lin'd choicely for the cold, 
 With buckles of the purest gold ; 
 
 A belt of straw and ivy-buds, 
 With coral clasps, and amber studs. 
 And if these pleasures may thee move, 
 Come, live with me, and be my love. 
 
70 The Complete Angler 
 
 Thy silver dishes, for thy meat, 
 As precious as the Gods do eat, 
 Shall, on an ivory table, be 
 Prepared 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. 
 
 VENATOR. Trust me, master, it is a choice songj 
 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^ecause they are not troubled with fears and 
 cares, but "sing sweetly all the day, and sleep securely 
 all the night: and without doubt, honest, innocent, 
 pretty Maudlin \does so. I'll bestow Sir Thomas 
 Overbury's milk-maid's wish upon her, "that she 
 may die in the Spring ; and, being dead, may have 
 good store of flowers stuck round about her winding- 
 sheet". 
 
 THE MILK-MAID'S MOTHER'S ANSWER. 
 
 If all the world and love were young, 
 And truth in every shepherd's tongue, 
 These pretty pleasures might me move 
 To live with thee, and be thy love. 
 
 But Time drives flocks from field to fold ; 
 When rivers rage, and rocks grow cold ; 
 Then Philomel becometh dumb ; 
 And age complains of cares to come. 
 
 The flowers do fade, and wanton fields 
 To wayward winter reckoning yields. 
 A honey tongue, a heart of gall, 
 Is fancy's spring but sorrow's fall. 
 
 Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of roses, 
 Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies, 
 Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten ; 
 In folly ripe, in reason rotten. 
 
The Third Day 71 
 
 Thy belt of straw, and ivy buds, 
 Thy coral clasps, and amber studs, 
 All these in me no means can move 
 To come to thee, and be thy love. 
 
 What should we talk of dainties, then, 
 Of better meat than's fit for men ? 
 These are but vain : that's only good 
 Which God hath blessed, 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 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. 
 
 MAUDLIN. I will, mother. 
 
 I married a wife of late, 
 The more's my unhappy fate: 
 I married her for love, 
 As my fancy did me move, 
 And not for a worldly estate : 
 
 But oh I 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. 
 
 PlSCATOR. Well sung, good woman ; I thank 
 you. Fll 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. Look ! yonder comes mine hostess, 
 
72 The Complete Angler 
 
 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. 
 
THE THIRD DAY continued 
 On the Trout 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 PISCATOR, PETER, VENATOR, CORIDON 
 
 PlSCATOR. 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 
 dapping 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 
 countryman, and his name is Coridon ; and he is 
 a downright witty companion, that met me here 
 purposely to be pleasant and eat a Trout; and I 
 have not yet wetted my line since we met together : 
 but I hope to fit him with a Trout for his breakfast ; 
 for I'll be early up. 
 
 PlSCATOR. 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 
 
 73 
 
74 The Complete Angler 
 
 some of your best barley-wine, the good liquor that 
 our honest forefathers did use to think of; the drink 
 which preserved their health, and made them live 
 so long, and to do so many good deeds. 
 
 PETER. On 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 en- 
 couragement, 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 breed- 
 ing 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. 
 
 PiSCATOR. 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 rnerry, that 
 rny 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. 
 
 VENATOR. Trust me, good master, you shall not 
 sow your seed in barren ground ; for I hope to re- 
 turn you an increase answerable to your hopes : but, 
 however, you shall find me obedient, and thankful, 
 and serviceable to my best ability. 
 
 PiSCATOR. '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. 
 
The Third Day 75 
 
 CORIDON. Indeed, honest friend, it looks well, 
 and tastes well : I thank you for it, and so doth my 
 friend Peter, or else he is to blame. 
 
 PETER. Yes, and so I do ; we all thank you : and, 
 when we have supped, I will get my friend Coridon 
 to sing you a song for requital. 
 
 CORIDON. I will sing a song, if anybody 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." 
 
 PlSCATOR. 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. 
 
 CORIDON. And then mine shall be the praise of 
 a Countryman'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. 
 
 VENATOR. '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. 
 
 PlSCATOR. 'Tis a match, my masters. Let's e'en 
 say grace, 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 contentioa 
 
 PETER. It is a match. Look, the shortest cut 
 falls to Coridon. 
 
76 The Complete Angler 
 
 CORIDON. Well, then, I will begin, for I hate 
 contention. 
 
 CORIDON'S SONG. 
 
 Oh the sweet contentment 
 The countryman doth find ! 
 
 Heigh trolollie lollie 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 trolollie lollie loe, etc. 
 The city full of wantonness, 
 And both are full of pride : 
 
 Then care away, etc. 
 
 But oh, the honest countryman 
 Speaks truly from his heart, 
 
 Heigh trolollie lollie loe, etc. 
 His pride is in his tillage, 
 His horses, and his cart : 
 
 Then care away, etc. 
 
 Our cloathing is good sheep-skins, 
 Grey russet for our wives ; 
 
 Heigh trolollie lollie loe, etc. 
 'Tis warmth and not gay cloathing 
 That doth prolong our lives : 
 
 Then care away, etc. 
 
 The ploughman, tho' he labour hard, 
 Yet on the holy-day, 
 
 Keigh trolollie lollie loe, etc. 
 No emperor so merrily 
 Does pass his time away : 
 
 Then care away, etc. 
 
 To recompense our tillage, 
 The heavens afford us showers ; 
 
 Heigh trolollie lollie loe, etc* 
 And for our sweet refreshments 
 The earth affords us bowers : 
 
 Then care away, etc. 
 
The Third Day 77 
 
 The cuckow and the nightingale 
 Full merrily do sing, 
 
 Heigh trolollie lollie loe, etc. 
 And with their pleasant roundelays 
 Bid welcome to the spring : 
 
 Then care away, etc. 
 
 This is not half the happiness 
 The countryman enjoys ; 
 
 Heigh trolollie lollie loe, etc, 
 Though others think they have as much, 
 Yet he that says so lies : 
 
 Then come away, 
 
 Turn countrymen with me. 
 
 Jo. CHALKHILL. 
 
 PlSCATOR. 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 swear- 
 ing and scurrilous discourse, is worth gold. I love 
 such mirth as does not make friends ashamed tc 
 look upon one another next morning; nor men, 
 that cannot well bear it, to repent the money they 
 spend when they be warmed with drink. And take 
 this for a rule : you may pick out such times and 
 such companies, that you 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 companion you prove : I thank 
 you for it. 
 
 But I will not compliment you out of the debt 
 that I owe you, and therefore I will begin my song, 
 and wish it may be so well liked. 
 
 THE ANGLER'S SONG. 
 
 As inward love breeds outward talk, 
 The hound some praise, and some the hawk, 
 Some, better pleas'd with private sport, 
 Use tennis, some a mistress court : 
 
 But these delights I neither wish, 
 
 Nor envy, while I freely fish. 
 
78 The Complete Angler 
 
 Who hunts, doth oft in danger ride ; 
 
 Who hawks, lures oft both far and wide 
 
 Who uses games shall often prove 
 
 A loser ; but who falls in love, 
 
 Is 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 repast ; 
 
 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. 
 
 W. B. 
 
The Fourth Day 79 
 
 CORIDON. 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, host- 
 ess, 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. 
 
 PETER. 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. 
 
 PlSCATOR. And my scholar and I will go down 
 towards Waltham. 
 
 CORIDON. 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. 
 
 PETER. 'Tis a match. Good-night to every- 
 body. 
 , PlSCATOR. And so say I. 
 
 VENATOR. And so say I. 
 
 THE FOURTH DAY 
 
 PlSCATOR. 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. 
 
 VENATOR. Well now, good master, as we walk 
 towards the river, give me direction, according ta 
 your promise, how I shall fish for a Trout. 
 
 PlSCATOR. My honest scholar, I will take this 
 very convenient opportunity to do it. 
 
So The Complete Angler 
 
 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 excre- 
 ments, or in the bodies of living creatures, as in the 
 horns of sheep or deer ; or some of dead flesh, as 
 the maggot or gentle, and others. 
 
 Now these be most of them particularly good for 
 particular fishes. But for the Trout, the dew-worm, 
 which some also call the lob-worm, and the brand- 
 ling, are the chief; and especially the first for a 
 great Trout, and the latter for a less. There be 
 also of lob-worms, some called squirrel-tails, a worm 
 that has a red head, a streak down the back, and a 
 broad tail, which are noted to be the best, because 
 they are the toughest and most lively, and live 
 longest in the water ; for you are to know that a 
 dead worm is but a dead bait, and like to catch 
 nothing, compared to a lively, quick, stirring worm. 
 And for a brandling, he is usually found in an old 
 dunghill, or some very rotten place near to it, but 
 most usually in cow-dung, or hog's-dung, rather 
 than horse-dung, which is somewhat too hot and dry 
 for that worm. But the best of them are to be 
 found in the bark of the tanners, which they cast up 
 in heaps after they have used it about their leather. 
 
 There are also divers other kinds of worms, which, 
 for colour and shape, alter even as the ground out of 
 which they are got; as the marsh-worm, the tag- 
 tail, the flag-worm, the dock-worm, the oak-worm, 
 the gilt-tail, the twachel or lob-worm, which of all 
 others is the most excellent bait for a salmon, and 
 
The Fourth Day 81 
 
 too many to name, even as many sorts as some think 
 there be of several herbs or shrubs, or of several 
 kinds of birds in the air : of which I shall say no 
 more, but tell you, that what worms soever you fish 
 with, are the better for being well scoured, that is, 
 long kept before they be used : and in case you 
 have not been so provident, then the way to cleanse 
 and scour them quickly, is, to put them all night in 
 water, if they be lob-worms, and then put them into 
 your bag with fennel. But you must not put your 
 brandlings above an hour in water, and then put them 
 into fennel, for sudden use : but if you have time, 
 and purpose to keep them long, then they be best 
 preserved in an earthen pot, with good store of 
 moss, which is to be fresh every three or four days in 
 summer, and every week or eight days in winter ; 
 or, at least, the moss taken from them, and clean 
 washed, and wrung betwixt your hands till it be dry, 
 and then put it to them again. And when your 
 worms, especially the brandling, begins to be sick 
 and lose of his bigness, then you may recover him, I 
 by putting a little milk or cream, about a spoonful ' 
 in a day, into them, by drops on the moss ; and if 
 there be added to the cream an egg beaten and 
 boiled in it, then it will both fatten and preserve 
 them long. And note, that when the knot, which 
 is near to the middle of the brandling, begins to 
 swell, then he is sick ; and, if he be not well looked 
 to, is near dying. And for moss, you are to note, 
 that there be divers kinds of it, which I could name 
 to you, but I will only tell you that that which is 
 likest a buck's-horn is the best, except it be soft 
 white moss, which grows on some heaths, and is 
 hard to be found And note, that in a very dry- 
 time, when you are put to an extremity for worms, 
 walnut-tree leaves squeezed into water, or salt in 
 water, to make it bitter or salt, and then that water 
 F 
 
82 The Complete Angler 
 
 poured on the ground where you shall see worms 
 are used to rise in the night, will make them to 
 appear above ground presently. And you may 
 take notice, some say that 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 ; 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. 
 
 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 
 
The Fourth Day 83 
 
 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 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 across the water or against 
 a stream ; and if it do not turn nimbly, then turn 
 the tail a little to the right or left hand, and try 
 again, till it turn quick ; for if not, you are in danger 
 to catch nothing : for know, that it is impossible that 
 it should turn too quick. And you are yet to know, 
 that in case you want a minnow, then a small loach, 
 or a stickle-bag, or any other small fish that will turn 
 quick, will serve as well. And you are yet to know 
 that you may salt them, and by that means keep 
 
84 The Complete Angler 
 
 them ready and fit for use three or four days, or 
 longer ; and that, of salt, bay-salt is the best. 
 
 And here let me tell you, what many old anglers 
 know right well, that at some times, and in some 
 waters, a minnow is not to be got; and therefore, 
 let me tell you, I have, which I will shew to you, an 
 artificial minnow, that will catch a Trout as well as 
 an artificial fly: and it was made by a handsome 
 woman that had a fine hand, and a live minnow 
 lying by her : the mould or body of the minnow was 
 cloth, and wrought upon, or over it, thus, with a 
 needle ; the back of it with very sad French green 
 silk, and paler green silk towards the belly, shadowed 
 as perfectly as you can imagine, just as you see a 
 minnow : the belly was wrought also with a needle, 
 and it was, a part of it, white silk ; and another part 
 of it with silver thread : the tail and fins were of a 
 quill, which was shaven thin : the eyes were of two 
 little black beads : and the head was so shadowed, 
 and all of it so curiously wrought, and so exactly 
 dissembled, that it would beguile any sharp-sighted 
 Trout in a swift stream. And this minnow I will 
 now shew you ; look, here it is, and, if you like it, 
 lend it you, to have two or three made by it ; for 
 they be easily carried about an angler, and be of 
 excellent use : for note, that a large Trout will come 
 as fiercely at a minnow as the highest-mettled hawk 
 doth seize on a partridge, or a greyhound on a hare. 
 I have been told that one hundred and sixty 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 forJFHes ; 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 Fourth Day 85 
 
 the stone-fly, the red -fly, the moor- fly, the tawny-fly, 
 the shell-fly, the cloudy or blackish-fly, the flag-fly, 
 the vine-fly ; there be of flies, caterpillars, and canker- 
 flies, and bear-flies ; and indeed too many either for 
 me to name, or for you to remember. And their 
 breeding is so various and wonderful, that I might 
 easily amaze myself, and tire you in a relation of 
 them. 
 
 And, yet, I will exercise your promised patience 
 by saying a little of the caterpillar, or the palmer-fly 
 or worm ; that by them you may guess what a work 
 it were, in a discourse, but to run over those very 
 many flies, worms, and little living creatures, with 
 which the sun and summer adorn and beautify the 
 river-banks and meadows, both for the recreation 
 and contemplation of us anglers; pleasures which, 
 I think, myself enjoy more than any other man that 
 is not of my profession. 
 
 ffliny holds an opinion, that many have their birth, 
 or being, from a dew that in the spring falls upon 
 the leaves of trees ; and that some kinds of them are 
 from a dew left upon herbs or flowers ; and others 
 from a dew left upon coleworts or cabbages : all 
 which kinds of dews being thickened and condensed, 
 are by the sun's generative heat, most of them, 
 hatched, and in three days made living creatures : 
 and these of several shapes and colours ; some being 
 hard and tough, some smooth and soft ; some are 
 horned in their head, some in their tail, some have 
 none ; some have hair, some none : some have sixteen 
 feet, some less, and some have none: but, as our 
 Topsel hath with great diligence observed, those 
 which have none, move upon the earth, or upon 
 broad leaves, their motion being not unlike to the 
 waves of the sea. Some of them he also observes 
 to be bred of the eggs of other caterpillars, and that 
 those in their time turn to be butterflies ; and again, 
 
,86 The Complete Angler 
 
 that their eggs turn the following year to be cater- 
 pillars. And some affirm, that every plant has its 
 particular fly or caterpillar, which it breeds and feeds. 
 I have seen, and may therefore affirm it, a green 
 caterpillar, or worm, as big as a small peascod, which 
 had fourteen legs ; eight on the belly, four under the 
 neck, and two near the tail. It was found on a 
 hedge of privet; and was taken thence, and put 
 into a large box, and a little branch or two of privet 
 put to it, on which I saw it feed as sharply as a dog 
 gnaws a bone : it lived thus, five or six days, and 
 thrived, and changed the colour two or three times, 
 but by some neglect in the keeper of it, it then died, 
 and did not turn to a fly : but if it had lived, it had 
 doubtless turned to one of those flies that some call 
 Flies of prey, which those that walk by the rivers 
 may, in summer, see fasten on smaller flies, and, I 
 think, make them their food. And 'tis observable, 
 that as there be these flies of prey, which be very 
 large ; so there be others, very little, created, I think, 
 only to feed them, and breed out of I know not what ; 
 whose life, they say, nature intended not to exceed 
 an hour ; and yet that life is thus made shorter by 
 other flies, or accident. 
 
 'Tis endless to tell you what the curious searchers 
 into nature's productions have observed of these 
 worms and flies: but yet I shall tell you what 
 Aldrovandus, our Topsel, and others, say of the 
 Palmer-worm, or Caterpillar: that whereas others 
 content themselves to feed on particular herbs or 
 leaves ; for most think, those very leaves that gave 
 them life and shape, give them a particular feeding 
 and nourishment, and that upon them they usually 
 abide ; yet he observes, that this is called a pilgrim, 
 or palmer-worm, for his very wandering life, and 
 various food ; not contenting himself, as others do, 
 with any one certain place for his abode, nor any 
 
The Fourth Day 87 
 
 certain kind of herb or flower for his feeding, but 
 will boldly and disorderly wander up and down, 
 and not endure to be kept to a diet, or fixt to a 
 particular place. 
 
 Nay, the very colours of caterpillars are, as one 
 has observed, very elegant and beautiful. I shall, 
 for a taste of the rest, describe one of them ; which 
 I will, some time the next month, shew you feeding 
 on a willow-tree ; and you shall find him punctually 
 to answer this very description : his lips and mouth 
 somewhat yellow ; his eyes black as jet ; his fore- 
 head 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'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 strange shell or 
 crust, called an aurelia ; and so lives a kind of dead 
 life, without eating all the winter. And as others 
 of several 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 : only as we sit down under this honey- 
 suckle 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 observa- 
 tion of Du Bartas: 
 
 God, not contented to each kind to give 
 And to infuse the virtue generative, 
 Made, by his wisdom, many creatures breed 
 Of lifeless bodies, without Venus' deed. 
 
88 The Complete Angler 
 
 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 of the fire, in burning furnace, springs 
 The fly Pyrausta with the flaming wings : 
 Without the fire, it dies : within it joys, 
 Living in that which each thing else destroys. 
 
 So, slow Bootes underneath him sees, 
 In th' icy isles, those goslings hatch'd of trees ; 
 Whose fruitful leaves, falling into the water, 
 Are turn'd, they say, to living fowls soon after. 
 
 So, rotten sides of broken ships do change 
 To barnacles. O transformation strange 1 
 'Twas first a green tree ; then, a gallant hull ; 
 Lately a mushroom ; now, a flying gull. 
 
 VENATOR. O my good master, this morning- 
 walk has been spent to my great pleasure and 
 wonder : but, I pray, when shall I have your direc- 
 tion how to make artificial flies, like to those that 
 the Trout loves best ; and, also, how to use them ? 
 
 PlSCATOR. My honest scholar, it is now past five 
 of the clock: we will fish till nine; and then go to 
 breakfast. Go you to yonder sycamore-tree, and 
 hide your bottle of drink under the hollow root of 
 it ; for about that time, and in that place, we will 
 make a brave breakfast with a piece of powdered 
 beef, and a radish or two, that I have in my fish- 
 bag : we shall, I warrant you, make a good, honest, 
 wholesome hungry breakfast. And I will then 
 give you direction for the making and using of your 
 flies : and in the meantime, 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. 
 
 VENATOR. I thank you, master. I will observe 
 and practise your direction as far as I am able. 
 
 PlSCATOR. Look you, scholar; you see I have 
 hold of a good fish : I now see it is a Trout. I 
 
The Fourth Day 89 
 
 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. 
 
 VENATOR. I am glad of that : but I have no 
 fortune : sure, master, yours is a better rod and 
 better tackling. 
 
 PlSCATOR. 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. 
 
 VENATOR. Ay, and a good Trout too. 
 
 PlSCATOR. Nay, the Trout is not lost ; for pray 
 take notice, no man can lose what he never had. 
 
 VENATOR. Master, I can neither catch with the 
 first nor second angle : I have no fortune. 
 
 PlSCATOR. 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 musick with my words, 
 which are fitted for my own mouth". And so, my 
 
90 The Complete Angler 
 
 scholar, you are to know, that as the ill pronuncia- 
 tion 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 remember, I told you Angling is an 
 art, either by practice or a long observation, or 
 both. But take this for a rule, When you fish for 
 a Trout with a worm, let your line have so much, 
 and not more lead than will fit the stream in which 
 you fish ; that is to say, more in a great troublesome 
 stream than in a smaller that is quieter ; as near as 
 may be, so much as will sink the bait to the bottom, 
 and keep it still in motion, and not more. 
 
 But now, let's say grace, and fall to breakfast. 
 What say you, scholar, to the providence of an old 
 angler? Does not this meat taste well? and was 
 not this place well chosen to eat it ? for this syca- 
 more-tree will shade us from the sun's heat. 
 
 VENATOR. All excellent good ; and my stomach 
 excellent good, too. And now I remember, and 
 find that true which devout Lessius says, "that 
 poor men, and those that fast often, have much 
 more pleasure in eating than rich men, and gluttons, 
 that always feed before their stomachs are empty 
 of their last meat and call for more ; for by that 
 means they rob themselves of that pleasure that 
 hunger brings to poor men ". And I do seriously 
 approve of that saying of yours, "that you had 
 rather be a civil, well-governed, well-grounded, 
 temperate, poor angler, than a drunken lord " : but 
 I hope there is none such. However, I am certain 
 
The Fourth Day 91 
 
 of this, that I have been at many very costly 
 dinners that have not afforded me half the content 
 that this has done ; for which I thank God and 
 you. 
 
 And now, good master, proceed to your promised 
 direction for making and ordering my artificial fly. 
 
 PlSCATOR. My honest scholar, I will do it ; for 
 it is a debt due unto you by my promise. And 
 because you shall not think yourself more engaged 
 to me than indeed you really are, I will freely give 
 you such directions as were lately given to me by 
 an ingenious brother of the angle, an honest man, 
 and a most excellent fly-fisher. 
 
 You are to note, that there are twelve kinds of 
 artificial made Flies, to angle with upon the top of 
 the water. Note, by the way, that the fittest season 
 of using these is in a blustering windy day, when 
 the waters are so troubled that the natural fly can- 
 not 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 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 peacock's 
 
92 The Complete Angler 
 
 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 condemn all the 
 Trouts in the river. 
 
 I shall next give you some other directions for fly- 
 fishing, such as are given by Mr. Thomas Barker, 
 a gentleman that hath spent much time in fishing : 
 but I shall do it with a little variation. 
 
 First, let your rod be light, and very gentle : I 
 take the best to be of two pieces. And let not 
 your line exceed, 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 
 
The Fourth Day 93 
 
 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. 
 
 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 clivers 
 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 scissors, 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 
 made the silk fast, take the hackle of a cock or 
 capon's neck, or a plover's top, which is usually 
 better: take off the one side of the feather, and 
 then take the hackle, silk or crewel, gold or silver 
 thread ; make these fast at the bent of the hook, 
 that is to say, below your arming ; then you must 
 take the hackle, the silver or gold thread, and work 
 it up to the wings, shifting or still removing your 
 finger as you turn the silk about the hook, and 
 still looking, at every stop or turn, that your gold 
 
94 The Complete Angler 
 
 or what materials soever you make your fly of, do 
 lie right and neatly ; and if you find they do so, 
 then when you have made the head, make all fast : 
 and then work your hackle up to the head, and 
 make that fast : and then, with a needle, or pin, 
 divide the wing into two ; and then, with the arm- 
 ing 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 Trouts leap at a fly of that kind : and then 
 having always hooks ready-hung with him, and 
 having a bag 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 sad-coloured, to make the fly's 
 head : and there be also other coloured feathers, 
 both of little birds and of speckled fowl : I say, 
 having those with him in a bag, and trying to make 
 a fly, though he miss at first, yet shall he at last hit 
 it better, even to such a perfection as none can well 
 teach him. And if he hit to make his fly right, and 
 have the luck to hit, also, where there is store of 
 Trouts, a dark day, and a right wind, he will catch 
 
The Fourth Day 95 
 
 such store of them, as will encourage him to grow 
 more and more in love with the art of fly-making. 
 
 VENATOR. But, my loving master, if any wind 
 will not serve, then I wish I were in Lapland, to 
 buy a good wind of one of the honest witches, that 
 sell so many winds there, and so cheap. 
 
 PlSCATOR. 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 mis- 
 take not, we shall presently have a smoking 
 shower, and therefore sit close ; this sycamore-tree 
 will shelter us : and I will tell you, as they shall 
 come into my mind, more observations of fly-fishing 
 for a Trout. 
 
 But first for the wind : you are to take notice that 
 of the winds the south wind is said to be best 
 One observes, that 
 
 when the wind is south, 
 It blows your bait into a fish's mouth. 
 
 Next to that, the west wind is believed to be the 
 best : and having told you that the east wind is the 
 worst, I need not tell you which wind is the best in 
 the third degree: and yet, as Solomon observes, 
 that "he that considers the wind shall never sow" ; 
 so he that busies his head too much about them, if 
 the weather be not made extreme cold by an east 
 wind, shall be a little superstitious: for as it is 
 observed by some, that " there is no good horse of 
 a bad colour"; so I have observed, that if it be 
 a cloudy day, and not extreme cold, let the wind 
 sit in what corner it will and do 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. 
 
96 The Complete Angler 
 
 But I promised to tell you more of the Fly-fishing 
 for a Trout ; which I may have time enough to do, 
 for you see it rains May butter. First for a May- 
 fly : you may make his body with greenish-coloured 
 crewel, or willowish colour ; darkening it in most 
 places with waxed silk ; or ribbed with black hair ; 
 or, some of them, ribbed with silver thread ; and 
 such wings, for the colour, as you see the fly to 
 have at that season, nay, at that very day on the 
 water. Or you may make the Oak-fly: with an 
 orange, tawny, and black ground ; and the brown 
 of a mallard's feather for the wings. And you are 
 to know, that these two are most excellent flies, 
 that is, the May-fly and the Oak-fly. 
 
 And let me again tell you, that you keep as far 
 from the water as you can possibly, whether you 
 fish with a fly or worm ; and fish down the stream. 
 And when you fish with a fly, if it be possible, let 
 no part of your line touch the water, but your fly 
 only ; and be still moving your fly upon the water, 
 or casting it into the water, you yourself being also 
 always moving down the stream. 
 
 Mr. Barker commends several sorts of the palmer- 
 flies ; not only those ribbed with silver and gold, 
 but others that have their bodies all made of black ; 
 or some with red, and a red hackle. You may also 
 make the Hawthorn-fly : which is all black, and not 
 big, but very small, the smaller the better. Or the 
 oak-fly, the body of which is orange colour and 
 black crewel, with a brown wing. Or a fly made 
 with a peacock's feather is excellent in a bright 
 day: you must be sure you want not in your 
 magazine-bag the peacock's feather; and grounds 
 of such wool and crewel as will make the grass- 
 hopper. And note, that usually the smallest flies 
 are the best ; and note also, that the light fly does 
 usually make most sport in a dark day, and the 
 
The Fourth Day 97 
 
 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, especi- 
 ally against rain : the Oak-fly, on the butt or body 
 of an oak or ash, from the beginning of May to the 
 end of August ; it is a brownish fly and easy to be 
 so found, and stands usually with his head down- 
 ward, that is to say, towards the root of the tree : 
 the small black-fly, or Hawthorn-fly, is to be had 
 on any hawthorn bush after the leaves be come 
 forth. With these and a short line, as I shewed to 
 angle for a Chub, you may dape or dop, and also 
 with a grasshopper, 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 so 
 sweetly too. Come let me tell you what holy Mr. 
 Herbert says of such days and flowers as these, and 
 then we will thank God that we enjoy them, and 
 walk to the river and sit down quietly, and try to 
 catch the other brace of Trouts. 
 
 
 Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright, 
 The bridal of the earth and sky, 
 Sweet dews shall weep thy fall to-night, 
 For thou must die. 
 G 
 
98 The Complete Angler 
 
 Sweet rose, whose hue, angry and brave, 
 Bids the rash gazer wipe his eye, 
 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, 
 And all must die. 
 
 Only a sweet and virtuous soul, 
 Like season'd timber, never gives, 
 But when the whole world turns to coal, 
 Then chiefly lives. 
 
 VENATOR. I thank you, good master, for your 
 good direction for fly-fishing, and for the sweet enjoy- 
 ment of the pleasant day, which is so far spent with- 
 out 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. 
 
 PlSCATOR. Well, my loving scholar, and I arn 
 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. 
 
 What I Pray'r by th' book ? and Common ? Yes ; Why not ? 
 
 The spirit of grace 
 And supplication 
 Is not left free alone 
 
 For time and place, 
 
 But manner too : to read, or speak, by rote, 
 Is all alike to him that prays, 
 In's heart, what with his mouth he says. 
 
The Fourth Day 99 
 
 They that in private, by themselves alone, 
 Do pray, may take 
 What liberty they please, 
 In chusing of the ways 
 
 Wherein to make 
 
 Their soul's most intimate affections known 
 To him that sees in secret, when 
 Th' are most conceal'd from other men. 
 
 But he, that unto others leads the way 
 
 In public prayer, 
 Should do it so, 
 As all, that hear, may know 
 
 They need not fear 
 
 To tune their hearts unto his tongue, and say 
 Amen ; not doubt they were betray'd 
 To blaspheme, when they meant to have pray'd. 
 
 Devotion will add life unto the letter : 
 
 And why should not 
 That, which authority 
 Prescribes, esteemed be 
 
 Advantage got ? 
 
 If th' prayer be good, the commoner the better, 
 Prayer in the Church's words, as well 
 As sense, of all prayers bears the bell. 
 
 CH. HARVIE. 
 
 And now, scholar, I think it will be time to re- 
 pair 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 syca- 
 more, as Virgil's Tityrus and his Melibceus did 
 under their broad beech-tree. No life, my honest 
 scholar, no life so happy and so pleasant as the life 
 of a well -governed angler ; for when the lawyer is 
 swallowed up with business, and the statesman is pre- 
 
ioo The Complete Angler 
 
 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 said of strawberries, " Doubtless God could 
 have made a better berry, but doubtless God never 
 did " ; and so, if I might be judge, God never did 
 make a more calm, quiet, innocent recreation than 
 angling. 
 
 I'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 Wish, which I'll repeat to you : 
 
 THE ANGLER'S WISH. 
 
 I in these flowery meads would be : 
 These crystal streams should solace me ; 
 To whose harmonious bubbling noise 
 I with my Angle would rejoice : 
 Sit here, and see the turtle-dove 
 Court his chaste mate to acts of love : 
 
 Or, on that bank, feel the west wind 
 Breathe health and plenty : please my mind, 
 To see sweet dew-drops kiss these flowers, 
 And then washed off by April showers : 
 Here, hear my Kenna sing l a song ; 
 There, see a blackbird feed her young, 
 
 Or a leverock build her nest : 
 Here, give my weary spirits rest, 
 And raise my low-pitch'd thoughts above 
 Earth, or what poor mortals love : 
 Thus, free irom law-suits and the noise 
 Of princes' courts, I would rejoice: 
 
 1 Like Hermit Poor. 
 
The Fourth Day ici 
 
 Or, with my Bryan, and a book, 
 
 Loiter long days near Shawford-brook; 
 
 There sit by him, and eat my meat, 
 
 There see the sun both rise and set : 
 
 There bid good morning to next day ; 
 
 There meditate my time away. 
 And Angle on ; and beg to have 
 A quiet passage to a welcome grave. 
 
 When I had ended this composure, I left this 
 place, and saw a brother of the angle sit under that 
 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 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 government. And the sum that 
 was got that week proved to be but twenty and 
 some odd shillings. The odd money was agreed to 
 be distributed amongst the poor of their own corpora- 
 tion : and for the remaining twenty shillings, that was 
 to be divided unto four gentlemen gypsies, accord- 
 ing 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. 8< The second was to have a 
 fourth part of the 2Os., which all men know to 
 be 55-. The third was to have a fifth part of the 
 2Os., which all men know to be 43. The fourth and 
 last gypsy was to have a sixth part of the 2Os. t which 
 all men know to be 3^. 4^. 
 
 
 As for example, 
 
 3 times 6s. Sd. are . . 20*. 
 
 And so is 4 times 55. . . 205. 
 
 And so is 5 times 45. . . 20.?. 
 
 And so is 6 times 35. 4^. . 205. 
 
The Complete Angler 
 
 And yet he that divided the money was so very 
 a gypsy, that though he gave to every one these 
 said sums, yet lie kept one shilling of it for himself. 
 
 As, for example, 5. d. 
 
 6 8 
 
 5 o 
 
 4 o 
 
 3 4 
 
 make but ...... 19 o 
 
 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 remain- 
 ing shilling belonged to him ; and so they fell to so 
 high a contest about it, as none that knows the 
 faithfulness 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 
 jwise 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 
 tell fortunes and cheat, and get more money and 
 lodging in the next village. 
 
 When these were gone, we heard as high a con- 
 tention amongst the beggars, whether it was easiest 
 to rip a cloak, or to unrip a cloak ? One beggar 
 affirmed it was all one: but that was denied, by 
 asking her, If doing and undoing were all one? 
 Then another said, 'twas easiest to unrip a cloak ; 
 for that was to let it alone : but she was answered, 
 by asking her, how she unript it if she let it alone ? 
 and she confest herself mistaken. These and twenty 
 
The Fourth Day 103 
 
 such like questions were proposed and answered, 
 with as much beggarly logick and earnestness as 
 was ever heard to proceed from the mouth of the 
 pertinacious schismatick; and sometimes all the 
 beggars, whose number was neither more nor less 
 than the poets' nine muses, talked all together about 
 this ripping and unripping; and so loud, that not 
 one heard what the other said : but, at last, one 
 beggar craved audience; and told them that old 
 father Clause, whom Ben Jonson, in his Beggar's 
 Bush, created King of their corporation, was to 
 lodge at an ale-house, called " Catch-her-by-the- 
 way," not far from Waltham Cross, and in the high 
 road towards London ; and he therefore desired 
 them to spend no more time about that and such 
 like questions, but refer all to father Clause at night, 
 for he was an upright judge, and in the meantime 
 draw cuts, what song should be next sung, and who 
 should sing it. They all agreed to the motion ; and 
 the lot fell to her that was the youngest, and veriest 
 virgin of the company. And she sung Frank 
 Davison's song, which he made forty years ago; 
 and all the others of the company joined to sing 
 the burthen with her. The ditty was this ; but first 
 the burthen : 
 
 Bright shines the sun ; play, Beggars, play; 
 Here's scraps enough to serve to-day. 
 
 What noise of viols is so sweet, 
 
 As when our merry clappers ring ? 
 What mirth doth want where Beggars meet? 
 
 A Beggar's life is for a King. 
 Eat, drink, and play ; sleep when we list ; 
 Go where we will, so stocks be mist. 
 
 Bright shines the sun ; play, Beggars, play ; 
 
 Here's scraps enough to serve to-day. 
 
 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. 
 
104 The Complete Angler 
 
 Nor care to get, nor fear to keep, 
 Did ever break a Beggar's sleep. 
 
 Play, Beggars, play ; play, Beggars, play ; 
 
 Here's scraps enough to serve to-day. 
 
 A hundred head of black and white 
 
 Upon our gowns securely feed ; 
 If any dare his master 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. 
 
 VENATOR. I thank you, good master, for this 
 piece of merriment, and this song, which was well 
 humoured by the maker, and well remembered by 
 you. 
 
 PlSCATOR. But, I pray, forget not the catch 
 which you promised to make against night ; for our 
 countryman, honest Condon, 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 destruction. 
 
 VENATOR. Oh me! look you, master, a fish! a 
 fish ! Oh, alas, master, I have lost her. 
 
 PlSCATOR. Ay marry, Sir, that was a good fish 
 indeed : if I had had the luck to have taken up that 
 rod, then 'tis twenty to one he should not have 
 broken my line by running to the rod's end, as you 
 suffered him. I would have held him within the bent 
 of my rod, unless he had been fellow to the great 
 Trout that is near an ell long, which was of such 
 a length and depth, that he had his picture drawn, 
 and now is to be seen at mine host Rickabie's, at 
 
The Fourth Day 105 
 
 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 
 over-grown 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. 
 
 VENATOR. But, master, I have heard that the 
 great Trout you speak of is a Salmon. 
 
 PlSCATOR. Trust me, scholar, I know not what to 
 say to it. There are many country people that be- 
 lieve hares change sexes every year : and there be 
 very many learned men think so too, for in their 
 dissecting them they find many reasons to incline 
 them to that belief. And to make the wonder seem 
 yet less, that hares change sexes, note that Dr. Mer. 
 Casaubon affirms, in his book " Of credible and in- 
 credible things," that Gasper Peucerus, a learned 
 physician, tells us of a people that once a year turn 
 wolves, partly in shape, and partly in conditions. 
 And so, whether this were a Salmon when he came 
 into fresh water, and his not returning into the sea 
 hath altered him to another colour or kind, I am not 
 able to say ; but I am certain he hath all the signs of 
 being a Trout, both for his shape, colour, and spots ; 
 and yet many think he is not. 
 
 VENATOR. But, master, will this Trout which I 
 had hold of die ? for it is like he hath the hook in 
 his belly. 
 
 PlSCATOR. I will tell you, scholar, that unless the 
 hook be fast in his very gorge, 'tis more than prob- 
 able 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- 
 
io6 The Complete Angler 
 
 headed Chub : and this is not much amiss, for this 
 1 will pleasure some poor body, as we go to our lodg- 
 ing to meet our brother Peter and honest Coridon. 
 Come, now bait your hook again, and lay it into the 
 water, for it rains again ; and we will even retire to 
 the Sycamore-tree, and there I will give you more 
 directions concerning fishing, for I would fain make 
 you an artist. 
 
 VENATOR. Yes, good master, I pray let it be so. 
 
 PlSCATOR. Well, scholar, now that 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. 
 
 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 stream 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 usually in the night, and 
 then the great Trout feeds very boldly. 
 
The Fourth Day 107 
 
 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 anything 
 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 used to 
 catch Trouts in the night, by the light of a torch or 
 straw, which, when they have discovered, they strike 
 ivith 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. 
 
 VENATOR. But, master, do not Trouts see us in 
 the night ? 
 
 PiSCATOR. Yes, and hear, and smell too, both 
 then and in the day-time : for Gesner observes, the 
 Otter smells a fish forty furlongs off him in the 
 water : and that it may be true, seems to be affirmed 
 by SinJFrancis Bacon, in the eighth century of his 
 Natural History, who there proves that waters may 
 be the medium of sounds, by demonstrating it thus : 
 " That if you knock two stones together very deep 
 under the water, those that stand on a bank near to 
 that place may hear the noise without any diminu- 
 tion of it by the water " . He also offers the like ex- 
 periment 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 de* 
 
io8 , The Complete Angler 
 
 monstrated 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, i 
 by the motion or stirring of the earth which is oc- 
 casioned by that thunder. 
 
 And this reason of Sir Francis Bacon has made me 
 crave pardon of one that I laughed at for affirming 
 that he knew Carps come to a certain place, in a pond, 
 to be fed at the ringing of a bell or the beating of a 
 drum. And, however, it shall be a rule for me to 
 make as little noise as I can when I am fishing, un- 
 til Sir Francis Bacon be confuted, which I shall give 
 any man leave to do. 
 
 And lest you may think him singular in this 
 opinion, I will tell you, this seems to be believed by 
 our learned Doctor Hakewill, who in his Apology of 
 Gods power and providence, quotes Pliny torcpoTt 
 that one of the emperors had particular fish-ponds, 
 and, in them, several fish that appeared and came 
 when they were called by their particular names. 
 And St James tells us, that all things in the sea 
 have been tamed by mankind. And Pliny tells us, ! i 
 that Antonia, the wife of Drusus, had a Lamprey at 
 whose gills she hung jewels or ear-rings ; and that 
 others have been so tender-hearted as to shed tears 
 at the death of fishes which they have kept and loved. 
 And these observations, which will to most hearers 
 seem wonderful, seem to have a further confirma- 
 tion from Martial, who writes thus : 
 
 Piscator^fuge; ne nocens^etc. 
 
 Angler I would'st thou be 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, 
 Do to their several owner's call repair. 
 
The Fourth Day 109 
 
 All the further use that I shall make of this shall 
 be, to advise anglers to be patient, and forbear 
 swearing, lest they be heard> and catch no fish. 
 
 And so I shall proceed next to tell you, it is 
 certain that certain fields near Leominster, a town 
 in Herefordshire, are observed to make the sheep 
 that graze upon them more fat than the next, and 
 also to bear finer wool ; that is to say, that that 
 year in which they feed in such a particular pasture, 
 they shall yield finer wool than they did that year 
 before they came to feed in it ; and coarser, again, 
 if they shall return to their former pasture ; and,, 
 again, return to a finer wool, beirfg 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 pleasure, 
 concluded with Solomon, " Everything is beautiful 
 in his season". 
 
 I should, by promise, speak next of the Salmon \ 
 but I will, by your favour, say a little of the Umber 
 or Grayling ; which is so like a Trout for his shape 
 and feeding, that I desire I may exercise your 
 patience with a short discourse of him ; and then, 
 the next shall be of the Salmon. 
 
THE FOURTH DAY continued 
 The Umber or Grayling 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 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. 
 Aldrovandus says, they be of a Trout kind; and 
 Gesner says, that in his country, which is Switzer- 
 land, he is accounted the choicest of all fish. And 
 in Italy, he is, in the month of May, so highly 
 valued, that he is sold there at a much higher rate 
 than any other fish. The French, which call the 
 Chub Un Villain, call the Umber of the lake 
 Leman Un Umble Chevalier; and they value the 
 Umber or Grayling so highly, that they say he 
 feeds on gold ; and say, that many have been 
 caught out of their famous river of Loire, out of 
 whose bellies grains of gold have been often taken. 
 And some think that he feeds on water thyme, 
 and smells of it at his first taking out of the water ; 
 and they may think so with as good reason as we 
 do that our Smelts smell like violets at their being 
 first caught, which I think is a truth. Aldrovandus 
 no 
 
The Fourth Day in 
 
 says, the Salmon, the Grayling, and Trout, and all 
 fish that live in clear and sharp streams, are made 
 by their mother Nature of such exact shape and 
 pleasant colours purposely to invite us to a joy 
 and contentedness in feasting with her. Whether 
 this is a truth or not, is not my purpose to dis- 
 pute : 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 anything 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 : but I shall 
 only tell you that St. Ambrose, the glorious bishop 
 of Milan, who lived when the church kept fasting- 
 days, calls him the flower-fish, or flower of fishes ; 
 and that he was so far in love with him, that he 
 would not let him pass without the honour of a long 
 discourse ; but I must ; and pass on to tell you 
 how to take this dainty fish. 
 
 First note, that he grows not to the bigness of a 
 Trout ; for the biggest of them do not usually exceed 
 eighteen inches. He lives in such rivers as the 
 Trout does ; and is usually taken with the same 
 baits as the Trout is, and after the same manner ; 
 for he will bite both at the minnow, or worm, or fly, 
 though he bites not often at the minnow, and is 
 very gamesome at the fly ; and much simpler, and 
 therefore bolder than a Trout ; for he will rise 
 twenty times at a fly, if you miss him, and yet rise 
 again. He has been taken with a fly made of the 
 red feathers of a paroquet, 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. 
 
H2 The Complete Angler 
 
 He is a fish that lurks close all Winter, but is very 
 pleasant and jolly after mid-April, and in May, 
 and in the hot months. He is of a very fine shape, 
 his flesh is white, his teeth, those little ones that he 
 has, are in his throat, yet he has so tender a mouth, 
 that he is oftener lost after an angler has hooked 
 him than any other fish. Though there be many 
 of these fishes in the delicate river Dove, and in 
 Trent, and some other smaller rivers, as that which 
 runs by Salisbury, yet he is not so general a fish 
 as the Trout, nor to me so good to eat or to angle 
 for. And so I shall take my leave of him : and 
 now come to some observations of the Salmon, 
 and how to catch him. 
 
THE FOURTH DAY continued 
 The Salmon 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 PISCATOR 
 
 THE Salmon is accounted the King of freshwater 
 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 : 
 some say, that then they dig a hole or grave in a 
 safe place in the gravel, and there place their eggs 
 or spawn, after the melter has done his natural 
 office, and then hide it most cunningly, and cover 
 it over with gravel and stones ; and then leave it to 
 their Creator's protection, who, by a gentle heat 
 which he infuses into that cold element, makes it 
 brood, and beget life in the spawn, and to become 
 Samlets early in the spring next following. 
 
 The Salmons having spent their appointed time, 
 and done this natural duty in the fresh waters, they 
 then haste to the sea before winter, both the melter 
 and spawner ; but if they be stopt by flood-gates 
 or weirs, or lost in the fresh waters, then those so 
 left behind by degrees grow sick and lean, and un- 
 seasonable, and kipper, that is to say, have bony 
 H 113 
 
H4 The Complete Angler 
 
 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 possest him ; 
 for, as one has wittily observed, he has, like some 
 persons of honour and riches which have both their 
 winter and summer houses, the fresh rivers for 
 summer, and the salt water for winter, to spend his 
 life in; which is not, as Sir Francis Bacon hath 
 observed in his History of Life and Death, above 
 ten years. And it is to be observed, that though 
 the Salmon does grow big in the sea, yet he grows 
 not fat but in fresh rivers ; and it is observed, that 
 the farther they get from the sea, they be both the 
 fatter and better. 
 
 Next, I shall tell you, that though they make very 
 hard shift to get out of the fresh rivers into the sea, 
 yet they will make harder shift to get out of the salt 
 into the fresh rivers, to spawn, or possess the pleasures 
 that they have formerly found in them : to which 
 end, they will force themselves through floodgates, 
 or over weirs, or hedges, or stops in the water, even 
 to a height beyond common belief. Gesner speaks 
 
The Fourth Day 115 
 
 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 Pembroke- 
 shire, 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 notable, that it is known, far, by 
 the name of the Salmon-leap. Concerning which, 
 take this also out of Michael Drayton, my honest 
 old friend ; as he tells it you, in his Polyolbion : 
 
 And when the Salmon seeks a fresher stream to find ; 
 (Which hither from the sea comes, yearly, by his kind,) 
 As he towards season grows ; and stems the watry 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 meant her to inclose ; 
 Here when the labouring fish does at the foot arrive, 
 And finds that by his strength he does but vainly strive ; 
 His tail takes in his mouth, and, bending like a bow 
 That's to full compass drawn, aloft himself doth throw, 
 Then springing at his height, as doth a little wand 
 That bended end to end, and started from man's hand, 
 Far off itself doth cast ; so does that Salmon vault: 
 And if, at first, he fail, his second summersault 
 He instantly essays, and, from his nimble ring 
 Still yerking, never leaves until himself he fling 
 Above the opposing stream. 
 
 This Michael Drayton tells you, of this leap or 
 summersault of the Salmon. 
 
 And, next, I shall tell you, that it is observed by 
 Gesner and others, that there is no better Salmon 
 than in England ; and that though some of our 
 northern counties have as fat, and as large, as the 
 river Thames, yet none are of so excellent a taste. 
 
 And as I have told you that Sir Francis Bacon 
 observes, the age of a Salmon exceeds not ten 
 years ; so let me next tell you, that his growth is 
 very sudden : it is said, that after he is got into the 
 
1 1 6 The Complete Angler 
 
 sea, he becomes, from a Samlet not so big as a 
 Gudgeon, to be a Salmon, in as short a time as a 
 gosling becomes to be a goose. Much of this has 
 been observed, by tying a riband, or some known 
 tape or thread, 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 from the sea, 
 which is usually about six months after; and the 
 like experiment hath been tried upon young 
 swallows, who have, after six months' absence, been 
 observed to return to the same chimney, there to 
 make their nests and habitations for the summer 
 following ; which has inclined many to think, that 
 every Salmon usually returns to the same river in 
 which it was bred, as young pigeons taken out of 
 the same dovecote have also been observed to do. 
 
 And you are yet to observe further, that the He- 
 salmon is usually bigger than the Spawner; and 
 that he is more kipper, and less able to endure a 
 winter in the fresh water than the She is : yet she 
 is, at that time of looking less kipper and better f 
 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 
 Salmon in season in winter, as 'tis certain there be 
 in the river Wye in Monmouthshire, where they be 
 in season, as Camden observes, from September 
 till April. But, my scholar, the observation of this 
 and many other things I must in manners omit, 
 because they will prove too large for our narrow 
 compass of time, and, therefore, I shall next fall 
 upon my directions how to fish for this Salmon. 
 
 And, for that: First you shall observe, that 
 usually he stays not long in a place, as Trouts 
 
The Fourth Day 117 
 
 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 he is to be caught, as the Trout is, with a worm, 
 a minnow which some call a penk, or with a fly. 
 
 And you are to observe, that he is very seldom 
 observed to bite at a minnow, yet sometimes he 
 will, and not usually at a fly, but more usually at a 
 worm, and then most usually at a lob or garden- 
 worm, which should be well scoured, that is to say, 
 kept seven or eight days in moss before you fish 
 with them : and if you double your time of eight 
 into sixteen, twenty, or more days, it is still the 
 better ; for the worms will still be clearer, tougher, 
 and more lively, and continue so longer upon your 
 hook. And they may be kept longer by keeping 
 them cool, and in fresh moss ; and some advise to 
 put camphire into it. 
 
 Note also, that many used 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 
 Henly, 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 
 
n8 The Complete Angler 
 
 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 ex- 
 pression or infusion ; and told, that by the worms 
 remaining in that box an hour, or a like time, they 
 had incorporated a kind of smell that was irresistibly 
 attractive, enough to force any fish within the smell 
 of them to bite. This I heard not long since from 
 a friend, but have not tried it ; yet I grant it prob- 
 able, and refer my reader to Sir Francis Bacon's 
 Natziral History ', where he proves fishes may hear, 
 and, doubtless, can more probably smell : and I am 
 certain Gesner says, the Otter can smell in the 
 water ; and I know not but that fish may do so too. 
 'Tis left for a lover of angling, or any that desires 
 to improve that art, to try this conclusion. 
 
 I shall also impart two other experiments, but 
 not tried by myself, which I will deliver in the same 
 words that they were given me by an excellent 
 angler 'and a very friend, in writing: he told me 
 the latter was too good to be told, but in a learned 
 language, lest it should be made common. 
 
 "Take the stinking oil drawn out of polypody of 
 the oak by a retort, mixed with turpentine and hive- 
 honey, and anoint your bait therewith, and it will 
 doubtless draw the fish to it." The other is this : 
 " Vulnera hederae grandissimae inflicta sudant bal- 
 samum oleo gelato, albicantique persimile, odoris 
 ver6 longe suavissimi". "Tis supremely sweet to 
 any fish, and yet assa fcetida may do the like." 
 
The Fourth Day 119 
 
 But in these I have no great faith ; yet grant it 
 probable ; and have had from some chymical men, 
 namely, from Sir George Hastings and others, an 
 affirmation of them to be very advantageous. But 
 no more of these ; especially not in this place. 
 
 I might here, before I take my leave of the 
 Salmon, tell you, that there is more than one sort 
 of them, as namely, a Tecon, and another called in 
 some places a Samlet, or by some a Skegger '; but 
 these, and others which I forbear to name, may be 
 fish of another kind, and differ as we know a 
 Herring and a Pilchard do, which, I think, are as 
 different as the rivers in which they breed, and 
 must, by me, be left to the disquisitions of men of 
 more leisure, and of greater abilities than I profess 
 myself to have. 
 
 And lastly, I am to borrow so much of your 
 promised patience, as to tell you, that the trout, or 
 Salmon, being in season, have, at their first taking 
 out of the water, which continues during life, their 
 bodies adorned, the one with such red spots, and 
 the other with such black or blackish spots, as give 
 them such an addition of natural beauty as, I think, 
 was never given to any woman by the artificial paint 
 or patches in which they so much pride themselves 
 in this age. And so I shall leave them both ; and 
 proceed to some observations of the Pike. 
 
THE FOURTH DAY continued 
 On the Luce or Pike 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 PISCATOR AND VENATOR 
 
 PlSCATOR. The mighty Luce or Pike is taken to 
 be the tyrant, as the Salmon is the king, of the 
 fresh water. 'Tis not to be doubted, but that 
 they are bred, some by generation, and some 'not ; 
 as namely, of a weed called pickerel-weed, unless 
 learned Gesner be much mistaken, for he says, "this 
 weed and other glutinous matter, with the help of 
 the sun's heat, in some particular months, and some 
 ponds, apted for it by nature, do become Pikes. 
 But, doubtless, divers Pikes' are bred after this 
 manner, or are brought into some ponds some such 
 other ways as 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 men- 
 tions 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 
 1 20 
 
two hundr 
 
 The Fourth Day 121 
 
 vo hundred years before he was last taken, as by 
 the inscription in that ring, being Greek, was inter- 
 preted by the then Bishop of Worms. But of this 
 no more; but that it is observed, that the old or 
 very great Pikes have in them more of state than 
 goodness ; the smaller or middle-sized Pikes being, 
 by the most and choicest palates, observed to be the 
 best meat : and, contrary, the Eel is observed to be 
 the better for age and bigness. 
 
 All Pikes that live long prove chargeable to 
 their keepers, because their life is maintained by 
 the death of so many other fish, even those of their 
 own kind ; which has made him by some writers to 
 be called the tyrant of the rivers, or the fresh-water 
 wolf, by reason of his bold, greedy, devouring, dis- 
 position ; which is so keen, as Gesner relates, A 
 man going to a pond, where it seems a Pike had 
 devoured all the fish, to water his mule, had a Pike 
 bit his mule by the lips ; to which the Pike hung so 
 fast, that the mule drew him out of the water ; and 
 by that accident, the owner of the mule angled out 
 the- Pike. And the same Gesner observes, that a 
 maid in Poland had a Pike bit her by the foot, as 
 she was washing clothes in a pond. And I have 
 heard the like of a woman in Killingworth pond, 
 not far from Coventry. But I have been assured 
 by my friend Mr. Segrave, of whom I spake to 
 you formerly, that keeps tame Otters, that he hath 
 known a Pike, in extreme hunger, fight with one of 
 his Otters for a Carp that the Otter had caught, 
 and was then bringing out of the water. I have 
 told you who relate these things ; and tell you they 
 are persons of credit; and shall conclude this ob- 
 servation, by telling you, what a wise man has ob- 
 served, " It is a hard thing to persuade the belly, 
 because it has no ears ". 
 
 But if these relations be disbelieved, it is too 
 
122 The Complete Angler 
 
 evident to be doubted, that a Pike will devour a 
 fish of his own kind that shall be bigger than his 
 belly or throat will receive, and swallow a part of 
 him, and let the other part remain in his mouth till 
 the swallowed part be digested, and then swallow 
 that other part that was in his mouth, and so put 
 it over by degrees ; which is not unlike the Ox, and 
 some other beasts taking their meat, not out of their 
 mouth immediately into their belly, but first into 
 some place betwixt, and then chew it, or digest it 
 by degrees after, which is called chewing the cud. 
 And, doubtless, Pikes will bite when they are not 
 hungry ; but, as some think, even for very anger, 
 when a tempting bait comes near to them. 
 
 And it is observed, that the Pike will eat venom- 
 ous things, as some kind of frogs are, and yet live 
 without being harmed by them ; for, as some say, 
 he has in him a natural balsam, or antidote against 
 all poison. And he has a strange heat, that though 
 it appear to us to be cold, can yet digest or put 
 over any fish-flesh, by degrees, without being sick. 
 And others observe, that he never eats the venom- 
 ous 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 venom- 
 ous, 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 Polon- 
 ian gentleman did faithfully assure him, he had 
 seen two young geese at one time in the belly of a 
 Pike. And doubtless a Pike in his height of hunger 
 will bite at and devour a dog that swims in a pond ; 
 and there have been examples of it, or the like ; for 
 as I told you, " The belly has no ears when hunger 
 comes upon it". 
 
 The Pike is also observed to be a solitary, melan- 
 choly, and a bold fish; melancholy, because he 
 
The Fourth Day 123 
 
 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, j 
 to cure agues, to oppose or expel the infection of / 
 the plague, and to be many ways medicinable and / 
 useful for the good of mankind : but he observes, 
 that the biting of a Pike is venomous, and hard to 
 be cured. 
 
 And it is observed, that the Pike is a fish that 
 breeds but once a year; and that other fish, as 
 namely Loaches, do breed oftener : as we are certain 
 tame Pigeons do almost every month ; and yet the 
 Hawk, a bird of prey, as the Pike is a fish, breeds 
 but once in twelve months. And you are to note, 
 that his time of breeding, or spawning, is usually 
 about the end of February, or, somewhat later, in 
 March, as the weather proves colder or warmer : 
 and to note, that his manner of breeding is thus : 
 a he and a she Pike will usually go together out of 
 a river into some ditch or creek ; and that there the 
 spawner casts her eggs, and the melter hovers over 
 her all that time that she is casting her spawn, but 
 touches her not. 
 
 I might say more of this, but it might be thought 
 curiosity or worse, and shall therefore forbear it; 
 and take up so much of your attention as to tell you 
 that the best of Pikes are noted to be in rivers ; 
 next, those in great ponds or meres ; and the worst, 
 in small ponds. 
 
 But before I proceed further, I am to tell you, that 
 there is a great antipathy betwixt the Pike and some , 
 frogs : and this may appear to the reader of Du- 
 
324 ^ ie Complete Angler 
 
 bravius, a bishop in Bohemia, who, in his book O/ 
 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 haying expressed 
 malice or anger by his swoln cheeks and staring 
 eyes, did stretch out his legs and embrace the Pike's 
 head, and presently reached them to his eyes, tear- 
 ing 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 til) 
 his strength failed ; and then the frog sunk with the 
 Pike to the bottom of the water : then presently the 
 frog appeared again at the top, and croaked, and 
 seemed to rejoice like a conqueror, after which he 
 presently retired to his secret hole. The bishop, 
 that had beheld the battle, called his fisherman 
 to fetch his nets, and by all means to get th6 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 Fishing frogs, which the 
 Dalmatians call the Water-devil, of which I might 
 tell you as wonderful a story : but I shall tell you 
 that 'tis not to be doubted but that there be some 
 
The Fourth Day 125 
 
 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, by remembering the discourse of Dubravius. 
 I will therefore stop here ; and tell you, according 
 to my promise, how to catch this Pike. 
 
 His feeding is usually of fish or frogs ; and some- 
 times 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 that that weed both breeds and feeds them-: 
 but whether those Pikes, so bred, will ever breed by 
 generation as the others do, I shall leave to the 
 disquisitions of men of more curiosity and leisure 
 than I profess myself to have : and shall proceed to 
 tell you, that you may fish for a Pike, either with a 
 
126 The Complete Angler 
 
 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. Con- 
 cerning which two, I shall give you this direction ; 
 that your ledger-bait is best to be a living bait 
 (though a dead one may catch), whether it be a 
 fish or a frog : and that you may make them live 
 the longer, you may, or indeed you must, take this 
 course : 
 
 First, for your LIVE-BAIT. Of fish, a roach or 
 dace is, I think, best and most tempting ; and a 
 perch 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 
 at another scar near to his tail : then tie him about 
 it with thread, but no harder than of necessity, to 
 prevent hurting the fish ; and the better to avoid 
 hurting the fish, some have a kind of probe to open 
 the way for the more easy entrance and passage of 
 your wire or arming : but as for these, time and a 
 little experience will teach you better than I can by 
 words. Therefore I will for the present say no more 
 of this ; but come next to give you some directions 
 how to bait your hook with a frog. 
 
 VENATOR. But, good master, did you not say 
 even now, that some frogs were venomous ; and is 
 it not dangerous to touch them ? 
 
The Fourth Day 127 
 
 PlSCATOR. 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 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-pad- 
 dock, which usually keeps or breeds on the land, 
 and is very large and bony, and big, especially the 
 she-frog of that kind : yet these will sometimes 
 come into the water, but it is not often : and the 
 land-frogs are some of them observed by him, to 
 breed by laying eggs ; and others to breed of the 
 slime and dust of the earth, and that in winter they 
 turn to slime again, and that the next summer that 
 very slime returns to be a living creature ; this is 
 the opinion of Pliny. And Cardanus undertakes 
 to give a reason for the raining of frogs : but if it 
 were in my power, it should rain none but water- 
 frogs ; for those I think are not venomous, especi- 
 ally the right water-frog, which, about February or 
 March, breeds in ditches, by slime, and blackish 
 eggs in that slime : about which time of breeding, 
 the he and she frogs are observed to use divers 
 summersaults, and to croak and make a noise, 
 which the land-frog, or 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 
 
128 The Complete Angler 
 
 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 arm- 
 ing-wire, through his mouth, and out at his gills ; 
 and then with a fine needle and silk sew the upper 
 part of his leg, with only one stitch, to the arming- 1 
 wire of your hook ; or tie the frog's leg, above the 
 upper joint, to "the armed-wire ; and, in so .doing, 
 | use him as though you loved him, that is, harm him 
 las little as you may possibly, that he may live the 
 'longer. 
 
 And now, having given you this direction for the 
 baiting your ledger-hook with a live fish or frog, 
 my next must be to tell you, how your hook thus 
 baited must or may be used ; and it is thus : having 
 fastened your hook to a line, which if it be not 
 fourteen yards long should not be less than twelve, 
 you are to fasten that line to any bough near to a 
 hole where a Pike is, or is likely to lie, or to have a 
 haunt; and then wind your line on any forked 
 stick, all your line, except half a yard of it or rather 
 more ; and split that forked stick, with such a nick 
 or notch at one end of it as may keep the line from 
 any more of it ravelling from about the stick than 
 so much of it as you intend. And choose your 
 forked stick to be of that bigness as may keep the 
 fish or frog from pulling the forked stick under the 
 water till the Pike bites ; and then the Pike having 
 pulled the line forth of the cleft or nick of that 
 stick in which it was gently fastened, he will have 
 line enough to go to his hold and pouch the bait 
 And if you would have this ledger-bait to keep at a 
 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 
 
The Fourth Day 129 
 
 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 across a pond or mere, 
 you are like to stand still on the shore and see 
 sport presently, if there be any store of Pikes. Or 
 these live baits may make sport, being tied about 
 the body or wings of a goose or duck, and she 
 chased over a pond. And the like may be done 
 with turning three or four live baits, thus fastened 
 to bladders, or boughs, or bottles of hay or flags, to 
 swim down a river, whilst you walk quietly alone on 
 the shore, and are still in expectation of sport. The 
 rest must be taught you by practice ; for time will 
 not allow me to say more of this kind of fishing 
 with live baits. 
 
 And for your DEAD-BAIT for a Pike : for that you 
 may be taught by one day's going a-fishing with 
 me, or any other body that fishes for him ; for the 
 baiting your hook with a dead gudgeon or a roach, 
 and moving it up and down the water, is too easy a 
 thing to take up any time to direct you to do it. 
 And yet, because I cut you short in that, I will 
 commute for it by telling you that that was told me 
 for a secret : it is this : Dissolve gum of ivy in oil 
 of spike, and therewith anoint your dead bait for 
 a Pike ; and then cast it into a likely place ; and 
 when it has lain a short time at the bottom, draw 
 it towards the top of the water, and so up the 
 stream ; and it is more than likely that you have a 
 Pike follow with more than common eagerness. 
 I 
 
130 The Complete Angler 
 
 And some affirm, that any bait anointed with the 
 marrow of the thigh-bone of a heron is a great 
 temptation to any fish. 
 
 These have not been tried by me, but told me by 
 a friend of note, that pretended to do me a courtesy. 
 But if this direction to catch a Pike thus do you no 
 good, yet I am certain this direction how to roast 
 him when he is caught is choicely good ; for I have 
 tried it, and it is somewhat the better for not being 
 common. But with my direction you must take 
 this caution, that your Pike must not be a small 
 one, that is, it must be more than half a yard, and 
 should be bigger. 
 
 "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 mar- 
 joram, 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 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 of it 
 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 pre- 
 
The Fourth Day 131 
 
 vent his breaking or falling off from the spit. Let 
 him be roasted very leisurely; and often basted 
 with claret wine, and anchovies, and butter, mixt 
 together; and also with what moisture falls from 
 him into the pan. When you have roasted him 
 sufficiently, you are to hold under him, when you 
 unwind or cut the tape that ties him, such a dish as 
 you purpose to eat him out of; and let him fall into 
 it with the sauce that is roasted in his belly ; and 
 by this means the Pike will be kept unbroken and 
 complete. Then, to the sauce which was within, 
 and also that sauce in the pan, you are to add a fit 
 quantity of the best butter, and to squeeze the 
 juice of three or four oranges. Lastly, you may 
 either put it into the Pike, with the oysters, two 
 cloves of garlick, and take it whole out, when the 
 Pike is cut off the spit ; or, to give the sauce a haut 
 gout, 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 Pikes in Spain, and that the largest are in 
 the lake Thrasymene in Italy; and the next, if not 
 equal to them, are the Pikes of England ; and that 
 in England, Lincolnshire boasteth to have the 
 biggest. Just so doth Sussex boast of four sorts 
 of fish, namely, an Arundel Mullet, a Chichester 
 Lobster, a Shelsey Cockle, and an Amerly Trout. 
 
 But I will take up no more of your time with this 
 relation, but proceed to give you some Observations 
 of the Carp, and how to angle for him ; and to dress 
 him, but not till he is caught. 
 
THE FOURTH DAY continued 
 On the Carp 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 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 
 naturalised. It is said, they were brought hither 
 by one Mr. Mascal, a gentleman that then lived at 
 Plumsted in Sussex, a county that abounds more 
 with this fish than any in this nation. 
 
 You may remember that I told you Gesner says 
 there are no Pikes in Spain ; and doubtless there 
 was a time, about a hundred or a few more years 
 ago, when there were no Carps in England, as may 
 seem to be affirmed by Sir Richard Baker, in whose 
 Chronicle you may find these verses : 
 
 Hops and turkies, carps and beer, 
 Came into England all in a year. 
 
 And doubtless, as of sea-fish the Herring dies 
 soonest out of the water, and of fresh-water fish the 
 Trout, so, except the Eel, the Carp endures most 
 hardness, and lives longest out of its own proper 
 element; and, therefore, the report of the Carp's 
 132 
 
The Fourth Day 133 
 
 being brought out of a foreign country into this 
 nation is the more probable. 
 
 Carps and Loaches are observed to breed several 
 months in one year, which Pikes and most other fish 
 do not ; and this is partly proved by tame and wild 
 rabbits ; as also by some ducks, which will lay eggs 
 nine of the twelve months ; and yet there be other 
 ducks that lay not longer than about one month. 
 And it is the rather to be believed, because you 
 shall scarce or never take a male Carp without a 
 melt, or a female without a roe or spawn, and for 
 the most part very much, and especially all the 
 summer season ; and it is observed, that they breed 
 more naturally in ponds than in running waters, if 
 they breed there at all ; and that those that live in 
 rivers are taken by men of the best palates to be 
 much the better meat. 
 
 And it is observed that in some ponds Carps will 
 not breed, especially in cold ponds ; but where they 
 will breed, they breed innumerably: Aristotle and 
 Pliny say, six times in a year, if there be no Pikes 
 nor 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. 
 
 The Carp, if he have water-room and good feed, 
 will grow to a very great bigness and length ; I 
 have heard, to be much above a yard long. It is 
 said by Jovius, 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 
 
134 The Complete Angler 
 
 very long-lived ; and more than that, that all that 
 long life he thrives in bigness ; and so I think some 
 Carps do, especially in some places, though I never 
 saw one above twenty-three inches, which was a 
 great and goodly fish ; but have been assured there 
 are of a far greater size, and in England too. 
 
 Now, as the increase of Carps is wonderful for 
 their number, so there is not a reason found out, I 
 think, by any, why they should breed in some ponds, 
 and not in others, of the same nature for soil and 
 all other circumstances. And as their 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 impossible they 
 should be stole away from him ; and that when he 
 has, after three or four years, emptied the pond, 
 and expected an increase from them by breeding 
 young ones, for that they might do so he had, as 
 the rule is, put in three melters for one spawner, he 
 has, I say, after three or four years, found neither a 
 young nor old Carp remaining. 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 forborne 
 longer to fish the said pond, but that he saw, in a 
 hot day in summer, a large Carp swim near the top 
 of the water with a frog upon his head ; and that 
 he, upon that occasion, caused his pond to be let 
 dry : and I say, of seventy or eighty Carps, only 
 found five or six in the said pond, and those very 
 sick and lean, and with every one a frog sticking so 
 fast on the head of the said Carps, that the frog 
 would not be got off without extreme force or 
 
The Fourth Day 135 
 
 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 Worcester- 
 shire, assured me he had seen a necklace, or collar 
 of tadpoles, hang like a chain or necklace of beads 
 about a Pike's neck, and to kill him: Whether it 
 were for meat or malice, must be, to me, a question. 
 
 But I am fallen into this discourse by accident ; 
 of which I might say more, but it has proved longer 
 than I intended, and possibly may not to you be 
 considerable: I shall therefore give you three or 
 four more short observations of the Carp, and then 
 fall upon some directions how you shall fish for him. 
 
 The age of Carps is by Sir Francis Bacon, in his 
 History of Life and Death, observed to be but ten 
 years; yet others think they live longer. Gesner 
 says, a Carp has been known to live in the Palatine 
 above a hundred years. But most conclude, that, 
 contrary to the Pike or Luce, all Carps are the better 
 for age and bigness. The tongues of Carps are 
 noted to be choice and costly meat, especially to 
 them that buy them : but Gesner says, Carps have 
 no tongue like other fish, but a piece of fleshlike 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 Of fish and fish-ponds in which he says, 
 that Carps begin to spawn at the age of three years, 
 
136 The Complete Angler 
 
 and continue to do so till thirty : he says also, that in 
 the time of their breeding, which is in summer, when 
 the sun hath warmed both the earth and water, and 
 so apted them also for generation, that then three or 
 four male Carps will follow a female ; and that then, 
 she putting on a seeming coyness, they force her 
 through weeds and flags, where she lets fall her 
 eggs or spawn, which sticks fast to the weeds ; and 
 then they let fall their melt upon it, and so it becomes 
 in a short time to be a living fish : and, as I told 
 you, it is thought 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 herself by doing that natural office, that 
 two or three melters have helped her from off the 
 weeds, by bearing her up on both sides, and guard- 
 ing her into the deep. And you may note, that 
 though this may seem a curiosity not worth observ- 
 ing, yet others have judged it worth their time and 
 costs to make glass hives, and order them in such a 
 manner as to see how bees. have bred and made 
 their 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 Leviticus xi., by them reputed to 
 be unclean. 
 
 Much more might be said out of him, and out of 
 Aristotle, which Dubravius often quotes in his Dis- 
 
The Fourth Day 137 
 
 course of Fishes : 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 dis- 
 coursing either of the nature or the breeding of this 
 Carp, or of any more circumstances concerning him. 
 But yet I shall remember you of what I told you be- 
 fore, 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 say, where they have 
 store of feed, and the water is of a clayish colour. 
 But you are to remember that I have told you there 
 is no rule without an exception ; and therefore being 
 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 toothache ; but doubt- 
 less 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 
 
138 The Complete Angler 
 
 skill with the angle-rod; and doubtless, if it be 
 thrown into the water a day or two before, at 
 several times, and in small pellets, you are the 
 likelier, when you fish for the Carp, to obtain your 
 desired sport. Or, in a large pond, to draw them 
 to any certain place, that they may the better and 
 with more hope be fished for, you are to throw into 
 it, in some certain place, either grains, or blood mixt 
 with cow-dung or with bran ; or any garbage, as 
 chicken's guts or the like ; and then, some of your 
 small sweet pellets with which you propose 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 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 too much, white or yellowish wool. 
 
 And if you would have this paste keep all the 
 year, for any other fish, then mix with it virgin-wax 
 and clarified honey, and work them together with 
 your hands, before the fire; then make these into 
 balls, and they will keep all the year. 
 
 And if you fish for a Carp with gentles, then put 
 upon your hook a small piece of scarlet about this 
 bigness | , it being soaked in or anointed with oil 
 of petre, called by some, oil of the rock : and if 
 
The Fourth Day 139 
 
 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 dili- 
 gence 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. 
 And having said thus much of the Carp, my next 
 discourse shall be of the Bream, which shall not 
 prove so tedious; and therefore I desire the con- 
 tinuance 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 parsley, of each half a hand- 
 ful ; a sprig of rosemary, and another of savoury ; 
 bind them into two or three small bundles, and put 
 them in your Carp, with four or five whole onions, 
 twenty pickled oysters, and three anchovies. Then 
 pour upon your Carp as much claret wine as will 
 only cover him ; and season your claret well with 
 salt, cloves, and mace, and the rinds of oranges and 
 lemons. That done, cover your pot and set it on a 
 quick fire till it be sufficiently boiled. Then take 
 
140 The Complete Angler 
 
 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. 
 
THE FOURTH DAY continued 
 On the Bream 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 PISCATOR 
 
 THE Bream, being at a full growth, is a large and 
 stately fish. He will breed both in rivers and 
 ponds : but loves best to live in ponds, and where, 
 if he likes the water and air, he will grow not only 
 to be very large, but as fat as a hog. He is by 
 Gesner taken to be more pleasant, or sweet, than 
 wholesome. This fish is long in growing ; but 
 breeds exceedingly in a water that pleases him ; 
 yea, in many ponds so fast, as to 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 sucking mouth ; he hath two sets of 
 teeth, and a lozenge-like bone, a bone to help his 
 grinding. The melter is observed to have two 
 large melts ; and the female, two large bags of 
 eggs or spawn. 
 
 Gesner reports, that in Poland a certain and a 
 great number of large breams were put into a pond, 
 which in the next following winter were frozen up 
 into one entire ice, and not one drop of water re- 
 
 141 
 
142 The Complete Angler 
 
 maining, nor one of these fish to be found, though 
 they were diligently searched for; and yet the 
 next spring, when the ice was thawed, and the 
 weather warm, and fresh water got into the pond, 
 he affirms they all appeared again, This Gesner 
 affirms ; and I quote my author, because it seems 
 almost as incredible as the resurrection to an 
 atheist: but it may win something, in point of be- 
 lieving it, to him that considers the breeding or 
 renovation of the silk-worm, and of many insects. 
 And that is considerable, which Sir Francis Bacon 
 observes in his History of Life and Death, fol. 20, 
 that there be some herbs that die and spring every 
 year, and some endure longer. 
 
 But though some do not, yet the French esteem 
 this fish highly ; and to that end have this proverb, 
 " He that hath Breams in his pond, is able to bid 
 his friend welcome " ; and it is noted, that the best 
 part of a Bream is his belly and head. 
 
 Some say, that Breams and Roaches will mix 
 their eggs and melt together; and so there is in 
 many places a bastard breed of Breams, that never 
 come to be either large or good, but very numerous. 
 
 The baits good to catch this Bream are many. 
 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 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 most excellent one, either for a Carp or 
 
The Fourth Day 143 
 
 Bream, in any river or mere : it was given to me 
 by a most honest and excellent angler ; and hoping 
 you will prove both, I will impart it to you. 
 
 1. Let your bait be as big a red worm as you can 
 find, without a knot : get a pint or quart of them 
 in an evening, in garden- walks, or chalky commons, 
 after a shower of rain ; and put them with clean 
 moss well washed and picked, and the water 
 squeezed out of the moss as dry as you can, into 
 an earthen pot or pipkin set dry ; and change the 
 moss fresh every three or four days, for three weeks 
 or a month together ; then your bait will be at the 
 best, for it will be clear and lively. 
 
 2. Having thus prepared your baits, get your 
 tackling ready and fitted for this sport. Take three 
 long angling-rods; and as many and more silk, or 
 silk and hair, lines ; and as many large swan or 
 goose-quill floats. Then take a piece of lead, 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 
 leac^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 Perch, who will assur- 
 edly visit your hooks, till they be taken out, as 
 I will show 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 swim in skulls or shoals, in the summer* 
 
144 Th e Complete Angler 
 
 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 He on the top of the water, rolling and tumbling 
 themselves, whilst the rest are under him at the 
 bottom ; and so you shall perceive him to keep 
 sentinel : then mark where he plays most and stays 
 longest, which commonly is in the broadest and 
 deepest place of the river ; and there, or near there- 
 abouts, at a clear bottom and a convenient land- 
 ing-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 
 reason of any water-mills near ; and, according to 
 your discretion, take the depth of the place, where 
 you mean after to cast your ground-bait, and to fish, 
 to half an inch ; that the lead lying on or near^the 
 ground-bait, the top of the float may only appear 
 upright Ijalf 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 deep- 
 ness 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 
 
The Fourth Day 145 
 
 bag and malt is near cold, take it down to the 
 water-side, about eight or nine of the clock in the 
 evening, and not before : cast in two parts of your 
 ground-bait, squeezed hard between both your 
 hands ; it will sink presently to the bottom ; and 
 be sure it may rest in the very place where you 
 mean to angle : if the stream run hard, or move a 
 little, cast your malt in handfuls a little the higher, 
 upwards the stream. You may, between your 
 hands, close the malt so fast in handfuls, that the 
 water will hardly part it with the fall. 
 
 Your ground thus baited, and tackling fitted, 
 leave your bag, with the rest of your tackling and 
 ground-bait, near the sporting-place all night ; and 
 in the morning, about three or four of the clock, 
 visit the water-side, but not too near, for they have 
 a cunning watchman, and are watchful themselves 
 too. 
 
 Then, gently take one of your three rods, and 
 bait your hook ; casting it over your ground-bait, 
 and gently and secretly draw it to you till the lead 
 rests about the middle of the ground-bait. 
 
 Then take a second rod, and cast in about a yard 
 above, and your third a yard below the first rod ; 
 and stay the rods in the ground : but go yourself so 
 far from the water-side, that you perceive nothing 
 but the top of the floats, which you must watch 
 most diligently. Then when you have a bite, you 
 shall perceive the top of your float to sink suddenly 
 into the water : yet, nevertheless, be not too hasty 
 to run to your rods, until you see that the line goes 
 clear away ; then creep to the water-side, and give 
 as much line as possibly you can : if it be a good 
 Carp or Bream, they will go to the farther side of the 
 river : then strike gently, and hold your rod at a 
 bent, a little while ; but if you both pull together, 
 you are sure to lose your game, for either your line, 
 K 
 
146 The Complete Angler 
 
 or hook, or hold, will break: and after you have 
 overcome them, they will make noble sport, and are 
 very shy to be landed. The Carp is far stronger 
 and more mettlesome than the Bream. 
 
 Much more is to be observed in this kind of 
 fish and fishing, 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 Perch do breed in that 
 river, they will be sure to bite first, and must first 
 be taken. And for the most part they are very 
 large ; and will repair to your ground-bait, not that 
 they will eat of it, but will feed and sport themselves 
 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 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 
 gently amongst your rods. If Mr. Pike be there, 
 then the little fish will skip out of the water at his 
 appearance, but the live-set bait is sure to be taken. 
 
 Thus continue your sport from four in the morn- 
 ing 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 
 
The Fourth Day 147 
 
 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 even- 
 ing, till eight of the clock : then cast in the residue 
 of your ground-bait, and next morning, by four of 
 the clock, visit them again for four hours, which is 
 the best sport of all ; and after that, let them rest 
 till you and your friends have a mind to more 
 sport. 
 
 From St. James's-tide until Bartholomew-tide is 
 the best; when they have had all the summer's 
 food, they are the fattest. 
 
 Observe, lastly, that after three or four days' 
 fishing together, your game will be very shy and 
 wary, and you shall hardly 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 
 meantime, on the place you late baited, and again 
 intend to bait, you shall take a turf of green 
 but short grass, as big or bigger than a round 
 trencher ; to the top of this turf, on the green side, 
 you shall, with a needle and green thread, fasten one 
 by one, as many little red worms as will near cover 
 all the turf: then take a round board or trencher, 
 make a hole in the middle thereof, and through the 
 turf placed on the board or trencher, with a string 
 or cord as long as is fitting, tied to a pole, let it 
 down to the bottom of the water, for the fish to 
 feed upon without disturbance about two or three 
 days ; and after that you have drawn it away, you 
 may fall to, and enjoy your former recreation. 
 
 B. A. 
 
THE FOURTH VAX continued 
 
 On the Tench 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 PISCATOR 
 
 THE Tench, the physician of fishes, is observed to 
 love ponds better than rivers, and to love pits better 
 than either : yet Camden observes, there is a river 
 in 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 com- 
 mended 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 
 148 
 
The Fourth Day 149 
 
 days of their Solomon, who knew the nature of all 
 things, even from the cedar to the shrub, delivered 
 by tradition, from the father to the son, and so from 
 generation to generation, without writing ; or, unless 
 it were casually, without the least communicating 
 them to any other nation or tribe ; for to do that 
 they account a profanation. And, yet, it is thought 
 that they, or some spirit worse than they, first told 
 us, that lice, swallowed alive, were a certain cure 
 for the yellow-jaundice. This, and many other 
 medicines, were discovered by them, or by revela- 
 tion ; for, doubtless, we attained them not by study. 
 
 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 phj'sick and divinity that 
 think themselves fit to meddle with hidden secrets, 
 and so bring destruction to their followers. But 
 I'll not meddle with them, any farther than to wish 
 them wiser; and shall tell you next, for I hope I 
 may be so bold, that the Tench is the physician of 
 fishes, for the Pike especially, and that the Pike, 
 being either sick or hurt, is cured by the touch of 
 the Tench. And it is observed that the tyrant 
 Pike will not be a wolf to his physician, but forbears 
 to devour him though he be never so hungry. 
 
 This fish, that carries a natural balsam in him 
 to cure both himself and others, loves yet to feed in 
 very foul water, and amongst weeds. And }^et, I 
 am sure, he eats pleasantly, and, doubtless, you will 
 think so too, if you taste him. And I shall there- 
 fore proceed to give you some few, and but a few, 
 directions how to catch this Tench, of which I have 
 given you these observations. 
 
 He will bite at a paste made of brown bread and 
 honey, or at a Marsh- worm, or a lob-worm ; he 
 
150 . The Complete Angler 
 
 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, he being a fish I have not often angled 
 for ; but I wish my honest scholar may, and be ever 
 fortunate when he fishes. 
 
THE FOURTH DAY -continued 
 On the Perch 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 PISCATOR AND VENATOR 
 
 PlSCATOR. 'The Perch is a very good and very 
 bold biting fish. He is one of the fishes of prey 
 that, like the Pike and Trout, carries his teeth in 
 his mouth, which is very large : and he dare venture 
 to kill and devour several other kinds of fish. He 
 has a hooked or hog back, which is armed with 
 sharp and stiff bristles, and all his skin armed, or 
 covered over with thick dry hard scales, and hath, 
 which few other fish have, two fins on his back. He is 
 so bold that he will invade one of his own kind, which 
 the Pike will not do so willingly ; and you may, 
 therefore, easily believe him to be a bold biter. 
 
 The Perch is of great esteem in Italy, saith 
 Aldrovandus : and especially the least are there 
 esteemed a dainty dish. And Gesner prefers the 
 Perch and Pike above the Trout, or any fresh-water 
 fish: he says the Germans have this proverb, 
 " More wholesome than a Perch of Rhine " : and he 
 says the River-Perch is so wholesome, that physi- 
 cians 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 
 
152 The Complete Angler 
 
 held very nutritive ; yet, by many, to be hard of 
 digestion. They abound more in the river Po, and 
 in England, says Rondeletius, than other parts: 
 and have in their brain a stone, which is, in foreign 
 parts, sold by apothecaries, being there noted to be 
 very medicinable against the stone in the reins. 
 These be a part of the commendations which some 
 philosophical brains have bestowed upon the fresh- 
 water Perch: yet they commend the Sea- Perch, 
 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 Perch 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 Perch will set up his fins, much 
 like as a turkey-cock will sometimes set up his tail. 
 
 But, my scholar, the Perch 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 Perch's biting. 
 
The Fourth Day 153 
 
 But bite the Perch will, and that very boldly. 
 And, as one has wittily observed, if there be twenty 
 or forty in a hole, they may be, at one standing, all 
 catched one after another; they being, as he says, 
 like the wicked of the world, not afraid, though 
 their fellows and companions perish in their sight. 
 And you may observe, that they are not like the 
 solitary Pike, but love to accompany one another, 
 and march together in troops. 
 
 And the baits for this bold fish are not many : I 
 mean, he will bite as well at some, or at any of 
 these three, as at any or all others whatsoever : a 
 worm, a minnow, or a little frog, of which you may 
 find many in hay-time. And of worms ; the dung- 
 hill worm called a brandling I take to be best, being 
 well scoured in moss or fennel ; or he will bite at a 
 worm that lies under cow-dung, with a bluish head. 
 And if you rove for a Perch with a minnow, then it 
 is best to be alive ; you sticking your hook through 
 his back fin; or a minnow with the hook in his 
 upper lip, and letting him swim up and down, 
 about mid-water, or a little lower, and you still 
 keeping him to about that depth by a cork, which 
 ought not to be a very little one : and the like way 
 you are to fish for the Perch 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 Perch time 
 enough when he bites ; for there was scarce ever any 
 angler that has given him too much. And now I 
 think best to rest myself; for I have almost spent 
 my spirits with talking so long. 
 
 VENATOR. Nay, good master, one fish more, for 
 you see it rains still : and you know our angles are 
 like money put to usury ; they may thrive, though 
 we sit still, and do nothing but talk and enjoy one 
 another. Come, come, the other fish, good master. 
 
154 The Complete Angler 
 
 PlSCATOR. 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? 
 
 VENATOR. 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 Fish- 
 ing. 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 run, 
 Warm'd by thy eyes more than the sun ; 
 And there the enamePd 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 thee will swim, 
 Gladder to catch thee, than thou him. 
 
 If thou, to be so seen, beest loath 
 By sun or moon, thou dark'nest both ; 
 And if mine eyes have leave to see, 
 I need not their light, having thee. 
 
 Let others freeze with angling reeds, 
 And cut their legs with shells and weeds, 
 Or treacherously poor fish beset 
 With strangling snares or windowy net ; 
 
 Let coarse bold hands, from slimy nest, 
 The bedded fish in banks outwrest ; 
 Let curious traitors sleave silk flies, 
 To 'witch poor wand'ring fishes' eyes. 
 

 The Fourth Day 155 
 
 For thee, thou need'st no such deceit, 
 For thou thyself art thine own bait ; 
 That fish that is not catcht thereby, 
 Is wiser afar, alas, than I. 
 
 PlSCATOR. Well remembered, honest scholar. I 
 thank you for these choice verses; which I have 
 heard formerly, but had quite forgot, till they were 
 recovered by your happy memory. Well, being I 
 have now rested myself a little, I will make you 
 some requital, by telling you some observations of 
 the Eel ; for it rains still : and because, as you say, 
 our angles are as money put to use, that thrives 
 when we play, therefore we'll sit still, and enjoy 
 ourselves a little longer under this honeysuckle 
 hedge. 
 
THE FOURTH DAY continued 
 Of the Eel, and other Fish that want Scales 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 PISCATOR 
 
 IT is agreed by most men, that the Ee! 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 overflowing of 
 the river Nilus ; or out of the putrefaction of the earth, 
 and divers other ways. Those that deny them to . 
 breed by generation, as other fish do, ask, If any 
 man ever saw an Eel to have a spawn or melt ? 
 And they are answered, That they may be as certain 
 of their breeding as if they had seen spawn ; for 
 they say, that they are certain that Eels have all 
 parts fit for generation, like other fish, but so small 
 as not to be easily discerned, by reason of their fat- 
 ness ; but that discerned they may be ; and that 
 the He and the She Eel may be distinguished by 
 their fins. And Rondeletius says, he has seen Eels 
 cling together like dew-worms. 
 156 
 
The Fourth Day 157 
 
 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 dewdrops, 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 offspring of Jove. I have seen, in 
 the beginning of July, in a river not far from Canter- 
 bury, some parts of it covered over with young Eels, 
 about the thickness of a straw ; and these Eels did 
 lie on the top of that water, as thick as motes are 
 said to be in the sun : and I have heard the like of 
 other rivers, as namely, in Severn, where they are 
 called Yelvers ; and in a pond, or mere near unto 
 Staffordshire, where, about a set time in summer, 
 such small Eels abound so much, that many of the 
 poorer sort of people that inhabit near to it, take 
 such Eels out of this mere with sieves or sheets ; 
 and make a kind of Eel-cake of them, and eat it 
 like as bread. And Gesner quotes Venerable Bede, 
 to say, that in England there is an island called Ely, 
 by reason of the innumerable number of Eels that 
 breed in it. But that Eels may be bred as some 
 worms, and some kind of bees and wasps are, either 
 of dew, or out of the corruption of the earth, seems 
 to be made probable by the barnacles and young 
 goslings bred by the sun's heat and the rotten planks 
 of an old ship, and hatched of trees ; both which are 
 related for truths by Du Bartas and Lobel, and also 
 by our learned Camden, and laborious Gerhard in 
 his Herbal. 
 
 It is said by Rondeletius, that those Eels that are 
 
158 The Complete Angler 
 
 bred in rivers that relate to or be nearer to the sea, 
 never return to the fresh waters, as the Salmon does 
 always desire to do, when they have once tasted the 
 salt water ; and I do the more easily believe this, 
 because I am certain that powdered beef is a most 
 excellent bait to catch an Eel. And though Sir 
 Francis Bacon will allow the Eel's life to be but 
 ten years, yet he, in his History of Life and Death, 
 mentions a Lamprey, belonging to the Roman 
 emperor, to be made tame, and so kept for almost 
 threescore years ; and that such useful and pleasant 
 observations were made of this Lamprey, that 
 Crassus the orator, who kept her, lamented her 
 death ; and we read in Doctor Hakewill, that 
 Hortensius was seen to weep at the death of a 
 Lamprey that he had kept long, and loved exceed- 
 ingly. 
 
 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 or 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 themselves, and live without feeding 
 upon anything, 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 1 125, 
 that year's winter being more cold than usually, 
 Eels did, by nature's instinct, get out of the water I 
 into a stack of hay in a meadow upon dry ground ; 
 and there bedded themselves : but yet, at last, a 
 frost killed them. And our Camden relates, that, 
 in Lancashire, fishes were digged out of the earth 
 with spades, where no water was near to the place. 
 I shall say little more of the Eel, but that, as it is 
 observed he is impatient of cold, so it hath been 
 
The Fourth Day 159 
 
 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, 
 the 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 generation, but not by spawning as other 
 fish do; but that her brood come alive from her, 
 being then little live Eels no bigger nor longer than 
 a pin ; and I have had too many testimonies of this, 
 to doubt the truth of it myself; and if I thought it 
 needful I might prove it, but I think it is needless. 
 
 And this Eel, of which I have said so much to 
 you, may be caught with divers kinds of baits : as 
 namely, with powdered beef; with a lob or garden 
 worm ; with a minnow ; or gut of a hen, chicken, 
 or the guts of any fish, or with almost anything, for 
 he is a greedy fish. But the Eel may be caught, 
 especially, with a little, a very little Lamprey, which 
 some call a Pride, and may, in the hot months, be 
 found many of them in the river 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, 
 v/hich you are to fasten to the bank, or twigs of a 
 
160 The Complete Angler 
 
 tree ; or by throwing a string across 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 morn- 
 ing find it near to some fixed place ; and then take 
 it up with a drag-hook, or otherwise. But these 
 things are, indeed, too common to be spoken of; and 
 an hour's fishing with any angler will teach you 
 better, both for these and many other common 
 things in the practical part of angling, than a 
 week's discourse. I shall therefore conclude this 
 direction for taking the Eel, by telling you, that in 
 a warm day in summer, I have taken many a good 
 Eel by Snigling, and have been much pleased with 
 that sport. 
 
 And because you, that are but a young angler, 
 know not what Snigling is, I will now teach it to 
 you. You remember I told you that Eels do not 
 usually stir in the 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, observing 
 your time in a warm day, when the water is lowest, 
 may take a strong small hook, tied to a strong line, 
 or to a string about a yard long ; and then into one 
 of these holes, or between any boards about a mill, 
 or under any great stone or plank, or any place 
 where you think an Eel may hide or shelter herself, 
 you may, with the help of a short stick, put in your 
 bait, but leisurely, and as far as you may con- 
 veniently; and it is scarce to be doubted, but if 
 there be an Eel within the sight of it, the Eel will 
 bite instantly, and as certainly gorge it ; and you 
 need not doubt to have him if you pull him not out 
 of the hole too quickly, but pull him out by degrees ; 
 for he, lying folded double in his hole, will, with 
 the help of his tail, break all, unless you give him 
 
The Fourth Day 161 
 
 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 : having done that, take out his guts as 
 clean as you can, but wash him not : then give him 
 three or four scotches with a knife ; and then put 
 into his belly and those scotches, sweet herbs, an 
 anchovy, and a little nutmeg grated or cut very 
 small, and your herbs and anchovies must also be 
 cut very small ; and 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 quarters long. If you will not 
 believe me, then go and see at one of the coffee- 
 houses in King Street in Westminster. 
 
 But now let me tell you, that though the Eel, thus 
 drest, be not only excellent good, but more harmless 
 than any other way, yet it is certain that physicians 
 account the Eel dangerous meat ; I will advise you 
 therefore, as Solomon says of honey, " Hast thou 
 found it, eat no more than is sufficient, lest thou 
 surfeit, for it is not good to eat much honey ". And 
 
1 6a The Complete Angler 
 
 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, com- 
 mend the Eel very much for medicine, though not 
 for meat. But let me tell you one observation, that 
 the Eel is never out of season ; as Trouts, and most 
 other fish, are at set times ; at least, most Eels are 
 not 
 
 I might here speak of many other fish, whose 
 shape and nature are much like the Eel, and fre- 
 quent 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 FLp&NDER, a sea- 
 fish which will wander very far into fresh rivers, and 
 there lose, himself and dwell : and thrive to a hand's 
 breadth, and almost twice so long : a fish without 
 scales, and most excellent meat : and a fish that 
 affords much sport to the angler, with any small 
 worm, but especially a little bluish worm, gotten out 
 of marsh-ground, or meadows, which should be well 
 scoured. But this, though it be most excellent 
 meat, yet it wants scales, and is, as I told you, there- 
 fore an abomination to the Jews. 
 
 But, scholar, there is a fish that they in Lanca- 
 shire 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 
 
The Fourth Day 163 
 
 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 Chester, it runs through Pemble 
 Mere, which is a large water: and it is observed, 
 that though the river Dee abounds with Salmon, and 
 Pemble Mere with the Guiniad, yet there is never 
 any Salmon caught in the mere, nor a Guiniad in 
 the river. And now my next observation shall be 
 of the Barbel. 
 
THE FOURTH DAY continued 
 Of the Barbel 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 PISCATOR, VENATOR, MILK-WOMAN 
 
 PlSCATOR. 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 hooked : 
 but he is so strong, that he will often break both rod 
 and line, if he proves to be a big one. 
 
 But the Barbel, though he be of a fine shape, and 
 looks big, yet he is not accounted the best fish to 
 eat, neither for his wholesomeness nor his taste ; but 
 the male is reputed much better than the female, 
 whose spawn is very hurtful, as I will presently 
 declare to you. 
 
 They flock together like sheep, and are at the 
 worst in April, about which time they spawn ; but 
 quickly grow to be in season. He is able to live in 
 the strongest swifts of the water : and, in summer, 
 they love the shallowest and sharpest streams : and 
 love to lurk under weeds, and to feed on gravel, against 
 a rising ground ; and will root and dig in the sands 
 with his nose like a hog, and there nests himself: 
 yet sometimes he retires to deep and swift bridges, 
 164 
 
The Fourth Day 165 
 
 or flood-gates, or weir ; 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 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 especi- 
 ally 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. 
 
 The 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 
 
1 66 The Complete Angler 
 
 and a cunning fish ; so lusty and cunning as to en- 
 danger the breaking of the angler's line, by running 
 his head forcibly towards any covert, or hole, or 
 bank, and then striking at the line, to break it off, 
 with his tail ; as is observed by Plutarch, in his 
 book De Industrie!, Animalium : and also so cunning, 
 to nibble and suck off your worm close to the hook, 
 and yet avoid the letting the hook come into his 
 mouth. 
 
 The Barbel is also curious for his baits ; that is 
 to say, that they be clean and sweet ; that is to say, 
 to have your worms well scoured, and not kept in 
 sour and musty moss, for he is a curious feeder : 
 but at a well-scoured lob-worm he will bite as 
 boldly as at any bait, and specially if, the night 
 or two before you fish for him, you shall bait the 
 places where you intend to fish for him, with big 
 worms cut into pieces. And note, that none did 
 ever over-bait the place, nor fish too early or too 
 late for a Barbel. And the Barbel will bite also 
 at 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 likelier to catch fish. Some 
 have directed to cut the cheese into thin pieces, and 
 toast it ; and then tie it on the hook with fine silk. 
 And some advise to fish for the Barbel with sheep's 
 tallow and soft cheese, beaten or worked into a 
 paste ; and that it is choicely good in August : and 
 I believe it. But, doubtless, the lob-worm well 
 scoured, and the gentle not too much scoured, and 
 cheese ordered as I have directed, are baits enough, 
 
The Fourth Day 167 
 
 and I think will serve in any month: though I 
 shall commend any angler that tries conclusions, 
 and is industrious to improve the art. And now, 
 my honest scholar, the long shower and my tedious 
 discourse are both ended together : and I shall give 
 you but this observation, that when you fish for a 
 Barbel, your rod and line be both long and of good 
 strength ; for, as I told you, you will find him a 
 heavy and a dogged fish to be dealt withal; yet 
 he seldom or never breaks his hold, if he be once 
 strucken. And if you would know more of fishing 
 for the Umber or Barbel, get into favour with Dr. 
 Sheldon, whose skill is above others ; and of that, 
 the poor that dwell about him have a comfortable 
 experience. 
 
 And now let's go and see what interest the 
 Trouts will pay us, for letting our angle-rods lie 
 so long and so quietly in the water for their use. 
 Come, scholar, which will you take up ? 
 
 VENATOR. Which you think fit, master. 
 
 PlSCATOR. Why, you shall take up that; for I 
 am certain, by viewing the line, it has a fish at it. 
 Look you, scholar! well done! Come, now take 
 up the other too : well ! now you may tell my 
 brother Peter, at night, that you have caught a 
 leash of Trouts this day. And now let's move 
 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. 
 
 VENATOR. Master, I like your motion very well : 
 and I think it is now about milking-time ; and 
 yonder they be at it. 
 
 PlSCATOR. God speed you, good woman ! I thank 
 you both for our songs last night : I and my com- 
 panion have had such fortune a-fishing this day, 
 that we resolve to give you and Maudlin a brace of 
 
1 68 The Complete Angler 
 
 Trouts for supper ; and we will now taste a draught 
 of your red-cow's milk. 
 
 MlLK-WOMAN. Marry, and that you shall with 
 all my heart ; and I will be still your debtor when 
 you come this way. If you will but speak the 
 word, I will make you a good syllabub of new ver- 
 juice ; and then you may sit down in a haycock, 
 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. 
 
 VENATOR. 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. 
 
 PlSCATOR. I will, honest scholar. 
 
THE FOURTH DAY continued 
 Of the Gudgeon, the R^lffe y and the Bleak 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 PISCATOR 
 
 THE GUDGEON is reputed a fish of excellent taste, 
 and to be very wholesome. He is of a fine shape, 
 of a silver colour, and beautified with black spots 
 both on his body and tail. He breeds two or three 
 times in the year ; and always in summer. He is 
 commended for a fish of excellent 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 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 to- 
 gether, and get into the deeper parts of the water ; 
 and are to be fished for there, with your hook always 
 
 169 
 
170 The Complete Angler 
 
 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, with- 
 out a cork, as a Trout is fished for : and it is an ex- 
 cellent way, if you have a gentle rod, and as gentle 
 a hand. 
 
 There is also another fish called a POPE, and by 
 some a RUFFE ; a fish that is not known to be in 
 some rivers : he is much like the Perch for his shape, 
 and taken to be better than the Perch, but will not 
 grow to be bigger than a Gudgeon. He is an ex- 
 cellent 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. 
 
 You must fish for him with a small red worm ; 
 and if you bait the ground with earth, it is excellent. 
 
 There is also a BLEAK or fresh-water Sprat ; a fish 
 that is ever in motion, and therefore called by some 
 the river-swallow ; for just as you shall observe the 
 swallow to be, most evenings in summer, ever in 
 motion, making short and quick turns when he flies 
 to catch flies, in the air, by which he lives ; so does 
 the Bleak at the top of the water. Ausonius would 
 have called him 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 we have the fortune, which 
 virtue has in poor people, to be neglected, yet the 
 Bleak ought to be much valued, though we want 
 Allamot saltj and the skill that the Italians have, to 
 turn them into anchovies. This fish may be caught 
 with a Pater-noster line ; that is, six or eight very 
 
The Fourth Day 171 
 
 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 arti- 
 ficial 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 ; 
 this bird-angler standing on the top of a steeple to do 
 it, and with the 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 Heron, 
 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. 
 
THE FOURTH DAY continued 
 Is of nothing t or of nothing worth 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 PISCATOR, VENATOR, PETER, CORIDON 
 
 PlSCATOR. My purpose was to give you some direc- 
 tions 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 pro- 
 mise you, that as you and I fish and walk to-morrow 
 towards London, if I have now forgotten anything 
 that I can then remember, I will not keep it from 
 you. 
 
 Well met, gentlemen ; this is lucky that we meet 
 so just together at this very door, Come, hostess, 
 where are you ? is supper ready ? Come, first give 
 us a 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 
 172 
 
The Fourth Day 173 
 
 are returned Home both weary and hungry; and 
 now meat and rest will be pleasant. 
 
 PETER. And Coridon and I have not had an un- 
 pleasant day : and yet I have caught but five trouts ; 
 for, indeed, we went to a good honest ale-house, 
 and there we played at shovel-board half the day ; 
 all the time that it rained we were there, and as 
 merry as they that fished. And I am glad we are 
 now with a dry house over our heads ; for, hark ! 
 how it rains and blows. Come, hostess, give us 
 more ale, and our supper with what haste you may : 
 and when we have supped, let us have your song, 
 Piscator ; and the catch that your scholar promised 
 us ; or else, Coridon will be dogged. 
 
 PISCATOR. Nay, I will not be worse than my 
 word ; you shall not want my song, and I hope I 
 shall be perfect in it 
 
 VENATOR. And I hope the like for my catch, 
 which I have ready too: and therefore let's go 
 merrily to supper, and then have a gentle touch at 
 singing and drinking; but the last with modera- 
 tion. 
 
 CORIDON. Come, now for your song ; for we have 
 fed heartily. Come, hostess, lay a few more sticks 
 on the fire. And now, sing when you will. 
 
 PISCATOR. 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 beloved of many ; 
 
 Other joys 
 
 Are but toys ; 
 
 Only this 
 
 Lawful is ; 
 
 For our skill 
 
 Breeds no ill, 
 But content and pleasure. / 
 
174 The Complete Angler 
 
 In a morning up we rise, 
 Ere Aurora's peeping ; 
 
 Drink a cup to wash our eyes ; 
 Leave the sluggard sleeping : 
 Then we go 
 To and fro, 
 With our knacks 
 At our backs, 
 To such streams 
 As the Thames, 
 
 If we have the leisure. 
 
 When we please to walk abroad 
 
 For our recreation, 
 In the fields is our abode, 
 Full of delectation : 
 
 Where in a brook 
 
 With a hook, 
 
 Or a lake, 
 
 Fish we take : 
 
 There we sit, 
 
 For a bit, 
 Till we fish entangle. 
 
 We have gentles in a horn, 
 
 We have paste and worms too : 
 We can watch both night and morn, 
 Suffer rain and storms too ; 
 
 None do here 
 
 Use to swear ; 
 
 Oaths do fray 
 
 Fish away ; 
 
 We sit still, 
 
 And watch our quill ; 
 Fishers must not wrangle. 
 
 If the sun's excessive heat 
 Make our bodies swelter, 
 
 To an osier hedge we get 
 For a friendly shelter ; 
 Where, in a dike, 
 Perch or Pike, 
 Roach or Dace, 
 We do chase ; 
 Bleak or Gudgeon, 
 Without grudging ; 
 
 We are still contented. 
 
The Fourth Day 175 
 
 Or we sometimes pass an hour 
 
 Under a green willow, 
 That defends us from a shower, 
 Making earth our pillow ; 
 Where we may 
 Think and pray 
 Before death 
 Stops our breath. 
 Other joys 
 Are but toys, 
 And to be lamented. 
 
 Jo. CHALXHILL. 
 
 VENATOR. Well sung, master ; this day's fortune 
 and pleasure, and the night's company and song, 
 do all make me more and more in love with 
 angling. Gentlemen, my master left me alone for 
 an hour this day; and I verily believe he retired 
 himself from talking with me that he might be so 
 perfect in this song ; was it not, master? 
 
 PlSCATOR. Yes indeed, for it is many years since 
 I learned it ; and having forgotten a part of it, I 
 was forced to patch it up with the help of mine own 
 invention, who am not excellent at poetry, as my 
 part of the song may testify ; but of that I will say 
 no more, lest you should think I mean, by discom- 
 mending 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. 
 
 VENATOR. 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 
 
176 The Complete Angler 
 
 time many law-suits depending ; and that they both 
 damped his mirth, and took up so much of his time 
 and thoughts, that he himself had not leisure to 
 take the sweet content that I, who pretended no 
 title to them, took in his fields : for I could there 
 sit quietly ; and looking on the water, see some 
 fishes sport themselves in the silver streams, others 
 x leaping at flies of several shapes and colours ; look- 
 ' ing 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 per- 
 fumed 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 proves 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, 
 
 Hail ! blest estate of lowliness ; 
 
 Happy enjoyments of such minds 
 As, rich in self-contentedness, 
 v v Can, like the reeds, in roughest winds, 
 By yielding make that blow but small 
 At which proud oaks and cedars fall. 
 
 There came also into my mind at that time, 
 certain verses in praise of a mean estate and humble 
 mind; they were written by Phineas Fletcher, an 
 
The Fourth Day 177 
 
 excellent divine, and an excellent angl&r ; and the 
 author of excellent Piscatory Eclogues, in which you 
 shall see the picture of this good man's mind : and I 
 wish mine to be like it. 
 
 No empty hopes, no courtly fears him fright ; 
 No begging wants his middle fortune bite : 
 But sweet content exiles both misery and spite. 
 
 His certain life, that never can deceive him, 
 Is full of thousand sweets, and rich content ; 
 
 The smooth-leav'd beeches in the field receive him, 
 With coolest shade, Lll noon-tide's heat be spent. 
 
 His life is neither tost in boisterous seas, 
 
 Or the vexatious world, or lost in slothful ease ; 
 Pleas'd and full blest he lives, when he his God can please. 
 
 His bed, more safe than soft, yields quiet sleeps, 
 While by his side his faithful spouse has place ; 
 His little son into his bosom creeps, 
 
 The lively picture of his father's face. 
 His humble house or poor state ne'er torment him ; 
 Less he could like, if less his God had lent him ; 
 And when he dies, green lurfs do for a tomb content him. 
 
 Gentlemen, these foere a part of the thoughts that 
 then possessed me. And I there made a conversion 
 of a piece of an old catch, and added more to it, 
 fitting them to be sung by us anglers. Come, 
 Master, you can sing well: you must sing a part 
 of it, as it is in this paper. 
 
 Man's life is but vain ; for 'tis subject to pain, 
 
 And sorrow, and short as a bubble ; 
 'Tis a hodge-podge of business, and money, and care, 
 
 And care, and money, and trouble. 
 
 But we'll take no care when the weather proves fair ; 
 
 Nor will we vex now though it rain ; 
 We'll banish all sorrow, and sing till to-morrow, 
 
 And angle, and angle again. 
 
 PETER. I marry, Sir, this is musick indeed ; this 
 has cheer'd my heart, and made me remember six 
 M 
 
178 The Complete Angler 
 
 verses in praise of musick, which I will speak to 
 you instantly. 
 
 Musick t miraculous rhetprick, thou speak'st sense 
 
 Without a tongue, excelling eloquence ; 
 
 With what ease might thy errors be excus'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. 
 
 VENATOR. And the repetition of these last verses 
 of musick has called to my memory what Mr. 
 Edmund Waller, a lover of the angle, says of love 
 and musick. 
 
 Whilst I listen to thy voice, 
 Chloris I I feel my heart decay ; 
 
 That powerful voice 
 
 Calls my fleeting soul away : 
 Oh ! suppress that magic sound, 
 Which destroys without a wound. 
 
 Peace, Chloris ! peace, or singing die, 
 That together you and I 
 
 To heaven may go ; 
 
 For all we know 
 Of what the blessed do above, 
 Is, that they sing, and that they love. 
 
 PlSCATOR. Well remembered, brother Peter; 
 these verses came seasonably, and we thank you 
 heartily. Come, we will all join together, my host 
 and all, and sing my scholar's catch over again ; 
 and then each man drink the tother cup, and to 
 bed ; and thank God we have a dry house over our 
 heads. 
 
 PlSCATOR. Well, now, good-night to everybody. 
 
 PETER. And so say I. 
 
 VENATOR. And so say I. 
 
 CORIDON. Good-night to you all; and I thank 
 you. 
 
The Fifth Day 179 
 
 THE FIFTH DAY. 
 
 PlSCATOR. Good-morrow, brother Peter, and the 
 like to you, honest Coridon. 
 
 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, so that my 
 hostess may not have occasion to repent herself of 
 being so diligent, and using us so kindly. 
 
 PETER. The motion is liked by everybody, and 
 so, hostess, here's your money : we anglers are all 
 beholden to you ; it will not be long ere I'll 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. 
 
THE FIFTH DAY continued 
 Of Roach and Dace 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 VENATOR AND PISCATOR 
 
 VENATOR. Good master, as we go now towards 
 London, be still so courteous as to give me more 
 instructions ; for I have several boxes in my 
 memory, in which I will keep them all very safe, 
 there shall not one of them be lost. 
 
 PISCATOR. Well, scholar, that I will : and I will 
 hide nothing from you that I can remember, and 
 can think may help you forward towards a perfec- 
 tion in this art. And because we have so much 
 time, and I have said so little of Roach and Dace, 
 I will give you some directions concerning them. 
 
 Some say the Roach is so called from rutilus, 
 which they say signifies red fins. He is a fish of 
 no great reputation for his dainty taste; and his 
 spawn is accounted much better than any other 
 part of him. And you may take notice, that as the 
 Carp is accounted the water- fox, for his cunning ; 
 so the Roach is accounted the water-sheep, for his 
 simplicity or foolishness. It is noted, that the 
 Roach and Dace recover strength, and grow in 
 season in a fortnight after spawning; the Barbel 
 and Chub in a month ; the Trout in four months ; 
 1 80 
 
The Fifth Day 181 
 
 and the Salmon in the like time, if he gets into the 
 sea, and after into fresh water. 
 
 Roaches be accounted much better in the river 
 than in a pond, though ponds usually breed the 
 biggest. But there is a kind of bastard small 
 Roach, that breeds in ponds, with a very forked tail, 
 and of a very small size ; which some say is bred 
 by the Bream and right Roach ; and some ponds 
 are stored with these beyond belief; and knowing- 
 men, that know their difference, call them Ruds : 
 they differ from the true Roach, as much as a 
 Herring from a Pilchard. And these bastard 
 breed of Roach are now scattered in many rivers : 
 but I think not in the Thames, which I believe 
 affords the largest and fattest in this nation, 
 especially below London Bridge. The Roach is a 
 leather-mouthed fish, and has a kind of saw-like 
 teeth in his throat. And lastly, let me tell you, 
 the Roach makes an angler excellent sport, especi- 
 ally 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. 
 
1 82 The Complete Angler 
 
 I have seen this done at Windsor and Henley 
 Bridge, and great store of Roach taken ; and some- 
 times, a Dace or Chub. And in August you may 
 fish for them with a paste made only of the crumbs 
 of bread, which should be of pure fine manchet ; 
 and that paste must be so tempered betwixt your 
 hands till it be both soft and tough too: a very 
 little water, and time, and labour, and clean hands, 
 will make it a most excellent paste. But when you 
 fish with it, you must have a small hook, a quick 
 eye, and a nimble hand, or the bait is lost, and the 
 fish too ; if one may lose that which he never had) 
 With this paste you may, as I said, take both the 
 Roach and the Dace or Dare ; for they be much of 
 a kind, in manner 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 September. Gather them alive, with 
 both their wings : and then put them into a glass 
 that will hold a quart or a pottle ; but first put into 
 the glass a handful, or more, of the moist earth out 
 of which you gather them, and as much of the roots 
 of the grass of the said hillock ; and then put in 
 the flies gently, that they lose not their wings ; lay 
 a clod of earth over it ; and then so many as are 
 put into the glass, without bruising, will live there 
 a month or more, and be always in 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 
 
The Fifth Day 183 
 
 your barrel with water and honey ; and having put 
 into it a quantity of earth and grass roots, then put 
 in your flies, and cover it, and they will live a 
 quarter of a year. These, in any stream and clear 
 water, are a deadly bait for Roach or Dace, or for 
 a Chub: and your rule is to fish not less than a 
 handful from the bottom. 
 
 I shall next tell you a winter-bait for a Roach, 
 a Dace, or Chub ; and it is choicely good. About 
 All-hallantide, and so till frost comes, when you 
 see men ploughing up heath ground, or sandy 
 ground, or greenswards, then follow the plough, 
 and you shall find a white worm, as big as two 
 maggots, and it hath a red head : you may observe 
 in what ground most are, for there the crows will 
 be very watchful and follow the plough very close : 
 it is all soft, and full of whitish guts ; a worm that 
 is, in Norfolk and some other counties, called a grub ; 
 and is bred of the spawn or eggs of a beetle, which 
 she leaves in holes that she digs in the ground 
 under cow or horse dung, and there rests all winter, 
 and in March or April comes to be first a red and 
 then a black beetle. Gather a thousand or two of 
 these, and put them, with a peck or two of their own 
 earth, into some tub or firkin, and cover and keep 
 them so warm that the frost or cold air, or winds, 
 kill them not : these you may keep all winter, and 
 kill fish with them at any time ; and if you put 
 some of them into a little earth and honey, a day 
 before you use them, you will find them an excellent 
 bait for Bream, Carp, or indeed for almost any fish. 
 
 And after this manner you may also keep gentles 
 all winter; which area 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 
 
184 The Complete Angler 
 
 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 that 
 time turn to be flies. 
 
 But if you be nice to foul your fingers, which 
 good anglers seldom are, then take this bait : get a 
 handful of well-made malt, and put it into a dish 
 of water ; and then wash and rub it betwixt your 
 hands till you make it clean, and as free from husks 
 as you can ; then put that water from it, and put a 
 small quantity of fresh water to it, and set it in 
 something that is fit for that purpose, over the fire, 
 where it is not to boil apace, but leisurely and very 
 softly, until it become somewhat soft, which you 
 may try by feeling it betwixt your finger and 
 thumb ; and when it is soft, then put your water 
 from it: and then take a sharp knife, and turning 
 the sprout end of the corn upward with the point 
 of your knife, take the back part of the husk off 
 from it, and yet leaving a kind of inward husk on 
 the corn, or else it is marr'd ; and then cut off that 
 sprouted end, 1 mean a little of it, that the white 
 may appear ; and so pull off the husk on the cloven 
 side, as I directed you ; and then cutting off a very 
 little of the other end, that so your hook may enter ; 
 and if your hook be small and good, you will find 
 this to be a very choice bait, either for winter or 
 summer, you sometimes casting a little of it into 
 the place where your float swims. 
 
The Fifth Day 185 
 
 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 
 into such pieces as may best fit the size of your 
 hook ; and a little salt keeps it from growing black, 
 and makes it not the worse, but better: this is 
 taken to be a choice bait, if rightly ordered. 
 
 There be several oils of a strong smell that I 
 have been told of, and to be excellent to tempt 
 fish to bite, of which I could say much. But I 
 remember I once carried a small bottle from Sir 
 George Hastings to Sir Henry Wotton, they were 
 both chemical men, as a great present : it was sent, 
 and received, and us'd, with great confidence ; and 
 yet, upon inquiry, I found it did not answer the 
 expectation of Sir Henry ; which, with the help of 
 this and other circumstances, makes me have little 
 belief in such things as many men talk of. Not 
 but that I think 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 is not 
 attainable by common capacities, or else lies locked 
 up in the brain or breast of some chemical man, 
 that, like the Rosicrucians, will not yet reveal it. 
 But let me nevertheless tell you, that 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 for- 
 
1 86 The Complete Angler 
 
 bear it at this time, and tell you, in the next place, 
 how you are to prepare your tackling: concerning 
 which, I will, for sport sake, give you an old rhyme 
 out of an old fish book ; which will prove a part, 
 and but a part, of what you are to provide. 
 
 My rod and my line, my float and my lead, 
 
 My hook and my plummet, my whetstone and knife, 
 
 My basket, my baits, both living and dead, 
 My net, and my meat, for that is the chief: 
 
 Then I must have thread, and hairs green and small, 
 
 With mine angling purse : and so you have all. 
 
 But you must have all these tackling, and twice 
 so many more, with which, if you mean to be a fisher, 
 you must store yourself; and to that purpose I will 
 go with you, either to Mr. Margrave, who dwells 
 amongst the book-sellers in St. Paul's Church-yard, 
 or to Mr. John Stubs, near to the Swan in Golding- 
 lane : they be both honest men, and will fit an angler 
 with what tackling he lacks. 
 
 VENATOR. 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. 
 
 PlSCATOR. Well, and I'll not fail you, God willing, 
 at the time and place appointed. 
 
 VENATOR. I thank you, good master, and I will 
 not fail you. And, good master, tell me what BAITS 
 more you remember ; for it will not now be long ere 
 we shall be at Tottenham- High-Cross ; and when 
 we come thither I will make you some requital of 
 your pains, by repeating as choice a copy of Verses as 
 any we have heard since we met together ; and that 
 is a proud word, for we have heard very good ones. 
 
 PlSCATOR. 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 
 
The Fifth Day 187 
 
 may be worth your hearing. You may make an- 
 other 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 most 
 fish is a very tempting bait, being a little hardened 
 on a warm tile and cut into fit pieces. Nay, mul- 
 berries, and those black-berries 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 fruit 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, in several 
 little, brooks that relate to bigger rivers ; as namely, 
 one cadis called a piper, whose husk, or case, is a 
 piece of reed about an inch long, or longer, and as 
 big about as the compass of a two-pence. These 
 worms being kept three or four days in a woollen 
 bag, with sand at the bottom of it, and the bag wet 
 once a day, will in three or four days turn to be 
 yellow ; and these be a choice bait for the Chub 
 or Chavender, or indeed for any great fish, for it is a 
 large bait. 
 
 There is also a lesser cadis-worm, called a Cock- 
 spur, being in fashion like the spur of a cock, sharp 
 at one end ; and the case, or house, in which this 
 
1 88 The Complete Angler 
 
 dwells, is made of small husks, and gravel, and slime, 
 most curiously made of these, even so as to be won- 
 dered at, but not to be made by man, no more than 
 a king-fisher's nest can, which is made of little fishes' 
 bones, and have such a geometrical interweaving and 
 connection as the like is not to be done by the art 
 of man. This kind of cadis is a choice bait for any 
 float-fish ; it is much less than the piper-cadis, and 
 to be so ordered : and these may be so preserved, 
 ten, fifteen, or twenty days, or it may be longer. 
 
 There is also another cadis, called by some a 
 Straw- worm, and by some a Ruff-coat, whose house, 
 or case, is made of little pieces of bents, and rushes, 
 and straws, and water-weeds, and I know not what ; 
 which are so knit together with condensed slime, 
 that they stick about her husk or case, not unlike 
 the bristles of a 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 they do early, so those have their time also of 
 turning to be flies in later summer ; but I might lose 
 myself, and tire you, by such a discourse : I shall 
 therefore but remember you, that to know these, and 
 their several kinds, and to what flies every particu- 
 lar cadis turns, and then how to use them, first as 
 they be cadis, and after as they be flies, is an art, and 
 an art that every one that professes to be an angler 
 has not leisure to search after, and, if he had; is not 
 capable of learning. 
 
 I'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 grey- 
 hound 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 
 
The Fifth Day 189 
 
 receives life, or what coloured fly it turns to ; but 
 doubtless they are the death of many Trouts : and 
 this is one killing way : 
 
 Take one, or more if need be, of these large yellow 
 cadis: pull off his head, and with it pull out his 
 black gut ; put the body, as little bruised as is pos- 
 sible, on a very little hook, armed on with a red hair, 
 which will shew like the cadis-head ; and a very little 
 thin lead, so put upon the shank of the hook that it 
 may sink presently. Throw this bait, thus ordered, 
 which will look very yellow, into any great still hole 
 where a Trout is, and he will presently venture his life 
 for it, 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 stillest water. 
 
 Next, let me tell you, I have been much pleased 
 to walk quietly by a brook, with a little stick in my 
 hand, with which I might easily take these, and con- 
 sider the curiosity of their composure : and if you 
 should 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 observations, told to 
 you as they now come suddenly into m/ memory, 
 of which you may make some use : but for the prac- 
 tical 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. I will tell 
 you, scholar, I once heard one say, " I envy not him I 
 that eats better meat than I do ; nor him that is I 
 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. 
 
THE FIFTH DAY continued 
 
 Of the Minnow, or Penk ; Loach; Bull- 
 Head, or Millers-Thumb : and the 
 Stickle-bag 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 PISCATOR AND VENATOR 
 
 PlSCATOR. 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 com- 
 pared to any fish of greatest value and largest 
 size. They be usually full of eggs or spawn, all the 
 months of summer ; for they breed often, as 'tis 
 observed mice and many of the smaller four-footed 
 creatures of the earth do ; and as those, so these 
 come quickly to their full growth and perfection. 
 And it is needful that they breed both often and 
 numerously ; for they be, besides other accidents of 
 ruin, both a prey and baits for other fish. And 
 first I shall tell you of the Minnow or Penk. 
 
 The MINNOW hath, when he is in perfect season, 
 and not sick, which is only presently after spawning, 
 a kind of dappled or waved colour, like to a panther, 
 on its sides, inclining to a greenish or sky-colour ; 
 his belly being milk white; and his back almost 
 black or blackish. He is a sharp biter at a small 
 190 
 
The Fifth Day 191 
 
 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 
 excellent for that use ; that is, being fried with yolk 
 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 streams : he grows not to be above a finger 
 long, and no thicker than is suitable to that length. 
 The Loach 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 Gesner, and 
 other learned physicians, commended for great 
 nourishment, and to be very grateful both to the 
 palate and stomach of sick persons. He is to be 
 fished for with a very small worm, at the bottom ; 
 for he very seldom, or never, rises above the gravel, 
 on which I told you he usually gets his living. 
 
 The MILLER'S-THUMB, or BULL-HEAD, is a fish 
 of no pleasing shape. He is by Gesner compared 
 to the Sea-toad-fish, for his similitude and shape. 
 It has a head big and flat, much greater than 
 suitable to his body; a mouth very wide, and 
 usually gaping ; he is without teeth, but his lips are 
 very rough, much like to a file. He hath two fins 
 near to his gills, which be roundish or crested ; two 
 fins also under the belly ; two on the back ; one 
 below the vent ; and the fin of his tail is round. 
 
192 The Complete Angler 
 
 Nature hath painted the body of this fish with 
 whitish, blackish, brownish spots. They be usually 
 full of eggs or spawn all the summer, I mean the 
 females; and those eggs swell their vents almost 
 into the form of a dug. They begin to spawn about 
 April, and, as I told you, spawn several months in 
 the summer. And in the winter, the Minnow, and 
 Loach, and Bull-head dwell in the mud, as the Eel 
 doth ; or we know not where, no more than we 
 know where the cuckoo and swallow, and other 
 half-year birds, which first appear to us in April, 
 spend their six cold, winter, melancholy months. 
 This BULL-HEAD does usually dwell, and hide him- 
 self, in holes, or amongst st Ties in clear water ; and 
 in very hot days will lie a long time very still, and 
 sun himself, and will be easy to be seen upon any 
 flat stone, or any gravel ; at which time he will 
 suffer an angler to put a hook, baited with a small 
 worm, very near unto his very mouth : and he never 
 refuses to bite, nor indeed to be caught with the 
 worst of anglers. Matthiolus commends him much 
 more for his taste and nourishment, than for his shape 
 or beauty. 
 
 There is also a little fish called a STICKLEBAG, 
 a fish without scales, but hath his body fenced with 
 several prickles. I know not where he dwells in 
 winter ; nor what he is good for in 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 hoo 1 : be rightly baited 
 with him, for he may be so baited as, his tail turn- 
 ing 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 
 
The Fifth Day 193 
 
 tail ; and then, having first tied him with white 
 thread a little above his tail, and placed him after 
 such a manner on your hook as he is like to turn 
 then sew up his mouth to your line, and he is like to 
 turn quick, and tempt any Trout: but if he 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. And the Loach that I told you of will do 
 the like: no bait is more tempting, provided the 
 Loach be not too bic,. 
 
 And now, scholar, with the help of this fine 
 morning, and your patient attention, I have said all 
 that my present memory will afford me, concerning 
 most of the several fisn that are usually fished for 
 in fresh waters. 
 
 VENATOR. But, master, you have by your former 
 civility made me hope that you will make good 
 your promise, and say 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. 
 
 N 
 
THE FIFTH VAX continued 
 
 Of Rivers, and some Observations of Fish 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 PISCATOR 
 
 WELL, scholar, since the ways and weather do both 
 favour us, and that we yet see not Tottenham- 
 Cross, you shall see my willingness to satisfy youi 
 desire. And, first, for the rivers of this nation: 
 there be, as you may note out of Dr. Heylin's 
 Geography and others, in number three hundred 
 and twenty-five; but those of chiefest note he 
 reckons and describes as followeth. 
 ' The chief is THAMISIS, compounded of two 
 rivers, Thame and Isis ; whereof the former, rising 
 somewhat beyond Thame in Buckinghamshire, and 
 the latter near Cirencester in Gloucestershire, meet 
 together about Dorchester in Oxfordshire ; the 
 issue of which happy conjunction is Thamisis, or 
 Thames; hence it flieth betwixt Berks, Bucking, 
 hamshire, Middlesex, Surrey, Kent, and Essex : 
 and so weddeth itself 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 
 194 
 
The Fifth Day 195 
 
 banks are so many fair towns and princely palaces, 
 that a German poet thus truly spake : 
 
 Tot campos, 6r. 
 
 We saw so many woods and princely bowers, 
 Sweet fields, brave palaces, and 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 Montgomeryshire ; 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. 
 
 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 Stafford- 
 shire, and gliding through the counties of Notting- 
 ham, 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 Hum- 
 berabus^ as the old geographers call it. 
 
 4. MEDWAY, a Kentish river, famous for harbour- 
 ing the royal navy. 
 
 5. TWEED, the north-east bound of England ; on 
 whose northern banks is seated the strong and im- 
 pregnable town of Berwick. 
 
 6. TYNE, famous for Newcastle, and her inex- 
 haustible coal-pits. These, and the rest of principal 
 note, are thus comprehended in one of Mr. Dray- 
 ton's Sonnets: 
 
196 The Complete Angler 
 
 Our floods' queen, Thames, for ships and swans is crown'd; 
 
 And stately Severn for her shore is prais'd ; 
 The crystal Trent, for fords and fish renown'd; 
 
 And Avon's fame to Albion's cliffs is rais'd. 
 
 Carlegion Chester vaunts her holy Dee ; 
 
 York many wonders of her Ouse can tell ; 
 The Peak, her Dove, whose banks so fertile be, 
 
 And Kent will say her Medway doth excel : 
 
 Cotswold commends her Isis to the Tame ; 
 
 Our northern borders boast of Tweed's fair flood ; 
 Our Western parts extol their Willy's fame, 
 
 And the old Lea brags of the Danish blood. 
 
 These observations are out of learned Dr. Heylin, 
 and my old deceased friend, Michael Dray ton ; and 
 because you say you love such discourses as these, 
 of rivers, and fish, and fishing, I love you the batter, 
 and love the more to impart them to you. Never- 
 theless, 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 con- 
 cerning one lately dissected by Dr. Wharton, a man 
 of great learning and experience, and of equal 
 freedom to communicate it ; one that loves me and 
 my art; one to whom I have been beholden for 
 many of the choicest observations that I have im- 
 parted 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 : 
 
 "This 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 
 
The Fifth Day 197 
 
 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 un- 
 usual 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 the 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 plenti- 
 ful, 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. 
 
 Well, scholar, I will stop here, and tell you what 
 by reading and conference I have observed concern- 
 ing fish-ponds. 
 
THE FIFTH DAY continued 
 Of Fish- Ponds 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 PISCATOR 
 
 DOCTOR LEBAULT, the learned Frenchman, in his 
 large discourse of Maison Rustique^ gives this direc- 
 tion for making of fish-ponds. I shall refer you to 
 him, to read it at large : but I think I shall contract 
 it, and yet make it as useful. 
 
 He adviseth, that when you have drained the 
 ground, and made the earth firm where the head 
 of the pond must be, that you must then, in that 
 place, drive in two or three rows of oak or elm 
 piles, which should be scorched in the fire, or half- 
 burnt, before they be driven into the earth ; for be- 
 ing thus used, it preserves them much longer from 
 rotting. And having done so, lay faggots or bavins 
 of smaller wood betwixt them : and then, earth 
 betwixt and above them : and then, having first 
 very well rammed them and the earth, use another 
 pile in like manner as the first were: and note, 
 that the second pile is to be of or about the 
 height that you intend to make your sluice or flood- 
 gate, or the vent that you intend shall convey the 
 overflowings of your pond in any flood that shall 
 endanger the breaking of your pond-dam. 
 198 
 
The Fifth Day 199 
 
 Then he advises, that you plant willows or 
 owlers, about it, or both : and then cast in bavins, 
 in some places not far from the side, and in the 
 most sandy places, for fish both to spawn upon, 
 and to defend them and the young fry from the 
 many fish, and also from vermin, that lie at watch 
 to destroy them, especially the spawn of the Carp 
 and Tench, when 'tis left to the mercy of ducks or 
 vermin. 
 
 He, and Dubravius, and all others advise, that 
 you make choice of such a place for your pond, 
 that it may be refreshed 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 there- 
 of 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 dry six or twelve months, 
 both to kill the water-weeds, as water-lilies, can- 
 docks, reate, and bulrushes, that breed there ; and 
 also that as these die for want of water, so grass 
 
2oo The Complete Angler 
 
 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 ob- 
 serve what kind of fish either increases or thrives 
 best in that water; for they differ much, both in 
 their breeding and feeding. 
 
 Lebault also advises, that if your ponds be not 
 very large and roomy, that you often feed your fish, 
 by throwing into them chippings of bread, curds, 
 grains, or the entrails of chickens or of any fowl or 
 beast that you kill to feed yourselves ; for these 
 afford fish a great relief. He says, that frogs and 
 ducks do much harm, and devour both the spawn 
 and the young fry of all fish, especially of the Carp ; 
 and I have, besides experience, many testimonies of 
 it. But Lebault allows water-frogs to be good meat, 
 especially in some months, if they be fat : but you 
 are to note, that he is a Frenchman ; and we English 
 will hardly 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, affrightens, and harms, and 
 destroys the fish. 
 
 Note, that Carps and Tench thrive and breed best 
 when no other fish is put with them into the same 
 pond ; for all other fish devour their spawn, or at 
 least the greatest part of it. And note, that clods 
 of grass thrown into any pond feed any Carps in 
 summer ; and that garden-earth and parsley thrown 
 into a pond recovers and refreshes the sick fish. 
 And note, that when you store your pond, you are 
 to put 'into it two or three melters for one spawner, 
 if you put them into a breeding-pond ; but if into 
 a nurse-pond, or feeding-pond, in which they will 
 
The Fifth Day 201 
 
 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, or ponds 
 that lie dry a winter season, than in old ponds that 
 be full of mud and weeds. 
 
 Well, Scholar, I have told you the substance of 
 all that either observation or discourse, or a diligent 
 survey of Dubravius and Lebault hath told me : not 
 that they, in their long discourses, have not said 
 more ; but the most of the rest are so common ob- 
 servations, as if a man should tell a good arith- 
 metician that twice two is four. I will therefore put 
 an end to this discourse ; and we will here sit down 
 and rest us. 
 
THE FIFTH DAY continued 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 PISCATOR AND VENATOR 
 
 PlSCATOR. Well, Scholar, I have held you too long 
 about these cadis, and smaller fish, and rivers, and 
 fish-ponds ; and my spirits are almost spent, and so I 
 doubt is your patience ; but being we are now almost 
 at Tottenham where I first met you, and where we 
 are to part, I will lose no time, but give you a little 
 direction now to make and order your lines, and to 
 colour the hair of which you make your lines, for 
 that is very needful to be known of an angler; and 
 also how to paint your rod, especially your top ; 
 for a right-grown top is a choice commodity, and 
 should be preserved from the water soaking into it, 
 which makes it in wet weather to be heavy and fish 
 ill-favouredly, and not true ; and also it rots quickly 
 for want of painting: and I think a good top is 
 worth preserving, or I had not taken care to keep a 
 top above twenty years. 
 
 But first for your Line. First note, that you are 
 to take care that your hair be round and clear, and 
 free from galls, or scabs, or frets : for a well-chosen, 
 even, clear, round hair, of a kind of glass-colour, will 
 prove as strong as three uneven scabby hairs that 
 are ill-chosen, and full of galls or unevenness. You 
 shall seldom find a black hair but it is round, but 
 202 
 
The Fifth Day 203 
 
 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 unequal bigness never do, but 
 break singly, and so deceive the angler that trusts 
 to them. 
 
 When yon have twisted your links, lay them in 
 water for a quarter of an hour at least, and then 
 twist them over again before you tie them into a 
 line : for those that do not so shall usually find 
 their line to have a hair or two shrink, and be 
 shorter than the rest, at the first fishing with it, 
 which is so much of the strength of the line lost for 
 want of first watering it, and then re-twisting it; 
 and this is most visible in a seven-hair line, one of 
 those which hath always a black hair in the middle. 
 
 And for 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 
 
204 The Complete Angler 
 
 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 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 bristle, 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 pencil : 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 
 
The Fifth Day 205 
 
 your first colour be thoroughly dry before you lay 
 on a second. 
 
 Well, Scholar, having now taught you to paint 
 your rod, and we having still a mile to Tottenham 
 High-Cross, I will, as we walk towards it in 'the 
 cool shade of this sweet honeysuckle hedge, mention 
 . to you some of the thoughts and joys that have 
 possessed my soul since we two met together. And 
 these thoughts shall be told you, that you also may 
 join with me in thankfulness to the Giver of every 
 good and perfect gift, for our happiness. And that 
 our present happiness may appear to be the greater, 
 and we the more thankful for it, I will beg you to 
 consider with me how many do, even at this very 
 time, lie under the torment of the stone, the gout, 
 and tooth-ache; and this we are free from. And 
 every misery that I miss is a new mercy; and 
 therefore let us be thankful. There have been, 
 since we met, others that have met disasters or 
 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 insupportable 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 expense of a little 
 money, have eat and drunk, and laughed, and 
 angled, and sung, and slept securely ; and rose next 
 day and cast away care, and sung, and laughed, and 
 angled again ; which are blessings rich men cannot 
 purchase with all their money. Let me tell you, 
 
2o6 The Complete Angler 
 
 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 of them ". And yet God deliver us from pinch- 
 ing poverty ; and grant, that having a competency, 
 we may be content and thankful. Let not us re- 
 pine, or so much as think the gifts of God unequally 
 dealt, if we see another abound with riches ; when, 
 as God knows, the cares that are the keys that keep 
 those riches hang often so heavily at the rich man's 
 girdle, that they clog him with weary days and 
 restless nights, even when others sleep quietly. We 
 see but the outside of the rich man's happiness : few 
 consider him to be like the silk-worm, that, when 
 she seems to play, is, at the very same time, spin- 
 ning her own bowels, and consuming herself; and 
 this many rich men do, loading themselves with 
 corroding cares, to keep what they have, probably, 
 unconscionably got. Let us, therefore, be thankful 
 for health and a competence ; and above all, for a 
 quiet conscience. 
 
 Let me tell you, Scholar, that Diogenes walked 
 on a day, with his friend, to see a country fair; 
 where he saw ribbons, and looking-glasses, and nut- 
 crackers, and fiddles, and hobby-horses, and many 
 other gimcracks ; and, having observed them, and 
 all the other finnimbruns that make a complete 
 country-fair, he said to his friend, "Lord, how 
 many things are there in this world of which 
 Diogenes hath no need ! " And truly it is so, of 
 
The Fifth Day 207 
 
 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 
 neighbour, for not worshipping, or not flattering 
 him : and thus, when we might be happy and quiet, 
 we create trouble to ourselves. I have heard of a 
 man that was angry with himself because he was 
 no taller ; and of a woman that broke her looking- 
 glass because it would not shew her face to be as 
 young and handsome as her next neighbour's was. 
 And I knew another to whom God had given health 
 and plenty; but a wife that nature had made 
 peevish, and her husband's riches had made purse- 
 proud ; and must, because she was rich, and for no 
 other virtue, sit in the highest pew in the church ; 
 which being denied her, she engaged her husband 
 into a contention for it, and at last into a law-suit 
 with a dogged neighbour who was as rich as he, 
 and had a wife as peevish and purse-proud as the 
 other: and this law-suit begot higher oppositions, 
 and actionable words, and more vexations and law- 
 suits ; for you must remember that both were rich, 
 and must therefore have their wills. Well ! this 
 wilful, purse-proud law-suit lasted during the life of 
 the first husband; after which his wife vext and 
 chid, and chid and vext, till she also chid and vext 
 herself into her grave : and so the wealth of these 
 poor rich people was curst into a punishment, be- 
 cause 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 
 
2o8 The Complete Angler 
 
 trouble himself and family to be removing from one 
 house to another : and being asked by a friend why 
 he removed so often from one house to another, 
 replied, " It was to find content in some one of 
 them". But his friend, knowing his temper, told 
 him, " If he would find content in any of his houses, 
 he must leave 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 obtun mercy, and see God, 
 and be comforted, and at last come to the kingdom 
 of heaven : but in the mea .time, he, and he only, 
 possesses the earth, as he go js towards that kingdom 
 of heaven, by being humble and cheerful, and con- 
 tent with what his good God had allotted him?) He 
 has no turbulent, repining, vexatious thoughts that 
 he deserves better ; nor is vext when he see others 
 possest of more honour or more riches than his wise 
 God has allotted for his share: but he possesses 
 what he has with a meek and contented quietness, 
 such a quietness as makes his very dreams pleasing, 
 both to God and himself. 
 
 My honest Scholar, all this is told to incline you 
 to thankfulness; and -to incline you the more, let 
 me tell you, and 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 that any other that is mentioned 
 in holy scripture, as may appear in his book of 
 Psalms ; where there is such a commixture, of his 
 
The Fifth Day 209 
 
 confessing of his sins and unworthiness, and such 
 thankfulness for God's pardon and mercies, as did 
 make him to be accounted, even by God himself, to 
 be a man after his own heart : and let us, in that, 
 labour to be as like him as we can ; let not the 
 blessings we receive daily from God make us not to 
 value, or not praise Him, because they be common ; 
 let 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 }.'Js eyes, fix his sight upon the 
 sun when it was in its lull glory, either at the rising 
 or setting of it, he wo,uld be so transported and 
 amazed, and so admire'^ie glory of it, that he would 
 not willingly turn his eyes from that first ravishing 
 object, to behold all the other various beauties this 
 world could present to' him. And this, and many 
 other like blessings, we enjoy daily. And for the 
 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 pleasing to Him that made 
 that sun and us, and still protects us, and gives us 
 flowers, and showers, and stomachs, and meat, and 
 content, and leisure to go a-fishing. 
 
 Well, Scholar, I have almost tired myself, and, I 
 fear, more than almost tired you. But I now see 
 Tottenham High-Cross; and our short walk thither 
 shall put a period to my too long discourse; in 
 which my meaning was, and is, to plant that in your 
 mind with which I labour to possess my own soul ; 
 that is, a meek and thankful heart. And to that 
 end I have shewed you, that riches without them, do 
 O 
 
2i o The Complete Angler 
 
 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 en- 
 deavour to be honestly rich, or contentedly poor : 
 but be sure that your riches be justly got, or you 
 spoil all. For it is well said by Caussin, " He that 
 loses his conscience has nothing left that is worth 
 keeping". Therefore be sure you look to that. 
 And, in the next place, look to your health : and if 
 you have it, praise God, and value it next to a good 
 conscience ; for health is the second blessing that 
 we mortals are capable of ; a blessing that money 
 cannot buy ; and therefore value ft, 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. tT^will tell you, 
 Scholar, I have heard a grave Divine say, that God 
 has two dwellings; one in heaven, and the other 
 in a meek and thankful heart ; which Almighty God 
 grant to me, and to my honest Scholar. And so 
 you are welcome to Tottenham High-Cross. 
 
 VENATOR. Well, Master, I thank you for all 
 your good directions ; but for none more than this 
 last, of thankfulness, which I hope I shall .never 
 forget. And pray let's now rest ourselves in this 
 sweet shady arbour, which nature herself has woven 
 with her own fine fingers ; 'tis such a contexture of 
 woodbines, sweetbriar, jasmine, and myrtle ; and so 
 interwoven, as will secure us both from the sun's 
 violent heat, and from the approaching shower. 
 And being set down, I will requite a part of your 
 courtesies with a bottle of sack, milk, oranges, and 
 sugar, which, all put together, make a drink like 
 nectar; indeed, too good for any but us Anglers. 
 
The Fifth Day 211 
 
 And so, Master, here is a full glass to you of that 
 liquor : and when you have pledged me, I will re- 
 peat the Verses which I promised you : it is a Copy 
 printed among some of Sir Henry Wotton's, and 
 doubtless made either by him, or by a lover of 
 angling. Come, Master, now drink a glass to me, 
 and then I will pledge you, and fall to my repeti- 
 tion ; it is a description of such country recreations 
 as I have enjoyed since I had the happiness to fall 
 into your company. 
 
 Quivering fears, heart-tearing cares, 
 Anxious sighs, untimely tears, 
 
 Fly, fly to courts, 
 
 Fly to fond worldlings' sports, 
 Where strain'd sardonic smiles are glosing still, 
 And Grief is forc'd to laugh against her will : 
 
 Where mirth's but mummery, 
 
 And sorrows only real be. 
 
 Fly from our country pastimes, fly, 
 Sad troops of human misery. 
 
 Come, serene looks, 
 
 Clear as the crystal brooks, 
 Or the pure azur'd heaven that smiles to see 
 The rich attendance of our poverty : 
 
 Peace and a secure mind, 
 
 Which all men seek, we only find. 
 
 Abused mortals ! did you know 
 
 Where joy, heart's-ease, and comforts grow, 
 
 You'd scorn proud towers, 
 
 And seek them in these bowers ; 
 
 Where winds, sometimes, our woods perhaps may shake, 
 But blust'ring care could never tempest make, 
 
 Nor murmurs e'er come nigh us, 
 
 Saving of fountains that glide by us. 
 
 Here's no fantastick mask, nor dance, 
 But 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 
 
 And wounds are never found, 
 
 Save what the plough-share gives the ground. 
 
212 The Complete Angler 
 
 Here are no false entrapping baits, 
 To hasten too, too hasty Fates, 
 
 Unless it be 
 
 The fond credulity 
 
 Of silly fish, which worldling like, still look 
 Upon the bait, but never on the hook; 
 
 Nor envy, unless among 
 
 The birds, for prize of their sweet song. 
 
 Go, let the diving negro seek 
 
 For gems, hid in some forlorn creek : 
 
 We all pearls scorn, 
 
 Save what the dewy morn 
 Congeals upon each little spire of grass, 
 Which careless shepherds beat down as they pass : 
 
 And gold ne'er here appears, 
 
 Save what the yellow Ceres bears. 
 
 Blest silent groves, oh may ye be, 
 For ever, mirth's best nursery ! 
 
 May pure contents 
 
 For ever pitch their tents 
 
 Upon these downs, these meads, these rocks, these mountains, 
 And peace still slumber by these purling fountains : 
 
 Which we may, every year, 
 
 Meet when we come a-fishing here. 
 
 PlSCATOR. Trust me, Scholar, I thank you heart- 
 ily for these Verses: they be choicely good, and 
 doubtless made by a lover of angling. Come, now, 
 drink a glass to me, and I will requite you with 
 another very good copy: it is a farewell to the 
 vanities of the world, and some say written by Sir 
 Harry Wotton, who I told you was an excellent 
 angler. But let them be writ by whom they will, 
 he that writ them had a brave soul, and must needs 
 be possest with happy thoughts at the time of their 
 composure. 
 
 Farewell, ye gilded follies, pleasing troubles ; 
 Farewell, ye honour'd rags, ye glorious bubbles ; 
 Fame's but a hollow echo ; Gold, pure clay ; 
 Honour the darling but of one short day ; 
 Beauty, th' eye's idol, but a damask'd skin ; 
 State, but a golden prison, to live in 
 And torture free-born minds ; embroider'd Trains, 
 Merely but pageants for proud swelling veins ; 
 
The Fifth Day 213 
 
 
 And Blood allied to greatness is alone 
 
 Inherited, not purchas'd, nor our own. 
 
 Fame, Honour, Beauty, State, Train, Blood and Birth, 
 Are but the fading blossoms of the earth. 
 
 I would be great, but that the sun doth still 
 
 Level his rays against the rising hill : 
 
 I would be high, but see the proudest oak 
 
 Most subject to the rending thunder-stroke : 
 
 I would be rich, but see men, too unkind, 
 
 Dig in the bowels of the richest mind : 
 
 I would be wise, but that I often see 
 
 The fox suspected, whilst the ass goes free : 
 
 I would be fair, but see the fair and proud, 
 
 Like the bright sun, oft setting in a cloud : 
 
 I would be poor, but know the humble grass 
 
 Still trampled on by each unworthy ass : 
 
 Rich, hated ; wise, suspected ; scorn'd, if poor ; 
 
 Great, fear'd ; fair, tempted ; high, still envy'd more. 
 1 have wish'd all ; but now I wish for neither, 
 Great, high, rich,iwise, nor fair: poor I'll be rather. 
 
 Would the World now adopt me for her heir ; 
 
 Would beauty's Queen entitle me the fair ; 
 
 Fame speak me fortune's minion ; could I " vie 
 
 Angels " with India ; with a speaking eye 
 
 Command bare heads, bow'd knees; strike justice dumb, 
 
 As well as blind and lame ; or give a tongue 
 
 To stones by epitaphs ; be call'd " great master " 
 
 In the loose rhymes of every poetaster ? 
 
 Could I be more than any man that lives, 
 
 Great, fair, rich, wise, all in superlatives ; 
 
 Yet I more freely would these gifts resign, 
 
 Than ever fortune would have made them mine ; 
 And hold one minute of this holy leisure 
 Beyond the riches of this empty pleasure. 
 
 Welcome, pure thoughts ; welcome, ye silent grover> ; 
 
 These guests, these courts, my soul most dearly loves. 
 
 Now the wing'd people of the sky shall sing 
 
 My cheerful anthems to the gladsome spring : 
 
 A pray'r-book, now, shall be my looking-glass, 
 
 In which I will adore sweet virtue's face. 
 
 Here dwell no hateful looks, no palace-cares, 
 
 No broken vows dwell here, nor pale-fac'd fears ; 
 
 Then here I'll sit, and sigh my hot love's folly, 
 
 And learn t' affect an holy melancholy : 
 And if contentment be a stranger then, 
 I'll ne'er look for it, but in heaven, again* 
 
214 The Complete Angler 
 
 VENATOR. 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 in- 
 structions, which, God willing, I will not forget. 
 And as St. Austin, in his Confessions, commem- 
 orates the^ETndness 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 arid 
 the art you have taught me, I ought ever to do 
 the like ; for, indeed, your company and discourse 
 have been so useful and pleasant, that, I may truly 
 say, I have only lived since I enjoyed them and 
 turned angler, and not before. Nevertheless, here 
 I must part with you ; here in this, now saqkplace, 
 where I was so happy as first to meet you : but < I 
 shall long for the ninth of May ; for then- I hope 
 again to enjoy your beloved company, at the ap- 
 pointed time and place. And now I wish for some 
 somniferous potion, that might force me to sleep 
 away the intermitted time, which will pass away , 
 with me as tediously as it does with men in sorrow^ 
 nevertheless I will make it as short as I can, by my 
 hopes and wishes : and, my good Master, I will not 
 forget the doctrine which you told me Socrates 
 taught his scholars, that they should not think to 
 be honoured so much for being philosophers, as to 
 honour 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 
 resolution, f And as a pious man advised his friend, 
 that, to be^et mortification, he should frequent 
 churches, and view monuments, and charnel-houses, 
 and then and there consider how many dead bodies 
 
The Fifth Day 215 
 
 time had piled up at the gates of death, so when I 
 would beget content, and increase confidence in the 
 power, and wisdom, and providence of Almighty 
 God, I will walk the 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 everything that hath breath 
 praise the Lord : and let the blessing of St. Peters 
 Master be with mine. 
 
 PiSCATOR. 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." 
 
 The End 
 
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