in a hot evening when as you walk by a Brook and shal see or hear him leap at Flies then if you get a Grashopper put it on your hook with your line about two yards long standing behind a bush or tree where his hole is and make your bait stir up and down on the top of the water you may if you stand close be sure of a bit 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 Flie but especially with a Grashopper Viat But before you go further I pray good Master what mean you by a leather mouthed fish Pisc. By a leather mouthed fish I mean such as have their teeth in their throat as the Chub or Cheven and so the Barbel the Gudgion and Carp and divers others have and the hook being stuck into the leather or skin of such fish does very seldome or never lose its hold But on the contrary a Pike a Pearch or Trout and so some other fish which have not their teeth in their throats but in their mouthes which you shal observe to be very full of bones and the skin very thin and little of it I say of these fish the hook nevertakes so sure hold but you often lose the fish unless he have gorg'd it Viat I thank you good Master for this observation but now what shal be done with my Chub or Cheven that I have caught Pisc. Marry Sir it shall be given away to some poor body for I le warrant you I le give you a Trout for your supper and it is a good beginning of your Art to offer your first fruits to the poor who will both thank God and you for it And now le ts walk towards the water again and as I go I le tel you when you catch your next Chub how to dresse it as this was viat Come good Master I long to be going and learn your direction Pisc. You must dress it or see it drest thus When you have scaled him wash him very cleane cut off his tail and fins and wash him not after you gut him but chine or cut him through the middle as a salt fish is cut then give him four or five scotches with your knife broil him upon wood-cole or char-cole but as he is broiling baste him often with butter that shal be choicely good and put good store of salt into your butter or salt him gently as you broil or baste him and bruise or cut very smal into your butter a little Time or some other sweet herb that is in the Garden where you eat him thus used it takes away the watrish taste which the Chub or Chevin has and makes him a choice dish of meat as you your self know for thus was that dress'd which you did eat of to your dinner Or you may for variety dress a Chub another way and you wil find him very good and his tongue and head almost as good as a Carps but then you must be sure that no grasse or weeds be left in his mouth or throat Thus you must dress him Slit him through the middle then cut him into four pieces then put him into a pewter dish and cover him with another put into him as much White Wine as wil cover him or Spring water and Vinegar and store of Salt with some branches of Time and other sweet herbs let him then be boiled gently over a Chafing-dish with wood coles and when he is almost boiled enough put half of the liquor from him not the top of it put then into him a convenient quantity of the best butter you can get with a little Nutmeg grated into it and sippets of white bread thus ordered you wil find the Chevin and the sauce too a choice dish of meat And I have been the more careful to give you a perfect direction how to dress him because he is a fish undervalued by many and I would gladly restore him to some of his credit which he has lost by ill Cookery Viat But Master have you no other way to catch a Cheven or Chub Pisc. Yes that I have but I must take time to tel it you hereafter or indeed you must learn it by observation and practice though this way that I have taught you was the easiest to catch a Chub at this time and at this place And now weare come again to the River I wil as the Souldier sayes prepare for skirmish that is draw out my Tackling and try to catch a Trout for supper Viat Trust me Master I see now it is a harder matter to catch a Trout then a Chub for I have put on patience and followed you this two hours and not seen a fish stir neither at your Minnow nor your Worm Pisc. Wel Scholer you must indure 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 is not this worth all my labour Viat On my word Master this is a gallant Trout what shall we do with him Pisc. Marry ee'n eat him to supper We 'l go to my Hostis from whence we came she told me as I was going out of door that my brothet Peter a good Angler and a cheerful companion had sent word he would lodg there to night and bring a friend with him My Hostis has two beds and I know you and I may have the best we 'l rejoice with my brother Peter and his friend tel tales or sing Ballads or make a Catch or find some harmless sport to content us Viat A match good Master le ts go to that house for the linnen looks white and smels of Lavender and I long to lye in a pair of sheets that smels so le ts be going good Master for I am hungry again with fishing Pisc. Nay stay a little good Scholer I caught my last Trout with a worm now I wil put on a Minow and try a quarter of an hour about yonder trees for another and so walk towards our lodging Look you Scholer thereabout we shall have a bit presently or not at all Have with you Sir on my word I have him Oh it is a great loggerheaded Chub Come hang him upon that Willow twig and let 's be going But turn out of the way a little good Scholer towards yonder high hedg We 'l sit whilst this showr falls so gently upon the teeming earth and gives a sweeter smel to the lovely slowers that adorn the verdant Meadows Look under that broad Beech tree I sate down when I was last this way a fishing and the birds in the adjoining Grove seemed to have a friendly contention with an
And so Hostis here 's your mony we Anglers are all beholding to you it wil not be long ere I le see you again And now brother Piscator I wish you and my brother your Scholer a fair day and good fortune Come Coridon this is our way CHAP. XII Viat 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 Pisc. Well Scholer that I will and I will hide nothing from you that I can remember and may help you forward towards a perfection in this Art and because we have so much time and I have said so little of Roch and Dace I will give you some directions concerning some several kinds of baits with which they be usually taken they will bite almost at any flies 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-hil in which place you shall find them in the Months of June or if that be too early in the yeer 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 and so many as are put into the glass without bruising will live there a month or more and be alwaies in a readiness for you to fish with but if you would have them keep longer then get any great earthen pot or barrel of three or four gallons which is better then wash your barrel with water and honey and having put into it a quantitie 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 Roch or Dace or for a Chub and your rule is to fish not less then a handful from the bottom I shall next tell you a winter bait for a Roch a Dace or Chub and it is choicely good About All-hollantide 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 Magots 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 Countries 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 and you may keep them 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 baite for Breame or Carp And after this manner you may also keep Gentles all winter which is a good bait then and much the better for being lively and tuffe or you may breed and keep Gentle thus Take a piece of beasts liver and with a cross stick hang it in some corner over a pot or barrel half full of dry clay and as the Gentles grow big they wil fall into the barrel and scowre themselves and be alwayes ready for use whensoever you incline to fish and these Gentles may be thus made til after Michaelmas But if you desire to keep Gentles to fish with all the yeer then get a dead Cat or a Kite and let it be fly-blowne and when the Gentles begin to be alive and to stir then bury it and them in 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 wil last till March and about that time turn to be flies But if you be nice to fowl your fingers which good Anglers seldome are then take this bait Get a handful of well made Mault and put it into a dish of water and then wash and rub it betwixt your hands til you make in cleane and as free from husks as you can then put that water from it and put a smal quantitie 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 husk on the corn or else it is marr'd and then cut off that sprouted end I mean a little of it that the vvhite 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 flote swims And to take the Roch and Dace a good bait is the young brood of Wasps or Bees baked or hardned in their husks in an Oven after the bread is taken out of it or on a fire-shovel and so also is the thick blood of Sheep being halfe dryed on a trencher that you may cut it into such pieces as may best fit the size of your hook and a little salt keeps it from growing black and makes it not the worse but better this is taken to be a choice bait if rightly ordered There be several Oiles of a strong smel 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 chimical men as a great present but upon enquiry I found it did not answer the expectation of Sir Henry which with the help of other circumstances makes me have little belief in such things as many men
together into a pot or 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 lye it wil turn your hair to be a kind of water or glass colour or greenish and the longer you let it lye the deeper coloured it will bee you might be taught to make many other colours but it is to little purpose for doubtlesse the water or glass coloured haire is the most choice and most useful for an Angler But if you desire to colour haire green then doe it thus Take a quart of smal Ale halfe a pound of Allome then put these into a pan or pipkin and your haire into it with them then put it upon a fire and let it boile 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 handful of Mary-golds and cover it with a tile or what you think fit and set it again on the fire where it is to boil softly for half an hour about which time the scum will turn yellow then put into it half a pound of Copporis beaten smal and with it the hair that you intend to colour then let the hair be boiled softly till half the liquor be wasted then let it cool three or four hours with your hair in it and you are to observe that the moreCopporis 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 the more Mary-golds and abate most of the Copporis or leave it out and take a little Verdigreece in stead of it This for colouring your hair And as for painting your rod which must be in Oyl you must first make a size with glue and water boiled together until the glue be dissolved and the size of a lie colour then strike your size upon the wood with a bristle brush or pensil whilst it is hot that being quite dry take white lead and a little red lead and a little cole black so much as all together will make an ash colour grind these all together with Linseed oyle let it be thick and lay it thin upon the wood with a brush or pensil this do for the ground of any colour to lie upon wood For a Green Take Pink and Verdigreece and grind them together in Linseed oyl as thick 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 wel and besure your first colour be throughly dry before you lay on a second Well Scholer you now see Totenham and I am weary and therefore glad that we are so near it but if I were to walk many more dayes with you I could stil be telling you more and more of the mysterious Art of Angling but I wil hope for another opportunitie and then I wil acquaint you with many more both necessary and true observations concerning fish and fishing but now no more le ts turn into yonder Arbour for it is a cleane and cool place Viat 'T is a faire motion and I will requite a part of your courtesies with a bottle of Sack and Milk and Oranges and Sugar which all put together make a drink too good for any body but us Anglers and so Master here is a full glass to you of that liquor and when you have pledged me I wil repeat the Verses which I promised you it is a Copy printed amongst Sir Henry Wottons Verses and doubtless made either by him or by a lover of Angling Come Master now drink a glass to me and then I will pledge you and fall to my repetition it is a discription of such Country recreations as I have enjoyed since I had the happiness to fall into your company Quivering fears heart tearing cares Anxious sighes untimely tears Fly fly to Courts Fly to fond worldlings sports Where strain'd Sardonick smiles are glosing stil And grief is forc'd to laugh against her will Where mirths but Mummery And sorrows only real be Fly from our Country pastimes fly Sad troops of humane misery Come serone looks Clear as the Christal Brooks Or the pure azur'd heaven that smiles to see The Rich attendance on our poverty Peace and a secure mind Which all men seek we only find Abused Mortals did you know Where joy hearts ease and comforts grow You 'd scorn proud Towers And seek them in those Bowers Where winds sometimes our woods perhaps may shake But blustering care could never tempest make No murmurs ere 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 Here are no false extrapping baits To hasten too too hasty fates Unless it be the fond credulitie Of silly fish which worldling like still look Upon the bait but never on the hook Nor envy ' nless among The birds for price of their sweet Song Go let the diving Negro seek For gems hid in some forlorn creek We all Pearls scorn Save what the dewy morne Congeals upon each little spire of grasse Which careless Shepherds beat down as they passe And Gold ne're here appears Save what the yellow Ceres bears Blest silent Groves oh may you be For ever mirths best nursery May pure contents for ever pitch their tents Upon these downs these Meads these rocks these mountains And peace stil slumber by these purling fountains Which we may every year find when we come a fishing here Pisc. Trust me Scholer I thank you heartily for these Verses they be choicely good and doubtless made by a lover of Angling Come now drink a glass to me and I wil requi 〈…〉 e you with a very good Copy of Verses it is a farewel to the vanities of the world and some say written by Dr. D but let them bee writ by whom they will he tha writ them had a brave soul and must needs be possest with happy thoughts at the time of their composure Farwel ye guilded follies pleasing troubles Farwel ye honour'd rags ye glorious bubbles Fame's but a hollow eccho gold pure clay Honour the darling but of our short day Beauty th' eyes idol but a damask'd skin State but a golden prison to live in And torture free-born minds imbroidir'd trains Meerly but Pageants for proud swelling vains And blood ally'd to greatness is alone Inherited not purchas'd nor our own Fame honor beauty state trai 〈…〉 blood birth Are but the fading blossoms of the 〈…〉 I would be great but that the Sun doth still Level his rayes against the
talk of not but that I think 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 then the Philosophers-Stone yet is not atainable by common capacities or else lies locked up in the braine or brest of some chimical men that like the Rosi-crutions yet will not reveal it But I stepped by chance into this discourse of Oiles and fishes smelling and though there might be more said both of it and of baits for Roch and Dace and other flote fish yet I will forbear 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 Rhime out of an old Fish-book which will be a part of what you are to provide My rod and my linc my flote and my lead My hook my plummet my whetstone knife My Basket my baits both living and dead My net and my meat for that is the chief Then I must have thxed hairs great smal 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 your selfe and to that purpose I will go with you either to Charles Brandons neer to the Swan in Golding-lane or to Mr. Fletchers in the Court which did once belong to Dr. Nowel the Dean of Pauls that I told you was a good man and a good Fisher it is hard by the west end of Saint Pauls Church they be both honest men and will fit an Angler with what tackling hee wants Viat Then good Master let it be at Charles Brandons for he is neerest to my dwelling and I pray le ts meet there the ninth of May next about two of the Clock and I 'l want nothing that a Fisher should be furnish'd with Pisc. Well and I le not fail you God willing at the time and place appointed Viat I thank you good Master and I will not fail you and good Master tell me what baits more you remember for it wil not now be long ere we shal be at Totenham High-Cross and when we come thither I wil 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 wee have heard very good ones Pisc. Wel Scholer and I shal be right glad to hear them and I wil tel you whatsoever comes in my mind that I think may be worth your hearing you may make another choice bait thus Take a hand ful or two of the best and biggest Wheat you can get boil it in a little milk like as Frumitie 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 wil find this a choice bait and good I think for any fish especially for Roch Dace Chub or Greyling 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 You are also to know that there be divers kinds of Cadis or Caseworms that are to bee found in this Nation in several distinct Counties in several little Brooks that relate to biggerRivers 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 dayes turne 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 dwels is made of smal husks and gravel and slime most curiously made of these even so as to be wondred at but not made by man no more then the nest of a bird is this is a choice bait for any flote fish it is much less then the Piper Cadis and to be so ordered and these may be so preserved ten fifteen or twentie dayes There is also another Cadis called by some a Straw-worm and by some a Ruffe-coate 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 condens'd slime that they stick up about her husk or case not unlike the bristles of a Hedg-hog these three Cadis are commonly taken in the beginning of Summer and are good indeed to take any kind of fish with slote or otherwise I might tell you of many more which as these doe early so those have their time of turning to be flies later in Summer but I might lose my selfe and tire you by such a discourse I shall therefore but remember you that to know these and their several kinds and to what flies every particular Cadis turns and then how to use them first as they bee Cadis and then as they be flies is an Art and an Art that every one that professes Angling is not capable of But let mee tell you I have been much pleased to walk quietly by a Brook with a little stick in my hand with which I might easily take these and consider the curiosity of their composure and if you shall ever like to do so then note that your stick must be cleft or have a nick at one end of it by which meanes you may with ease take many of them out of the water before you have any occasion to use them These my honest Scholer are some observations told to you as they now come suddenly into my memory of which you may make some use but for the practical part it is that that makes an Angler it is diligence and observation and practice that must do it CHAP. XIII Pisc. Well Scholer I have held you too long about these Cadis and my spirits are almost spent and so I doubt is your patience but being we are now within sight of Totenham where I first met you and where wee are to part I will give you a little direction how 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 Commoditie and should be preserved from the water soking into it which makes it in wet weather to be heavy and fish ill favouredly and also to rot quickly Take a pint of strong Ale half a pound of soot and a like quantity of the juice of Walnut-tree leaves and an equal quantitie of Allome put these