game A man may fish and praise his name The first men that our Saviour dear Did chuse 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. Cor. Well sung brother you have paid your debt in good coyn we Anglers are all beholding to the good man that made this Song Come Hostis give us more Ale and lets drin k to him And now lets everie one go to bed that we may rise early but first le ts pay our Reckoning for I wil have nothing to hinder me in the morning for I will prevent the Sun-rising Pet. A match Come Coridon you are to be my Bed-fellow I know brother you and your Scholer wil lie together but where shal we meet to morrow night for my friend Coridon and I will go up the water towards Ware Pisc. And my Scholer and I vvill go down tovvards Waltam Cor. Then le ts meet here for here are fresh sheets that smel of Lavender and I am sure we cannot expect better meat and better usage Pet. 'T is a match Good night to every body Pisc. And so say I. Viat And so say I. Pisc. Good morrow good Hostis I see my brother Peter is in bed still Come give my Scholer and me a cup of Ale and be sure you get us a good dish of meat against supper for we shall come hither as hungry as Hawks Come Scholer le ts be going Viat Good Master as we walk towards the water wil you be pleased to make the way seeme shorter by telling me first the nature of the Trout and then how to catch him Pisc. My honest Scholer I wil do it freely The Trout for which I love to angle above any fish may be justly said as the ancient Poets say of Wine and we English say of Venson to be a generous fish because he has his seasons a fish that comes in and goes out with the Stag or Buck and you are to observe that as there be some barren Does that are good in Summer so there be some barren Trouts that are good in Winter but there are not many that are so for usually they be in their perfection in the month of May and decline with the Buck Now you are to take notice that in several Countries as in Germany and in other parts compar'd to ours they differ much in their bigness shape and other wayes and so do Trouts 't is wel known that in the Lake Lemon the Lake of Geneva there are Trouts taken of three Cubits long as is affirmed by Gesner a Writer of good credit and Mercator sayes 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 certaine waters that breed Trouts remarkable both for their number and smalness I know a little Brook in Kent that breeds them to a number incredible and you may take them twentie or fortie in an hour but none greater then about the size of a Gudgion There are also in divers Rivers especially that relate to or be near to the Sea as VVinchester or the Thames about VVindsor a little Trout called a Samlet or Skegger Trout in both which places I have caught twentie or fortie 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 bee bigger then a Herring There is also in Kent neer to Canterbury a Trout called there a Fordig Trout a Trout that bears the name of the Town where'tis usually caught that is accounted rare meat many of them near the bigness of a Salmon but knowne by their different colour and in their best season cut very white and none have been known to be caught with an Angle unless it were one that was caught by honest Sir George Hastings an excellent Angler and now withGod and he has told me he thought that Trout bit not for hunger but wantonness and 't is the rather to be believed because both he then and many others before him have been curious to search into their bellies what the food was by which they lived and have found out nothing by which they might satisfie their curiositie Concerning which you are to take notice that it is reported there is a fish that hath not any mouth but lives by taking breath by the porinss of her gils and feeds and is nourish'd by no man knows what and this may be believed of the Fordig Trout which as it is said of the Stork that he knowes 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 about three in the River of Fordig And now for some confirmation of this 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 Swallowes which are not seen to flye in England for six months in the year but about Michaelmas leave us for a hotter climate yet some of them that have been left behind their fellows have been found many thousand at a time in hollow trees 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 amongst us to bee doubted And so much for these Fordidg 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 vertue of the fresh water only as the Camelion is said to live by the air There is also in Northumberland a Trout called a Bull Trout of a much greater length and bignesse then any in these Southern parts and there is in many Rivers that relate to the Sea Salmon Trouts as much different one from another both in shape and in their spots as we see Sheep differ one from another in their shape and bigness and in the finess of their wool and certainly as some Pastures do 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 then 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
hour and sate as quietly and as free from cares under this Sycamore as Virgils Tityrus and his Melibaeus did under their broad Beech tree No life my honest Scholer no life so happy and so pleasant as the Anglers unless it be the Beggers life in Summer for then only they take no care but are as happy as we Anglers Viat Indeed Master and so they be as is witnessed by the beggers Song made long since by Frank Davison a good Poet who was not a Begger though he were a good Poet Pisc. Can you sing it Scholer Viat Sit down a little good Master and I wil try Bright shines the Sun play beggers play here 's scraps enough to serve to day What noise of viols is so sweet As when our merry clappers ring What mirth doth want when beggers meet A beggers 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 beggers c. 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 beggers fill Play beggers play play beggers play here 's scraps enough to serve to day A hundred herds of black and white Upon our Gowns securely feed And yet if any If any dare us bite He dies therefore as sure as Creed Thus beggers Lord it as they please And only beggers live at ease Bright shines the Sun play beggers play here 's scraps enough to serve to day Pisc. I thank you good Scholer this Song was well humor'd by the maker and well remembred and sung by you and I pray forget not the K 〈…〉 tch which you promised to make against night for our Country man honest Coridon will expect your Ketch and my Song which I must be forc'd to patch up for it is so long since I learnt it that I have forgot a part of it But come le ts stretch our legs a little in a gentle walk to the River and try what 〈…〉 erest our Angles wil pay us for lending them so long to be used by the Trouts Viat Oh me look you Master a fish a fish Pisc. I marry Sir that was a good fish indeed if I had had the luck to have taken up that Rod 't is twenty to one he should not have broke my line by running to the Rods end as you suffered him I would have held him unless he had been fellow to the great Trout that is neer an ell long which had his picture drawne and now to be seen at mine Hoste Rickabies at the George in Ware and it may be by giving that 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 alwaies to do when I meet with an over-grown fish and you will learn to do so hereafter for I tell you Scholer fishing is an Art or at least it is an Art to catch fish Viat But Master will this Trout die for it is like he has the hook in his belly Pisc. I wil tel you Scholer that unless the hook be fast in his very Gorge he wil live and a little time with the help of the water wil rust the hook it wil in time wear away as the gravel does in the horse hoof which only leaves a false quarter And now Scholer le ts go to my Rod Look you Scholer I have a fish too but it proves a loggerheaded Chub and this is not much a miss for this wil pleasure some poor body as we go to our lodging to meet our brother Peter and honest Coridon Come now bait your hook again and lay it into the water for it rains again and we wil ev'n retire to the Sycamore tree and there I wil give you more directions concerning fishing for I would fain make you an Artist Viat Yes good Master I pray let it be so CHAP. V. Pisc. VVEL Scholer now we are sate downe and are at ease I shall tel 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 then the best are out of their holds 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 for in a place where the water runs somewhat quietly for in a stream it wil not be so well discerned I say in a quiet or dead place neer 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 wil take it especially if the night be dark for then he lies boldly neer the top of the water watching the motion of any Frog or Water-mouse or Rat betwixt him and the skie which he hunts for if he sees the water but wrinkle or move in one of these dead holes wher the great Trouts usually lye neer to their hold 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 nay he will somtimes rise at a dead Mouse or a piece of cloth or any thing that seemes to swim cross the water or to be in motion this is a choice way but I have not oft used it because it is void of the pleasures that such dayes as these that we now injoy afford an Angler And you are to know that in Hamp-shire which I think exceeds all England for pleasant Brooks and store of Trouts they use to catch Trouts in the night by the light of a Torch or straw which when they have discovered they strike with a Trout spear this kind of way they catch many but I would not believe it till I was an eye-witness of it nor like it now I have seen it Viat But Master do not Trouts see us in the night Pisc. Yes and hear and smel too both then and in the day time for Gesner observes the Otter smels a fish forty furlong off him in the water and that it may be true is affirmed by Sir Francis Bacon in the eighth Century of his Natural History who there proves that waters may be the Medium of sounds by demonstrating it thus That if you knock two stones together very deep under the water those that stand on a bank neer to that place may hear the noise without any diminution of it by the water He also offers the like experiment concerning the letting an Anchor fall by a very long Cable or rope on a Rock or the sand within the Sea and this being so well observed and demonstrated as it
is by that learned man has made me to believe that Eeles unbed themselves and stir at the noise of the Thunder and not only as some think by the motion or the stirring of the earth which is occasioned by that Thunder And this reason of Sir Francis Bacons has made me crave pardon of one that I laught at for affirming that he knew Carps come to a certain place in a Pond to be fed at the ringing of a Bel and it shall be a rule for me to make as little noise as I can when I am a fishing until Sir Francis Bacon be confuted which I shal give any man leave to do and so leave off this Philosophical discourse for a discourse of fishing Of which my next shall be to tell you it is certain that certain fields neer Lemster a Town in Herefordshire are observed that they make the Sheep that graze upon them more fat then 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 yeeld finer wool then the yeer before they came to feed in it and courser again if they shall return to their former pasture and again return to a finer wool being fed in the fine wool ground Which I tell you that you may the better believe that I am certain If I catch a Trout in one Meadow he shall be white and faint and very like to be lowsie and as certainly if I catch a Trout in the next Meadow he shal be strong and red and lusty and much better meat Trust me Scholer I have caught many a Trout in a particular Meadow that the very shape and inamelled colour of him has joyed me to look upon him and I have with Solomon concluded Every thing is beautifull in his season It is now time to tell you next according to promise some observations of the Salmon But first I wil tel you there is a fish called by some an Umber and by some a Greyling a choice fish esteemed by many to be equally good with the Trout it is a fish that is usually about eighteen inches long he lives in such streams as the Trout does and is indeed taken with the same bait as a Trout is for he will bite both at the Minnow the Worm and the Fly both Natural and Artificial of this fish there be many in Trent and in the River that runs by Salisbury and in some other lesser Brooks but he is not so general a fish as the Trout nor to me either so good to eat or so pleasant to fish for as the Trout is of which two fishes I will now take my leave and come to my promised Observations of the Salmon and a little advice for the catching him CHAP. VI THE Salmon is ever bred in the fresh Rivers and in most Rivers about the month of August and never grows big but in the Sea and there to an incredible bigness in a very short time to which place they covet to swim by the instinct of nature about a set time but if they be stopp'd by Mills Floud-gates or Weirs or be by accident lost in the fresh water when the others go which is usually by flocks or sholes then they thrive not And the old Salmon both the Melter and Spawner strive also to get into the Sea before Winter but being stopt that course or lost gro v sick in fresh waters and by degrees unseasonable and kipper that is to have a bony gristle to grow not unlike a Hauks beak on one of his chaps which hinders him from feeding and then he pines and dies But if he gets to Sea then that gristle 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 above ten years And it is to be observed that though they grow big in the Sea yet they grow not fat but in fresh Rivers and it is observed that the farther they get from the Sea the better they be And it is observed that to the end they may get far from the Sea either to Spawne or to possess the pleasure that they then and there find they will force themselves over the tops of Weirs or Hedges or stops in the water by taking their tails into their mouthes and leaping over those places even to a height beyond common belief and sometimes by forcing themselves against the streame through Sluces and Floud-gates beyond common credit And 't is observed by Gesner that there is none bigger then in England nor none better then in Thames And for the Salmons sudden growth it has been observed by tying a Ribon in the tail of some number of the young Salmons which have been taken in Weires as they swimm'd towards the salt water and then by taking a part of them again with the same mark at the same place at their returne 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 oserved to return to the same chimney there to make their nests and their habitations for the Summer following which hath inclined many to think that every Salmon usually returns to the same River in which it was bred as young Pigeons taken out of the same Dove-cote have also been observed to do And you are yet to observe further that the He Salmon susually bigger then the Spawner and that he is more kipper less able to endure a winter in the fresh water then the She is yet she is at that time of looking less kipper and better as watry and as bad meat And yet you are to observe that as there is no general rule without an exception so there is some few Rivers in this Nation that have Trouts and Salmon in season in winter But for the observations of that and many other things I must in manners omit because they wil prove too large for our narrow compass of time and therefore I shall next fall upon my direction how to fish for the Salmon And for that first you shall observe that usually he staies not long in a place as Trouts wil but as I said covets still to go neerer the Spring head and that he does not as the Trout and many other fish lie neer the water side or bank or roots of trees but swims usually in the middle and neer 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
in my judgment if it deserves to be commended it is more then justified for some practices that may be justified deserve no commendation yet there are none that deserve commendation but may be justified And now having said thus much by way of preparation I am next to tell you that in ancient times a debate hath risen and it is not yet resolved Whether Contemplation or Action be the chiefest thing wherin the happiness of a man doth most consist in this world Concerning which some have maintained 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 that God injoyes himself only by Contemplation of his own Goodness Eternity Infiniteness and Power and the like and upon this ground many of them prefer Contemplation before Action and indeed many of the Fathers seem to approve this opinion as may appear in their Comments upon the words of our Saviour to * Martha And contrary to these others of equal Authority and credit have preferred Action to be chief as experiments in Physick and the application of it both for the ease and prolongation of mans life by which man is enabled to act and to do good to others And they say also That Action is not only Doctrinal but a maintainer of humane Society and for these and other reasons to be preferr'd before Contemplation Concerning which two opinions I shall forbear to add a third by declaring my own and rest my self contented in telling you my worthy friend that both these meet together and do most properly belong to the most honest ingenious harmless Art of Angling And first I shall tel you what some have observed and I have sound in my self That the very sitting by the Rivers side is not only the fittest place for but will invite the Anglers to Contemplation That it is the fittest place seems to be witnessed by the children of Israel * who having banish'd all mirth and Musick from their pensive hearts and having hung up their then mute Instruments upon the Willow trees growing by the Rivers of Babylon sate down upon those banks bemoaning the ruines of Sion and contemplating their own sad condition And an ingenuous Spaniard sayes That both Rivers and the inhabitants of the watery Element were created for wise men to contemplate and fools to pass by without consideration And though I am too wise to rank my self in the first number yet give me leave to free my self from the last by offering to thee a short contemplation first of Rivers and then of Fish concerning which I doubt not but to relate to you many things very considerable Concerning Rivers there be divers wonders reported of them by Authors of such credit that we need not deny them an Historical faith As of a River in Epirus that puts out any lighted Torch and kindles any Torch that was not lighted Of the River Selarus that in a few hours turns a rod or a wand into stone and our Camden mentions the like wonder in England that there is 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 then Aristotle tels us of a merry River the River Elusina that dances at the noise of Musick that with Musick it bubbles dances and growes sandy but returns to a wonted calmness and clearness when the Musick ceases And lastly for I would not tire your patience Fosephus that learned Few tells us of a River in Fudea that runs and moves swiftly all the six dayes of the week and stands still and rests upon their Sabbath day 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 Gods providence Lord who hath praise enough nay who hath any None can express thy works but he that knows them And none can know thy works they are so many And so complete but only he that owes them We all acknowledge both thy power and love To be exact transcendent and divine Who dost so strangely and so sweetly move Whilst all things have their end yet none but thine Wherefore most Sacred Spirit I here present For me and all my fellows praise to thee And just it is that I should pay the rent Because the benefit accrues to me And as concerning Fish in that Psalm wherein for height of Poetry and Wonders the Prophet David seems even to exceed himself how doth he there express himselfe in choice Metaphors even to the amazement of a contemplative Reader concerning the Sea the Rivers and the Fish therein contained And the great Naturallist Pliny sayes That Natures great and wonderful power is more demonstrated in the Sea then 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 Randelitius Pliny Aristotle and others is demonstrated But I will sweeten this discourse also out of a contemplation in Divine Dubartas who sayes God quickned 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 is to be found As if the world were in deep waters drownd For seas as well as Skies have Sun Moon Stars As wel as air Swallows Rooks and Stares As wel as earth Vines Roses Nettles Melons Mushroms Pinks Gilliflowers and many milions Of other plants more rare more strange then these As very fishes living in the seas And 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 Fryer 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 then their different natures inclinations and actions concerning which I shall beg your patient ear a little longer The Cuttle-fish wil cast a long gut out of her throat which like as an Angler does his line she sendeth forth and pulleth in again at her pleasure according as she sees some little fish come neer 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 shee by little and little draws the smaller fish so neer to her that she may leap upon her and then catches and devours her and for this reason some have called this fish the SeaAngler There are also lustful and chaste fishes of which I shall also give you examples And first what Dubartas sayes of a fish called the Sargus which because none can express it better
some call a Penke or with a Fly And you are to observe that he is very very seldom observed to bite at a Minnow yet sometime he will and not oft at a fly but more usually at a Worm and then most usually at a Lob or Garden worm which should be wel scowred that is to say seven or eight dayes in Moss before you fish with them and if you double your time of eight into sixteen or more into twenty or more days it is still the better for the worms will stil be clearer tougher and more lively and continue so longer upon your hook 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 have ask'd him his reason and he has replied He did but pick the best out to be in a readiness against he baited his hook the next time But he has been observed both by others and my self to catch more fish then I or any other body that has ever gone a fishing with him could do especially S 〈…〉 s and I have been told lately by one of his most intimate and secret friends that the box in which he put those worms was anointed with a drop or two or three of the Oil of Ivy-berries made by expression or infusion and that by the wormes remaining in that box an hour or a like time they had incorporated a kind of smel that was irresistibly attractive enough to force any fish within the smel of them to bite This I heard not long since from a friend but have not tryed it yet I grant it probable and refer my Reader to Sir Francis Bacons Natural History where he proves fishes may hear and I am certain Gesner sayes the Otter can smell in the water and know not but that fish may do so too 't is left for a lover of Angling or any that desires to improve that Art to try this conclusion I shall also impart another experiment but not tryed by my selfe which I wil deliver in the same words as it was by a friend given me in writing Take the stinking oil drawn out of Poly pody of the Oak by a retort mixt with Turpentine and Hivehoney and annoint your hait therewith and it will doubtlesse draw the fish to it But in these things I have no great faith yet grant it probable and have had from some chimical 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 then one sort of them as namely a Tecon and another called in some places a Samlet or by some a Skegger but these and others which I forbear to name may be fish of another kind and differ as we know a Herring and a Pilcher do but must by me be left to the disquisitions of men of more leisure and of greater abilities then I profess my self 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 black or blackish spots which gives them such an addition of natural beautie as I that yet am no enemy to it 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 and proceed to some Observations of the Pike CHAP. VII Pisc. IT is not to be doubted but that the Luce or Pikrell or Pike breeds by Spawning and yet Gesner sayes that some of them breed where none ever was out of a weed called Pikrell-weed and other glutinous matter which with the help of the Suns heat proves in some particular ponds apted by nature for it to become Pikes Sir Francis Bacon observes the Pike to be the longest lived of any fresh water fish and yet that his life is not usually above fortie years and yet Gesner mentions a Pike taken in Swedeland in the year 1449 with a Ring about his neck declaring he was put into the Pond by Frederick the second more then two hundred years before he was last taken as the Inscription of that Ring being Greek was interpreted 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 then goodness the smaller or middle siz'd Pikes being by the most and choicest palates observed to be the best meat but contrary the Eele 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 his owne kind which has made him by some Writers to bee called the Tyrant of the Rivers or the Fresh water-wolf by reason of his bold greedy devouring disposition which is so keen as Gesner relates a man going to a Pond where it seems a Pike had devoured all the fish to water his Mule had a Pike bit his Mule by the lips to which the Pike hung so fast that the Mule drew him out of the water and by that accident the owner of the Mule got the Pike I tell you who relates it and shall with it tel you what a wise man has observed It is a hard thing to perswade the belly because it hath no ears But if this relation of Gesners bee dis-believed it is too evident to bee doubted that a Pike will devoure a fish of his own kind that shall be bigger then this belly or throat will receive and swallow a part of him and let the other part remaine 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 And it is observed that the Pike will eat venemous 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 Balsome or Antidote against all Poison and others that he never eats a venemous Frog till he hath 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 venemous so throughly washt her by tumbling her up and down in the water that he may devour her without danger And Gesner affirms that a Polonian Gentleman did faithfully assure him he had
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