Where we may Think and pray, Stops our breath: Are but toys, And to be lamented.-Jo. CHALKHILL. VEN. Well sung, master: this day's fortune and pleasure, and this night's company and song, do all make me more and more in love with angling. Gentlemen, my master left me alone for an hour this day; and I verily believe he retired himself from talking with me, that he might be so perfect in this song: was it not, master? PISC. Yes indeed; for it is many years since I learned it, and having forgotten a part of it, I was forced to patch it up by the help of mine own invention, who am not excellent at poetry, as my part of the song may testify: but of that I will say no more, lest you should think I mean by discommending it to beg your commendations of it. And therefore, without replications, let us hear your catch, scholar, which I hope will be a good one; for you are both musical, and have a good fancy to boot. VEN. Marry, and that you shall; and as freely as I would have my honest master tell me some more secrets of fish and fishing as we walk and fish towards London to-morrow. But, master, first let me tell you, that very hour which you were absent from me, I sat down under a willow tree by the waterside, and considered what you had told me of the owner of that pleasant meadow in which you had then left me; that he had a plentiful estate, and not a heart to think so; that he had at this time many law-suits depending, and that they both damped his mirth and took up so much of his time and thoughts, that he himself had not leisure to take the sweet content that I, who pretended no title to them, took in his fields: for I could sit there quietly; and looking on the * There is so much fine and useful morality included in this sentiment, that to let it pass would be inexcusable in one who pretends to illustrate the author's meaning, or display his excellence. The precept which he evidently meant to inculcate, is a very comfortable one, viz., that some of the greatest pleasures human nature is capable of, lie open and in common to the poor as well as the rich. It is not necessary that a man should have the fee-simple of all the land in prospect from Windsor Terrace or Richmond Hill, to enjoy the beauty of those two delightful situations; nor can we imagine that no one but Lord Burlington was ever delighted in the view of his most elegant villa at Chiswick, now his grace the Duke of Devonshire's.-H. water, see some fishes sport themselves in the silver streams, others leaping at flies of several shapes and colours; looking on the hills, I could behold them spotted with woods and groves; looking down the meadows, could see, here a boy gathering lilies and lady-smocks, and there a girl cropping culverkeys and cowslips, all to make garlands suitable to this present month of May: these, and many other field-flowers, so perfumed the air, that I thought that very meadow like that field in Sicily of which Diodorus speaks, where the perfumes arising from the place make all dogs that hunt in it to fall off, and to lose their hottest scent. I say, as I thus sat, joying in my own happy condition, and pitying this poor rich man that owned this and many other pleasant groves and meadows about me, I did thankfully remember what my Saviour said, that the meek possess the earth; or rather, they enjoy what the others possess and enjoy not; for anglers and meek quiet-spirited men are free from those high, those restless thoughts, which corrode the sweets of life; and they, and they only, can say, as the poet has happily expressed it: Hail blest estate of lowliness! Happy enjoyments of such minds Can, like the reeds in roughest winds, There came also into my mind, at that time, certain verses in praise of a mean estate and an humble mind; they were written by Phineas Fletcher, an excellent divine, and an excellent angler, and the author of excellent piscatory eclogues, in which you shall see the picture of this good man's mind, and I wish mine to be like it.* No empty hopes, no courtly fears him fright; * It would be great injustice to the memory of this person, whose name is now hardly known, to pass him by without notice. He was the son of Giles Fletcher, doctor of laws, and ambassador from Queen Elizabeth to the Duke of Muscovy; a fellow of King's College, Cambridge, and the author of a fine allegorical poem, intitled, "The Purple Island," printed at Cambridge, with other of his poems, in 4to, 1633; from whence the passage in the text, with a little variation, is taken.-H. His certain life, that never can deceive him, Is full of thousand sweets and rich content; Or the vexatious world, or lost in slothful ease;" His bed, more safe than soft, yields quiet sleeps, 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— And when he dies, green turfs do for a tomb content him. Gentlemen, these were a part of the thoughts that then possessed me. And I here made a conversion of a piece of an old catch, and added more to it, fitting them to be sung by anglers. Come, master, you can sing well; you must sing a part of it as it is in this paper. PETER. Ay marry, sir, this is music indeed; this has cheered my heart, and made me to remember six verses in praise of music, which I will speak to you instantly. Music! miraculous rhetoric, that speakest sense Without a tongue, excelling eloquence; With what ease might thy errors be excused, Wert thou as truly loved as thou'rt abused! But thou dull souls neglect, and some reprove thee, I cannot hate thee, 'cause the angels love thee. VEN. And the repetition of these last verses of music has called to my memory what Mr. Ed. Waller,* a lover of the angle, says of love and music. * As the author's concern for the honour of angling induced him to enumerate such persons of note as were lovers of that recreation, the reader will allow me to add Mr. John Gay to the number. Any one who reads the first canto of his "Georgic," intitled "Rural Sports," and observes how beautifully and accurately he treats the subject of fly-fishing, would conclude the author a proficient: but that it was his chief amusement, I have been assured, by an intimate friend of mine, who has frequently fished with him in the river Kennet, at Amesbury in Wilts, the seat of his grace the Duke of Queensberry. The reader will excuse the following addition to this note, for the sake of a beautiful description of the material used in fly-making, which is quoted from the above-mentioned poem :— "To frame the little animal, provide All the gay hues that wait on female pride: Let nature guide thee; sometimes golden wire Whilst I listen to thy voice, Chloris, I feel my heart decay: That powerful noise Calls my fleeting soul away: Which destroys without a wound! Peace, Chloris, peace, or singing die, To heaven may go; For all we know Of what the blessed do above Is that they sing, and that they love. PISC. Well remembered, brother Peter: these verses came seasonably, and we thank you heartily. Come, we will all join together, my host and all, and sing my scholar's catch over again, and then each man drink the other cup, and to bed, and thank God we have a dry house over our heads. PISC. Well now, good night to everybody. PETER. And so say I. VEN. And so say I. COR. Good night to you all, and I thank you. Lfifth Day.] PISC. Good-morrow, brother Peter, and the like to you, honest Coridon: come, my hostess says there is seven shillings The peacock's plumes thy tackle must not fail, Furs, pearls, and plumes, the glittering thing displays, [NOTE. Very few gaudy flies are necessary for artificial flies for the common trout. Sombre-hued are generally the best. All the materials, except silk, for making them are produced in this country, feathers and furs, except the yellow monkey's and bear's fur. It is only for salmon-fly materials that we are obliged to have recourse to the gaudy feathers of the birds of the New World, and of those of Africa and Asia. The common cock of different colours, the starling, the mallard, the partridge, the pheasant, the green and grey plover, the wren, grouse, tom-tit, red-wing, landrail, dotterel, furnish the usual feathers. The water-rat, squirrel, hedgehog, seal, spaniel, hare, cow, pig, furnish furs or woolly substances, which, together with mohair and floss-silk of different colours, are the general substances of which the bodies of trout-flies are fashioned.-ED.] to pay: let us each man drink a pot for his morning's draught, and lay down his two shillings; that so my hostess may not have occasion to repent herself of being so diligent, and using us so kindly. PETER. The motion is liked by everybody; and so, hostess, here's your money: we anglers are all beholding 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, Coridon, this is our way. CHAPTER XVII. OF ROACH AND DACE, AND HOW TO FISH FOR THEM; Lfifth Day.] VEN. 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, scholar, that I will, and I will hide nothing from you that I can remember, and can think may help you forward towards a perfection in this art. And because we have so much time, and I have said so little of roach and dace, I 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 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, a fortnight after spawning; the barbel and chub in a month: the trout in four months; and the salmon in the like time, if he gets into the sea, and after into fresh water. Roaches be accounted much better in the river than in a pond, though ponds usually breed the biggest. But there is |