to make against night; for our countryman, honest Coridon, will expect your catch, and my song, which I must be forced to patch up, for it is so long since I learnt it, that I have forgot a part of it. But, come, now it hath done raining, let's stretch our legs a little in a gentle walk to the river, and try what interest our angles will pay us for lending them so long to be used by the Trouts ; lent them indeed, like usurers, for our profit and their destruction.

VENATOR. Oh me! look you, master, a fish! a fish! Oh, alas, master, I have lost her.

PISCATOR. 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 broke 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 George in Ware,5 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,

VARIATION.

5 I would have held him, unless he had been fellow to the great Trout that is near an ell long, which had his picture drawn, and now is to be seen, &c.-1st edit.

*In the reign of Charles the Second a Trout was taken in the river Kennet near Newbury, with a casting net, which measured forty-five inches in length. Gainsford, in "The Glory of England," 4to, Lond. 1619, p. 147, mentions one taken near Tyrone, forty-six inches long, "the portraiture of which worthy Sir Josias Bodley hath depicted in plano." The largest Trout known to have been caught with a minnow, in the South of England, was taken in 1755, by Mr Howell of Cateaton Street, at Hambledon Lock (between Maidenhead and Henley), the weight of which was sixteen pounds. In 1794, Mr Daniel, the author of "Rural Sports," killed a Trout near Richmond Bridge, that weighed ten pounds and a half; and in the following year, a Mr Jons speared, at Cook's Ferry in the river Lea, a Trout weighing fifteen pounds. An instance of the longevity of the Trout is cited in the Sporting Magazine for September 1826: "Fifty-three years ago Mr William Mossop of Board Hall, near Broughton in Furness, placed a small trout in a well in the orchard belonging to his family, where it has ever since remained until last week, when it died for want of water, the severe drought having dried up the spring by which the well was supplied. This fish would receive from Mr M---'s hands snails, worms, and bread, and always seemed pleased at the presence of its feeder, frequently moving its tail and fins with the greatest rapidity, and approaching the surface of the water. Trout were several times put into the well, which were as constantly devoured by the solitary inmate, who had increased in size, and weighed at his death about two pounds."

PISCATOR. Trust me, scholar, I know not what to say to it. There are many country-people that believe hares change sexes every year and there be very many learned men think so too, for in their dissecting them they find 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 incredible 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.

PISCATOR. I will tell you, scholar, that unless the hook be fast in his very gorge, 'tis more than probable he will live, and a little time, with the help of the water, will rust the hook, and it will in time wear away, as the gravel doth in the horse-hoof, which only leaves a false quarter.

And now, scholar, let's go to my rod. Look you, scholar, I have a fish too, but it proves a logger-headed Chub: and this is not much amiss, for this will pleasure some poor body, as we go to our lodging to meet our brother Peter and honest 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.

PISCATOR. Well, scholar, now we are sate down and are at ease, I shall tell you a little more of Trout-fishing, before I speak of the Salmon, which I purpose shall be next, and then of the Pike or Luce.

*This belief was not confined to "country-people" or to "learned men;" but sportsmen of the highest reputation entertained the same opinion: thus Twety, Master of the Game to King Edward the Second, in a treatise on "The craft of venery," written for that monarch's use, says, "Now we will begyne at the hare. And wherefore at the hare rather then at eny other best, For why? it is the most merveylous beste that is in this lond. And wherfore? For as miche as he berithe grese and crotyth and zongith and so dothe no beste in this land but he, and sume tyme he is male and sume female. And for that cause a man may not blowe meene of hym, as men don of other bestes, but he is enchased." MS. penes G. Baker, Esq. of Northampton. Another copy of the Treatise occurs in the Cotton MS. Vesp. f. xii.

† And mathematician, born at Lusatia in 1525; he married the daughter of Melancthon, wrote many books on various subjects, and died in 1602, aged 78.-H.

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.7

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 with a Trout-spear, or other ways. This kind of way they catch very many but I would not believe it till I was an eyewitness 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

VARIATIONS.

6 and that then the best are out of their holds.-1st and 2d edit. "Holds," a word far preferable to "holes," is used in the first four editions.

7 if the night be dark; for then he lies boldly near the top of the water, watching the motion of any frog or water-mouse, or rat betwixt him and the sky, which he hunts for, &c.-1st edit.

:

daytime 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 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 near 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 Eels unbed themselves and stir at the noise of thunder, and not only, as some think, by the motion or stirring of the earth which is occasioned by that thunder.

And this reason of Sir Francis Bacon,* 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, until Sir Francis Bacon be confuted, which I shall give any man leave to do.8 †

And lest you may think him singular in this opinion, I will tell you, this seems to be believed by our learned Doctor Hakewill, who in his Apology of God's power and providence,‡ quotes Pliny to report that one of the emperors had particular fish-ponds,

VARIATION.

8 In the first edition, Walton adds here, "and so leave off this philosophical discourse, for a discourse of fishing;" and continues, "of which my next shall be to tell you, it is certain, that certain fields," &c., as in a subsequent part of the text with the exception of the passage from St James, which was inserted in the third edition.

* Exper. 792.

See

That fish hear, is confirmed by the authority of late writers: Swammerdam asserts it, and adds, that "they have a wonderful labyrinth of the ear for that purpose." Swammerdam, Of Insects, edit. London, 1758, p. 50. A clergyman, a friend of mine, assures me, that at the abbey of St Bernard, near Antwerp, he saw Carp come at the whistling of the feeder.-H.

"f. 360." This book, which was published in folio, 1635, and is full of excellent learning and good sense, contains an examination and censure of that common error which philosophers have fallen into, "that there is in nature a perpetual and universal decay;" the contrary whereof, after an extensive view of the history of the physical and moral world, and a judicious and impartial comparison of former ages with that wherein the author lived, is with great force of argument demonstrated. The reader may, in this book, meet with a relation of that instance of Lord Cromwell's gratitude to Sig. Frescobaldi, a Florentine merchant, which is given, in a dramatic form, in the History of Thomas Lord Cromwell, published as Shakespeare's by some of the earlier editors of his works.-H. See Le Neve's Fasti. Lloyd's Memoirs, p. 540. Wood's Hist. and Antiq. Oxon. 1. ii. p. 204. Athen, Oxon. 1. ii. 64. Dr Hakewill was rector of Exeter College, Oxford: and had the living of Heanton, near Barnstaple, in Devonshire, where he died in the beginning of April 1649.-E.