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 half 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 deepness 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 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 th 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 sportingplace 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, or hook, or hold, will break and after you have overcome them, they will make noble sport, and are very shy to be landed. Carp is far stronger and more mettlesome than the Bream.

The

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 groundbait, 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 morning 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 onehalf of the rest of your ground-bait, and stand off; then whilst the fish are 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 evening, 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 mean time, 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.

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.

CHAP. XI. On the Tench.

*

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 commended 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 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

* The following directions for dressing the Tench, as practised in the fourteenth century, is taken from the Harleian MS. No. 279, fo. 18 b: "Tenche in bruette. Take the Tenche an sethe hem and roste hem, an grynde pepir, an safroun, bred and ale, and tempere wyth the brothe an boyle it, then take the Tenche y rostyd an ley hym on a chargeoure, than lay on the sewe above.

Tenche in eyneye. Take a Tenche an skalde hym, roste hym, grynde pepir an safroun, brede an ale, and messe it to gederys, take onyonys, hakke hem an frye hem in oyle, and do hem thereto and messe hem forth.

"Tenche in sawce. Take a Tenche whan he is y sothe, and ley hym on a dysshe, take percely and onyonys and mynce hem to gederys, take pouder pepir and canelle and straw thereon, take vynegre an caste safroun thereon, an coloure it an serve it forth whanne all colde."

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 revelation; for, doubtless, we attained them not by study. 5

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 physic 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

VARIATION.

5 The observations on the Tench originally appeared in very different form, but with the exception of the passage beginning "and yet it is thought," and ending "not by study," were altered as in the text in the second edition. The passage alluded to was inserted in the third and subsequent editions. The first edition ran thus: "The Tench is observed to love to live in ponds: but if he be in a river, then in the still places of the river; he is observed to be a physician to other fishes, and is so called by many that have been searchers into the nature of fish; and it is said that a pike will neither devour ner hurt him, because the pike being sick or hurt by any accident, is cured by touching the Tench, and the Tench does the like to other fishes, either by touching them or by being in their company.

"Rondeletius says in his discourse of fishes, quoted by Gesner, that at his being at Rome, he saw certain Jews apply Tenches to the feet of a sick man for a cure: and it is observed, that many of those people have many secrets unknown to Christians, secrets which have never been written, but have been successively, since the days of Solomon, who knew the nature of all things from the shrub to the cedar, 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 so, they account a prophanation: yet this fish that does by a natural inbred balsam, not only cure himself if he be wounded, but others also, loves not to live in clear streams paved with gravel, but in standing waters where mud and the worst of weeds abound, and therefore it is I think, that this Tench is by so many accounted better for medicines than for meat: but for the first I am able to say little, and for the latter, can say positively, that he eats pleasantly, and will therefore give you a few and but a few directions how to catch him.

"He will bite at a paste," &c., as in the text.

* That this idea prevailed nearly a century before the time when Walton wrote, appears by the following extract from Lord Burleigh's Papers: "The perche and the pike will agree best together, and the pike will not hurt the tenche, as being the physician of all freshe-water fishe."-Burleigh Papers, Lansd. MS. 101, art. 9