grown so common, that, though we have very good laws to punish such offenders, every rascal does it, for ought I see, impuné.

To conclude, I cannot now in honesty but frankly tell you, that many of these flies I have named, at least so made as we make them here, will peradventure do you no great service in your southern rivers; and will not conceal from you, but that I have sent flies to several friends in London, that for ought I could ever hear, never did any great feats with them; and therefore if you intend to profit by my instructions, you must come to angle with me here in the Peak; and so, if you please, let us walk up to supper, and to-morrow, if the day be windy, as our days here commonly are, 'tis ten to one but we shall take a good dish of fish for dinner.

CHAPTER IX

ISC. A good day to you,
be stirring before me.

sir; I see

I see you

will always

VIAT. Why, to tell you the truth, I am so allured with the sport I had yesterday, that I long to be at the river again; and when I heard the wind sing in my chamber window, could forbear no longer, but leapt out of bed, and had just made an end of dressing myself as you came in.

PISC. Well, I am both glad you are so ready for the day, and that the day is so fit for you; and look you, I have made you three or four flies this morning; this silver-twist hackle, this bear's dun, this light brown, and this dark brown, any of which I dare say will do; but you may try them all, and see which does best; only I must ask your pardon that I cannot wait upon you this morning, a little business being fallen out, that for two or three hours will deprive me of your company: but I'll come and call you home to dinner, and my man shall attend you.

VIAT. Oh, sir, mind your affairs by all means. Do but lend me a little of your skill to these fine flies, and, unless it have for

saken me since yesterday, I shall find luck of my own, I hope, to do something.

PISC. The best instruction I can give you is, that seeing the wind curls the water, and blows the right way, you would now angle up the still deep to-day; for betwixt the rocks where the streams are, you will find it now too brisk; and besides, I would have you take fish in both waters.

VIAT. I'll obey your direction, and so good morning to you. Come, young man, let you and I walk together. But hark you, sir, lesson for angling

I have not done with you yet; I expect another at the bottom, in the afternoon.

PISC. Well, sir, I'll be ready for you.

CHAPTER X

ISC. Oh, sir, are you returned? you have but just prevented me. I was coming to call you.

VIAT. I am glad then I have saved you the labour.

PISC. And how have you sped?

VIAT. You shall see that, sir, presently; look you, sir, here are three brace of trouts, one of them the biggest but one that ever I killed with a fly in my life and yet I lost a bigger than that, with my fly to boot; and here are three graylings, and one of them longer by some inches than that I took yesterday, and yet I thought that a good one, too.

PISC. Why you have made a pretty good morning's work on't; and now, sir, what think you of our river Dove?

VIAT. I think it to be the best trout river in England; and am so far in love with it, that if it were mine, and that I could keep it to myself, I would not exchange that water for all the land it runs over, to be totally debarred from it.

PISC. That compliment to the river speaks you a true lover of the art of angling; and now, sir, to make part of amends for sending you so uncivilly out alone this morning, I will myself dress you this dish of fish for your dinner; walk but into the parlour, you will find one book or other in the window to entertain you the while, and you shall have it presently.

VIAT. Well, sir, I obey you.

PISC. Look you, sir, have I not made haste?

VIAT. Believe me, sir, that you have; and it looks so well, I long to be at it.

PISC. Fall to, then; now, sir, what say you, am I a tolerable cook or no?

VIAT. So good a one, that I did never eat so good fish in my life. This fish is infinitely better than any I ever tasted of the kind in my life; 'tis quite another thing than our trouts about London.

PISC. You would say so, if that trout you eat of were in right season but pray eat of the grayling, which upon my word, at this season is by much the better fish.

VIAT. In earnest and so it is: and I have one request to make to you, which is, that as you have taught me to catch trout and grayling, you will now teach me how to dress them as these are dressed, which questionless is of all other the best way.

PISC. That I will, sir, with all my heart, and am glad you like them so well as to make that request, and they are dressed thus:

Take your trout, wash, and dry him with a clean napkin; then open him, and having taken out his guts, and all the blood, wipe him very clean within, but wash him not, and give him three scotches with a knife to the bone, on one side only. After which take a clean kettle, and put in as much hard stale beer (but it must not be dead), vinegar, and a little white wine and water as will cover the fish you intend to boil; then throw into the liquor a good quantity of salt, the rind of a lemon, a handful of sliced horse-radish root, with a handsome little faggot of rosemary, thyme, and winter savory. Then set your kettle upon a quick fire of wood; and let your liquor boil up to the height before you put in your fish; and then, if there be many, put them in one by one, that they may not so cool the liquor