A CONFERENCE BETWIXT AN ANGLER, A HUNTER, AND A FALCONER; EACH COMMENDING HIS RECREATION. PISCATOR, VENATOR, AUCEPS. Piscator. OU are well overtaken, gentlemen, a good morning to you both; I have stretched my legs up Tottenham Hill to overtake you, hoping your business may occasion you towards Ware, whither I am going this fine fresh May morning.' Venator. Sir, I for my part shall almost answer your hopes; for my purpose is to drink my morning's draught at the Thatch'd 1 Walton opens his scene with a May morning. The old Cromwellian House in Hodsden,' and I think not to rest till I come thither, where I have appointed a friend or two to meet me but for this gentleman that you see with me, I know not how far he intends his journey; he came so lately into my company, that I have scarcely had time to ask him the question. Auceps. Sir, I shall by your favour bear you company as far as Theobald's, and there leave you; for then I turn up to a friend's house, who mews a hawk 3 for me, which I now long to see. trooper, Richard Franks, begins his Contemplative Angler' in the month of April, when he says, "every bough looked big with blessings, and the florid fields and fragrant meadows, adorned with green, send forth their sweet and radiant perfumes to refresh the universe. The early lark, earlier than the sun, salutes the air, whilst blushing Phoebus paints and gilds the azure globe. The birds begin to build their nests, and every bird to choose its mate; whilst the groves and delightful springs celebrate the fragrant month." It is curious, and perhaps interesting, to contrast the different descriptions of country scenery, as found in the writings of two persons of such opposite politics, as Izaak Walton and Richard Franks.-ED. 1 The Thatched House at Hoddesdon is stated by the Rev. Moses Browne to be seventeen miles from London on the Ware road. It is now quite unknown, but it is supposed that a thatched cottage, once distinguished by the sign of the Buffalo's Head, standing at the further side of Hoddesdon, on the left of the road in going towards Ware, was the actual building.-MAJOR. (See view of it, page 63.) 2 Theobalds, in the county of Hertford, about twelve miles from London (in the parish of Cheshunt); built by Cecil, Lord Burleigh, who often entertained Queen Elizabeth here. It was much improved by his son, Robert, Earl of Salisbury, who ceded it to King James the First in exchange for Hatfield. The park has been converted into farms. The small remains of Theobalds were demolished in 1765 by Mr. Prescott, who leased out the site of it to a builder, and erected a house for himself, about a mile to the south of it, which is now the seat of Sir G. W. Prescott, Bart. Its ancient magnificence is described by the early topographers in glowing terms, especially by Norden and Chauncy. And since by Lysons and Clutterbuck. (See a view of Theobalds, after an engraving published in the Vetusta Monumenta, at page 62.) 3 Mews a hawk, from the French word mué: the care taken of a hawk during the moulting season, from about the first of March till August; hence the places where hawks were trained and kept were called Mews. The King's Mews at Charing Cross, an area of about four acres, existed for two centuries (Edw. III. to Hen. VIII.) as a receptacle for hawks, but after 1537 was used as stables, and so gave a new acceptation to the term. The King's-mews was demolished in 1830 to make way for the improvements; and Trafalgar-square, the National Gallery, &c. now occupy its site. Ven. Sir, we are all so happy as to have a fine, fresh, cool morning, and I hope we shall each be the happier in the other's company. And, gentlemen, that I may not lose yours, I shall either abate or amend my pace to enjoy it; knowing that, as the Italians say, good company in a journey makes the way to seem the shorter. Auc. It may do so, sir, with the help of good discourse, which, methinks, we may promise from you, that both look and speak so cheerfully and for my part I promise you, as an invitation to it, that I will be as free and open-hearted, as discretion will allow me to be with strangers. : Ven. And, sir, I promise the like. Pisc. I am right glad to hear your answer; and, in confidence you speak the truth, I shall put on a boldness to ask you, sir, whether business or pleasure caused you to be so early up, and walk so fast; for this other gentleman hath declared he is going to see a hawk, that a friend mews for him. Ven. Sir, mine is a mixture of both, a little business and more pleasure; for I intend this day to do all my business, and then bestow another day or two in hunting the otter,' 1 Hunting the Otter.-"Otter-hunting is now almost obsolete, and has disappeared from the Lea, and nearly all the rivers of the Metropolitan counties. The huntsmen assembled on each side of the river where an otter was supposed to harbour, beating up the hollow banks, reed-beds, and sedges, with hounds trained solely for that purpose; and, if the game" were at hand, its 'seal,' or the impression produced by the round ball under the soles of its feet, was soon discovered in the mud. Every hunter was armed with a spear, to assist the dogs, and attack the animal when it came to the surface of the water to breathe or vent; but if the otter were not found by the river-side, it was traced by its seal, the fragments of its prey, and the 'spraints' or soil, to the place where it had gone to couch. The otter, when wounded, bites violently, and makes towards land; although the male-otter never utters a cry the pregnant females give a very shrill scream. When the otter fastens upon the dogs in the water, it dives with them, carries them far below the surface, and will seldom quit its hold but with life. The hunting of an otter will last three or four hours, and the most successful time for the pursuit is in snow and hard frost. Otter dogs are a breed between the harrier and the terrier, and are of great strength and activity."-MAJOR. Ephemera says, "This amphibious animal is destructive to small river fish; but, strange as it may appear, proves the conservator of salmon, by destroying trout, its worst enemy. The otter, in open water, can seldom catch the salmon, which is too fleet for him, but can run down the trout and which a friend that I go to meet, tells me, is much pleasanter than any other chase whatsoever; howsoever I mean to try it; for to-morrow morning we shall meet a pack of otter-dogs of noble Mr. Sadler's,' upon Amwell-hill, who will be there so early, that they intend to prevent the sun-rising. Pisc. Sir, my fortune has answered my desires, and my purpose is to bestow a day or two in helping to destroy some of those villainous vermin, for I hate them perfectly, because they love fish so well, or rather, because they destroy so much; indeed so much, that in my judgment, all men that keep otter-dogs, ought to have pensions from the King to encourage them to destroy the breed of these base otters, they do so much mischief. Ven. But what say you to the foxes of the nation, would not you as willingly have them destroyed? for doubtless they do as much mischief as otters do. Pisc. Oh sir, if they do, it is not so much to me and my fraternity, as those base vermin the otters do. Auc. Why, sir, I pray, of what fraternity are you, that you are so angry with the poor otters? Pisc. I am, sir, a brother of the angle, and therefore an enemy to the otter: for you are to note, that we anglers all love one another, and therefore do I hate the otter both for my own and for their sakes who are of my brotherhood. Ven. And I am a lover of hounds; I have followed many a pack of dogs many a mile, and heard many merry huntsmen make sport and scoff at anglers. Auc. And I profess myself a falconer, and have heard many grave, serious men pity them, it is such a heavy, contemptible, dull recreation." kills them in large numbers. When salmon are in the act of spawning, they are surrounded by trout, hungering after the ova, which they would devour were they not beaten off by one or other of the breeding salmon ; and they, moreover, feed voraciously on salmon-fry. Otter-hunting is now principally confined to the midland, western, and northern counties, and to the lowlands of Scotland. The otter packs of the Earl of Aberdeen and the Marquis of Worcester are very celebrated." 1 Mr. Ralph Sadler was the grandson of Sir Ralph Sadler, so conspicuous in the reigns of Henry the Eighth and Queen Elizabeth. "He delighted much in hawking and hunting, and the pleasures of a country life; was famous for his noble table, his great hospitality, and his abundant charity to the poor."-H. Pisc. You know, gentlemen, it is an easy thing to scoff at any art or recreation; a little wit, mixed with ill-nature, confidence, and malice, will do it; but though they often venture boldly, yet they are often caught, even in their own trap, according to that of Lucian, the father of the family of scoffers:: Lucian, well skill'd in scoffing, this hath writ, Friend, that's your folly, which you think your wit: Meaning another, when yourself you jeer. If to this you add what Solomon says of scoffers, that they are an abomination to mankind, let him that thinks fit scoff on, and be a scoffer still; but I account them enemies to me and all that love virtue and angling. 1 And for you that have heard many grave, serious, men pity anglers; let me tell you, sir, there be many men that are by others taken to be serious and grave men, whom we contemn and pity. Men that are taken to be grave, because nature hath made them of a sour complexion; money-getting men, men that spend all their time, first in getting, and next, in anxious care to keep it; men that are condemned to be rich, and then always busy or discontented: for these poor rich men, we anglers pity them perfectly, and stand in no need to borrow their thoughts to think ourselves so happy. No, no, sir, we enjoy a contentedness above the reach of such dispositions, and as the learned and ingenuous Montaigne says like himself, freely, "when my cat and I entertain each other with mutual apish tricks, as playing with a garter, who knows but that I make my cat more sport than she makes me? Shall I conclude her to be simple, that has her time to begin or refuse to play as freely as I myself have? Nay, who knows but that it is a defect of my not understanding her language (for doubtless cats talk and reason with one another) that we agree no better: and who knows but that she pities me for being no wiser, than to play with her, and laughs and censures my folly, for making sport for her, when we two play together ?" 1 In Montaigne's "Apology for Raimonde de Sebonde." The quotation is a very free paraphrase of the original French, and not much like Florio's translation, which Walton is supposed to have used.-Am. ed. |