he that follows that rule shall be as sure to catch fish, and be as wise as he that makes hay by the fair days in an almanac, and no surer; for those very flies that use to appear about and on the water in one month of the year, may the following year come almost a month sooner or later, as the same year proves colder or hotter; and yet, in the following Discourse, I have set down the twelve flies that are in reputation with many anglers, and they may serve to give him some observations concerning them. And he may note that there are, in Wales and other countries, peculiar flies proper to the particular place or country; and doubtless, unless a man makes a fly to counterfeit that very fly in that place, he is like to lose his labor, or much of it: but for the generality, three or four flies, neat and rightly made, and not too big, serve for a trout in most rivers all the summer. And for winter fly-fishing, it is as useful as an almanac out of date. And of these, because as no man is born an artist, so no man is born an angler, I thought fit to give thee this notice.

When I have told the reader that in this fifth impression there are many enlargements,1 gathered both by my own observation and the communication with friends, I shall stay him no longer than to wish him a rainy evening to read this following Discourse; and that, if he be an honest angler, the east wind may never blow when he goes a-fishing.

1 Chiefly Cotton's treatise, which we omit. - Ed.

I. W.

THE COMPLETE ANGLER.

The First Day.

CHAPTER I.

A CONFERENCE BETWIXT AN ANGLER, A HUNTER, AND A FALCONER, EACH COMMENDING HIS RECREATION.

PISCATOR, VENATOR, AUCEPS.

PISCATOR. You 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 Thatched House in Hoddesden; 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 favor, 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 hawk1 for me, which I now long to see.

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 others' 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 answers; 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.

1 "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.

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, 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 villanous 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, 't is such a heavy, contemptible, dull recreation.

Pisc. You know, gentlemen, 't 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 skilled in scoffing, this hath writ:

Friend, that's your folly, which you think your wit;
This you vent oft, void both of wit and fear,

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.

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