The Secrets of Angling. 25 



These prune and dense of euery leafe and spray, 



Yet Icaue the tender top remaining still : 



Then home with thee goe beare them safe away, 



But perish not the Rine and vtter Pill ; 



And on some euen boarded floore them lay. 



Where they may dry and season at their nil : 



And place vpon their crooked parts some waight, 



To presse them downe, and keepe them plaine and straight. 



So shalt thou haue ahvayes in store the best, 

 And fittest Rods to serue thy turne aright; 

 For not the brittle Cane, nor all the rest, 

 I like so well, though it be long and light, 

 Since that the Fish are frighted with the least 

 Aspect of any glittering thing, or white : 



Nor doth it by one halfe so well incline, 

 As doth the plyant rod to saue the line. 



TO MAKE THE LINE. 



Then get good Havre, so that it be not blacke, 



Neither of Mare nor Gelding let it be ; 



Nor of the tyreling lade that beares the packe : 



But of some lusty Horse or Courser free, 



Whose bushie tayle, vpon the ground doth tracke, 



Like blazing Comefe that sometimes we see: 



From out the mid'st thereof the longest take. 

 At leysure best your Linkes and Lines to make. 



Then twist them finely, a? you thinke most meet, 

 By skill or practise easie to be found ; 

 As doth AracJme with her slender feet; 

 Draw forth her litde thread along the ground : 

 But not too hard or slacke, the meane is sweet, 

 Least slacke they snarle, or hard they proue vnsound, 

 And intermixt with siluer, silke, or gold, 

 The tender hayres, the better so to hold. 



