IZAAK WALTON. 79 



manual compiler, adding that he is " never servile, nor 

 plagiaristic, always honest, sometimes a little surly." He 

 touches on the still vexed question of the mixture of silk 

 and hair in fishing-lines, declaring in favour of " all of hair 

 or all of silk." The following recipe for an unguent to 

 allure fish, and its use cannot fail to provoke a smile : — 



" Of Man's Fat, Cat's Fat, Heron's Fat, and of the best Assa- 

 foetida, of each two Drams ; Mummy, finely powdered, two Drams ; 

 Cummin-seed finely powdered, two Scruples, and of Camphor, 

 Galbanum, and Venice Turpentine of each one Dram; Civet- 

 grains two. Make according to Art, all into an indifferent thin 

 Oyntment, with the Chymical Oyls of Lavender, Annise, and 

 Camomil, of each an equal quantity, and keep the same in a 

 narrow-mouthed and well-glassed galley-pot close covered with a 

 Bladder and Leather ; and when you go to Angle, take some of it 

 in a small pewter Box, made taper, and anoint eight inches of the 

 Line next the Hook therewith, and when washed off repeat the 

 same. This Oyntment which for its excellency, Unguentum 

 Piscatorum mirabile, prodigiously causes Fish to bite, if in the 

 hand of an Artist that angles within water, and in proper Seasons 

 and Times, and with suitable Tackle and Baits fit and proper for 

 the River, Season and Fish he designs to catch. The Man's Fat 

 you may get of the London Chyrurgeons, &c. * * * * I forbore 

 (for some reasons) to insert the same in my fifth edition ; but now 

 since its' divulged, value it not the less, but treat it as a jewel." 



R. Nobbes, who was probably Vicar of Applethorp and 

 Wood-Newton, in Northamptonshire, first published his 

 Complete Trailer, or the Art of Trolling, in 1682. He is 

 often spoken of as the " Father of trolling," by writers on 

 angling ; but it is a title of piscatory honour to which he 

 has no just right, as this method of "jacking" is treated of 

 in many of the works already mentioned. It may, how- 

 ever, be allowed that his discourse upon it is the first of 

 any length, and he may be credited with having treated 



