FISHES AND FISHING. 31 



home for my holidays in winter, I used to shoot 

 snipes, wild ducks, wood pigeons, starlings, &c. ; and 

 in summer, I angled with great success for barbel, chub, 

 roach, dace, and gudgeons. The Thames fishermen 

 often came up our back-water with their nets ; my 

 father, therefore, had piles driven into the bed of the 

 river, rails laid across, and a gate, through which I 

 could go in my boat ; the gate was secured with a 

 chain, and lock, with copper wards, which effectually 

 blocked all persons from coming into our waters. 

 I had not yet caught a carp. I refrained from all 

 other angling for a whole month, endeavouring to 

 catch one of these cunning fish, without success, 

 though I tried all the scents, and different things I 

 read or heard of. I had seen them taken close to me 

 by a person who performed the bricklayers' work for 

 the mill, with tackle very much inferior to mine. I 

 observed that he kept throwing in small pellets of 

 paste, which he took out of his pocket,* but that he 

 baited his hook with paste out a horn that hung to 

 his button. I asked him for a bit of paste ; he put 

 his hand in his pocket to give me some, but I took a 

 piece out of his horn, saying, " this will do." I put 

 part of it into my mouth, and found out the secret, 



* See Oppian's Halieuticks, Book iii. verse 625. The ancient 

 Greek fishermen threw in a shower of pills made of odorous 

 cheese and flour, formed into a paste, and baited their hooks 

 with the same, he does not say for what fish. 



