THE COMPLETE ANGLER 29 



Gentlemen, if I should enlarge my discourse to the 

 observation of the eires, the brancher, the ramish hawk, 

 the haggard, and the two sorts of lentners, and then 

 treat of their several ayries, their mewings, rare order 

 of casting, and the renovation of their feathers : their 

 reclaiming, dieting, and then come to their rare stories of 

 practice ; I say, if I should enter into these, and many 

 other observations that I could make, it would be much, 

 very much pleasure to me : but lest I should break the 

 rules of civility to you, by taking up more than the 

 proportion of time allotted to me, I will here break 

 off, and entreat you, Mr. Venator, to say what you are 

 able in the commendation of hunting, to which you are 

 so much affected ; and, if time will serve, I will beg your 

 favour for a further enlargement of some of those several 

 heads of which I have spoken. But no more at present. 



VEN. Well, Sir, and I will now take my turn, and will 

 first begin with a commendation of the Earth, as you 

 have done most excellently of the Air ; the earth being 

 that element upon which I drive my pleasant, whole- 

 some, hungry trade. The earth is a solid, settled element : 

 an element most universally beneficial both to man and 

 beast : to men who have their several recreations 

 upon it, as horse-races, hunting, sweet smells, pleasant 

 walks : the earth feeds man, and all those several beasts 

 that both feed him, and afford him recreation. What 

 pleasure doth man take in hunting the stately stag, 

 the generous buck, the wild boar, the cunning otter, 

 the crafty fox, and the fearful hare ? And if I may 

 descend to a lower game, what pleasure is it sometimes 

 with gins to betray the very vermin of the earth ! as 

 namely, the fitchet, the fulimart, the ferret, the pole-cat, 

 the mould-warp, and the like creatures that live upon 

 the face and within the bowels of the earth ! How 

 doth the earth bring forth herbs, flowers, and fruits, 

 both for physic and the pleasure of mankind I and 



