124 THE COMPLETE ANGLER 



seem to have a further confirmation from Martial (lib. 

 iv., Epigr. 30), who writes thus : 



Piscator, fuge ; ne nocens, etc. 



Angler ! wouldst thou be guiltless ? then forbear ; 

 For these are sacred fishes that swim here, 

 Who know their sovereign, and will lick his hand ; 

 Than which none's greater in the world's command : 

 Nay more, they've names, and, when they called are, 

 Do to their several owner's call repair. 



All the further use that I shall make of this, shall be, 

 to advise anglers to be patient and forbear swearing, 

 lest they be heard, and catch no fish. 



And so I shall proceed next to tell you, it is certain, 

 that certain fields near Leominster, a town in Hereford- 

 shire, are observed to make the sheep that graze upon 

 them more fat than the next, and also to bear finer wool ; 

 that is to say, that that year in which they feed in a such 

 particular pasture, they shall yield finer wool than 

 they did that year before they came to feed in it, and 

 coarser again if they shall return to their former pasture ; 

 and again return to a finer wool, being fed in the fine-wool 

 ground. Which I tell you, that you may the better 

 believe, that I am certain, if I catch a trout in one meadow 

 he shall be white and faint, and very like to be lousy ; 

 and as certainly, if I catch a trout in the next meadow, 

 he shall be strong, and red, and lusty, and much better 

 meat. Trust me, scholar, I have caught many a trout in a 

 particular meadow, that the very shape and the enamelled 

 colour of him hath been such, as have joyed me to look 

 on him : and I have then with much pleasure concluded 

 with Solomon, " Everything is beautiful in his season." 



I should by promise speak next of the salmon ; but 

 I will by your favour say a little of the umber or grayling, 

 which is so like a trout for his shape and feeding, that 

 I desire I may exercise your patience with a short dis- 

 course of him, and then the next shall be of the salmon. 



