&ematiott 27 



For I have seen a Pond without a Flag or Reed,* 

 Or any Bush for shelter, where no Fishes breed. 

 To Man's Imagination, on a Common large, 

 When Jove his thunder first began discharge, 

 With flash'y lightning, mighty Peals did rend, 

 The welkin so, 



That Travellers refused to go, 



Unto their Journeys end: 

 By what preposterous Action or what cause, 

 A sudden trembling to the Earth withdraws, 

 And Eeles in mighty number the surface soon 

 Incumber in that horrid Afternoon ; 

 Angler now tell me if you had been there, 

 What bait you'd use while Fishes lay so fair, 

 All in your eye upon the Waters top, 

 Not daring to descend, 



Having no shelter nor no Friend, 



Their tottering Kingdom to defend, 



From the encroaching fop. 

 Yet now I'll tell how they were ta'ne without a 



bait, 



Clowns they Conspire, Conspiring fetch a Rake, 

 And with that Rustick Tool some hundreds take: 



Some large and over-grown, 

 That long had liv'd yet dy'd too soon, 



* On a Common near Crayden. 



p 2 In 



