48 ANGLING. 



Anglers' yeares are made and spent, 



All in Ember weekes and Lent. 



Breake thy rod about thy noddle, 

 Throw thy worms and flies by the pottle, 

 Keepe thy corke to stop thy bottle. 

 Make straight thy hooke, b'e not afeared 



To shave his beard ; 

 That in case of started stitches, 

 Hooke and line may mend thy breaches. 



"He that searches pools and dikes, 

 Halters jackes, and strangles pikes, 

 Let him know, though he think he wise is, 

 J Tis not a sport, but an assizes. 

 Pish to hooke, were the case disputed, 

 Are not tooke, but executed. 

 Breake thy rod, &c., &c. 



" You whose pastes fox rivers throat, 

 And make Isis pay her groat, 

 That from May to parch October 

 Scarce a minnow can keep sober, 

 Be your fish in open thrust, 

 And your own red-paste the crust. 

 Breake thy rod, &c., &c. 



* Hookes and lines of larger sizes, 

 S9uch as the tyrant that troules devise^ 

 Fishers nere believe his fable, 

 What he calls a line is a cable ; 

 That's a knave of endless rancour, 

 Who for a hooke doth cast an anchor. 

 Breake thy rod, &c., &c. 



"But of all men he is the cheater, 

 Who with small fish takes up the greater ; 

 He makes carps without all dudgeon, 

 Makes a Jonas of a gudgeon ; 

 Cruell man that stayes on gravell, 

 Fish that great with fish doth travel. 

 Breake thy rod, &c., &c." 



A trolling-rod, as we have already mentioned, should be pretty 

 long and stiff, with a line a shade stronger than that used for the 

 artificial fly. The best minnows for the purpose are those of a mo- 

 derate size, their bellies and sides being of a pearly whiteness. If 

 the angler has conveniences, they are all the better for being kept 

 a few days in clear, sweet, soft water : this process renders them 

 firmer and brighter. 



