chap, xix.] THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 237 



6. Tyne, famous for Newcastle, and her inexhaust- 

 ible coal-pits. These, and the rest of principal note, 

 are thus comprehended in one of Mr. Drayton's 

 Sonnets. 



Our floods' queen, Thames, for ships and swans is 

 crown d ; 



And stately Severn for her shore is prais'd; 

 The crystal Trent for fords and fish renown d ; 



And Avon's fame to Albion's cliffs is rais'd. 

 Carlegion- Chester vaunts her holy Dee ; 



York many ivonders of her Ouse can tell ; 

 The Peak her Dove, whose banks so fertile be, 



And Kent will say her Medway doth excel. 

 Cotswold commends her Isis to the Thame ; 



Our northern borders boast of Tweed's fair flood ; 

 Our western parts extoll their Willy's fame, 

 And the old Lea brags of the Danish blood. 



These observations are out of learned Dr. Heylin, 

 and my old deceased friend, Michael Drayton ; and 

 because you say, you love such discourses as these 

 of rivers and fish and fishing, I love you the better, 

 and love the more to impart them to you : never- 

 theless, Scholar, if I should begin but to name the 

 several sorts of strange fish that are usually taken 

 in many of those rivers that run into the sea, I 

 might beget wonder in you, or unbelief, or both : 

 and yet I will venture to tell you a real truth con- 

 cerning one lately dissected by Dr. Wharton, a man 

 of great learning and experience, and of equal free- 



