The Secrets of Angling. 25 



These prune and dense of euery leafe and spray, 



Yet leaue the tender top remaining still : 



Then home with thee goe beare them safe away, 



But perish not the Rine and vtter Pill ; 



And on some euen boarded floore them lay, 



Where they may dry and season at their till : 



And place vpon their crooked parts some waight, 



To presse them downe, and keepe them plaine and straight. 



So shall thou haue alwayes in store the best, 

 And fittest Rods to serue thy turne aright ; 

 For not the brittle Cane, nor all the rest, 

 I like so well, though it be long and light, 

 Since that the Fish are frighted with the least 

 Aspect of any glittering thing,- or white : 



Nor doth it by one halfe so well incline, 

 As doth the plyant rod to saue the line. 



TO MAKE THE LINE. 



Then get good Hayre, so that it be not blacke, 



Neither of Mare nor Gelding let it be ; 



Nor of the tyreling lade that beares the packe : 



But of some lusty Horse or Courser free, 



Whose bushie tayle, vpon the ground doth tracke, 



Like bla/ing Comete that sometimes we see : 



From out the mid'st thereof the longest take, 

 At levsure best your Linkes and Lines to maki 



Then twist them finely, as you thinke most meet, 

 By skill or practise easie to be found ; 

 As doth Arachne with her slender feet ; 

 Draw forth her little thread along the ground: 

 But not too hard or slacke, the meane is sweet, 

 Least slacke they snarle, or hard they prone vnsoum 

 And intermixt with siluer. silke, or gold, 

 The tender hayres, the better so to hold. 



