THE COOKERY OF THE TROUT 



'THE trout is a fish highly valued both in this and 

 foreign nations ; he may be justly said, as the old 

 poet says of wine, and as we English say of venison, 

 to be a generous fish ; a fish that is so like the buck 

 that he also has his seasons ; for it is observed that 

 he comes and goes out of season with the stag and 

 buck. . . . He may justly contend with all sea-fish 

 for precedency and daintiness of taste, and that being 

 in right season, the most dainty palates have allowed 

 precedency to him.' So speaks old Izaac Walton on 

 the fish of his predilection, and, like the orator who 

 addressed the Bristol mob after Mr. Burke, we ' say 

 ditto' to the venerated apostle of angling. Izaac 

 knew what he was writing about, and never writes of 

 anything as to which he knows nothing. We dare 

 not imagine the sublimity of eloquence to which he 

 might have soared, had he played, and landed, and 

 cooked the salmon. But as the salmon disputes 

 precedency with the turbot, so the trout when most 



