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As dogs drive trembling stags into the snare, 

 Or by the scent pursue the fleeting hare. 



In these-^musements while I pass the day, 

 Autumnal hours roll unperceiv'd away ; 

 When tir'd of town and study, I retreat, 

 My honour'd friend, * to thy fair country seat; 

 Where you with all the rural sports invite, 

 But most with mirth and attic wit delight j 

 For tho ? your seat, which from the neighb'ring stream 

 Derives its name, is first in my esteem ; 

 Yet, in your absence, nor the flow'ry beds, 

 Nor silver floods can please, nor painted meads, 

 Nor ev'n the stream \vhich in a mournful strain 

 Appears with me to murmur and complain 5 

 No longer now the verdant laurel grove, 

 Where oft, in contemplation wrapt, I rove, 

 Can without you poetic thoughts inspire, 

 Or reconcile me to the tuneful quire. 

 When pleasure to the plains returns with you, 

 Together oft we take delight to view 

 Th' obsequious otter, thirsting after blood, 

 Chase thro' the stream the natives of the flood j 

 Or near the stew, which with a bounteous hand 

 Your ancestors prepar'd, together stand 



mile or two off, and therefore the fishers make- great aduantage of them, yet 

 do they forbcarohis vse because he deuoureth more then needeth, for he is 

 neuer so tamed that he forgeteth his old rauening j being tamed, on the land 



he is very full of sport and game The flesh of this beast is both 



cold and filthy, because it feedeth vpon stinking fish, and therefore not fit to 

 be eaten. Tragus writeththat this notwithstanding is dressed to bee eaten 

 in many pLces of Germany. Audi hear tint the Carthusian fryers, or 

 imnkes (whether you wil,) which are forbidden to touch al inaansr ef flesh, 

 of other foure-footed beasts, yet are they not prohibited the eating of otteis," 

 T'-fsiITs Historit of fovre- footed beast es. 1607. 

 * Duke dc Ressegeuer. 



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