The Age of Gold. 77 



And of each crooke of hardest Bush and Brake, 

 They made them Hooks the hungry Fish to take." 



Every angler has experienced the diffi- 

 culty of catching fish without bait ; but old 

 Deucalion was equal to the occasion. He 

 knows the fish are there : 



" And to intice them to the eager bit, 

 Dead frogs and flies of sundry sorts he tooke ; 

 And snayles and wormes such as he found 



most fit, 



Wherein to hide the close and deadly hooke : 

 And thus with practise and inventive wit, 

 He found the means in every lake and brooke 

 Such store of Fish to take with little paine, 

 As did long time this people new sustaine." 



Angling in the Age of Gold. 



" In this rude sorte began this simple Art, 

 And so remain'd in that first age of old, 

 When Saturne did Amaltheas home impart 

 Unto the World, that then was all of Gold ; 

 The Fish has yet had felt but little smart, 

 And were to bite more eager, apt, and bold : 

 And plentie still supplide the place againe 

 Of woefull want, whereof we now com- 

 plaine." * 



* Anglers, like farmers, are good grumblers. 

 We have seen in a previous chapter how Leonard 

 Mascall laments the bad case into which angling 

 had fallen in his day. Dennys does the same, 

 and so it goes on down to our time. We all 

 know many a laudator temporis acti among our 

 angling friends. 



