Eels and Salt Beef. 187 



to ride out to his fishing and put up his 

 horse at Host Rickabie's at the George in 

 Ware, or at some other of those convenient 

 inns near the river of which he has given 

 such pleasant pictures. 



In this chapter he tells us that he has 

 often taken a pike a yard long on his 

 bream hooks, but sometimes " he [the 

 pike] hath had the luck to share my line." 

 So he advises trying with a live bait at a 

 baited spot like this, to get rid of any pike 

 or perch which may be in the swim. 



Dr. Bethune, most careful of annotators, 

 evidently took this latter part of Chapter X 

 to be written by Walton. There is some 

 doubt in my mind as to how much was / 

 quoted from that "most honest and I 

 excellent Angler " mentioned on page 179 \ 

 of the fifth edition, and whose initials, 

 B. A., are added at the end of the chapter. 



Chapter XI. is a short one on the tench, 

 a fish which Walton tells us " I have not 

 often angled for " ; but the baits he re- 

 commends I have found to be excellent. 

 The perch, in Chapter XII., and the eel, in 

 Chapter XIII., are well dealt with. Walton^ 

 gives a quaint reason for being inclined 

 to believe that eels which are bred in / 

 rivers connected with the sea never return / 

 to fresh water when they have once tasted / 

 the salt water, " because I am certain that 



