128 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



some woman that had a fine hand, and a live min- 

 now lying by her. The mould or body of the 

 minnow was cloth, and wrought upon or over it 

 thus with a needle : the back of it with very sad 

 French green silk, and paler green silk towards 

 the belly, shadowed as perfectly as you can ima- 

 gine, just as you see a minnow. The belly was 

 wrought also with a needle, and it was a part of it 

 white silk, and another part of it with silver thread ; 

 the tail and fins were of a quill, which was shaven 

 thin ; the eyes were of two little black beads ; 

 and the head was so shadowed, and all of it so 

 curiously wrought and so exactly dissembled that 

 it would beguile any sharp-sighted trout in a swift 

 stream. And this minnow I will now show you. 

 Look, here it is ; and if you like it, lend it you, to 

 have two or three made by it, for they be easily 

 carried about an angler, and be of excellent use ; 

 for note that a large trout will come as fiercely at 

 a minnow as the highest mettled hawk doth seize 

 on a partridge, or a greyhound on a hare. I have 

 been told that one hundred and sixty minnows 

 have been found in a trout's belly, either the 

 trout had devoured so many, or the miller that 

 gave it a friend of mine had forced them down 

 his throat after he had taken him. 



Now for flies, which is the third bait wherewith 

 trouts are usually taken. You are to know that 

 there are so many sorts of flies as there be of 

 fruits. I will name you but some of them ; as the 

 dun-fly, the stone-fly, the red-fly, the moor-fly, the 



