JFiftt) 



CHAPTER XXI. 



DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING OF A LINE, AND FOR THE 

 COLORING OF BOTH ROD AND LINE. 



pISCATOR. Well, scholar, I have held you too 

 long about these cadis, and smaller fish, and 

 rivers, and fish-ponds ; and my spirits are almost 

 spent, and so, I doubt, is your patience : but being 

 we are now almost at Tottenham, where I first met 

 you, and where we are to part, I will lose no time, 

 but give you a little direction how to make and order 

 your lines, and to color the hair of which you make 

 your lines, for that is very needful to be known of an 

 angler ; and also how to paint your rod, especially 

 your top, for a right-grown top is a choice com- 

 modity, and should be preserved from the water 

 soaking into it, which makes it in wet weather to be 

 heavy, and fish ill-favoredly, and not true ; and also 

 it rots quickly for want of painting : and I think a 

 good top is worth preserving, or I had not taken 

 care to keep a top above twenty years. 



But first for your line. First note that you are 

 to take care that your hair be round and clear, and 

 free from galls or scabs or frets ; for a well-chosen, 

 even, clear, round hair, of a kind of glass-color, 



