72 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [PART i. 



may with all sea fish, for precedency and daintiness of taste ; and 

 that being in right season, the most dainty palates have allowed 

 precedency to him. 



And before I go farther in my discourse, let me tell you, that 

 you are to observe, that as there be some barren does that are 

 good in summer, so there be some barren Trouts that are good 

 in winter ; but there are not many that are so ; for usually they 

 be in their perfection in the month of May, and decline with the 

 buck. Now you are to take notice, that in several countries, 

 as in Germany, and in other parts, compared to ours, fish do 

 differ much in their bigness, and shape, and other ways ; and so 

 do Trouts. It is well known that in the Lake Leman, the Lake 

 of Geneva, there are Trouts taken of three cubits long ; as is 

 affirmed by Gesner, a writer of good credit : and Mercator * says, 

 the Trouts that are taken in the Lake of Geneva are a great part 

 of the merchandise of that famous city. And you are further to 

 know, that there be certain waters that breed Trouts remarkable, 

 both for their number and smallness. I know a little brook in 

 Kent that breeds them to a number incredible, and you may 

 take them twenty or forty in an hour, but none greater than about 

 the size of a Gudgeon. There are also, in divers rivers, especially 

 that relate to, or be near to the sea, as Winchester, or the Thames 

 about Windsor, a little Trout called a Samlet, or Skegger Trout, 

 in both which places I have caught twenty or forty at a standing, 

 that will bite as fast and as freely as Minnows : these be by some 

 taken to be young Salmons ; but, in those waters they never grow 

 to be bigger than a Herring. 



There is also in Kent, near to Canterbury, a Trout called there 

 a Fordidge Trout, a Trout that bears the name of the town where 

 it is usually caught, that is accounted the rarest of fish ; 4 many 

 of them near the bigness of a Salmon, but known by their differ- 

 ent colour ; and in their best season they cut very white : and 

 none of these have been known to be caught with an angle, unless 

 it were one that was caught by Sir George Hastings, an excellent 

 angler, and now with God : f and he hath told me, he thought 



VARIATION.] 4 accounted rare meat ; many of them, &c. 2d, 3^, and \th edit. 



* Gerard Mercator, of Ruremond in Flanders, a man of such intense application to 

 mathematical studies, that he neglected the necessary refreshments of nature. He 

 engraved with his own hand, and coloured the maps to his geographical writings. He 

 wrote several books of Theology ; and died in 1594. H. 



t Apparently Sir George Hastings, son and heir of the celebrated Henry Hastings, of 

 Woodlands, second son of George, 4th Earl of Huntingdon. Sir George Hastings died 

 25th October 1651, set. 63. Cellini Peerage, ed. 1779, vol. iii. p. 97. 



