CHAP, xiii.] THE FOURTH D AV. 163 



And to commute for your patient hearing this long direction, I 

 shall next tell you how to make this Eel a most excellent dish of 

 meat. 



First, wash him in water and salt ; then pull off his skin below 

 his vent or navel, and not much further : having done that, take 

 out his guts as clean as you can, but wash him not : then give 

 him three or four scotches, with a knive ; and then put into his 

 belly and those scotches, sweet herbs, an anchovy, and a little 

 nutmeg grated or cut very small ; and your herbs and anchovies 

 must also be cut very small, and mixt with good butter and salt ; 2 

 having done this, then pull his skin over him, all but his head, which 

 you are to cut off, to the end you may tie his skin about that part 

 where his head grew, and it must be so tied as to keep all his 

 moisture within his skin: and having done this, tie him with tape 

 or packthread to a spit, and roast him leisurely; and baste him 

 with water and salt till his skin breaks, and then -with butter ; 

 and having roasted him enough, let what was put into his belly, 

 and what he drips, be his sauce.* S. F. 



When I go to dress an Eel thus, I wish he were as long and 

 as big as that which was caught in Peterborough river, in the 

 year 1667; which was a yard and three-quarters long. If you 

 will not believe me, then go and see at one of the coffee-houses 

 in King Street in Westminster. 



But now let me tell you that though the Eel, thus drest, be not 

 only excellent good, but more harmless than any other way, yet 

 it is certain that physicians account the Eel dangerous meat ; I 

 will advise you therefore, as Solomon says of honey,f " Hast thou 



VARIATION. 



2 Neither the instructions for dressing the Eel, nor the observations on the Flounder, 

 the Char, and the Guiniad, given in the text, occur in thejirst edition, which continues 

 thus : "And thus much for this present time concerning the Eel : I will next tell you 

 a little of the Barbel, and hope with a little discourse of him to have an end of this 

 shower, and fall to fishing, for the weather clears up a little." 



ties them up in a bunch, and attaches them to the end of a cord about six feet in length, 

 affixing on the same, immediately above the worms, a piece of lead weighing half 

 a pound, more or less, according to the strength of the current. The whole is appended 

 to a pole from five to six feet in length. Thus prepared, the fisherman stations himself 

 in a boat and casts his tackle into the stream, taking care that the worms do not touch 

 the bottom by about two inches. The Eels bite, their teeth get entangled in the 

 worsted, and it is not unusual for three or more to be hauled into the boat at one jerk. 



* In the fourteenth century, Eels were cooked after the following recipe : " Elys in 

 Gauncelye. Take Elys an fle hem an sethe hem in water, an caste a lytel salt thereto, 

 than take brede y scaldyd and grynd it an temper it with the brothe an with ale, than 

 take pepir, syngere, an safroune, an grynde alle y fere, than neme onyonys an percely, 

 an bryle it in a possenet. Wei then caste alle to gederys an seth y fere an serve forth." 

 Harleiau MS. 279, f. 18. 



t I'rov. xxv. 



