168 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [PART i. 



and Gasius* declare it had an ill effect upon them, even to the 

 endangering of their lives. t 



This fish is of a fine cast and handsome shape, with small 

 scales, which are placed after a most exact and curious manner : 

 and, as I told you, may be rather said not to be ill, than to be 

 good meat. The Chub and he have, I think, both lost part of 

 their credit by ill cookery ; they being reputed the worst, or 

 coarsest, of fresh-water fish. But the Barbel affords an angler 

 choice sport, being a lusty and a cunning fish; so lusty and 

 cunning as to endanger the breaking of the angler's line, by 

 running his head forcibly towards any covert, or hole, or bank, 

 and then striking at the line, to break it off, with his tail ; as is 

 observed by Plutarch, in his book " De Industria Animalium : " 

 and also so cunning, to nibble and suck off your worm close to 

 the hook, and yet avoid the letting the hook come into his mouth. 



The Barbel is also curious for his baits ; that is to say, that 

 they be clean and sweet ; that is to say, to have your worms well 

 scoured, and not kept in sour and musty moss, for he is a curious 

 feeder : but at a well-scoured lob-worm he will bite as boldly as at 

 any bait, and specially if, the night or two before you fish for him, 

 you shall bait the places where you intend to fish for him, with 

 big worms cut into pieces. J And note, that none did ever over- 

 bait the place, nor fish too early or too late for a Barbel. And 

 the Barbel will bite also at gentles, which, not being too much 

 scoured, but green, are a choice bait for him : and so is cheese, 

 which is not to be too hard, but kept a day or two in a wet linen 

 cloth, to make it tough ; with this you may also bait the water a 

 day or two before you fish for the Barbel, and be much the likelier 

 to catch store ; and if the cheese were laid in clarified honey a 

 short time before, as, namely, an hour or two, you were still 



* Of the latter person Sir John Hawkins says he could find no account. The physi- 

 cian intended was Antonius Gazius of Padua ; of whom a short account is given by 

 Moreri. His principal work, to which Walton probably alludes, was his Corona Florida 

 Medicince, sive de Conservatione Saniiatis, first published at Venice in 1491, in folio, 

 when he was only twenty-eight years old : the chapters cxxx.-cxxxvii. of which, 

 inclusive, relate to the different qualities of river-fish as food. He died in 1530 : and not 

 in 1528, as several writers have asserted. See Moreri Dictionn. Hist. edit. Par. 1759, 

 torn. v. p. 113. Mangel Bibl. Script. Medicor. torn. ii. lib. vii. E. 



t Though the spawn of the Barbel is known to be of a poisonous nature, yet it is often 

 taken by country-people medicinally ; who find it, at once, a most powerful emetic and 

 cathartic. And, notwithstanding what is said of the wholesomeness of the./W/, with 

 some constitutions it produces the same effects as the spawn. About the month of Sep- 

 tember, in the year 1754, a servant of mine, who had eaten part of a Barbel, though, as 

 I had cautioned him, he abstained from the spawn, was seized with such a violent 

 purging and vomiting as had like to have cost him his life. H. 



t Graves (which are the sediment of tallow melted for the making of candles), cut 

 into pieces, are an excellent ground-bait for Barbel, Gudgeons, Roach, and many other 

 fish, if thrown in the night before you angle. H. 



