292 



THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



TART 1. 



And, I think, the best Trout-anglers be in Derbyshire; 

 for the waters, there, are clear to an extremity. 

 Next, let me tell you, you shall fish for this 



H0AC3EL 



jrrave- stone is an inscription, now nearly effaced, consisting of these homely 

 lines. 



In memory of Mr. Thomas Tombs, goldsmith, of London, who depart- 

 ed this life Aug. 12th, 1758, aged 53 years. 



Each brother Bob ! that, sportive, passes here, 

 Pause at this stone ; and drop the silent tear, 

 For him who lov'd your harmless sport ; 

 Who to this Pitch * did oft resort ; 

 Who in free converse oft would please, 

 With native humour, mirth and ease; 

 His actions form'd upon so just a plan, 

 He liv'd, a worthy, died, an honest man. 



Before I dismiss the subject of Thames-fishing, I will let the reader 

 know, that formerly the fishermen inhabiting the villages on the banks 

 of the Thames, were used to inclose certain parts of the river 1 with 

 what they called stops, but which were in effect iveai-s, or kldeh by 

 stakes driven into the bed thereof; and to these they tied weels, 

 creating, thereby, a current which drove the fish into those traps. This 

 practice, though it may sound oddly to say so, is against Magna Cbarta, 

 and is expressly prohibited by the 23d chapter of that statute : In the year 

 1757, the Lord Mayor, Dickenson, sent the Water-Bailiff, up the 

 Thames in a barge well manned and furnished with proper implements ; 

 who destroyed all those inclosures on this side of Staines, by pulling up 

 the stakes and setting them adrift. 



* A particular spot, called a Pitch, from the act of pitching or fastening 

 the boat there. 



