THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 187 



sions, and is industrious to improve the art. And now, my ho- 

 nest Schohir, the long shower and my tedious discourse are both 

 ended together ; and I shall give you but this observation, that 

 M'hen you fish for a barbel, your rod and line be both long and 

 of good strength ; foi', as I told you, you will find him a heavy 

 and a dogged fish to be dealt withal, yet he seldom or never 

 breaks his hold if he be once stricken. And if you would know 

 more of fishing for the umber or barbel, get into favor with Doc- 

 tor Sheldon,* whose skill is above others ; and of that, the poor 

 that dwell about him have a comfortable experience. 



And now let us go and see what interest the trouts will pay us 

 for letting our angler-rods lie so long and so quietly in the water, 

 for their use. Come, Scholar, which will you take up ? 



Vex. Which vou think fit, Master. 



* This passage is not in the first edition, and in the second we find 

 only " Doctor Sh. :" 



Gilbert Sheldon, D.D., Trinity College, Oxford, He was chaplain to 

 Charles I., and for his loyalty imprisoned at the same time with Dr. Ham- 

 mond After the Restoration, he recovered his ecclesiastical appoint- 

 ment, was made Archbishop of Canterbury in 1G63, and in 16G7 succeeded 

 Clarendon as Chancellor of Oxford. He lost the King's favor in conse- 

 quence of his fidelity in advising him to put away his mistress Barbara 

 Villiers, and he retired to Croydon, where he died Nov., 1G77, aged SO 

 He published nothing but a sermon preached before the King. His mu- 

 nificence was proverbial; he expended not less than £G0,000 for chari- 

 table purposes, and founded the theatre at Oxford. At the time of Walton 

 the good archbishop was in his retirement at Croydon, near which, the 

 English books tell us, there are famous fishing places for the barbel. 



Barbel fishing has many amateurs among English anglers, some of whom 

 prefer it to every other sport of the kind ; but it must be a dull amusement, 

 for though " the barbel run large and are a bold,-biting, daring fish, there 

 are too many of them ; and though one does not fish for the gain of the 

 thing, yet it is a drawback on the fancy that they are good for nothing 

 when you have them. The least thing that a gentleman can do, who has 

 taken a barbel of twelve pounds weight, is to take the hook out of his 

 mouth, and let him run again. But besides, the most killing mode of 

 fishing for them — sitting in a boat — with a dead line lying on the bottom — 

 is dull enough." ( The Rod and the Stream, Blackwood's Magazine, June, 

 1S27.) Salter says, that he knew of a barbel in Hampton Deeps, in the 

 year ISIG, wliich had been several times hooked, but always broke away. 

 Tlie boatmen thought that he must weigh near tliirty pounds, and " from 

 his bold and piratical practices they named him Paul Jones." — Am. Ed. 



