210 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



and some other counties, called a grnb, and is bred of the spawn 

 or eggs of a beetle, which she leaves in holes that she digs in the 

 ground under cow or horse dung, and there rests all winter, and 

 in March or April comes to be first a red, and then a black bee- 

 tle : gather a thousand or two of those, and put them with a peck 

 or two of their own earth, into some tub or firkin, and cover and 

 keep them so warm, that the frost or cold air or winds kill them 

 not ; these you may keep all winter, and kill fish with them at 

 any time ; and if you put some of them into a little earth and 

 honey a day before you use them, you will find them an excel- 

 lent bait for bream, carp, or indeed for almost any fish. 



And after this manner you may also keep gentles all winter, 

 which are a good bait then, and much the better for being lively 

 and tough. Or you may breed and keep gentles thus : Take a 

 piece of beast's liver, and with a cross stick hang it in some cor- 

 ner over a pot or barrel, half full of dry clay ; and as the gen- 

 tles grow big, they will fall into the barrel, and scour themselves, 

 and be always ready for use whensoever you incline to fish ; and 

 these gentles may be thus created till after Michaelmas. But if 

 you desire to keep gentles to fish with all the year, then get a 

 dead cat or a kite, and let it be fly-blown ; and when the gentles 

 bc^in to be alive and to stir, then bury it and them in soft moist 

 earth, but as free from frost as you can, and these you may dig 

 up at any time when you intend to use them : these will last till 

 March, and about that time turn to be flies. 



But if you be nice to foul your fingers, which good anglers 

 seldom are, then take this bait : Get a handful of well-made 

 malt, and put it into a dish of water, and then wash and rub it 

 betwixt your hands till you make it clean, and as free from husks 

 as you can ; then put that water from it, and put a small quan- 

 tity of fresh water to it, and set it in something that is fit for that 

 purpose over the fire, where it is not to boil apace, but leisurely 

 and very softly, until it becomes somewhat soft, which you may 

 try by feeling it between your finger and thumb ; and when it 

 is sofl, then put your water from it, and then take a sharp knife, 

 and turning the sprout and of tlie corn upward, with the point of 

 your knife take the back part of the husk off front) it, and yet 

 leaving a kind of inward husk on the corn, or else it is marred ; 



