THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 227 



Tibiscus, and divers others) changeth his name into this of Hum- 

 berabus, as the old geographers call it. 



4. Medway, a Kentish river, famous for harboring the royal 

 navy. 



5. Tweed, the north-east bound of England ; on whose nor- 

 thern banks is seated the strong and impregnable town of Ber- 

 wick. 



6. Tyne, famous for Newcastle, and her inexhaustible coal- 

 pits. These, and the rest of principal note, are thus compre- 

 hended in one of Mr. Drayton's sonnets. 



Our floods^ queen, Thames, for ships and swans is crowned. 



And ftately Severn for her shore is praised ; 

 The crystal Trent for fords and fish renowri'd. 



And Avon^s fame to Albion's cliffs is rais'd. 

 Car legion Chester vaunts her holy Bee, 



York many wonders of her Ouse can tell ; 

 The Peak her Dove, whose banks so fertile be. 



And Kent will say her Medway doth excel. 

 Cotswuld commends her Isis to the Thame, 



Our northern borders boast of Tweed's fair flood i 

 Our western parts extol their Willy's fame, 



And the old Lea brags of the Danish blood. 



These observations are out of learned Dr. Heylin, and m)'' old 

 deceased friend, Michael Drayton ; and because you say you love 

 such discourses as these of rivers and fish and fishing, I love you 

 the better, and love the more to impart them to you. Neverthe- 

 less, Scholar, if I should begin but to name the several sorts of 

 strange fish that are usually taken in many of those rivers that 

 run into the sea, I might beget wonder in you, or unbelief, or 

 both ; and yet I will venture to tell you a real truth concerning 

 one lately dissected by Dr. Wharton, a man of great learning 

 and experience, and of equal freedom to communicate it ; one 

 that loves me and my art, one to whom I have been beholden for 

 many of the choicest observations that I have imparted to you. 

 This good man, that dares do anything rather than tell an un- 

 truth, did, I say, tell me, he lately dissected one strange fish, and 

 he thus described it to me. 



" The fish was almoet a yard broad, and twico that length ; his 



