lOi THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



ViAT. So good a one, that I did never eat so good fish in my 

 life. This fish is infinitely better than any I ever tasted of the 

 kind in my life : 'tis quite another thing, than our trouts about 

 London. 



Pisc. You would say so, if that trout you eat of were in right 

 season : but pray eat of the grayling, which, upon my word, at 

 this time is by much the better fish. 



ViAT. In earnest, and so it is : and I have one request to make 

 to you, which is, that as you have taught me to catch the trout 

 and grayling, you will now teach me how to dress them as these 

 are dressed, wiiich questionless is of all other the best way. 



Pisc. That I will. Sir, with all my heart, and am glad you like 

 them so well as to make that request ; and they are dressed 

 thus : 



Take your trout, wash, and dry him with a clean napkin ; 

 then open him, and having taken out his guts, and all the blood, 

 wipe him very clean within, but wash him not, and give him 

 three scotches with a knife to the bone, on one side only. After 

 which take a clean kettle, and put in as much hard stale beer, — 

 but it must not be dead — vinegar, and a little white wine and 

 water, as will cover the fish you intend to boil ; then throw into 

 the liquor a good quantity of salt, the rind of a lemon, a handful 

 of sliced horse-radish root, with a handsome little fagot of rose- 

 mary, thyme, and winter-savory. Then set your kettle upon a 

 quick fire of wood, and let your liquor boil up to the height 

 before you put in your fish ; and then, if there be many, put 

 them in one by one, that they may not so cool the liquor as to 

 make it fall ; and whilst your fish is boiling, beat up the butter 

 for your sauce with a ladle-full or two of the liquor it is boiling 

 in ; and being boiled enough, immediately pour the liquor from 

 the fish, and being laid in a dish, pour your butter upon it, and, 

 strewing it plentifully over with shaved horse-radish and a little 

 pounded ginger, garnish the sides of your dish and the fish itself 

 with a sliced lemon or two, and serve it up. 



A grayling is also to be dressed exactly after the same man- 

 ner, saving that he is to be scaled, which a trout never is ; and 

 that must be done, either with one's nails, or very lightly 

 and carefully with a knife, for fear of bruising the fish. And 



