CHAPTER XXI. DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING OF A 

 LINE, AND FOR THE COLOURING OF BOTH 

 ROD AND LINE 



PISCATOR AND VENATOR 



PISCATOR. Well, Scholar, I have held you too long about 

 these Cadis, and smaller fish, and rivers, and fish-ponds, 

 and my spirits are almost spent, and so I doubt is your 

 patience ; but being we are now almost at Tottenham, where 

 I first met you, and where we are to part, I will lose no time, 

 but give you a little direction how to make and order your 

 Lines, and to colour the hair of which you make your Lines, 

 for that is very needful to be known of an Angler; and also 

 how to paint your Rod; especially your top, for a right-grown 

 top is a choice commodity, and should be preserved from the 

 water soaking into it, which makes it in wet weather to be 

 heavy, and fish ill-favouredly, and not true, and also it rots 

 quickly for want of painting: and I think a good top is worth 

 preserving, or I had not taken care to keep a top above twenty 

 years. 



But first for your Line. First, Note, that you are to take 

 care, that your hair be round and clear, and free from galls or 

 scabs, or frets : for a well-chosen, even, clear, round hair, of a 

 kind of glass-colour, will prove as strong as three uneven, scabby 

 hairs, that are ill-chosen, and full of gall, or unevenness. You 

 shall seldom find a black hair but it is round, but many white 

 are flat and uneven, therefore, if you get a lock of right, round, 

 clear, glass-colour hair, make much of it. 



And for making your line, observe this rule, first let your 



hair be clean washed ere you go about to twist it : and then 



choose not only the clearest hair for it, but hairs that be of 



an equal bigness, for such do usually stretch all together, and 



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