CHUB. 55 



Izaak Walton who has not tasted and revelled in the 

 delicious meat to be found amongst the bones of a 

 good, handsome chub ? And yet an irreverent disciple, 

 who spoke at that dinner with becoming veneration 

 for his beloved master, had the audacity to question 

 the reality of his benevolence in the matter of the 

 milkmaid when he rewarded her for singing so sweetly 

 that pretty song of Kit Marlow's : 



" Come live with me, and be my love," 



by presenting her with a lovely chub ! This gentle- 

 man had himself tasted chub, and vowed that it was 

 "like cotton wool and hairpins ; it is like the shad, 

 which is so much eaten across the Atlantic, and of 

 which a well-known American writer said, * You 

 should fry it lightly, eat it carefully, and then you 

 should strip off all your clothing and rub yourself 

 down with sandpaper to remove any of the bones 

 projecting through the skin.' " 



We are all aware that there is as great variety 

 amongst trout as there is amongst sheep, which 

 "differ from one another in their shape and bigness, 

 and in the fineness of their wool," and it may be 

 added, in the delicacy or toughness of their flesh ; 

 but undoubtedly there is this to be said of every kind 

 of trout, that he is a "generous fish," and, as Walton 

 says, " the most dainty palates have allowed pre- 

 cedency to him." There are varieties of bass. I 

 have eaten black bass in New York which, for delicate 

 tenderness and yet firmness of flesh and sweetness of 

 flavour, would compete for precedency even with the 

 "admirable trout" of "The Dove," which "are 



