FOREWORD ix 



also that the pursuit of the art then afforded con- 

 siderable pleasure : 



Besides loud threat'ning Storms, and sudden Winds, 

 He meets vast Whales, and monstrous nameless Kinds. 

 The slender-woven Net, vimineous Weel, 

 The taper Angle, Line, and barbed Steel, 

 Are all the Tools his constant Toil employs ; 

 On Arms like these the Fishing Swain relies. 



Thither the thronging Boats with Pleasure hast, 

 You in the central Depth the Plummet cast. 

 The willing Fish around ambitious wait, 

 Fly to the Line, and fasten on the Bait 

 While You with Joy the grateful Prey receive, 

 And from the wounding Steel his Jaw relieve : 

 Well pleas'd You see him gasp, and lab'ring breath, 

 And long in sportive Pain his struggling Body wreath. 



The vimineous weel was a kind of trap made of 

 twigs or withies. Burton, in his A natomy of Melancholy 

 (printed first in 1621), refers to the use of "weeles" 

 in what he calls a kind of " hunting by water." The 

 famous author of this mine of learning commends 

 fishing, and deals with Plutarch's view, which he 

 quotes : 



Plutarch, in his book dc soler. animal speaks 

 against all fishing, " as a filthy, base, illiberal employ- 

 ment, having neither wit nor perspicacity in it, nor 

 worth the labour." But he that shall consider the 

 variety of baits for all seasons, and pretty devices 

 which our anglers have invented, peculiar lines, false 

 flies, several sleights, etc. will say, that it deserves 

 like commendation, requires as much study and 

 perspicacity as the rest, and is to be preferred 

 before many of them. Because hawking and hunt- 



