82 ANCIENT ANGLING AUTHORS 



poynt of your Rod down the stream ; for a Fish hath 

 not the quicknesse of sight so perfect up the stream, 

 as opposite against him. 



The following very useful directions are given for 

 scouring and feeding worms : 



When you have gathered your worms out of the 

 Dunghill, you must gain the greenest Moss you can 

 finde, then wash the earth very clean out of it, then 

 provide an earthen pot ; so put your Moss into the 

 pot ; within two dayes you shall finde your worms so 

 poor, that if you bait some of them on your hook, you 

 shall see that with throwing of them two or three times 

 into the water, they will dye and grow white : now the 

 skill is when these worms be grown poor ; you must 

 feed them up to make them fat and lustie, that they 

 may live on the hook : that is the chiefest point To 

 make them lustie and fat, you must take the yolk 

 of an Egg, some eight or ten spoonful of the top of 

 new milk, beaten well together in a Porringer, warm 

 it a little, untill you see it curdle ; then take it off the 

 fire, and set it to cool ; when it is cold, take a spoonfull 

 and drop it upon your moss into the pot, every drop 

 about the bignesse of a green pea, shifting your Moss 

 twice in the week in the Summer, and once in the 

 Winter : thus doing, you shall feed your worms fat, 

 and make them lustie, that they will live a long time 

 on the hook, so you may keep them all the year 

 long. 



The description given of angling with a minnow 

 more resembles spinning than trolling ; it contains 

 the first mention of the swivel. The line used is 

 thicker than that used for bottom-fishing, " two silks 

 and two hairs twisted for the bottom next your hook, 



