CHAPTER VI. 



SMALL FRY. 

 I. 



ICHAEL DRAYTON hardly 

 showed his usual discrimination 

 when he treated small fry so 

 cavalierly in his lines : 



"The dainty gudgeon, loche, the minnow, and the bleak, 

 Since they but little are, I little need to speak." 



Only too many people have followed in his 



footsteps, and of such we can but say with all 



commiseration theirs is the loss. The initiated 



wisely place very high the merits of a dish of 



fat gudgeon, fried piping hot, and " asperged " 



with lemon juice. Unfortunately for the general 



public, gudgeon do not come much into the 



market. Perhaps the conscious superiority of 



having partaken of this "dish for kings" is one 



of the reasons for the divine placidity of mind 



of a Thames angler; for, as old Father Izaak 



