A HARD-WORKING DIET. 405 



Hard of concoction. Bad nutriment, burdens the 

 stomacke not for the sick. Seeth with sweet herbs 

 and oil ; eat with vinegar, or boiled with wild marjoram 

 and vinegar. Fit for winter, youth and chollerick. 



The following is a curious rhyming account of 

 opinions of the value of certain fish. 



Dray ton, in his Polyolbion, has (in 25 song), 

 Holland's oration 



" What fish can any shore, or British sea town show, 

 That's eatable to us, that it doeth not bestow 

 Abundantly thereupon ; the Herring king of sea, 

 The faster-feeding Cod, the Mackerell brought by May, 

 The dainty Sole and Plaice, the Dab, as of their blood ; 

 The Conger finely sous'd, hote summer's coolest food ; 

 The Whiting knowne to all, a general wholesome dish ; 

 The Garnet, Rochet, Mayd, and Mullet, dainty fish ; 

 The Haddock, Turbet, Bert, fish nourishing and strong; 

 The Thornback and the Scate, provocative among ; 

 The Weaver, which although his prickles venom bee, 

 By fishers cut away, which buyers seldome see ; 

 Yet for the fish he bears, 'tis not accounted bad : 

 The Sea-flounder is here, as common as the Shad ; 

 The Sturgeon cut to keggs (too big to handle whole) 

 Gives many a dainty bit out of his lusty tole, 

 Yet of rich Neptune's store, whilst thus I idely chat, 

 Think not that all betwixt the Wherpoole and the Sprat, 

 I goe about to name, that were to take in hand 

 The Atomy to tell, or to cast up the sand." 



1 598. Epigram De Piscatione. 



" Fishing, if I a fisher may protest, 

 Of pleasures is the sweetest, of sports the best; 

 Of exercises the most excellent ; 

 Of recreations the most innocent. 

 But now the sport is marde, and wott ye why ? 

 Fishes decrease, and fishers multiply." 



COLLIER'S Poetical Decameron, vol. ii., p. 108. 



