266 FISHING GOSSIP. 



than mere assertion, because, if they would insinuate 

 that the variety of preparations of " rabbit, roasted 

 bacon, white bread, mutton-kidney, butter and cheese," 

 followed with a constitutional nip of " aniseed," was 

 but to serve as a sly dinner for the biped and not for 

 the fish, they must be prepared to show that men in 

 that time were equally disposed to refect upon " the 

 flesh of whelps," turmeric mixed with bean or wheat 

 flour, or a dash of assafoetida, and the whole washed 

 down with a full draught of Venice turpentine, instead 

 of Barclay and Perkins or Ind Coope. 



" I make but little boast," writes one who fished in the 

 fifteenth century, " of my unguents, for there are those about 

 who would steal of my secrets and lie in wait, abounding like 

 a robber for that which I use, that they the whereof could take 

 to the man of cunning, and set aside each of its components, 

 and thus become master of that which is none of theirs ; but 

 this I will venture, for none such purloiners of man's goods is 

 there even the most simple of pastes left, for that, being made 

 of white bread and milk, needeth clean hands." 



Another angler tells us that " assafoetida, oil of 

 polipody, of the oak, oil of ivy, oil of Peter, and gum 

 ivy, mixed up as paste, will wonderfully increase your 

 sport." 



Now, of all the abominable stinks assafoetida is 

 the worst. But if the fish like it, the credit due to 

 the angler in providing it for them, in spite of all 

 objections, is great. It is produced from a species of 

 ferula, in the dry stalk of which we are told Pro- 



