io TO THE READER. 



And I am the willinger to justify the pleasant part of it, 

 because, though it is known, I can be serious at seasonable 

 times, yet the whole Discourse is, or rather was, g. picture pf my 

 own disposition, especially in such days and times as FKave 

 laid aside business, and gone a-fishing with honest Nat. and 

 'R. Roe; but they are gone, and with them most of my pleasant 

 hours, even as a shadow that passeth away and returns 

 not. 



And next, let me add this, that he that likes not the book, 

 should like the excellent picture of the trout, and some of the 

 other fish ; which I may take a liberty to commend, because they 

 concern not myself. 



Next, let me tell the reader, that in that which is the more 

 useful part of this Discourse, that is to say, the observations of 

 the nature, and the breeding, and seasons, and catching of fish, 

 I am not so simple as not to know that a captious reader may 

 find exceptions against something said of some of these ; and 

 therefore, I must entreat him -to consider that experience 

 teaches us to know that several countries alter the time, and I 

 think almost the manner of fishes' breeding, but doubtless of 

 their being in season ; as may appear by three rivers in 

 Monmouthshire, namely, Severn, Wye, and Usk, where 

 Camden (British Fishes, 633) observes, that in the river Wye, 

 salmon are in season from September to April; and we are 

 certain that in Thames and Trent, and in most other rivers, 

 they be in season the six hotter months. 



Now for the art of catching fish, that is to say, how to make a 

 man that was none to be an angler by a book ; he that under- 

 takes it shall undertake a harder task than Mr. Hales, a most 

 valiant and excellent fencer, who, in a printed book called A 

 Private School of Defence, undertook to teach that art or 

 science, and was laughed at for his labour not but that many 

 useful things might be learnt by that book, but he was laughed 

 at because that art was not to be taught by words, but practice ; 

 and so must angling. And note also, that in this discourse, I do 

 not undertake to say all that is known, or may be said of it, but 

 I undertake to acquaint the reader with many things that are 



