128 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PARTI. 



on the place you late baited, and again intend to bait, you shall 

 take a tuft of green but short grass, as big or bigger than a 

 round trencher; to the top of this turf, on the green side, you 

 shall with a needle and green thread, fasten one by one as many 

 little red worms as will near cover all the turf; then take a 

 round board or trencher, make a hole in the middle thereof, and 

 through the turf, placed on the board or trencher, with a string 

 or cord as long as is fitting, tied to a pole, let it down to the 

 bottom of the water, for the fish to feed upon without disturb- 

 ance about two or three days ; and after that you have drawn it 

 away, you may fall to and enjoy your former recreation. 



CHAPTER XI. 



OBSERVATIONS OF THE TENCH ; ADVICE HOW TO ANGLE 

 FOR HIM. 



PiSC. The Tench, the physician of fishes, is observed to love 

 ponds better than rivers, and to love pits better than either: yet 

 Camden observes, there is a river in Dorsetshire that abtmnds 

 with tenches, but doubtless they retire to the most deep and 

 quiet places in it. 



This fish hath very large fins, very small and smooth scales, 

 a red circle about his eyes, which are big and of a gold colour, 

 and from either angle of his mouth there hangs down a little 

 barb. In every tench's head there are two little stones which 

 foreign physicians make great use of, but he is not commended 

 for wholesome meat, though there be very much use made of 

 them for outward applications. Rondeletius says, that at his 

 being at Rome, he saw a great cure done by applying a tench to 

 the feet of a very sick man. This, he says, was done after an 

 unusual manner, by certain Jews. And it is observed, that 

 many of those people have many secrets yet unknown to 

 Christians; secrets that have never yet been written, but have 

 been (since the days of their Solomon, who knew the nature 



