158 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART i. 



notjiow bejpag^re^e-slxairbe at Tottenham High Cross, and 

 when we come thither I will make you some requital of your 

 pains, by repeating as choice a copy of verses as any we have 

 heard since we met together ; and that is a proud word, for we 

 have heard very good ones. 



PiSC. Well, scholar, and I shall be then right glad to hear 

 them ; and I will, as we walk, tell you whatsoever comes in my 

 mind that I think may be worth your hearing. You may make 

 another choice bait thus : take a handful or two of the best and 

 biggest wheat you can get, boil it in a little milk, like as frumity 

 is boiled ; boil it so till it be soft, and then fry it very leisurely 

 with honey, and a little beaten saffron dissolved in milk ; and 

 you will find this a choice bait, and good, I think, for any fish, 

 especially for roach, dace, chub, or grayling : I know not but 

 that it may be as good for a river carp, and especially if the 

 ground be a little baited with it. 



And you may also note that the spawn of most fish is a very 

 tempting bait, being a little hardened on a warm tile, and cut 

 into fit pieces. Nay, mulberries, and those blackberries which 

 grow upon briars, be good baits for chubs or carps : with J;hese 

 many have been taken in ponds, and in some rivers where such 

 trees have grown near the water, and the fruits customarily 

 dropped in it. And there be a hundred other baits, more than 

 can be well named, which, by constant baiting the water, will 

 become a tempting bait for any fish in it. 



You are also to know that there be divers kinds of cadis, or 

 case-worms, that are to be found in this nation, in several dis- 

 tinct counties, and in several little brooks that relate to bigger 

 rivers;- as namely, one cadis called a piper, whose husk or case 

 is a piece of reed about an inch long, or longer, and as big 

 about as the compass of a twopence. These worms being kept 

 three or four days in a woollen bag, with sand at the bottom of 

 it, and the bag wet once a day, will in three or four days turn to 

 be yellow ; and these be a choice bait for the chub or chavender, 

 or indeed for any great fish, for it^is a large bait. 



There is also a lesser cadis-w<5rm, called a cock-spur, being 

 in fashion like the spur of a cock, sharp at one end ; and the 



