TO THE READER. 



IT is not any desire either of profit or credit that in- 

 duced me to write this Piece, only the solicitations of 

 some private Friends, concurring with my own nature 

 and inclination, which was always addicted to this 

 sport: 1 never could see any thing of this subject in 

 particular: The Complete Angler hints the most at 

 it, as first of the nature and generation, and age of a 

 Pike, quoting the same Author, Gesner, that I do. 

 He also observes some physical effects of him, the 

 spawning time; all sorts of baits, especially of the 

 frog, he speaks much, and the ledger bait; he hah 

 inserted a story of the antipathy between a land frog, 

 which he conceives venemous, and a Pike, in a pond 

 in Bohemia ; he shows the way to bait the hook, as also 

 to play it with bladders, bull-rushes, &c. teaches a way 

 to charm and invite the fish, by sweetening the bait 

 with gum of ivy dissolved in oil of spike; as likewise 

 a receipt to roast a Pike. This is the sum of Mr. 

 Walton's discourse. Then there is The Gentleman's 

 Jleweation^ hath one chapter, but much the same as 

 the other, as borrowed from him. I never could see 

 any other concerning trolling ; if there be, it must be 

 very old standing, and any thing new is more pUrising, 

 because hominum est noritatis avida. I i vt; not put 

 it in that tiorid dress of eloquence or rhe'o;' jj purases, 

 nor indeed would the subject bear it. 



Ornarins ispa negat, content a docerL 



The thing itself is onlv w 11 conf- ^( 

 To be for ust ami Cpi 



