THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [PARi I 



lover and great a practiser of it our learned Doctor Whi taker 

 was, as indeed many others of great learning have been. But 

 I will content myself with two memorable men, that lived near 

 to our own time, whom I also take to have been ornaments to 

 the art of Angling. 



The first is Doctor Nowel, sometime Dean of the Cathedral 

 Church of St. Paul in London, where his monument stands yet 

 Undefaced : a man that in the Reformation of Queen Elizabeth, 

 not that of Henry VIII. , was so noted for his meek spirit, deep 

 learning, prudence, and piety, that the then Parliament and 

 Convocation both chose, enjoined, and trusted him to be the 

 man to make a Catechism for public use, such a one as should 

 stand as a rule for faith and manners to their posterity. And 

 the good old man, though he was very learned, yet knowing 

 that God leads us not to heaven by many nor by hard questions, 

 like an honest Angler, made that good, plain, unperplexed Cate- 

 chism which is printed with our good old Service-Book. I say, 

 this good man was a dear lover and constant practiser of An- 

 gling as any age can produce ; and his custom was to spend, be- 

 sides his fixed hours ot prayer, those hours which by command 

 of the Church were enjoined the clergy, and voluntarily dedi- 

 cated to devotion by many primitive Christians, I say, beside 

 those hours, this good man was observed to spend a tenth part 

 of his time in Angling ; and also, for I have conversed with 

 those which have conversed with him, to bestow a tenth part 

 of his revenue, and usually all his fish, amongst the poor that 

 inhabited near to those rivers in which it was caught ; saying 

 often, " that Charity gave life to Religion " : and at his return 

 to his house would praise God he had spent that day free from 

 worldly trouble ; both harmlessly, and in a recreation that be- 

 came a churchman. And this good man was well content, if 

 not desirous, that posterity should know he was an Angler, as 

 may appear by his picture now to be seen, and carefully kept in 

 Brazen-nose College, to which he was a liberal benefactor ; in 

 which picture he is clrawn leaning on a desk with his Bible be- 



