82 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [PART 1. 



been bruised and lain a day or two in water. But the Chub 

 being thus used and dressed presently, and not washed after he 

 is gutted, for note, that, lying long in water, and washing 

 the blood out of any fish after they be gutted, abates much of 

 their sweetness, you will find the Chub, being dressed in the 

 blood and quickly, to be such meat as will recompense your 

 labor, and disabuse your opinion. 



Or you may dress the Chavender or Chub thus : 



When you have scaled him, and cut off his tail and fins, and 

 washed him very clean, then chine or slit him through the 

 middle, as a salt fish is usually cut ; then give him three or 

 four cuts or scotches on the back with your knife, and broil 

 him on charcoal, or wood-coal that is free from smoke ; and all 

 the time he is a-broiling, baste him with the best sweet butter, 

 and good store of salt mixed with it ; and to this add a little 

 thyme, cut exceeding small, or bruised into the butter. The 

 Cheven thus dressed hath the watery taste taken away, for 

 which so many except against him. Thus was the Cheven 

 dressed that you now liked so well, and commended so much. 

 But note again, that if this Chub that you ate of had been 

 kept till to-morrow, he had not been worth a rush. And re- 

 member that his throat be washed very clean, I say very 

 clean, and his body not washed after he is gutted, as indeed 

 no fish should be. 



Well, Scholar, you see what pains I have taken to recover 

 the lost credit of the poor, despised Chub. And now I will 

 give you some rules how to catch him : and I am glad to enter 

 you into the art of Fishing by catching a Chub, for there is no 

 fish better to enter a young Angler, he is so easily caught ; but 

 then it must be chis particular way. 



Go to the same hole in which I caught my Chub, where in 

 most hot days you will find a dozen or twenty Chevens floating 

 near the top of the water. Get two or three grasshoppers as you 

 go over the meadow ; and get secretly behind the tree, and stand 

 as free from motion as is possible. Then put a grasshopper on. 



