THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 3 1? 



good morning to you ; I have stretch' d my legs up Totnam Hil to over- 

 take you, hoping your businesse may occasion you towards Ware, this fine, 

 pleasant, fresh, May-day in the morning. Viator. Sir, I shall almost 

 answer your hopes ; for my purpose is to be at Hodsden (three miles short 

 of that town) I will not say, before I drink, but before I break my fast : 

 for I have appointed a friend or two to meet me there at the Thatcht- 

 house, about nine of the clock this morning ; and that made me so early 

 up, and, indeed, to walk so fast. Pise. Sir, I know the Thatcht-house 

 very well : I often make it my resting place, and taste a cup of ale there, 

 for which liquor that place is very remarkable ; and to that house I shall 

 by your favour accompany you, and either abate of my pace, or mend it, 

 to enjoy such a companion as you seem to be, knowing that (as the 

 Italians say,") etc. Pages I, 2. The Thatcht-house is stated by the Rev. 

 Moses Browne, in a note in his Third Edition of the Complete Angler, 

 Land. 1772, I2mo, p. i, to be " seventeen miles from London on the 

 Ware road." It is now quite unknown ; but it has been supposed that a 

 thatched cottage, once distinguished by the sign of the Buffalo's Head, 

 standing at the farther end of Hoddesdon, on the left of the road ui going 

 towards Ware, about seventeen miles and half distant from Londoi\ was 

 the actual building. 



Page 41. Mews a Hawk. 



Mew, derived from the old French Mu, signifies a change, or the period 

 when birds and other animals moult, or cast their feathers, hairs, or horns: 

 hence Latham observes that the ' ' Mew is that place, whether it be abroad 

 or in the house, where you set down your hawk during the time she rais- 

 eth (or reproduces) her feathers." In the above passage, the term refers 

 to the care with which a hawk should be kept in her mewing-time ; and in 

 "The Gentleman's Academic, or the Book of St. Alban's," Lond. 1595. 

 4to. Edit, by Gerv. Markham, there are several sections on the mewing of 

 hawks ; from one of which, p. 9, it may be learned that the best time to 

 commence, is in the beginning of Lent, and, if well kept, the bird will 

 be mewed by the beginning of August. 



Page 42. Hunting the Otter. 



In pursuing this sport, which is now almost obsolete, the huntsmen as- 

 sembled on each side of the river where an otter was supposed to harbor, 

 beating up the hollow banks, reed-beds, and sedges, with hounds kept 

 solely for that purpose ; and, if the game were at hand, its " seal" or the 

 impression produced by the round ball under the soles of the feet, were 

 soon discovered in the mud. Every hunter was armed with a spear, to 

 assist the dogs, and attack the animal when it came to the surface of the 

 water to breathe or vent ; but if the otter were not found by the river-side, 

 It was traced by the seal, the fragments of the prey, and the " spraint*** 



