22 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



otter, the crafty fox, and tlie fearful hare 1 And if I may 

 descend to a lower game, what pleasure is it sometimes with 

 gins to betray the very vermin of the earth 1 as, namely, the 

 fitchet, the fulimart, the ferret, the pole-cat, the mould- warp, 

 and the like creatures that live upon the face and within 

 the bowels of the earth ! How doth the earth bring forth 

 herbs, flowers, and fruits, both for physic and the pleasure of 

 mankind ! and above all, to me at least, the fruitful vine, of 

 which, when I drink moderately, it clears my brain, cheers 

 my heart, and sharpens my wit. How could Cleopatra have 

 feasted Mark Antony with eight wild boars roasted whole at 

 one supper, and other meat suitable, if the earth had not been 

 a bountiful mother 1 But to pass by the mighty elephant, 

 which the earth breeds and nourisheth, and descend to the 

 least of creatures, how doth the earth afford us a doctrinal 

 example in the little pismire, who in the summer provides 

 and lays up her winter provision, and teaches man to do the 

 like ! The earth feeds and carries those horses that carry us. 

 If I would be prodigal of my time and your patience, what 

 might not I say in commendations of the earth 1 that puts 

 limits to the proud and raging sea, and by that means pre- 

 serves both man and beast, that it destroys them not, as we 

 see it daily doth those that venture upon the sea, and are 

 there shipwrecked, drowned, and left to feed haddocks ; when 

 we that are so wise as to keep ourselves on the earth, walk, 

 and talk, and live, and eat, and drink, and go a hunting : of 

 which recreation I will say a little, and then leave Mr. Piscator 

 to the commendation of angling. 



Hunting is a game for princes and noble persons ; it hath 

 been highly prized in all ages ; it was one of the qualifications 

 that Xenophon bestowed on his Cyrus, that he was a hunter 

 of wild beasts. * Hunting trains up the younger nobility to 

 the use of manly exercises in their riper age.f What more 

 manly exercise than hunting the wild boar, the stag, the buck, 

 the fox, or the hare 1 How doth it preserve health, and 

 increase strength and activity I 



* See Cyropasdia, education of Cyrus, book i. chap. 5. Cyrus, when a boy, 

 paid a visit to his maternal grandfather, Astyages, king of the Medes, who kept 

 all sorts of wild beasts in large parks (paradeisoi, or paradises). Here the 

 young Persian prince hunted continually the lion, the bear, and wild boar, and 

 in the sporting-field prepared himself for the battle-field. ED. 



t Professor John "Wilson (the well-known Kit North of Blackwood) attri- 

 butes the excellency of our cavalry officers to their fox-hunting education. The 

 Duke of Wellington kept a pack of fox-hounds in Spain, and hunted when his 

 troops were in their winter cantonments. ED. 



