88 THE COMPLETE ANGLEK. 



In the middle of March, till which time, a man should not, 

 in honesty, catch a trout or in April, if the weather be dark, 

 or a little windy or cloudy, the best fishing is with the 

 palmer-worm, of which I last spoke to you ; but of these 

 there be divers kinds, or at least of divers colours ; these and 

 the May-fly are the ground of all fly- angling, which are to be 

 thus made : 



First, you must arm your hook with the line in the inside 

 of it, then take your scissors, and cut so much of a brown 

 mallard's feather, as in your own reason will make the wings 

 of it, you having withal regard to the bigness or littleness of 

 your hook; then lay the outmost part of your feather next to 

 your hook, then the point of your feather next the shank of 

 your hook ; and having so done, whip it three or four times 

 about the hook with the same silk with which your hook 

 was armed; and, having made the silk fast, take the hackle 

 of a cock or capon's neck, or a plover's top, which is usually 



off the red palmer and set to a black palmer ; I had good sport, and made up 

 the dish of fish. So I put up my tackles, and was with my lord at his time 

 appointed for the service. 



" These three flies, with the help of the lob-worms, serve to angle all the year 

 for the night ; observing the times as I have showed you in this nightwork ; 

 the white lly for darkness, the red fly in medio, and the black fly for lightness. 

 This is the true experience for angling in the night ; which is the surest angling 

 of all, and killeth the greatest trouts. Your lines may be strong, but must not 

 be longer than your rod. 



" Now, having taken a good dish of trouts, I presented them to my lord. He 

 having provided good company, commanded me to turn cook, and dress them 

 for dinner 



" There comes an honest gentleman, a familiar friend, to me he was 



an angler begins to compliment witli me, and asked me how I did ? when I 

 had been angling? and demanded, in discourse, what was the reason I did not 

 relate in my book the dressing of his dish offish, which he loved ? I pray you T 

 sir, what dish of trouts was that ? He said it was a dish of close-boiled trouts, 

 buttered with eggs. My answer was to him, that every scullion dresseth that 

 dish against his will, because he cannot calvor them. I will tell you, in short : 

 Put your trouts into the kettle when the kettle is set to the fire, and let them 

 boil gently, as many cooks do ; and they shall boil close enough ; which is a 

 good dish, buttered with eggs, good for ploughmen, but not for the palate. Sir, 

 I hope I have given satisfaction," 



[This Mr. Thomas Barker was no doubt an excellent angler. He was the 

 first known inventor of what are called night-flies or moths. And he used 

 them on the right principle, viz. : in darkness, a very light bodied and light- 

 winged fly ; when only moderately dark, a yellow fly ; and when becoming to 

 get dark, a brown-bodied fly. Hence we moderns have the flies called the 

 brown, the yellow, and the white moth. If I mistake not, Barker was the first 

 to make use of trout or salmon roe as a bait for fish, but he used it in a raw state. 

 It is now a very common and a very deadly bait ; but it is used in a preserved 

 state, and very properly, as being, when so, more killing and far more conve- 

 nient than when raw.] ED. 



