THE COMPLETE ANGLEK. 141 



to do it ; and yet, because I cut you short in that, I will 

 commute for it by telling you that that was told me for a 

 secret : it is this : 



Dissolve gum of ivy in oil of spike, and therewith anoint 

 your dead bait for a pike, and then cast it into a likely place, 

 and when it has lain a short time at the bottom, draw it 

 towards the top of the water, and so up the stream, and it is 

 more than likely that you have a pike follow with more than 

 common eagerness. 



And some affirm, that any bait anointed with the marrow of 

 the thigh-bone of an hern/"* is a great temptation to any fish. 



These have not been tried by me, but told me by a friend 

 of note, that pretended to do me a courtesy ; but if this 

 direction to catch a pike thus do you no good, yet I am 

 certain this direction how to roast him when he is caught is 

 choicely good, for I have tried it, and it is somewhat the 

 better for not being common ; but with my direction you 

 must take this caution, that your pike must not be a small one, 

 that is, it must be more than half a yard, and should be bigger. 



First, open your pike at the gills, and if need be, cut also 

 a little slit towards the belly ; out of these take his guts and 

 keep his liver, which you are to shred very small with thyme, 

 sweet-marjoram, and a little winter-savory : to these put some 

 pickled oysters, and some anchovies, two or three, both these 

 last whole ; for the anchovies will melt, and the oysters should 

 not : to these you must add also a pound of sweet butter, 

 which you are to mix with the herbs that are shred, and let 

 them all be well salted : if the pike be more than a yard long, 

 then you may put into these herbs more than a pound, or if 

 he be less, then less butter will suffice : these being thus 

 mixed with a blade or two of mace, must be put into the 

 pike's belly, and then his belly so sewed up, as to keep all the 

 butter in his belly, if it be possible : if not, then as much of it 

 as you possibly can ; but take not off the scales : then you are 

 to thrust the spit through his mouth out at his tail ; and then 

 take four, or five, or six split sticks or very thin laths, and a 

 convenient quantity of tape or filleting : these laths are to be 

 tied round about the pike's body from his head to his tail, and 



* No doubt Walton means the well-known bird,the heron, a great destroyer 

 of fish, and hence, apparently, the notion that its marrow had some odoriferous 

 attraction. Anointing any fish dead-bait for pike or for perch, or any other 

 fish, is more superfluous, if possible, than gilding the purest Australian gold 



nugget. ED. 



