10 LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. 



beste and moost surest crafte of takynge the Pyke. Another 

 manere takynge of hym there is ; take a frosshe,* and put it 

 on your hoke, at the necke, betwene the skynne and the body, 

 on the backe half, and put on a flote a yerde therefro, and 

 caste it where the Pyke hauntyth, and ye shall haue him. 

 Another manere : Take the same bayte, and put it in asafetida, 

 and caste it in the water wyth a corde and a corke, and ye 

 shall not fayl of hym. And yf ye lyst to haue a good sporte, 

 thenne tye the corde to a gose fote ; and ye shall se gode 

 halynge, whether the gose or the Pyke shall haue the better." 



The directions for making flies, contained in this book, are, 

 as one would expect, very inartificial : we shall therefore only 

 add, that the authoress advises the angler to be provided with 

 twelve different sorts ; between which and Walton's twelve.f 

 the difference is so very small, as well in the order as the 

 manner of describing them, that there cannot remain the least 

 doubt but he had seen, and attentively perused this ancient 

 treatise. 



The book concludes with some general cautions, among 

 which are these that follow ; which at least serve to shew how 

 long angling has been looked on as an auxiliary to contem- 

 plation. 



" Also ye shall not use this forsayd crafty dysporte, for no 

 couetysenes, to the encreasynge and sparynge of your money 

 oonly; but pryncypally for your solace, and to cause the 

 helthe of your body, and specyally of your soule : for whanne 

 ye purpoos to goo on your dysportes in fysshynge, ye woll not 

 desyre gretly many persons wyth you, whyche myghte lette 

 you of your game. And thenne ye may serue God, deuowtly, 

 in sayenge affectuously youre custumable prayer ; and, thus 

 doynge, ye shall eschewe and voyde many vices." 



But to return to the last mentioned work of our author, 

 The Complete Angler: it came into the world attended with 

 Encomiastic Verses by several writers of that day ; and had 

 in the title-page, though Walton thought proper to omit it in 

 the future editions, this apposite motto : 



" Simon Peter said, I go a fishing; and they said, We also 

 will go with thee." John, xxi. 3. 



And here occasion is given to remark, that the circumstance 

 of time, and the distracted state of the kingdom at the period 



* Or frog. Minshew's Dictionary. f See chap. v. 



\ This is a mistake : the Commendatory Verses appeared for the first 

 time in the second edition. 



