THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 121 



All the farther use that I shall make of this shall be, to advise 

 anglers to be patient, and forbear swearing, least they be heard, 

 and catch no tish. 



And so I shall proceed next to tell you, it is certain that 

 certain fields near Leominster, a town in Herefordshire, are 

 observed to make the sheep that graze upon them more fat than 

 the next, and also to bear finer wool : that is to say, that that 

 year in which they feed in such a particular pasture, they shall 

 yield finer wool than they did that year before they came to 

 feed in it; and coarser again if they shall return to their 

 former pasture ; and again return to a finer wool, being fed in 

 the fine wool ground : which I tell you, that you may the better 

 believe that I am certain, if I catch a Trout in one meadow, he 

 shall be white and faint, and very like to be lousy ; and as 

 certainly, if I catch a Trout in the next meadow, he shall be 

 strong and red, and lusty, and much better meat. Trust me, 

 scholar, I have caught many a Trout in a particular meadow, 

 that the very shape and the enamelled colour of him hath been 

 such as hath joyed me to look on him : and I have then, with 

 much pleasure, concluded with Solomon, " Every thing is 

 beautiful in his season." * 



I should, by promise, speak next of the Salmon ; but I will, 

 by your favour, say a little of the Urnber, or Grayling, which 

 is so like a Trout for his shape and feeding, that I desire I may 

 exercise your patience with a short discourse of him ; and then 

 the next shall be of the Salmon. 



* The Trout delights in small purling rivers, and brooks with gravelly 

 bottoms and a swift stream. His haunts are an eddy, behind a stone, or 

 log, or a bank that projects forward into the river, and against which the 

 stream drives ; a shallow between two streams ; or, towards the latter 

 end of the summer, a mill tail. His hold is usually in the deep, under the 

 hollow of a bank, or the root of a tree. 



The Trout spawns about the beginning of November, and does not 

 recover till the beginning of March. 



When you fish for large Trout or Salmon, a winch will be very useful ; 

 upon the rod with which you use the winch, whip a number of small 

 rings, of about an eighth of an inch diameter, and at first about two feet 

 distant from each other, but afterward diminishing gradually in their 

 distances till you come to the end : the winch must be screwed on to the 

 butt of your rod ; and round the barrel let there be wound eight or ten 

 yards of wove hair or silk line. When you have struck a fish that may 

 endanger your tackle, let the line run, and wind him up as he tires. 



When you angle for a Trout, whether with a fly or at the ground, you 

 need but make three or four trials in a place j which, if unsuccessful, you 

 may conclude there are none there. 



Walton, in speaking of the several rivers where Trout are found, has 

 made no mention of the Rennet which, undoubtedly, produces as good 

 and as many Trouts as any river in England. In the reign of King Charles 

 the Second, a Trout was taken in that river, near Newbury, with a casting, 

 net, which measured forty-five inches in length. 



I may add to this note by Hawkins, that it will be important not to 

 carry a Trout, when struck, up the stream ; for, in that case, the force of 

 the stream and the strength of the fish united, will probably snap the 

 line. J. R. 



