THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 159 



now I think best to rest myself, for I have almost spent my 

 spirits with talking so long. 



Venator. Nay, good master, one fish more! for you see it 

 rains still ; and you know our angles are like money put to 



usury, they may thrive, though we sit still, and do nothing 



but talk and enjoy one another. Come, come, the other fish, 

 good master ! 



Piscator. But, scholar, have you nothing to mix with this 

 discourse, which now grows most tedious and tiresome ? Shall 

 I have nothing from you, that seem to have both a good memory 

 and a cheerful spirit ? 



Venator. Yes, master ! I will speak you a copy of verses that 

 were made by Doctor Donne, and made to shew the world 

 that he could make soft and smooth verses, when he thought 

 smoothness worth his labour ; and I love them the better, 

 because they allude to rivers, and fish, and fishing. They be 

 these: 



Come, live with me, and be my love, 

 And we will some new pleasures prove, 

 Of golden sands, and crystal brooks, 

 With silken lines, and silver hooks. 



There will the river whispering run, 

 Warm'd by thy eyes more than the sun ; 

 And there the enamell'd fish will stay, 

 Begging themselves they may betray. 



When thou wilt swim in that live bath, 

 Each fish, which every channel hath, 

 Most amorously to thee will swim, 

 Gladder to catch thee, than thou him. 



If thou to be so seen beest loth, 

 By sun or moon, thou darkenest both ; 

 And if mine eyes have leave to see, 

 I need not their light, having thee. 



author of the " Angler's Sure Guide " says, he once saw the figure of a 

 Perch, drawn with a pencil on the door of a house near that city, which 

 was twenty-nine inches long; and was informed it was the true dimen- 

 sions of a living Perch. Angler's Sure Guide, p. 155. 



The largest Perch are taken with a minnow, hooked with a good hold 

 through the back fin, or rather through the upper lip; for the Perch, by 

 reason of the figure of his mouth, cannot take the bait crosswise, as the 

 Pike will. When you fish thus, use a large cork float, and lead your line 

 about nine inches from the bottom, otherwise the minnow will come to the 

 top of the water ; but in the ordinary way of fishing, let your bait hang 

 within about six inches from the ground 



