THE COMPLETE ANGLER* 167 



fresh rivers ; as, namely, the Lamprel, the Lamprey, and the 

 Lamperne ; as also of the mighty Conger, taken often in 

 Severn, about Gloucester : and might also tell in what high 

 esteem many of them are for the curiosity of their taste. But 

 these are not so proper to be talked of by me, because they 

 make us anglers no sport ; therefore I will let them alone, as 

 the Jews do, to whom they are forbidden by their law. 



And, scholar, there is also a Flounder, a sea-fish which will 

 wander very far into fresh rivers, and there lose himself and 

 dwell, and thrive to a hand's breadth, and almost twice so long ; 

 a fish without scales, and most excellent meat, and a fish that 

 affords much sport to the angler, with any small worm, but 

 especially a little bluish worm, gotten out of marsh ground or 

 meadows, which should be well scoured.* But this, though it 

 be most excellent meat, yet it wants scales, and is, as I told 

 you, therefore an abomination to the Jews. 



But, scholar, there is a fish that they in Lancashire boast 

 very much of, called a Char ; taken there, (and I think there 

 only,t) in a mere called Winander Mere; " a mere," says 

 Camden, " that is the largest in this nation, being ten miles in 

 length, and, some say, as smooth in the bottom, as if it were 

 paved with polished marble." 



This fish never exceeds fifteen or sixteen inches in length, 

 and is spotted like a Trout, and has scarce a bone but on the 



* The taking Flounders with a rod and line is a thing so accidental, that 

 it is hardly worth the mention. The same may he said of Smelts, which, 

 in the Thames, and other great rivers, are caught with a bit of any small 

 fish, but chiefly of their own species. In the month of August, about thu 

 year 1720, such vast quantities of Smelts came up the Thames, that women, 

 and even children, became anglers for them ; and, as I have been told by 

 persons who well remember it, in one day, between London Bridge and 

 Greenwich, not fewer than two thousand persons were thus employed. 



f This is not correct; for the Char, of which there are two species, is 

 found in several of our lakes. I have dined deliciously on those caught iu 

 Buttermere in Cumberland. J. R. 



