CHAP. I. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 9 



use ; I think 'tis not to be doubted that Swallows have 

 been taught to carry letters between two armies. But 'tis 

 certain that when the Turks besieged Malta or Rhodes, 

 I now remember not which it was, Pigeons are then 

 related to carry and recarry letters : And Mr. G. San- 

 dys, 1 in his Travels, relates it to be done betwixt Aleppo 

 and Babylon. 2 But if that be disbelieved, it is not 

 to be doubted that the Dove was sent out of the ark by 

 Noah, to give him notice of land, when to him all ap- 

 peared to be sea; and the Dove proved a faithful and 

 comfortable messenger. And for the sacrifices of the 

 law, a pair of Turtle-doves, or young Pigeons, were as 

 well accepted as costly Bulls and Rams. And when 

 God would feed the Prophet Elijah, 1 Kings, xvii. after 

 a kind of miraculous manner, he did it by Ravens, who 

 brought him meat morning and evening. Lastly, the 

 Holy Ghost, when he descended visibly upon our Saviour, 

 did it by assuming the shape of a Dove. 8 And, to con- 



(1) Mr. George Sandys, a very pious, learned, and accomplished gentleman. 

 was the youngest son of Dr. Edwin Sandys, Abp. of York. He published his 

 Travel* to the Holy Land, Egypt, and elsewhere, in folio, 1' 15 ; and made 

 an excellent Paraphrase on the Pnalitw, Canticle*, and Ecclcsiastes, in verse ; 

 and also translated Ovid's tlctamorphote*. He was one of the best versifiers 

 of thtt age, and died in id*'.'. 



(2) " A thing usual it is betweene Tripoly and Aleppo, as betweene Aleppo 

 And Babylon, to make tame Doves the speedy transporters of their Le:iers; 

 which they wnp about their legs like jesses, trained thereunto at such time 

 i they have youn* ones, by bearing them from them in open cages. A fowle 

 of a notable memory. Nor is it a modern* invention. For we reade that 

 Thauronhoiies, by a pigeon stained with purple, gave notice of his victory at 

 the Olimpian games the selfe same day to his father in gina. By which 

 me* UPS also the Con-ul Hircus held intelligence with Decimus Brutus be- 

 sieged in Mutina. The like perhaps is meant by the Poet, when he saith 



* Tanquam 8 divcrtis partibus Orbis 

 Ami- praecip.ti veoisset Epistolu prima.' Juv. Sat. c. 

 As if from pans removed farre, from some 

 A wofull Letter twiftly winged should come. 



When the Christians besieged Acre, Saladine sent out one of these winged 

 scouts to confirm the courages of the besieged, with promise of a speedy re- 

 liefer when 1 know not by what chance or policy, intercepted, and furnished 

 with a contrary message, occasioned * sodaine surrender." Sandy*' Travel*, 

 fol. Land. J615. p. 209. 



(3) Walton here mistakes the sease of two passes in Scripture, vis. Matt. iii. 

 16. and Luke iii. 22. in which the baptism of our Lord is related. The Mean- 



