12 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 



sant walks: the earth feeds man, and all those several 

 beasts that both feed him, and afford him recreation, 

 What pleasure doth man take in hunting the stately Stag, 

 the generous Buck, the Wild Boar, the cunning Otter, 

 the crafty Fox, and the fearful Hare! And if I may 

 descend to a lower game, what pleasure is it sometimes 

 with gins to betray the very vermin of the earth ! as namely, 

 the Fichat, the Fulimart, 1 the Ferret, the Pole-cat, the 

 Mouldwarp, and the like creatures that live upon the 

 face and within the bowels of the earth. How doth the 

 earth bring forth herbs, flowers, and fruits, both for phy- 

 sic and the pleasure of mankind; and above all, to me 

 at least, the fruitful vine, of which when I drink mode- 

 rately, it clears my brain, chears my heart, and shar- 

 pens my wit. How could Cleopatra have feasted Mark 

 Antony with eight Wild Boars roasted whole at one sup- 

 per, and other meat suitable, if the earth had not been a 

 bountiful mother? But to pass by the mighty Elephant, 

 which the earth breeds and nourisheth, and descend to 

 the least of creatures, how doth the earth afford us a 

 doctrinal example in the little Pismire, who in the sum- 

 mer provides and lays up her winter provision, and teaches 

 man to do the like! The earth feeds and carries those 

 horses that carry us. If I would be prodigal of my time 

 and your patience, what might not I say in commenda- 

 tions of the earth? That puts limits to the proud and 

 raging sea, and by that means preserves both mari and 

 beast, that it destroys them not, as we see it daily doth 



(I) Dr. Skinner, in hit Etymologicon Lingua Anglicana, Lond. fol. 1fi~I, 

 voce. " Fulimart," gives us to understand, that tliis word is Vox qua, nus- 

 quantj *.m in libra the " Complete Angler," dicto occurrit. Upon which it 

 uy be observed, that Dame Juliana Barnes, io her Book of Hunting, ranks 

 the Fulmarde among the beasts of chace; and that both in the Dii.iior.tny of 

 Dr. Adam Littleton, and that of Phillips, entitled the World of Words, it 

 occurs: the first renders it Putorius, mus Punticus ; the latter a kind of 

 Polecat. In Jooius it is Fullmer, and said to be idtm quod Polecat ; but 

 in this interpretation they seem all to be mistaken, fur Wallou here mentions 

 the Polecat by name, as does also Dame Juliana Burnes in her book. 



