CHAP. II. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 47 



usually say, " that which is every body's business is no- 

 body's business :" If it were otherwise, there could not be 

 so many nets and fish, that are under the statute size, 

 sold daily amongst us ; and of which the conservators of 

 the waters should be ashamed. 1 



But, above all, the taking fish in spawning-time may 

 be said to be against nature ; it is like the taking the dam 

 on the nest when she hatches her young : a sin so against 

 nature, that Almighty God hath in the Levitical law made 

 a law against it. 



But the poor fish have enemies enough beside such 

 unnatural fishermen; as namely, the Otters that I spake 

 of, the Cormorant, the Bittern, the Osprey, the Sea-gull, 

 the Hern, the King-fisher, the Gorara, the Puet, the 

 Swan, Goose, Duck, and the Craber which some call the 

 Water-rat : against all which any honest man may make 

 a just quarrel, but I will not ; I will leave them to be 

 quarrelled with and killed by others ; for I am not of a 

 cruel nature, I love to kill nothing but fish. 



And, now, to your question concerning your host, to 

 speak truly, he is not to me a good companion : for most 

 of his conceits were either scripture jests, or lascivious 

 jests ; for which I count no man witty : for the devil will 

 help a man, that way inclined, to the first; and his own 

 corrupt nature, which he always carries with him, to the 

 latter. But a companion Unit feasts the company with 

 wit and mirth, and leaves out the sin which is usually 

 mixed with them, he is the man ; and indeed such a com- 

 panion should have his charges borne ; and to such com- 

 pany I hope to bring you this night ; for at Trout-hall, 



(1) About the year 1770, upon the trial of an indictment before me atllicks's 

 Hall, a basket was produced in evidence, containing flounders that had been 

 taken with unlawful nets in the river Thames, so small that scarce any one of 

 them would cover a half-crown-piece. The indictment was, for an affray, and 

 an assault on a person authorized to seize unstatutable nets; and the sentence 

 of the offender, a year's imprisonment in Newgate. 



