5* THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I* 



dressed presently; and not washed after he is gutted, 

 (for note, that lying long in water, and washing the 

 blood out of any fish after they be gutted, abates much 

 of their sweetness,) you will find the Chub (being dressed 

 in the blood, and quickly) to be such meat as will recom- 

 pense your labour, and disabuse your opinion. 



Or you may dress the Chavender or Chub thus: 



When you have scaled him, and cut off his tail and 

 fins, and washed him very clean, then chine or slit him 

 through the middle, as a salt-fish is usually cut ; then 

 give him three or four cuts or scotches on the back with 

 your knife, and broil him on charcoal, or wood coal, 

 that are free from smoke: and all the time he is a broil- 

 ing, baste him with the best sweet butter, and good 

 store of salt mixed with it. And, to this, add a little 

 thyme cut exceeding small, or bruised into the butter. 

 The Cheven thus dressed hath the watery taste taken 

 away, for which so many except against him. Thus was 

 the Cheven dressed that you now liked so well, and com- 

 mended so much. But note again, that if this Chub that 

 you eat of had been kept till to-morrow, he had not been 

 worth a rush. And remember, that his throat be washed 

 very clean, I say very rlean, and his body not washed 

 after he is gutted, as indeed no fish should be. 



Well, scholar, you see what pains I have taken to 

 recover the lost credit of the poor despised Chub. And 

 now I will give you some rules how to catch him : and I 

 am glad to enter you into the art of fishing by catching 

 a Chub, for there is no fish better to enter a young Angler, 

 he is so easily caught, but then it must be this particu- 

 lar way. 



Go to the same hole in which I caught my Chub, 

 where, in most hot days, you will find a dozen or 

 twenty Chevens floating near the top of the water. Get 

 two or three grasshoppers as you go over the meadow : 



