152 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 



affirms they all appeared again. This Gesner affirms ; and 

 I quote my author because it seems almost as incredible 

 as the resurrection to an atheist : but it may win some- 

 thing, in point of believing it, to him that considers the 

 breeding or renovation of the silk-worm, and of many in- 

 sects. And that is considerable, which Sir Francis Bacon 

 observes in his History of Life and Death, fol. 20. that 

 there be some herbs that die and spring every year, and 

 some endure longer. 



But though some do not, yet the French esteem this 

 fish highly ; and to that end have this proverb, " He that 

 hath Breams in his pond, is able to bid his friend wel- 

 come." And it is noted, that the best part of a Bream is 

 his belly and head. 1 



Some say, that Breams and Roaches will mix their 

 eggs and melt together ; and so there is in many places 

 a bastard breed of Breams, that never come to be either 

 large or good, but very numerous. 



The baits good to catch this are many. First, paste 

 made of brown bread and honey ; gentles, or the brood 

 of wasps that be young, and then not unlike gentles, 

 and should be hardened in an oven, or dried on a tile 

 before the fire to make them tough. Or, there is, at the 

 root of docks or flags or rushes in watery places, a worm 

 not unlike a maggot, at which Tench [Bream] will bite 

 freely. Or he will bite at a grasshopper with his legs 

 nipt off, in June and July; or at several flies, under 

 water, which may be found on flags that grow near to the 

 water-side. I doubt not but that there be many other 

 baits that are good ; but I will turn them all into this 



(1) The Bream, according to Sir William Dugdaie, appears to have been con- 

 sidered a great luxury in England, for in the ?tli of Lien. V. it was valued at 

 SOd. and he alto states that in 1464, " A Pye of four of them, in the expences 

 of two men employed for three days in taking them, in baking them, in flour, in 

 spires, and conveying it from Suttoo in Warwickshire, to the Earl of Warwick, 

 at Mydlam in the North Country, cost xvj*. ijrf." Hiit. Warw. p. 666. 



