36 COMMENDATORY YEESES. 



TO MY DEAE FBIEND ME. IZAAK WALTON ; 



IN 



PRAISE OF ANGLING; WHICH WE BOTH LOVE. 



DOWN by this smooth stream's wand'ring side, 



Adorn'd and perfum'd with the pride 



Of Flora's wardrobe, where the shrill 



Aerial choir express their skill 



First, in alternate melody ; 



And, then, in chorus all agree 



Whilst the charm'd fish, as extasy'd 



With sounds, to his own throat deny'd, 



Scorns his dull element, and springs 



I' th' air, as if his fins were wings. 



Tis here that pleasures sweet and high 

 Prostrate to our embraces lie : 

 Such as to body, soul or fame, 

 Create no sickness, sin or shame : 

 Roses, not fenc'd with pricks, grow here ; 

 No sting to th' honey-bag is near : 

 But, what's perhaps their prejudice, 

 . They difficulty want and price. 



An obvious rod, a twist of hair, 

 With hook hid in an insect, are 

 Engines of sport would fit the wish 

 0' th' epicure, and fill his dish. 



In this clear stream, let fall a grub ; 

 And, straight, take up a dace or chub. 

 I' th' mud, your worm provokes a snig ; l 

 Which being fast, if it prove big, 

 The Gotham folly 2 will be found 

 Discreet, ere ta'en she must be drown'd. 

 The tench, physician of the brook, 

 In yon dead hole expects your hook ; 



1 A small eel. 



2 An allusion to a fanciful story of the " wise men of Gotham," told in 

 a popular chap-book of the time. They cast a quantity of red herrings, 

 sprats, and small fish into a pond, in the expectation that they would con- 

 siderably multiply by the following Lent. When the time came, finding 

 only a large eel, they took it for granted he had devoured all the fish, and 

 therefore threw him into another pond to drown him. ED. 



