. I.] THE FIRST DAT. 55 



universally beneficial both to man and beast : to men who 

 have their several recreations upon it, as horse-races, hunting, 

 sweet smells, pleasant walks : the earth feeds man, and all 

 those several beasts that both feed him, and afford him re- 

 creation. 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 

 tichat, the fulmar fc, 1 the ferret, the pole-cat, the mould warp, 2 

 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 physic and the pleasure of man- 

 kind ! and above all, to me at least, the fruitful vine, of 

 which when I drink moderately, it clears my brain, cheers 

 my heart, and sharpens my wit. How could Cleopatra have 

 feasted Mark Antony with eight wild boars roasted whole 

 at one supper, 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 summer provides and lays up her winter provision, and 



1 Dr. Skinner, in his " Etymologicon Linguae Anglicanse/' Lond. fol. 

 1671, voce "Fulimart," gives us to understand that this word is vox quce 

 nusquam, nisi in libro, the "Complete Angler," dicto occurrit. Upon which 

 it may be observed, that Dame Juliana Berners, in her "Book of Hunting," 

 ranks the Fuimarde among the ' rascal ' beasts of chace ; and that both 

 in the Dictionary of Dr. Adam Littleton and that of Phillips, entitled the 

 " World of Words," it occurs ; the first renders it Putorius, mus Ponticus ; 

 the latter a kind of polecat. In Junius it is fullmer, and said to be idem 

 quod polecat ; but in this interpretation they seem all to be mistaken, for 

 Walton here mentions the polecat by name, as does also Dame Juliana 

 Berners in her book. H. The polecat is also now called the fitchet in 

 Staffordshire. Professor Rennie says that the fitchet, the fulimart, and 

 the polecat, appear to be all of the same species (mustela pretorisus). 

 Major adds that the fichet is a name most commonly appropriated to the 

 weazel, and that the name is derived from the Teutonic vitsche. Junius, 

 in his Glossary, quotes it as anciently called fiest, a low German word for 

 the most offensive of smells. ED. 



2 The mouldwarp is a name of the mole, compounded of the Anglo- 

 Saxon words molde, dust, and weorpan, to cast. We call, says Verstegan, 

 "in some parts of England, a mole, a mouldwarp, which is as much as to 

 say a cast-earth." 



