82 THE COMPLETE ANGLES, [pAKT I, 



shall find angling allowed to clergymen, as being a harmless 

 recreation, a recreation that invites them to contemplation 

 and quietness, 1 



I might here enlarge myself, by telling you what 

 commendations our learned Perkins bestows on angling: 

 and how dear a lover, and great a practiser of it our 

 learned Dr. Whitaker 2 was; as indeed many others of 

 great learning have been. But I will content myself 



with two memorable men, that 

 lived near to our own time, whom 

 I also take to have been orna- 

 ments to the art of angling. 



The first is DR. NOWEL, some<- 

 time dean of the cathedral church 

 of St. Paul's, in London, where 

 his monument stands yet unde- 

 faced ; 3 a man that, in the re- 

 formation of Queen Elizabeth, 

 (1550) not that of Henry VIII., 

 DeanNowei. was so noted for his meek 



spirit, deep learning, prudence, and piety, that the then 

 parliament and convocation, both, chose, enjoined, and 



1 "Corpus Juris Canonici," of Gregory XIII., edit. 1682, where the 

 decree is found, Di. Ixxxvi. cap. 11. 



2 William Perkins was a learned divine, and a pious and painful preacher. 

 Dr. William Whitaker, an able writer in the Romish controversy, and 

 Regius Professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge. They both 

 flourished at the latter end of the sixteenth century. I remark the extreme 

 caution of our author in this passage ; for he says not, of Perkins, as he 

 does of Whitaker, that he was a practiser of, but only that he bestows (in 

 some of his writings we must conclude) great commendations on angling. 

 Perkins had the misfortune to want the use of his right hand : as we find 

 intimated in this distich on him : 



Dextera quamtumvis fuerat tibi manca, docendi 

 Pollebas mira dexteritate tamen. 



Though nature hath thee of thy right hand bereft, 

 Right well thou writest with thy hand that's left. 

 And therefore can hardly be supposed capable of even baiting his hook. 



The fact respecting Whitaker is thus attested by Dr. Fuller .in his Holy 

 State, book iii. chap. 13. "Fishing with an angle is to some rather a 

 torture than a pleasure, to stand an hour as mute as the fish they mean to 

 take, yet herewithal Dr. Whitaker was much delighted." H. 



3 Dr. Alexander Nowel, a learned divine, and a famous preacher in the 

 reign of King Edward VI. ', upon whose death he, with many other protest- 



