114 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [PART I. 



cheerful companion, had sent word he would lodge there 

 to-night, and bring a friend with him. My hostess has two 

 beds, and I know you and I have the best; we'll rejoice 

 with my brother Peter and his friend, tell tales, or sing 

 ballads, or make a catch, or find some harmless sport to 

 content us, and pass away a little time without offence to 

 (rod or man. 



Ven. A match, good master ! let's go to that house, for 

 the linen looks white, and smells of lavender, and I long to 

 lie in a pair of sheets that smell so. Let's be going, good 

 master, for I am hungry again, with fishing. 



Pise. Nay, stay a little, good scholar. I caught my last 

 trout with a worm ; now, I will put on a minnow, 1 and try a 

 quarter of an hour about yonder trees for another : and, so, 

 walk towards our lodging. Look you, scholar ! thereabout, 

 we shall have a bite presently, or not at all. Have with you, 

 sir : o'my word I have hold of him. Oh ! it is a great logger- 

 headed chub ; come, hang him upon that willow twig, and 

 let's be going. But turn out of the way a little, good scholar, 

 toward yonder high honeysuckle hedge ; there, we'll sit and 

 sing, whilst this shower falls so gently upon the teeming 

 earth, and gives yet a sweeter smell to the lovely flowers that 

 adorn these verdant meadows. 



Look ! under that broad beech-tree, I sat down, when I 

 was last this way a-fishing. And the birds in the adjoining 

 grove seemed to have a friendly contention with an echo, 

 whose dead voice seemed to live in a hollow tree, near to the 

 brow of that primrose-hill. There, I sat viewing the silver 

 streams glide silently towards their centre, the tempestuous 

 sea ; yet sometimes opposed by rugged roots and pebble- 

 stones, which broke their waves, and turned them into foam. 

 And sometimes I beguiled time by viewing the harmless 

 lambs ; some leaping securely in the cool shade, whilst others 

 sported themselves in the cheerful sun, and saw others 

 craving comfort from the swollen udders of their bleating 



1 "This kind of fishing is at mid-water, or about a foot more or less 

 under water. A bull-head with his gill fins cut off, is preferable to the 

 minnow, and a roach beyond both." BROWNE. For large fish spinning the 

 minnow or bleak is a very destructive bait. Gudgeons, dace, and even 

 nnall trout, may also be used effectively. HOFLAND. 



