174* THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [PART I. 



value the umber or grayling so highly, that they say he 

 feeds on gold ; and say that many have been caught out of 

 their famous river of Loire, out of whose bellies grains of 

 gold have been often taken. And some think that he feeds 

 on water-thyme, and smells of it at his first taking out of 

 the water ; and they may think so with as good reason as 

 we do, that our smelts smell like violets at their first being 

 caught, which I think is a truth. Aldrovandus says, the 

 salmon, the grayling, and trout, and all fish that live in clear 

 and sharp streams, are made by their mother Nature of such 

 exact shape, and pleasant colours, purposely to invite us to 

 a joy and contentedness in feasting with her. Whether 

 this is a truth or not, it is not my purpose to dispute : but 

 it is certain, all that write of the umber, declare him to be 

 very medicinable. And G-esner says that the fat of an 

 umber, or grayling, being set, with a little honey, a day or 

 two in the sun, in a little glass, is very excellent against 

 redness, or swarthiness, or anything that breeds in the eyes. 

 Salvian 1 takes him to be called umber from his swift 

 swimming or gliding out of sight, more like a shadow or a ghost 

 than a fish. Much more might be said both of his smell 

 and taste : but I shall only tell you that St. Ambrose, the 

 glorious Bishop of Milan, who lived when the Church kept 

 fasting-days, calls him the flower-fish, or flower of fishes ; 

 and that he was so far in love with him, that he would not 

 let him pass without the honour of a long discourse. But I 

 must, and pass on to, tell you how to take this dainty fish. 



Grayling. 



1 Hippolito Salviani, an Italian physician of the sixteenth century : he 

 ote a treatise "DePiscibus, cum eorum figuris ; " and died at Rome, 



wrote 



1572, aged 59. H. 



