CHAP. X.] THE FOTJETH DAT. 221 



are many. First, paste made of brown bread and honey, 

 gentles, or the brood of wasps that be young, and then not 

 unlike gentles, and should be hardened in an oven, or dried 

 on a tile before the fire to make them tough ; or there is at 

 the root of docks, or flags, or rushes, in watery places, a 

 worm not unlike a maggot, at which Tench l will bite freely. 

 Or he will bite at a grasshopper with his legs nipped off, 

 in June and July; or at several flies, under water, which may 

 be found on flags that grow near to the water-side. I doubt 

 not but that there be many other baits that are good, 2 but I 

 will turn them all into this most excellent one, either for a 

 carp or bream, in any river or mere ; 3 it was given to me 

 by a most honest and excellent angler, and, hoping you will 

 prove both, I will impart it to you. 



1. Let your bait be as big a red-worm as you can find, 

 without a knot : get a pint or quart of them in an evening in 

 garden-walks, or chalky commons, after a shower of rain, 

 and put them with clean moss well washed and picked, and 

 the water squeezed out of the moss as dry as you can, into an 



valued at 20d. ; and lie also states, that, in 1454, "A pie of four of theni, 

 in the expenses of two men employed for three days in taking them, in 

 baking them, in flour, in spices, and conveying it from Sutton in Warwick- 

 shire, to the Earl of Warwick, at Mydlam in the North Country, cost 

 xvjs ijd." Hist. Warw. p. 668. Whatever our forefathers may have said, 

 there is no doubt that a bream is now held to be the worst, most insipid/ 

 and most disagreeable fish that can be met with. It is even worse than a 

 barbel. A French cook might possibly dress a bream so as to make it 

 palatable, but I should be sorry to partake of it. ED. 



1 Evidently an error ; it should read bream. ED. 



2 In a shallow, sandy bottom of a river, which leads into any deep, still 

 hole, throw four or five handsful of marsh worms cut in pieces, which will 

 soon drive down into the hole. Use a long rod, of good strength, a pro- 

 portionable line, a small hook tied to an Indian grass, without a float ; fix 

 a cut shot six inches above the hook, and next to it a small bored bullet. 

 The use of shot is to prevent the bullet slipping lower. Fish with a short 

 well scoured marsh worm ; throw into the shallow, and the stream will 

 drive it into the hole. By this method, an experienced angler says, he has 

 caught more bream in two hours than he could carry away. When you 

 find a deep quiet hole, near the bank, plumb it over night, and ground 

 bait it with grains well squeezed. Next morning early choose a stand, out 

 of sight ; bait with a large red worm, and drop it gently into the hole. 

 Observe whether the water be risen or fallen since you plumbed it, and 

 make allowance accordingly. BROWNE. 



3 Mere is old English for a lake, and is still retained for several of our 

 lakes, as Buttermere, Grassmere, Windermere, &c. ED. 





