EVOLUTION OF THE TROUT PLY. 181 



of some pond in England, in France, or in 

 Italy, shaded by elm-trees, haunted by slow- 

 moving cattle : and, after living there, and 

 growing fat in peaceful ease, returns by the 

 stormy road which it travelled, and fulfils its 

 long last journey, to reproduce and to die. 

 Taverner did not know all this, but he knew 

 much which others did not, for he says that 

 eels undoubtedly breed in brackish or sea water, 

 which no one else knew till centuries later. 



He knew much about flies, too; he did not 

 believe that they were bred from mud, or cor- 

 ruption, or may-dew, or any other of the fairy 

 stories then prevalent ; for this is what he says : 

 'I have scene a young flie swimme in the water 

 too and fro, and in the end come to the upper 

 crust of the water, and assay to flie up : howbeit 

 not being perfitly ripe or fledge, hath twice or 

 thrice fallen downe againe into the water : 

 howbeit in the end receiving perfection by the 

 heate of the sunne, and the pleasant fat water, 

 hath in the ende within some halfe houre after 

 taken her flight, and flied quite awaie into the 

 ayre. And of such young flies before they are 

 able to flie awaie, do fish feede exceedingly.'* 



Taverner was probably more read by his 

 contemporaries than by later ages, who have so 

 strangely neglected him. Samuel Hartlib, in his 

 well-known Legacy of Husbandry (1655 — the 



*It was Mr. Turrell who I think first called attention to 

 Taverner, in Ancient Angling Authors; anyhow I am in- 

 debted to tiim for it and for much else. Bibliotheca Pisca- 

 foria mentions Taverner, but gives no idea of his importance. 



