164 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. 



could collect them in a working day. Old Thomas Barker 

 (1657) gives us some of these laborious instructions for 

 dealing with trout, and is followed by other writers who 

 exercise a vast amount of misplaced ingenuity in this 

 direction. Would it be believed that the aforesaid Barker 

 actually gives directions for the making of trout pie, " hot" 

 and " cold"? A trout should not be subjected to indig- 

 nity in cooking ! It is all very well to endeavour to dis- 

 guise a bad fish by the assistance of the Mageiric Art, but 

 why disguise a good one ? We do not try to disguise 

 salmon, though we eat lobster sauce and cucumber with 

 him ; and indeed it was a "happy thought" of the man 

 who first hit on the latter as an accompaniment of the 

 royal fish. Why then disguise good trout ? A good big 

 trout is best simply boiled, or cut into cutlets and simply 

 broiled ; and he will be all the better for having been 

 " crimped " (as Sir Humphrey Davy recommends) like 

 salmon and cod. A good small trout is best broiled 

 whole, either split open or not, and eaten with a little 

 plain butter, pepper, and salt. If he is not worth eating 

 then, he is not worth eating at all. 



Here endeth the trout ; and I must leave it to my readers 

 to accept the apology already tendered for not having 

 attempted to deal with him more fully and systematically. 



