322 NOTES ON PISH AND FISHING. 



view the matter; their power is irresistible. It is the 

 old, old story. A very innocent amusement may be 

 gudgeon-fishing with a lady, but — 



" Dum capimus capimur.'' 



Our lessons in gudgeon-fishing, and our " delicate atten- 

 tions " have done their work, and as Waller sang of lady 

 anglers generations ago — ■ 



-^ " At once victorious with their lines and eyes. 



They make the fishes and the men their prize." 



Moral — after the manner of the elder Weller — " Beware 

 of lady gudgeon-fishers." 



And now to descend from — I will not say " the sublime 

 to the ridiculous" — the etherial heights sacred " to Venus 

 and her Boy," to the terrestrial plain on which I must cook 

 and eat my gudgeon ! Painful in a certain sense, but 

 absolutely necessary if this Note is to be written " on the 

 same lines " as those which have preceded it ; and I must 

 confess that the culinary merits or demerits of the fish we 

 anglers fish for, have always been a subject of much 

 interest to me. Let me say, then, that, in my humble 

 opinion, however mean a fish the gudgeon may be thought 

 whereon to exercise the angler's skill, he is worthy of all 

 commendation as a fish for the angler's table, and indeed 

 the board of the most fastidious gourmet. There are few 

 freshwater fish worth the salt with which they must be 

 eaten, if eaten at all, but opsophagistically I am enthu- 

 siastic about our Gohio fluviatilis. The ancients highly 

 prized it. Galen places it in a conspicuous position 

 among edible fish, both for the delicacy and sweetness of 

 its taste and its digestibility. In more modern times, 



