326 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. 



angler's bait as freely as they did some years ago will 

 account for the impression which has got abroad. 



Old John Dennys, in his poetic description of Gudgeon- 

 Fishing, written more than two centuries and a half ago, 

 might almost be thought a versification of a day at this 

 sport in the year of grace 1877. Thus it runs : — 



" Loe, in little boat whene one doth stand, 



That to a willow bough the while is tied, 

 And with a pole doth stir and raise the sand, 



Whereat the gentle strearne doth softly glide ; 

 And then with slender line and rod in hand, 



The eager bite not long he doth abide. 

 Well loaded is his line, his hooke hut small, 

 A good big cork to bear the stream with all, 



His bait the least red worm that may be found, 

 And at the bottome it doth always lie ; 



Whereat the greedy gudgeon bites so sound, 

 That hooke and all he swalloweth by and by. 



See how he strikes, and pulls them up as round, 

 As if new store the place did still supply ; 



And when the bit doth die or bad doth prove, 



Then to another place he doth remove." 



I had almost forgotten to mention that the gudgeon, 

 like some other more notable fish, has made his mark on 

 heraldry; for, as Mr. Moule tells us, this fish was the 

 cognizance of John Goujon, one of the first French 

 sculptors in the sixteenth century. 



However easy a fish a gudgeon may be to catch, he 

 certainly puzzles the poets for a rhyme. Perhaps he is 

 not as bad as " Timbuctoo," for which only " hymn-book 

 too" could be found. But what fairly rhymes with 

 "gudgeon" except "dudgeon" and "curmudgeon"? 

 I would suggest to those who deal in such wares — 

 "budge," "fudge," "judge," "mudge," with "he on" 



