CHAP. I.] THE FIRST DA K 21 



2 Venator. Sir, mine is a mixture of both, a little business 

 and more pleasure ; for I intend this day to do all my business, 

 and then bestow another day or two in hunting the Otter, which 

 a friend, that I go to meet, tells me is much pleasanter than any 

 other chase whatsoever : howsoever, I mean to try it ; for to-mor- 

 row morning we shall meet a pack of Otter-dogs of noble Mr 

 Sadler's,* upoa Amwell Hill, who will be there so early, that they 

 intend to prevent the sunrising. 



PiSCATOR. Sir, my fortune has answered my desires, and my 

 purpose is to bestow a day or two in helping to destroy some of 

 those villanous vermin : for I hate them perfectly, 'because they 

 love fish so well, or rather, because they destroy so much ; indeed 

 so much, that, in my judgment all men that keep Otter-dogs ought 

 to have pensions from the King,* to encourage them to destroy 

 the very breed of those base Otters, they do so much mischief. 



Venator. But what say you to the Foxes of the Nation, 

 would not you as willingly have them destroyed ? for doubtless 

 they do as much mischief as Otters do. 



PiSCATOR. Oh, Sir, if they do, it is not so much to me and 

 my fraternity, as those base vermin the Otters do. 



AUCEPS. Why, Sir, I pray, of what fraternity are you, that 

 you are so angry with the poor Otters ? 



* PiSCATOR. I am, Sir, a Brother of the Angle, and therefore 



VARIATIONS. 



3 Viator. Indeed, Sir, a little business, and more pleasure : for my purpose is to 

 bestow a day or two in hunting the Otter, ■\i'hich my friend that I go to meet tells me 

 is more pleasant than any hunting whatsoever : and having despatched a little business 



this day, my purpose is to-morrow to follow the pack of dogs of honest Mr , 



who hath appointed me and my friend to meet him upoa Amwell Hill to-morrow 

 morning by daybreak. 



* Commonwealth. — ist and 2d edit. 



5 Piscaior. I am a Brother of the Angle, and therefore an enemy to the Otter, he 

 does me and my friends so much mischief; for you are to know, that we Anglers all 

 love one another : and therefore do I hate the Otter perfectly, even for their sakes that 

 are of my brotherhood. 



Viator. Sir, to be plain with you, I am sorry you are an Angler: for I have heard 

 D^ny grave, serious men pity, and many pleasant men scoff at Anglers. 



Piscator. Sir, there are many men that are by others taken to be serious, grave men, 



* Ralph Sadler, of Standon, in the county of Herts, Esq., whose name is left 

 blank in ths _firsi edition, was the son and heir of Sir Thomas Sadler, Knight, eldest 

 son of the celebrated Sir Ralph Sadler, Knight Banneret in the reigns of Henry the 

 Eighth and Queen Elizabeth. He succeeded to the estate at Standon, a few miles from 

 Amwell, in 1006 ; married Anne, the eldest daughter of Sir Edward Coke, the Chief 



^ustice ; but died without issue before February 1660. Sir Henry Chauncy, describing 

 is property, says that "he deligfhted much in Hawking and.Hunting,and the pleasures 

 of a country life ; was famous for his noble table, his great hospitality to his neighbours, 

 and his abundant charity to the poor : and after he had lived to a great age, died on the 

 twelfth day of February 1660, without issue ; whereupon this manor descended to Walter 

 Lord Aston, the son and heir of Gertrude his sister." — Aniiq. of Her if. p. 219 h. See 

 Scott's Sadler Papers, vol. ii. p. 604, and Clutter&uc^s Herts, vol. iiL p. 229. — H. 



