CHAP. X.] THE FOURTH DAY. 149 



ible as the resurrection to an atheist : but it may win something, 

 in point of believing it, to him that considers the breeding or 

 renovation of the sillcworm, and of many insects. And that is 

 considerable, which Sir Francis Bacon observes in his " History 

 of Life and Death," fol. 20, that there be some herbs that die and 

 spring every year, and some endure longer. 



But though some do not, yet the French esteem this fish highly; 

 and to that end have this proverb, " He that hath Breams in his 

 pond, is able to bid his friend welcome ; " and it is noted, that the 

 best part of a Bream is his belly and head.* 



Some say that Breams and Roaches will mix their eggs and 

 melt together ; and so there is in many places a bastard breed of 

 Breams, that never come to be either large or good, but very 

 numerous. 



The baits good to catch this Bream are many. First, paste 

 made of brown bread and honey ; gentles ; or the brood of wasps 

 that be young, and then not unlike gentles, and should be hard- 

 ened in an oven, or dried on a tile before the fire to make them 

 tough. Or, there is at the root of docks, or flags, or rushes, in 

 watery places, a. worm not unlike a maggot, at which Tench f 

 will bite freely. Or he will bite at a grasshopper with his legs 

 nipt off, in June and July ; or at several flies, under water, which 

 may be found on flags that g-row near to the water-side. I doubt 

 not but that there be many other baits that are good ; but I will 

 turn them all into this most excellent one, either for a Carp or 

 Bream, in any river or mere : it was given to me by a most 

 honest and excellent angler ; * and hoping you will prove both, I 

 will impart it to you. 



Variation.] * by a most excellent angler, as good. — zd edit. 



* The Bream seems formerly to have been a favourite fish in England. Sir William 

 Dugdale has preserved a curious instance of the great price, at least in the interior parts 

 of the kingdom, which it bore as long ago as the 7th year of Henry V., when it was 

 rated at 2od. And he informs us, in the 32d Hen. VI. 1454, "A Pye of four of them, 

 in the expences of two men employed for three days in talking them, in baiting tliem, in 

 flour, in spices, and conveying it from Sutton in Warwickshire, to the Earl of Warwick, 

 at Mydlam in the North Country, cost xvj-r. ijaf." — Antiquities of IVafwickshire. p. 

 668.— E. 



In the Pithy, Profitable, and Pleasant Workes of Maister Skelton, Poet Laureat to 

 Henry VIII., the following occurs : — 



"In the middes a cundite, that curiously was cast 

 With pypes of golde,- engushyng out streames 

 Of cristall, the clerenes these waters far past 

 Enswimmyng with roches, barbils, and breames 

 Whose skales ensilured again the son beames 

 Englistred : that ioyous it was to beholde 

 - Than farthermore about me my sight I reuolde." 



Crown 0/ Laurell^ p. 30, ed. 1736. 

 t Sic in the second, thirds Jo7trth^ axiiji/tk editions ; but it is evident from the con- 

 text that Piscator is speaking oi Bream. 



