CHAP. XL] THE FOURTH DAY. 153 



your game will be very shy and wary, and you shall hardly get 

 above a bite or two at a baiting : then your only way is to desist 

 from your sport, about two or three days : and in the mean time, 

 on the place you late baited, and again intend to bait, you shall 

 take a turf of green but short grass, as big or bigger than a round 

 trencher ; to the top of this turf, on the green side, you shall, with 

 a needle and green thread, fasten one by one, as many little red 

 worms as will near cover all the turf : then take a round board 

 or trencher, make a hole in the middle thereof, and through the 

 turf placed on the board or trencher, with a string or cord as long 

 as is fitting, tied to a pole, let it down to the bottom of the water, 

 for the fish to feed upon without disturbance about two or three 

 days ; and after that you have drawn it away, you may fall to, 

 and enjoy your former recreation. B. A. 



PiscATOR. The Tench, the physician of fishes, is observed to 



love ponds better than rivers, and to love pits better than either : 



Chap. XI. Y^t Camden observes, there is a river in Dorset- 



On the Tench, shire that abounds with Tenches, but doubtless 



they retire to the most deep and quiet places in it. 



This fish hath very large fins, very small and smooth scales, a 

 red circle about his eyes, which are big and of a gold colour, and 

 from either angle of his mouth there hangs down a little barb. 

 In every Tench's head there are two little stones which foreign 

 physicians make great use of, but he is not commended for whole- 

 some meat,* though there be very much use made of them for 

 olitward applications. Rondeletius says, that at his being at 

 Rome, he saw a great cure done by applying a Tench to the feet 

 of a very sick man. This, he says, was done after an unusual 

 manner, by certain Jews. And it is observed that many of those 

 people have many secrets yet unknown to Christians ; secrets that 

 have never yet been written, but have been since the days of their 

 Solomon, who knew the nature of all things, even from the cedar 

 to the shrub, delivered by tradition, from the father to the son, 

 and so from generation to generation, without writing ; or, unless 



* The following directions for dressing the Tench, as practised in the fourteenth 

 century, is taken from the Harleian MS. No. 279, fo. 18 b : " Tenche in bruette. Take 

 the Tenche an sethe hem and roste hem, an grynde pepir, an safroun, bred and ale, and 

 tempere wyth the brothe an boyle it, then take the Tenche y rostyd an ley hym on a 

 chargeoure, than lay on the sewe above. 



"Tenche in eyneye. Take a Tenche an skalde hym, roste hym, grynde pepir an 

 safroun, brede an ale, and messe it to gederys, take onyonys, hakke hem an frye hem in 

 oyle, and do hem thereto and messe hem forth. 



"Tenche in sawce. Take a Tenche whan he is y-sothe, and ley hym onadyssbe, 

 take percely and onyonys and mynce hem to gederys, take pouder pepir and canelle and 

 straw thereon, take vynegre an caste safroun thereon, an coloure it an serve it forth 

 whanne all colde." 



