CHAP. XX I . ] THE FIFTH DA K 201 



Well, Scholar, I have told you the substance of all that either 

 observation or discourse, or a diligent survey of Dubravius and 

 Lebault, hath told me : not that they, in their long discourses, 

 have not said more ; but the most of the rest are so common 

 observations, as if a man should tell a good arithmetician that 

 twice two is four. I will therefore put an end to this discourse ; 

 and we will here sit down and rest us. 



PiSCATOR. Well, Scholar, I have held you too long about 

 these cadis, and smaller fish, and rivers, and fish-ponds ; and 

 my spirits are almost spent, and so I doubt is your 

 patience ; but being we are now almost at Tottenham, 

 where I first met you, and where we are to part, I will lose no 

 time, but give you a little direction how to make and order your 

 lines, and to colour the hair ^ of which you make your lines, for 

 that is very needful to be known of an angler ; and also how to 

 paint your rod, especially your top ; for a right-grown top is a 

 choice commodity, and should be preserved from the water soak- 

 ing into it, which makes it in wet weather to be heavy and fish ill- 

 favouredly, and not true ; and also it rots quickly for want of 

 pain:ting : 3 and I think a good top is worth preserving, or I had 

 not taken care to keep a top above twenty years. 



VARIATIONS. 



2 In thcTfrj^ edition the chapter commences thus : "Well, Scholar, I have held you 

 too long about these cadis, and my spirits are almost spent, and so I doubt is your 

 patience ; but being we are now within sight of Tottenham, where I first met you, and 

 where we are to part, I will give you a little direction how to colour the hair," &c. 



3 which makes it in wet weather to be heavy, and fish ilt-favouredly, and also to 

 rot quickly. — ist edit. In the secojtd edition is added "for want of painting:" the 

 third and subsequent editions correspond with the text. 



together, the fish will come as constantly and naturally to the place as cattle to their 

 fodder ; and to satisfy your curiosity, and to convince you herein, after you have baited 

 the pool for some time, as directed, take about the quantity of a twopenny loaf of 

 wheaten bread, cut it into slices, and wet it : then throw it into the pool where you had 

 baited, and the Carp will feed upon it : after you have used the wet bread three or four 

 mornings, then throw some dry bread in, which will lie on the top of the water; and if 

 you watch, out of sight of the fish, you will presently see them swim to it, and suck it 

 in. I look upon wheaten bread to be the best food for them, though barley or oaten 

 bread is very good. If there be Tench and Pearch in the same pond, they will feed 

 upon the four former baits, and not touch the bread. Indeed there is no pool-fish so shy 

 and nice as a Carp. When the water is disturbed, Carp will fly to the safest shelter 

 they can ; which I one day observed, when assisting a gentleman to fish his pool ; for 

 another person disturbed the water, by throwing the casting net, but caught never a 

 Carp ; whereupon two or three of us stripped and went into the pool, which was pro- 

 vided with such a sort of a hedge in it as is before described, whither the Carp had fled 

 fc^ safety; then fishing with our hands on both sides of the hedge, that is, one on eithei 

 sWe, we catched what quantity of Carp was wanting." — Bowlker, p. 62. 



The reader may also consult a book published about the year 1712, entitled A 7>is* 

 course of Fish afid Fish-ponds, by a Person of Honour ; who, I have been told by one 

 that knew him, was the Hon. Roger North, author of the Life of the Lord Keeper^ 

 Guildford. See before, page 143. [The first edition of this work was without a date, 

 in octavo. It was published again in 1713 and 1715. An edition in quarto appeared 

 about 1770, with the name of the author in the title. It is also found as an appendage to 

 " The Gentleman Farmer," 8vo. Lond. lyzS.} 



