Izaak Walton

“ When we please to walk abroad For our recreation, In the fields is our abode, Full of delectation: Where in a Brook with a hook, or a Lake fish we take, there we sit for a bit, till we fish intangle. We have Gentles in a horn, We have Paste and worms too, We can watch both night and morn. ”

“ If all the world and love were young, And truth in every Shepherds tongue? These pretty pleasures might me move, To live with thee, and be thy love. But time drives flocks from field to fold: When rivers rage and rocks grow cold, And Philomel becometh dumb, The Rest complains of cares to come. The Flowers do fade, and wanton fields To wayward Winter reckoning yeilds A honey tongue, a heart of gall, Is fancies spring, but sorrows fall. ”

“ Look you Scholer, thereabout we shall have a bit presently, or not at all: Have with you (Sir!) on my word I have him. Oh it is a great logger-headed Chub: Come, hang him upon that Willow twig, and let's be going. But turn out of the way a little, good Scholer, towards yonder high hedg: We'l sit whilst this showr falls so gently upon the teeming earth, and gives a sweeter smel to the lovely flowers that adorn the verdant Meadows. ”

“ That we wil, Sir, and to all the lovers of Angling too, of which number, I am now one my self, for by the help of your good discourse and company, I have put on new thoughts both of the Art of Angling, and of all that profess it: and if you will but meet me too morrow at the time and place appointed, and bestow one day with me and my friends in hunting the Otter, I will the next two dayes wait upon you, and we two will for that time do nothing but angle, and talk of fish and fishing. ”

“ I count it higher pleasure to behold The stately compass of the lofty Skie, And in the midst thereof (like burning Gold) The flaming Chariot of the worlds great eye, The watry clouds, that in the aire up rold, With sundry kinds of painted colour flye; And fair Aurora lifting up her head, Still blushing, rise from old Tithonius bed. The hils and mountains raised from the plains, The plains extended level with the ground, The grounds divided into sundry vains, The vains inclos'd with rivers running round; These rivers making way through natures chains With headlong course into the sea profound ”

“ None do here use to swear, oathes do fray fish away. we sit still, watch our quill, Fishers must not rangle. If the Suns excessive heat Makes our bodies swelter To an Osier hedge we get For a friendly shelter, where in a dike Pearch or Pike, Roch or Dace we do chase Bleak or Gudgion without grudging, we are still contented. Or we sometimes pass an hour, Under a green willow, That defends us from a showr, Making earth our pillow, There we may think and pray before death stops our breath ”

“ And yet I wil exercise your promised patience by saying a little of the Caterpillar, or the Palmer flie or worm; that by them you may guess what a work it were in a Discourse but to run over those very many flies, worms, and little living creatures with which the Sun and Summer adorn and beautifie the river banks and meadows; both for the recreation and contemplation of the Angler: and which (I think) I myself enjoy more then any other man that is not of my profession. ”

“ Quivering fears, heart tearing cares, Anxious sighes, untimely tears, Fly, fly to Courts, Fly to fond wordlings sports, Where strain'd Sardonick smiles are glosing stil And grief is forc'd to laugh against her will. Where mirths but Mummery, And sorrows only real be. Fly from our Country pastimes, fly, Sad troops of humane misery, Come serene looks, Clear as the Christal Brooks, Or the pure azur'd heaven that smiles to see The rich attendance on our poverty; Peace and a secure mind Which all men seek, we only find. ”

“ Sir, I shall proceed; and my next discourse shall be rather a Commendation, then a Justification of Angling: for, in my judgment, if it deserves to be commended, it is more then justified; for some practices what may be justified, deserve no commendation: yet there are none that deserve commendation but may be justified.
And now having said this much by way of preparation, I am next to tell you, that in ancient times a debate hath risen, (and it is not yet resolved) Whether Contemplation or Action be the chiefest thing wherin the happiness of a man doth most consist in this world? ”

“ For I imagine that the men to-day who really catch fish, as distinguished from the men who write sentimentally about angling, would as soon think of consulting Izaak Walton as they would Dame Juliana Berners. But anyone can catch fish—can he, do you say?—the thing is to have so written about catching them that your book is a pastoral, the freshness of which a hundred editions have left unexhausted,—a book in which the grass is for ever green, and the shining brooks do indeed go on forever. ”

“ You say true, Scholer, the Pearch is a very good, and a very bold biting fish, he is one of the fishes of prey, that, like the Pike and Trout, carries his teeth in his mouth, not in his throat, and dare venture to kill and devour another fish ”

“ Come live with me, and be my Love, And we wil all the pleasures prove That vallies, Groves, or hils, or fields, Or woods and steepie mountains yeelds. Where we will sit upon the Rocks, And see the Shepherds feed our flocks, By shallow Rivers, to whose falls Mellodious birds sing madrigals. ”

“ I say, put your hook, I mean the arming wire, through his mouth and out at his gills, and then with a fine needle and Silk sow the upper part of his leg with only one stitch to the armed wire of your hook, or tie the frogs leg above the upper joint to the armed wire, and in so doing use him as though you loved him, that is, harme him as little as you may possibly, that he may live the longer. ”

“ Can you sing it, Scholer?
Viat. Sit down a little, good Master, and I wil try.
Bright shines the Sun, play beggers, play, here's scraps enough to serve to day: What noise of viols is so sweet As when our merry clappers ring? What mirth doth want when beggers meet? A beggers life is for a King: Eat, drink and play, sleep when we list, Go where we will so stocks be mist. Bright shines the Sun, play beggers, &c. The world is ours and ours alone, For we alone have world at will ”

“ 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. ”

“ As inward love breeds outward talk, The Hound some praise, and some the Hawk, Some better pleas'd with private sport, Use Tenis, some a Mistris court: But these delights I neither wish, Nor envy, while I freely fish. Who hunts, doth oft in danger ride Who hauks, lures oft both far & wide; Who uses games, may often prove A loser ”

“ And you must fish for him with a strong line, and not a little hook, and let him have time to gorge your hook, for he does not usually forsake it, as he oft will in the day-fishing: and if the night be not dark, then fish so with an Artificial fly of a light colour; nay he will sometimes rise at a dead Mouse or a piece of cloth, or any thing that seemes to swim cross the water, or to be in motion: this is a choice way, but I have not oft used it because it is void of the pleasures that such dayes as these that we now injoy, afford an Angler. ”

“ Fame, honor, beauty, state, train, blood & birth, Are but the fading blossomes of the earth. I would be great, but that the Sun doth still, Level his rayes against the rising hill: I would be high, but see the proudest Oak Most subject to the rending Thunder-Stroke; I would be rich, but see men too unkind Dig in the bowels of the richest mind ”

“ My next and last example shall be that undervaluer of money, the late Provost of Eaton Colledg, Sir Henry Wotton, (a man with whom I have often fish'd and convers'd) a man whose forraign imployments in the service of this Nation, and whose experience, learning, wit and cheerfulness, made his company to be esteemed one of the delights of mankind ”

“ These were the thoughts that then possest the undisturbed mind of Sir Henry Wotton. Will you hear the wish of another Angler, and the commendation of his happy life [Jo. Da.] , which he also sings in Verse.
Let me live harmlesly, and near the brink Of Trent or Avon have a dwelling place, Where I may see my quil or cork down sink, With eager bit of Pearch, or Bleak, or Dace; And on the world and my Creator think, Whilst some men strive, ill gotten goods t'imbrace; And others spend their time in base excess Of wine or worse, in war and wantonness. ”

“ Now for the Art of catching fish; that is to say, how to make a man that was none, an Angler by a book: he that undertakes it, shall undertake a harder task then Hales offered to thy view and censure; I with thee as much in the perusal of it, and so might that in his printed Book [called the private School of defence] undertook by it to teach the Art of Fencing, and was laught at for his labour. Not but that something usefull might be observed out of that Book; but that Art was not to be taught by words; nor is the Art of Angling. ”

“ The Bream being at a full growth, is a large and stately fish, he will breed both in Rivers and Ponds, but loves best to live in Ponds, where, if he likes the aire, he will grow not only to be very large, but as fat as a Hog: he is by Gesner taken to be more pleasant or sweet then wholesome; this fish is long in growing, but breeds exceedingly in a water that pleases him, yea, in many Ponds so fast, as to over store them, and starve the other fish. ”

“ And you are to observe, that he is very, very seldom observed to bite at a Minnow (yet sometime he will) and not oft at a fly, but more usually at a Worm, and then most usually at a Lob or Garden worm, which should be wel scowred, that is to say, seven or eight dayes in Moss before you fish with them; and if you double your time of eight into sixteen, or more, into twenty or more days, it is still the better, for the worms will stil be clearer, tougher, and more lively, and continue so longer upon your hook. ”

“ And after this manner you may catch a Trout: in a hot evening, when as you walk by a Brook, and shal see or hear him leap at Flies, then if you get a Grashopper, put it on your hook, with your line about two yards long, standing behind a bush or tree where his hole is, and make your bait stir up and down on the top of the water; you may, if you stand close, be sure of a bit, but not sure to catch him, for he is not a leather mouthed fish: and after this manner you may fish for him with almost any kind of live Flie, but especially with a Grashopper. ”

“ Eeles did by natures instinct get out of the water into a stack of hay in a Meadow upon dry ground, and there bedded themselves, but yet at last died there. I shall say no more of the Eele, but that, as it is observed, he is impatient of cold, so it has been observed, that in warm weather an Eele has been known to live five days out of the water. And lastly, let me tell you, that some curious searchers into the natures of fish, observe that there be several sorts or kinds of Eeles, as the Silver-Eele, and green or greenish Eel (with which the River of Thames abounds, and are called Gregs) ”

“ There is also a lesser Cadis-worm, called a Cock-spur, being in fashion like the spur of a Cock, sharp at one end, and the case or house in which this dwels is made of smal husks and gravel, and slime, most curiously made of these, even so as to be wondred at, but not made by man (no more then the nest of a bird is) : this is a choice bait for any flote fish, it is much less then the Piper Cadis, and to be so ordered; and these may be so preserved ten, fifteen, or twentie dayes. ”

“ But a companion that feasts the company with wit and mirth, and leaves out the sin (which is usually mixt with them) he is the man: and indeed, such a man should have his charges born: and to such company I hope to bring you this night; for at Trout-Hal, not far from this place, where I purpose to lodg to night, there is usually an Angler that proves good company.
But for such discourse as we heard last night, it infects others; the very boyes will learn to talk and swear as they heard mine Host, and another of the company that shall be nameless ”

“ There be also of lob-worms, some called squirel-tails (a worm which has a red head, a streak down the back, and a broad tail) which are noted to be the best, because they are the toughest, and most lively, and live longest in the water: for you are to know, that a dead worm is but a dead bait, and like to catch nothing, compared to a lively, quick, stirring worm: And for a Brandling, hee is usually found in an old dunghil, or some very rotten place neer to it; but most usually in cow dung, or hogs dung, rather then horse dung, which is somewhat too hot and dry for that worm. ”

“ Carps and Loches are observed to breed several months in one year, which most other fish do not, and it is the rather believed, because you shall scarce or never take a Male Carp without a Melt, or a Female without a Roe or Spawn; and for the most part very much, and especially all the Summer season; and it is observed, that they breed more naturally in Ponds then in running waters, and that those that live in Rivers are taken by men of the best palates to be much the better meat. ”

“ I would have held him, unless he had been fellow to the great Trout that is neer an ell long, which had his picture drawne, and now to be seen at mine Hoste Rickabies at the George in Ware; and it may be, by giving that Trout the Rod, that is, by casting it to him into the water, I might have caught him at the long run, for so I use alwaies to do when I meet with an over-grown fish, and you will learn to do so hereafter; for I tell you, Scholer, fishing is an Art, or at least, it is an Art to catch fish. ”