and turn to the fire, drink the other cup to whet our whistles, and so sing away all sad thoughts.

Come on my masters, who begins? I think it is best to draw cuts, and avoid contention.

Peter. It is a match. Look, the shortest cut falls to Coridon.

Cor. Well then, I will begin, for I hate contention.

CORIDON'S SONG.

Oh the sweet contentment
The countryman doth find!
Heigh trolollie loe,
Heigh trolollie lee.

That quiet contemplation
Possesseth all my mind;
Then care away,

And wend along with me.

For Courts are full of flattery,
As hath too oft been tried;

Heigh trolollie lee, &c.
The city full of wantonness,
And both are full of pride:
Then care away, &c.

But oh the honest countryman

Speaks truly from his heart,
Heigh trolollie lee, &c.

His pride is in his tillage,

His horses, and his cart:
Then care away, &c.

Our cloathing is good sheep-skins,
Gray russet for our wives;

Heigh trolollie lee, &c.

'Tis warmth and not gay cloathing
That doth prolong our lives

Then care away, &c.

The ploughman, tho' he labour hard,

Yet on the holy-day,

Heigh trolollie lee, &c.

No enperor so merrily

Does pass his time away:
Then care away, &c.

To recompense our tillage,
The heavens afford us showers;
Heigh trolollie lee, &c.

And for our sweet refreshments
The earth affords us bowers:

Then care away, &c.

The cuckoo and the nightingale
Full merrily do sing,

Heigh trolollie lee, &c.
And with their pleasant roundelays
Bid welcome to the spring:
Then care away, &c.

This is not half the happiness

The countryman enjoys;

Heigh trolollie lee, &c.

Though others think they have as much,
Yet he that says so lies:

Then come away, turn
Countryman with me

JO. CHALKHILL. I

Pisc. Well sung, Coridon, this song was sung with mettle; and it was choicely fitted to the occasion: I shall love you for it as long as I know you. I would you were a brother of the angle; for a companion that is cheerful, and free from swearing and scurrilous discourse, is worth gold. I love such mirth as does not make friends ashamed to look upon one another next morning; nor men, that cannot well bear it, to repent the money they spend when they be warmed with drink. And take this for a rule: you may pick out such times and such companies, that you may make yourselves merrier for a little than a great deal of money; for ""Tis the company and not the charge that makes the feast;" and such a companion you prove: I thank you for it.

But I will not compliment you out of the debt that I owe you, and therefore I will begin my song, and wish it may be so well liked.

THE ANGLER'S SONG.

As inward love breeds outward talk,

The hound some praise, and some the hawk,

Some, better pleas'd with private sport,

Use tennis, some a mistress court:

But these delights I neither wish,
Nor envy, while I freely fish.

(1) John Chalkhill, Esq. of whom mention is made in the Author's Life.

Who hunts, doth oft in danger ride;

Who hawks, lures oft both far and wide;
Who uses games shall often prove
A loser; but who falls in love,

Is fetter'd in fond Cupid's snare:
My angle breeds me no such care.

Of recreation there is none
So free as fishing is alone;

All other pastimes do no less
Than mind and body both possess:
My hand alone my work can do,
So I can fish and study too.

I care not, I, to fish in seas,

Fresh rivers best my mind do please,
Whose sweet calm course I contemplate,
And seek in life to imitate :

In civil bounds I fain would keep,
And for my past offences weep.

And when the timorous Trout I wait
To take, and he devours my bait,
How poor a thing, sometimes I find,
Will captivate a greedy mind:

And when none bite, I praise the wise,
Whom vain allurements ne'er surprise.

But yet, though while I fish I fast,
I make good fortune my repast;
And thereunto my friend invite,
In whom I more than that delight:

Who is more welcome to my dish
Than to my angle was my fish.

As well content no prize to take,
As use of taken prize to make:
For so our Lord was pleased, when
He fishers made fishers of men;

Where, (which is in no other game,)
A man may fish and praise his name.
The first men that our Saviour dear
Did choose to wait upon him here,
Blest fishers were, and fish the last
Food was that he on earth did taste:

I therefore strive to follow those
Whom he to follow him hath chose.

Cor. Well sung, brother, you have paid your debt in good coin. We anglers are all beholden to the good man that made this song: come, hostess, give us more ale, and let's drink to him.

:

And now let's every one go to bed, that we may rise early but first let's pay our reckoning, for I will have nothing to hinder me in the morning; for my purpose is to prevent the sun-rising.

Pet. A match. Come Coridon, you are to be my bedfellow. I know, brother, you and your scholar will lie together. But where shall we meet to-morrow night? for my friend Coridon and I will go up the water towards Ware.

Pisc. And my scholar and I will go down towards Waltham.

Cor. Then let's meet here, for here are fresh sheets that smell of lavender; and I am sure we cannot expect better meat, or better usage in any place.

Pet. 'Tis a match. Good-night to every body.

Pisc. And so say
Ven. And so say I.

I.

Pisc. Good morrow, good hostess, I see my brother Peter is still in bed. Come, give my scholar and me a morning-drink, and a bit of meat to breakfast: and be sure to get a dish of meat or two against supper, for we shall come home as hungry as hawks. Come scholar, let's be going.

Ven. Well now, good master, as we walk towards the river, give me direction, according to your promise, how I shall fish for a Trout.

Pisc. My honest scholar, I will take this very convenient opportunity to do it.

The Trout is usually caught with a worm, or a minnow, (which some call a penk,) or with a fly, viz. either a natural or an artificial fly: concerning which three, I will give you some observations and directions.

And, first, for worms. Of these there be very many sorts: some breed only in the earth, as the earth-worm; others of, or amongst plants, as the dug-worm; and others breed either out of excrements, or in the bodies of living creatures, as in the horns of sheep or deer; or some of dead flesh, as the maggot or gentle, and others.

Now these be most of them particularly good for par

ticular fishes. But for the Trout, the dew-worm, which some also call the lob-worm, and the brandling, are the chief; and especially the first for a great Trout, and the latter for a less. There be also of lob-worms, some called squirrel-tails, (a worm that 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, he is usually found in an old dung-hill, or some very rotten place near to it, but most usually in cow-dung, or hog's dung, rather than horse-dung which is somewhat too hot and dry for that worm. But the best

of them are to be found in the bark of the tanners, which they cast up in heaps after they have used it about their leather.

There are also divers other kinds of worms, which, for colour and shape, alter even as the ground out of which they are got; as the marsh-worm, the tag-tail, the flagworm, the dock-worm, the oak worm, the gilt-tail, the twachel or lob-worm,' (which of all others is the most excellent bait for a Salmon) and too many to name, even as many sorts as some think there be of several herbs or

(1) To avoid confusion, it may be necessary to remark, that the same kind of worm is, in differeut places, known by different names: thus the marsh and the meadow-worm are the same; and the lob-worm or twachel is also called the dew-worm, and the garden-worm; and the dock-worm is, in some places, called the flag-worm.

The tag tail is found in March and April, in marled lands or meadows, after a shower of rain; or in a morning, when the weather is calm, and not cold. To find the oak-worm, beat on an oak tree that grows over a high-way or bare place; and they will fall for you to gather.

To find the dock-worm, go to an old pond or pit, and pull up some of the flags; shake the roots in the water; and amongst the fibres that grow from the roots you will find little husks, or cases, of a reddish or yellowish colour; open these carefully with a pin, and take from thence a little worm, pale and yellow, or white, like a gentle, but longer and slenderer, with rows of feet down his belly, and a red head: this is the dock or flag worm; an excellent bait for Grayling, Tench, Bream, Carp, Roach, and Dace.