Which happen in the year,
To angling there are none, sure,

That ever can compare.

Then to angle we will gc, &c.

We do not break our legs or arms,

As huntsmen often do ;
For when that we are angling,

No danger can ensue.

Then to angle, &c.
Cards and dice are courtly games,

Then let them laugh who win ;
There's innocence in angling,

But gaming is a sin.

Then to angle, &c.



PIERCE fcGAN'S BOOK OF SPORTS.



275



Then you who would be honest,

And to old age attain,
Forsake the city and the town,

And fill the angler's train.

Then to angle, &c.

For health and for diversion,

We rise by break of day,
While courtiers, in their down beds,

Sleep half their time away,

Then to angle, &c.

And then unto the river,

In haste we do repair,
All day in sweet amusement,

We breathe good wholesome air.

Then to angle, Arc.

Our constitution sound is,

Our appetites are keen ;
We laugh and bid defiance,

To vapours and the spleen.

Then to angle, &c.

The gout and spleen are often bred

By lolling in a coach ;
But anglers walk, and so remain

As sound as any roach.

Then to angle, &c.

The trout, the pike, the salmon,

The barbel, carp, and bream,
Afford good sport ; and so the perch

And tench will do the same.

Then to angle &c.

So let us now remember

To praise the smaller fish :
Bleak, gudgeon, roach, and dace,

Will garnish well a dish.

Then to angle, &c.
Through meadows, by a river,

From place to place we roam
And when that we are weary,

We then go jogging home.

Then to angle, <kc.

At night we take a bottle,

We prattle, laugh, and sing :
\Ve drink a health unto our friends,

And so God bless the King.

Then to angle, Stc.

The above chant having been well received
by the company present, and the toast having
gone round, " May we float through life with
pleasure and success \" Mr. ROD was solicited
to favor his brother Anglers with a song to
keep the game alive ; to which Mr. R. readily
consented :

Come Anglers, come, for work prepare,
The scaly-race demands our care ;
The tears of morn in rain-drops fall,
Sweet tears of bliss to anglers all,
Bring forth your tackle, bait, and hooks,
The watery world divinely looks !
Come, anglers, come, nor longer stay,
We must, we shall have sport to-day.

See yonder trout, how proudly shy-
But on the stream-king keep your eye ;
He must be taken, hook'd ere long
To raise the smile, and laud the song;
The fly-line plays the fish bite well
And who kills most, boys, time will tel ;
"Yes, anglers, yes, for truth to say,
Our sport, sweet sport, is good to-day.

How runs the time 1 Yet what care we
For care or time, while here we be.
Well caught ! that jack prolongs our stay
We cannot, must not, yet away.
Bravo ! that greedy perch too cries,
We must have more, to feast our eyes !
Yes, anglers, yes, for fame to say,
Our sport, sweet sport, is good to day.



The owl-bird flies the shade-scene falls,

And "home, boys, home," the night bell calls ;

There, there to chaunt the festive strain,

And drink old Isaac o'er again .'

Great Walton ! whose piscatory skill,

Shall long a place in memory fill !

Shall live for truth's glad tongue to say,

' Success to angling night or day."

Upon the conclusion of this song, Messrs.
MINNOW, PISCATOR, and BREAM, were asked
for the Fisherman's Glee : and after the fol-
lowing toast " May we never fish in troubled
waters \" had been drank with loud applause,
the above glee singers commenced :

" We, we,

Fishermen be,
For we try the stream, and we sound the sea :

Then flee, flee,

Adowu the lea,
For the south wind blows for we and thee.

Try, try,

The palmer fly,
Where the trout by yon rise doth seem to lie ;

And ply, ply,

Ere sun is high,
Where the insect falls on the wave to die.

Wake, wake,

From slumber break ,
And your angler's garb and weapons take,

Make, make,

For haak's sake,

Your line whip the Wave, and your float sail the
lake." Ancient I'tsherman' t Melody."



The melody of the above glee delighted the
company ; when Mr. GROUNDBAIT, was asked
to sing his sentimental song in praise of
Angling, with which they had been so often
delighted. Mr. G. said he had no objection
as to himself, but he thought there was " some-
thing too much about fishing," and a little
variety might be more acceptable to the com-
pany. But this objection was over-ruled by
all present, Mr. GROUNDBAIT being well-
known as a sentimental singer of the first
class. After the chairman had given the fol-
lowing toast, " Success to the Jolly Anglers !"
Mr. G. was listened to with the greatest at-
tention, when he commenced the following
song ;

By purling stream, in shady dell,
The angler tunes his vocal shell,

And, hark ! invites the fair :
Soft and enticing are his lays,
And sweet of men of sense the praise

Our smiles reward his care.
Chorus. The jolly angler's sports we'll join.

And love with pastime shall combine.
Too long has foolish custom crept
Between the sexes too long kept

Those form'd for bliss apart ;
The bottle's rude intemp'rate noise,
The social charms of life destroys,

Which woman's born t'impart,
Chorus. The jolly angler's sports we'll join,

And love with pastime shall combine.

The chase ill suits our tender frame,
Exposure brings the blush of shame-
Indelicate display !
But see the fair, with arm divine,
Spring round the rod and throw the line,

'Tis grace herself at play.
Chorus. The jolly angler's sports we'll join,

And love with pastime shall combine.
T 2



276



PIERCE EGAN'S BOOK OF SPORTS.



We'll share the peaceful angler's joys
The world's tumult, care, and noise,

For calmer t-cenus resign ;
Upon our cheeks health's ruddy glow
Ethereal beauty will bestow,

And make our charms divine.
Chorus. The jolly angler's sports we'll join,

And line with pastime shall combine.

Boy, hither bring th* elastic wand,
Endued with magic by our hand,

'Twill charm the finny prey :
With graceful sweep, the line once thrown,
Fishes as well as men shall owe

Our universal sway.
Chorus. The jolly anpler's sports we'll join,

And love with pastime shall combine.

An encore was almost insisted upon by the
company, and Mr. GROUNDBAIT had some dif-
ficulty in not complying with their wishes:
but, on Mr. Mac Gregor, a bonny Scotsman,
being solicited to give his assistance to pro-
mote the cause of Harmony, he replied, ''if
they would not take it amiss, he would give
them, for the sake of ' Auld Lang Syne,' a
Scotch song in praise of Angling." " By all
means," replied the chairman, " and, in order
to give you a little time, I shall propose to
you, ' May nothing scaly belong to any Angler
except his fish !' " This toast produced much
laughter, and was also drank with great ap-
plause, after which Mr. Mac Gregor sang the
following song with so much good taste and
feeling as to claim the approbation of every
one present :

THE AULD FISHER'S FAREWEEL TO COQUET.

TUNE, " Grammacliree."
Come brine to me my limber gad

I've fish'd wi' mony a year,
An' let me hae my weel-worn creel,

An' a' my fishing gear ;
The sun-beams glint on Linden Ha',

The breeze comes frae the west,
An' lovely looks the gowden morn.

On th' streams that I like best.

I've thrawn the flee thae sixty year,

Ay, sixty year an' mair,
An' mony a speckled Troutie kill'd

Wi' heckle, heuk, an' hair,
An' now I'm auld an' feeble grown,

My locks are like the snaw ;
But I'll gang again to Coquet side,

An' take a fareweel thraw.

O Coquet! in my youthfu' daya

Thy river sweetly ran,
An' sweetly down thy woody braes

The bonnie birdies sang ;
But streams may rin, an' birds'may sing

Sma' joy they bring to me
The blithesome strains I dimly hear,

The streams I dimly see.

But, ance again, the weel-ken'd sounds

My minutes shall beguile,
An' glistering in the airly sun

I'll see thy waters smile ;
An' Sorrow shall forget his sigh,

An' Age forget his pain,
An' ance mair, by sweet Coquet side,

My heart be young again.

Ance mair I'll touch, wi' pleesome foot,

Thy waters clear and cold,
Ance mair I'll cheat the gleg-e'ed trout,

An' wile him frae his hold ;
Ance mair, at Weldon's frien'ly door,

I'll wind my tackle up,
An' drink ' success to Coquet-side,"

Tho' a tear fa' in the cup.



An' then fareweel ! dear Coquet-side I

Aye gaily may thou riu,
An' lead thy waters sparkling on,

An' dash frae lin to lin ;
Blithe be the music o' thy stream

An' banks, thro* afterdays,
An' blithe be every Fisher's heart

Shall ever tread thy Braes 1



IZAAK WALTON, the justly celebrated
Angler, was born in Stafford in 1593, but
the greatest part of his time he resided in
London, carrying on the business of a whole-
sale linen draper in Chancery Lane. But he
established his reputation as a literary cha-
racter, and he was the biographer of Dr. John
Dorme, Mr. George Herbert, Bishop Saun-
derson, Mr. Richard Hooker, and Sir Henry
Woolton, whose lives obtained for him the
universal applause or his contemporaries.
But the greatest popularity Izaak Walton
procured for himself was his " Complete
Angler," the first edition of which he pub-
lished in 1653, and he lived to see it go
through five editions; the last of which, in
1676, was accompanied by a Second Part,
written by his intimate friend and adopted
son, Charles Cotton, Esq., of Beresford Hall,
in the county of Stafford. Walton was also
brother-in-law to Bishop Ken ; father-in-law
to Dr. Hawkins, prebendary of Winchester;
and related also by marriage to the grand
nephew of that " first and brightest ornament
of the Reformation," Archbishop Cranmer.
It has been observed, by one of his biogra-
phers, " there is so much simplicity, and such
a vein of good humour throughout his works,
that it has obtained the praise of all parties,
from the time of its first publication to the
present day ; and, though certain quaint pas-
sages in it may have occasionally furnished
a theme for the punster, yet its moral instruc-
tions and pastoral descriptions, in prose and
verse, will ever be acknowledged by men of
true genius."

The above celebrated man, lived to a fine
old age, having passed quietly through the
vale of life till he counted NINETY-THREE
years, and then dying in peace and harmony
with all mankind. He died on the 15th of
December, 1G83, at the house of his son-in-
law, Dr. Hawkins, a prebendary of Winches-
ter, in which Cathedral his remains were de-
posited.

The following observations respecting a
person becoming an Angler, laid down by
Izaak Walton, are well worthy of notice:
" Now for the art of catching fish, that is to
say, how to make a man that was none, to be
an ANGLER by a. book; he that undertakes it
shall undertake a harder task than Mr. Halls,
a most valiant and excellent fencer, who, in a
spirited book, called ' A Private School of
Defence,' undertake^ to teach that art or
science, and was laughed at for his labor.
Not but that many useful things might he
learned by that book, but he was laughed at



PIERCE EGAN'S BOOK OF SPORTS.



277



because that art was not to be taught by
words, but practice ; and so must Angling.
And note also, that in this discourse, I do not
undertake to say all that is known, or may be
said of it, but I undertake to acquaint the
reader with many things that are not usually
known to every Angler ; and I shall leave
gleanings and observations enough, to be
made out of the experience of all that love
and practise this recreation, to which I shall
encourage them : for Angling may be said to
be so like the mathematics, that it can never
be fully learned ; at least not so fully, but that
there will still be more new experiments left
for the trial of other men that succeed us."

For the information of the readers of the
BOOK OF SPORTS, we quote the remarks of
Washington Irving, who, in his " Sketch
Book," thus speaks of the seductive qualities
of the pages of Izaak Walton's Complete
Angler, on the minds of young Anglers :

" It is said, that many an unlucky urchin
is induced to run away from his family, and
betake himself to a sea-faring life, from read-
ing the history of Robinson Crusoe ; and I sus-
pect that, in like manner, many of those worthy
gentlemen, who are given to haunt the sides
of pastoral streams with angle rods in hand,
may trace the origin of their passion to the se-
ductive pages of honest I/,aak Walton. I re-
collect studying his ' Complete Angler/ se-
veral years since in company with u knot of
friends in America, and, moreover, that we
were all completely bitten with the Angling
mania. It was early in the year ; but as soon
as the weather was auspicious, and that the
spring began to melt into the verge as sum-
mer, we took rod in hand and sallied into the
country, as stark mad as ever was Don
Quixote from reading books of chivalry.

" One of our party had equalled the Don in
the fullness of his equipments, being attired
cap-a-pic for the enterprise. He wore a broad-
skirted fustian coat, perplexed with half a
hundred pockets ; a pair of stout shoes and
leathern gaiters ; a basket slung on one side
for fish ; a patent rod ; a landing net ; and a
score of other inconveniences, only to be found
in the true Angler's armoury. Thus har-
nessed for the field, he was as great a matter
of stare and wonderment among the country
folk, who had never seen a regular Angler,
as was the steel-clad hero of La Mancha,
among the goat-herds of Sierra Morena.

" Our first essay was along a mountain
brook, among the highlanders of the Hudson ;
a most unfortunate place for the execution of
those piscatory tactics which had been in-
vented along the velvet margin of quiet En-
glish rivulets.

" For my part, I was always a bungler at
all kinds of sport that required either patience
or adroitness, and had not Angled above half
an hour before I had completely ' satisfied the
sentiment,' and convinced myself of the truth
of Izaak Walton's opinion, 'that Angling is
something like poetry a man must be born to



it.' I hooked myself instead of the fish ;
tangled my line in every tree ; lost my bait ;
broke my rod ; until I gave up the attempt in
despair, and passed the day under the trees,
reading old Izaak ; satisfied that it was his
fascinating vein of honest simplicity and rural
feeling that had bewitched me, and not the
passion for Angling.

"But, above all, I recollect the 'good,
honest, wholesome, hungry, ' repast, which
we made under a beech tree, just by a spring
of pure sweet water that stole out of the side
of a hill ; and here, when it was over, one of
the party read old Izaak Walton's scene with
the milk -maid, while I lay on the grass, and
built castles in a bright pile of clouds until I
fell asleep."

In No. IX. of the BOOK OF SPORTS, p. 137,
we have made an extract of part of a confer-
ence from the " Complete Angler," of Izaak
Walton, " between an ANGLER, a HUNTER, and
a FALCONER ; each commending his recreation,"
we now return to the completion of the dia-
logue, so interestingly related by the above
celebrated writer and Angler :

Piscator. Then first for the ANTIQUITY of
ANGLING, of which I shall not say much, but
only this ; some say tMn*Jt.ncient as Deu-
calion's flood : others, that Belus, who was the
first inventor of godly and virtuous recrea-
tions, was the first inventor of ANGLING; and
some others say, for former times have had
their disquisitions about the antiquity of it,
that Stth, one of the sons of Adam, taught it
to his sons, and that by them it was derived
to posterity : others say that he left it en-
graven on those pillars which he erected, and
trusted to preserve the knowledge of the
mathematics, music, and the rest of that pre-
cious knowledge and those useful arts which,
by God's appointment or allowance and his
noble industry, were thereby preserved from
perishing in Noah's flood.

These, Sir, have been the opinions of several
men, that have possibly endeavoured to make
angling more ancient than is needful, or may
well be warranted ; but for my part, I shall
content myself in telling you that ANGLING is
much more ancient than the Incarnation of
our Saviour ; for in the prophet Amos mention
is made of fish-hooks ; and in the Book of
Job, which was long before the days of Amos,
for that book is said to be writ by Moses,
mention is made also of fish-hooks, which
must imply anglers in those times.

But, my worthy friend, as I would rather
prove myself a gentleman by being learned
and humble, valiant and inoffensive, virtuous
and communicable, than by any fond ostenta-
tion of riches, or wanting those virtues myself,
boast that these were in my ancestors, and
yet I grant that where a noble and ancient
descent, and such merits meet in any man,
it is a double dignification of that person ; so,
if this antiquity of ANGLING, which for my
part I have not forced, shall, like an ancient
family, be either an honour or an ornament to



278



PIERCE EGAN'S BOOK OF SPORTS.



this virtuous art which I profess to love and
practise, I shall be the gladder that 1 made
an accidental mention of the antiquity of it ;
of which I shall say no more, but proceed to
that just commendation which I think it de-
serves.

And for that I shall tell you, that in ancient
times a debate hath risen, and it remains yet
unresolved, whether the happiness of man in
this world, doth consist more in contemplation
or action.

Concerning which some have endeavoured
to maintain their opinion to the first, by saying
that the nearer we mortals come to God by
way of imitation, the more happy we are. And
they say that God enjoys himself only by a
contemplation of his own infiniteness, eternity,
power, and goodness, and the like. And upon
this ground, many cloisteral men of great
learning and devotion, prefer contemplation
before action, and many of the fathers seem to
approve of this opinion, as may appear in their
commentaries upon the words of our Saviour
to Martha, Luke x. 41, 42.

And on the contrary there want not men of
equal authority and credit that prefer action to
be the more excellent ; as namely, experiments
in physic, and the application of it, both for
the ease and prolongation of man's life ; by
which each man is enabled to act and do good
to others ; either to serve his country, or
do good to particular persons ; and they say
also, that action is doctrinal, and teaches both
art and virtue, and is a maintainer of humane
society ; and for these and other like reasons,
to be preferred before contemplation.

Concerning which two opinions I shall
forbear to add a third by declaring my own,
and rest myself contented in telling you, my
very worthy friends, that both these meet
together, and do most properly belong to the
most honest, ingenious, quiet, and harmless
art of angling.

And, first, I shall tell you what some have
observed, and I have found it to be a real
truth, that the very sitting by the river's side
is not only the quietest and fittest place for
contemplation, but will invite an angler to it :
and this seems to be maintained by the learned
Pet. Du Moulin, who, in his discourse of the
fulfilling of prophecies, observes, that when
God intended to reveal any future events or
high notions to his prophets, he then carried
them either to the deserts or the sea-shore,
that having so separated them from amidst
the press of people and business, and the cares
of the world, he might settle their mind in a
quiet repose, and there make them fit for
revelation.

And this seems also to be intimated by the
Children of Israel, Psa. 137 ; who having in
a s ad condition banished all mirth and music
fro m their pensive hearts, and having hung
up their then mute harps upon the willow
trees, growing by the rivers of Babylon, sat
down upon their banks bemoaning the ruins



of Sion, and contemplating their own sad
condition.

And an ingenious Spaniard says that " rivers
and the inhabitants of the watery element
were made for wise men to contemplate, and
fools to pass by without consideration." And
though I will not rank myself in the number
of the first, yet give me leave to free myself
from the last, by offering you a short contem-
plation, first of rivers and then of the FISH ;
concerning which I doubt not but to give you
many observations that will appear very con-
siderable ; I am sure they have appeared so
to me, and made many an hour pass away
more pleasantly, as I have sat quietly on a
flowery bank by a calm river, and contempla-
ted what I shall now relate to you.

And, first, concerning rivers, there be so
many wonders reported and written of them,
and of the several creatures that be bred and
live in them ; and those by authors of so good
credit, that we need not to deny them on his-
torical faith.

As namely of a river in Epirus, that puts
out any lighted torch, and kindles any torch
that was not lighted. Some waters being
drank, cause madness, some drunkenness,
and some laughter to death. The river Scla-
rus in a few hours turns a rod or wand to
stone ; and our Camden mentions the like in
England, and the like in Loch Mere in Ireland.
There is also a river in Arabia, of which all
the sheep that drink thereof have their wool
turned into a vermillion colour. And one of
no less credit than Aristotle tells us of a merry
river, the river E/iwina, that dances at the noise
of music, for with music it bubbles, dances,
and grows sandy, and so continues till the
music ceases, but then it presently returns to its
wonted calmness and clearness. And Camden
tells us of a well, near to Kirby in Westmore-
land, that ebbs and flows several times eve..,
day : and he tells us of a river in Surrey, it is
called Mole, that after it has run several
miles, being opposed by hills, finds or makes
itself a way under ground, and breaks out
again so far off, that the inhabitants thereabout
boast, as Spaniards do of their river Anus,
that they feed divers flocks of sheep upon a
bridge. And lastly, for I would not tire your
patience, one of no less authority than Jose-
phus, that learned Jew, tells us of a river in
Judea that runs swiftly all the six days of the
week, and stands still and rests all their Sab-
bath.

But I will lay aside my discourse of rivers,
and tell you some things of the monsters or
fish, call them what you will, that they breed
and feed in them. Pliny, the philosopher,
says, in the third chapter of his ninth book,
that in the Indian Sea, the fish called the
Balana, or Whirlpool, is so long and broad
as to take up more in length and breadth than
two acres of ground, and of other fish of two
hundred cubits long, and that in the river
Ganges there be eels of thirty foot long. He



PIERCE EGAN'S BOOK OF SPORTS.



279



says there that these monsters appear in that
sea only when the tempestous winds oppose
the torments of waters falling from the rocks
into it, and so turning what lay at the bottom
to be seen on the water's top ; and he says
that the people of Cadara, an island near this
place, make the timber for their houses of
those fish bones. He there tells us that there
are sometimes a thousand of these great eels
found wrapped or interwoven together. He
tells us there that it appears that Dolphins love
music, and will come, when called for by some
men or boys that know and use to feed them,
and that they can swim as swift as an arrow
can be shot out of a bow, and much of this is
spoken of concerning the Dolphin and other
fish, as may be found also in learned Dr. Ca-
saubon's discourse of Credulity and Incre-
dulity, printed by him about the year 1670.
I know we islanders are averse to the belief
of these wonders, but there be so many strange
creatures to be now seen, many collected by
John Tradescunt, and others added by my
friend Elias Ashmole, Esq., who now keeps
them carefully and methodically at his house
near to Lambeth, near London, as may ge some
belief of so.Tie of the other wonders I men-
tioned. I will tell you some of the wonders
that you may now see, and not till then be-
lieve unless you think fit.

You may there see the Hog-fish, the Dog-
fish, the Dolphin, the Coney-fish, the Parrot-
fish, the Shark, the Poison-fish, Sword-fish,
and not only other incredible tish, but you
may there see the Salamander, several sort*
of Barnacles, of Solon Geese, the Bird of
Paradise, such sorts of snakes, and such
birds' -nests, and of so various forms and so
wonderfully made as may beget wonder and
amusement in any beholder, and so many
hundred of other rarities in that collection as