A

THE THIRD DAY.

CHAPTER IX.

PISCATOR.

GOOD day to you, Sir; I see you will always be stirring before me.

VIAT. Why, to tell you the truth, I am so allured with the sport I had yesterday, that I long to be at the river again; and when I heard the wind sing in my chamber-window, could forbear no longer, but leap out of bed, and had just made an end of dressing myself as you came in.

PISC. Well, I am both glad you are so ready for the day, and that the day is so fit for you. And look you, I have made you three or four flies this morning; this silver-twist hackle, this bear's dun, this light brown, and this dark brown, any of which I dare say will do; but you may try them all, and see which does best only I must ask your pardon that I cannot wait upon you this morning, a little business being fallen out, that for two or three hours will deprive me of your company; but I'll come and call you home to dinner, and my man shall attend you.

VIAT. O, Sir, mind your affairs by all means. Do but lend me a little of your skill to these fine flies, and, unless it have forsaken me since yesterday, I shall find luck of my own, I hope, to do something.

PISC. The best instruction I can give you, is that, seeing the wind curls the water, and blows the right

way, you would now angle up the still-deep to-day; for betwixt the rocks where the streams are you would find it now too brisk; and, besides, I would have you take fish in both waters.

VIAT. I'll obey your direction, and so a good morning to you. Come, young man, let you and I walk together. But hark you, Sir, I have not done with you yet; I expect another lesson for angling at the bottom, in the afternoon.

PISC. Well, Sir, I'll be ready for you.

THE THIRD DAY.

CHAPTER X.

PISCATOR.

SIR, are you returned? You have but just prevented me. I was coming to call you.

VIAT. I am glad, then, I have saved you the labor. PISC. And how have you sped?

Spoke like a South Country

man.

VIAT. You shall see that, Sir, presently look you, Sir, here are three brace of Trouts, one of them the biggest but one that ever I killed with a fly in my life; and yet I lost a bigger than that, with my fly to boot; and here are three Graylings, and one of them longer by some inches than that I took yesterday, and yet I thought that a good one too.

PISC. Why you have made a pretty good morning's work on 't ; and now, Sir, what think you of our river Dove?

VIAT. I think it to be the best Trout-river in England; and am so far in love with it, that if it were mine, and that I could keep it to myself, I would not exchange that water for all the land it runs over, to be totally debarred from it.

PISC. That compliment to the river speaks you a true lover of the art of Angling; and now, Sir, to make part of amends for sending you so uncivilly out alone this morning, I will myself dress you this dish

of fish for your dinner; walk but into the parlor, you will find one book or other in the window to entertain

you the while; and you shall have it presently.

VIAT. Well, Sir, I obey you.

PISC. Look you, Sir! have I not made haste? VIAT. Believe me, Sir, that you have; and it looks so well, I long to be at it.

PISC. Fall to, then.

a tolerable cook or no?

Now, Sir, what say you, am I

VIAT. So good a one, that I did never eat so good fish in my life. This fish is infinitely better than any I ever tasted of the kind in my life. 'Tis quite another thing than our Trouts about London.

PISC. You would say so, if that Trout you eat of were in right season; but pray eat of the Grayling, which, upon my word, at this time, is by much the better fish.

VIAT. In earnest, and so it is. And I have one request to make to you, which is, that as you have taught me to catch Trout and Grayling, you will now teach me how to dress them as these are dressed; which, questionless, is of all other the best way.

PISC. That I will, Sir, with all my heart; and am glad you like them so well, as to make that request. And they are dressed thus:

Take your Trout, wash, and dry him with a clean napkin; then open him, and, having taken out his guts, and all the blood, wipe him very clean within, but wash him not; and give him three scotches with a knife to the bone, on one side only. After which take

a clean kettle, and put in as much hard stale beer (but it must not be dead), vinegar, and a little white wine, and water, as will cover the fish you intend to boil; then throw into the liquor a good quantity of salt, the rind of a lemon, a handful of sliced horseradish root, with a handsome little fagot of rosemary, thyine, and winter-savory. Then set your kettle upon a quick fire of wood, and let your liquor boil up to the height before you put in your fish; and then, if there be many, put them in one by one, that they may not so cool the liquor, as to make it fall. And whilst your fish is boiling, beat up the butter for your sauce with a ladleful or two of the liquor it is boiling in. And, being boiled enough, immediately pour the liquor from the fish; and, being laid in a dish, pour your butter upon it; and, strewing it plentifully over with shaved horse-radish, and a little pounded ginger, garnish your sides of your dish, and the fish itself with a sliced lemon or two, and serve it up.

A Grayling is also to be dressed exactly after the same manner, saving that he is to be scaled, which a Trout never is; and that must be done, either with one's nails, or very lightly and carefully with a knife for bruising the fish. And note, that these kinds of fish, a Trout especially, if he is not eaten within four or five hours after he be taken, is worth nothing.

But come, Sir, I see you have dined; and, therefore, if you please, we will walk down again to the little House, and there I will read you a lecture of Angling at the Bottom.