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To the Right
worshipful
JOHN OFFLEY
of Madeley Manor, in the County of Stafford,
Esq.
My most honoured Friend
Sir,—
I have made so ill use of your former favours,
as by them to be encouraged to entreat, that
they may be enlarged to the patronage and
protection of this Book: and I have put
on a modest confidence, that I shall not be
denied, because it is a discourse of Fish
and Fishing, whichyou know so well, and
both love and practice so much.
You are assured (though there be ignorant
men of another belief) that angling
is an art: and you know that art
better than others; and that this is truth
is demonstrated by the fruits of that pleasant
labour which you enjoy, when you purpose to
give rest to your mind, and divest yourself
of your more serious business, and (which
is often) dedicate a day or two to this recreation.
At which time, if common Anglers should
attend you, and be eyewitnesses of the success,
not of your fortune, but your skill,
it would doubtless beget in them an emulation
to be like you, and that emulation might beget
an industrious diligence to be so; but I know
it is not attain bye by common capacities:
and there be now many men of great wisdom,
learning, and experience, which
love and practice this art, that know
I speak the truth.
Sir, this pleasant curiosity of fish
and fishing (of which you are so great a master)
has been thought worthy the pens and
practices of divers in other nations,
that have been reputed men of great learning
and wisdom. And amongst those of this
nation, I remember Sir Henry Wotton
(a dear lover of this art) has told me, that
his intentions were to write a discourse of
the art, and in praise of angling;
and doubtless he had done so, if death had
not prevented him; the remembrance of which
had often made me sorry; for if he had lived
to do it, then the unlearned angler
had seen some better treatise of this art,
a treatise that might have proved worthy his
perusal, which (though some have undertaken)
I could never yet see in English.
But mine may be thought as weak, and
as unworthy of common view; and I do
here freely confess, that I should rather
excuse myself, than censure others, my own
discourse being liable to so many exceptions;
against which you, sir, might make this one,
that it can contribute nothing to your
knowledge. And lest a longer epistle may
diminish your pleasure, I shall make this
no longer than to add this following truth,
that I am really,
Sir,
your most affectionate friend,
and most humble servant,
Iz. Wa.
The epistle to the reader
To all Readers
of this discourse,
but especially
to the honest Angler
I think fit to tell thee these following truths;
that I did neither undertake, nor write,
nor publish, and much less own,
this Discourse to please myself: and, having
been too easily drawn to do all to please
others, as I propose not the gaining of credit
by this undertaking, so I would not willingly
lose any part of that to which I had a just
title before I began it; and do therefore
desire and hope, if I deserve not commendations,
yet I may obtain pardon.
And though this Discourse may be liable to
some exceptions, yet I cannot doubt but that
most readers may receive so much pleasure
or profit by it, as may make it worthy
the time of their perusal, if they be not
too grave or too busy men. And this is all
the confidence that I can put on, concerning
the merit of what is here offered to their
consideration and censure; and if the last
prove too severe, as I have a liberty, so
I am resolved to use it, and neglect all sour
censures.
And I wish the reader also to take
notice, that in writing of it I have made
myself a recreation of a recreation;
and that it might prove so to him, and not
read dull and tediously, I have
in several places mixed, not any scurrility,
but some innocent, harmless mirth, of which,
if thou be a severe, sour-complexioned man,
then I here disallow thee to be a competent
judge; for divines say, there are offences
given, and offences not given but taken.
And I am the willinger to justify the pleasant
part of it, because though it is known I can
be serious at seasonable times, yet the whole
Discourse is, or rather was, a picture of
my own disposition, especially in such days
and times as I have laid aside business, and
gone a-fishing with honest Nat. and
R. Roe; but they are gone, and with
them most of my pleasant hours, even as a
shadow that passeth away and returns not.
And next let me add this, that he that likes
not the book, should like the excellent picture
of the Trout, and some of the other fish,
which I may take a liberty to commend, because
they concern not myself.
Next, let me tell the reader, that
in that which is the more useful part of this
Discourse, that is to say, the observations
of the nature and breeding, and seasons, and
catching of fish, I am not so simple as not
to know, that a captious reader may find exceptions
against something said of some of these; and
therefore I must entreat him to consider,
that experience teaches us to know that several
countries alter the time, and I think, almost
the manner, of fishes' breeding, but doubtless
of their being in season; as may appear by
three rivers in Monmouthshire, namely,
Severn, Wye, and Usk,
where Camden (British Fishes, 633)
observes, that in the river Wye, Salmon
are in season from September to April;
and we are certain, that in Thames
and Trent, and in most other rivers,
they be in season the six hotter months.
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.
Hales, a most valiant and excellent fencer,
who in a printed book called A Private
School of Defence undertook to teach that
art or science, and was laughed at for his
labour. Not but that many useful things might
be learned by that book, but he was laughed
at 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 practice
this recreation, to which I shall encourage
them. For Angling may be said to be so like
the mathematicks, that it can never
be fully learnt; at least not so fully, but
that there will still be more new experiments
left for the trial of other men that succeed
us.
But I think all that love this game may here
learn something that may be worth their money,
if they be not poor and needy men: and in
case they be, I then wish them to forbear
to buy it; for I write not to get money, but
for pleasure, and this Discourse boasts of
no more, for I hate to promise much, and deceive
the Reader.
And however it proves to him, yet I am sure
I have found a high content in the search
and conference of what is here offered to
the Reader's view and censure. I wish him
as much in the perusal of it, and so I might
here take my leave; but will stay a little
and tell him, that whereas it is said by many,
that in fly-fishing for a Trout, the Angler
must observe his twelve several flies for
the twelve months of the year, I say, he that
follows that rule, shall be as sure to catch
fish, and be as wise, as he that makes hay
by the fair days in an Almanack, and no surer;
for those very flies that used to appear about,
and on, the water in one month of the year,
may the following year come almost a month
sooner or later, as the same year proves colder
or hotter: and yet, in the following Discourse,
I have set down the twelve flies that are
in reputation with many anglers; and they
may serve to give him some observations concerning
them. And he may note, that there are in Wales,
and other countries, peculiar flies, proper
to the particular place or country; and doubtless,
unless a man makes a fly to counterfeit that
very fly in that place, he is like to lose
his labour, or much of it; but for the generality,
three or four flies neat and rightly made,
and not too big, serve for a Trout in most
rivers, all the summer: and for winter fly-fishing—it
is as useful as an almanack out of date. And
of these, because as no man is born an artist,
so no man is born an angler, I thought fit
to give thee this notice.
When I have told the reader, that in this
fifth impression there are many enlargements,
gathered both by my own observation, and the
communication with friends, I shall stay him
no longer than to wish him a rainy evening
to read this following Discourse; and
that (if he be an honest Angler) the east
wind may never blow when he goes a-fishing.
—I. W.
Chapter
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