Pisc. A 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 chamberwindow, could forbear no longer, but leapt 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. Oh 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.

Pisc. Oh, 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 labour.
Pisc. And how have you sped?

1

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

1 Spoke like a south countryman.-WALTON. Honest Isaak seems here to allude ironically to the southern habit of saying three brace instead of two leash.-ED.

F F

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 parlour, 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. Now, sir, what say you, am I a tolerable cook or no?

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:

THE THIRD DAY.

435

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 horse-radishroot, with a handsome little fagot of rosemary, thyme, 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 for your sauce with a ladle-full or two of the liquor it is up the butter 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.2

The following is an excellent method of crimping a trout, if put very small. Keep your trout alive, if you can, until about two hours before you want to dress it; then kill it, and with a sharp knife score it or notch it from head to tail on each side nearly to the bone, each notch being about one and a half or two inches apart, according to the size of the fish. When this has been done, pump on the fish for ten minutes (a hard waterpump is the best), till the curd begins to harden; then rub a very little salt on the curd, and hang the fish in a draught of air till it is wanted. Have a kettle of boiling-water ready, and put in it two or three large handfuls of salt, and when all boils up put in the fish.

The sauce for the trout may be made as follows:-Stew a handful or more of the skins of shrimps in a small quantity of water for an hour; strain off the liquor, and add it to good melted butter (no flour in it), some picked shrimps, and a large table-spoonful of lobster spawn, well rubbed up in a mortar, with a tea-spoonful of Chetna sauce. best sauces I am acquainted with; and as a proof of it, I can only say This is one of the that it has met with general approbation from a pretty large circle of dining friends.-Ed.

2 Only very large trouts should be boiled; the smaller ones are always much better broiled or fried. champaign, very similar to the above recipe of Cotton.-RENNIE. Lamb gives directions for boiling them in