The Compleat Angler | Page 9

with you, by taking up more than the proportion of time
allotted to me, I will here break off, and entreat you, Mr. Venator, to
say what you are able in the commendation of Hunting, to which you
are so much affected; and if time will serve, I will beg your favour for a
further enlargement of some of those several heads of which I have
spoken. But no more at present.
Venator. Well, Sir, and I will now take my turn, and will first begin

with a commendation of the Earth, as you have done most excellently
of the Air; the Earth being that element upon which I drive my pleasant,
wholesome, hungry trade. The Earth is a solid, settled element; an
element most universally beneficial both to man and beast; to men who
have their several recreations upon it, as horse-races, hunting, sweet
smells, pleasant walks: the earth feeds man, and all those several beasts
that both feed him, and afford him recreation. What pleasure doth man
take in hunting the stately Stag, the generous Buck, the wild Boar, the
cunning Otter, the crafty Fox, and the fearful Hare ! And if I may
descend to a lower game, what pleasure is it sometimes with gins to
betray the very vermin of the earth; as namely, the Fichat, the Fulimart,
the Ferret, the Pole-cat, the Mouldwarp, and the like creatures that live
upon the face, and within the bowels of, the Earth. How doth the Earth
bring forth herbs, flowers, and fruits, both for physick and the pleasure
of mankind! and above all, to me at least, the fruitful vine, of which
when I drink moderately, it clears my brain, cheers my heart, and
sharpens my wit. How could Cleopatra have feasted Mark Antony with
eight wild Boars roasted whole at one supper, and other meat suitable,
if the earth had not been a bountiful mother ? But to pass by the mighty
Elephant, which the Earth breeds and nourisheth, and descend to the
least of creatures, how doth the earth afford us a doctrinal example in
the little Pismire, who in the summer provides and lays up her winter
provision, and teaches man to do the like! The earth feeds and carries
those horses that carry us. If I would be prodigal of my time and your
patience, what might not I say in commendations of the earth? That
puts limits to the proud and raging sea, and by that means preserves
both man and beast, that it destroys them not, as we see it daily doth
those that venture upon the sea, and are there shipwrecked, drowned,
and left to feed Haddocks; when we that are so wise as to keep
ourselves on earth, walk, and talk, and live, and eat, and drink, and go a
hunting: of which recreation I will say a little, and then leave Mr.
Piscator to the commendation of Angling.
Hunting is a game for princes and noble persons; it hath been highly
prized in all ages; it was one of the qualifications that Xenophon
bestowed on his Cyrus, that he was a hunter of wild beasts. Hunting
trains up the younger nobility to the use of manly exercises in their

riper age. What more manly exercise than hunting the Wild Boar, the
Stag, the Buck, the Fox, or the Hare ? How doth it preserve health, and
increase strength and activity !
And for the dogs that we use, who can commend their excellency to
that height which they deserve ? How perfect is the hound at smelling,
who never leaves or forsakes his first scent, but follows it through so
many changes and varieties of other scents, even over, and in, the water,
and into the earth! What music doth a pack of dogs then make to any
man, whose heart and ears are so happy as to be set to the tune of such
instruments! How will a right Greyhound fix his eye on the best Buck
in a herd, single him out, and follow him, and him only, through a
whole herd of rascal game, and still know and then kill him! For my
hounds, I know the language of them, and they know the language and
meaning of one another, as perfectly as we know the voices of those
with whom we discourse daily.
I might enlarge myself in the commendation of Hunting, and of the
noble Hound especially, as also of the docibleness of dogs in general;
and I might make many observations of land-creatures, that for
composition, order, figure, and constitution, approach nearest to the
completeness and understanding of man; especially of those creatures,
which Moses in the Law permitted to the Jews, which have cloven
hoofs, and chew the cud; which I shall forbear to