Oft' have I seen a skillful Angler try The various Colours of the treach'rous Fly; When he with fruitless Pain hath skim'd the Brook, And the coy Fish rejects the skipping Hook, He shakes the Boughs that on the Margin grow, Which o'er the Streams a waving Forrest throw; When if an Insect falls (his certain Guide) He gently takes him from the whirling Tide; Examines well his Form with Curious Eyes, His gaudy Colours, Wings, his Horns and Size. Then round his Hook a proper Fur he winds, And on the Back a speckled Feather binds. So just the Properties in ev'ry part, That even Nature's Hand revives in Art. Hawking, too, was a sport not then extinct, the land not being so parcelled into fields, and fenced in, as now; so that the flight of the birds could be easily followed. The birds were startled by five or six spaniels trained to the work. Here is a description of one lost by the Earl of Abingdon: 'a small black and white Hawking Spaniel, his Hair not very long, more black than white, long Back, with a thick Head.' In brook-hawking, men used to beat the rushes with poles, and they also hawked partridges and pheasants. The latter are depicted in the engraving as being poked off their roosts with poles. They went bat-fowling with the same nets as are now used, and they also netted partridges at night, with the aid of a lanthorn. In wild-fowl shooting they also used a horse for stalking. There were decoys for ducks, and we get an insight as to how they were managed. 'These are to give Notice, that if any Person that understands the management of a Decoy, wants a place, he may have one about 40 Miles from London provided he brings a Certificate from the last Master he served as to his ability ... he shall have as good Wages as is usually given, or a third Bird, as he shall agree when he seeth the Decoy.' It was not every person that might shoot game: 'The first of them, says he, that has a Spaniel by his Side, is a Yeoman of about an hundred Pounds a Year, an honest Man; He is just within the Game Act and qualified to kill an Hare or a Pheasant; he knocks down a Dinner with his Gun twice or thrice a week; and by that means lives much cheaper than those who have not so good an Estate as himself. He would be a good Neighbour if he did not destroy so many Partridges; in short he is a very sensible man; shoots flying; and has been several times foreman of the Petty Jury.'[387] This Game Act, which he was just within, was the 3rd James I. cap. 14, clause 5, which says that no one not having forty pounds per annum, or 200_l._ worth of goods and chattels, may shoot game; and should they do so, 'then any person having lands, tenements or hereditaments, of the clear yearly value of one hundred pounds a year, may take from the person or possession of such malefactor or malefactors, and to his own use for ever keep, such guns, bows, cross-bows, &c. &c.' and this Act was in force till 1827, when it was repealed.