_Pisc_. Good morrow good Hostis, I see my brother _Peter_ is in bed still; Come, give my Scholer and me a cup of Ale, and be sure you get us a good dish of meat against supper, for we shall come hither as hungry as _Hawks_. Come Scholer, lets be going. _Viat_. Good Master, as we walk towards the water, wil you be pleased to make the way seeme shorter by telling me first the nature of the _Trout_, and then how to catch him. _Pisc_. My honest Scholer, I wil do it freely: The _Trout_ (for which I love to angle above any fish) may be justly said (as the ancient Poets say of Wine, and we English say of Venson) to be a generous fish, because he has his seasons, a fish that comes in, and goes out with the _Stag_ or _Buck_: and you are to observe, that as there be some _barren Does_, that are good in Summer; so there be some barren _Trouts_, that are good in Winter; but there are not many that are so, for usually they be in their perfection in the month of _May_, and decline with the _Buck_: Now you are to take notice, that in several Countries, as in _Germany_ and in other parts compar'd to ours, they differ much in their bigness, shape, and other wayes, and so do _Trouts_; 'tis wel known that in the Lake _Lemon_, the Lake of _Geneva_, there are _Trouts_ taken, of three Cubits long, as is affirmed by _Gesner_, a Writer of good credit: and _Mercator_ sayes, the _Trouts_ that are taken in the Lake of _Geneva_, are a great part of the Merchandize of that famous City. And you are further to know, that there be certaine waters that breed _Trouts_ remarkable, both for their number and smalness--I know a little Brook in _Kent_ that breeds them to a number incredible, and you may take them twentie or fortie in an hour, but none greater then about the size of a _Gudgion_. There are also in divers Rivers, especially that relate to, or be near to the Sea, (as _Winchester_, or the Thames about _Windsor_) a little _Trout_ called a _Samlet_ or _Skegger Trout_ (in both which places I have caught twentie or fortie at a standing) that will bite as fast and as freely as _Minnows_; these be by some taken to be young _Salmons_, but in those waters they never grow to bee bigger then a _Herring_.