But lay aside profit, and consider how a gentleman should entertain
himself and his family, which I must suppose every one hath, who lives
upon an estate, and it may be numerous; he must find some sort of
diversion for them. Must it be altogether going abroad to make, or at
home receiving visits? Or if the female part are so grave, to decline
that course of life, must they always be within? Or if they stir out,
have nothing but mere air to invite them? Perhaps the gentleman himself
may find diversion by hunting, &c. and meeting company upon several
diverting accounts; and shall all his entertainments be exclusive of his
family? No, certainly; whoever aims at an easy and satisfactory course
of life, must seek that his family, as well as himself, be pleased: and
if he doth not order it so that they shall be entertained, it is ten to
one they will find such entertainments as shall not be very grateful to
him; therefore there is advantage enough in the mastery of fish, from the
diversion, not to speak of the employment that it brings to a family.
Young people love angling extremely; then there is a boat, which gives
pleasure enough in summer, frequent fishing with nets, the very making of
nets, seeing the waters, much discourse of them, and the fish, especially
upon your great sweeps, and the strange surprizes that will happen in
numbers and bigness, with many other incident entertainments, are the
result of waters, and direct the minds of a numerous family to terminate
in something not inconvenient, and, it may be, divert them from worse.
Parks, bowling-greens, and billiard-tables, are of the same design; but
it will be easily granted, this of fish is beyond them all.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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