him euen and streyghte, and lete it drye with the staffe; and whan they ben drye, make the yerde mete unto the hole in the staffe, unto halfe the length of the staffe; and to perfourme that other half of the croppe,-take a fayr shote of blacke thornn, crabbe tree, medeler, or of jenypre, kytte in the same season, and well bethyd and streyghte, and frette theym togyder fetely, soo that the croppe maye justly entre all into the sayd hole; thenne shaue your staffe, and make him tapre were; then vyrell the staffe at bothe endes with long hopis of yren, or laton, in the clennest wise, wyth a pyke at the nether ende, fastynd with a rennynge vyce, to take in and out your croppe; thenne set your croppe an handfull within the ouer ende of your staffe, in suche wise that it be as bigge there as in ony other place about: thenne arme your croppe at the ouer ende, downe to the frette, wyth a lyne of vj heeres, and dubbe the lyne, and frette it faste in the toppe wyth a bowe to fasten on your lyne; and thus shall ye make you a rodde so prevy, that you may walke therwyth; and there shall noo man wyte where abowte ye goo."

Speaking of the Barbel, she says: "The Barbyll is a swete fysshe; but it is a quasy mete, and a peryllous for mannys body. For, comynly, he yeuyth an introduxion to the febres and yf he be eten rawe, he may be cause of mannys dethe, whyche hath oft be seen.' And of the Carp," that it is a deyntous fysshe, but there ben but fewe in Englonde. And therefore I wryte the lasse of hym. He is an euyll fysshe to take. For he is so stronge enarmyd in the mouthe, that there maye noo weke harnays hold hym.

"And as touchynge his baytes, I have but lytyll knowledge of it. And me wereloth to wryte more than I knowe and have prouyd. But well I wote, that the redde worme and the menow ben good baytes for hym at all tymes, as I have herde saye of persones credyble, and also founde wryten in bokes of

credence."

For taking the Pike, this lady directs her readers in the following terms, viz. :—

"Take a codlynge hoke; and take a Roche, or a fresshe Heeryng; and a wyre with an hole in the ende, and put it in at the mouth, and out at the taylle, downe by the ridge of the fresshe Heeryng; and thenne put the lyne of your hoke in after, and drawe the hoke into the cheke of the fresshe Herrying; then put a plumbe of lede upon your lyne a yerde longe from your hoke, and aflote in myd waye betwene; and caste it in a pytte where the Pyke usyth: and this is the

beste and moost surest crafte of takynge the Pyke. Another manere takynge of hym there is; take a frosshe,* and put it on your hoke, at the necke, betwene the skynne and the body, on the backe half, and put on a flote a yerde therefro, and caste it where the Pyke hauntyth, and ye shall haue him. Another manere: Take the same bayte, and put it in asafetida, and caste it in the water wyth a corde and a corke, and ye shall not fayl of hym. And yf ye lyst to haue a good sporte, thenne tye the corde to a gose fote; and ye shall se gode halynge, whether the gose or the Pyke shall haue the better."

The directions for making flies, contained in this book, are, as one would expect, very inartificial: we shall therefore only add, that the authoress advises the angler to be provided with twelve different sorts; between which and Walton's twelve,† the difference is so very small, as well in the order as the manner of describing them, that there cannot remain the least doubt but he had seen, and attentively perused this ancient treatise.

The book concludes with some general cautions, among which are these that follow; which at least serve to shew how long angling has been looked on as an auxiliary to contemplation.

"Also ye shall not use this forsayd crafty dysporte, for no couetysenes, to the encreasynge and sparynge of your money oonly; but pryncypally for your solace, and to cause the helthe of your body, and specyally of your soule: for whanne ye purpoos to goo on your dysportes in fysshynge, ye woll not desyre gretly many persons wyth you, whyche myghte lette you of your game. And thenne ye may serue God, deuowtly, in sayenge affectuously youre custumable prayer; and, thus doynge, ye shall eschewe and voyde many vices."

But to return to the last mentioned work of our author, The Complete Angler: it came into the world attended with Encomiastic Verses by several writers of that day ; and had in the title-page, though Walton thought proper to omit it in the future editions, this apposite motto:

"Simon Peter said, I go a fishing; and they said, We also will go with thee." John, xxi. 3.

And here occasion is given to remark, that the circumstance of time, and the distracted state of the kingdom at the period

Or frog. Minshew's Dictionary.

+ See chap. v.

This is a mistake: the Commendatory Verses appeared for the first time in the second edition.

when the book was written, reaching, indeed, to the publication of the third edition thereof, are evidences of the author's inward temper and disposition; for who, but a man whose mind was the habitation of piety, prudence, humility, peace, and cheerfulness, could delineate such a character as that of the principal interlocutor in this dialogue; and make him reason, contemplate, instruct, converse, jest, sing, and recite verses, with that sober pleasantry, that unlicentious hilarity, that Piscator does; and this, too, at a time when the whole kingdom was in arms; and confusion and desolation were carried to an extreme sufficient to have excited such a resentment against the authors of them, as might have soured the best temper, and rendered it, in no small degree, unfit for social intercourse?

If it should be objected, that what is here said may be equally true of an indolent man, or of a mind insensible to all outward accidents, and devoted to its own ease and gratification,―to this it may be answered, that the person here spoken of was not such a man: on the contrary, in sundry views of his character, he appears to have been endowed both with activity and industry; an industrious tradesman; industrious in collecting biographical memoirs and historical facts, and in rescuing from oblivion the memory and writings of many of his learned friends: and surely, against the suspicion of insensibility HE must stand acquitted, who appears to have had the strongest attachments that could consist with Christian charity, both to opinions and men; to episcopacy, to the doctrines, discipline, and the liturgy of the established church; and to those divines and others that favoured the civil and ecclesiastical constitution of this country,—the subversion whereof it was his misfortune both to see and feel. Seeing, therefore, that amidst the public calamities, and in a state of exile from that city where the earliest and dearest of his connections had been formed, he was thus capable of enjoying himself in the manner he appears to have done; patiently submitting to those evils which he could not prevent, -we must pronounce him to have been an illustrious exemplar of the private and social virtues, and, upon the whole, a wise and good man.

To these remarks, respecting the moral qualities of Walton, I add, that his mental endowments were so considerable as to merit notice. It is true, that his stock of learning, properly so called, was not great; yet were his attainments in literature far beyond what could be expected from a man bred to trade,

and not to a learned profession; for let it be remembered, that, besides being well versed in the study of the Holy Scriptures, and the writings of the most eminent divines of his time, he appears to have been well acquainted with history, ecclesiastical, civil, and natural; to have acquired a very correct judgment in poetry; and by phrases of his own combination and invention, to have formed a style so natural, intelligible, and elegant, as to have had more admirers than successful imitators.

And although in the prosecution of his design to teach the contemplative man the art of angling, there is a plainness and simplicity of discourse, that indicates little more than bare instruction, yet is there intermingled with it wit and gentle reprehension; and we may in some instances discover, that though he professes himself no friend to scoffing, he knew very well how to deal with scoffers, and to defend his art, as we see he does, against such as attempted to degrade it; and particularly against those two persons in the dialogue, Auceps and Venator, who affected to fear a long and watery discourse in defence of his art,—the former of whom he puts to silence, and the other he converts and takes for his pupil.

What reception in general the book met with may be naturally inferred from the dates of the subsequent editions thereof; the second came abroad in 1655, the third in 1664, the fourth in 1668, and the fifth and last in 1676. It is pleasing to trace the several variations which the author from time to time made in these subsequent editions, as well by adding new facts and discoveries, as by enlarging on the more entertaining parts of the dialogue; and so far did he indulge himself in this method of improvement, that, besides that in the second edition he has introduced a new interlocutor, to wit, Auceps, a falconer, and by that addition gives a new form to the dialogue; he from thence takes occasion to urge a variety of reasons in favour of his art, and to assert its preference as well to hawking as hunting. The third and fourth editions of his book have several entire new chapters; and the fifth, the last of the editions published in his lifetime, contains no less than eight chapters more than the first, and twenty pages more than the fourth.

Not having the advantage of a learned education, it may seem unaccountable that Walton so frequently cites authors that have written only in Latin, as Gesner, Cardan, Aldrovandus, Rondeletius, and even Albertus Magnus; but here it may be observed, that the voluminous history of animals, of

which the first of these was author, is in effect translated into English by Mr Edward Topsel, a learned divine, chaplain, as it seems, in the church of St Botolph, Aldersgate, to Dr Neile, dean of Westminster. The translation was published in 1658, and, containing in it numberless particulars concerning frogs, serpents, caterpillars, and other animals, though not of fish, extracted from the other writers above named, and others with their names to the respective facts, it furnished Walton with a great variety of intelligence, of which, in the later editions of his book, he has carefully availed himself: it was therefore through the medium of this translation alone that he was enabled to cite the other authors mentioned above; vouching the authority of the original writers, in like manner as he elsewhere does Sir Francis Bacon, whenever occasion occurs to mention his Natural History, or any other of his works. Pliny was translated to his hand by Dr Philemon Holland, as were also Janus Dubravius De Piscinis et Piscium Natura, and Lebault's Maison Rustique, so often referred to by him in the course of his work.

Nor did the reputation of the Complete Angler subsist only in the opinions of those for whose use it was more peculiarly calculated; but even the learned, either from the known character of the author, or those internal evidences of judgment and veracity contained in it, considered it as a work of merit; and for various purposes referred to its authority. Doctor Thomas Fuller, in his Worthies, whenever he has occasion to speak of fish, uses his very words. Dr Plot, in his History of Staffordshire, has, on the authority of our author, related two of the instances of the voracity of the pike, mentioned part i. chap viii.; and confirmed them by two other signal ones, that had then lately fallen out in that county.

These are testimonies in favour of Walton's authority in matters respecting fish and fishing; and it will hardly be thought a diminution of that of Fuller, to say, that he was acquainted with, and a friend of, the person whom he thus implicitly commends,- —a fact which the following relation of a conference between them sufficiently proves :

Fuller, as we all know, wrote a Church History, which, soon after its publication, Walton having read, applied to the author for some information touching Hooker, whose life he was then about to write. Upon this occasion Fuller knowing how intimate Walton was with several of the bishops and ancient clergy, asked his opinion of it, and what reception it met with among his friends? Walton answered, that " he