landing-net; and stay you there till we come. Come, Sir, we'll walk after, where, by the way, I expect you should raise all the exceptions against our country you

can.

Viat. Nay, Sir, do not think me so ill-natur❜d nor so uncivil: I only made a little bold with it last night to divert you, and was only in jest.

Pisc. You were then in as good earnest as I am now with you; but had you been really angry at it, I could not blame you: for, to say the truth, it is not very taking at first sight. But look you, Sir, now you are abroad, does not the sun shine as bright here as in Essex, Middlesex, or Kent, or any of your southern counties?

Viat. 'Tis a delicate morning, indeed, and I now think this a marvellous pretty place.

Pisc. Whether you think so or no, you cannot oblige me more than to say so: and those of my friends who know my humour, and are so kind as to comply with it, usually flatter me that way. But look you, Sir, now you are at the brink of the hill, how do you like my river; the vale it winds through, like a snake; and the situation of my little fishing-house?

Viat. Trust me, 'tis all very fine; and the house seems, at this distance, a neat building.

Pisc. Good enough for that purpose. And here is a bowling-green too, close by it; so though I am myself no very good bowler, I am not totally devoted to my own pleasure, but that I have also some regard to other men's. And now, Sir, you are come to the door: pray walk in, and there we'll sit, and talk as long as you please.

one of them,

motto, the cypher men

tioned in the title-page of

Viat. Stay, what's here over the door? PISCATORIBUS SACRUM.* Why then, I perceive I have There is, under this some title here; for I am though one of the worst. below it, is the cypher* too

And here,

you spoke

Part. II. And some part

of

the fishing-house has

been described; but the

pleasantness of the river,

of; and 'tis prettily contrived.

Has mountains, and meadows about it, cannot; unless

my master Walton ever been here to see it; for it seems new built?1

Sir Philip Sidney, or Mr. Cotton's father, were again alive, to do it.

Pisc. Yes, he saw it cut in the stone before it was set up; but never in the posture it now stands: for the house was but building when he was last here, and not rais'd so high as the arch of the door. And I am afraid he will not see it, yet for he has lately writ me word, he doubts his coming down this summer; which, I do assure you, was the worst news he could possibly have sent me.

Viat. Men must sometimes mind their affairs to make more room for their pleasures. And 'tis odds he is as much displeas'd with the business that keeps him from you, as you are that he comes not. But I am the most pleased with this little house, of any thing I ever saw: it stands in a kind of peninsula too, with a delicate clear river about it. I dare hardly go in, lest I should not like it so well within as without: but, by your leave, I'll try. Why, this is better and better, fine lights, finely wainscoted, and all exceeding neat, with a marble table and all in the middle!

(1) In 1784, Mr. White, since of Crickhowel, favoured Sir John Hawkins with a description of the Fishing-House. The account he gave of it was, that it was of stone, and the room inside a cube of fifteen feet; that it was paved with black and white marble, and that in the middle was a square black marble table supported by two stone feet. The room was wainscoted with curious mouldings that divided the pannels up to the cieling. In the larger pannels were represented, in painting, some of the most pleasant of the adjacent scenes, with persons fishing; and in the smaller, the various sorts of tackle and implements used in angling. In the further corner, on the left, was a fire-place with a chimney; on the right a large beaufet, with folding-doors, whereon were the portraits of Mr. Cotton with a boy-servant, and Walton in the dress of the time. Underneath was a cup-board; on the door whereof, the figures of a Trout and of a Grayling were well. pourtrayed. At this time the edifice was in but indifferent condition; the paintings, and even the wainscoting, in many places, being much decayed.

Since the above period Beresford Hall has been visited, and the Fishing-House seems to have suffered by the lapse of time, and was fast falling into decay. The glass from the windows gone, the pavement removed, and the wainscot destroyed. The inscription was still legible over the door, and the date 1674. The cypher also of Walton and Cotton on the key-stone of the arch of the door (represented in the title-page of the second part) was still legible.

Pisc. Enough, Sir, enough; I have laid open to you the part where I can worst defend myself, and now you attack me there. Come, boy, set two chairs; and whilst I am taking a pipe of tobacco, which is always my breakfast, we will, if you please, talk of some other subject.

Viat. None fitter, then, Sir, for the time and place, than those instructions you promis'd.

Pisc. I begin to doubt, by something I discover in you, whether I am able to instruct you or no; though, if you are really a stranger to our clear northern rivers, I still think I can: and therefore, since it is yet too early in the morning at this time of the year, to-day being but the seventh of March, to cast a fly upon the water, if you will direct me what kind of fishing for a Trout I shall read you a lecture on, I am willing and ready to obey you.

Viat. Why, Sir, if you will so far oblige me, and that it may not be too troublesome to you, I would entreat you would run through the whole body of it; and I will not conceal from you that I am so far in love with you, your courtesy, and pretty More-Land seat, as to resolve to stay with you long enough by intervals, for I will not oppress you, to hear all you can say upon that subject.

Pisc. You cannot oblige me more than by such a promise: and therefore, without more ceremony, I will begin to tell you, that my father Walton having read to you before, it would look like a presumption in me, (and, peradventure, would do so in any other man,) to pretend to give lessons for angling after him, who, I do really believe, understands as much of it at least as any man in England, did I not pre-acquaint you, that I am not tempted to it by any vain opinion of myself, that I am able to give you better directions; but having, from my childhood, pursued the recreation of angling in very clear rivers, truly, I think, by much, (some of them, at least)

the clearest in this kingdom, and the manner of angling here with us, by reason of that exceeding clearness, being something different from the method commonly used in others, which, by being not near so bright, admit of stronger tackle, and allow a nearer approach to the stream, I may peradventure give you some instructions, that may be of use, even in your own rivers, and shall bring you acquainted with more flies and shew you how to make them, and with what dubbing too, than he has taken notice of in his COMPLETE ANGLER.

Viat. I beseech you, Sir, do; and if you will lend me your steel, I will light a pipe the while, for that is, commonly, my breakfast in a morning, too.

CHAP. IV.

Of Angling for TROUT or GRAYLING.

Piscator. WHY, then Sir, to begin methodically, as a master in any art should do, (and I will not deny, but that I think myself a master in this) I shall divide Angling for TROUT, or GRAYLING, into these three ways; at the top; at the bottom; and in the middle. Which three ways, though they are all of them, (as I shall hereafter endeavour to make it appear,) in some sort common to both those kinds of fish; yet are they not so generally and absolutely so, but that they will necessarily require a distinction, which, in due place, I will also give you.

That which we call angling at the top, is with a fly; at the bottom, with a ground-bait; in the middle, with a minnow or ground-bait.

Angling at the top is of two sorts; with a quick fly, or with an artificial fly.

That we call Angling at the bottom, is also of two sorts; by hand, or with a cork or float.

That we call Angling in the middle, is also of two sorts; with a Minnow, for a Trout, or with a ground-bait for a Grayling.

Of all which several sorts of angling, I will, if you can have the patience to hear me, give you the best account I can.

Viat. The trouble will be yours, and mine the pleasure and the obligation: I beseech you therefore to proceed. Pisc. Why then first of fly-fishing.

CHAP. V.

Of Fly-fishing.

Piscator. FLY-fishing, or fishing at the top, is, as I said before, of two sorts; with a natural and living fly, or with an artificial and made fly.

First then, of the NATURAL FLY; of which we generally use but two sorts; and those but in the two months of May and June only; namely, the Green-drake, and the Stone-fly: though I have made use of a third, that way, called the Chamblet-fly, with very good success, for Grayling, but never saw it angled with by any other, after this manner, my master only excepted, who died many years ago, and was one of the best anglers that ever I knew.

These are to be angled with, with a short line, not much more than half the length of your rod, if the airbe still; or with a longer very near, or all out, as long as your rod, have any wind to carry it from And this way you.

if you