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dates of the subsequent editions; the second was published 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 in this method of improvement, that in the second edition he has introduced a new interlocutor, namely, Auceps, a falconer, and thereby gives a new form to the dialogue, taking 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 have several entire new chapters; and the fifth, the last published in his life-time, 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 who 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 an abridged form, translated into English by Mr. Edward Topsel. The translation was published in 1658, and contains numberless particulars concerning frogs, serpents, caterpillars, and other animals, though not of fish, extracted from the writers above-named, with their names to the respective facts, and 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 through the medium of this translation, that he was enabled to cite the authors mentioned above; vouching the authority of the original writers, in like manner as he else where 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 naturâ, วร and Lebault's "Maison Rustique," 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 a work of merit, and referred to its authority: Dr. 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 8; and confirmed them by two other signal ones.

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 occason 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 thought it would be acceptable to all tempers, because there were shades in it for the warm, and sunshine for those of cold constitution: that with youthful readers, the facetious parts would be profitable to make the serious more palatable, while some reverend old readers might fancy themselves in his 'History of the Church' as in a flower garden, or one full of evergreens."-" And why not," said Fuller, "The Church History so decked, as well as the Church itself at a most holy season, or the tabernacle of old at the feast of boughs." "That was but for a season," said Walton; "in your feast of boughs, they may conceive we are so overshadowed throughout, that the parson is more seen than his congregation,—and this, sometimes, invisible to its own acquaintance, who may wander in the search till they are lost in the labyrinth."-" Oh," said Fuller," the very children of our Israel may find their way out of this wilderness.""True," replied Walton, "as, indeed, they have here such a Moses to conduct them."

About two years after the restoration, Walton wrote the "Life of Mr. Richard Hooker," author of the "Ecclesiastical Polity." He was enjoined to undertake this work by his friend Doctor Gilbert Sheldon, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury; who, by the way, was an angler. Bishop King, in a letter to the author, says of this life; "I have often seen Mr. Hooker with my father, who was afterwards Bishop of London; from whom, and others at that time, I have heard most of the material passages which you relate in the history of his life." Sir William Dugdale, speaking of the three posthumous books of the "Ecclesiastical Polity," refers the reader "to that seasonable historical discourse, lately compiled and published, with great judgment and integrity, by that much deserving person, Mr. Isaac Walton." 1 In this Life we are told, that Hooker while he was at college made a visit to the famous Doctor Jewel, then Bishop of Salisbury, his good friend and patron: an account of the Bishop's reception of him and behaviour at his departure-as it contains a lively

1 "Short View of the late Troubles in England." Fol. 1681, p. 39.

picture of his simplicity and goodness, and of the plain manners of those times-is given in the note. 1

The life of Mr. George Herbert, as it stands the fourth and last in the volume wherein that and the three former are collected, seems to have been written the next after Hooker's: it was first published in duodecimo, 1670. Walton professes himself to have been a stranger to the person of Herbert: and though he assures us his life of him was a free-will offering, it abounds with curious information, and is in no way inferior to any of the former.

Two of these lives, those of Hooker and Herbert, we are told, were written under the roof of Walton's friend and patron, Dr. George Morley, Bishop of Winchester which particular seems to confirm Wood's account, that "after his quitting London, he lived mostly in the families of the eminent clergy of that time." And who that considers the inoffensiveness of his manners, and the pains he took in celebrating the lives and actions of good men, can doubt his being much beloved by them?

"2

In the year 1670, these "Lives

were collected and published

1 "As soon as he was perfectly recovered from this sickness, he took a journey from Oxford to Exeter, to satisfy and see his good mother; being accompanied with a countryman and companion of his own college, and both on foot; which was, then, either more in fashion-or want of money, or their humility made it so; but on foot they went, and took Salisbury in their way, purposely to see the good bishop, who made Mr. Hooker and his companion dine with him at his own table; which Mr. Hooker boasted of with much joy and gratitude, when he saw his mother and friends. And at the bishop's parting with him, the bishop gave him good counsel, and his benediction, but forgot to give him money, which, when the bishop had considered, he sent a servant in all haste, to call Richard back to him; and at Richard's return, the bishop said to him: 'Richard! I sent for you back to lend you a horse, which hath carried me many a mile, and, I thank God, with much ease and presently delivered into his hands a walking staff, with which he professed he had travelled through many parts of Germany and he said, 'Richard! I do not give, but lend you my horse; be sure you be honest, and bring my horse back to me at your return this way to Oxford. And I do now give you ten groats, to bear your charges to Exeter; and here is ten groats more, which I charge you to deliver to your mother; and tell her I send her a bishop's benediction with it, and beg the continuance of her prayers for me. And if you bring my horse back to me, I will give you ten groats more to carry you on foot to the college; and so God bless you, good Richard!"-Life of Hooker, in the "Collection of Lives," edit. 1670.-H.

:

2 After the Restoration, apartments were reserved for Walton and his daughters, both in the house of the above-named prelate, and in that of Dr. Seth Ward, Bishop of Salisbury.-ZOUCH.

in 8vo: with a dedication to the above Bishop of Winchester: and a preface, containing the motives for writing them: this preface is followed by a copy of verses, by his intimate friend and adopted son, Charles Cotton, of Beresford in Staffordshire, Esq., the author of the second part of the "Complete Angler," and by the letter from Bishop King, so often referred to in the course of this life.

The "Complete Angler" having, in the space of twenty-three years, gone through four editions,-Walton in the year 1666, and in the eighty-third of his age, was preparing a fifth, with additions, for the press; when Mr. Cotton wrote his second part. It seems Mr. Cotton submitted the manuscript to Walton's perusal, who returned it with his approbation, and a few marginal strictures: and in that year they were published together. Mr. Cotton's book had the title of the "Complete Angler; being Instructions how to angle for a Trout or Grayling in a clear Stream; Part ii.," and it has ever since been received as a second part of Walton's book. In the title-page is a cypher composed of the initial letters of both their names; which cypher, Mr. Cotton tells us, he had caused to be cut in stone, and set up over a fishing-house that he had erected near his dwelling on the bank of the little river, Dove, which divides the counties of Stafford and Derby.

Mr. Cotton's book is a judicious supplement to Walton's; for Walton, though he was so expert an angler, knew but little of fly-fishing; and indeed acknowledges that the greater part of what he has said on that subject was communicated to him by Mr. Thomas Barker, and not the result of his own experience. This Mr. Barker was a good-humoured gossiping old man, and seems to have been a cook; for he says, "he had been admitted into the most ambassadors' kitchens, that had come to England for forty years, and drest fish for them;" for which, he says, "he was duly paid by the lord protector." He spent a great deal of time, and, it seems, money too, in fishing; and in the latter part of his life, dwelt in an almshouse near the Gatehouse, Westminster. In 1651, two years before the first publication of Walton's work, he published a book in 12mo. called the "Art of Angling," to which he affixed his name:' he published, in

1 To this, Walton, in his first edition, page 108, thus acknowledges his obligations: "I will tell you freely, I find Mr. Thomas Barker a gentleman that has spent much time and money in angling, deal so judiciously and freely in a little book of his of angling, and especially of making and angling with a fly for a trout, that I will give you his very directions without much variation, which shall follow." In his fifth edition, he continues to mention the use which be had made of Barker's book, but in different

1653, a second edition, in 4to. under the same title, but without his name: and in 1659 he published the third edition of it, under the enlarged title of "Barker's Delight, or the Art of Angling." And, for that singular vein of humour that runs through it, is a most diverting book.

And of Cotton it must be said, that living in a country where fly-fishing was, and is, almost the only practice, he had not only the means of acquiring, but actually possessed more skill in the art, as also in the method of making flies, than most men of his time.

His book is, in fact, a continuation of Walton's, not only as it teaches at large that branch of the art of angling which Walton had but slightly treated on, but as it takes up Venator, Walton's piscatory disciple, just where his master had left him; and this connexion between the two parts will be clearly seen, when it is remarked that the traveller whom Cotton invites to his house, and so hospitably entertains, and also instructs in the art of fly-fishing-I say this traveller-and Venator, the pupil of Walton, prove to be one and the same person.

In this second part there is great spirit in the dialogue; and the same conversable, communicative temper which so eminently distinguishes the first.

A book which had been published by Col. Robert Venables, some years before (1662), called the "Experienced Angler, or Angling Improved," which has its merit, was also now reprinted; and the booksellers prefixed to it a general title of the "Universal Angler," under which they sometimes sold the three, bound together but the book is written in a manner very different from that of the "Complete Angler." It has a preface signed I. W. undoubtedly of Walton's writing.

And here it may not be amiss to remark, that between the two parts of the "Complete Angler," there is an obvious difference; the latter [part] though it abounds in descriptions of a wild and romantic country, and exemplifies the intercourses of hospitable urbanity, is of a didactic form, and contains in it more of instruction in the art it professes to teach, than of moral reflection: whereas the former, besides the pastoral simplicity that distinguishes it, is replete with sentiments that edify-and precepts that recommend, in the most persuasive manner, the practice of religion, and the exercise of patience, humility, and contentedness, and other moral virtues. In this view of it, the book might be said to be the only one of the kind, but that I find somewhat

words: "I shall give some other directions for fly-fishing, such as are given by Mr. Thomas Barker, a gentleman that hath spent much time in fishing, but I shall do it with a little variation."-H.

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