CONFERENCE CONTAINING A DESCRIPTION OF COTTON'S FISHING-HOUSE, WITH HIS APOLOGY FOR WRITING A SUPPLEMENT TO WALTON'S BOOK.

Pisc. junior. Good morrow, sir! What, up and dressed so early?

Viat. Yes, sir, I have been dressed this half hour: for I rested so well, and have so great a mind either to take, or see a Trout taken, in your fine river, that I could no longer lie a-bed.

Pisc. I am glad to see you so brisk this morning, and so eager of sport; though, I must tell you, this day proves so calm, and the sun rises so bright, as promises no great success to the angler: but, however, we'll try; and, one

way or other, we shall, sure, do something. What will you have to your breakfast, or what will you drink this morning?

Viat. For breakfast, I never eat any, and for drink I am very indifferent; but if you please to call for a glass of ale I'm for you: and let it be quickly, if you please, for I long to see the little fishing-house you spoke of, and to be at my lesson.

Pisc. Well, sir! You see the ale is come without calling: for though I do not know yours, my people know my diet; which is always one glass so soon as I am dressed, and no more till dinner; and so my servants have served you.

Viat. My thanks. And now, if you please, let us look out this fine morning.

Pisc. With all my heart; boy, take the key of my fishing-house, and carry down those two angle-rods in the hall-window, thither, with my fish-pannier, pouch, and 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-natured 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 fishinghouse?

Viat. Trust me, 'tis all very fine;

this distance a neat building.

and the house seems at

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 will sit and talk, as long as you please.

1 This celebrated fishing-house, of which we have given two views, is formed of stone, and the room within is a cube of fifteen feet, paved with black and white marble, having in the centre a square black marble table. The roof, which is triangular in shape, terminates in a square stone sundial surmounted by a globe and a vane. It was originally wainscoted with walls of carved panels and divisions, in the larger spaces of which were painted some of the most interesting scenes in the vicinity of the building; whilst the smaller ones were occupied with groups of fishing-tackle. In the right-hand corner stood a large beaufet with folding-doors, on which were painted the portraits of Walton and Cotton, attended by a servant-boy; and beneath it was a closet, having a trout and a grayling delineated upon the door. Such was the original appearance of the fishing house, as collected from a description given by Mr. White of Crickhowel to Sir John Hawkins, in 1784; although it was then considerably decayed, especially in the wainscoting and the paintings.

To this, the following account of its present state, written from actual observation by W. H. Pepys, Esq., F.R.S., etc. will form an appropriate and an interesting counterpart. The visit which it details was made by a party composed of several eminent characters equally distinguished in science and the fine arts.

"It was in the month of April, 1811, that I visited the celebrated fishing-house of Cotton and Walton. I left Ashbourn about nine o'clock in the morning, accompanied by several brothers of the angle; we took the Buxton road for about six miles, and turning through a gate to the left, soon descended into the valley of the Dove, and continued along the banks of the river about three miles farther, when we arrived at Beresford Hall. The fishing-house is situated on a small peninsula, round which the river flows, and was then nearly enveloped with trees. It has been a small neat stone building, covered with stone slates or tiles, but is now going fast to decay the stone steps by which you entered the door are nearly destroyed. It is of a quadrangular form, having a door and two windows in the front, and one larger window on each of the other three sides. The door was secured on the outside by a strong staple, but the bars and casements of the windows being gone, an easy entrance was obtained. The marble floor, as described by White in 1784, had been removed; only one of the pedestals upon which the table was formerly placed was standing, and that much deteriorated. On the left side was the fire-place, the mantelpiece and sides of which were in a good state. The chimney and recess for the stove were so exactly on the Rumford plan, that one might have supposed he had lived in the time when it was erected. On the right hand side of the room is an angular excavation or small cellar, over which the cupboard, or beaufet, formerly stood. The wainscot of the room is wanting, the ceiling is broken, and part of the stone-tiling admits both light and water.

Upon

Viat. Stay, what's here over the door? PISCATORIBUS SACRUM! Why then I perceive I have some title here; for I am one of them, though one of the worst; and here below it is the cypher too you spoke of, and 'tis prettily contrived. Has my master Walton ever been here to see it; for it seems new built?

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 raised 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 displeased with the business that keeps him from you, as you are that he comes not. But I am the most pleased

examining the small cellar, we found the other pedestal which supported the marble table; and against the door on the inside, three large fragments of the table itself, which were of the Black Dove-dale Marble, bevelled on the edges, and had been well polished. The inscription over the door, and the cypher of Walton and Cotton in the key-stone, were very legible."

-MAJOR.

There is under this motto, the cypher mentioned in the title-page, and some part of the fishing-house has been described; but the pleasantness of the river, mountains, and meadows about it, cannot, unless Sir Philip Sidney or Mr. Cotton's father were again alive to do it.-WALTON. Mr. Bagster, who visited it in 1814, found it much dilapidated, the windows unglazed, and the wainscot and pavement gone, but the cypher still legible. In 1824 it is thus described by another writer:-"Just above the Pike, a small wooden foot bridge leads over the stream towards Hartshorn, in Derbyshire. A little higher up on the Staffordshire bank, the winding of the river forms a small peninsula, on which stands the far-famed fishinghouse; but alas! how changed. The windows are destroyed, the doors decayed, and without fastenings; the roof dilapidated, and the vane, which surmounted it, is rusty, and nodding to its fall. The fire-place alone remains in good preservation. The entrance steps are covered with weeds, and the inscription on the key-stone so overgrown with moss, that the first word of the inscription is quite illegible."-Gent. Mag., v. XCIX., p. II., p. 31, (see p. 373). In August, 1825, the manor, hall, and about eighty-four acres of land were sold to Viscount Beresford for 5500l., since which time we learn from Shipley and Fitzgibbon that "Cotton's fishing-house was repaired about three years ago, and is now (1838) nearly in the same state as when the original constructor described it. All these repairs and improvements are owing to the good taste of the actual owner, the Marquis of Beresford."-ED.

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.

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 promised.

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 Moreland 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 preacquaint 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