mind the reader that he has other claims to literary reputation than those derived from this truly felicitous achievement.

In both instances he became an author by mere chance. Sir Henry Wotton had undertaken to write the life of Dr. Donne, and had requested Walton to assist him in collecting materials for that purpose; but Sir Henry dying before it was completed, Walton undertook it himself, and succeeded so fully to the satisfaction of the most learned men of his time, that it was to be attributed to their importunity, rather than to his own ambition, that he performed the same office for his "dear friend Sir Henry" himself, and those other eminent men whose names have just been enumerated.

Sir Henry Wotton too, as it appears from the Dedication of the Complete Angler to John Offley,* Esq., had intended "to write a discourse of the Art and in praise of Angling, and," continues Walton, "doubtless he had done so, if death had not prevented him; the remembrance of which hath often made me sorry: for if he had lived to do it, then the unlearned angler had seen some better treatise of this art, a treatise that might have proved worthy his perusal, which, though some have undertaken, I could never yet sce in English."

Here again our modest author finds an excuse for

This gentleman, whose ancestors had been settled at Madeley Manor as early as the year 1237, married the heiress of the Crewes, of Crewe Hall, and was the progenitor of the present Lord Crewe, The family is connected by marriages with the noble houses of Has tings, Powis, and Wilton.

the undertaking of a work, of which it seems almost too weak a praise to say, that its parallel could scarcely have been hoped for, even from the elegant mind of Sir Henry Wotton himself.

Our author, who was born at Stafford in 1593, but who lived the greatest part of his time in London, published the first edition of this celebrated work in 1653, and lived to see it go through no less than five editions; the last of which, in 1676, was accompanied by a Second Part, written by his intimate friend and adopted son, Charles Cotton of Beresford Hall, in the County of Stafford, Esq. This Second Part, in which Mr. Cotton, from his local opportunities, was enabled to treat more at large on Fly-fishing than Walton had proposed to do, forms an important part of the work, in more than one point of view; but chiefly, as conveying the fullest evidence of that reverence, and almost homage, which its accomplished author entertained for the character of Walton.

The Fishing-house on the banks of the Dove seems to have been built expressly to perpetuate the memory of their friendship; the motto over its door was "Piscatoribus sacrum," with the initials of Walton and Cotton interwoven in a cipher upon the keystone of the building, and the same cipher was, by Mr. Cotton's desire, placed in the title-page of the first edition of his portion of the work, and has been continued in all those since published.

This part of our history will be fully illustrated by the following short epistles which passed on the occa

sion; and the opportunity is taken of giving the signatures in the genuine autographs of the authors, — that of Walton being also introduced, with a more enlarged specimen of his handwriting, in another place.

To my most worthy Father and Friend, MR. IZAAK WALTON, the Elder.

Being you were pleased, some years past, to grant me your free leave to do what I have here attempted, and observing you never retract any promise, when made in favor even of your meanest friends, I accordingly expect to see these following particular directions for the taking cf a trout to wait upon your better and more general rules for all sorts of angling: and, though mine be neither so perfect, so well digested, nor indeed so handsomely couched, as they might have been, in so long a time as since your leave was granted, yet I dare affirm them to be generally true; and they had appeared too in something a neater dress, but that I was surprised with the sudden news of a sudden new edition of your Complete Angler; so that, having but a little more than ten days' time to turn me in, and rub up my memory, for, in truth, I have not, in all this long time, though I have often thought on 't, and almost as often resolved to go presently about it, I was forced upon the instant to scribble what I here present you; which I have also endeavored to accommodate to your own method. And, if mine be clear enough for the honest Brothers of the Angle readily to understand, which is the only thing I aim at, then I have my end, and shall need to make no further apology: a writing of this kind not requiring, if I were master of any such thing, any eloquence to set it off or recommend it; so that if you

in your better judgment, or kindness rather, can allow it passable, for a thing of this nature, you will then do me honor, if the Cipher, fixed and carved in the front of my little fishing-house, may be here explained: and to permit me to attend you in public, who, in private, have ever been, am, and ever resolve to be, sir,

Your most affectionate son and servant,

Beresford,

10th of March, 167.

Charles botthon../.

To my most honored Friend, CHarles Cotton, Esq.

You now see I have returned you your very pleasant and useful discourse of the Art of Fly-fishing, printed just as it was sent me: for I have been so obedient to your desires, as to endure all the praises you have ventured to fix upon me in it. And when I have thanked you for them, as the effects of an undissembled love, then let me tell you, sir, that I will really endeavor to live up to the character you have given of me; if there were no other reason, yet for this alone, that you, that love me so well, and always think what you speak, may not, for my sake, suffer by a mistake in your judgment.

And, sir, I have ventured to fill a part of your margin, by way of paraphrase, for the reader's clearer understanding the situation, both of your Fishing-house, and the pleas. antness of that you dwell in. And I have ventured also to give him a copy of verses that you were pleased to send me, now some years past; in which he may see a good picture of both; and so much of your own mind, too, as

will make any reader that is blest with a generous soul to love you the better. I confess, that for doing this you may justly judge me too bold: if you do, I will say so too; and so far commute for my offence, that, though I be more than a hundred miles from you, and in the eighty-third year of my age, yet I will forget both, and next month begin a pilgrimage to beg your pardon; for I would die in your favor; and till then will live, sir, Your most affectionate father and friend,

London, April 29th, 1676.

Frack Walton

With this enlarged edition also appeared, for the first time, the following beautiful verses, exhibiting as favorable a specimen of Cotton's poetical powers as his whole works could supply.

F

THE RETIREMENT.

IRREGULAR STANZAS,

ADDRESSED TO

MR. IZAAK WALTON.

I.

AREWELL, thou busy world! and may

We never meet again :

Here I can eat, and sleep, and pray,

And do more good in one short day,

Than he, who his whole age outwears
Upon the most conspicuous theatres,

Where naught but vanity and vice do reign.