"ftaffe at bothe endes with long hopis of yren, or laton, in the clenneft wife, wyth a Pyke in the nether ende, faftnyd with a rennynge vyce, to take in and out your croppe; thenne fet your croppe an hand"full within the over ende of your staffe, in "fuche wife that it be as bigge there as in ony other place above: thenne arme your croppe at thouerende, downe to the frette, " with a line of vj heeres, and dubble the lyne, and frette it fafte in the toppe wyth "a bowe to faften on your lyne; and thus " fhall ye make you a rodde foo prevy, that ye may walk therwyth; and there fhall "noo man wyte where abowte ye goo."

Speaking of the Barbel fhe fays: "The "Barbyll is a fwete fysfhe; but it is a "quafy meete, and a peryllous for mannys body. For comynly he yeuyth an intro"duxion to the febres; and yf he be eten 66 rawe, he may be cause of mannys dethe,

"which hath oft be seen."

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

"Take a codlynge hoke, and take a "Roche or a freshe Heering, and a wyre "wyth an hole in the ende, and put it in " at the mouth, and out at the taylle, "downe by the ridge of the fresfhe Heeryng; and thenne put the lyne of "hoke in after, and drawe the hoke into

your

"the

"the cheke of the freshe Heeryng; thenn put a plumbe of lede upon your lyne a yerde longe from your hoke, and a "flote in myd waye betwene, and caste it

in a pytte where the Pyke ufyth: and this "is the beste and mooft fureft crafte of

"takynge the Pyke. Another manere takynge of hym there is: take a frosfhe*, "and put it on your hoke, at the necke,

bytwene the fkynne and the body, on "the backe half, and put on a flote a yerde "therfro, and cafte it where the Pyke

hauntyth and ye fhall have hym. Another "mannere: Take the fame bayte, and put "it in afafetida, and caft it in the water 66 wyth a corde and corke, and ye shall not fayl of hym. And yf ye lyft to have a

se

good fporte, thenne tye the corde to a "gofe fote, and ye fhall fe god halynge, "whether the gofe or the Pyke shall have "the better."

The direction 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 forts, between which and Walton's twelve, the difference is fo very fmall, as well in the order as the

Or Frog. M infh.

+ Vid. Compl. Angl. pag. 106.

manner

manner of describing them, that there cannot remain the least doubt but he had feen, and attentively perufed, this ancient treatise.

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

"Also, ye fhall not use this forfayd crafty dyfporte, for no covetyfenes, to the encreafynge and fparynge of your money oonly, but pryncypally for your folace, "and to caufe the helthe of your body, and specyally of your foule: for whanne ye "purpoos to goo on your dyfportes in fyf"Thyng, ye woll not defyre gretly many perfones wyth you, whiche myghte lette you of your game. And thenne ye may "ferve God devowtly in fayenge affectu"oufly youre cuftumable prayer; and thus doynge ye fhall efchewe and voide many

"vices."

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

"SIMON PETER faid, I go a fifhing; " and they said, we alfo will go with "thee." John xxi. 3.

What reception in general the book met with, may be naturally inferred from the dates of the subsequent editions thereof; the fecond I have never been able to fee, but the third came abroad about 1660, and a fourth in 1668. It is pleafing to trace the feveral variations which the author, from time to time, made in those subsequent editions, as well by adding new facts and difcoveries, as enlarging on the more entertaining parts of the dialogue: and so far did he indulge himself in this method of im-provement; that the third and fourth editions of his book have feveral entire new chapters; and the fifth, the laft of the editions published in his life-time, contains no lefs than eight chapters more than the first, and twenty pages more than the fourth,

Nor did the reputation of the Complete Angler fubfift 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, confidered it as a work of merit, and for various purposes referred to its authority: Doctor Thomas Fuller, in his

Worthies,

Worthies, whenever he has occasion to speak of fish, uses his very words *. Doctor Plot in his history of Staffordshire, has, on the authority of our author, related two of the inftances of the voracity of the Pike, mentioned Part I. Chap. VIII. and confirmed them by two other fignal ones, that had then lately fallen out in that county +. And lastly, Doctor Skinner, in his Etymologicon Lingua Anglicana, Lond. Fol. 1671. Voce Fulimart, gives us to understand, that it is, Vox quæ nufquam, nifi in Libro the Complete Angler dicto, occurrit.

To pursue the fubject of his Biographical writings; about two years after the restoration Walton wrote the life of Mr. Richard Hooker, author of the Ecclefiaftical 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 * Worthies of England in Berkshire, 81. Dorfetfhire, 277. Kent, 77.

Hift. of Staffordshire, Chap. VII. §. 37. See alfo in the following fection, a well-attefted account of the taking a brace of Carp; the one a melter thirty-three inches long, and nineteen and a half about, weighing fifteen pounds; the other a fpawner, about two feet fix inches long, and twenty and a half round, weighing fourteen pounds; the fcales of each being near as broad as a half-crown piece.

Walton's Epift. to the reader of the Lives, in 8vo,

1675 Compl. Angl. edit. 1676. pag. 211.

author,