THE LIBRARY

OF

THE UNIVERSITY

OF CALIFORNIA

PRESENTED BY

PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND

MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID

yi

f^'

Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2007 with funding from

Microsoft Corporation

http://www.archive.org/details/complanglerOOwaltrich

PORTRAIT OF "W A L T 0 1^:

FROM A PICTURE BY HOUSEMATJ

THE
MPLETE ANGLEK

OR

ENGRAVED TITLE , DESIGNED BY T. STOTHARD, R,A.

The Complete Angler

OR

'atlje Conumplatite 9^^n'0 Ifilecreation

BEING A DISCOURSE OF RIVERS FISH-PONDS
FISH AND FISHING WRITTEN BY

IZAAK WALTON

AND

INSTRUCTIONS HOW TO ANGLE FOR A TROUT OR
GRA YUNG IN A CLEAR STREAM BY

CHARLES COTTON

WITH ORIGINAL MEMOIRS AND NOTES BY
SIR HARRIS NICOLAS, K.C.M.G.

SCntJ ^\)X^ 3;nui5trationj^ from jDc?i0njtf ip 5>tot&arl> anli SInjjftipp

HATTO AND WINDUS, PICCADILLY

1875

PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND COMPANY
EDINBURGH AND LONDON

T0fA€

REVEREND HERBERT HAWES, D.D

Prebendary of the Cathedral Church of Salisbury^

C{)i» (IftJiti'on of tfjc Complete Angler,

As a Mark of Respect

for the Descendant of its venerable Author y and in Acknowledgment

of the

Assistance which he has afforded towards its Completion,

is respectfully inscribed by his most obedient

humble Servant^

N. HARRIS NICOLAS.

PREFACE.

THE extreme popularity of the Complete Angler has been
so fully proved by its numerous editions, that it can
scarcely be necessary to solicit the favour of the public towards
one more carefully edited, and more highly embellished, than
any that has hitherto appeared.

Although much had been done to illustrate that beautiful
Pastoral, it was still susceptible of pictorial embellishments of
a superior character ; and although great trouble had already
been taken to discover information respecting Walton and
Cotton, the subject was not exhausted.

The following observations will show the particular claims
of these volumes to the patronage of the public.

Of the embellishments little need be said, because the merits
or demerits of works of art speak for themselves. The scenery
was painted on the spot by the late Thomas Stothard, Esq.,
R.A., by whose ingenious pencil all the other Illustrations?

ivi3iai48

vi PREFACE.

except the Portraits and Fishes, were drawn. The Fishes
were painted from nature by James Inskipp, Esq., who, to
distinguished abUity in his profession, unites the knowledge
and ardour of a skilful angler. To his pencil the publisher is
likewise indebted for the charming portraits of Walton and
Cotton, "in their vocation ; " and Mr Inskipp's favours have
been much enhanced by the cordiality and zeal with which he
has executed this important department of the work.

To general readers, as well as to Anglers, the portrait of the
venerable Walton, engraved by Mr Humphrys, after the original
by Housman, in the possession of the Rev. Dr Hawes, Preben-
dary of Salisbury, will perhaps prove the most attractive illus-
tration. From that picture all the engraved portraits are said
to have been taken ; but a single glance will show that in none
of them have the real features been preserved. The present
engraving is, however, no less faithful to the original than
remarkable for its excellence as a work of art ; and it may be
said that a perfect resemblance of the patriarch of Anglers is
now, for the first time, published.

With respect to the literary improvements which are presumed
to have been made, and the plan which has been pursued, in
this edition of the Complete Angler, it is to be observed that
the text is that of the fifth edition, published in 1676, which
was the last that was revised by the author ; and the variations
between it and the four previous editions are carefully indicated
at the foot of each page. Tliese variations are often curious,
it being well known that Walton very considerably enlarged
the second and the fifth edition of his work. As, however, a
full account of the different editions of the Complete Angler
will be found in the Memoir of Walton, it is unnecessary to
^say more on the subject.

Many original notes have been added to a selection ot

PREFACE, vu

the most valuable of those which had appeared in preceding
editions ; and though the former are chiefly on points of a
literary nature, some new piscatory illustrations, from the pens
of experienced Anglers, will be found among them.*

A striking feature in the arrangement of this edition ought
to be mentioned. All the previous editions of the Complete
Angler are divided into chapters only, without any reference
to the chronological plan of the work. The dialogue of the
First Part occupies five separate days, and the conclusion ol
the first four of them is distinctly marked by the parties sepa-
rating for the night. Except in the original edition of 1653,
in which what is termed a ** space " occurs at those places,
there is no apparent division of time ; and the dialogue pro-
ceeds, without any pause, from the "good-night" of the
preceding evening, to the greeting and sports of the ensuing
day, whilst the break, caused by a new chapter, is often found
in the middle of a conversation, without the slightest change
in the situation of the parties, merely because a different
subject, or rather a new branch of the same subject, is
introduced.

The inconsistency of this arrangement of a work so dra-
matic in character as the Complete Angler is evident ; and it
is really surprising that the unities of the piece should have
hitherto been so completely lost sight of.

In this edition, the dialogue naturally forms five divisions,
marked "The First Day,'* "The Second Day," " The Third

• The following explanation of the initials of the authors affixed to them will identify
the respective contributors : —
H. indicates Sir John Hawkins, the editor of the edition published in 1760.
E. Sir Henry Ellis, K.H., editor of the edition published by Mr Bagster, 1815.
T. Richard Thomson, Esq., of the London Institution, the editor of the edition pub-
lished by Mr Major, 1823.
Eti. H. is the signature of the late Mr Haslewood.
B. is the initial of Mr John Baker.
For the notes which are undistinguished the Editor is himself respotisible.

7

viii PREFACE,

Day," " The Fourth Day," and " The Fifth Day ; " and no
other notice is taken of the chapters than by stating at the
head of each day the chapters which it contains, and in-
serting, in the margin, the number and title of each of them
as they occur in the fifth edition.

A similar plan has also been adopted with respect to the
Second Part of the work, by Charles Cotton, the dialogue of
which occupies three days.

The research which has been used in seeking for new
materials for the Lives of Walton and Cotton has been re-
warded with great success ; and it is not a little remarkable,
that the sources which have proved most fertile were as
accessible to his former as to his present biographer. The
prefaces to Walton's Lives of Donne, Wotton, Hooker, Herbert,
and Sanderson, as well as those memoirs themselves, abound
in anecdotes or traits of character of their amiable author,
which had been unaccountably neglected. Walton's other
pieces were scarcely less valuable for this purpose ; and the
same remark applies to the various productions of Charles
Cotton. To every other source of information diligent
application has also -been made ; and many new facts, espe-
cially as to family connections, have been brought to light.
The plan upon which the Memoirs of Walton and Cotton have
been written, was to introduce every word in which they have
alluded to themselves, so as to render them, as far as was
practicable, their own biographers. With this view, all their
Letters which could be found, and the prefaces and dedications
to their works, have been printed at length, whenever they,
in any way, illustrated the character of the writers.

The pleasing duty remains of offering both the Publisher's
and the Editor's thanks to those numerous persons from whom
they have derived assistance. The list is long, and contains

PREFACE. ix

some names distinguished in literature, forming strong evidence
of the homage which, at the distance of nearly two centuries,
is paid by genius to the worth of " Honest Izaak."

Among the individuals by whose contributions this edition
has been enriched, the names of Sir Henry Ellis, K.H., the
Principal Librarian of the British Museum ; the Rev. Dr Bliss,
of the Bodleian Library ; Charles George Young, Esq., York
Herald; George Frederick Beltz, Esq., K.H., Lancaster Herald;
the Rev. Joseph Hunter; Richard Thomson, Esq., of the
London Institution ; Mr John Baker ; Sir Francis Sykes, Bart. ;
Mr Cafe ; Thomas B. Chinn, Esq., of Lichfield ; Edward Jesse,
Esq., of Hampton Court; the late Joseph Haslewood, Esq.;
B. H. Bright, Esq. ; and Mr Hatcher, of Salisbury, are deserv-
ing of particular commemoration.

As the Editor was well aware of his incompetency to make
any addition to the sciencg QfJialieuUCSi he undertook with
reluctance the task of superintending an edition of the Complete
Angler. He felt that, on such matters, he might, like Alexander
Brome, in his address to Walton, ask himself,

** What make I here, to write of that
iVn unskill'd in, and talk I know not what ? '*

His reluctance was, however, but of short duration, for no
one who daily witnessed the Publisher's enthusiasm could
possibly withstand its influence. He relieved him from all
his difficulties by selecting the notes which relate to the art ;
while his own attention was entirely bestowed on the literary
and biographical parts of the work. It has been to his friend
Mr Pickering literally a labour of love. Neither time nor
expense was spared to produce an edition of the Complete
Angler worthy of the state of the Arts at the present day, and
of the importance which was, in his opinion, due to the subject ;

X PREFACE.

and during seven years in which the work has been in progress,
his ardour never for a moment abated. It is now for the
public to judge of the result of his efforts \ and the Editor,
who has so often benefited by his bibliographical knowledge,
cannot deny himself the pleasure of expressing a hope that
he to whose taste and exertions these volumes owe nearly all
their value, may derive from them the credit which he so well
deserves.

N. HARRIS NICOLAS.

CONTENTS.

Memoir of Izaak Walton ..... xvii

Notice of Sir Henry Wotton's Fishing-house, near Eton cxxix

Appendix to the Memoir of Walton.

Pedigrees of the Families of Walton, Hawkins, Hawes,

and Cranmer ....... cxxxii

Extracts from Wills, Probates, and Letters of Administration

of Persons of the name of Walton . . . cxxxvii

Entries from Izaak Walton's Copy of the Book of Common

Prayer ....... cxI

Copy of the Will of Dr Donne the younger . . . cxli

Walton's Memoranda respecting John Hales . . . cxliii

List of the Books formerly belonging to Izaak Walton, now in

the Cathedral Library at Salisbury .... cxlvii
Account of Walton's Charities to the Town of Stafford . cxlix

List of Portraits of Walton's Family, in the possession of his

Descendant, the Rev. Dr Hawes . . . . cli

Notices of Izaak Walton, from the Parish Books of St Dun-

stan's in the West ...... clii

Memoir of Charles Cotton ..... clix

Pedigree of Cotton ...... ccii

Pedigrees of the Families of Ken and Chalkhill . . cciv

THE COMPLETE ANGLER.

Walton's Dedication of the Complete Angler . . . i

His Epistles to the Reader in the First, Second, and Fifth

Editions . . . . . . . 3, 4, 6

Commendatory Verses, addressed to Walton on the Publica-
tion of the Complete Angler ..... 9

The First Day :—

Containing the First Chapter, being **A Conference betwixt
an Angler, a Falconer, and a Hunter, each commending
his Recreation 'I . . . . . .19

xii CONTENTS.

PAGE

The Second Day : —

Containing the Second Chapter, "On the Otter and the

Chub" 58

The Third Day :—

Containing Part of the Second Chapter, ** On the Otter and the

Chub" 61

The Third Chapter, containing Directions ** How to Fish

for and to Dress the Chavender or Chub" . . 66

The Fourth Chapter, " On the Nature and Breeding of the

Trout, and how to Fish for him " . . • 7^

And Part of the Fifth Chapter, " On the Trout " . .84

The Fourth Day : —

Containing the remainder of the Fifth Chapter, " On the Trout " 90

The Sixth Chapter, " On the Umber or Grayling " . 120

The Seventh Chapter, "On the Salmon" . . .122

The Eighth Chapter, " On the Luce or Pike " . .129

The Ninth Chapter, " On the Carp "... 140
The Tenth Chapter, ** On the Bream" . . .148

The Eleventh Chapter, "On the Tench" . . .153

The Twelfth Chapter, " On the Perch " . . .155

The Thirteenth Chapter, "Of the Eel, and other Fish that

want Scales" . . . . . .158

The Fourteenth Chapter, "Of the Barbel" . .166

The Fifteenth Chapter, "Of the Gudgeon, the Ruffe, and

the Bleak" ...... 171

The Sixteenth Chapter, "Of Nothing, or of Nothing

worth" ....*.. 173

The Fifth Day : —

Containing the Seventeenth Chapter, ** Of Roach and Dace " . l8l
The Eighteenth Chapter, " Of the Minnow or Penk, Loach,

Bullhead, or Miller's-Thumb, and the Sticklebag" . 192
The Nineteenth Chapter, "Of Rivers, and some Observa-
tion of Fish "....., 194
The Twentieth Chapter, " Of Fish-ponds " . . 198

And Chapter Twenty-first ..... 201
A short Discourse, by way of Postscript, touching the Laws of

Angling ........ 212

THE SECOND PART OF THE COMPLETE ANGLER.

Letter from Charles Cotton to Izaak Walton . . .217

Walton's Reply thereto . . . . . .218

The Retirement, Stanzes Irreguliers to Mr Izaak Walton . .219

CONTENTS. xiu

PAGB

The First Day : —

Containing the First and Second Chapters . , . 222

The Second Day :—

Containing the Third Chapter ..... 236

The Fourth ..•..., 240

The Fifth ....... 241

The Sixth ....... 246

The Seventh and Eighth, containing a List of Artificial

Flies ....... 251

The Third Day :—

Containing the Ninth Chapter ..... 264

The Tenth ....... 265

The Eleventh . . . . , .266

The Twelfth ...... 271

Additional Notes and Appendix to the Complete Angler 274

Index ........ 293

LIST OF EMBELLISHMENTS.

1. Portrait of Walton, from a Picture by Housman, in the

Possession of the Rev. Dr Hawes, of Salisbury, copied by

Mr Derby, engraved by W. Humphry s . • Frontispiece

2. Vignette of the Device of Walton, impaling the Arms of

his two Wives, viz., Fludd and Ken ; and the Arms of Cotton,
impaling his two Wives, viz., Hutchinson and Russell, drawn
by Mr Willement, engraved on wood by Byfield . Preface

3. View of Sir Henry Wotton's Fishing-house on the Banks

of the Thames, near Eton, drawn by Mr Edward Hassell,
engraved by J. Adcock ..... cxxix

4. View from the Lawn of Sir H. Wotton's Fishing-house,

with Windsor Castle and Eton College in the distance, drawn

by Mr Hassell, engraved by Adcock . . . cxxxi

5. Portrait of Charles Cotton, Esq., from a Picture by Sir

Peter Lely, in the Possession of John Beresford, Esq., at Ash-
bourne, copied by Mr Inskipp, and engraved by W.
Humphrys . ..... clxi.i

6. Portrait (whole length) of Izaak Walton, from a Painting

by Mr Inskipp, engraved by H. Robinson . . I

7. Engraved Title, designed by T. Stothard, R.A., engraved by

A. Fox ....... I

8. Madeley Manor, -the Seat of John Offley, Esq., engraved by

Augustus Fox ...... I

9. Facsimile of the Title-page of the First Edition of the Com-

pleat Angler, 1653 . . . . . 5

10. ViGNEiTE OF A Mill-dam, drawn by Delamotte, engraved by

Fox ...... . 8

11. The Greeting at Tottenham High Cross, drawn by T.

Stothard, R. A., engraved by Fox ... 19

12. Vignette, Head-piece, drawn by T. Stothard, R.A., engraved

by W. H. Worthington , . . . . 19

13. Interior of Theobalds, from a Print by Sparrow, from an

Original Picture then in the Collection of Earl Poulet, at
Hinton St George, engraved by Fox ... 35

14. Exterior of Theobalds, from a Picture by Vinkenboom, in

the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, engraved by J. Rich-
ardson ....... 180

LIST OF EMBELLISHMENTS, xv

PLATE

1$. The Thatched House, Hoddesdon, drawn by T. Stothard,

R. A. , engraved by Fox ..... 56

16. Amwell Hill, drawn by T. Stothard, R. A., engraved by W. J.

Cooke ....... 5^

17. Vignette, Head-piece, drawn byT. Stothard, R. A., engraved

by Worthington ..... 5^

18. Vignette, Head-piece, drawn by T. Stothard, R. A., engraved

by Worthington . . . . . 6 1

19. The Breakfast, drawn by T. Stothard, R.A., engraved by

Fox . . . . . . ' . 65

20. The Chub, painted by Mr Inskipp, engraved by Fox . 65

21. Master and Scholar Angling, drawn by T. Stothard, R.A.,

engraved by Fox ..... 68

22. Bleak Hall, drawn by W. Hixon, engraved by J. Richard-

son ....... 78

23. The Milkmaid's Song, drawn by T. Stothard, R. A., engraved

by Fox . . . . . . .79

24. The Trout, painted by Mr Inskipp, engraved by Fox . 84

25. Vignette, Head-piece, drawn by T. Stothard, R.A., engraved

by Worthington ..... 90

26. The Sycamore-tree, drawn by T. Stothard, R.A., engraved

by Fox ....... 99

27. George Inn, Ware, drawn by T. Stothard, R.A., engraved by

Fox ...... . 115

28. The Fly-fisher, from a Picture by Mr Inskipp, engraved by

H. Robinson . . . . . . 120

29. The Grayling, painted by Mr Inskipp, engraved by Fox 121

30. The Salmon, painted by Mr Inskipp, engraved by Fox . 126

31. The Pike, painted by Mr Inskipp, engraved by Fox . 135

32. Basket of Pike, painted by Sir Francis Sykes, Bart., engraved

by J. G. Armytage ..... 140

33. The Carp, painted by Mr Inskipp, engraved by Fox . 145

34. The Bream, painted by Mr Inskipp, engraved by Fox . 149

35. The Tench, painted by Mr Inskipp, engraved by Fox . 154

36. Vignette of Mill-dam, near St Cross, Winchester, drawn

by Delamotte, engraved by Fox . . '. 155

37. The Perch, painted by Mr Inskipp, engraved by Fox . 157

38. The Eel, painted by Mr Hixon, engraved by Fox , 163

39. The Barbel, painted by Mr Inskipp, engraved by Fox . 168

40. The Roach, Dace, Gudgeon, Bleak, Ruffe, Bullhead,

Minnow, and Loach, painted by Mr Inskipp, engraved by

W. J. Wilkinson . . . . , 171

41. The Supper, drawn by T. Stothard, R.A., engraved by

Fox ....... 174

42. Vignette, Head-piece, drawn by T. Stothard, R.A., engraved

by Worthington . , . . . 181

xvi LIST OF EMBELLISHMENTS,

PLATE

43. Old London Bridge, from a Drawing by Pine, engraved by

Roberts ....... 182

44. The Parting at Tottenham, drawn by T. Stothard, R.A.,

engraved by Fox ..... 207

45. Vignette of a Youth Angling, painted by T. S. Cafe, Esq.,

engraved by W. J. Wilkinson . . . . 211

46. Portrait (whole length) of Charles Cotton, Esq., from a

Painting by Mr Inskipp, engraved by W. Humphrys . 215

47. Woodcut of the Fishing-house, from a Sketch by Worthing-

ton, engraved on wood by J. Thompson . . 216

48. Pike Pool, near Beresford Hall, drawn by T. Stothard, R.A.,

engraved by Fox . . . . . 221

49. Vignette, Head-piece, drawn by T. Stothard, R.A., engraved

by Worthington ..... 222

50. View of Ashbourn, from the Old Road, drawn by T. Stoth-

ard, R.A., engraved by W. J. Cooke . . . 227

51. Hanson Toot in Dove Dale, with Alstonefield Church in

the distance, drawn by T. Stothard, R. A., engraved by W. J.
Cooke ....... 233

52. Beresford Hall, the seat of C. Cotton, drawn by T. Stoth-

ard, R.A., engraved by W. J. Cooke . . . 234

53. Pickering Tor, and the Iron Chest, Dove Dale, drawn

by T. Stothard, R.A., engraved by W. J. Cooke . 235

54. Vignette, Head-piece, drawn by T. Stothard, R.A., engraved

by Worthington . . . . . 236

55. Distant View of the Fishing-house and the River

Dove, winding ** like a snake," drawn by T. Stothard, R. A.,
engraved by W. J. Cooke .... 237

56. The Fishing-house, front view, drawn by T. Stothard, R.A.,

engraved by Fox . . . . . 238

57. The back front of the Fishing-house, " in a kind of pen-

insula, with a delicate clear river about it," drawn by T.
Stothard, R.A., engraved by W. J. Cooke . . 239

58. Landing the Grayling, drawn by T. Stothard, R.A., en-

graved by Fox ...... 249

59. View of Pike Pool, painted by Mr Inskipp, engraved by

Freebairn ...... 250

60. Beresford Hall, "from the Hill," drawn by T. Stothard,

R. A., engraved by W. J. Cooke . . . 251

61. Vignette, Head-piece, drawn by T. Stothard, R. A., engraved

by Worthington • • . , , 264

LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON.

" Walton, crime it were to leave unsung
Thy gentle mind, thy breast unblanch'd by wrong ;
And, vivid glowing on the graphic page,
Thy guileless manners, and thy hallowed age."

IZAAK Walton was boia-^iLSlafiiQrd on the 9th of August 1593,
and was baptized there on the 21st of September following.^ He
was the son of Jervis Walton of that town, who is presumed to
have been the second son of George Walton, sometime bailiff of
Yoxhall,2 a small village about fifteen miles from Stafford ; beyond
whom the pedigree cannot be traced with certainty.^

The name of Walton existed in Staffordshire at an early
period, and was general in that county about the middle of the
sixteenth century, at which time the family were substantial
yeomen. Of Izaak Walton's father, Jervis Walton, nothing has
been discovered, except what occurs in the register of St Mary's
Church at Stafford, from which it may be inferred that he had a
second son named Ambrose, who was buried on the 3d March
1595-6, and who probably died young. Jervis Walton died early
in February 1596-7, and was buried at St Mary's on the nth of
that month. Of his wife, not even the name has been discovered ;
and it is doubtful whether she survived her husband. ^^^^^

At the tender age of four years, IZAAK Walton seems, there- y
fore, to have been thrown upon the world an orphan. Of his /
childhood, his guardians, or the means by which he was supported,
nothing whatever is known. He received a good, though not,
strictly speaking, a classical education, and it is likely that he was
sent to the grammar-school of his native town ; but not a single

^ " ^5931 Septem. Baptiz. fuit Isaac filius Jervis Walton xxj die mensis et anni
praedict.' — Re^iistcr of St Mary's, Stafford. The date of his birth is shown by the
preamble to his will.

' See Pedigree, No. J. in the Appendi.x. To the signature to his will he added " late
baylie of Yoxhall."

3 Some remarks on the pedigree of the Walton family will be found in note K in the
Appendix.

/;

xviii LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. [1597,

fact can be stated respecting him from the time of his baptism,
until he attained his twentieth year, when he appears to have been
a resident of London. Neither the cause nor the period of his
removal from Stafford to the metropolis has been ascertained ;
though it is probable that he was apprenticed, when very young,
to a distant relation of the name of Henry Walton, who was
haberdasher at Whitechapel.*

The earliest notice ^ of Walton after his birth is of a very inter-

* This conjecture is principally founded on the following facts. It is well known that
Izaak Walton followed the trade of a sempster or haberdasher. Henry Walton, " citizen
and haberdasher, of Whitechapel," is so described in the will of his cousin Samuel Walton,
of St Mary's, Cray, in Kent, gentleman, son of Henry Walton, citizen and cloth-worker,
of London, dated on the 2d, and proved on the 9th of April 163 1 ; and his connection
with the county of Stafford is shown by the testator's mentioning his U7icle John Walton,
of Mathfield, in that county, who may have been the father of the said Henry Walton,
of Whitechapel. An abstract of Henry Walton's will is inserted in Note L in the
Appendix, where other reasons are stated for thinking the hypothesis correct. The
records of the Haberdashers' Company do not contain the names of Henry or Izaak
Walton between 1600 and 1630. Sir John Hawkins supposes that Walton first settled
in London as a .shopkeeper in the Royal Exchange, under the patronage of Sir Thomas
Gresham, but his opinion has been shown to be erroneous. See Anthony Wood, Athen.
Oxon. ed. Bliss. I. 698.

* It is necessary to advert to an article which appeared in a weekly publication called
The Freebooter, on the i8th of October 1823, where it is stated that " there is a
manuscript in the Lansdowne Collection of the British Museum, which throws some
light upon the early life of Izaak Walton. By whom it was written, and at what precise
date, does not appear ; but the handwriting is evidently of about the time of the Revolu-
tion, and in it the author speaks of Walton as * not long since deceased, to the great grief
of all his loving friends.' "

The MS., it is said, refers very much to the interval between his birth in 1593 and
1624 : " it fixes the place of his education at Stafford, where he was born, and from
whence he removed to London, where he was regularly apprenticed to one Holmes, a
sempster, with whom he lived until he was twenty-two or twenty-three years old. Sir
J. Hawkins conjectures that he married about 1632, but on what ground it is difficult to
discover : now the author of this MS. asserts that Walton ' took a wife ' before he was
twenty-four years old, and while he held a shop near the Exchange. The date of his
removal into Fleet Street is not supplied with precision, but it is clear that ic was at least
as early as 1618, and after his marriage ; but the document is written in a rough, sketchy
style, and consists generally rather of biographical hints and anecdotes than of regular
details of events relating to any of the persons mentioned in the volume, of which the
notice of Walton forms a very small part." " The author of the MS. speaks of Walton
as a very sweet poet in his youth, and more than all in matters of love."

In consequence of this statement considerable trouble has been taken to discover the
MS. alluded to ; but no trace of it can be found in the British Museum ; and it is pre-
sumed that the article is a mere fiction. No reference is given to the volume in which
it is said to occur; and if such an interesting account of Walton really existed in a
collection so well known and so fully catalogued as the Lansdowne MSS., it is impos-
sible to suppose that it would not long since have been brought to light ; or that it would
have escaped the particular search which has been recently made for it. Be this
however as it may, little reliance could be placed on the article, even if it were genuine,
because one of the few facts .stated in it can be disproved, as it is said that Walton
married before he was twenty-four years of age, whereas his marriage took place in
December 1626, when he was about thirty-three ; and there is not the slightest cause to
suppose that he had a former wife. But the article in question is not the only doubtful
statement which has been published respecting Walton : his residence in the Royal
Exchange; his retirement in 1643 to a cottage in Staffordshire, where Dr Morley is said
to have found an asylum; and his having written the epitaph of an old servant called
"David Hookhaml" (a name very appropriately cho.sen for the purpose), who died in
1647. aetat. 63 (vide Gentleman's Magazine, Vol. C. part II. p. 296), are equally
apocryphal

JET. 4'] LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. xix

esting nature, as it is intimately connected with those literary-
pursuits, to which he is indebted for the regard of posterity. In
1619 a small poem was published, entitled "The Love of Amos
and Laura, written by S. P." which was dedicated to Walton in
the following verses :

"to my approved and much-rkspectbd friend, iz. wa.

To thee, thou more than thrice beloved friend,

I too unworthy of so great a bliss ;
These harsh-tuned lines I here to thee commend,

Thou being cause it is now as it is :
For hadst thou held thy tongue, by silence might
These have been buried in oblivious night.

If they were pleasing, I would call them thine.

And disavow my title to the verse :
But being bad," I needs must call them mine.

No ill thing can be clothed in thy verse.
Accept them then, and where I have offended,
Rase thou it out, and let it be amended. S. P." ^

It is evident that Walton either suggested various improvements
in, or had written part of the poem, whilst two of the lines prove
that it was printed at his recommendation. The poem was first
published in 161 3, six years before, together with three others;
but in the only known copy of that edition," which is unfortunately
imperfect, the verses to Walton do not occur ; and it is doubtful
whether they were omitted, or have been abstracted from that
particular copy. As there is no variation (excepting of a single
word) between the two editions, the alterations, which the author
so gratefully acknowledges, must have been made in the original
manuscript ; and as Walton was only twenty years of age in
161 3, the love of literature, which never deserted him, must have
commenced at a very early period of his life. Much light would
perhaps be thrown upon this part of Walton's career, if *' his
more than thrice beloved friend," S. P., could be identified ; but
the attempt to discover him has not been successful, though some
circumstances render it likely that the initials were those of Samuel
Purchas, the author of " The Pilgrimage," who is known to have

8 Attention was first drawn to this poem by J. Payne Collier, Esq., in the Poetical
Decameron, vol. ii. p. iii. A copy of "The Love of Amos and Laura." i8mo ed. 1619,
will be found in the British Museum. It was again printed in 410 in 1628. See Note 7.

7 In the library of Benjamin Heywood Bright, Esq. The title is "Alcilia. Pliilo-
parthens louing folly, whereunto js added Pigmalions Image: with the Loue of Amos
and Lavra and also Epigrammes by Sir J. H. and others, never before imprinted.
London for Richard Hawkins dwelling in Chancery Lane near Sarjeants Inn, 1613." 410.
At the end of Alcilia [edit. 1619] are the initials, J. C. [John Chalkhill?] Pigmalion's
Imas;e is by John Marston, and the Epigrams by Sir John Harington. Amos and
Laura in this copy is without the dedication, and is imperfect at the end.

XX LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. [1626,

written various miscellaneous pieces, besides the works which bear
his name.

Sir John Hawkins states, on the authority of a deed in his
possession, that in 1624 "Walton dwelt on the north side of
Fleet Street, in a house two doors west of the end of Chancery-
Lane, and abutting on a messuage known by the sign of the
Harrow, and that his house was then in the joint occupation of
himself and a hosier called John Mason." ^ Before that time the
celebrated Dr Donne became vicar of St Dunstan in the West ;
and an intimacy arose between Walton, who was then one of his
parishioners, and himself, which ended only with Donne's life.
The veneration which Walton entertained for his learned friend
is exhibited in the memoir which he prefixed to the publication of
his sermons, as well as in the elegy which he wrote upon his
decease.

It was probably through Dr Donne that Walton became
acquainted with Sir Henry Wotton, Dr Henry King, son of the
Bishop of London, John Hales of Eton, and some other eminent
persons, particularly divines. He was also slightly known to Ben
Jonson ; ^ he speaks of Drayton, on one occasion, as his " honest
old friend," and on another as his " old deceased friend ; " ^ and
he appears to have lived on terms of intimacy with many of the
most distinguished literary men of his age.

Such part of his time as was not occupied by his business,
seems, therefore, to have been passed in the society of men whose
acquaintance is sufficient proof of the esteem in which his talents
were held ; whilst the friendship of Donne, King, and Wotton, is
ample evidence of his moral worth. As some of the individuals
alluded to were fond of the amusement of angling, it is probable
that many of his leisure hours were passed with them in piscatory
excursions on the banks of th£ river Lea ; and his amiable and
placid temper, his agreeable conversation, and unaffected bene-
volence, inspired them with esteem and regard.

After having been more than ten years in business, Walton thought
himself justified in incurring the expense and cares of married
life. His biographers have fallen into great mistakes respecting
his wives ; for, according to Sir John Hawkins and Dr Zouch, he
was only once married ; and the latter describes him to have de-
rived an hereditary attachment to the Protestant religion, from his

8 Sir John Hawkins's Life of Walton, edited by Sir Henry Ellis, K.H., and prefixed
to the edition of the Complete Angler published by Bagster in 1815.
* Vide postea. l Vide pp. 124, 197, postea.

^T. 33.] LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON, xxl

mother having been the daughter of Edmund Cranmer, Archdeacon
of Canterbury, and niece of Archbishop Cranmer. Subsequent
writers have doubted the accuracy of these statements ; and whilst
they have indulged in various conjectures on the subject, without
arriving at the fact, every edition of "The Complete Angler,"
except the first, has contained proof of the name of his wife.^

It is not unlikely that Walton's acquaintance with Dr King
was the cause of his being introduced to the family of Floud of
Canterbury, which was closely connected with that of Cranmer,
whom King, many years afterwards, called his " old friends." *
Susannah, daughter of Thomas Cranmer of Canterbury (son of
Edmund Cranmer, Archdeacon of Canterbury, and grand-nephew
of Archbishop Cranmer), was born in August 1579, and married a
gentleman of the name of Floud,* who is presumed to have been
Robert, the son of John Floud, fifth son of Sir Thomas Floud, of
Milgate, in the parish of Bradsted, in Kent, and the descendant
of a family of considerable antiquity in Shropshire.^ He died
before his wife, leaving two sons, John and Robert Floud, and a
daughter of the name of Rachel.

Of the sons very little is known. Robert, the eldest, was of
John's College, Cambridge, where he proceeded B.A in 1627:^
he was executor to his mother in 1635 ; and wrote the com-
mendatory verses to his " dear brother-in-law, Mr Is. Walton,
on his Complete Angler," " which were prefixed to the second
edition of that work, in 1655. John Floud, the second son, was
under twenty-eight years of age at the death of his mother in
1635; and in 1655, at which time he was Master of Arts, he
also addressed verses to his " dear brother-in-law, Mr Iz. Walton,
upon his Complete Angler."

Their sister, Rachel Floud, who was probably bom about the
year 1605, was married to Izaak Walton, in the Church of St /
Mildred, at Canterbury, on the 27th of December 1626. ^ Soon /
after Walton's marriage, Mrs Floud, his wife's mother, appears t<y

2 This fact was first pointed out in the New Series of the Retrospective Review, vol.
ii. p. 341, by the Author of this Memoir.
3^ Vide postca.

4 Vide tlie accompanying pedigree of Cranmer, for which the Editor is indebted to
George Frederic Bcltz, Esq., Lancaster Her.nld.

5 Harleian MS. 1548, f. 69*, and Additional MS. 5507, in the British Museum,
e Additional MS. 5885, fo. 93.

7 To his signature to these verses the letter " C " is added, the meaning of which has
not been discovered.

8 Extract from the Register of " Maryagyes" in the parish of St Mildred, Canterbury,
for the year 1626. "Isaack Walton and Rachel Floudd wearc marytd the 27th
day of Deceniber."

xxii LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. [1631,

have removed to London ; and there is reason to believe that she
resided with them until her decease. In the following passage in
the Life of Hooker, Walton thus speaks of his connection with the
Cranmer family ; ^ and the two sisters of William Cranmer, with
whom he says he had a " happy cohabitation," were probably his
mother-in-law, Mrs Floud, and the widow of Dr Spencer :

" About forty years past (for I am now in the seventieth of my age) I
began a happy affinity with William Cranmer (now with God), grand-
nephew unto the great archbishop of that name, a family of noted prudence
and resolution. With him and two of his sisters I had an entire and free
friendship : one of them was the wife of Dr Spencer, a bosom friend, and
some time com-pupil with Mr Hooker in Corpus Christi College in Oxford,
and after president of the same. I name them here, for that I shall have
occasion to mention them in this following discourse ; as also their brother,
of whose useful abilities my reader may have a more authentic testimony
than my pen can purchase for him, by that of our learned Camden and
others. This William Cranmer and his two forenamed sisters had some
affinity and a most famiHar friendship with Mr Hooker, and had had some
part of their education with him in his house when he was parson of

^ The connections of the Cranmer family afford information about some of the persons
to whom Walton became known, and elucidate many points in his history. George, the
eldest son of Thomas Cranmer, and uncle of Mrs Walton, was born in 1578 ; he was
educated by Richard Hooker, the author of the Ecclesiastical Polity; became a scholar
of Christ Church, Oxford; and afterwards entered the service of his relation, William
Davison, secretary of state to Queen Elizabeth. Upon the fall of that statesman, Cran-
mer became secretary to Sir Henry Killigrew in his embassy to France; and, after
Killigrew's death, he accompanied Sir Edwyn Sandys in his travels into Germany and
Italy, and \vas at Florence and Vienna about November 1596. [See a letter from
Francis Davison, the eldest son of the secretary, to his father, printed in the memoir
prefixed to Davison's Poetical Rhapsody, ed. 1826, p. xxxii.J Soon after his return he
accepted the appointment of secretary to Lord Mountjoy in Ireland, but was slain in an
action with the Irish at Carlingford on the 13th of November 1600, and died unmarried
[Athen. Oxon. ed. Bliss, I. 700]. Camden and Llovd speak in strong terms of his
abilities and learning, and he is often mentioned by Walton. The second son, Thomas
Cranmer, was living in 1617. William Cranmer, the third son, who was a particular
friend of Walton's, was a merchant in London, and left a son, Sir William Cranmer,
who was governor of the Merchants Adventurers of England, and died unmarried in
his sixty-seventh year, on the 21st of September 1697. [Vide the inscription on the
monument erected to his memory in the Church of St Mildred, Canterburj-, by his
nephew and exeputor, Mr John Kenrick.J The daughters of Thomas Cranmer were
Dorothy, born in 1575, married to an individual of the name of Field (possibly Dr
Richard Field, Dean of Gloucester, the friend of Hooker, who is mentioned as "that
great schoolman " in Walton's introduction to the collected edition of the Lives of Donne,
Wotton, Hooker, and Herbert), she was living in 1635. Rachel, the second daughter,
was bom in 1577, married in 1597 John Blowfield, gentleman, and died in August 1600,
leaving one son of the name of George [M. I. in Margate Church, printed in Cozens*
Tour through the Isle of Thanet, p. 452]. Elizabeth, the third daughter, was born in
1574, married in 1592 Alexander Norwood, gentleman, and was living in 1617 ; Susan-
nah, the fourth daughter, married Mr Floud ; Jane, the fifth daughter, was born in
1580; the sixth daughter, Anne, married in 1581 John Sellar, had issue, and was living
m 1617 ; and Margaret, the youngest daughter, who was born in 1585, was living in 1604.
It is supposed that two of the daughters married persons of the names of Boote and
Parry ; but it is certain that one of them was the wife of Dr John Spencer, president of
Corpus Christi College, Oxford, the bosom friend and fellow-pupil of Hooker, and the
editor of his works. Dr Spencer died in 1614 [Athen. Oxon. ed. Bliss, II. 145], and
was probably the father of the Dr John Spencer who is described in the will of Mrs
Floud in 1635 as " her cousin."

^T. 38.] LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. xxiii

Bisbopsbourne, near Canterbury, in wbich city their good father then
lived. 'I'liey liad, I say, a great part of tbeir education with him, as myself,
since that time, a happy cohabitation with them." ^

The maiden name of the mother of Mrs Walton has not been
positively ascertained ; but it is nearly certain that she was Anne,
the sister of John Carpenter, second son of John Carpenter, of
Rye, in Sussex, who married Anne, the sister of Secretary Davison,
which alliance would explain the connection that is known to have
existed between the families of Davison and Cranmer,* find may
have induced Walton to insert " The Beggars' Song," which, he
says, in the " Complete Angler," was written by Francis Davison,
the secretary's eldest son.

On the 31st of March 163 1, Walton lost his revered friend;'
Dr Donne. About three weeks before his death, Donne, to use
Walton's words, " sent for many of his most considerable friends,
with whom he took a solemn and deliberate farewell, commending
to their considerations some sentences useful for the regulation of
their lives, and then dismissed them, as good Jacob did his sons,
with a spiritual benediction." ^ It would seem that Walton was
not one of the friends there alluded to ; but with Dr King, Dr
Winnifif (afterwards Bishop of Lmcoln), and Dr Montfort, then a
residentiary of St Paul's, he attended Donne in almost his last
hours, and received his dying wishes. This fact may be inferred
from King's letter to Walton upon his Lives of Donne, Wotton,
Hooker, and Herbert, which will be again noticed, wherein he
said, " I shall begin with my most dear and incomparable friend,
Dr Donne, late Dean of St Paul's Church, who not only trusted
me as his executor, but three days before his death delivered into
my hands those excellent sermons of his, now made public ;
professing before Dr Winniff, Dr Montfort, and, I think, yourself,
then present at his bedside, that it was by my restless importunity
that he had prepared them for the press ; together with which (as
his best legacy) he gave me all his sermon-notes, and his other
papers, containing an extract of near fifteen hundred authors.
How these were got out of my hands, you, who were the messenger
for them, and how lost both to me and yourself, is not now season-

1 Walton's Lives, ed. Zouch, 1817, vol. i. pp. 304, 305. In another place (p. 446)
Walton says, *' Dr Spencer's wife was my aunt, and sister to George Cranmer, of whom
I have spoken."

- A letter is preserved in the State P.iper Office from John Carpenter to his brother-
in-law, Secretary Davison, dated 7th October 1586, in which he speaks of his ^' brotlier
Cranmer" to whom he had written respecting hii son George, who was the George
Cranmer mentioned in the preceding page.

3 Life of Donne, ed. Zouch, L 155.

xxlV LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. [1633,

able to complain."* As the younger Donne bequeathed his father's
collection of extracts to Bishop King to be given to the son of Izaak
Walton,^ it may be inferred that Dr Donne's eldest son was the
person who desired Walton to claim his father's MSS. from King.

Some time before his death, Dr Donne caused several seals
to be made of helitropium, or blood-stone, and engraved with a
representation of the Saviour extended on an anchor, instead of
the cross — a beautiful emblem of the Christian faith — which he
presented to his most intimate friends, among whom were Sir
Henry Wotton, Dr Hall, then Bishop of Exeter, Dr Duppa,
afterwards Bishop of Salisbury, Dr King, afterwards Bishop of
Chichester, George Herbert, the author of " The Temple," ^ and
Walton. Donne adopted this device instead of the crest of his
family, a sheaf of snakes ; and the seal sent by him to Herbert
was accompanied by some verses on the subject, which, with
Herbert's reply, were printed by Walton in his Life of Donne.
They are full of the quaint conceits with which the poetry of the
time abounded, and however agreeable to the taste of that age,
they have few charms for the present. Walton always used the
seal''' that was given to him by Donne, of which an accurate
engraving will be found in a subsequent page.

Walton wrote the following Elegy upon Donne, and, with
similar tributes to his worth by Dr King, Sir Lucius Carey,
Endymion Porter, and several other persons, it was printed at
the end of an edition of Donne's Poems, in 1633, of which work
it is not improbable that Walton was the editor.^ The Elegy is
more remarkable for fervour than elegance ; but it contains a few
passages illustrative of the writer's own feelings and situation,
which render it of interest :

" Is Donne, great Donnk, deceased? then, England, say
Thou hast lost a man where language chose to stay,9

* Life of Donne, ed. Zouch, I. pp. 22-24. S Vide postea, p. Ixx.

6 Ibid. pp. 124-126.

7 It is impressed on his will, and also on that of his son.

8 The work was printed for John Marriott, and contained an address "from the Printer
to the Understanders," which does not bear sufficient resemblance to Walton's style to
justify its being positively attributed to his pen ; but it is not unlikely that the following
"Hexastichon Eibliopolae" was written by Walton, notwithstanding that the name of
the publisher is affixed to it :

" I see in his last preach 'd and printed book,
His picture in a sheet ; in 'Paul's I look,
And see his statue in a sheet of stone ;
And sure his body in the grave hath one:
Those sheets present him dead — these, if you buy.
You have him livinjj to eternity. Jo. MAR."

9 The following variations occur in the next edition of Donne's Poems, which was
printed in 1635 :

" Our Donne is dead ; England should mourn, may say
We had a man whose language chose to stay."

^T. 40.] LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. xxv

And show its' graceful power. I would not praise
That, and his vast wit (which in these vain days
Make many proud), but as they serv'd to unlock
That cabinet, his mind : where such a stock
Of knowledge was reposed, as all lament
(Or should) this general cause of discontent.

And I rejoice I am not so severe,
But (as I write a line) to weep a tear
For his decease ; such sad extrcmitie-?
May make such men as I write Elegies.

And wonder not ; for when a general loss
Falls on a nation, and they slight the Cross,
God hath rais'd prophets to awaken them
From stupefaction ; witness my mild pen,
Not us'd to upbraid the world, though now it must
Freely and boldly, for the cause is just.

Dull age ! Oh I would spare thee : but th'art worse ;
Thou art not only dull, but hast a curse
Of black ingratitude; if not, couldst thou
Part with miraculous Donne, and make no vow
For thee and thine, successively to pay
A sad remembrance to his dying day?
Did his youth scatter Poetry, wherein
Was all philosophy? Was every sin
Character'd in his Satires? made so foul
That some have fear'd their shapes, and kept their soul
Freer 2 by reading verse? Did he give days
Past marble monuments to those whose praise
He would perpetuate? Did he (I fear
The dull will doubt) these at bis twentieth ye.irt

But, more matur'd. did his full soul conceive,
And in harmonious, holy numbers weave
A Crown of sacred soiinets,^ fit to adorn
A dying martyr's brow ; or to be worn
On that blest head of Mary Magdalen.
After she wip'd Christ's feet, but not till then?
Did he (fit for such penitents as she
And he to use) leave us a Litany,
Which all devout men love, and sure it shall.
As times grow better, grow more classical ?
Did he write Hymns, for piety and wit*
Equal to those great grave Prudentius writ?
Spake he all languages? knew he all laws?
The grounds and use of physic, but, because
' Twas mercenary, waiv'd it? Went to see
That blessed place of Christ's nativity?
Did he return and preach him ? preach him so
As none but he did, or could do? They know^
(Such as were blest to hear him know) tis tnith.
Did he confirm thy aged? convert thy youth?
Did he these wonders? and is this dear loss
Mourn'd by so few T (few for so great a cross.)

But sure the silent are ambitious all
To be close mourners at his funeral ;
If not, in common pity they forbear
By repetitions to renew our care ;
Or, knowing, grief conceiv'd, conceal'd, consumes
Man irreparably (as poisou'd fumes

1 Her. 2 Safer.

3 " La Corona," a Holy Sonnet on the Crown of Thorns, printed in Donne's Poem%
ed. 1633, p. 28, and commencing thus :

" Deign at my hands this Crown of prayer and praise."
* For piety, for wit.

5 As since St Paul none did, none could ! those know
(Such as were blest to hear him) this is truth.

xxvi LIFE OF IZAAK WAL TON. [ 1 63 5,

Do waste the brain), make silence a safe way

T' inlarge the soul from these walls, mud and clay

(Materials of this body), to remain

With Donne in heaven, where no promiscuous pain

Lessens the joy we have ; for, with him, all

Are satisfied with joys essential.

My thoughts, dwell on this joy, and do not ca!l^
Grief back by thinking of his funeral ;
Forget he loved me ; waste not my sad years
(Which haste to David's seventy), fill'd with fears
And sorrow for his death ; forget his parts,
Which find a living grave in good men's hearts ;
And (for my first is daily paid for sin)
Forget to pay my second sigh for him ;
Forget his powerful preaching ; and forget
I am his convert. Oh, my frailty ! let
My flesh be no more heard ; it will obtrude
This lethargy ; so should my gratitude,
My vows? of gratitude should so be broke ;
Which can no more be than Donne's virtues spoke
By any but himself; for which cause, I
Write no Encomium, but an 8 Elegy ;
Which, as a free-will offering, I here give^
Fame, and the world, and parting with it grieve,
I want abilities fit to set forth
A monument, great as Donne's matchless worth, Iz. Wa."1

It has been remarked that in these verses Walton calls himself
Donne's " convert ; " but he perhaps meant no more than that he
had been induced by his sermons and example to take a proper
view of religion, in which sense the word is used in a preceding
line.

A second edition of Dr Donne's Poems was published in 1635,
with a portrait of the author, engraved by Marshall, from a picture
painted in 1591, when he was in his eighteenth year; and the
following lines by Walton were placed under it :

" This was, for youth, strength, mirth, and wit, that time
Most count their golden age ; but 'twas not thine.
Thine was thy later years, so much refin'd
From youth's dross, mirth and wit, as thy pure mind
Thought (like the Angels) nothing but the praise
Of thy Creator, in those last best days.
Witness this book (thy emblem) which begins
With love ; but ends with sighs and tears for sins. Iz. Wa."

Sir Henry Wotton having intended to write the life of Donne,
he requested Walton, who readily undertook the task, to collect
materials for the purpose ; but several years having elapsed with-
out any progress being made in the work, Walton reminded him
of his purpose in a " most ingenuous letter," the answer to which
is printed in the " Reliquiae Wottonianae." The date of Sir Henry
Wotton's letter to Walton, wherein he expresses a wish for his

6 Dwell on this joy, my thoughts ; oh ! do not call.
7 Flows. 8 This.

» This and the three following lines are added from the edition of 1635.
1 Donne's Poems, ed. 1633, pp. 382-384.

yET. 42.] LIFE OF IZ A AK WALTON. xxvii

" ever-welcome company " in the approaching fishing season, does
not occur ; but the allusion to Dr King's appointment as Dean of
Rochester, in which office he was kistalled on the 6th of February
1638-9,2 fixes it to the early part of the year 1639 :

'* My worthy Friend, — T am not able to yield any reason, no, not so
much as may satisfy myself, why a most ingenuous lelier of yours hath lain
so long by me (as it were in lavender) without an answer, save this only,
the pleasure I have taken in your style and conceptions, together with a
meditation of the subject you propound, may seem to have cast me into
a gentle slumber. But being now awaked, I do herein return you most
hearty thanks for the kind prosecution of your first motion, touching a just
office due to the memory of our ever-memorable friend, to whose good
fame, though it be needless to add anything (and my age considered,
almost hopeless from my pen) ; yet I will endeavour to perform my pro-
mise, if it were but even for this cause, that in saying somewhat of the life
of so deserving a man, I may perchance over-live mine own. That which
you add of Dr King (now made Dean of Rochester, and by that translated
into my native soil), is a great spur unto me : with whom I hope shortly to
confer about it in my passage towards Boughton Malherb, which was my
genial air, and invite him to a friendship with that family where his prede-
cessor was familiarly acquainted. I shall write to you at large by the next
messenger (being at present a little in business), and then I shall set down
certain general heads, wherein I desire information by your loving dili-
gence ; hoping shortly to enjoy your own ever-welcome company in this
approaching time of the Fiy and the Cork. And so I rest, your very
hearty poor friend to serve you, H. WoTTON."'

Sir Henry Wotton died in the ensuing December ; and on
Walton's hearing that Dr Donne's Sermons were about to be
published without a life of the author, he determined to supply the
deficiency. His motives for becoming Donne's biographer are
explained in so natural and pleasing a manner in his " Introduc-
tion," dated on the 15th February 1639 (1640), that it ought
not to be omitted :

** If that great master of langiinge and art, Sir Henry Wotton, the late
provost of Eton College, had lived to see the publication of tliese sermons,
he had presented the world with the author's life exactly written ; and it
was pity he did not ; for it was a work worthy his undertaking, and he fit
to undertake it : betwixt whom, and the author, there was so mutual a
knowledge, and such a friendship contracted in their youth, as nothing but
death could force a separation. And though their bodies were divided,
their affections were not : for that learned knight's love followed his
friend's fame beyond death and the forgetful grave : which he testified by
entreating me, whom he acquainted with his design, to inquire of some
particulars that concerned it, not doubting but my knowledge of the author,
and love to his memory, might make my diligence useful. I did most

' Le Neve's Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae. * Reliquis Wottonianae, ed. 1685, p. 360.

xxviii LIFE OF IZ A AK WALTON. [1640,

gladly undertake the employment, and continued it with great content,
till I had made my collection ready to be augmented and completed by
his matchless pen ; but then death prevented his intentions. "When I
heard that sad news, and heard also that these sermons were to be printed
and want the author's life, which I thought to be very remarkable ; indig-
nation or grief (indeed I know not which) transported me so far, that I
reviewed my forsaken collections, and resolved the world should see the
best plain picture of the author's life that my artless pencil, guided by the
hand of truth, could present to it. And if I shall now be demanded, as
once Pompey's poor bondman was ; — (the grateful wretch had been left
alone on the sea-shore, with the forsaken dead body of his once glorious
lord and master : and was then gathering the scattered pieces of an old
broken boat to make a funeral pile to burn it, which was the custom of the
Romans) — 'Who art thou that alone hast the honour to bury the body of
Pompey the Great ? ' so, who am I that do thus officiously set the author's
memory on fire ? I hope the question will prove to have in it more of
wonder than disdain. But wonder indeed the reader may, that I, who
profess myself artless, should presume with my faint light to show forth
his life, whose very name makes it illustrious ! but be this to the disadvan-
tage of the person represented, certain I am it is to the advantage of the
beholder ; who shall here see the author's picture in a natural dress which
ought to beget faith in what is spoken : for he that wants skill to deceive
may safely be trusted. And if the author's glorious spirit, which now )«
in heaven, can have the leisure to look down and see me, the poorest, the
meanest of all his friends, in the midst of this officious duty, confident I am,
that he will not disdain this well-meant sacrifice to his memory : for, whilst
his conversation made me and many others happy below, I know his humil-
ity and gentleness were then eminent ; and I have heard divines say, those
virtues that were but sparks upon earth, become great and glorious flames
in heaven." *

The first volume of Donne's Sermons, to which his life was
prefixed, was published in 1640 in folio, by John Marriott, pro-
bably the father of the Richard Marriott who was Walton's friend
as well as publisher for nearly half a century.

Walton's first essay as a biographer was highly applauded by
his contemporaries. King Charles the First, whose private virtues
and literary acquirements gave greater value to his opinion than
even his exalted rank, honoured it with his approbation ; ^ and
the learned and " ever-memorable " John Hales, who was styled
from his vast erudition " the walking library," told Dr King that
" he had not seen a life written with more advantage to the sub-
ject, or more reputation to the writer, than that of Dr Donne."
But the following letter to Walton from Donne's eldest son,
thanking him for having written the life of his father, and sending

* Walton's Lives ed. Zouch, I. pp. 37-40.

6 See Walton's Dedication of the reprint of the Life of Donne in 1658, postea.

^T. 47] LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. xxix

him, as a token of his gratitude, a copy of the volume of sermons ®
in which it occurred, was probably more agreeable to Walton's
feelings than the praises of the great and the learned :

"Sir, — I send this book rather to witness my debt tlian to make any
payment. For it would be uncivil in me to offer any satisfaction for that
that all my father's friends, and indeed all good men are so equally en-
gaged. Courtesies that are done to the dead being examples of so much
piety, that they cannot have their reward in this life, because lasting as
long, and still (by awaking the like charity in others) propagating the debt,
they must expect a retribution from him who gave the first inclination.
And by this circle, sir, I have set you in my place, and instead of making
you a payment, I have made you a debtor ; but 'tis to Almighty God, to
whom I know you will be so willingly committed, that I may safely take
leave to write myself, your thankful servant, Jo. DONNE.'

"From my house in Covent Garden,
24th June 1640."

Sir John Hawkins says that in 1632 Walton was living in
Chancery Lane, in a house a few doors higher up on the left hand
than the one he had previously occupied, and that he was then
described as a "sempster;" but his residence from 1628 until
1644,^ is stated in the parish books of St Dunstan's to have been
about the seventh house on the left-hand side, though, unlike
most other houses, that of Walton is not called a shop. From
those records it also appears that he filled a parish office in
December 1632; served on the grand jury in 1633; was ap-
pointed a constable on the 20th of December i'636; was again on
the grand jury in 1638; was one of the overseers of the poor,
and a sidesman on the i8th of April 1639; ^"^ ^ vestryman in
February 1640.

During Walton's residence in Chancery Lane, he experienced
severe afflictions, by the loss of no less than seven children,^

6 The book in question, together with the original letter from the younger Donne to
Walton, was in 1714 in the possession of the Rev, Dr Borradale, rector of Market Deep-
ing, in Lincolnshire. — Hawkins's Life of Walton, p. 16, note.

7 Zouch's Life of Walton, IL 122, 323.

8 Vide Appendix, Note H. The Books of the parish of St Dunstan's leave little or no
doubt that Walton always lived in Chancery Lane during that period ; but it is remark-
able that the Parish Register of that church should state that his son Henry was baptized
on the 2ist March 1633-4, *'om/ of Fleet Street,^' though as early as December 1627. as
well as so lately as October 1632, his children are said to have been baptized or buried
"out of Chancery Lane." Vide Appendix, Note H. The discrepancy would, however,
disappear if Walton then resided in the corner house of Chancery Lane, which is partly
in Fleet Street.

• Namely, Izaak, who was baptized iQth December 1627, and buried 28th March
1631 ; John, who was baptized 23d July 1629, and is presumed to have died soon after-
wards ; Thomas, baptized 20th January 1630-1, and was buried 6th March following;
Hbnrv, baptized 12th October 1632, and buried on the 17th of the same month;
Henry, baptized 21st March 1633-4, and buried 4th December 1634 ; Thomas, buried
X9th August 1637 ; and Anne, born zoth July 1640, and died nth May 164a.

XXX LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. [1640,

besides his wife and her mother, Mrs Floud, who appears to have
formed part of his family. By her will, which was dated on the
20th of April 1635, and proved on the 27th of November follow-
ing, wherein she described herself of the parish of St Dunstan in
the West, widow, she bequeathed the sum of ^150 to her son,
John Floud, to be paid to him when he attained the age of twenty-
eight ; and she ordered that in the meantime it should be disposed
of by her "loving cousin, Doctor John Spenser," and her "loving
son, Izaak Walton," who were to pay him the interest yearly for
his support ; but if he died under that age, the money was to be
equally divided between her son, Robert Floud, and her daughter,
Rachel Walton. If, however, Mrs Walton died without issue, the
whole sum was to go to her brother Robert ; but in case she left
children, each child was to be paid ;^io. She directed that her
linen at Canterbury should be divided by her sister Cranmer
between her two sons above mentioned ; and her son John Floud
was to have, besides, a silver-gilt salt and a cup. To " my son
Izaak Walton and my daughter Rachel, his wife," she bequeathed
^50, and the interest then due ; for which money she held a bond
from a Mr John Burgess. To the poor of St Mildred's, Canter-
bury, she left ;^4o, which were to be distributed by her brother
and sister Cranmer. She gave legacies of ten shillings each to
her sister Field ; to her cousin Dr Spenser, and to her cousin, his
wife ; to her brother and sister Cranmer ; to her " son Walton,"
and her " daughter Walton ; " to her two sons, Robert and John
Floud ; to her cousin, Charles Sellar ; ^ and to her friend, Mr
Leonard Browne ; 2 which several sums she said she gave them
" to buy them rings for remembrance of me, being small testi-
monies of my great love." To her two cousins, Susannah and
Elizabeth Cranmer, she left two pieces of old gold which were in
her box at Canterbury ; but her god-daughter Elizabeth was to
have " the bigger piece." The rest of her property was given to
her son and executor, Robert Floud.

Between four and five years after the death of his mother-in-law,
the heaviest calamity to which domestic life is exposed befell
Walton. On the loth of July 1640, his wife was delivered of a
daughter, but she only survived the birth of the infant about six
weeks ; and dying on the 2 2d, was buried in St Dunstan's on the

1 The son of Dr John Sellar, by her sister Ann Cranmer.

2 Mr Leonard Browne was an alderman of Canterbury in 1663 ; and by Anne,
daughter of Captain Richard Bargrave, of Patricksbourne, near that city, had two
children, Isaac and Elizabeth.— Additional MSS. in the British Museum, 5507, f 396.

^T. 47] LIFE OF IZAAK WALTOK. xxxT

25th of August following.^ That child was the only one which
survived its mother : she received the name of Anne, and died in
her second year on the i ith of May 1642.*

Walton has described an affectionate and dutiful wife, and the
happiness of the married state, with so much effect, that it is pro-
bable his own home presented him with the originals. Speaking
of Herbert and his wife, he observes : " The eternal lover of man-
kind made them happy in each other's mutual and equal affections
and compliance ; indeed so happy, that there never was any
opposition betwixt them, unless it were a contest which should
most incline to a compliance with the other's desires. And
though this begot, and continued in them, such a mutual love,
and joy, and content, as was no way defective ; yet this mutual
content, and love, and joy, did receive a daily augmentation, by
such daily obligingness to each other, as still added such new
affluences to the former fulness of these divine souls, as was only
improvable in heaven, where they now enjoy it." * His most pleas-
ing picture of wedded happiness is, however, in the Life of Bishop
Sanderson : " The Giver of all good things was so good to him,
as to give him such a wife as was suitable to his own desires ; a
wife that made his life happy, by being always content when he
was cheerful ; that was always cheerful when he was content ;
that divided her joys with him, and abated of his sorrow, by bear-
ing a part of that burden ; a wife that demonstrated her affection
by a cheerful obedience to all his desires, during the whole course
of his life ; and at his death too, for she outlived him." ®

Only one allusion to his first wife, and even that may be merely
imaginary, can be traced in Walton's works ; and however sincere
might be the compliment which is supposed to be there paid to
her, it unfortunately brings to recollection the story of the man
who had a picture painted of his first wife, and marrying again
after her decease, desired the artist to erase the face from the canvas
and to introduce the features of his new partner. In the stanzas
called " The Angler's Wish," which were first printed in the third
edition of the Complete Angler in 1 664, and which were undoubt-
edly written by Walton, he speaks of the happiness it affords
him to

" Hear my Chlora sing a song,"

> Vide Notes B and H in the Appendix.

* The following entry occurs, in Walton's own hand, in his Prayer Book, which is
noticed in the Appendix, Note B : " Our Dogliter Anne, born the loth of July 1640, died
the nth of Mi*y 1642."

* Walton's Lives, ed. Zouch, II. 67, 68, « Ibid. II. 183, 184.

xxxii LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. [1640,

which song, he adds in the margm, was the well-known one of
" Like Hermit poor : " but in the fifth edition of that work, which
appeared in 1676, '' Kemm " is substituted for " Chlora" though
the name of the song which she sings is retained. With the
alteration of one vowel, " Chlora " is the anagram of Rachel^ whilst
by Kenna he evidently meant his second wife, whose maiden name
was Ken. It is however to be observed, that as his first wife died
long before the publication of the song, it must, if she were alluded
to, have been written some years previous to its being printed ;
that the death of his second wife occurred before the change was
made in the name ; and that if the verses were composed during
the lifetime of the former, there is reason to believe that some
other alterations were made for the purpose of adapting them to
more recent circumstances.

Two more productions of Walton's pen, about this period,
remain to be noticed ; but they do not deserve much attention
from their merits or importance. In 1638 his friend, Lewis
Roberts, published " The Merchants' Map of Commerce," which
is considered to have been the earliest standard work on trade
in our language, and Walton addressed to him the following
verses, which are prefixed to it :

* If thou wouldst be a Statesman, and survey
Kingdoms for information, here's a way
Made plain and easy : fitter far for thee
Than great Ortelius his geography.

If thou wouldst be a Gentleman, in more
Than title only, this Map yields thee store
Of observations, fit for ornament
Or use, or to give curious ears content.

If thou wouldst be a Merchant, buy this book.

For 'tis a prize worth gold ; and do not look

Daily for such disbursements ; no, 'tis rare,

And should be cast up with thy richest ware.

Reader, if thou be any or all three

(For these may meet and make a harmony),

Then praise this author for his useful pains.

Whose aim is public good, not private gains. Iz. Wa. "

In 1642, George Cranmer's Letter to Hooker, concerning the
new Church disciphne, was printed as a small pamphlet, with
Camden's eulogy of the writer as a preface ; and it is likely that
it was published by Walton, because in the copy which belonged
to him he has made several corrections ; and he always expressed
great respect for Cranmer's learning and virtues.'^

Upon the death of William Cartwright, the poet, in 1643.

7 Vide p. xxii. antea. This Letter was reprinted by Walton at the end of his Life of
Hooker, in 1665.

•;et. 51.] LIFE OF IZA A fC WALTON. xxxiii

Walton's muse was again employed in commemorating the worth
of his friends ; and the following verses were prefixed to a col-
lection of that writer's poems, which was published eight years
after his decease :

" I cannot keep my purpose, but mutt give
Sorrow and verse their way ; nor will I gricTO
Longer in silence ; no, that poor, poor part
Of nature's legacy, verse void of art,
And undissembled tears, Cartwright shall have
Fixt on his hearse : and wept into his grave.

Muses, I need you not ; for grief and I
Can in your absence weave an elegy ;
Which we will do ; and often interweave
Sad looks, and sighs ; the groundwork must receive
Such characters or be adjudg'd unfit
For my friend's shroud : others have show'd their wit,
Le;)ming, and language fitly ; for these be
Debts due to his great merits : but for me,
My aims are like myself, humble and low,
Too mean to speak his praise, too mean to show
The world what it hath lost in losing thee,
Whose words and deeds were perfect harmony.

But now 'tis lost ; lost in the silent grave,
Lost to us mortals lost, till we shall have
Admission to that kingdom, where he sings
Harmonious anthems to the King of kings.
Sing on, blest soul ! be as thou wast below,
A more than common instrument to show
Thy Maker's praise : sing on, whilst I lament
Thy loss, and court a holy discontent.
With such pure thoughts as thine, to dwell with me.
Then I may hope to live and die like thee, —

To live belov'd, die mourn'd ; thus in my grave

Blessings that kings have wished, but cannot have. Iz. Wa."

Walton continued to reside in Chancery Lane until about
August 1644. He was appointed examiner of St Dunstan's on
the 27th of August 1 641 ; and in February 1644 was elected a
vestryman of that parish ; but at a vestry holden on the 20th of
August in the same year, another person was chosen, " in the
room of Izaak Walton lately departed out of this parish and
dwelling elsewhere." ^

There is some doubt respecting the place of Walton's residence
between 1644 and 1651 ; nor can it be stated with certainty \J^

whether, as has been supposed by his former biographers, he ^
retired from business on leaving Chancery Lane. The state of
the times was little favourable to commercial industry ; and as an
absorbing love of gain, the common vice of mercantile pursuits,
was the subject of his frequent censure,^ it is most probable that
he considered the small competency realised during the twenty
years he had been in trade sufficient for his future wants ; more

8 Parish books of St Dunstan in the West.

> V»de the Complete Angler, Lives of Wotton, Herbert, &c., and Walton's Will

C

V

xxxiv LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. [1644,

especially as he was then upwards of fifty years of age, a widower,
and childless.

As might be expected from Walton's early habits and associa-
tions, he adhered steadfastly during the civil wars to the throne
and the altar ; and was in every sense of the word a devoted
w^Royalist. His political and religious opinions occur in almost
every page of his writings ; and in common with other Royalists
he suffered for his fidelity to his sovereign, though his compara-
tively obscure station and peaceable disposition protected him
from heavy sacrifices. He was an intelligent, if not an impartial
witness of the great struggle which agitated the country for nearly
twenty years ; and the account which he gives of many events of
the period, in his Life of Hooker and of Sanderson, are worthy of the
attention of historians. He introduces his account of the Scotch
Covenanters, and the proceedings of the Long Parliament, in his
Life of Bishop Sanderson, by stating that, in the year 1639, when
a party of the Scots Church were desirous of reforming their kirk
government, " this nation " was " then happy and in peace, though
inwardly sick of being well;" and thus proceeds: " There were
so many chosen into the Long Parliament, that were of a conjunct
council with those very zealous and as factious reformers, as begot
such a confusion by the several desires and designs in many of
the members of that parliament (all did never consent), and at
last in the very common people of this nation, that they were so
lost by contrary designs, fears, and confusions, as to believe the
Scots and their Covenant would restore them to that former tran-
quillity which they had lost. And to that end the Presbyterian
party of this nation did again, in the year 1643, invite the Scotch
Covenanters back into England : and hither they came, marching
iwth it gloriously upon their pikes and in their hats, with this
motto, ' For the Crown and Covenant of both Kingdoms.' This
I saw and suffered by it. But when I look back upon the ruin of
families, the bloodshed, the decay of common honesty, and how
the former piety and plain-deahng of this now sinful nation is
turned into cruelty and cunning ; when I consider this, I praise
God that He prevented me from being of that party which helped
to bring in this Covenant, and those sad confusions that have
followed it. And I have been the bolder to say this of myself,
because in a sad discourse with Dr Sanderson, I heard him make
the like grateful acknowledgment." ^

Walton relates from his own knowledge the following remark-

1 Walton's Lives, ed. Zouch, II. 200, 201.

^T. 54-] LIFE OF IZAAK WAL70N. xxxv

able fact respecting the execution of Archbishop Laud, which
took place on the loth of January 1645 : "About this time the
Bishop of Canterbury having been by an unknown law condemned
to die, and the execution suspended for some days, many citizens,
fearing time and cool thoughts might procure his pardon, became
so maUciously impudent as to shut up their shops, professing not
to open them till justice was executed. This malice and madness
is scarcely credible, but I saw it." ^

This statement proves that Walton was in London in January
1645 ; and it is certain, from the following circumstance, that he
was also in the metropolis in December 1647. The House of
Commons having ordered that all professors, heads of houses, and
others in the University of Oxford, should take the covenant,
negative oath, and the ordinance for Church discipline and
worship, or be expelled, the University requested to be allowed to
state its reasons for non-compliance. A committee was appointed
to hear the arguments of the persons deputed for the purpose ;
and on the 2d of December 1647, Dr George Morley, a particu-
lar friend of Walton's, who was then canon of Christ Church,
pleaded the right of the University to be heard by counsel with
great effect.^ One of the members of the committee, whom
Walton describes as " a powerful man in the Parliament," wish-
ing to protect Morley from expulsion by the visitors who were
soon afterwards despatched to Oxford to enforce the ordinance,
sent for Walton, and, he says, "told me that he had such a love
for Dr Morley, that knowing he would not take the oaths, and
must therefore be ejected his college, and leave Oxford ; he
desired I would therefore write to him to ride out of Oxford when
the visitors came into it, and not return till they left it, and he
should be sure then to return in safety ; and that by so doing he
should, without taking any oath, or other molestation, enjoy his
canon's place in the college. I did receive this intended kindness
with a sudden gladness, because I was sure the party had a power
to do what he professed, and as sure he meant to perform it, and
did therefore write the doctor word ; to which his answer was,
that I must not fail to return my friend (who still lives) his humble
and undissembled thanks, though he could not accept of his in-
tended kindness ; for when Dr Fell (then the dean), Dr Gardner,
Dr Paine, Dr Hammond, Dr Sanderson, and all the rest of the
college were turned out, except Dr Wall, he should take it to be,

* Walton's Lives, ed. Zouch, II. 224.

* Walker's Sufferings of the Clergy, p. 130. Commons' Journals, V. 83, 2S4.

xxxvi LIFE OF IZAAK WALTOISf. [1647,

if not a sin, yet a shame, to be left behind with him only. Dr
Wall I knew, and will speak nothing of him, for he is dead." *

Walton does not mention the name of the member of the com-
mittee to whom he alludes, but the conjecture that it was Mr
Swinfen, who was one of his friends, has been confirmed by a
manuscript note in the copy of the Life of Bishop Sanderson
which he presented to that gentleman, where some one, and pro-
bably his granddaughter, has written, opposite to the preceding
paragraph, " my grandfather Swinfen." ^

Two very interesting anecdotes of Charles the First, whom
Walton elsewhere calls " the knowing and conscientious King,'*
and " the martyr for the Church," occur in the Memoir of Sander-
son, who attended his Majesty in the Isle of Wight, and had
many private conferences with him on the affairs of the Church.
" Let me here," says Walton, " take occasion to tell the reader
this truth, very fit, but not commonly known ; that in one of these
conferences this conscientious King was told by a faithful and
private intelligencer, that ' if he assented not to the parliament's
proposals, the treaty 'twixt him and them would break imme-
diately, and his life would then be in danger ; he was sure he
knew it.' To which his answer was, ' I have done what I can
to bring my conscience to a compliance with their proposals, and
cannot ; and I will not lose my conscience to save my life.' And
within a very short time after, he told Dr Sanderson and Dr
Morley, or one of them that then waited with him, that 'the
remembrance of two errors did much afflict him, which were,
his assent to the Earl of Strafford's death, and the abohshing of
Episcopacy in Scotland ; and that if God ever restored him to be
in peaceable possession of his crown, he would demonstrate his
repentance by a public confession and voluntary penance ( I think
barefoot) from the Tower of London or Whitehall to St Paul's
Church, and desire the people to intercede with God for his
pardon.' I am sure one of them, that told it me, lives still, and
will witness it. And," he adds, " it ought also to be observed
that Dr Sanderson's Lectures ' de Juramento ' were so approved
and valued by the King, that in this time of his imprisonment
and solitude he translated them into exact English, desiring Dr
Juxon (then Bishop of London), Dr Hammond, and Sir Thomas

* Walton's Lives, ed. Zouch, II. 221, 222.

5 This copy of the "Life of Sanderson" was formerly in the possession of Mr Picket^
ing, the publisher of the first edition of this work. The note was probably written by
Mrs Jervis, the only child of John Swinfen, Esq., and granddaughter of the Mr Swinfen
mentioned in the text. Mrs Jervis was the grandmother of the late Earl of St Vincent.

^T. 54.] LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON, xxxvii

Herbert (who then attended him in his restraint), to compare
them with the original. The last still lives, and has declared it,
with some other of that King's excellencies, in a letter under his
own hand, which was lately showed me by Sir William Dugdale,
king-at-arms. The translation was designed to be put into the
King's library at St James's ; but, I doubt, not now to be found
there." «

There is some difficulty in deciding whether the King made this
communication to Dr Sanderson or to Dr Morley ; but it is
obvious that Walton heard of it from the latter, because Sander-
son was dead when Walton wrote his memoir, and he expressly
says that his informant was then living.

In 1646, Francis Quarles's " Shepherds' Eclogues" were printed
by John and Richard Marriott, with an Address to the Reader
dated on the 25th of November 1645, ^^^ signed "John Marriott ; "
but no one who is acquainted with Walton's style, and especially
with " The Complete Angler," can doubt that this Address pro-
ceeded from his pen. As Quarles had been secretary to Walton's
friend Archbishop Usher, and as he was a zealous Royalist,"^ and
apparently an angler,^ he was perhaps personally known to
Walton. It is however certain that Walton was then well
acquainted with the Marriotts, and nothing is more probable
than that they should have requested him to write the prefatory
matter to a posthumous work,^ which was to appear upon their
responsibility. The internal evidence that the Address was
written by Walton is so strong that it will be inserted without
the slightest fear of its not being attributed to the real author:

"To THE Reader, — Though the author had some years before his
lamented death, composed, reviewed, and corrected these Eclogues ; yet,
he left no epistle to the reader, but only a title, and a blank leaf for that
purpose. Whether he meant some allegorical exposition of the Shepherds'
names, or their Eclogues, is doubtful : but 'tis certain, that as they are,
they appear a perfect pattern of the author : whose person, and mind,
were both lovely, and his conversation such as distilled pleasuie, know-
ledge, and virtue, into his friends and acquaintance. 'Tis confessed these
Eclogues are not so wholly divine as many of his published Meditations,
which speak 'his affections to be set upon things that are above,' and yet
even such men have their intermitted hours, and (as their company gives

fi Walton's Lives, ed. Zouch, II. 214, 217.

7 Biographia Britannica, edit. 1760, art. Quarles.

8 See several verses in his Eclogues.

9 It is said in the Biographia Britannica that Quarles died on the 8th September 1644;
but according to the following statement in Smith's ObituarV) Additional MS. 886, in
the British Museum, he died on the 19th of that month: ''Mr Francis Quanes, a
famous poet, died 19th September 1644."

xxxviii LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. [1646,

occasion) commixtures of heavenly and earthly thoughts. You are there-
fore requested to fancy him cast by fortune into the company of some yet
unknown shepherds, and you have a liberty to believe 'twas by this follow-
ing accident.

"He in a summer's morning (about that hour when the great eye of
heaven first opens itself to give light to us mortals), walking a gentle pace
towards a brook (whose spring-head was not far distant from his peaceful
habitation), fitted with angle, lines, and flies ; flies proper for that season
(being the fruitful month of May), intending all diligence to beguile the
timorous trout (with which the watery element abounded), observed a more
than common concourse of Shepherds, all bending their unwearied steps
towards a pleasant meadow within his present prospect, and had his eyes
made more happy to behold the two fair Shepherdesses, Amaryllis and
Aminta, strewing the footpaths with lilies and ladysmocks, so newly
gathered by their fair hands, that they yet smelt more sweet than the
morning, and immediately met (attended with Clora, Clorinda, and many
other wood-nymphs) the fair and virtuous Parthenia ; who, after a cour-
teous salutation and inquiry of his intended journey, told him the neigh-
bour Shepherds of that part of Arcadia had dedicated that day to be kept
holy to the honour of their god Pan ; and that they had designed her
mistress of a love-feast, which was to be kept that present day, in an arbour
built that morning for that purpose. She told him also that Orpheus
would be there and bring his harp. Pan his pipe, and Tityius his oaten
reed, to make music at this feast ; she therefore persuaded him, not to
lose, but change that day's pleasure ; before he could return an answer,
they were unawares entered into a living moving lane, made of Shepherds
and Pilgrims, who had that morning measured many miles to be the eye-
witnesses of that day's pleasure. This lane led them into a large arbour,
whose walls were made of the yielding willow and smooth beech boughs,
and covered over with sycamore leaves and honeysuckles. I might now
tell in what manner (after her first entrance into this arbour) Philoclea
(Philoclea, the fair Arcadian Shepherdess) crowned her temples with a
garland, with what flowers, and by whom it was made ; I might tell M'hat
guests (besides Astrea and Adonis) were at this feast ; and who (besides
Mercury) waited at the table, this I might tell: but may not, cannot
express what music the Gods and Wood-Nymphs made within ; and the
linnets, larks, and nightingales about this arbour during this holy day;
which began in harmless mirth, and (for Bacchus and his gang were
absent) ended in love and peace, which Pan (for he only can do it) continue
in Arcadia, and restore to the disturbed island of Britannia, and grant that
each honest Shepherd may again sit under his own vine and fig-tree, and
feed his own flock, and with love enjoy the fruits of peace, and be more
thankful.

" Reader, at this time and place, the author contracted a friendship with
certain single-hearted Shepherds, with whom (as he returned from his river
recreations) he often rested himself; and, whilst in the calm evening their
flocks fed about them, heard their discourse, which (with the Shepherds'
names) is presented in these Eclogues.

" A friend of the author's wished me to tell thee so ; this 23d of Novem-
ber 1645. Jo:Marriot."

About the year 1646 Walton again married. His second wife

^T. 53.] ' LIFE OF IZAAK W ALTON: xxxix

was Anne, the daughter of Thomas Ken, an attorney in the Court
of Common Pleas, by (his first wife) Jane, daughter of Rowland
Hughes, of Essenden, in Hertfordshire, but the exact date of his
marriage has not been discovered.^ The family of Ken 2 is of
considerable antiquity in Somersetshire, and has attained celebrity
by having produced Thomas Ken, Bishop of Bath and Wells, a
prelate distinguished for his learning, piety, and virtues.

Anne Ken could not have been less than five-and- thirty when
she gave her hand to Izaak Walton, who was seventeen years her
senior, he having then attained the mature age of about fifty-three.
Of her personal attractions nothing is known, but her talents and
acquirements were of a very superior order. She was eminently
prudent, possessed very extensive information, and was of " the
primitive piety," merits which, her husband stales, were " adorned
with true humility and much Christian meekness." Walton's
marriage tended materially to increase his happiness, and the
fifteen or sixteen years of their union seem to have been passed
in the enjoyment of every comfort.

According to Anthony Wood,^ who was well acquainted with

1 The record of the licence for their marriage cannot be found, and the registers of
Cripplegate and of St Andrew's, Holborn, having been searched without success, there
is no clue to the place where it was celebrated.

* By his first wife, above named, Thomas Ken had three children, viz., Anne, who
was born about 1610; Jane, who married John Symons ; and Thomas, who is called
"elde.st son by the first wife" in the pedigree which his father entered in the Herald's
Visitation of London in 1634, and who was buried at Cripplegate in February 1636. Mr
Ken married, secondly, Martha, daughter of Jon Chalkhill, of Kingsbury, in Middlesex,
by whom (who died in March 1641) he had John Ken, born in June 1627, who died
unmarried in 1651 ; Jon, born in July 1632, became treasurer to the East India Company,
married Rose, sister of Sir Thomas Vernon of Coleman Street, and was living in 1683 ;
Martha, born in June 1628 ; Mary, born in February 1630, who appears to have died
brfore 1638 ; Margaret, born in March 1631 ; Elizabeth, born in April 1635 ; another
Mary, born in August 1638, and died in December 1639; Martin, born in March 1641 ;
and Thomas, born at Berkhamstead in July 1637, who became Bishop of Bath. Of
Margaret, Elizabeth, and Martin Ken, nothing more has been discovered. So parti-
cular an account of the children of Thomas Ken is rendered necessary for the purpose
of correcting an error which Mr Bowles, the latest biographer of Bishop Ken, has com-
mitted by stating that he was the issue of his father's ^rj^ wife, and consequently that
he was brother of the whole blood to Mrs Walton. This mistake is the more remarkable,
because Mr Bowles professes to correct the statement of Hawkins, the grand-nephew
and executor of the bishop, who says in his memoir of the prelate, printed only two years
after his death, that he was "the youngest son of Thomas Ken, of Furnival's Inn, by
Martha, his wife." A more experienced genealogist than Mr Bowles might, however,
have been misled by finding that in the pedigree registered by his father in 1634, a
Thomas Ken is expressly stated to have been his " eldest son by the first wife," but a
comparison of dates at once shows that the bishop was a different person. The birth
of Bishop Ken is p»ved by the certificate of his admission to Winchester College ia
January 1651, when he was thirteen years old, to have taken place about 1637, whereas
if he had been the Thomas who is mentioned in the Herald's Visitation of 1634, he must
in 1651 have been at least twenty-five, because John Ken, his half-brother, and the issue
of his father's second marriage, was baptized on the 7th of January 1627. ' The certificate
of the burial in February 1636, of the Thomas Ken who was living in 1634 (which has
only lately been obtained), places the point beyond dispute.

« Athen. Oxon. by Bliss, I. 698.

xl LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. [1646,

Walton, and might be supposed to have been accurately informed
of the fact, he continued "in Chancery Lane till about 1643 (at
which time he found it dangerous for honest men to be there), he
left that city, and lived sometimes at Stafford and elsewhere, but
mostly in the families of the eminent clergymen of England, of
whom he was much beloved." The part of this statement which
fixes Walton's removal from London to the year 1643 has been
proved erroneous, because he did not leave Chancery Lane until
about August 1644 ; and as he was certainly in London in January
1645, and in December 1647, and, as will be afterwards shown,
was living there in 1650, it is extremely doubtful when, if ever, he
retired to Stafford. Very little has been discovered respecting
him between 1645 and 1650; and it does not appear that he
printed anything in that period ; but it has been confidently stated
by many writers that Walton sought seclusion and safety during
the civil wars, in a cottage of his own near to his native town of
Stafford, where he indulged in his favourite pursuits of literature
and anghng. Disgusted with public events, and grieved to the
heart at the murder of his sovereign, the destruction of the Epis-
copal Church, and the dispersion and distress of its conscientious
ministers^ among the most eminent of whom were many of his
dearest friends, he probably refrained from reflecting upon events
which he could only bitterly deplore ; but it is nearly certain that
he did not leave London, excepting for temporary and occasional
dsits to Stafford, until after the Restoration.

Mr Bowles, in his Life of Bishop Ken,'* has not only assumed
that Dr Morley was Walton's guest, at his cottage in Staffordshire,
from April 1648 until the first week in May 1649,^ but he exercised
the poetical talents for which he is justly celebrated, by imagining
a dialogue to have taken place between Morley and Walton and
his wife during Morley's visit. It is always painful to destroy the
fabrics of genius ; but biography is not a proper field for flights of
poesy; and however pleasing might be such an episode in the life of
Walton, as his having afforded shelter to the venerable Morley in his
adversity, contrasting, as it would forcibly have done, with Walton's
having passed the latter years of his life in the episcopal residences
of that eminent person, it must nevertheless be said, that there is
no evidence that Morley ever visited Walton in Staffordshire, or
that he was indebted to him for any particular services.

* Life of Ken, vol. i. p. 139. Mr Bowles' authority for stating that Morley took
shelter with Walton in Staffordshire, after his ejection from Oxford, appears to have
been derived from traditional information only. Ibid. pp. 93-95.

5 Vol. i. p. 99, et seq.

^T. 53.] LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. xli

It is remarkable that no other allusion should occur in Walton's
works to his having resided at or in the neighbourhood of Stafford,
than a line in the song called ** The Angler's Wish," before men-
tioned, wherein he says that one of his desires is to

" Loiter long days near Shawford brook,"

the name of the part of the river Sow, about five miles from Stafford,
which runs through the land bequeathed by Walton to the cor-
poration of that town for charitable purposes ; but as this wish
may have been formed at a distance from the locality, it is no
proof that the writer was habitually indulging in the gratification,
at the time when the desire for it was expressed. That Walton
visited Stafford occasionally is however indisputable.

On the nth of March 1648, and probably in London, Mrs
Walton was deUvered of a daughter, who received her mother s
name of Anne. This event is recorded in Walton's handwriting,
with many other entries of a similar nature, in a copy of his
prayer-book ® formerly belonging to Dr Hawes ; and as it is a
very interesting relic of the original owner, and has been celebrated
by Mr Bowles,''^ it is proper to state that the book in question is
a small folio edition of " The Book of Common Prayer and
Administration of the Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies
of the Church of England," printed by Barker in 1639 ; and that
it has always remained in the possession of his descendants.

Before the year 1650 Walton took a house in the parish of
Clerkenwell, where Mrs Walton gave birth to a son, who was
baptized in St James's Church by the name of ISAAK, on the loth
of February 1650; but this child lived only a few months, and
was buried at Clerkenwell on the loth of June following. ^ The
disappointment which Walton had frequently experienced in not
having a son to inherit his good name, was however happily com-
pensated in the ensuing year, when his wife was again delivered
of a boy, of whose birth the annexed account was written by his
father in the family prayer-book, which agrees with the parish
register of Clerkenwell : '^ " My last son Isaac, born the 7th of
September 165 i, at half an hoyr after two o'clock in the afternoon,
being Sunday, and so was baptized in the evening by Mr Thms-

6 " My doghter Anne borne the eleventh of March 1647." [1647-8.]

1 Life of Ken, vol. i. passim.

8 " Isaacke sonne to Isaack Walton and . . , ux. x'pened loth February 1649."—
Register of St James's, Clerkenwell.

"Isaacke sonn to Isaack NVahon, [buried] lothjune 1650." — Ibid.

•" Isaack son to Isaack Walton and . . . x'pened 7th September 1651." — Register
of the parish of Clerkenwell, which also contain>: the following entrv of a son of Gcorgt
Walton : *■' Abraham son to Geo. Walton, [buried] i8th March 1653.'*

xlii LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. [165 1,

trosji in my house in Clerkenwell, Mr Henry Davison and brother
Beauchamp were his god-fathers, and Mrs Row his god-mother."

Of the parties here mentioned all which can be said is that
Mr Thrustros was apparently the rector or curate of Clerkenwell.
Mr Henry Davison was a member of Gray's Inn, and was pro-
bably descended from Secretary Davison, the connection between
whose family and that of Cranmer has been pointed out.^
Walton's " brother Beauchamp " was James Beacham, a gold-
smith of London, and the husband of Martha Ken, Mrs Walton's
half-sister. Mrs Row was probably the wife either of the " Nat.
or R. Roe " who accompanied Walton in his fishing excursions,
and who were distantly related to him.

In 1 65 1 Walton published a collection of the writings of Sir
Henry Wotton under the title of " Reliquiae Wottonianae," with
a memoir of the author.^ He was induced to become Wotton's
biographer at the solicitation of Sir Edward Bysshe, Clarencieux
King-of-Arms, Charles Cotton, whose name is identified with *'The
Complete Angler," and Nicholas Oudert, the confidential servant
of Wotton ; and the manner in which he executed the task they
imposed upon him, fully justified their request. With his wonted
modesty he thus speaks of the motives by which he was
influenced : —

"Sir Henry Wotton was a branch of such a kindred as left a stock of
reputation to their posterity ; such reputation as might kindle a generous
emulation in strangers, and preserve a noble ambition in those of his name
and family to perform actions worthy of their ancestors. And that Sir
Heniy Wotton did so, might appear more perfectly than my pen can
express it, if, of his many surviving friends, some one of higher parts and
employment had been pleased to have commended his to posterity ; but
since some years are now past, and they have all (I know not why) forborne
to do it, my gratitude to the memory of my dead friend, and the renewed
request of one * that still lives (Mr Nicholas Oudert) solicitous to see this

1 See Note B.

2 The will of "Henry Davison, of Gray's Inn, gentleman," was dated on the 3d of
April, and proved on the 30th of May 1652. He does not appear to have been married,
but had two sisters, Jane, then the wife of Richard Cleare, and Mary, who was un-
married. A Mr Henry Neville was his executor.

3 Sir John Hawkins (p. 17) conjectures that the Life of Wotton was finished in 1644,
because in the preface to the collected edition of Walton's Lives, he saj-.s, "having;-
written these two Lives" [of Donne and Wotton], he "lay quiet twenty years" before
he commenced the Life of Hooker, which appeared in 1664. Walton is not always
exact in his dates ; but Hawkins's suggestion seems to be erroneous from Walton's stat-
ing that it was printed as fast as it was written, the MS. being supplied to the printer in
detached pieces. Vide p. xliii. postea.

4 In the first two editions of the " Reliquiae Wottonianae," this passage is so written ;
and "Mr Nic. Oudert" only is referred to ; but in the third edition, printed in 1672, it
is altered to " oi some that still live" and the marginal note is as follows : " Sir Edward
Bish, Clarentieux King-of-Arms, Mr Charles Cotton, and Mr Nic. Oudert, sometime Sir
Henry Wotton's servant."

/ET. 5S.] LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON, xliii

duty performed ; these have had a power to persuade me to undertake it ;
which truly I have not done but with some distrust of mine own abilities,
and yet so far from despair, that I am modestly confident my humble
language shall be accepted, because I present all readers with a commixture
of truth, and Sir Henry Wotton's merits."

The first edition of the " Reliquiae Wottonianae " was dedicated
to Mary Baroness Wotton, daughter of Sir Arthur Throckmorton,
and widow of Thomas, second Lord Wotton, of Marley, the
nephew of Sir Henry Wotton, and to her three daughters,
Katherine, wife of Henry Lord Stanhope (eldest son of Philip,
first Earl of Chesterfield), who was afterwards created Countess
of Chesterfield for life ; Margaret, wife of Sir John Tufton ; and
Ann, the wife of Sir Edward Hales. Walton's dedication has
the singular merit of being free from the servility and nauseous
flattery by which similar productions were then, and have since
been, too often defaced : he says,

"Since books seem by custom to challenge a dedication, justice would
not allow, that what either was, or concerned Sir Henry ^Votton, should
be appropriated to any other persons ; not only for that nearness of alliance
and blood (by which you may challenge a civil right to what was his) ;
but, by a title of that entireness of affection, which was in you to each
other, when Sir Henry Wotton had a being upon earth. And since yours
was a friendship made up of generous principles, as I cannot doubt but
these endeavours to preserve his memory will be acceptable to all that
loved him ; so especially to you, from whom I have had such encourage-
ments as hath emboldened me to this dedication. Which you are most
humbly entreated may be accepted from your very real servant, I. W."

The Life of Wotton was very hastily printed, the cause of which
is not mentioned ; and the author deprecates censure for any
incongruities by saying that " the printer fetched it so fast by
pieces from the relator, that he never saw what he had writ
altogether till it was past the press." In the memoir he apolo-
gises for some deficiencies in consequence of the State Paper Office
" having now suffered a strange alienation ; " ^ and he adds,
" indeed I want time too, for the printer's press stays for what is
written ; " but as the work ran through several editions, he was
enabled to correct the memoir ; and in no department of literature
is the opportunity of improving a first edition so necessary as in
History or Biography. Nearly every line of works of that nature
contains either a date or a fact, accuracy in which must be
attained by repeated revision ; and they can only be rendered
complete, by the introduction, from time to time, of such informa-
tion as subsequent discoveries may bring to light.

* Walton's Lives, cd. Zouch, I. 239.

xliv LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. [1651,

A congeniality of disposition and pursuits, particularly in that
of Angling,^ produced a great intimacy between Walton and
Wotton ; and he was probably the " friend " who is alluded to in
the following lines in Wotton's "Description of the Spring, on a
Bank, as I sat a-fishing : "

" The jealous Trout, that low did lie,
Rose at a well-dissembled fly :
There stood my friend, with patient skill
Attending of his trembling quill."

Two letters from Sir Henry Wotton to Walton are inserted in
the " Reliquiee Wottonianas," the dates of which are not preserved.
The first, in answer to Walton's request that he would write the
Life of their common friend Dr Donne, has been noticed ; but the
second letter, in which he sent Walton the following beautiful
hymn written at night during a severe illness, exhibits the estima-
tion in which his society and virtues were held by that eminent
person, in vivid colours:

" My worthy Friend, — Since I last saw you, I have been confined to
my chamber by a quotidian fever, I thank God, of more contumacy than
malignity. It had once left me, as I thought, but it was only to fetch
more company, returning with a surcrew of those splenetic vapours, that
are called hypochondriacal ; of which most say the cure is good company ;
and I desire no better physician than yourself. I have in one of those fits
endeavoured to make it more easy by composing a short Hymn ; and since
I have apparelled my best thoughts so lightly as in verse, I hope I shall be
pardoned a second vanity, if I communicate it with such a friend as your-
self ; to whom I wish a cheerful spirit, and a thankful heart to value it, as
one of the greatest blessings of our good God, in whose dear love I leave
you, remaining, your poor friend to serve you, H. WoTTON.'

" Oh thou great Power ! in whom I move,
For whom I live, to whom I die,
Behold me'through thy beams of love.
Whilst on this couch of tears I lie ;
And cleanse my sordid soul within,
By thy Christ's blood, the bath of sin.

No hallowed oils, no grains I need,
No rags of saints, no purging fire.
One rosy drop from David's seed.
Was worlds of seas to quench thine ire.

Oh precious Ransom I which once paid

That Consummatum est was said.
And said by him, that said no more,
But seal'd it with his sacred breath ;
Thou then that hast despung'd my score.
And dying wast the death of death,

Be to me now, on thee I call,

My life, my strength, my joy, my all. H. Wotton."

Soon after the fatal battle of Worcester, which was fought on
the 3d of September 165 1, Walton's loyalty caused him to be

6 See the Complete Angler, p. 77. 7 Ed. 1685, pp. 361, 362.

^T. 58.] LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON: xlv

intrusted with a commission of some delicacy if not danger. In
consequence of the sudden flight of the King, the baggage in his
quarters at Worcester fell into Cromwell's hands. A Collar of
^S, and a Garter which belonged to His Majesty, formed part of
the spoil, and were brought to the Parliament a few days after-
wards by Major Corbet,* who was despatched by Cromwell with
an account of his victory. The Sovereign's lesser George was,
however, preserved by Colonel Blague ; who having taken shelter
at Blore Pipe House, two miles from Eccleshall, in Staffordshire,
then the residence of Mr George Barlow, delivered the jewel into
that gentleman's custody. In the ensuing week, Mr Barlow
carried it to Robert Milward, Esquire, who was at that time a
prisoner in the garrison of Stafford, and Milward shortly after-
wards gave it into " the trusty hands " of Mr Izaak Walton, to
convey to Colonel Blague, who was confined by the Parliament
in the Tower of London. It is said that Blague, " considering
it had already past so many dangers, was persuaded it could yet
secure one hazardous attempt of his own ; " and having made his
escape from the Tower, he had the gratification of restoring the
George to its royal owner. This anecdote is related by Ashmole
in his " History of the Order of the Garter," ^ from the statement
of Blague, Milward, and Walton themselves ; and he takes that
opportunity of speaking of the latter as " a man well known,
and as well beloved of all good men, and will be better known
to posterity by his ingenious pen in the Lives of Dr Donne, Sir
Henry Wotton, Mr Richard Hooker, and Mr George Herbert."
Milward ^ was an intimate friend, if not a distant relation of
Walton's ; and the circumstance of his being a prisoner at
Stafford, when he intrusted the George to him, makes it likely
that Walton was in that town towards the end of 165 1. He,
however, appears to have been in London on the 9th of September
in that year, when his son was born ; and if he went to Stafford
soon afterwards, he must have returned to the metropolis before
Blague made his escape from the Tower. Walton seems to have
resided at Clerkenwell from 1650 urrtil after the return of Charles
the Second, as " Mr Walton " is recorded to have contributed to
the poor's rate in November 1661, which is the last time the
name occurs in the books of that parish.^

8 Commons' Journals.

» P. 228. See also Plot's History of Staffordshire and Boscobel.

1 This gentleman was the cousm of Charles Cotton, and of Sir Aston Cokaine. Cokaine
addressed several poems to him, which are printed in a collection of his works, entitled
"Small Poems of Divers Sorts, written by Sir Aston Cokaine." London, izmo, 1658.

' See the Appendix.

xlvi LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. [1653,

Some commendatory verses by Walton were prefixed to his
" worthy friend " Edward Sparke's " Scintillula Altaris, or a Pious
Reflection on Primitive Devotion, as to the Feasts and Fasts of
the Christian Church," which was printed in 1652 ; but they are
inferior to his other compositions of that description, and the only
lines deserving of being quoted are :

" Each Saint's day
Stands as a land-mark in an erring age,
To guide frail mortals in their pilgrimage
To the Celestial Canaan ; and each fast.
Is both the soul's direction, and repast."

Walton attained his sixtieth year in 1653, and then pubhshed
the first edition of " The Copiplete Angler/^ a work to which he is
more indebted for the admiration of posterity than to his biogra-
phical labours. It cannot be necessary to enter into a critical
disquisition on a work so universally known as " The Complete
Angler," which, whether considered as a treatise upon the art of
Angling, or as a beautiful pastoral, abounding in exquisite descrip-
tions of rural scenery, in sentiments of the purest morality, and
in an unaffected love of the Creator and His works, has long
ranked amongst the most popular compositions in our language ;
but some observations upon its construction and merits will be
submitted, when adverting to the second edition.

The first edition differs materially from all the others, as the
dialogue is between two persons only, " Piscator " and " Viator,"
and the extracts from books are less frequent. Long before the
appearance of " The Complete Angler," numerous works had
been published, in which the subjects of them were related in
dialogue ; and the plan appears to have been a favourite one with
the writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. As might
be supposed, Walton framed his treatise upon one of those
examples ; and there is reason to believe that he adopted as
his model " A Treatise on the Nature of God," a small volume
first printed in 1599, which not only commences in nearly the
identical words of, but bears, in other places,^ a great similarity
to " The Complete Angler ; " and there is so much resemblance
between many passages of Walton's work and Heresbachius'
Husbandry by Gcoge, which was first printed in 1577,* as to
render it probable that he was indebted to that work for some of
his ideas. Though intended to be a practical Treatise on Angling,
Walton seems to have been aware that the subject itself was not

» See "The Complete Angler," Note, p. i.

* This work was reprinted in 1586, and again in v

614.

^T. 60.] LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON, xlvii

sufficiently interesting ; and he therefore wisely introduced a
variety of topics calculated to attract the general reader. He
says he did not undertake the task to please himself; but in
writing of it he " had made a recreation of a recreation ; " and
that to prevent its reading "dull and tediously, he had in
several places mixt some innocent mirth," which " innocent
mirth," he adds, " I am the willinger to justify, because the whole
discourse is a kind of picture of my own disposition, at least of
my disposition in such days and times as I allow myself when
honest Nat. and R. R. [Roe] and I go a-fishing together."
Walton justly ridiculed the idea of making an angler by a book,
but suggests that most of those who love Angling "may here
learn something that may be worth their money,^ if they be not
needy: and if they be, then my advice is that they forbear, for I
write not to get money, but for pleasure ; and this discourse boasts
of no more, for I hate to promise much and fail."

He dedicated the work to John Offley, of Madely Manor, in
Staffordshire, Esquire, " his most honoured friend " who, there is
some grounds for supposing, was remotely related to him. Mr
Offley was a very skilful angler, and Walton speaks of his " former
favours " to him. Sir Henry Wotton told Walton " that his inten-
tions were to write a discourse of the art, and in praise of Angling;"
and he adds, " doubtless he had done so,* if death had not pre-
vented him ; " thus in " The Complete Angler," as in the *' Life
of Donne," Walton accomplished an object which had been
contemplated by Wotton ; and it is extremely likely that in their
many conversations whilst fishing, remarks were made by that
accomplished person, of which he availed himself ; a suggestion
which the frequent allusions to him in the work render the more
probable.

On the 1 8th of May 1653, Walton proved the will of his father-
in-law, Mr Thomas Ken, who died on the 12th of June 1651.'^
That instrument was dated on the 12 th of April 1651, and it
appears that Mrs Walton received her share of her father's
property on her marriage, as Ken bequeathed her only five
shillings, because he had " heretofore bestowed a portion sufficient
upon her." Her sister Jane married a person of the name of John
Symonds, from whom she was then separated, as her father states

* The price of the first edition of " The Complete Angler " was eighteenpence.

* See the Dedication of "The Complete Angler."

7 "1651, June 12, Mr Thomas Ken, of Furnival's Inne. the sheriff's attorney
accomptant, died." Vide Smith's Catalogue of persons deceased. Additional MS. 886,
in the British Museum.

I^f

/

xiviii LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. [1655,

that he had maintained her " with diet and lodging and other
necessaries for the space of twelve years and above, to my great
charges, and for whose sake I have bestowed a place upon her
husband in the circuit of South Wales, to the value of forty marks
per annum or thereabouts, which I conceive to have been a greater
portion for her than my estate could afford." He, however, left
her forty shillings, which were to be paid " whensoever her said
husband shall take her away with him from London to live with
him as it is fit." The rest of his property he ordered to be equally
divided among his four other children, Martha, the wife of James
Beacham, Jon Ken, Jane Ken, and Thomas Ken, all of whom
were the issue of his second marriage with Martha Chalkhill ; and
he appointed his sons-in-law, Izaak Walton and James Beacham,
his executors.

In the ensuing year, 1654, the second edition of the " Reliquiae
Wottonianse " was published, in which Walton made large addi-
tions : the apology for inaccuracies is omitted, and he had
evidently reviewed the first impression with great care. His next
publication was in 1655, when he printed the second edition of
" The Complete Angler," in which he made so many important
alterations, that much of his time in the two preceding years must
have been employed in revising that work.

In the title, the " Discourse " was stated to include " Rivers
and Fish-ponds," as well as Fish and Fishing. Very shght varia-
tions occur in the Dedication ; but several passages were added
to the Address to the Reader, wherein he says " that in this
second impression there are many enlargements, gathered both
by my own observation and the communication of my friends."
The contributions of his friends were not, however, confined to
the body of the work, for seven of them addressed complimentary
verses to the author, which were prefixed to this edition. These
verses were written by his two brothers-in-law, John and Robert
Floud; the Rev. Christopher Harvie, author of " The Synagogue;"
the Rev. Thomas Weaver, author of "Songs and Sonnets;"
Edmund Powel, apparently a clergyman of Stafford ; Henry
Bagley or Bailey, a clergyman ; and Alexander Brome, who was
a poet, and, like Walton's friend, Dr Morley, one of Ben Jonson's
twelve adopted sons. No date occurs to any of the verses ; but
it is remarkable that in the third and subsequent impressions of
*' The Complete Angler," Powel's lines " To the readers of my
most ingenious friend's book, the Complete Angler," are dated on
the " 3d of April 1650," whence it may be inferred that the work

JET. 62.] " LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON, xlix

was written and prepared for the press nearly three years before
it was published. This circumstance may perhaps be attributed
to the unsettled state of the times, the public mind being then too
violently agitated by political affairs to feel interested in works
unconnected with passing events, and least of all in a treatise on
the tranquil amusement of Angling. In the fifth edition, the date
of 1 649 is appended to Weaver's verses ; but as they were ad-
dressed not to the readers of the book, but " to my dear friend
Mr Iz. Walton, in praise of Angling, which we both love," it
admits of no inference as to the time when the treatise was
written.

Some of the lines in the verses of the two Flouds are deserving
of notice. The elder, John Floud, has well described " The Com-
plete Angler " by saying that

" There's none so low
Or highly learn'd, to whom hence may not flow.
Pleasure and information : both which are
Taught us with so much art, that I might swear
Safely, the choicest critic cannot tell,
Whether your matchless judgment most excel
In Angling or its praise ; where commendation
First charms, then makes an art a recreation."

Robert Floud's remarks on the resemblance between Walton and
his work, is the testimony of an intimate acquaintance to a fact,
of which every reader of the book must be conscious ; and which
is corroborated by Walton's saying, that the " whole discourse is
a kind of picture of my own disposition : "

*' This book is so like you, and you like it.
For harmless mirth, expression, art, and wit,
That I protest ingenuously, 'tis true,
I love this mirth, art, wit, the book, and you."

The Dialogue, which is extended by one hundred pages of new
matter, is sustained by three, instead of two persons ; namely, an
angler, a hunter, and a falconer, under the names of Piscator,
Venator, and Auceps, " Viator," who was tshe second individual
of the dramatis personae of the first edition, disappears ; and the
conversation commences with remarks from each of the inter-
locutors in praise of his own pursuit Tottenham Hill is still the
place, and the morning of May-day the time of their meeting ;
and the following account of the plan of the work may be con-
sidered interesting, because the directions respecting Angling, and
the numerous quotations and songs which are introduced, divert
the reader's attention from the regular order of events.

Piscator, in ascending Tottenham Hill on a fishing excursion,
overtakes Venator a huntsman, and Auceps a falconer, and after

d

1 ) LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. [1655,

the usual compliments he expresses a hope that they were going
towards Ware. Venator replies that he is going to the Thatched
House in Hoddesden, where he has appointed some friends to
meet him ; and Auceps says he will accompany them as far as
Theobalds, and there leave them, as he must then turn off to a
friend's house, who mews a hawk for him, which he wishes to see.
They agree to proceed together, and Venator observes, in answer
to Piscator, that a little business and more pleasure was the occa-
sion of his journey, for after devoting that day to the former, he
intended to bestow another day or two in hunting an otter ; on
which Piscator remarks that " his fortune has answered his
desires," as he wished also to employ a day or two in destroying
*' those villanous vermin " the ptters, which he " hated perfectly,
because they loved fish so well ; " and adds, that in his opinion
all men who "keep otter-dogs ought to have pensions from the
Commonwealth," which expression is changed in the third edition,
printed after the Restoration, to "pensions from the King."
Venator slily replies, " But what say you to the foxes of the
Nation, would not you as wilHngly have them destroyed, for
doubtless they do as much mischief as otters do ? " — a political
^allusJon. of which the whole point cannot now be understood ;
buPPiscator waives the subject by rejoining, " Oh, Sir, if they do,
it is not so much to me and my fraternity as those vile vermin the
otters do." On the hunter's and falconer's speaking slightingly
of Angling, Piscator observes with much justice, "You know,
Gentlemen, 'tis an easy thing to scoff at any art or recreation ; a
little wit mixed with ill-nature, confidence, and malice, will do it,
but though they often venture boldly, yet they are often caught
even in their own trap." This produces a challenge that each
shall say what he can in favour of his own pursuit ; and a disser-
tation accordingly follows upon Hunting, Hawking, and Anghng.
Piscator's observations are, as might be expected, the longest ;
and his discourse is illustrated by passages from numerous authors
ancient and modern, which, if not always entertaining, show a
considerable extent of reading. He also introduced a poem
written by Sir Henry Wotton when above seventy years of age,
" as he sat quietly in a summer's evening on a bank a-fishing ; "
and Walton poetically observes, that it "ghdes as soft and
sweetly from his pen, as that river does now by which it was then
made."

Auceps leaves them at the park wall of Theobalds ; and when
Piscator and Venator arrive at the Thatched House, they refresh

z-

/ET. 62.] LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON.

themselves with a "civil cup to all the otter-hunters" whom
Venator was to meet on the next day, and " to all lovers of
Angling." Venator then proposes that Piscator should meetf him
on the morrow, and spend that day in otter-hunting ; upon which
condition he would pass the two ensuing days with Piscator, and
" do nothing but angle and talk of fish and fishing." Piscator
readily agrees, and his promise to be at Amwell Hill before sun-
rise the next morning terminates the proceedings of the First
day.

Piscator and Venator meet at the appointed hour, on the 2d of
May, on Amwell Hill. They join the other huntsmen : the otter
is caught ; and a conversation ensues respecting those animals,
Piscator begs for a young otter for the purpose of taming it ; and
one of the huntsmen suggests that they shall " go to an honest
alehouse, where they may have a cup of good barley wine, sing "
a well-known song called " * Old Rose,' and all of them rejoice
together." Venator invites Piscator to accompany them ; and .
proposes that he shall pay his expenses for that night, and that
Piscator shall pay his to-morrow, to which he consents ; and the
Second day closes. 1

On the next morning, the 3d of May, the dialogue commences j^ (^
abruptly by Venator saying, " Well now, let's go to your sport of 'y
Angling : " Piscator conducts him to a proper place ; and in reply
to Venator's questions of " How he liked their host and the com-
pany ? Was not their host a witty man ? " says, " And now to
your question concerning your host, to speak truly he is not to me
a good companion : for most of his conceits were either Scripture
jests, or lascivious jests, for which I count no man witty ; for the
Devil will help a man that way inclined to the first, and his own
corrupt nature (which he always carries with him) to the latter.
But a companion that feasts the company with wit and mirth and
leaves out the sin (which is usually mixt with them) he is the
man ; and indeed such a companion should have his charges
borne, and to such a company I hope to bring you this night ;
for at Trout Hall, not far from this place, where I purpose to
lodge to-night, there is usually an angler that proves good com-
pany. But for such discourse as we heard last night, it infects
others, the very boys will learn to talk and swear as they heard
mine host, and another of the company that shall be nameless ;
well, you know what example is able to do, and I know what the

lii LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. [1655,

poet ^ says in the like case, which is worthy to be noted by all
parents and people of civility : —

^ * Many a one

Owes to his country his religion :
And in another would as strongly grow,
Had but his nurse or mother taught him so/

" This is reason put into verse, and worthy the consideration of
a wise man. But of this no more, for though I love civility, yet
I hate severe censures. I'll to my own art, and I doubt not but
at yonder tree I shall catch a chub, and then we'll turn to an
honest cleanly hostess that I know right well, rest ourselves there,
and dress it for our dinner."

Piscator catches a chub, and conducts Venator " to an honest
alehouse, where they would find a cleanly room, lavender in the
windows, and twenty ballads stuck about the wall," the hostess
of which, who was " cleanly, and handsome, and civil," altered
from the first edition, where she is called "both cleanly and
conveniently handsome," had dressed many for him " after his
fashion," and he would *' warrant it good meat." They dine,
and inspired by their good cheer, Venator solicits permission,
henceforth, to call Piscator " Master," and " that really he may
be his Scholar ; " for he adds, " you are such a companion, and
have so quickly caught, and so excellently cooked this fish, as
makes me ambitious to be your scholar." Piscator replies,
" Give me your hand, from this time forward I will be your
Master, and teach you as much of this art as I am able ; and
will, as you desire me, tell you somewhat of the nature of most
of the fish that we are to angle for, and I am sure I both can and
will tell you more than any common Angler yet knows."

They return to their amusement, when Piscator describes the
manner of fishing for and dressing chubs ; and desires Venator
to take his rod whilst he sits down to mend his tackUng. Venator
succeeds in catching a chub, and is rewarded by his master's
praises. The discourse then turns upon trout ; and one being
caught, they set out on their return to the house where they had
dined, where they intend to sup and meet Piscator's "brother
Peter, a good angler and a cheerful companion," as well as a
friend whom he brought with him. It is evident that the word

8 The poet alluded to, from whom these lines are quoted, has not been discovered,
but the following imitation of them by Dryden has been pointed out by an intelligent
correspondent to the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xcix. part II. p. 112 :
" By education most have been misled,
So they believe, because they were so bred ;
The priest continues what the nurse began,
And thus the child imposes on the man.

^T. 62.] LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. liii

" brother " was merely used to denote a member of the fraternity
of Anglers, as Piscator speaks of his friend's wishing to be " a
brother of the angle ; " and Peter shortly afterwards drinks to his
" young brother's good fortune " on the morrow. A conversation
ensues, in which the house and the manner they intend to spend
the evening are described in very natural and pleasing language :

" Venator. On my word, Master, this is a gallant trout, what shall we
do with him ?

"Piscator. Marry, e'en eat him to supper: we'll go to my hostess,
from whence we came ; she told me as I was going out of door, that my
brother Peter, a good angler, and a cheerful companion, had sent word he
would lodge there to-night, and bring a friend with him. My hostess has
two beds, and I know you and I may have the best ; we'll rejoice with my
brother Peter and his friend, tell tales, or sing ballads, or make a catch, or
find some harmless sport to content us, and pass away a litde time without
offence to God or man.

"Venator. A match, good Master, let's go to that house, for the linen
looks white, and smells of lavender, and I long to lie in a pair of sheets that
smell so : let's be going, good Master, for I am hungry again with fishing."

Before they return, Piscator catches another logger-headed
chub, which he hangs on a willow twig, and then indulges in the
following observations, which are remarkable for their charming
simplicity, and, to use Sir Walter Scott's expression, for their
" Arcadian language : " " Let's be going. But turn out of the
way a little, good Scholar, towards yonder high hedge. We'll
sit whilst this shower falls so gently upon the teeming earth, and
gives a sweeter smell to the lovely flowers that adorn the verdant
meadows. Look under that broad beech-tree, I sat down when
I was last this way a-fishing, and the birds in the adjoining grove
seemed to have a friendly contention with an echo, whose dead
voice seemed to live in a hollow cave, near to the brow of that
primrose-hill : there I sat viewing the silver streams glide silently
towards their centre, the tempestuous sea ; yet sometimes opposed
by rugged roots, and pebble stones, which broke their waves, and
turned them into foam ; and sometimes viewing the harmless
lambs, some leaping securely in the cool shade, whilst others
sported themselves in the cheerful sun ; and others were craving
comfort from the swollen udders of their bleating dams. As I
thus sat, these and other sights had so fully possessed my soul,
that I thought, as the poet has happily expressed it :

* I was for that time lifted above earth ;
And possest joys not promis'd in my birth.'

" As I left this place, and entered into the next field, a second
pleasure entertained me, 'twas a handsome milkmaid, that had

liv LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. [1655,

cast away all care, and sung like a nightingale ; her voice was
good, and the ditty fitted for it ; 'twas that smooth song which
was made by Kit Marlowe, now at least fifty years ago, and the
milkmaid's mother sung an answer to it, which was made by Sir
Walter Raleigh in his younger days. They were old-fashioned
poetry ; but choicely good : I think much better than that now
in fashion in this critical age. Look yonder, on my word, yonder
they be both a-milking again ; I will give her the chub, and per-
suade them to sing those two songs for us."

A dialogue then takes place between Piscator and the milk-
women :

** Piscator. God speed, good woman, I have been a-fishing, and am
going to Bleak Hall to my bed, and having caught more fish than will sup
myself and friend, will bestow this upon you and your daughter, for I use
to sell none.

"Milk- WOMAN. Marry, God requite you, Sir, and we'll eat it cheer-
fully ; and if you come this way a-fishing two months hence, a gi-ace of
God I'll give you a sillabub of new verjuice, in a new made hay-cock, and
my Maudlin shall sing you one of her best ballads, for she and I both love
all anglers, they be such honest, civil, quiet men ; in the meantime will
you drink a draught of red cow's milk, you shall have it freely ?

"Piscator. No, I thank you, but I pray do us a courtesy that shall
stand you and your daughter in nothing, and we will think ourselves still
something in your debt ; it is but to sing us a song, that was sung by you
and your daughter when I last passed over this meadow, about eight or
nine days since.

"MiLK-woMAN. What song was it, I pray? was it 'Come, shepherds,
deck your heads,' or * As at noon Dulcina rested,' or * Philida flouts me ' ?

"Piscator. No, it is none of these : it is a song that your daughter
sung the first part, and you sung the answer to it.

"MiLK-woMAN. Oh, I know it now ; I learned the first part in my
golden age, when I was about the age of my daughter; and the latter part,
which indeed fits me best, but two or three years ago, when the cares of
the world began to take hold of me ; but you shall, God willing, hear them
both. Come, Maudlin, sing the first part to the gendemen with a merry
heart, and Pll sing the second when you have done."

The milkmaid accordingly sings, and is answered by a song from
her mother: Piscator thanks them, and Venator appears to have ex-
pressed his gratitude in a more affectionate manner than his sedate
companion approved, for his Master observes, " Scholar, let Maudlin
alone, do not you offer to spoil her voice. Look, yonder comes my
Hostess to call us to supper. How now.? is my brother Peter come ?"

"Hostess. Yes, and a friend with him, they are both glad to hear you
are in these parts, and long to see you, and are hungry, and long to be at
supper."

Piscator and Venator then meet " brother Peter," who intro-

^T. 62.] LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. Iv

duces them to Coridon, "an honest countryman, a most down-
right, witty, merry companion, that met me here purposely to eat
a trout, and to be pleasant."

They sup off the trout which Piscator had caught, with such
other meat as the house afforded, moistening their cheer with
" some of the best barley wine, the good liquor that our good
honest forefathers did use to drink of, which preserved their health
and made them live so long, and to do so many good deeds."

During their conversation Peter thus eulogised Piscator, " On
my word this trout is in perfect seasofH ComepI~tiT?[rnryou, and
here is a hearty draught to you, and to all the brothers of the
Angle wheresoever they be, and to my young brother's good
fortune to-morrow; I will furnish him with a rod, if you will
furnish him with the rest of the tackling, we will set him up and
make him a fisher ; and I will tell him one thing for his encourage-
ment, that his fortune hath made him happy to be a Scholar to
such a Master ; a Master that knows as much both of the nature
and breeding of fish as any man ; and can also tell him as well
how to catch and cook them, from the minnow to the salmon, as
any that I ever met withal." To which Piscator replied, " Trust
me, brother Peter, I find my Scholar to be so suitable to my own
humour, which is to be free and pleasant, and civilly merry, that
my resolution is to hide nothing that I know from him."

They then agree to sing several songs and catches, which
Venator says, " shall give some addition of mirth to the company,
for we will be merry," upon which Piscator observes, " "Tis a
match, my masters; let's even say grace, and turn to the fire,
drink the other cup to wet our whistles, and so sing away all
sad thoughts. Come on, my masters, who begins ? I think it
is best to draw cuts, and avoid contention." The lot falls to
Coridon, who begins, for "he hates contention." The song is
much admired by Piscator, who says, " Well sung, Coridon, this
song was sung with mettle and was choicely fitted to the occasion ;
I shall love you for it as long as I know you : I would you were
a brother of the angle, for a companion that is cheerful, and free
from swearing and scurrilous discourse, is worth gold. I love
such mirth as does not make friends ashamed to look upon one
another next morning ; nor men (that cannot well bear it) to
repent the money they spend when they be warmed with drink :
and take this for a rule, you may pick out such times and such
companies, that you may make yourselves merrier for a little,
n a great deal of money ; for 'tis the company and not the

f

^

L

Ivi LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. [1655,

charge makes the feast : and such a companion you prove, I
thank you for it. But I will not compliment you out of the debt
that I owe you, and therefore I will begin my song, and wish it
may be as well liked."

Piscator is also rewarded by the applause of his companions for
his song, and after the following dialogue they separate for the
night :

*' CoRiDON. Well sung, brother, you have paid your debt in good coin,
we Anglers are all beholding to the good man that made this song. Come,
hostess, give us more ale, and let's drink to him : and now let's every one
go to bed, that we may rise early ; but first let's pay our reckoning, for I
will have nothing to hinder me in the morning, for my purpose is to prevent
the sun-rising.

"Peter. A match: Come, Coridon, you are to be my bedfellow: I
know, brother, you and your scholar will lie together ; but where shall we
meet to-morrow night ? for my friend Coridon and I will go up the water
towards Ware.

" Piscator. And my scholar and I will go down towards Waltham.

** Coridon. Then let's meet here, for here are fresh sheets that smell
of lavender ; and I am sure we cannot expect better meat, or better usage
in any place.

"Peter. 'Tisamatch. Good-night to everybody."

The Fourth day is thus introduced :

"Piscator. Good-morrow, good hostess, I see my brother Peter is
still in bed. Come, give my scholar and me a morning-drink, and a bit of
meat to breakfast, and be sure to get a dish of meat or two against supper,
for we shall come home as hungry as hawks. Come, scholar, let's be
going.

"Venator. Well now, good master, as we walk towards the river,
give me direction according to your promise, how I shall fish for a trout.

" Piscator. My honest scholar, I will take this very convenient
opportunity to do it."

Then follow Piscator's directions on the subject, which occupy
the time until past five o'clock, when their walk is stopped by the
river, on the bank of which they sit, under a honeysuckle hedge,
whilst Piscator finds a line to fit the rod which Peter had lent
Venator. They agree to fish until nine, and then go to breakfast.

After fishing for some time they " say grace and fall to break-
fast," and Piscator asks, " What say you, scholar, to the provi-
dence of an old angler 1 Does not this meat taste well 1 and was
not this place well chosen to eat it ; for this sycamore-tree will
shade us from the sun's heat?" Their meal suggests reflections
on temperance in eating ; and Piscator proceeds with his instruc-
tions, but as a heavy shower falls they again take shelter under
the sycamore-tree. When it had done raining, Piscator called his

II

^T. 62.] LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. Ivii

scholar's attention to the appearance of the fields, and introduced
Herbert's poem, which is scarcely exceeded in beauty and pathos
by any similar composition in our language, commencing —

" Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright.
The bridal of the earth and sky,
Sweet dews shall weep thy fall to-night.
For thou must die."

Venator's praise of these verses induces him to repeat others by
Christopher Harvie, on the Book of Common Prayer, which he
says his scholar will like the better because the author " is a friend
of mine, and I am sure no enemy to Angling. ' Their rods during'
this time are " left in the water to fish for themselves," which, he
says, is " like putting money to use, for they work for the owners
when they do nothing but sleep, or eat, or rejoice." " You know,'*
he observes, " that we have during this last hour, sat as quietly
and as free from cares under this sycamore, as Virgil's Tityrus
and his Melibceus did under their broad beech-tree : no life, my
honest scholar, no life so happy and so pleasant, as the life of a
well-governed angler ; for when the lawyer is swallowed up with
business, and the statesman is preventing or contriving plots, we
sit on cowslip banks, hear the birds sing, and possess oflrselves in
as much quietness as these silver streams which we now see glide
by us."

Piscator then enlivens their conversation by relating an anecdote
of some gipsies, and recites a song that was written about forty
years before by Francis Davison, which he says he heard sung by
one of the said gipsies, " the youngest and veriest virgin of the
company." They afterwards go to their rods, and fish until the
rain again drives them to the sycamore-tree ; when Piscator con-
tinues his observations on his art, and adverts to the prevalent
fashion of women placing patches on their faces, of which custom
he does not seem to disapprove : he says that " when the trout or
salmon is in season, they have at their first taking out of the water
(which continues during life) their bodies adorned, the one with
such red spots, and the other with such black or blackish spots,
which gives them such an addition of natural beauty, as I (that
am yet no enemy to it) think, was never given to any woman by
the artificial paint or patches in which they so much pride them-
selves in this age."

After a protracted dissertation Piscator becomes somewhat
exhausted, as " he had almost spent his spirits with talking so
long ; " and apprehending that his discourse " grows both tedious

Iviu LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON, [1655,

and tiresome," asks his scholar if he has nothing to reheve it ?
" Shall I," he demands, " have nothing from you that seem to
^^ have both a good memory and a cheerful spirit ? " Venator offers
to repeat Dr Donne's verses, " Come live with me and be my
love : " and it is evident that Walton was aware of the general
ruggedness and want of harmony of Donne's poems, for he makes
Venator say, " I will speak you a copy of verses that were made
by Dr Donne, and made to show the world that he could make
soft and smooth verses, when he thought them fit and worth his
labour ; and I love them the better because they allude to rivers,
and fish, and fishing."

As it " rains still," and because the angles were, as Venator had
remarked, "as money put to use, that thrive when we play,"
Piscator says he will requite his scholar for these verses by some
observations on the eel, which are followed by others on the
barbel. They then take up their rods, and Piscator proposes that
they shall proceed " towards their lodging, drink a draught of red
cow's milk as they go, and give pretty Maudlin and her mother a
brace of trouts for their supper." After meeting the milk- women,
Piscator describes the method of fishing for gudgeon ; but their
conversation is interrupted by Peter and Coridon ; and Piscator
promises that, as he and his scholar fish and walkjLhe_next day
t^o wards London, he will tell him anything which he might have
forgotten. The party compare their success, but Peter says that
during the rain he and Coridon had taken shelter in an alehouse,
where they played at shovel-board half the day. The evening was
spent like the preceding ; and after supper they had what Venator
calls " a gentle touch at singing and drinking, but the last with
moderation." Piscator's song, beginning " Oh, the gallant fisher's
life," was, it appears, partly composed by Walton ; for Venator
says, " Gentlemen, my master left me alone for an hour this day,
and I verily beUeve he retired himself from talking with me, that
he might be so perfect in this song ; was it not, master ? " to
I which Piscator replies, " Yes, indeed, for it is many years since I
\ learned it, and having forgotten a part of it, I was forced to patch
\ it up by the help of my own invention, who am not excellent at
\ poetry, as my part of the song may testify."

/ Venator's remarks on the blessing of a contented mind and on
the beauties of nature are peculiarly pleasing, and are a faithful
reflection of Walton's disposition : " But, Master, first let me tell
you, that that very hour which you were absent from me, I sat
down under a willow-tree by the water-side, and considered what

^T. 62.] LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. Kx

you had told me of the owner of that pleasant meadow in which
you then left me, that he had a plentiful estate, and not a heart
to think so, that he had at this time many lawsuits depending, and
that they both damped his mirth, and took up so much of his time
and thoughts, that he himself had not leisure to take the sweet
content that I, who pretended no title, took in his fields, for I
could there sit quietly, and looking on the water, see fishes leaping
at flies of several shapes and colours ; looking on the hills, could
behold them spotted with woods and groves ; looking down the
meadows, could see here a boy gathering lilies and ladysmocks,
and there a girl cropping culverkeys and cowslips, all to make
garlands suitable to this pleasant month of May ; these and many
other field-flowers so perfumed the air, that I thought this meadow
like the field in Sicily (of which Diodorus speaks) where the per-
fumes arising from the place make all dogs that hunt in it, to fall^
off and to lose their hottest scent I say, as I thus sat joying in
mine own happy condition, and pitying the rich man's, that ought
this, and many other pleasant groves and meadows about me, I
did thankfully remember what my Saviour said, that the meek
possess the earth ; for indeed they are free from those high, those
restless thoughts and contentions which corrode the sweets of life."
The party agree to sing over again a catch, which Venator says
he had converted from " a piece of an old catch, and added more
to it fitting them to be sung by us Anglers ; " and he then says,
" Come, Master, you can sing well ; you must sing a part of it as
it is in this paper ; " whence it may, perhaps, be concluded that
Walton had acquired some reputation by his vocal powers.
Another cup concludes their festivities, and they retire to rest.

On the Fifth and last day the four friends rise early, settle their
hostess's moderate bill, " drink a pot for their morning's draught,'*
and separate. Peter goes with Coridon ; and Venator accompanies
Piscator on his return to London. During their walk Piscator
continues his instructions ; and on describing where the best
tackling might be purchased, Venator proposes to meet him on
the 9th of May at Charles Brandon's, near the Swan in Golden
Lane, as it was nearest to his residence, for the purpose of
equipping himself as an angler. When they reach Tottenham,
" they turn into an arbour," because it was a " clean and cool
place," where Venator " requites a part of his master's courtesies
with a bottle of sack, and milk, and oranges, and sugar, wliich all
put together make," he says, " a drink like nectar ; indeed too

Ix LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. [1655,

good for anybody but us Anglers ; and so, master, here is a full
glass to you of that liquor, and when you have pledged me, I will
repeat some verses which I have promised you," and which were
printed among Sir Henry Wotton's poems. A doubt seems to be
expressed as to the authorship of these verses, as Venator observes
that they were " doubtless made either by Wotton or by a lover of
Anghng," which remark is repeated by Piscator, who in return
repeats a poem written " some say by Dr Donne," called a " Fare-
well to the Vanities of the World." The Master and Scholar then
take leave of each other with mutual expressions of esteem, and
promise to fulfil their engagement of meeting again four days
afterwards, at Charles Brandon's, in Golden Lane.

There cannot possibly be a doubt that Walton meant to
identify himself with Piscator ; for not only does that person
express his feelings and opinions, but he adopts his personal
acquaintances, and alludes to many circumstances in his own
life. To some extent, therefore, Piscator's remarks, and the
allusions which Venator and the other interlocutors make to
Piscator's disposition and acquirements, may be considered as
autobiographical sketches, which are of great value as illustrations
of Walton's feelings, disposition, and character. It is also pro-
bable that "Venator," "brother Peter," "the Scholar," and
" Coridon," had an actual identity in the persons of some of his
piscatory friends ; but it is impossible to state whom they repre-
sented. " Brother Peter " may have been either Nat. or R. Roe,
who, he says, generally accompanied him a-fishing ; and the
residence of Venator is stated to have been near Golden Lane,
which is not far from Clerkenwell. The sentiments and language
attributed to them, are, however, so similar to those of Piscator,
that it is, in fact, he alone who speaks throughout the whole
dialogue ; and it is, consequently, impossible to trace any of the
others by those ahusions to circumstances and individuals which
so completely identify Piscator with Walton.

With one exception, Walton's treatise appears to have given
universal satisfaction to his contemporaries. The hostile critic
was Robert Franck, who wrote a curious work, entitled " Northern
Memoirs ; calculated for the meridian of Scotland, wherein most
or all of the cities, citadels, sea-ports, castles, forts, fortresses,
rivers, and rivulets, are compendiously described " in a dialogue
between Theophilus and Arnoldus. Though written in 1658,
the book was not published until 1694, and a new edition of it
appeared in 1821, with a preface by Sir Walter Scott. Franck

^T. 62.] LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON, bd

appears to have been acquainted with Walton ; and the passages
in which he alludes to him are the following : —

"Arnoldus. Indeed, the frequent exercise of fly-fishing, though
painful, yet it's delightful, more especially when managed by the methods
of art, and the practical rules and mediums of artists. But the ground-bait
was of old the general practice, and beyond dispute, brought considerable
profit ; which happened in those days, when the curiosity of fly-fishing was
intricate and unpracticable. However, Isaac Walton (late author of the
*Compleat Angler') has imposed upon the world this monthly novelty,
which he understood not himself; but stuffs his book with morals from
Dubravius and others, not giving us one precedent of his own practical
experiments, except otherwise where he prefers the trencher before the
trolling-rod ; who lays the stress of his arguments upon other men's
observations, wherewith he stuffs his indigested octavo ; so brings himself
under the angler's censure, and the common calamity of a plagiary, to be
pitied (poor man) for his loss of time, in scribbling and transcribing other
men's notions. These are the drones that rob the hive, yet flatter the bees
they bring them honey.

** Theophilus. 1 remember the book, but you inculcate his erratas ;
however, it may pass muster among common muddlers.

"Arnoldus. No, I think not; for I remember in Stafford, I urged
bis own argument upon him, that pickerel weed of itself breeds pickerel.
Which question was no sooner stated, but he transmits himself to his
authority, viz., Gesner, Dubravius, and Aldrovanus, which I readily opposed,
and offered my reasons to prove the contrary ; asserting, that pickerels
have been fished out of pools and ponds, where that weed (for aught I
knew) never grew since the nonage of time, nor pickerel ever known to
have shed their spawn there. This I propounded from a rational conject-
ure of the heronshaw, who to commode herself with the fry of fish, because
in a great measure part of her maintenance, probably might lap some
spawn about her legs, in regard adhering to the segs and bulrushes, near
the shallows, where the fish shed their spawn, as myself and others
without curiosity have observed. And this slimy substance adhering to
her legs, &c., and she mounting the air for another station, in probability
mounts with her. Where note, the next pond she happily arrives at,
possibly she may leave the spawn behind her, which my Compleat Angler
no sooner deliberated, but dropped his argument, and leaves Gesner to
defend it ; so huffed away, which rendered him rather a formal opinionist,
than a reformed and practical artist, because to celebrate such antiquated
records, whereby to maintain such an improbable assertion.

"Theophilus. This was to the point, I confess ; pray go on.

" Arnoldus. In his book, intituled the 'Compleat Angler,' you may
read there of various and diversified colours, as also the forms and propor-
tions of flies. Where, poor man, he perplexes himself to rally and scrape
together such a parcel of fragments, which he fancies arguments, convincing
enough to instruct the adult and minority of youth, into the slender margin
of his uncultivated art, never made practicable by himself I'm convinced.
Where note, the true character of an industrious angler, more deservedly
falls upon Merril and Faulkner, or rather Isaac Owldham, a man that

Ixii LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. ^' [1655,

fished salmon but with three hairs at hook, whose collections and experi-
ments were lost with himself.

*' Theophilus. That was pity." ^

From this splenetic attack, Walton has been generously defended
by the greatest literary genius of the present age, whose remarks
show his admiration both of " The Complete Angler " and its
author. " Probably no readers," says Sir Walter Scott, " while
he reads the disparaging passages in which the venerable Izaac
Walton is introduced, can forbear wishing that the good old man,
who had so true an eye for Nature, so simple a taste for her most
innocent pleasures, and withal, so sound a judgment, both con-
cerning men and things, had made this northern tour instead of
Franck; and had detailed in the beautiful simplicity of his Arcadian
language, his observations on the scenery and manners of Scotland.
Yet we must do our author the justice to state, that he is as much
superior to the excellent patriarch Izaac Walton, in the mystery of
fly-fishing, as inferior to him in taste, feeling, and common sense.
Franck's contests with salmon are painted to the life, and his
directions to the angler are generally given with great judgment.
/"Walton's practice was entirely confined to bait-fishing, and even
Cotton, his disciple and follower, though accustomed to fish trout
in the Dove, with artificial fly, would have been puzzled by a fish
(for so the salmon is called par excellejtce^ in most parts of Scot-
land) of twenty pounds weight ; both being alike strangers to that
noble branch of the art, which exceeds all other uses of the angling-
rod, as much as fox-hunting exceeds hare-hunting." ^

Walton was certainly in London, and was probably still resident
there, when the second edition of the Angler was published. In
his Life of Bishop Sanderson he states, that about the time when
that prelate first printed the "large, bold, and excellent" preface
to his twenty sermons, which, he says, was " in the dangerous
year 1655," he met Sanderson in the metropolis. His account of
the interview is told in his own peculiar manner, and with so much
effect that it would be improper to relate it in any other words : —

"About the time of his printing this excellent preface, I met him acci-
dentally in London, in sad-coloured clothes, and, God knows, far from
being costly. The place of our meeting was near to Little Britain, where
he had been to buy a book which he then had in his hand. We had no
inclination to part presently, and therefore turned to stand in a corner under
a penthouse (for it began to rain), and immediately the wind rose, and the
wind increased so much, that both became so inconvenient, as to force us

9 Ed. 1821, pp. 175-^77' ^ Ibid. pp. v. vi.

iET. 62.] LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON, Ixiii

into a cleanly house, where we had bread, cheese, ale, and a fire for our
ready money. The rain and wind were so obliging to me, as to force our
stay there for at least an hour, to my great content and advantage ; for in
that time he made to me many useful observations of the present times
with much clearness and conscientious freedom. I shall relate a part ot
them, in hope they may also turn to the advantage of my reader." *

The remainder of the narrative contains Sanderson's remarks
upon various religious topics ; and Walton observes, " This was a
part of the benefit I then had by that hour's conversation ; and I
gladly remember and mention it as an argument of my happiness,
and his great humility and condescension. I had also a like
advantage by another happy conference with him ; " which was on
similar subjects, and which he also relates.*

Between 1655 and 1658 not a single trace of Walton has been
found ; but it was about that period that the following conversa-
tion occurred between Dr Fuller and himself. Not long after the
publication of the " Church History" in 1655, Walton was asked
by Fuller, who was aware of his being intimate with several
bishops and other eminent clergymen, what he thought of that
work himself, and what opinions he had heard his friends express
of it ? Walton replied " he thought it should be acceptable to all
tempers, because there were shades in it for the warm, and sun-
shine for those of a cold constitution, that with youthful readers,
the facetious parts woiid be profitable to make the serious more
palatable ; while some reverend old readers might fancy them-
Belves 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." *

The next circumstance which is known of Walton is that, in
1658, he published a second and improved edition of his Life of
Dr Donne, which was the first time the memoir was printed as a

k

* WlJ ton's Lives, ed. Zouch, ii. 251, 252. ' Ibid. p. 258.

* Biographia Briunnica, edit. 1750, art FulUr.

Ixiv LII'E OF IZAAK WALTON. [1658,

distinct work. It was dedicated to Sir Robert Fiolt, of Aston, in
Warwickshire, Baronet, whose mother was the daughter of John
King, Bishop of London, and sister of Henry King, afterwards
Bishop of Chichester, the intimate friend of Donne and Walton.
There are such characteristic and pleasing passages in this dedica-
tion ; it affords so many illustrations of the mind and life of the
writer, and contains statements of so much interest, among which
is the fact that the memoir of Donne had been honoured with the
approbation of King Charles the First, that it is proper to insert
it : —

"To MY NOBLE AND HONOURED FrIEND, SiR ROBERT HOLT, OF
ASTON, IN THE COUNTY OF WARWICK, BaRT.

"Sir, — "When this relation of the life of Dr Donne v/as first made
public, it had, besides the approbation of our late learned and eloquent
King, a conjunction with the author's most excellent sermons to support it ;
and thus it lay some time fortified against prejudice, and those passions
that are, by busy and malicious men, too freely vented against the dead.
And yet, now, after almost twenty years, when though the memory of Dr
Donne himself, must not, cannot die, so long as men speak English ; yet
when I thought time had made this relation of him so like myself, as to
become useless to the world, and content to be forgotten, I find that a
retreat into a desired privacy will not be afforded ; for the printers will
again expose it and me to public exceptions, and without those supports,
which we first had and needed, and in an age too in which truth and
innocence have not been able to defend themselves from worse than severe
censures. This I foresaw, and nature teaching me self-preservation, and
my long experience of your abilities assuring me that in you it may be
found, to you. Sir, do I make mine addresses for an umbrage and protec-
tion ; and I make it with so much humble boldness, as to say 'twere
degenerous in you not to afford it. For, Sir, Dr Donne was so much a
part of yourself, as to be incorporated into your family, by so noble a
friendship, that I may say there was a marriage of souls betwixt him and
your reverend grandfather, [John King, Bishop of London,] who in his life
was an angel of our once glorious Church, and now no common star in
heaven. And Dr Donne's love died not with him, but was doubled upon
his heir, your beloved uncle, [Henry King,] the Bishop of Chichester, that
lives in this froward generation, to be an ornament to his calling. And
this affection to him was by Dr Donne so testified in his life, that he then
. trusted him with the very secrets of his soul ; and at his death, with what
was dearest to him, even his fame, estate, and children. And you have yet
a further title to what was Dr Donne's, by that dear affection and friend-
ship that was betwixt him and your parents, by which he entailed a love
upon yourself, even in your infancy, which was increased by the early
testimonies of your growing merits, and by them continued till Dr Donne
put on immortality ; and so this mortal was turned into a love that cannot
die. And, Sir, 'twas pity he w.as lost to you in your minority, before you
had attained a judgment to put a true value upon the living beauties and
elegancies of his conversation ; and pity, too, that so much of them as were

^T. 65.] LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON, Ixv

capable cf such an expression, were not drawn by the pencil of a Titian or
a Tintoret, by a pen equal and more lasting than their art ; for his life
ought to be the example of more than that age in which he died. And yet
this copy, though very much, indeed too much, short of the original, will
present you with some features not unlike your dead friend, and with fewer
blemishes and more ornaments than when 'twas first made public ; which
creates a contentment to myself, because it is the more worthy of him, and
because I may with more civility entitle you to it And in this design of
doing so I have not a thought of what is pretended in most dedications, a
commutation for courtesies : no indeed, Sir, I put no such value upon this
trifle ; for your owning it will rather increase my obligations. But my
desire is, that into whose hands soever this shall fall, it may to them be a
testimony of my gratitude to yourself and family, who descended to such a
degree of humility as to admit me into their friendship in the days of my
youth ; and notwithstanding my many infirmities, have continued me in it
till I am become grey-headed ; and as time has added to my years, have
still increased and multiplied their favours. This, Sir, is the intent of
this Dedication ; and having made the declaration of it thus public, I shall
conclude it with commending them and you to God's dear love.

** I remain. Sir, what your many merits have made me to be, the humblest
of your servants, Isaac Walton."

From this time the memorials of Walton are again imperfect \
until after the Restoration, an event which afforded the highest /
gratification to his political and religious feelings, and tended /
materially to his personal happiness. Charles the Second's return /
was attended by the promotion of many of the eminent divines '
who had suffered in the royal cause, among whom were some of
Walton's oldest and most intimate friends. Dr Morley was made
Dean of Christ Church, and soon afterwards Bishop of Worcester,
Dr Henchman was elected Bishop of Salisbury, Dr Sanderson
Bishop of Lincoln, and Dr King was restored to his see of
Chichester. In their episcopal palaces, as in distress and persecu-
tion, the friendship of these eminent men for Walton was steady
and sincere ; and much of the remainder of his life was passed in
their society. Long years of intimacy, congeniality of sentiments
on secular and ecclesiastical matters, a similarity of taste in
literature, and, more than all, a spirit of devout but rational piety,
united them in the strongest bonds of attachment. The esteem
of such men is conclusive evidence of Walton's virtues ; and he
often alluded to their kindness and good opinion in the warmest
terms of gratitude.

Walton's joyful feelings at the Restoration are not merely pre-
sumed from his known devotion to the cause of monarchy and
religion. They were expressed in the following " humble Eclogue "
written on the 29th of May 1660, addressed to his "ingenious

t

Ixvi LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. [1661,

friend, Mr Brome,^ on his various and excellent poems," which is
prefixed to the first edition of Alexander Brome's Songs and other
Poems, printed in the following year : —

" To MY INGENIOUS FrIEND, Mr BrOME, ON HIS VARIOUS AND EXCELLENT PoEMS.

An humble Eclog,
Written on the 29th of May 1660.

DAMON AND DORUS.

DAMON.

Hail, happy day ! Dorus, sit down :
Now let no sigh, nor let a frown
Lodge iiear thy heart, or on thy brow.
The King ! the King's return'd ! and now
Let's banish all sad thoughts, and sing
We have our Laws, and have our King.

PORUS.
'Tjs itrue, and I would sing, but oh !
These lyars have shrunk my heart so low,
'Twill npt be rais'd.

DAMON.

What, not this day ?

Why, 'tis the twenty-ninth of May :

Let Rebels' spirits sink : let those

That, like the Goths and Vandals, rose

To ruin families, and bring

Contempt upon our Church, our King,

And all that's dear to us, be sad ;

But be not thou ; let us be glad.

And, Dorus, to invite thee, look.

Here's a collection in this book

Of all those cheerful songs, that we

Have sung with mirth and merry glee : *

As we have march'd to fight the cause

Of God's anointed, and our laws :

Such songs as make not the least odds

Betwixt us mortals and the Gods :

Such songs as Virgins need not fear

To sing, or a grave matron hear.

Here's love drest neat, and chaste, and gay,

As gardens in the month of May ;

Here's harmony, and wit, and art.

To raise thy thoughts, and cheer thy heart.

DORUS.

Written by whom ?

DAMON.

A Friend of mine,

And one that's worthy to be thine :

A civil swain, that knows his times

For businesses, and that done, makes rhymes,

But not till then : my Friend's a man

Lov'd by the Muses ; dear to Pan ;

5 " Alexander Brome, an attorney of the King's Bench, an ingenious poet, died 29th
June 1666." Smith's Obituary, Additional MS. 886, in the British Museum.

6 The following variation occurs in the next edition of Brome's Poems, printed in
1668:—

'" Have sung so oft and merrily."

/ET. 6S.] LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. Ixvii

He blest him with a cheerful heart.
And they with this sharp wit and art.
Which he so tempers, as no swain
That's loyal, does or should complain.

DORUS.

I would fain see him :

DAMON.

Go with me,

Dorus, to yonder broad beech-tree.

There we shall meet him and PhilliSf

Perigot, and Amaryllis,

Tityrus, and his dear Chlora,

Tom and Will, and their Pastora : ^ I

There we'll dance, shake hands, and sing

We have our Laws,

God bless the King.

Iz. Walton."*

The third edition of the " Complete Angler" appeared in i66i;
but the variations between it and the impression of 1655 are not
numerous or material. Although Mr Offley, to whom it was
dedicated, died in 1658, no notice is taken of the circumstance,
which is rather extraordinary, because Walton pathetically alludes
to the loss of his fishing companions, the two Roes. In the
former editions he spoke of " the days and times when honest Nat
and R. R. and I go a-fishing together ; " and in 1661 he thus
noticed their deaths, " In such days and times as I have laid aside
business, and gone a-fishing with honest Nat and R. Roe ; but
they are gone, and with them most of my pleasant hours, even
as a shadow that passeth away, and returns not." Considerable
trouble has been taken to discover some particulars of those
persons, who, as Walton's intimate friends, and his companions
in the sport for which he is celebrated, have strong claims upon
the regard of his disciples. Unfortunately, however, nothing has
been found respecting them, except that they appear to have
been distantly related to Walton, as he presented one of his books
to his " cozen Roe ; " but it may be conjectured that they were
brothers, and shopkeepers in London, and it was probably the
wife of one of them who was godmother to his son in September
1651.

In the same year, 1661, Walton also wrote some verses on the
publication of the fourth edition of a popular religious poem, called
*' The Synagogue," by the Rev. Christopher Harvie, who had paid
a similar compliment to Walton in the second edition of the
" Complete Angler," and whose poem on the Book of Common
Prayer is introduced into that work, as having been written by " a

J

Ixviii LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. [1662,

reverend and learned divine, who professed to imitate George
Herbert." "The Synagogue " was first printed in 1640; and
Walton says, in the following lines, that he admired that poem
before he knew its author personally, with whom he must, there-
fore, have become acquainted between the years 1640 and 1655 :

To MY REVEREND FrIEND THE AUTHOR OF THE SYNAGOGUE.

Sir,
I lov'd you for your Synagogue before
I knew your person ; but now love you more,

Because I find
It is so true a picture of your mind :

Which tunes your sacred lyre

To that eternal quire

Where holy Herbert sits

(O shame to profane wits !)
And sings his and your anthems, to the praise
Of him that is the first and last of days.

These holy hymns had an ethereal birth,
For they can raise sad souls above the earth,

And fix them there,
Free from the world's anxieties and fear :

Herbert and you have pow'r

To do this : every hour

I read you, kills a sin,

Or lets a virtue in
To fight against it ; and the Holy Ghost
Supports my frailties, lest the day be lost.

This holy war, taught by your happy pen,

The Prince of Peace approves. When we poor men

Neglect our arms.
Ware circumvested with a world of harms.

But I will watch and ward,
And stand upon my guard,
And still consult with you
And Herbert, and renew
My vows, and say. Well fare his and your heart,
The fountains of such sacred wit and art. Iz. Wa."

On the 17th of April 1662, Walton again became a widower,
by the death of his second wife, Anne Ken. The event took place
in her fifty-second year at Worcester, and is thus recorded by her
husband in his family Prayer-Book : " Anne Walton dyed the
17th of April, about one o'clock in that night, and was buried in
the Virgin Mary's Chapel, in the cathedral in Worcester, the 20th
day." As no particulars respecting her decease are known, it is
doubtful how far Walton was prepared for his misfortune by her
previous illness. He was warmly attached to her, and in
the following pathetic epitaph, which he placed near her remains,
he bears the strongest testimony to her talents and virtues : —

^T. 69.] LIFE GF IZAAK WALTON. Ixix

EX TERRIS

M. S.

HERE LYETH BURIED SO MUCH AS
COULD DYE OF ANNE, THE WIFE OF

ISAAK WALTON ;

WHO WAS

A WOMAN OF REMARKABLE PRUDENCE,

AND OF THE PRIMITIVE PIETY ; HER GREAT

AND GENERAL KNOWLEDGE BEING ADORNED

WITH SUCH TRUE HUMILITY, AND BLEST

WITH SO MUCH Christian meekness, as

MADE her worthy OF A MORE MEMORABLE
MONUMENT.

SHE DYED ! (Alas, that she is dead !)
THE 17TH OF April 1662, aged 52.

Study to be like her. |

A draught of this epitaph in Walton's own hand is written in
his Prayer-Book before mentioned, which tends to prove that it
was composed by himself, but the alterations in the manuscript
are rather curious. The words " Ex terris M. S." do not occur ;
the article "the" between "of" and "primitive piety" is an
interlineation, upon which Mr Bowles has remarked that the
alteration seemed " designedly to imply that her piety was that
primitive piety which the reformed Church of England professed ;
therefore the correction was important." " Alas, that she is
dead ! " was originally " Alas ! alas ! that she dyed ; " and though
Walton substituted " is dead " for " died," he did not omit the
second interjection.

It must not escape observation that Ur Morley was Bishop
of Worcester at the time when Mrs Walton died in that city ; and
as neither Walton nor herself appear to have had any relations
there, it is reasonable to suppose that they went to Worcester on a
visit to him. If this conjecture be correct, it is easy to imagine
the happiness which the meeting afforded to all the parties.
Every wish of Morley's heart must at that moment have been
realised. The cause in which he had suffered was triumphant ;
the monarch for whose sake he had undergone poverty and
privation filled the throne of his ancestors ; the Church of England,
which had been threatened with destruction, was again re-estab-
lished ; and he himself had reaped the reward of his virtues and
consistency, by being raised to a situation of the highest dignity
in her service. Dr Morley was, however, regularly, and almost
daily in the House of Lords from December 1661 to the middle

Ixx LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. [1662,

of May 1662 ; '' but the Waltons probably continued at the palace
whilst the bishop attended his parliamentary duties.

Dr Morley was translated to the see of Winchester in April
1662, and removed soon afterwards to his new diocese. Up to
that period Walton seems to have lived at Clerkenwell ; but not
long after Morley's translation, he found a permanent asylum for
his old age in the episcopal residence. The occupation attendant
upon his removal, the change of scene, and his own practical
piety, combined to alleviate his grief for the loss of his wife ; and
the evening of his days was happily passed in literary pursuits,
in the society of his family and friends, and in the performance
of his religious duties. He was in his sixty-ninth year when he
became the guest of Dr Morley, at which time his only surviving
son, Isaak, was eleven, and his daughter, Anne, about fourteen
years of age.

Dr John Donne, the eldest son of the learned divine of that
name, died in the winter of 1662.^ Though not destitute of
talents, he appears to have been a very eccentric character ; and
Anthony Wood speaks of him as an "atheistical buffoon, abanterer,
and a person of over-free thoughts ; ' adding, however, that he
was valued by Charles the Second. The qualities which called
forth the censure of the great biographer of the University of Oxford,
probably attracted the favour of that prince ; and he seems to have
lived on very cordial terms with many noblemen of the time. Dr
Donne made his will on the 21st of July 1657, and as it is a very
curious document, it was printed in February 1662. A copy of
it will be found in the notes to this memoir ; and it is here noticed
on account of the following bequests to Walton : " To Mr Isaac

7 Lords' Journals, vol. xiv. passim.

8 The following account of Dr Donne's children is given in the Gentleman's Magazine
for June 1835 : —

"John, eldest son of the Dean, is not so well known but that some account may be
here given of him. He was born about the year 1604, and is mentioned in his father's
will (dated 13th of December 1630, and is proved in the P. C. C. on the 5th of April in
the following year), together with his brother and four sisters. He was educated at
Westminster and Christ Church, Oxford, and afterwards being LL.D. of Padua, was
incorporated in the same degree at the former university, June 30, 1638.

" He wrote several poetical trifles, some of which are enumerated in the Fasti (edit.
Bliss), i.'503. He died in the winter of 1662, and was buried near the standing dial in
the yard at the west end of St Paul's, Covent Garden. Whether he was married is not
stated by any biographer; but it is not improbable he was the same John Donne who
■was married to Mary Staples at Camberwell Church, 27th March 1627.

" George Donne, second son of the Dean, was baptized May 9, 1605, at Camberwell,
and is described in his father's funeral certificate (Coll. Arm. I. 23, p. 39) as captain and
serjeant-major of all the forces in the Isle of St Christopher. He married and had a
daughter, Margaret, baptized at Camberwell, March 22, 1637-8." See also Gentleman's
Magazine, Aug. 1835 ; Dr Sonthey's Life of Cowper, vol. i. p. 4 ; and Letters respecting
Dr Donne's marriage, in the Loseley Papers, p. 321.

^T. 69.] LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. Ixxi

Walton, I give all my writings under my father's hand, which
may be of some use to his son if he makes him a scholar. To
the Reverend [Henry King,] Bishop of Chichester, I return that
cabinet that was my father's, now in my dining-room, and all
those papers which are of authors analysed by my father ; many
of which he hath already received with his Common Place-Book,
which I desire may pass to Mr Walton's son as being more
likely to have use for such a help, when his age shall require
it."

In December 1662, Walton obtained from his friend Gilbert
Sheldon, Bishop of London, a lease of a newly-erected building,
adjoining a house called the Cross Keys, in Paternoster Row, for
forty years, at the yearly rent of forty shillings, which premises
were burnt in the fire of London.^

The first two years of Walton's residence with Bishop Morley
were employed in writing the Life of Richard Hooker, the learned
author of (he Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity. The memoir ap-
peared in January 1665, and in the dedication to the Bishop of
Winchester, dated on the 28th of November 1664, Walton says,
"It was written by me under your roof, for which and more
weighty reasons, you might (if it were worthy) justly claim a title
to it ; but indeed, my Lord, though this be a well-meant sacrifice
to the memory of that venerable man, yet I have so little confi-
dence in my performance, that I beg your pardon for subscribing
your name to it ; and desire all that know your Lordship to
receive it, not as a dedication by which you receive any access
of honour, but rather as a more humble and more public acknow-
ledgment of your long-continued, and your now daily favours to
your most affectionate and most humble servant,

" IzAAK Walton."

A very interesting letter from Dr King, Bishop of Chichester,
to Walton, commencing with the homely but emphatic address
of " Honest Isaak," ^ was prefixed to the memoir ; and as that
letter contains many illustrations of Walton's life, such parts of it
as have not been already introduced will be inserted. Bishop
King commences with this flattering testimony to Walton's worth :
" Though a famiUarity of more than forty years' continuance, and
the constant experience of your love, even in the worst of the

9 Vide postea.

1 This address is omitted in the first edition of the Life of Hooker, but occurs in the
second, and all subsequent editions.

Ixxii LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. [1662,

late sad times, be sufficient to endear our friendship, yet, I must
confess my affection much improved, not only by evidences of
private respect to many that know and love you, but by your new
demonstration of a public spirit, testified in a diligent, true, and
useful collection of so many material passages as you have now-
afforded me in the life of venerable Mr Hooker; of which, since
desired by such a friend as yourself, I shall not deny to give the
testimony of what I know concerning him and his learned books ;
but shall first here take a fair occasion to tell you, that you have
been happy in choosing to write the lives of three such persons as
posterity hath just cause to honour ; which they will do the more
for the true relation of them by your happy pen : of all which I
shall give you my unfeigned censure." ^

Bishop King then notices the Lives of Donne and Wotton, the
want of which would, he says, " have been a prejudice to all
lovers of honour and ingenious learning," and proceeds to relate
what he had heard respecting Hooker and his works." He con-
gratulated Walton on this undertaking, as being " more proper to
you than any other person, by reason of your long knowledge and
alliance to the worthy family of the Cranmers (my old friends also),
who have been men of noted wisdom, especially Mr George
Cranmer, whose prudence added to that of Sir Edwin Sandys,
proved very useful in the completing of Mr Hooker's matchless
books : one of their letters I herewith send you, to make use of,
if you think fit. And let me say further ; you merit much from
many of Mr Hooker's best friends then living ; namely, from the
ever-renowned Archbishop Whitgift, of whose incomparable worth,
with the character of the times, you have given us a more short
and significant account than I have received from any other pen.
You have done much for the learned Sir Henry Savile, his con-
temporary and familiar friend." ^ But he reminded Walton of
two omissions in his account of Savile's works ; and thus con-
cludes, " Not to trouble you further ; your reader (if according to
your desire, my approbation of your work carries any weight) will
here find many just reasons to thank you for it ; and possibly for
this circumstance here mentioned (not known to many), may
happily apprehend one to thank him, who heartily wishes your
happiness, and is unfeignedly, Sir, your ever-faithful, and affec-
tionate old friend, Henry Chichester."

Chichester, November 17, 1664.

2 Walton's Lives, ed. Zouch, i. 21, 22. 3 ibid. p. 31.

^T. 69.] LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON, Ixxiii

It has been inferred * from Bishop King's allusion to Sir Henry
Savile, that Walton intended to write the life of that learned per-
son ; but King evidently alluded only to what Walton says of
Savile in the Life of Hooker ; and as there is nothing else to
justify the opinion that he ever intended to be the biographer of
Savile, it is most probably without foundation.^

Several passages in the introduction to the Memoir of Hooker,
present information respecting many of Walton's early friends, and
explain his motives for writing it : "I have," he says, " been
persuaded by a friend, that I ought to obey, to write the Life of
Richard Hooker, the happy author of five (if not more) of the
eight learned Books of * The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity.' And
though I have undertaken it, yet it hath been with some unwilling-
ness ; foreseeing that it must prove to me, and especially at this
lime of my age, a work of much labour to inquire, consider,
research, and determine what is needful to be known concerning
him. For I knew him not in his life, and must therefore not only
look back to his death (now sixty-four years past), but almost fifty
years beyond that, even to his childhood and youth, and gather
thence such observations and prognostics, as may at least adorn,
if not prove necessary for the completing of what I have under-
taken." «

The friend there mentioned was, it is most likely, Bishop
Morley. Walton then alludes to his connection with the Cranmers,
which has been before noticed, and proceeds to say . " I had also
a friendship with the Reverend Dr Usher, the late learned Arch-
bishop of Armagh ; and with Dr Morton, the late learned and
charitable Bishop of Durham ; as also with the learned John
Hales of Eton College : and with them also (who loved the very
name of Mr Hooker) I have had many discourses concerning
him ; and from them and many others that have now put .off
mortality, I might have had more informations, if I could then
have admitted a thought of any fitness for what by persuasion 1
have now undertaken. But though that full harvest be irrecover-
ably lost, yet my memory hath preserved some gleanings, and my

* Athen. Oxon. by Bliss.

* Hawkins says that the supposition that Walton intended to write the Life of Savile,
"does very well connect with what the late Mr Des Maizeaux some years since related
to a gentleman now deceased (William Oldys, Norroy King of Arms), from whom myself
had it; viz., that there were then several Letters of Walton extant, in the Ashmolean
Museum, relating to a Life of Sir Henry Savile, which Walton had entertained thoughts
of writing." Upon inquiry it has, however, been found that there are no Leiters of the
kind in the Ashmolean Museum.

* Life of Hooker, cd. 1665.

Ixxiv LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON, [1668,

diligence made such additions to them, as I hope will prove useful
to the completing of what I intend." '^

In a candid address to his readers, Walton deprecated censure,
and solicited the correction of any errors in his work. He in-
vestigated at some length the authenticity of the last three Books
of the " Ecclesiastical Pohty ; " and though the garrulity of age may
be detected in the digressions into which he has fallen, as well as
in other parts of his work, it is nevertheless a very interesting
piece of biography ; and no one can read the concluding para-
graph without being forcibly impressed with the religious spirit of
the writer : *' More he would have spoken, but his spirits failed
him, and after a short conflict betwixt nature and death, a quiet
sigh put a period to his last breath, and so he fell asleep. And
here, I draw his curtain, till with the most blessed Martyrs and Con-
fessors, this most learned, most humble, holy man, shall also awake
to receive an eternal tranquilUty, and with it a greater degree of
glory than common Christians shall be made partakers of; till
which blessed time, let glory be to God on high, let peace be
upon earth, and good- will to mankind. Amen, Amen." ^

This passage was however altered when the Memoir was re-
printed in 1670; and in the edition of 1675 it stands thus :
" More he would have spoken, but his spirits failed him, and after
a short conflict betwixt nature and death, a quiet sigh put a period
to his last breath, and so he fell asleep. And here I draw his
curtain, till with the most glorious company of the Patriarchs and
Apostles, the most noble army of Martyrs and Confessors, this
most learned, most humble, holy man shall also awake to receive
an eternal tranquillity, and with it a greater degree of glory than
common Christians shall be made partakers of. In the mean-
time, bless, O Lord ! Lord, bless his brethren, the clergy of this
nation, with ardent desires, and effectual endeavours to attain, if
not to his great learning, yet to his remarkable meekness, his godly
simplicity, and his Christian moderation, for these are praiseworthy;
these bring peace at the last ! and let the labours of his life, his
most excellent writings, be blessed with what he designed when he
undertook them, which was, glory to thee, O God on high, peace
in thy church, and goodwill to mankind. Amen, Amen."

The Life of Hooker was reprinted and attached to the "Ecclesias-
tical Polity" in 1666 ; and material alterations have been made in
the different editions of the Memoir. In 1668 Walton is said to
have written a letter to a kinsman at Coventry on the rejection

7 Life of Hooker, ed. 1665, p. 5. 8 ibid. pp. 151, 152.

^T. 75.] LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. . Ixxv

of the Bill of Comprehension, which, with another letter on the
same subject, was printed in 1680 ; but the authenticity of these
letters is by no means established, and some remarks on the
point will be found in a subsequent page. The fourth edition of
"The Complete Angler^' appeared in 1668, and is stated in the
title-page to have been " much corrected and enlarged." It was,
however, merely a reprint of the preceding edition, except that the
errata are corrected ; but in the address to the reader, even the
statement that " many enlargements had been made in this third
impression " is retained.

Izaak Walton was at that time still the guest of Bishop Morley ;
and he appears to have been engaged upon the Life of George
Herbert, and in revising the Memoirs of Donne, Wotton, and
Hooker, for publication in one volume. The Life of Herbert was
published about May 1670, the imprimatur being dated on the
2 1 st of April in that year ; and in the introduction Walton says
that, " in a late retreat from the business of this world, and those
many little cares with which I have too often cumbered myself, I
fell into a contemplation of some of those historical passages that
are recorded in sacred story," more particularly respecting Mary
Magdalen : " upon occasion of which fair example, I did lately
look back, and not without some content (at least to myself) that I
have endeavoured to deserve the love, and preserve the memory of
my two deceased friends, Dr Donne and Sir Henry Wotton, by de-
claring the several employments and various accidents of their lives :
and though Mr George Herbert (whose life I now intend to write)
were to me a stranger as to his person, for I have only seen him ;
yet since he was, and was worthy to be, their friend, and very
many of his have been mine, I judge it may not be unacceptable
to those that knew any of them in their lives, or do now know
them by mine or their own writings, to see this conjunction of
them after their deaths ; without which many things that con-
cerned them, and some things that concerned the age in which
they lived, would be less perfect and lost to posterity. For these
reasons I have undertaken it ; and if I have prevented any abler
person, I beg pardon of him and my reader." ^

He says, in the Memoir of Herbert, that if his life had been
related by a pen like St Chrysostom's, there would then " be no
need for this age to look back into times past for the examples
of primitive piety ; for they might be all found in the life of George
Herbert. But now, alas ! who is fit to undertake it 1 I confess I

* Life of Herbert, cd. 1670, pp. 10-ia.

Ixxvi . LIFE OF IZAAK WALTOiV. [1668,

am not ; and am not pleased with myself that I must ; and profess
myself amazed when I consider how few of the clergy lived like
him then, and how many live so unlike him now : but it becomes
not me to censure : my design is rather to assure the reader,
that I have used very great diligence to inform myself, that I
might inform him of the truth of what follows ; and though I can-
not adorn it with eloquence, yet I will do it with sincerity." ^

For some of the facts respecting Herbert, Walton says he was
indebted to Dr Henchman, then Bishop of London, and to Mr
Oley's preface to Herbert's " Country Parson," which is " a book
so full of plain, prudent, and useful rules, that that country parson
that can spare I2d. and yet wants it, is scarce excusable : because
it will both direct him what he ought to do, and convince him for
not having done it." ^ The concluding lines of the Memoir of
Herbert show Walton's admiration of his piety in a more forcible
manner than pages of laboured panegyric could have done, for
he observes, " I wish (if God shall be so pleased) that I may be
so happy as to die like him." ^ Some complimentary verses,
dated at Bensted in Hampshire, on the 3rd of April i 670, were
prefixed to it by Samuel Woodford, who had been ordained in the
preceding year by Bishop Morley, and afterwards became a
doctor of divinity and a prebendary of Winchester. They were
addressed " To his very worthy and much honoured friend Mr
Izaak Walton, upon his excellent Life of Mr George Herbert," but
they merit httle praise ; the only point in them being that the lives
of Donne and Herbert occur in the same volume : —

" Herbert and Donne again are joined,
Now here below as they're above ;
These friends are in their old embraces twined,
And since by you the interview's designed,
Too weak to part them Death does prove ;
For in this book tliey meet again, as in one heaven they love."

About the time when the Life of Herbert was published, that
Memoir, together with the Lives of Dr Donne, Sir Henry Wotton,
and Richard Hooker, were collected and printed in one volume.
The work was dedicated to the Bishop of Winchester in very
nearly the same words, iJiutatis mutandis^ as occur in the dedica-
tion of the Life of Hooker in 1 664. The only material variation is,
that Walton states that the Life of Herbert, as well as that of
Hooker, was written under the bishop's roof; and as the words
" your now daily favours " are retained, it seems that he was then

1 Walton's Lives, ed. Zouch, ii. 73. * Ibid. p. 82.

3 Ibid. p. 126.

^T. 75.] LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. Ixxvii

still living with Morley. In the address to the reader Walton gives
the following modest account of his biographical labours : —

"Though the several introductions to these several Lives, have partly
declared the reasons how and why I undertook them ; yet, since they are
come to be reviewed, and augmented, and reprinted, and the four are be-
come one book, I desire leave to inform you that shall become my reader,
that when I look back upon my mean abilities, it is not without some little
wonder at myself, that I am come to be publicly in print. And though I
have in those introductions declared some of the accidental reasons : yet,
let me add this to what is there said : that, by my undertaking to collect
some notes for Sir Henry Wotton's writing the Life of Dr Donne, and Sir
Henry's dying before he performed it, I became like those that enter easily
into a law-suit, or a quarrel, and having begun, cannot make a fair retreat
and be quiet when they desire it. And really after such a manner I became
engaged into a necessity of writing the Life of Dr Donne, contrary to my
first intentions. And that begot a like necessity of writing the Life of his
and my honoured friend, Sir Henry Wotton. And having writ these two
lives, I lay quiet twenty years, without a thought of either troubling myself
or otliers, by any new engagement in this kind. But about that time, Doct.
Ga. [uden] (then Lord Bishop of Exeter) published the Life of Mr Richard
Hooker (so he called it), with so many dangerous mistakes, both of him
and his books, that discoursing of them with his grace, Gilbert, that now is
Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, he enjoined me to examine some circum-
stances, and then rectify the bishop's mistakes, by giving the world a truer
account of Mr Hooker and his books ; and I know I have done so. And,
indeed, till his grace hath laid this injunction upon me, I could not admit a
thought of any fitness in me to undertake it ; but when he twice enjoined
me to it, I then trusted his judgment, and submitted to his commands ;
considering that if I did not, I could not forbear accusing myself of dis-
obedience, and indeed of ingratitude for his many favours. Thus I became
engaged into the third life.

•* For the Life of Mr George Herbert, I profess it to be a free-will offering,
and writ chiefly to please myself ; but not without some respect to posterity,
for though he was not a man that the next age can forget, yet many of his
particular acts and virtues might have been neglected, or lost, if I had not
collected and presented them to the imitation of those that shall succeed
us : for I conceive writing to be both a safer and truer preserver of men's
various actions than tradition. I am to tell the reader that though this Life
of Mr Herbert was not by me writ in haste, yet I intended it a review before
it should be made public : but that was not allowed me, by reason of my
absence from London when it was printing ; so that the reader may find in
it some double expressions, and some not very proper, and some that might
have been contracted, and some faults that are not justly chargeable upon
me but the printer : and yet I hope none so great, as may not, by this
confession, purchase pardon from a good-natured reader. And now I
wish, that as that learned Jew, Josephus, and others, so these men had also
writ their own lives : but since it is not the fashion of these times, I wish
their relations or friends would do it for them, before delays make it too
difficult. And I desire this the more because it is an honour due to the
dead, and a generous debt due to those that shall live and succeed us, and
would to them prove both a content and satisfaction. For when the next

Ixxviu LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. [1670,

age shall (as this does) admire the learning and dear reason which that
excellent casuist Dr Sanderson (the late Bishop of Lincoln) hath demonstrated
in his sermons and other writings ; who, if they love virtue, would not
rejoice to know that this good man was as remarkable for the meekness
and innocence of his life, as for his great and useful learning ; and indeed
as remarkable for his fortitude, in his long and patient suffering (under
them that then called themselves the godly party) for that doctrine, which
he had preached and printed, in the happy days of the nation's and the
Church's peace ? And who would not be content to have the like account
of Dr Field, that great schoolman, and others of noted learning ? And
though I cannot hope, that my example or reason can persuade to this
undertaking, yet I please myself, that I shall conclude my preface, with
wishing that it were so."

Dr Woodford also wrote complimentary verses to Walton upon
his Life of Hooker, which are dated on the loth of March 1670^
and were intended for the collected edition of the " Lives,"
published in that year. A line in those verses, renders it likely
that Walton wrote the Life of Hooker, and possibly also that of
Herbert, in Bishop Morley's house at Chelsea. After four verses
in praise of Hooker, the following "Ritornata," in allusion to Wal-
ton, occurs :

" To Chelsea, song; there, tell thy patron's * friend
The Church is Hooker's debtor : Hooker his :
And strange 'twould be, if he should glory miss,
For whom two such most powerfully contend.

Bid him cheer up, the day's his own ;

And he shall never die,

Who, after seventy's past and gone,

Can all th' assaults of age defy ;
Is master still of so much youthful heat,
A child so perfect and so sprightly to beget."

Soon after the publication of that volume, Walton presented a
copy of it to Walter Lord Aston, which is preserved in the library
at Tixall ; and the following inscriptions prove that he was highly
esteemed by that nobleman. Walton wrote on the first leaf,

" For my Lord Aston,

" Iz. Wa."
Beneath which his lordship added,

** Izake Walton gift to me, June y* 14, 1670, w""* I most thankfully for
his memmory off mee acknowledge a greate kindnesse.

*' Walter Aston." ^

On the 1st of July 1670, Walton presented a petition, in
which he is described as " Isaac Walton, gentleman," to the

* fVARiATiON.] Master's, ed. 1675.

5 Tixall Letters, or the Correspondence of the Aston Family. i2mo. London, 1815,
vol. ii. p. 122.

^T. 77.] LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. Ixxix

." Court of Judicature for determination of differences touching
houses burnt in London," stating that the premises in Paternoster
Row ^ which he held by lease from Gilbert, late Bishop of London,
were burnt in the late fire ; and that he was willing to rebuild
them, " so as he may be encouraged thereto by an increase of
years to his term in being, and abatement of rent, as to the court
shall seem meet ; " and he prayed that the then Bishop of London
or his deputy should be summoned to attend the court, to the end
that such order and decree might be made concerning the premises,
as to the court should seem meet. The bishop referred the
matter wholly to the court ; who decreed that the petitioner should
rebuild the premises, having his lease extended to sixty years at
the old rent, and paying the arrears then due. "^

For nearly three years from this time nothing is known of
Walton ; and the next notice of him is in February 1673, when
he dedicated the third edition of the " Reliquiae Wottonianae " to
Philip, Earl of Chesterfield, son of Henry Lord Stanhope, by
Katherine, daughter of Lady Wotton. The letter to that noble-
man, like everything he wrote, is very characteristic of his mind
and feelings ; and is of additional interest from the allusion which
it contains to his friend, Charles Cotton.

" My Lord, — I have conceived many reasons why I ought, in justice, to
dedicate these Reliques of your great uncle, Sir Henry Wotton, to your
lordship ; some of which are, that both your grandmother and mother had
a double right to them by a dedication when first made public ; as also for
their assisting me then, and since, with many material informations for the
writing his life ; and for giving me many of the letters that have fallen
from his curious pen ; so that they being now dead, these reliques descend
to you, as heir to them, and the inheritor of the memorable Bocton Palace,
the place of his birth, where so many of the ancient, and prudent, and
valiant family of the Wottons lie now buried ; whose remarkable monu-
ments you have lately beautified, and to them added so many of so great
worth, as hath made it appear that at the erecting and adorning them you
were above the thought of charge, that they might, if possible (for 'twas
no easy undertaking), hold some proportion with the merits of your
ancestors.

" My Lord, these are a part of many more reasons that have inclined
mc to this dedication ; and these, with the example of a liberty that is not
given, but now too usually taken by many scribblers, to make trifling
dedications, might have begot a boldness in some men of as mean as my
abilities to have undertaken this. But indeed, my lord, though I was
ambitious enough of undertaking it ; yet as Sir Henry Wotton hath said in
a piece of his own character, that he was condemned by nature to a bash-

« Vide antea. ^ Additional MS. in the British Museum, No. 5088, f. 143.

Ixxx LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON, [1673,

fulness in making requests, so I find myself (pardon the parallel) so like
him in this, that if I had not more reasons than I have yet exprest, these
alone had not been powerful enough to have created a confidence in me to
have attempted it. Two of my unexprest reasons are (give me leave to tell
them to your lordship and the world) that Sir Henry Wotton, whose
many merits made him an ornament to your family, was yet so humble, as
to acknowledge me to be his friend ; and died in a belief that I was so :
since which time, I have made him the best return of my gratitude for his
condescension, that I have been able to express, or he capable of receiving :
and am pleased with myself for so doing.

"My other reason of this boldness, is an encouragement (very like a
command) from your worthy cousin, and my friend, Mr Chaxles Cotton,
who hath assured me, that you are such a lover of the memory of your
generous uncle. Sir Henry Wotton, that if there were no other reason than
my endeavours to preserve it, yet, that that alone would secure this dedica-
tion from being unacceptable.

"I wish that not he nor I be mistaken ; and that I were able to make
you a more worthy present. — My Lord, I am and will be your humble
and most affectionate servant, Izaak Walton.

"Feb. 27, 1672."

Walton says, in the advertisement to the reader of that edition,
" You may be pleased to take notice that in this last relation of
Sir Henry Wotton's Life, 'tis both enlarged, and some small errors
rectified, so that I may now be confident, there is no material
mistakes in it ; and adds that " there is in this impression an
addition of many letters ; in which the spirit with which they
were writ will assure them to be Sir Henry Wotton's."

A very interesting letter from Walton to his publisher, Marriott,
dated at Winchester on the 24th August 1673, which is now for
the first time printed, proves that the weight of eighty years had
had slight effect upon his mental or bodily powers. He was then,
it appears, employed in collecting particulars of the Life of the
celebrated John Hales of Eton ; and purposed visiting London
in the ensuing October. The information about Hales was inten-
ded for William Fulman, the author of the " Notitia Oxoniensis
Academise," who was one of Gale's assistants in the " Rerum
Anghcarum Scriptores."

** Mr Marriott, — I have received Bentevolio, and in it Mr Her^ life ;
I thank you for both. I have since I saw you received from Mr Milington
so much of Mr Hales his life as Mr Faringdon had writ ; and have made
many inquiries concerning him of many that knew him, namely of Mrs
Powny, of Windsor (at whose house he died), and as I have heard, so
have set them down, that my memoiy might not lose them. Mr Montague
did at my being in Windsor promise me to summon his memory, and set
down what he knew of him. This I desired him to do at his best leisure,
and write it down, and he that knew him and all his affairs best of any

^T. 80.] LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON, Ixxxi

man is like to do it very well, because I think he will do it affectionately,
so that if Mr Fulnian makes his queries concerning that part of his life
spent in Oxford, he will have many, and good, I mean true informations
from Mr Faringdon, till he came thither, and by me and my means since
he came to Eton.

**This I write that you may inform Mr Fulman of it, and I pray let him
know I will not yet give over my queries ; and let him know that I hope
to meet him and the Parliament in health and in London in October, and
then and there deliver up my collections to him. In the meantime I wish
him and you health ; and pray let him know it either by your writing to
him, or sending him this of mine. — God keep us all in His favour, his and
your friend to serve you, IZAAK WALTON.®

* Winchester, 24th August 1673."

Walton's memoranda respecting Hales, which will be found in
the notes, are dated on the 28th of October following, when, it
may be inferred from his letter, he was in London. Some of the
facts there stated are new and curious, especially the account of
the portrait of Hales, painted after his death by Anne Lady Howe,
who was the sister of Henry King, Bishop of Chichester, and
married, first, John Button, of Sherborne, Esq., and secondly. Sir
Richard Howe, Bart. Walton describes her as " a most generous
and ingenious lady ; " he mentions her in his will ; and she was
probably one of his oldest friends.

The tenth edition of Herbert's poem entitled " The Temple,*'
of which Walton stated in 1670 that more than twenty thousand
copies had been sold, ^ was published in 1674 ; and his " Life of
Herbert" was then, for the first time, prefixed to it. In the
following year, the Lives of Donne, Wotton, Hooker, and Herbert,
were reprinted, ^ upon which occasion Charles^iTottQii wrote a
poem dated on the 17th of January 1672-3, addresse^~''To my
old and most worthy friend, Mr Izaak Walton, on his Life of Dr
Donne, &c.," which contains so many allusions to Walton, and is
so pleasing a composition, that it could not, with propriety, be .
either omitted or abridged.

•• To MY OLD AND MOST WORTHY FrieND Mr IzAAK WaLTON, ON HIS LiFK OF

Dr Donne, &c

When, to a nation's loss, the virtuous die.
There's justly due, from every hand and eye.
That can or write, or weep, an elegy.

8 Fulman's MSS. vol. xii. in Corpus Christi College, Oxford.

* Walton's Lives, ed. Zouch ii. 119.

1 The edition of 1675 is called, in the title-pafje. " the Fourth ;" but it was only the
second collected edition of the Lives; the intermediate editions being respectively pre-
fixed to Donne's Sermons, Reliquise Wottonianae, Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, and
Herbert's Temple.

Ixxxii LIFE OF IZAAK WALTOK [i6;

Which though it be the poorest, cheapest way.
The debt we owe, great merits to defray,
Yet it is almost all that most men pay.

And these are monuments of so short date,
That, with their birth, they oft receive their fate ;
Dying with those whom they would celebrate.

And though to verse great reverence is due,
Yet what most poets write, proves so untrue,
It renders truth in verse suspected too.

Something more sacred then, or more entire.

The memories of virtuous men require,

Than what may with their funeral torch expire :

This History can give ; to which alone

The privilege to mate oblivion

Is granted, when denied to brass and stone.

11 Wherein, my friend, you have a hand so sure,
In Your truths so candid are, your style so pure,
f I That what you write may envy's search endure.

Your pen, disdaining to be brib'd or prest.

Flows without vanity or interest ;

A virtue with which few good pens are blest.

How happy was my father, then, to see
Those men he lov'd, by him he loy'd, to be
Rescued from frailties and mortality.

Wotton and Donne, to whom his soul was knit :
Those twins of virtue, eloquence, and wit.
He saw in fame's eternal annals writ ;

Where one has fortunately found a place.
More faithful to him than his marble was : '
Which eating age, nor fire, shall e'er deface.

A monument, that, as it has, shall last,
And prove a monument to that defac'd ;
Itself, but with the world not to be raz'd.

And even, in their flowery characters, ,.

My father's grave part of your friendship shares ;

For you have honour'd his in strewing theirs.

Thus, by an office, though particular.
Virtue's whole common weal obliged are ;
For in a virtuous act all good men share.

And by this act the world is taught to know.
That the true friendship we to merit owe
Is not discharg'd by compliment and show.

But your's is friendship of so pure a kind.
For all mean ends and interest so refined,
It ought to be a pattern to mankind :

For whereas most men's friendships here beneath.
Do perish with their friend's expiring breath,,
Yours proves a friendship living after death ;

By which the generous Wotton, reverend Donne,
Soft Herbert, and the Church's champion,
Hooker, are rescued from oblivion.

* His monument in St Paul's Church, before the late dreadful fire, 1665.

^.T. 80.] LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. Ixxxiii

For though they each of them his time so spent,

As rais'd unto himself a monument,

With which ambition might rest well content ;

Yet their great works, though they can never die,

And are in truth superlatively high,

Are no just scale to take their virtues by;

Because they show not how the Almighty's grace,
By various and more admirable ways.
Brought them to be the organs of his praise.

But what their humble modesty would hide.
And was by any other means denied,
Is by your love and diligence supplied.

Wotton — a nobler soul was never bred ! —
You, by your narrative's most even thread,
Through all his labyrinths of life have led ;

Through his degrees of honour, and of arts,
Brought him secure from envy's venom'd darts,
Which are still levell'd at the greatest parts ;

* Through all the employments of his wit and spirit.

Whose great effects these kingdoms still inherit ;
The trials then, now trophies of his merit.

Nay, through disgrace, which oft the worthiest have ;
Through all state tempests, through each wind and wave.
And laid him in an honourable grave.

And yours, and the whole world's beloved Donne,
When he a long and wild career had run
To the meridian of his glorious sun ;

And being then an object of much ruth,
Led on by vanities, error and youth,
Was long ere he did find the way of truth ;

By the same clue, after his youthful swing.
To serve at his God's altar here you bring,
Where once a wanton muse doth anthems sing.

And though by God's most powerful grace alone

His heart was settled in religion :

Yet 'tis by you we know how it was done ;

And know, that having crucified vanities,
And fix'd his hope, he clos'd up his own eye«.
And then your friend a saint and preacher dies.

The meek and learned Hooker too, almost
In the Church's ruins overwhelmed and lost.
Is, by your pen, recover 'd from the dust.

And Herbert ; — he whose education,
. Manners, and parts, by high applauses blown.
Was deeply tainted with ambition ;

And fitted for a court, made that his aim ;
At last, without regard to birth or name,
For a poor country cure does all disclaim ;

Where, with a soul, composed of harmoni-s.
Like a sweet swan, he warbles as he dies,
His Maker's praise, and his own obsequies.

IxxxLv LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. [1673,

All this you tell us, with so good success,

That our oblig'd posterity <shall profess

To have been your friend, was a great happiness.

And now, when many worthier would be proud
To appear before you, if they were allow'd,
I take up room enough to serve a crowd :

Where, to commend what you have choicely writ,
Both my poor testimony and my wit
Are equally invalid and unfit :

Yet this, and much more, is most justly due :
Where what I write as elegant as true.
To the best friend I now or ever knew.

But, my dear friend, tis so, that you and I,

Bv a condition of mortality.

With all this great and more proud world, must die :

In which estate, I ask no more of fame,

Nor other monument of honour claim,

Thau that of your true friend to advance my name.

And if your many merits shall have bred

An abler pen, to write your life when dead ; «

I think an honester can not be read. Charles Cotton.

Jan. 17, 1672.

One of these verses show that Cotton's father was also a friend
of Walton's ; and the feeling manner in which the author men-
tions his own friendship for him, by calling him " the best friend
I now or ever knew," is the more striking, from his having
afterwards used nearly the same words in the second part of
" The Complete Angler," where he says, " I have the happiness
to know his person, and to be intimately acquainted with him ;
and in him to know the worthiest man, and to enjoy the best and
the truest friend any man ever had."

It is rather singular that Walton should nowhere allude to his
only surviving son and daughter, during their childhood, for it
might have been expected that he would have frequently spoken
of their being with him, and of their education. His attachment
to the Church of England, and the prospect of preferment which
his intimacy with the Bishop of Winchester and other prelates
afforded, naturally induced him to destine his son for holy orders ;
and his veneration for the sacred profession, added to the per-
sonal esteem which he felt for Dr William Hawkins, one of the
prebends of Winchester, made him yield a ready assent to the
marriage of his daughter Anne to that gentleman, which took
place some time before the year 1678, Young Izaak Walton is
supposed to have been educated by his maternal uncle, Thomas
Ken, 2 who obtained a stall in Winchester Cathedral, probably

* Bowles's Life of Ken, i. 23.

/ET. 80.] LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. Ixxxv

through the interest of his brother-in-law with Bishop Morley, in
April 1 669. At a proper age the young Izaak was removed to Christ
Church, of which his father's friend, Dr Fell, was master ; ^ and
in 1675, the year of the great Papal jubilee, Ken and his nephew
visited Rome, Venice, and other parts of Italy ; but the following
passage in Cotton's treatise on fly-fishing shows that he returned
early in the ensuing year. When asked by Venator, " if young
Master Izaac Walton " had been at Beresford, Piscator replied,
" Aye, marry has he, Sir ! and that again and again too, and in
France since, and at Rome, and at Venice, and I can't tell where;
but I intend to ask him a great many hard questions so soon as I
can see him, which will be, God willing, next month." In March
1675-6, young Walton proceeded M.A. at Christ Church; and
though the date of his ordination is not stated, it probably took
place about that time ; and the pleasure with which his aged
father saw him enter upon his holy office may readily be con-
ceived.

Some account of Walton's plans in the year 1676 occur in the
fifth edition of " The Complete Angler," which appeared in that
year. Eight years had elapsed since the former impression ; and
during that time he had ample leisure to give to his work the
improvements of which he considered it susceptible. It is, how-
ever, questionable whether the additions which he then made to
it have increased its interest. The garrulity and sentiments of an
octogenarian are very apparent in some of the alterations ; and
the subdued colouring of religious feeling which prevails through-
out the former editions, and forms one of the charms of the piece,
is, in this impression, so much heightened, as to become almost
obtrusive. For example, the interpolation in the last chapter,
immediately after Venator's recipe for colouring rods ^ is, in fact,
a religious essay, filled with trite reflections and scriptural quota-
tions ; whilst the digression on monsters,^ and the introduction of
the milkmaids' second song,"^ which contains the only objectionable
allusion in the book, are not in Walton's usual good taste.

Thinking that the work was defective in one branch of the art,
Walton applied to his friend Charles Cotton, whom he had known
for a great many years, to furnish a treatise on fly-fishing. Cotton
promised to comply with his wishes ; but he omitted to fulfil his
engagement, until he was reminded, towards the end of February
1676, that the treatise was wanted for the new edition of "The

* Bowles's Life of Ken, i. 23; 6 ibid. pp. 303-308.

* Ibid. p. 61. 7 Ibid. p. 121-

Ixxxvi LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. [1676,

Complete Angler," which was then in the press. Little more
than ten days were allowed him for the purpose, at the end of
which he had completed' the task. His letter to Walton, which
"^accompanied the manuscript, was written at Beresford, on the loth
of March 1676 ; and a printed copy of his treatise was returned
to him, with an answer, dated at London on the 29th of the
following month. Cotton, who is the Piscator of his own dia-
logue, observes, that Walton had lately written to say that he
doubted whether he could visit him in the ensuing summer ; but
he informed Cotton in the letter just mentioned, which was
written some weeks afterwards, that although he was then more
than one hundred miles from him, and in the eighty-third year of
his age, yet he would forget both, and in the next month. May,
begin a pilgrimage to see him. It is therefore likely that Walton
spent some weeks at Beresford, in May and June 1676 ; and he
was possibly induced to change his mind by going there, in con-
sequence of business having brought him to London, by which
journey he was drawn much nearer to Derbyshire, The intimacy
which existed between Walton and Cotton is well known to every
reader of " The Complete Angler." Their literary, no less than their
piscatory pursuits, were alike ; and it is easy to believe that the
author of the beautiful " Stanzas Irregulier " must have possessed
a disposition with which Walton's perfectly harmonised. At an
early period of their intimacy. Cotton designated him his " father,"
and styled himself his " son," a practice which was then very
common between parties whose pursuits were congenial, when the
younger received instructions in them from the elder, and when it
was desired to give the most affectionate character to their associa-
tion.

Walton frequently visited Cotton at Beresford during the spring
and summer months, sometimes alone, and at others accompanied
by his son or by a friend. Not long before the year 1676 Cotton
built a little fishing-house on the Staffordshire side of the banks of
the Dove, where the windings of the river form a small peninsula.^

8 The state of the fishing-house was thus described by a visitor in 1824:— "Just above
the Pike, a small wooden foot-bridge leads over the stream towards Hartshorn, in
Derbyshire ; it bears the date of 1818, but is merely the successor of one more ancient,
as is evident from Piscator's saying, ' Cross the bridge, and go down the other side.'
Somewhat higher up on the Staffordshire 'bank, the windings of the river form a small
peninsula, on which stands the far-famed fishing-house ; but alas ! how changed since
the time when, in the words of Venator, 'it was finely wainscoted, with a marble table
in the middle, and all exceeding neat.' The stone slaljs which compose the floor are
partly broken up, the windows are entirely destroyed, the doors decaying, and without
fastenings, the roof is dilapidated, and the vane which surmounts it is rusty, and nodding
jto its fall. The fireplace alone remains in good preservation. Hawkins tells us that
'the exterior was formerly adorned with paintings, in fresco, of Cotton, Walton, and the

^T. 83.] LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. Ixxxvii

In commemoration of their friendship Cotton caused a stone to be
placed in the centre of the buildings, with the initials of his own
and Walton's name conjoined in a cypher, a representation of
which was introduced, agreeably to Cotton's request, in the title-
page of his part of " The Complete Angler." This stone, which
no true disciple of the venerable Piscator can contemplate with
indifference, was erected between Walton's last visit to Beresford,
and that which he is supposed to have paid Cotton in May 1676;
but he had seen and approved of it before it was deposited in its
place. The fishing-house and stone are thus described by Cotton :
" My house stands upon the margin of one of the finest rivers for
trouts and grayling in England ; I have lately built a little fishing-
house upon it, dedicated to anglers, over the door of which you
will see the two first letters of my father Walton's name and mine
twisted in cypher." ^ In one of Cotton's poems the fishing-house
is also mentioned : —

"My river still through the same channel glides.
Clear from the tumult, salt, and dirt of tides,
And my poor Fishing-house, my seat's best grace,
Stands firm and faithful in the self-same place.

Walton says of the beautiful scenery near the fishing-house,
that " the pleasantness of the river, mountains, and meadows
about it cannot be described, unless Sir Philip Sydney or Mr
Cotton's father were again alive to do it." ^ •

The Viator of Cotton's dialogue is the Venator of " The Complete
Angler," and opportunities are thereby afforded for introducing
eulogiums on Walton's character. For instance, when Viator
asks Piscator his opinion of " The Complete Angler," he says,
" My opinion of Mr Walton's book is the same with every man's
that understands anything of the art of angling, that it is an
excellent good one ; and that the fore-mentioned gentleman
imderstands as much of fish and fishing as any man living. But
I must tell you, further, that I have the happiness to know his
person, and to be intimately acquainted with him ; and in him to
know the worthiest man, and to enjoy the best and truest friend
any man ever had : nay, I shall yet acquaint you further that he
gives me leave to call him father, and I hope is not yet ashamed

boy ; but these are entirely gone, and nought now decorates the walls, save the names
of various obscure individuals who have thought fit thus to record their having visited
the spot. The steps at the entrance are covered with weeds, and the well-known key-
stone (which, however, appears to be in a sound state), is so overspread with moss,
that the first word of the inscription is quite defaced."— Ceuilir/ftaus Magazitu, vol.

xcix. part ii. p. 31. ~- —

» Vide p. 226, postea. l Vide postea.

Ixxxviii LIBE OF IZAAK WALTON. [1676,

to own me for his adopted son." Venator replies, ''In earnest,
Sir, I am ravished to meet with a friend of Mr Izaac Walton's,
and one that does him so much right in so good and true a char-
acter : for I must boast to you, that I have the good fortune to
know him too, and came acquainted with him much after the
same manner I do with you ; that he was my master, who first
taught me to love angling, and then to become an angler ; and to
be plain with you, I am the very man deciphered in his book under
the name of Venator ; for he was wholly addicted to the chase,
till he taught me as good, a more quiet, innocent, and less
dangerous diversion." Piscator then observes, " Sir, I think
myself happy in your acquaintance ; and before we part shall
entreat leave to embrace you. You have said enough to
icommend you to my best opinion ; for my father Walton
dll be seen twice in no man's company he does not like, and likes
lone but such as he believes to be very honest men, which is one
lof the best arguments, or at least of the best testimonies I have,
'that I either am, or that he thinks me one of those, seeing I have
not yet found him weary of me." Viator rejoins, " You speak
like a true friend, and in doing so render yourself worthy of his
friendship."

To these flattering expressions Walton thus alluded in his letter
to Cotton : 2 — "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 mc tell you. Sir, that I
will really endeavour 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."

The comp'limentary verses prefixed to the former editions of " The
Complete Angler" were augmented in the fifth, by a Latin Iambic
ode from the pen of Dr James Duport, the Greek professor at
Cambridge, who had contributed a similar testimony of his esteem
on the pubHcation of the Life of Herbert. Dr Zouch has inserted
a very elegant translation of these verses, in his Life of Walton,
from the pen of the Rev. James Tate, one of the canon residen-
tiaries of St Paul's; and it is impossible to refrain from following his
example : —

* Vide p. 218, postea.

^T. 83.]

LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON:

Ixxxix

' Hail, Walton 1 honoured friend of

mine,
Hail ! mighty Master of the Line !
Whether down some valley's side
You walk to watch the smooth stream

glide,
Or on the flowery margin stand
To cheat the fish with cunning hand.
Or on the green bank, seated still.
With quick eye guard the dancnis? quill.
Thrice happy sage ! who, distant far
From the wrangling forum's war,
From the city's bustling train.
From the busy hum of men,
Haunt some gentle stream, and ply
Your honest crafts, to lure the fry :
And while the world around you set
The base decoy and treacherous net,
Man against man, th' insidious wile.
Or, the rich dotard to beguile.
Bait high with gifts the smiling hook
All gilt with Flattery's sweetest look ;
Arm'd for the innocent deceit.
You love the scaly brood to cheat.
And tempt that water-wolf, the pike.
With ravning tooth his prey to strike.
Or in the minnow's living head
Or in the writhed brandling red
Fix your well-charged hook, to gull
The greedy perch, bold biting fool.
Or with the tender moss-worm tried
Win the nice trout's speckled pride.
Or on the carp, whose wary eye
Admits no vulgar tackle nigh,
Essay your art's supreme address,
And beat the fox in sheer finesse :
The tench, physician of the brook,
Owns the magic of your hook,
The little gudgeon's thoughtless haste
Yields a brief yet sweet repast.
And the whisker'd barbel pays
His coarser bulk to swell your praise.
Such the amusement of your hours.
While the season aids your powers ;
Nor shall my friend a single day
E'er pass without a line away.

Nor these alone your honours bound
The tricks experience has found ;
Sublimer theory lifts your name
Above the fisher's simple fame.
And in the practice you excel
Of what none else can teach as well.
Wielding at once with equal skill
The useful powers of either quill.
With all that winning grace of style,
What else were tedious, to beguile,
A second Oppian, you impart
The secrets of the Angling art.
Each fish's nature, and how best
To fit the bait to every taste,
Till in the scholar, that you train,
The accomplish'd master lives again.
And yet your pen aspires above
The maxims of the art you love ;
Tho' virtues, faintly tau&iht by rule,
Are better learnt in Angling's school.
Where Temperance, that drinks the rill.
And Patience, sovereign over ill.
By many an active lesson bought.
Refine the soul, and steel the thought
Far higher truths you love to start.
To train us to a nobler art,
And in the lives of good men pive
That chiefest lesson, how to live ;
While Hooker, philosophic sage,
Becomes the wonder of your page,
Or while we see combin d in one
The wit and the divine in Donne,
Or while the poet and the priest.
In Herbert's sainted form confest.
Unfold the temple's holy maze
That awes and yet invites our gaze :
Worthies these of pious name
From your portraying pencil claim
A second life, and strike anew
With fond delight the admiring view.
And thus at once the peopled brook
Submits its captives to your hook,
And we, the wiser sons of men.
Yield to the magic of your pen.
While angling on some streamlet's brink
The muse and you combine to think."

Besides the " Contentation *' ' and the " Retirement," * which in
natural pathos and moral feeling have perhaps never been excelled,
Cotton addressed the following invitation to Walton to renew their
piscatory sports in the ensuing May ; but the year in which these
verses were written is not mentioned : —

r

Whilst in this cold and blust'ring clime.
Where bleak winds howl and tempests roar,
We pass away the roughest time
Has been of many years before ;

Whilst from the most tempestuous nooks
The chille-<t blasts our peace invade.
And by great rains our smallest brooks
Are almost navigable made ;

• Vide antea.

Vide p. 819, postea.

xc LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. [1678,

Whilst all the ills are so improv'd
Of this dead quarter of the year,
That even you, so much belov'd,
/ We would not now wish with us here ;

In this estate, I say, it is

Some comfort to us to suppose.

That in a better clime than this

You, our dear friend, have more repose ;

And some delight to me the while.
Though nature does now weep in rain,
To think that I have seen her smile,
And haply may I do again.

If the all-ruling Power please
We live to see another May,
We'll recompense an age of these
Foul days in one fine fishing-day ;

We then shall have a day or two.
Perhaps a week, wherein to try,
What the best Master's hand can do
With the most deadly killing fly.

A day without too bright a beam,
A warm but not a scorching sun,
A southern gale to curl the stream,
And, Master, half our work is done.

There whilst behind some bush we wait,
The scaly people to betray,
We'll prove it just, with treach'rous bait,
To make the preying trout our prey ;

And think ourselves in such an hour
Happier than those, though not so high.
Who, like leviathans, devour
Of meaner men, the smaller fry.

This, my best friend, at my poor home
Shall be our pastime and our theme ;
But then should you not deign to come,
You make all this a flatt'ring dream." ^

Notwithstanding Walton's very advanced age might, as he him-
self says, have procured him " a writ of ease," he continued to
employ himself in literary pursuits ; and at a period of life to
which few men attain, and at which still fewer are capable of
intellectual exertion, he commenced the Life of Robert Sanderson,
Bishop of Lincoln, a work requiring as much vigour of mind as
any he had written, and which he completed with equal success.
The volume was pubhshed about May 1678,^ and like the Memoir
of Hooker, and the collected edition of the Lives of Donne, Wotton,
Hooker, and Herbert, was inscribed to Dr Morley, whose continued
favours demanded a new testimony of his gratitude. As this was
Walton's last work, and as whatever relates to him at so advanced

5 Cotton's Poems, ed. 1689, p. 114.

^ The imprimatur is dated on the 7th of May 1678.

^T. 85.] LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON, xci

a stage of his existence is of peculiar interest, everything which
occurs in it illustrative of his own feelings or situation will be here
introduced.

The dedication commences with an acknowledgment of Bishop
Morley's kindness ; and shows that through Morley he had become
acquainted with Sanderson, Chillingworth, and Dr Hammond : —

"My Lord, — If I should undertake to enumerate the many favours and
advantages I have had by my very long acquaintance with your lordship, I
should enter upon an employment that might prove as tedious as the col-
lecting of the materials for this poor monument, which I have erected, and
do dedicate to the memory of your beloved friend Dr Sanderson. But
though I will not venture to do that ; yet I do remember with pleasure,
and remonstrate with gratitude, that your lordship made me known to him,
Mr Chillingworth, and Dr Hammond, men whose merits ought never to
be forgotten. My friendship with the first was begun almost forty years
past, when I was as far from a thought, as a desire to outlive him ; and
farther from an intention to write his life : but the wise Disposer of all men's
lives and actions hath prolonged the first, and now permitted the last ;
which is here dedicated to your lordship (and as it ought to be) with all
humility, and a desire that it may remain as a public testimony of my
gratitude. — My Lord, your most affectionate old Friend, and most
humble Servant, • Izaak Walton."

In the preface Walton says : " I confess " the Life of Dr Sander-
son "was worthy the employment of some person of more learning
and greater abilities than I can pretend to ; and I have not a little
wondered that none have yet been so grateful to him and posterity
as to undertake it : for as it may be noted, that our Saviour had a
care, that for Mary Magdalen's kindness to him, her name should
never be forgotten : so I conceive the great satisfaction many
scholars have already had, and the unborn world is like to have
by his exact, clear, and useful learning ; and might have by a true
narrative of his matchless meekness, his calm fortitude, and the
innocence of his whole life : doth justly challenge the like from this
present age ; that posterity may not be ignorant of them : and it
is to me a wonder, that it has been already fifteen years neglected.
But, in saying this, my meaning is not to upbraid others ( I am far
from that) but excuse myself, or beg pardon for daring to attempt
it. This being premised, I desire to tell the reader that in this
relation I have been so bold, as to paraphrase and say what I
think he (whom I had the happiness to know well) would have
said upon the same occasions ; and if I have been too bold in doing
so, and cannot now beg pardon of him that loved me, yet I do of
my reader, from whom I desire the same favour. And though my
age might have procured me a writ of case, and that secured m^

xcii LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. [1678,

from all further trouble in this kind ; yet I met with such per-
suasions to undertake it, and so many willing informers since, and
from them and others, such helps and encouragements to proceed,
that when I found myself faint, and weary of the burthen with
which I had loaden myself, and sometime ready to lay it down ;
yet time and new strength hath at last brought it to be what it
now is, and here presented to the reader.

" And lastly, the trouble being now past, I look back a^nd am
glad that I have collected these memoirs of this humble man,
which lay scattered, and contracted them into a narrower compass ;
and, if I have, by the pleasant toil of doing so, either pleased or
profited any man, I have attained what I designed when I first
undertook it : but I seriously wish, both for the reader's, and Dr
Sanderson's sake, that posterity had known his great learning
and virtue by a better pen ; by such a pen, as could have made
his life as immortal as his learning and merits ought to be."

Having stated that Sanderson had, during a period of distress,
received a sum of money from the learned Boyle through the
hands of Dr Barlow, then Bishop of , Lincoln, .Walton solicited*
that prelate to relate the circumstance, and to give him any other
information in his power respecting Sanderson, with which request
he complied, in a letter to Walton, dated on the loth of May
1678, which is annexed to the memoir. Bishop Barlow, who
addressed htm as " My worthy friend Mr Walton," expressed his
satisfaction that he had undertaken to write Sanderson's life,
" because," he said, " I know your ability to know, and integrity
to write truth," and he subscribed himself, " your affectionate
friend."

When writing the account of Bishop Sanderson's death, Walton
seems to have been very deeply impressed with -the close approach
of his own ; and he concluded the memoir with this allusion to
that event : " Thus this pattern of meekness and primitive inno-
cence changed this for a better life. 'Tis now too late to wish
that my Hfe may be like his ; for I am in the eighty-fifth year of
my age ; but I humbly beseech Almighty God that my death
may ; and do as earnestly beg of every reader to say Amen.
* Blessed is the man in whose spirit there is no guile.' Ps. xxxii.
2."

When the Life of Sanderson was reprinted and prefixed to the
'Bishop's Sermons,'' Walton made those corrections which in the

7 On that occasion the above passage was slightly altered, as it there stands .•«—
"Thus this pattern of meekness and primitive innocence changed this for a better

^T. 85.] LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. xciii

postscript to the first edition he says he then wished to have done,
but was prevented by the manuscript being hastened from him.
To the edition of Sanderson's Life which was printed in 1678,
Walton added a letter which he had received from Dr Pierce,
dated at North Tidworth, 5th March 1678, in which he addressed
him as " Good Mr Walton," on the subject of Sanderson's corre-
spondence, and referred him to some materials for his life of that
prelate.

A copy of Bishop Sanderson's Sermons which belonged to
Walton is preserved, and was probably the one which is mentioned
in his will. In the title-page its original owner has written
" Izaak Walton, June 25°, 1658, price I5^" Numerous passages
of the celebrated preface to the " Fourteen Sermons" are marked
by him, because they expressed opinions similar to his own.
Several marginal notes occur, containing the names of the persons
to whom Sanderson alluded, and he has copied at length all the
texts which are referred to. At the end of the preface to the
" Twenty Sermons," Walton has written, " This Preface is an
humble and bold challenge to the dissenting brethren of the Clergy
of England : And was writ by that humble and good man the
author, in the times of persecution and danger ; " and in his Life
of Sanderson he alludes to it in very similar terms.^

About the year 1678, Walton determined on publishing a poem
entitled " Thealma and Clearchus," a pastoral history " in smooth
and easy verse," which had been written many years before by
John Chalkhill, Esq., "an acquaintant and friend of Edmund
Spencer." Walton's preface is dated on the 7th of May 1678,
though the first edition of the poem which has been discovered,
was not printed until 1 683. The reprint of Thealma and Clearchus
in 1820 exhibits an amusing specimen of critical sagacity, as it is
therein gravely asserted that " Chalkhill is but a name unappro-
priated— a verbal phantom — a shadow of a shade," and the author-
ship of the poem is attributed to Walton himself;® whereas an

life : — 'tis now too late to wish that mine may be like his: for I am in the eighty-fifth
year of my age ; and God knows it hath not ; but I most humbly beseech Almighty
God that my death may : and I do as earnestly beg, that if any reader shall receive any
satisfaction from this very plain, and as true relation, he will be so charitable as to say
Amen. I. W.

" Blessed is that nian in whose spirit there is no guile. Ps. xxxii. 2."

8 Ed. Zouch, vol. ii. p. 250.

» This hyi>othesis has been adopted in the Retrospective Review (vol. iv. p. 231), in
Major's edition of the " Complete Angler," and was even exaggerated in a long note to
an edition of Zouch's Life of Walton, published by Prowett in 1823. Its fallacy was
first exposed by the late Archdeacon Nares, in the Gentleman's Magazine, upon the
grounds of its extreme improbability, and that such a deception was utterly inconsistent
with Walton's character. Mr Nares noticed the monumental inscription • to John

xciv LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. [1678,

elaborate pedigree, which has been recently compiled, proves not
only the existence of numerous persons of that name, but shows
that Thomas Ken, the father of Mrs Walton, chose his second
wife from the Chalkhill family. This connection may have been
the cause of the manuscript of the poem having fallen into Walton's
hands, and it is very probable that he knew the author, as he has
described him with some care, and introduced two of his songs into
the " Complete Angler." There is, however, much difficulty in
deciding which of the John or Jon Chalkhills mentioned in the
pedigree was the poet. He may have been the father of Mrs Ken,
or more probably was the John Chalkhill, a M.A., whose filiation
has not been ascertained, but who was for forty-six years fellow of
Winchester College, and died on the 20th of May 1679, ^t the age
ofeighty.i The following is Walton's preface to Thealma and
Clearchus : —

"The reader will find in this book what the title declares, a Pastoral
History in smooth and easy verse ; and will in it find many hopes and
fears finely painted and feelingly expressed. And he will find the first so
often disappointed, when fullest of desire and expectation ; and the latter
so often, so strangely, and so unexpectedly relieved by an unforeseen Provi-
dence, as may beget in him wonder and amazement. And the reader will
here also meet with passions heightened by easy and fit descriptions of joy
and sorrow ; and find also such various events and rewards of innocent
truth and undissembled honesty, as is like to leave in him (if he be a good-
natured reader) more sympathising and virtuous impressions, than ten
times so much time spent in impertinent, critical, and needless disputes
about religion : and I heartily wish it may do so.

* ' And I have also this truth to say of the author, that he was in his

Chalkhill, the fellow of Winchester College, mentioned above, but he was not aware of
the connection between the families of Chalkhill and Ken. Of that person Mr Nares
observed : —

" In the south cloister of Winchester Cathedral is, or was very lately, a monument to
a John Chalkhill of that very period, a fellow of Winchester College, whose character,
as given in the inscription, singularly accords with part of that given by Walton.

H. S. E.

Joan. Chalkhill, A.M. hujus CoU'ii Annos 46 Socius, Vir, quoad vixit, Solitudine et
Silentio, Temperantia et Castitate, Orationibus et Eleemosynis, Contemplatione et
Sanctimonia, Ascetis vel primitivis par : qui cum a Parvulo in Regnum Coelorum Viam
fecit, Octogenarius rapuit, 20 die Maij, 1679.

" Now as Walton died at Winchester in the prebendal house of his son-in-law Dr
Hawkins, which probably he had always been accustomed to visit, so attached was he
to his daughter and her husband, he doubtless personally knew and much esteemed this
Mr Chalkhill ; and knew of him all that he expressed in his eulogy.

"The only objection that I perceive, arises from the date (1678) subjoined to Walton's
preface : that being the year previous to the death of Chalkhill, according to the monu-
ment. The probability is that this date has no reference to the preface, which was most
likely to be written near the time of the publication in 1683. It might, therefore, only
mark the time when the poem was put into Walton's hands by its author, being exactly
a year before his death. Be this as it may, I think we have here a memorial of the reaJ
John Chalkhill." Vide Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xciii. Part II. p. 419. '

» Ibid.

^T. 85.] LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON, xcv

time a man generally known, and as well beloved ; for he was humble and
obliging in his behaviour, a gentleman, a scholar, very innocent, and
prudent : and indeed his whole life was useful, quiet, and virtuous. God
send the story may meet with, or make, all readers like him.

I. W.
May 7, 1678."

But the most interesting part of the volume are the verses which
the poet Flatman addressed **to his worthy friend, Mr Isaac
Walton, on the publication of this poem," because they describe
the venerable Walton in the happiest manner, and are beyond
comparison the most elegant compliment ever paid to his
virtues : —

" Long had the bright Thealma lain obscure :
Her beauteous charms, that might the world allure,
Lay, like rough diamonds in the mine, unknown.
By all the sons of folly trampled on,
Till your kind hand unvcil'd her lovely face.
And gave her vigour to exert her rays.
Happy o!d man I whose worth all mankind knows,
Except himself: ' who charitably shows
The ready road to virtue and to praise.
The road' to many long and happy days.
The noble art of generous piety,
And how to compass irue felicity ;*
Hence did he learn the art* of living well ;
The bright I'healma was his oracle :
Inspired by her, he knows no anxious cares
Through 8 near a century of pleasant? jrears ;
Easy he lives, and cheerful 8 shall he die.
Well spoken of by late posterity.'
As long as Spenser's noolc flames shall burn,
And deep devotions throng about * his urn ;
As long as Chalkhill's venerable name
With humble emulation shall inflame
Ages to come, and swell* the rolls of fame :
Your memory shall ever be secure,
And long beyond our short-liv'd praise endure ;
As Phidias in Minerva's shield did live.
And shar'd that immortality he alone could give.

Tho. Flatmam.
June s, 1683."

It is not certain whether Walton resided entirely with Bishop
Morley after 1670, or divided his time between his son Izaak, his
daughter Mrs Hawkins, and the Bishop of Winchester ; but he
appears to have spent the Christmas of 1678 at Farnham Castle,
in Surrey, one of the Bishop's scats, as the following inscription in
a copy of the fifth edition of the "Complete Angler," which he gave
to Mrs Wallop, was dated there on the 19th of December in
that year : —

a The following variations occur in the edition of Flatman's Poems and Songs, printed
in 1686. Thyself. 3 Way. * An euthanasie.

* Skill. « In. 7 Happy. 8 Easy.

» On the soft bosom of eternity. » Shall attend. « Posterity, and fill the.

xcvi LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON". [1680,

" For Mrs Wallop, — I think I did some years past, send you a booke
of Angling : This is printed since, and I think better ; and, because
nothing that I can pretend a tytell too, can be too good for you : pray
accept of this also, from me that am really, Madam, yo"" most affectionate
friend ; and most humble servant, IZAAK WALTON.

Farnham Castell, Decem""- 19°- 1678."

The lady for whom Walton thus expressed so much esteem,
and to whom he bequeathed a ring, was Dorothy, the youngest
daughter and one of the co-heirs of John Bluet, of Holcomb Regis,
in Devonshire, Esq., and widow of Henry Wallop, of Farley, in
Hampshire, Esq., whose grandson, John Wallop, was created Vis-
count Lymington and Earl of Portsmouth. She died on the ist
of December 1702, aged seventy-two; and in the monumental
inscription to her memory it is said that, " To both which ancient
families, by her extraordinary prudence, moderation, piety, and
other eminent graces, she added great lustre," and " having had a
considerable share in those troubles and difficulties which attend
humanity, after a life of the wisest conduct with relation both to
temporal and spiritual matters, died as much like a Christian as
she lived ; and into the hands of her God, to whom she had long
paid a constant devotion, she meekly resigned her pious humble
soul." 3

It has been already observed that two letters on political affairs,
the one written in 1678, and the other in 1679, have been
attributed to Walton. But as the fact of their having been written
by him is not fully established, it is desirable to examine the ques-
tion with some attention.

In January 1668 a plan was proposed by Sir Orlando
Bridgeman, then Lord Keeper, for the compression of the more
moderate of the Dissenters from the Church, and allowing certain
indulgences to such as could not be brought within the compre-
hension. A bill for that purpose was prepared by Sir Matthew
Hale, but on being brought into the House of Commons, it
resolved not to adopt any measure of that description. The
rejection of the bill gave great offence to the Nonconformists ;
and Walton is said to have been the author of a letter dated on
the 1 8th of February in that year, which, with another on the same
subject written in September 1679, were printed in 1680 under
the title of " Love and Truth, in two modest and peaceable letters
concerning the distempers of the present times, written from a
quiet and comfortable citizen of London to two busy and factious

' Collins's Peerage, ed. 1779, vol. v. p. 194.

^,T. 86] LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. xcvii

shopkeepers in Coventry." These letters are assigned to Walton
upon the authority of the following memorandum in Archbishop
Sancroft's handwriting, which occurs in a copy of the tract in the
library of Emanuel College, Cambridge. " Is. Walton's 2 letters
cone. y° Distemp's of y^ Times 1680;" and as the Archbishop
was living and filled the see of Canterbury when they were published,
he is likely to have known who was the author. Dr Zouch, who
reprinted the tract, considers that the internal proofs bring
conviction with them, and that " the work is so like his temper of
mind, and his other writings, that all readers may readily conclude
it could flow only from his pen."

That there is a great resemblance to the style of Walton in
these letters, especially in the conclusion of the first, and in the
commencement as well as in great part of the second letter,
and that they express the opinions which he entertained, is not
denied ; but there are some circumstances which render it
very unlikely that they were written by him. There is a fictitious
plan in the publication which is inconsistent with Walton's
scrupulous regard for veracity, and straightforward adherence to
fact. The editor of the tract, or, as he calls himself, " the pub-
lisher," appears to have been a distinct person from the author of
the letters ; but if any part of the work was written by Walton,
the address from the publisher to the stationer may be attributed
to him, because it bears as strong a resemblance to his style as
the letters themselves. In that address, which is dated on the
29th of May 1680, the writer says : —

•* TO MR HENRY BROME IN ST PAUL's CHURCHYARD, LONDON.

**SiR, — I here send you two letters (the first writ in the year 1667),
both writ by a prudent and conformable quiet citizen of London, to two
brothers, that now are, or were zealous, and busy shopkeepers in Coventry ;
to which place I came lately, and by accident met with a grave divine, who
commended them to my reading : and having done what he desired, I
thought them to speak so much real truth, and clear reason, and both so
lovingly and so plainly, that I thought them worth my transcribing ; and
now, upon second thoughts, think ihem worth printing, in order to the
unbeguiling many men that mean well, and yet have been too busy in
meddling, and decrying things they understand not. Pray, get them to be
read by some person of honesty and judgment : and if he shall think as I
do, then let them be printed ; for I hope they may turn somewhat to your
own profit, but much more to the benefit of any reader that has been mis-
taken, and is willing to be unbeguiled. — God keep you, Sir, your Friend,

N. N.*

May 29, 16S0."

4 T'iis signature has been attributed to johN seldeN.

xcviii LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. [1680,

If this address was written by Walton, it would seem that he
was only the ediio}', and not the author of the letters ; and there
is no other difficulty in considering this to be the case than the
circumstance of the tract not being printed by his friend Marriott,
who was then living, and who printed all his other works. With
respect to the authorship of the letters, it is to be observed that
they are both signed " R. W,," instead of" J. W.," or with Walton's
more usual abbreviation of his names, " Iz. Wa. ; " that no other
instance is known of his having used an imaginary signature ; and
that as the writer was personally acquainted with the parties
addressed, and even alludes to a conversation which he had with
one of them the evening before the date of his first letter, it would
be absurd to suppose that he would affix to them any other initials
than his own. On the other hand, it may be contended that the
two shopkeepers were supposititious persons ; or that before the
letters were sent to press, the incongruities above mentioned were
purposely made to conceal the author. These hypotheses are,
however, opposed by the internal evidence which the letters bear
of having been really written under the circumstances described :
by the fact that even the most trifling artifice ^ or simulation
was repugnant to Walton's disposition ; and that no reasonable
cause can be assigned for his wishing to conceal that these letters
proceeded from his pen, if he was the author of them. He was
then nearly eighty-seven years of age, and must have been too
indifferent to the world's praise or censure to have had recourse,
for the first time in his life, to anything which bore the appearance
of deception. Against these reasons for disbelieving that Walton
wrote the letters, there is nothing except a similarity of style, and
the memorandum of Archbishop Bancroft ; but the former is
always uncertain evidence ; and the latter may be explained by
Walton's having merely caused them to be printed, or by a
rumour respecting the authorship which might be unfounded.

The question has, however, been sufficiently discussed ; and it
is only necessary to add, that if Walton was the author of these
letters, and they were actually written under the circumstances
mentioned in them, it would appear that he was at Coventry in
February 1668 ; that the two factious shopkeepers were brothers,
and his cousins ; that the one to whom the first letter was
addressed died before the second was written ; and that they and

5 Archdeacon Nares well observed, in reference to the authorship of "Thealmaand
Clearchus," _ " Let him not be made answerable for what he did not write, and for artifices
of fiction which he would surely have considered as nothing less than dishonest."— Gentle-
man's Magazine, vol. xciii. part ii. p. 419.

JET. 86.] LIFE OF IZAAK IVALTO^T. xcix

he were related to a " Mrs B," whose uncle and father were active
Presbyterians.

In 1 68 1 Walton had the satisfaction of seeing his son, who
was then chaplain to Dr Seth Ward, Bishop of Salisbury, provided
for by presentation to the living of Polshot in Wiltshire ; and as
liis only daughter had long been happily married, the evening of
his days was undisturbed by painful cares for his family.

Though extreme old age and the solemn reflections which
ought to attend it, may have alienated Walton from his literary
pursuits, he had not, even when verging on his ninetieth year,
altogether abandoned them. Nor had bodily infirmities prevented
him from travelling ; for it appears that he was at Farnham
Castle on the 26th of May 1683, from which place he wrote to
Anthony Wood in reply to an inquiry respecting the death of
Doctor Aylmer.*' He soon afterwards returned to Winchester;
and it seems that he never again left that city.

On the 9th of August following Walton completed his nine-
tieth year, on which day he commenced his will ; and as it is a
record of his religious sentiments, and contains the last testimony
of his affection for his family, and esteem for his numerous friends,
that document is far from being the least interesting production of
his pen. He appears to have been seven days engaged on the
subject ; for though his will was commenced on the 9th, it was
not finished until the i6th of August ; and was not executed until
the 24th of October following. It is written throughout in his
own hand, with several erasures ; and the following is, as nearly
as possible, a literal copy of the original. The seal attached to it
is the one which was given to him by Dr Donne, containing the
Saviour extended on an anchor : —

"August the 90, 1683.

" In the name of God Amen. I Izaak Walton the elder of Winchester,
being this present day in the neintyeth yeare of my age and in perfect
memory for wich praysed be God : but Considering how sodainly I may
be deprived of boeth doe therfore make this my last will and testament as
folio weth. And first I doe [declare] my beleife to be that their is only one
God who hath made the whole world and me and all mankinde to whome
I shall give an account of all my actions which are not to be justified, but
I hope pardoned for the merits of my saviour Jesus. — And because [the
profession of]^ Cristianity does at this time, seime to be subdevided into
papist and protestant, I take it to be at least convenient to declare my
beleife to be in all poynts of faith, as the Church of England now pro-

6 Athen. Oxon. by Bliss, iii. 957.

7 The words within brackets are interlineations.

c LIFE OF IZ A AK WALTON. [1683,

fcsseth. And this I doe the rather, because of a veiy long and very trcw
friendship with some of the Roman Church.

"And for my worldly estate, (which I have nether got by falshood or
flattery or the extreme crewelty of the law of this nation,) I doe hereby
give and bequeth it as followeth. — First I give my son-in-law Doc' Haw-
kins and to his Wife, to them T give all my tytell and right of or in a part of
a howse and shop in Pater-noster-rowe in London : which I hold by lease
from the Lord Bishop of London for about fifty years to come, and I doe
also give to them all my right and tytell of or to a howse in Chansery-lane,
London ; where in Mrs Greinwood now dwelleth, in which is now about
16 years to come. I give these two leases to them, they saving my executor
from all damage concerning the same. [[^And I doe also give to my saide
dafter all my books this day at "Winchester and Droxford : and what ever
ells I can call mine their, except a trunk of linen ys^^ I give my son Izaak
Walton, but if he doe not marry, or use the saide linen himselfe, then I
give the same to my grand-doughter Anne Hawkins.^]]

"And I give to my son Izaak, all my right and tytell to a lease of
Norington farme, which I hold from the lord Bp of Winton. And I doe
also give him all my right and tytell to a farme or land nere to Stafford :
which I bought of Mr Walter Noell : I say, I give it to him and [his]
heares for ever, but upon the condition following. Namely — If my sone
shall not marry before he shall be of the age of forty and one yeare ; or
being marryed shall dye before the saide age and leve noe son to inherit
the saide farme or land : or if his son [or sonns] shall not live to ataine the
age of twentie and one yeare, to dispose otherwayes of it, then I give the
saide farme or land to the towne or corperation of Stafford (in which I was
borne,) for the good and benifit of some of the saide towne, as I shall
direct and as followeth. but first note, that it is at this present time rented
for 21'' lo'' a yeare (and is like to hold the said rent, if care be taken to
keipe the barne and bowsing in repaire) and I wood have and doe give ten
pownd of the saide rent, to binde out yearely two boyes, the sons of honest
and pore parents to be apprentises to som tradesmen or handy-craft-men,
to the intent the saide boyes [may] the better afterward get their owne
living. — And I doe also give five pownd yearly, out of the said rent to be
given to some meade-servant, that hath attain'd the age of twenty and
[one] yeare (not les), and dwelt long in one servis, or to som honest pore
man's daughter, that hath attain'd to tTiat age, to [be] paide her, at or on
the day of her marriage— And this being done, my will is, that what rent
shall remaine of the saide farme or land, shall be disposed of as followeth.

" First I doe give twenty shillings yearely, to be spent by the maior of
Stafford and those that shall colect the said rent ; and dispose of it as I
have and shall hereafter direct. And that what mony or rent shall remaine
undisposed offe shall be imployed to buie coles for some pore people, that
shall most neide them in the said towne ; the saide coles to be delivered
the last weike in Janewary, or in every first weike in Febrewary : I say
then, because I take that time to be the hardest and most pinching times
with pore people. And God reward those that shall doe this with out par-
tialitie and with honestie and a good contience.

•' And if the saide maior and others of the saide towne of Stafford, shall

8 This passage is erased in the original.

iET. 89.] LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. d

prove so necHgent or dishonest as not to imploy the rent by me given as
intended and exprest in this my will, (which God forbid,) then I give the
saide rents and profits, of the saide farme or land, to the towne and chiefe
magestrats or govemers of Ecles-hall, to be disposed by them in such
maner as I have ordered the disposall of it, by the towne of Stafford, the
said Farme or land being nere the towne of Ecles-hall.

** And I give to my son-in-law Doctor Hawkins (whome I love as my owne
son) and to my dafter his wife, and my son Izaak to each of them a ring
with these words or motto ; — love my memory, I. W. obiet = to the Lord
Bp of Winton a ring with this motto — a mite for a million : I. W. obiet = "
And to the freinds hearafter named I give to each of them a ring with this
molto A friends farewell. I. W. obiet" = And my will is, the said rings be
deliverd within fortie dayes after my delh. and that the price or valew of
all the saide rings shall be - 13* 4^* a peice.

• " I give to Doctor Hawkins Docto*" Donns Sermons ; which I have hear'd
preacht, and read with much content, to my son Izaak I give Doc' Sibbs
his Soules Conflict^ and to my doughter his Breu>sed Reide ; desiring them
to reade them so, as to be well acquanted with them, and I also give to
her all my bookes at Winchester and Droxford, and what ever in those two
places are or I can call mine : except a trunk of linen, which I give to my
son Izaak, but if he doe not live to [marry, or] make use of it, then I give
the same to my grand-dafter, Anne Hawkins : And I give my dafter
Doc*^ Halls Works which be now at Farnham.

"To my son Izaak I give all my books, (not yet given) at Farnham
Castell and a deske of prints and pickters ; also a cabinet nere my beds
head, in w^** are som littell things that he will valew, tho of noe greate
worth.

'• And my will and desyre is, that he will be kinde to his Ante Beacham
and his ant Rose Ken : by alowing the first about fiftie shilling a yeare in
or for bacon and cheise (not more), and paying ^'^ a yeare toward the
bordin of her son's dyut to Mr John Whitehead, for his Ante Ken, I
desyre him to be kinde to her acording to her necessitie and his owne
abillitie. and I comend one of her children to breide up (as I have saide I
intend to doe) if he shall be able to doe it. as I know he will ; for, they be
good folke.

"I give to Mr John Darbishire the Sermons of Mr Antony Faringdon, or
of do' Sanderson, which my executor thinks fit. to my servant, Thomas
Edghill I give five pownd in mony, and all my clothes linen and woUen
(except one sute of clothes, which I give to Mr Holinshed, and forty
shiling) if the saide Thomas be my servant at my deth, if not my cloths
only.

"And I give my old friend Mr Richard Marriot ten pownd in mony, to
be paid him within .3. months after my deth. and I desyre my son to shew
kindenes to him if he shall neide, and my son can spare it.

*' And I doe hereby will and declare my son Izaak to be my sole executo*" of
this my last will and testament ; and Do' Hawkins, to see that he performs
it, which I doubt not but he will.

" I desyre my buriall may be nere the place of my deth ; and free from
any ostentation or charg, but privately : this I make to be my last will, (to
which I shall only add the codicell for rings,) this 16. day of August
1683.

" Witnes to this will. Izaak Walton.

LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON.

[1683.

" The rings I give are as on
To my brother Jon Ken.
to my sister his wife.
to my brother Doc"" Ken.
to my sister Pye.
to Mr Francis Morley.
to S"" George Vernon,
to his wife,
to his 3 dafters.
to IM''s Nelson,
to Mr Rich. Walton.
to Mr Palmer,
to Mr Taylor,
to Mr Tho. Garrard,
to the Lord Bp of Sarum.
to Mr Rede his servant.
to my Coz. Dorothy Kenrick.
to my Coz. Lewin.
to Mr Walter Higgs.
to Mr Cha. Cotton.
to Mr Rich. Marryot.

22

" Note that severall lines are blotted out of this ^
will for they were twice repeted : And, that tliis
will is now signed and sealed, this twenty and
fourth day of October 1683 in the presence of

the other side.

to my brother Beacham.
to my sister his wife,
to the lady Anne How.
to Mrs King Do"^ Philips wife,
to Mr Valantine Harecourt.
to Mrs Elyza Johnson,
to Mrs Mary Rogers,
to Mrs Elyza Milward.
to Mrs Doro. Wallop,
to Mr Will. Milward, of Christ-
church, Oxford,
to Mr John Darbeshire.
to Mrs Vuedvill.
to Mrs Rock,
to Mr Peter White,
to Mr John Lloyde.
to my cozen Greinsells widow.

16 Mrs Dalbin must not be for-
gotten.

IzAAK Walton.
Witnes, Abra: Markland.
Jos: Taylor,
Thomas Crawley.

" Probatum apud London &c. Coram veilli et egregio viro d'no Thoma
Exton Milite Legum D'core suito &c quarto die niensis Februarii Anno
D'ni (stylo Anglioe) 1683 juramento Isaaci Walton jun^^ lilii d'ci def'ti et
Extoris &6 cui &c de bene &c. Jural."

His will was thus endorsed, by himself : —
" Izaak Walton's last will octo'' 1683." —

Walton's will was proved by his son on the 4th of February
1683-4; and it contains so many statements illustrative of his
character and situation, that some remarks upon it will not be
considered misplaced. His profession of faith was strictly in
accordance with the principles which he expressed in his writings ;
but the motive which made him give so particular an account of
his belief, justifies the idea that the tolerant spirit which he mani-

^T. 89.] LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. ciii Q

fested towards all who differed from him in religion, and the\. ^ A .
amicable terms on which he lived with some Roman Catholics, ) f V
had exposed him to the suspicion that he was himself a member J J
of the Church of Rome. His property was not, he observes, got '
by '* falsehood or flattery, or the extreme cruelty of the law of this
nation," an allusion which is not easily explained ; for the
suggestion that it referred to the maxim of law, "Summum jus est,
summa injuria," does not appear to be correct ; and it is more
probable that he referred to the manner in which estates were
acquired during the Commonwealth, and to the legal obstacles
which prevented the original owners from recovering them. The
shop in Paternoster Row has been before noticed ; and the house
in Chancery Lane was doubtless that in which he had himself
lived. He held a lease under his friend Bishop Morley ; and as
his farm near Eccleshall, not far from Stafford, was not inherited
from his ancestors, but was purchased by himself of a Mr Walter
Noell, it seems that he had little or no patrimony. The chari-
table purpose for which he destined that property, in the event
of his son not leaving male issue who survived their minority,
shows his regard for the place of his nativity, to which he had
already been a benefactor by a gift of a small garden (the rent of
which was expended in coals for the poor about Christmas), by
contributing a sum towards the erection of the wall of the church-
yard of St Chads, in that town, and by apprenticing nine poor
boys, and presenting each of them with five pounds.^ The selec-
tion of objects for his bounty was extremely judicious. It may
be that he had himself experienced in childhood the benefit of a
fostering hand to enable a boy to provide for his future subsistence,
whilst his knowledge of the condition of the lower orders taught
liim the advantages of encouraging the long residence of female
servants with the same mistress. Such have been the abuses ot
charitable bequests that the striking admonition in Walton's will
might, with advantage, be added to all loCal records of similar
foundations, and be read aloud previous to the annual distribu-
tion : " God reward those that shall do this without partiality,
and with honesty, and a good conscience." That Walton did
not consider such an admonition unnecessary is evident from his
ordering, that in case the Mayor of Stafford proved so negligent
or dishonest as not to fulfil his intentions, the charity should be
intrusted to the Magistrates of Eccleshall. He paid a gratifying
tribute to the worth of his son-in-law, Dr Hawkins, the husband

" Vide postea.

civ LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. [1683,

of his only surviving daughter Anne, by saying that he " loved
him as his own son." The rings which he ordered to be given to
his friends bore an appropriate motto. Through these silent but
eloquent reUcs he bid his family, as it were from the tomb, to
" love his memory," whilst his gratitude to Bishop Morley was
quaintly but feelingly expressed by the legend, "a mite for a
million." The rings of his other friends who were thus remem-
bered, bore no other motto than the simple one, that they were
" a Friend's farewell." His regard for the spiritual welfare of his
children was evinced by his selecting for them the books from
which he had himself derived the most religious knowledge and
consolation. It appears that he had a house or rooms at Droxford
in Hampshire, as well as apartments in the episcopal residences
at Winchester and Farnham Castle ; that his books and other
property were divided among those places ; and that he was a
collector of prints and pictures. His affection for his second
wife's family is shown by the request that his son would be kind
to his aunts Beacham and Rose Ken, that he would contribute to
the support of a son of the former, and that he would bring up a
son of the latter, as he himself intended to have done, adding his
conviction that he would do so if he were able, because " they be
good folk." The bequest to his old friend and publisher, Richard
Marriott, of ten pounds and a ring, and his injunction to his son
to "show kindness" to him, if he happened to require it, is a
pleasing proof of the good understanding which existed between
them for nearly half a century. His desire to be buried " near
the place of his death, free from any ostentation or charge, but
privately," was consistent with the simphcity of his character.
Among the three witnesses to his will was the Reverend Doctor
Abraham Markland, a prebend of Winchester,^ who was probably
one of his friends ; but nothing more is known of the other wit-
nesses than their names. Some of the parties mentioned in Wal-
ton's will have been already described ; and his descendants and
immediate relatives, the Kens and Beachams, will be particularly
alluded to ; but it is desirable to state, as far as has been
ascertained, who were the other persons to whom he bequeathed
tokens of his regard.

Mr Francis Morley was a nephew of Bishop Morley. Sir
George Vernon was a younger branch of the ancient and dis-

1 Dr Abraham Markland, fellow of St John's College, Oxford : he was also a pre-
b-ndnry of Winchester and master of the Hospital of tjt Cross.— TroUope's History of
Christ's Hospital, p. 242.

^T. 89] LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. cv

tinguishccl family of that name. He lived at Farnham, in Surrey;
was knighted on the 6th of November 1681 ;* and died in
November 1692. Of his three daughters mentioned by Walton,
Elizabeth died in August 1699, aged thirty-three; and Katherine
in December 1725, both unmarried.^

Lady Anne Howe was the sister of Henry King, late Bishop of
Chichester. Mrs King is presumed to have been the daughter of
Sir Richard Hobart, and widow of Dr Philip King, the brother
of the Bishop of Chichester.* Mr William Milward, of Christ
Church, Oxford, and Mrs Eliza Milward, were most likely distantly
related to Walton,^ in the way before alluded to. His cousin
Dorothy Kenrick was the daughter of Edward Kenrick, by Susan,
sister and co-heiress of Sir William Cranmer.* Mr Garrard
seems to have been allied to the family of Walton's son-in-law, Dr
Hawkins.' Mrs Nelson is supposed to have been of the family
of the Reverend Henry Nelson, rector of Haugham, in Lincoln-
shire, "a man of noted worth and learning," whose daughter
Anne married Bishop Sanderson. ^ The Lord Bishop of Sarum
was Doctor Seth Ward, who was one of Walton's particular
friends, and to whom his son was then chaplain ; and they had

2 Harleian MS. 5S01, f. 153.

^ Manning and Hray's History of Surrey, vol. Hi. p. 159. Walton was connected with
other brandies of the house of Vernon, through his wife Anne Ken, in the manner
pointed out in the annexed table : —

=Thomas Ken,= , . ., ,

(ist wife.) I ob. 1651. 1 (2nd wife.) „

Anne ken=IsAAK Walton. Jon Ken=Rose Vernon, Sir Thomas Vernon,:
ob. 1662. I Uving 1707. of Coleman Street,

London.

Dorothy, daushter=George Vernon, of=:Katharine Vernon, ob. 1710.
of Earl Ferrers. I Sudbury, Esq. I (3rd wife.)

(2ad wife.) ob. 1702. I

George Vernon=Doroihy Vernon Anna. Katherine. Maud. Henry Vernon, a qua
ob. s. p. the present Luku

Vernon.

* Fasti Oxoniensis, vol. ii. p. Sg. Vide also vol. i. pp. 3G1, 3S0 ; .ind Athenae, vol. i.
p. 761 ; ii. 294, 435 ; iii. 841 ; iv. 195.

* The connection between the families of Walton and Milward is stated in note K.
See also the pedigree of Walton.

*> Harleian MS. 5801, and MS. in the College of Arms, K. 9, f. 335.

7 An Edward Garrard was buried in Salisbury Cathedral, in March 1712-13. His
daughter Elizabeth, who was the wife of George Hawkins, died in 1702. Vide Pr'ce's
Description of Salisbury Cathedr.1l, 4to, 1774. A Thomas G.irrard, who died on the
i4lh December 1697, w.as buried near his father, the Reverend George Garmrd, in
Winchester Cathedral. See Gale's History and Antiquities of the Cathedral Church of
Winchester, Svo, 1715, p. 70.

8 Walton's Lives, cd. Zouch, ii. 183.

cvi LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON, [1683,

perhaps received civilities from Mr Rede, " the bishop's servant,"
or probably agent or land steward. Mrs Eliza Johnson is men-
tioned in the will of Walton's son, in 17 14, as "formerly of
Worcester," where she may have resided in 1662, when Mrs
Walton died in that city ; and it is not unreasonable to conjec-
ture that her kindness to the Waltons on that occasion caused
her to be thus remembered. Mr Valentine Harcourt was doubt-
less a younger son of Humphrey Harcourt, who in the year 16 14
was the son and heir-apparent of John Harcourt, of Ranton Hall,
in Staffordshire.^ Mr Richard Walton, Mr Palmer, Mr Taylor,
who was perhaps one of the witnesses to his will, " his cousin
Lewin," ^ Mr Walter Higgs,^ Mr John Darbyshire, Mr Holingshed,
Mrs Mary Rogers, Mrs Vuedvill, Mrs Rock, Mr Peter White,
Mr John Lloyde, his cousin Greinsell's widow, and Mrs Dalbin,
have not been identified.

The execution of Walton's will on the 24th of October 1683,
was one of the latest acts of his life respecting his temporal
affairs ; and the completion of that instrument may have been
hastened by symptoms of decay, warning him that the unusual
period to which his existence had been prolonged, was not
likely to be extended. Of his last hours nothing is known.
Few men were so well prepared for the awful change, and had so
little cause to view it with apprehension. His death took place
in the house of his son-in-law, Dr Hawkins, at Winchester, on
the 15th of December 1683, during a severe frost, which may
have hastened the event, for the serious effect of extreme cold
upon aged persons is well known. His dying hours were
probably cheered by the tender regard of his family ; ^ and it
is not unlikely that he received the consolations of religion from
his constant and venerable friend Bishop Morley, who died in
the following year, aged eighty-seven, and being also buried in
Winchester Cathedral,

" In one hallowed pile at last their bones repose."*

Walton was buried in Winchester Cathedral, in a chapel in the

9 Harleian MS- i439i f-57-

1 A Dr Lewin Floud was first cousin of Robert Floud, who is supposed to have been
the father of Walton's first wife. A family of Lewin were seated at Oldingden, in Kent,

n 1619.

2 The ancestor (it is presumed) of William Simond Higgs, Esq. of the Regent's Park,
London, whose youngest son, John Higgs, Esq. of Magdalen Hall, O.xford, died at
Hastings on the 4th May 1833. His library contained copies of ihe original editions,
and numerous illustrations, of the " Complete Angler." Gentleman's Magazine, ciii.
pt. i. 477, & civ.

■^ His brother-in-law, Dr Ken, was then abroad, having accepted the situation of
Chaplain to Lord Dartmouth, who commanded the expedition to Tanuiers, in that year,
Bowles's Life of Ken, ii. 62. * Bowles, ibid. i. p. 112,

^T. 89.] LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON, . cvii

south aisle, called Prior Silkstead's Chapel, A large black
marble slab is placed over his remains, with the following inscrip-
tion ; and to use the poetical language of Mr Bowles, " the
morning sunshine falls directly on it, reminding the contemplative
man of the mornings when he was for so many years up
and abroad with his angle on the banks of the neighbouring
stream ; " ^ —

♦ " HERE RESTETH THE BOPY OP

Mr IZAAC WALTON, '

WHO DIED THE ISTH OF DECEMnSR
X683.

Alas ! he's gone before,
Gone to return no more !
Our panting breasts aspire
After their aged sire ;
Whose well-spent life did last.
Full ninety years and pabt.
ISut now he hath begun
'J'hat which will ne'er be done.
Crown'd with eternal blisse,
We wish our souls with his.

VOTIS MODESTIS SIC FLKRUNT LIBERI."

The character of Izaak Walton has been described by so many
able writers, that the hope of exhibiting him in a new light, or of
increasing the number of his admirers, would be presumptuous.
In the preceding pages all the incidents of his life have been
stated ; and by introducing his own words whenever he has
alluded to himself, he has been made, in a great degree, his own
biographer. Those statements present, however, little but a
general outline of his career ; and the idiosyncrasies of mind
which distinguish one individual from another must be sought for
in the passages of his works, where he has expressed his opinions
and fcehngs.

The obscurity in which the early part of Walton's life is in-
volved, has given rise to considerable doubts as to the nature and
extent of his acquirements. It is not probable that he received
a regular classical education ; but although translations existed
of nearly all the Latin works which he quotes, it is nevertheless
certain that he had some knowledge of that language. His
reading in English literature was various and extensive, particu-
larly in divinity. On many occasions he' alludes to his imperfect
education and mean abilities ; and though the latter may be
attributed to modesty, the former was, doubtless, grounded upon

5 Life of Ken, ii. 271. Mr Bowles conjectures that "the retired spot which contains
Walton's remains was probably fixed on by himself, as suiting his humbler station of
life."

cviii LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. [1683,

fact. Thus, in his preface to the collected edition of the Lives of
Donne, Wotton, Herbert, and Hooker, he says, "When I look
back upon my education and mean abilities, it is not without
some little wonder at myself that I am come to be pubHcly in
print;" and in his dedication of that work he resigns all claim
" to acquired learning or study."

Walton's opinion of ancestry and honours, like his sentiments
on most other subjects, was liberal and just. When alluding to
the antiquity of Angling, he says, " As I would rather prove my-
self a gentleman, by being learned and humble, valiant and
inoffensive, virtuous and communicable, than by any fond ostenta-
tion of riches, or wanting those virtues myself boast that these
were in my ancestors (and yet I grant, that where a noble and
ancient descent and such merit meet in any man, it is a double
dignification of that person) ; so if this antiquity of angling, which
for my part I have not forced, shall, like an ancient family, be
either an honour or an ornament to this virtuous art which I
profess to love and practise, I shall be the gladder that I made an
accidental mention of the antiquity of it." Nor is there less truth
in the following reflection upon hereditary titles : " Bare titles
are noted to have in them nothing of reality ; for titles not
acquired, but derived only, do but show us who of our ancestors
have, and how they have achieved that honour which their de-
scendants claim, and may not be worthy to enjoy. For if those
titles descend to persons that degenerate into vice, and break off
the continued line of learning, or valour, or that virtue that
acquired them, they destroy the very foundation upon which that
honour was built; and all the rubbish of their degenerousness
ought to fall heavy on such dishonourable heads ; ought to fall so
heavy, as to degrade them of their titles, and blast their memories
with reproach and shame." ^

It was impossible for a man of Walton's talents and sensibility
to live through the events, which distracted this country for nearly
twenty years, without adopting very decided political opinions. It
has been already observed, that he adhered with unshaken
fidelity to the cause of royalty, which he considered was identified
with that of rehgion. This has been partly attributed to his
constant association with the most eminent divines of the Church
of England ; but it is probable that he would, under any circum-
stances, have followed that course, because the most striking
characteristic of his mind was veneration, from which feeling

6 Life of Sanderson, ed. Zouch, ii. 157.

^T. 89.] LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. ci*

loyalty, and religion, a reverence for constituted authorities, as well
as for all other institutions, springs and is inseparable. Walton
could no more have been a republican than an atheist ; but
whilst his tolerant spirit and sound common sense preserved him
from bigotry, his good taste made him abhor the cant and
fanaticism which usurped the name of religion, and became the
cloak for the most reckless ambition, and the basest hypocrisy.
A close observer of the history of the reign of Charles the First
will find that the outrages which were committed by the republi-
cans upon the habits, tastes, and prejudices of the cavaliers, had
as much influence in attaching them to the monarchy, as abstract
sentiments of duty and loyalty.

Some extracts from Walton's remarks upon public affairs will
best show his political opinions, and they merit particular attention
as specimens .fil.hi.s_style, which ij^_clear and nervou^-and will
bear a favourable comparlsoii with that on!ig~besr^nriters of his
time. Speaking of the religious dissensions which preceded the
death of Charles the First, Walton says, " To heighten all these
discontents and dangers, there was also sprung up a generation of
godless men ; men that had so long given way to their own lusts
and delusions; and had so often and so highly opposed the
blessed motions of the blessed Spirit, and the inward light of their
own consciences, that they had thereby sinned themselves to a belief
of what they would, but were not able to believe : into a belief
which is repugnant even to human nature (for the heathens
believe there are many Gods), but these have sinned themselves
into a belief that there is no God : and so finding nothing in
themselves, but what is worse than nothing, began to wish what
they were not able to hope for, * that they should be like the beasts
that perish ; ' and in wicked company (which is the atheist's
sanctuary) were so bold as to say so : though the worst of man-
kind, when he is left alone at midnight, may wish, but cannot
then think it. Into this wretched, this reprobate condition, many
had then sinned themselves. And now when the Church was pes-
tered with them, and with all these other irregularities ; when her
lands were in danger of alienation, her power at least neglected,
and her peace torn in pieces by several schisms, and such heresies
as do usually attend that sin ; when the common people seemed
ambitious of doing those very things which were attended with
most dangers, that thereby they might be punished, and then
applauded and pitied : when they called the spirit of opposition
a tender conscience, and complained of persecution, because they

ex LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. [1683,

wanted power to persecute others ; when the giddy multitude
raged, and became restless to find out misery for themselves and
others ; and the rabble would herd themselves together, and
endeavour to govern and act in spite of authority. In this ex-
tremity, fear, and danger of the Church and State, when to sup-
press the growing evils of both, they needed a man of prudence
and piety, and of a high and fearless fortitude, they were blessed
in all by John Whitgift's being made Archbishop of Canterbury ;
of whom ingenious Sir Henry Wotton (that knew him well) hath
left this true character ; * that he was a man of a reverend and
sacred memory, and of the primitive temper ; a man of such a
temper, as when the Church by lowliness of spirit did flourish in
highest examples of virtue.' " '^

Of the Restoration he says, " Towards the beginning of the
year 1660, when the many mixed sects, and their creators, and
merciless protectors, had led, or driven each other into a whirl-
pool of confusion both in Church and State ; when amazement
and fear had seized most of them by foreseeing they must now
not only vomit up the Church's and the King's land, but their
accusing consciences did also give i^hem an inward and fearful
intelligence, that the God of opposition, disobedience, and con-
fusion, which they had so long and so diligently feared, was now
ready to reward them with such wages as he always pays to
witches for their obeying him ; when these wretches (that had
said to themselves '■ we shall see no sorrow') were come to foresee
an end of their cruel reign, by our King's return, and such
sufferers as Dr Sanderson (and with him many of the oppressed
clergy and others) could foresee the cloud of their afflictions
would be dispersed by it ; then the 29th of May following, the
King was by our good God restored to us, and we to our known
laws and liberties, and then a general joy and peace seemed to
breathe through the three nations ; the suffering and sequestered
clergy (who had, like the children of Israel, sat long lamenting
their sad condition, and hanged their neglected harps on the
willows that grow by the rivers of Babylon) were, after many
thoughtful days and restless nights, now freed from their sequestra-
tion, restored to their revenues, and to a liberty to adore, praise,
and pray to Almighty God publicly, in such order as their
consciences and oaths had formerly obliged them." ^

Speaking of the Nonconformists, after admitting that " some

7 Life of Hooker, ed. Zouch, i. 362-364.

8 Life of Sanderson, ed. Zouch, ii. 267-269.

JET. 89.1 L/FE OF IZAAK WALTON. cxi

might be sincere, well-meaning men, whose indiscreet zeal might
be so like charity, as thereby to cover a multitude of errors,"
Walton observes, " Of this party there were many that were
possessed of an high degree of spiritual wickedness ; I mean with
an innate, restless, radical pride and malice ; I mean not those
lesser sins which are more visible and more properly carnal, and
sins against a man's self, as gluttony, drunkenness, and the like
(from which good Lord deliver us), but sins of a higher nature,
because more unlike to the nature of God, which is love, and
mercy, and peace, and more like the devil (who is no glutton, nor
can be drunk, and yet is a devil) ; those wickednesses of malice
and revenge, and opposition, and a complacence in working and
beholding confusion (which are more properly his work, who is the
enemy and disturber of mankind); and greater sins, though many
will not believe it ; men whom a furious zeal and prejudice hath
blinded, and made incapable of hearing reason, or adhering to the
ways of peace ; men whom pride and self-conceit had made to
over- value their own wisdom and become pertinacious, and to hold
foolish and unmannerly disputes against those men which they
ought to reverence, and those laws which they ought to obey ; men
that laboured and joyed to speak evil of government, and then to
be the authors of confusion (of confusion as it is confusion) ; whom
company and conversation, and custom had blinded, and made
insensible that these were errors ; and at last became so restless
and so hardened in their opinions, that like those who perished in
the gainsaying of Korah, so these died without repenting these
spiritual wickednesses, of which Coppinger and Racket, and their
adherents, are too sad testimonies." ^

Perhaps one of the soundest criticisms ever pronounced upon
the merits of sermons, is contained in his description of those of
Hooker : " The design of his sermons (as indeed of all his dis-
courses) was to show reasons for what he spake ; and with these
reasons such a kind of rhetoric, as did rather convince and
persuade, than frighten men into piety ; studying not so much for
matter (which he never wanted), as for apt illustrations to inform
and teach his unlearned hearers by familiar examples, and then
make them better by convincing applications ; never labouring by
hard words, and then by needless distinctions and sub-distinctions
to amuse his hearers and get glory to himself, but glory only to
God, ' which intention,' he would often say, * was as discernible in
a preacher, as an artificial from a natural beauty.' " ^

9 Life of Hooker, ed. Zouch, i. 355, 356. l Ibid. I. 424.

cxii LIFE OF JZA A K WALTON. [1683,

Walton's belief in the tenets of the Church of England is indis-
putable ; and his writings overflow with allusions to a future state,
in which friends will meet again, purified from the drossness of
mortality.2 He firmly believed that they were cognisant of what
was passing here, and often represents them as singing hymns and
anthems in conjunction with the angels in heaven." To works of
benevolence he attributed much effect in propitiating the Almighty,
and all must admire the spirit of Christian charity which dictated
the following sentence : —

'* How acceptable it is to Almighty God, when we do as we are advised
by St Paul, * Help to bear one another's burden,' either of sorrow or want ;
and what a comfort it will be when the Searcher of all hearts shall call us
to a strict account as well for that evil we have done, as the good we have
omitted, to remember we have comforted and been helpful to a dejected or
distressed family."*

Great as was his esteem for the clergy of the Established Church,
he was not blind to their faults ; for when contrasting the conduct
of those of his time with that of George Herbert, he says, " I
profess myself amazed when I consider how few of the clergy lived
like him then, and how many live so unlike him now : but it
becomes not me to censure." ^ The following passage in his
Life of Hooker shows that he did not altogether approve of clergy-
men marrying : "The good man (Hooker) was drawn from the
tranquillity of his college, from that garden of piety, of pleasure, of
peace, and a sweet conversation, into the thorny wilderness of a
busy world ; into those corroding cares that attend a married priest,
and a country parsonage." ^ His perfect idea of a priest may be
found in his description of Bishop Sanderson ; and he was doubtless
fully impressed with the justice of Herbert's remark, that " the
virtuous life of a clergyman is the most powerful eloquence to
persuade all that see it to reverence and love, and at least to
desire to live like him." ^ He says of Sanderson, that " his looks
and motion manifested an endearing affability and mildness, and
yet he had with these a calm and so matchless a fortitude, as
secured him from complying with any of those many Parliamentary
injunctions that interfered with a doubtful conscience. His
learning was methodical and exact, his wisdom useful, his integrity
visible, and his whole life so unspotted, so like the primitive
Christians, that all ought to be preserved as copies for posterity to

* Walton's Liyes, ed. Zoiich, ii. 178. 3 Ibid. u. 31, 122.

* Life of Sanderson, ed. Zouch, ii. 185. 5 Ljfe of Herbert, ed. Zouch, ii. 73.
6 Ed. Zouch, i. 348. 7 Life of Herbert, ed. Zouch, ii. 74.

^T. 89.] LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON.

write after, the clergy especially, who with impure hands ought not
to offer sacrifice to that God whose pure eyes abhor iniquity, and
especially in them," ^ -\^^

No feeling is more manifested in Walton's works than that of y'
discontent with the age in which he lived ;^ and he seems to /
have fallen into the common error of supposing that the standard /
of morality and virtue was lower in his own time than in earlier /
ages, a complaint which is almost as old as the world itself. /
This is the more remarkable with respect to Walton, because it is\ ^
almost the only instance of querulousness which can be found in t I'
his writings. There can be little doubt that he believed in super-
natural agency, and Dr Zouch not only states that he had been
subjected to severe animadversions for the narrative which occurs
in the later impressions of his Life of Dr Donne, respecting the
vision of Donne's wife, who is said to have appeared to her
husband on the day on which she was delivered of a dead child. ^
It is equally likely, from a passage in his Life of Wotton, that he
placed faith in the revelations qf dreams, as well as in the pre-
dictions of judicial astrology ; but these facts prove no more than
that Walton's mind was imbued with the prejudices and super-
stition of his age, to which few, if any, of his contemporaries were
superior. Dr Zouch defends his credulity by citing Plutarch and
Doddridge ; but since Walton lived, and indeed since Zouch
wrote, science has advanced with gigantic strides ; and, in pro-
portion to the present extent of knowledge, is the spirit of
indulgence for the weaknesses and errors of our ancestors. ^.^

He appears to have been fond of poetry and music, and there ^^
is evidence that he cultivated both with some success. Several
of his verses have been introduced into this Memoir ; and though
they do not evince much imagination or skill, they are at least
equal to the productions of many writers who have attained
reputation as poets. As, however, he admits in the " Complete
Angler" that he was "not excellent at poetry," it would be
uncandid to criticise his productions with rigour. He describes
music as a heavenly art ; 2 and in his contemplations of celestial
happiness, he always represents the saints and angels as being
employed in singing hymns to the praise of the Almighty. He
could himself sing well ; ^ he speaks of the delight which it

" Life of Sanderson, ed. Zouch, ii. 259.

• In the introduction to his Life of Hooker, cd. Zouch, i. 304 : Life of Hooker, ibid.
Pn. 3i3> 428 ; Life of Sanderson, ibid. ii. 185, 204 ; Dedicntion of the Life of Donne, ed.
168: see p. antea. Complete Angler, p. 163. 1 Ed. Zouch, i. 74, 75; ii. 326.

* Life of Herbert, ed. Zouch, ii. 96, ' Vide p. lix. autea.

h

cxiv LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. [1683,

afforded him to hear his wife sing his favourite songs ; * and he
was intimate with Basse, an eminent composer, in whose science
he took great interest, and says that Basse had made a song at
his request in praise of anghng.^ In no part of Walton's writings,
however, are the charms of music so beautifully described as in
the following exquisite passages on the singing of birds : " I will
not pass by those little nimble musicians of the air, that warble
forth their curious ditties, with which nature hath furnished them
to the shame of art. As first the Lark, when she means to re-
joice, to cheer herself and those that hear her; she then quits the
earth, and sings as she ascends higher into the air, and having
ended her heavenly employment, grows then mute and sad,
to think she must descend to the dull earth, which she would not
touch, but for necessity. How do the Blackbird and Thrassel with
their melodious voices bid welcome to the cheerful spring, and in
their fixed months warble forth such ditties as no art or instrument
can reach to ! Nay, the smaller birds also do the like in their
particular seasons, as namely, the Laverock, the Tit-lark, the little
Linnet, and the honest Robin that loves mankind both alive and
dead. But the Nightingale,^ another of my airy creatures,
breathes such sweet loud music out of her little instrumental
throat, that it might make mankind to think miracles are not
ceased. He that at midnight, when the very labourer sleeps
securely, should hear, as I have very often, the clear airs, the
sweet descants, the natural rising and falling, the doubling and
redoubling of her voice, might well be lifted above earth, and say,
Lord, what music hast thou provided for the saints in Heaven,
when thou affordest bad men such music on earth ! " ''

Of the sister art, Design, Walton seems to have had some
knowledge, as he often alludes to painters ; and one of his best
metaphors is founded upon the particular style of ancient masters.
He formed a small collection of prints and pictures, which he
bequeathed to his son, who excelled in the use of the pencil ; and

4 Complete Angler, p. 159. 5 ibid. p. 124.

6 Upon this passage Dr Drake has remarked, "It Is somewhat singular, however,
that the noblest and sweetest description of the song of this plaintive warbler should be
the production of a prose writer. Who can adduce on the subject a morsel of such
impressive beauty as the following? 'But the nightingale,' ^c— Literary Hotcrs,il
318. iJishop Home has quoted it in his Commentary on the 104th Psalm, v. 12, vol. ii.
p. 223 ; and Headley, in the Notes to his Select Beauties of the Ancient English Poetry,
says: Lut above all the panegyrics that have been deservedlv passed upon this uni-
versal favourite, I have seen nothing yet, that in any degree approaches the notice of
one who was certainly no poet : my reader will be surprised perhaps when I name
Honest Isaak Walton, but let him read this and judge."— Vol. ii. p. 167.

7 Complete Angler, p. 38.

^T. Sq.] life of IZAAK WALTON. cxv

it is not improbable that he derived his taste for drawing from his
father.

Superior as Walton's intellectual powers undoubtedly were, they
sink into nothing when compared with the qualities of his heart ;
and it is the man, rather than the author, whom his admirers
most love to contemplate. No one can read his writings without
being impressed with the fervent and unaffected piety, the
simplicity of taste, the benevolence of mind, and contentedness
of spirit, which are apparent in every thought and expression. In
the works of the creation he fin^s-a^ boundless theme for praise
and admiratitTrt. Tlibugh hi?wit is rarely brilliant, it never springs
from envy or ill-nature ; and when truth prevented him from
praising the persons of whom he speaks, he is silent, mildly
observing that "it becomes not him to censure." Walton
repeatedly speaks of his love of " harmless innocent mirth un-
mixed with scurrility ; " and his scrupulous veracity, and the care
with which he selected his society, are noticed by Cotton, who
says, "He never retracted any promise when made in favour even
of his meanest friends ; " and that his " father Walton will be
seen twice in no man's company he does not like, and likes none
but such as he believes to be very honest men."

Though brought up to trade he everywhere expresses his con-
tempt for riches ; and one of his highest eulogiums on Sir Henry
Wotton was, that he was an " undervaluer of money." His views^**>.
on the subject, as expressed in the concluding passage of the
" Complete Angler," were extremely rational : " In my discourse
my meaning is to plant that in your mind with which I labour to
possess my own soul ; that is, a meek and thankful heart And
to that end I have showed you, that riches without them (meekness
and thankfulness) do not make any man happy. But let me tell
you, that riches with them remove many fears and cares ; and
therefore my advice is, that you endeavour to be honestly rich, or
contentedly poor ; but be sure that your riches be justly got, or
you spoil all. For it is well said by Caussin, * He that loses his
conscience has nothing left that is worth keeping.' Therefore be
sure you look to that. And in the next place look to your
health : and if you have it, praise God, and value it next to a
good conscience ; for health is the second blessing that we mortals
are capable of; a blessing that money cannot buy (which maybe
said to be the third blessing), neglect it not : but note, that there
is no necessity of being rich ; for 1 told you, there be as many
miseries beyond riches as on this side : and if you have a com-

\

V

cxvi LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. [1683,

petence, enjoy it with a meek, cheerful, thankful heart. I will
tell you. Scholar, I have heard a grave divine say, that God has
two dwellings ; one in heaven, the other in a meek and thankful
heart, which Almighty God grant to me and to my honest
Scholar."

Izaak Walton left only two children, Izaak and Anne. Of the
former the greater part of what is known has been already stated.
He was thirty-two years of age, and rector of Polshot near Devizes,
when his father died ; and was afterwards elected a canon of
Salisbury Cathedral. In this station he passed the remainder of
his days ; and unless the inscription on his tomb be more than
usually mendacious, he performed the duties of a parish priest
with great zeal and propriety, and was distinguished for his
genuine piety, sound doctrines, benevolence, and charity. His skill
as an artist has been alluded to ; and an interesting specimen
is still preserved by his relation, "Dx Hawes, who possesses a
portrait of the venerable Piscator by his son,® in crayons ; and
Cotton states that he had made drawings of Beresford Hall and
the adjacent scenery. He is said to have contributed largely to
Dr Walker's " His'tory of the Sufferings of the Clergy," ^ for
which work the conversation of his father was likely to have fur-
nished him with abundance of materials, The most pleasing fact
in the life of Canon Walton is, however, his having repaid the
kindness of his uncle, Dr Ken, by unremitting attention to him
after he was deprived of the bishopric of Bath and Wells. Bishop
Ken passed much of his time at the rectory of Polshot, and at
the canonry house, in the Close at Salisbury ; p-nd his corre-
spondence shows that he considered the residence of his nephew as
his home,i until he found a permanent asylum at Longleat. His
father having ordered by his will that certain lands should become
the property of the corporation of Stafford, in case his son did not
marry before he was forty-one years old. Canon Walton wrote to
the Mayor of Stafford as soon as he attained that age, to acquaint
him that the estate was improved to almost double its former value,
and that on his decease the corporation would be entitled to it.^
Canon Walton is said to have obtained the confidence and friend-
ship of Dr Burnet, who succeeded Bishop Ward in the see of
Salisbury in 1689, and "from being a man qf great temper ancj
discretion, and from his candour and sincerity much respected by
all the clergy of the diocese, he became very useful to him in cour

8 Bowles's Life of Ken, i. 7. 9 Zouch's Life of Walton, ii. 368.

I Bowles's f^ife of Ken, ii. 192, 23;. » Hawkin's Lifp of Walton, p. 55.

^.T. 89.] LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. cxvii

ducting the affairs of the chapter." * In 1 7 1 1 Bishop Ken
bequeathed part of his books to him, together with the sum of
fifty pounds. Towards the end of 1 7 1 9, when in his sixty-ninth
year, Canon Walton went to London as proctor in convocation for
the chapter of SaUsbury, and having caught the smallpox,* died
on the 29th of December following, and was buried in Salisbury
Cathedral, at the foot of his friend and patron, Bishop Ward. A
plain stone of black marble with the following inscription covers
his remains : —

"h. s. e.
isaacus walton, hujus ecclesiib

canonicus residentiarius, ,

pietatis non jucatie,

doctrine san.^,

munificenti^, benevolentiie,

exemplar desiderandum.

pastoris boni et fidelis functus officio

per annos

xxxviii in parochia de polshot wilts

obiit vicesimo nono decembris,

anno domini i719,

iETATIS 69."

It appears from Canon Walton's will, that he was a liberal
benefactor to the library of Salisbury Cathedral, which may
account for its containing several books with the autograph of his
father.* He died unmarried. His will, which is now for the
first time printed, is not dated, but appears from an indorsement in
his own hand to have been made on the 14th of July 17 14; and
was proved by his nephew, William Hawkins, on the i8th of
November 1720.

"In the name of God. Amen. I Isaac Walton, Rector of Polshot,
& Canon Residentiary of the Church of Sarum, being at this Time, thanks
to God, as sound & perfect in understanding & memory, as at any other time
I ever used to be, do hereby make This my Last Will and Testament.

** First, I bequeath & Resign my soul into the hands of Almighty God, its
Faithful Creator : with the utmost thanks y' it can render for the Comfort-
able Hope w*^'^ I have, that my many & greivous sins will be graciously
pardond me, through liis great & free mercys in Christ Jesus my Dear
Lord & only Saviour.

" I live at present, & intend, thro' God's Grace, to dye in the communion
of the Church of England as it is at present by Law Establishd. Being,
according to the best measure of my understanding, fully satisfyd, y* she has
reformed herself with That sound judgement & Godly sincerity, as to be

' Hawkin's Life of Walton, p. 56. * Bowles's Life of Ken, ii. 267.

' Vide postea.

cxviii LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. [1683,

the soundest & Purest part of the Church Catholic at this time Existent.
Most humbly asking Forgivenesse of Her & of all Christian People for the
manifold scandals w<='i a very irregular, negligent, & most unprofitable
course of life has, too surely, administred. And most heartily praying
unto God to preserve her against all attempts, w'^^ are, at this Time
Especially, made against her True Interest & wellfare.
' " My Body I bequeath to the Earth, to be buried at the Discretion of my
Executrix, hereafter named. But, with as Little Pomp, charge, or
Ceremony, as well may be.

" And, as for the worldly Estate, of w'^^ by God's bounty, I stand possessd
at present, I dispose & bequeath of it as followeth.

"First, I desire & order all my Just Debts to be satisfyd. — & that being
don, — I do give and bequeath — Imprimis, — To my Dear & Loving only
Sister Anne Hawkins the Elder, all the Gold, whether Rings or broad
Peices w'^'^ I have. Item, to my Dear & Good Niece Anne Plawkins the
Younger one Hundred pounds. Item, to my Dear & Good Nephew
William Hawkins one hundred pounds, & to my Good Neice his wife fifty
pounds. — Item, to tny Three cousins, Elizabeth, William, and Susan
Hoskins, children of Matthew Hoskins, I do give & bequeath thirty
pounds to each of Them. &, in case any one or two of the said three
cousins should dye before me. His or her part or parts here bequeathed I
do will & order to remain to the surviver, or survivers of Them. — Item, to
my Aunt Mrs Rose Kenne I give Ten pounds, To my Cousin her Daughter
Mrs Martha Krienberg Ten pounds, to her Husband Mr Frederic Krien-
berg Ten pounds. To my Cousin Mr Jon Beacham Twenty Guinneys.
To my Cousin Mrs Elizabeth Farvvell Ten pounds. To my Cousin Mrs
Mary Ireland Five pounds. To my Cousin, Mrs Anne Farvvell, Five
pounds. To Mrs Bridget Lowe, Five pounds. To Mrs Elizabeth John-
son, formerly of Worcester, Five pounds. To all These last mentioned
Persons, I say, I do give & bequeath the Legacys of — Twenty Guiiieys, of
Ten, & of Five pounds respectively, if they shall be alive at the Time of my
Death, & not otherwise. & I do also remitt, & forgive to all & Each of the
forementioned Persons, all or any Sums of money w'^^ they or any of them
shall appear to be indebted unto me. Item, — I give & bequeath unto my
Godson Isaac Walton Twenty pounds to be paid to his Father or Mother
if alive at my Death, otherwise to himself, when he shall attain the age of
one & twenty years. Item, — I give & bequeath to the Fabric for the use
of the Library of the Church of Sanim the sume of one Hundred pounds
to be layd out in an Annuity, or rent Charge, in corn if it may be, for some
Person, to be named yearly by the Dean & Chapter, to give such attendance
there, as they shall appoint, or can agree upon. Item, — I give & bequeath
to the said Dean & Chapter of Sarum the sufne of Fifty & Five pounds to
augment that sufne w^h is, in our accounts, called The Sors Comunaris.
Item,— I do give & bequeath to the Poor of the Parish of Polshot Five
•Pounds. & to the Poor of the Close of Sarum the like sume of Five
pounds.

'* All w^ii Legacys I will & order to be paid in good & lawfull money of
This Realm within a year & half after my Decease.

" And, of This my last Will & Testament, written all with my own hand,
I do make my Dear & only Sister' Mrs Anne Hawkins sole Executrix,
givmg & bequeathing also unto Her whatsoever of mine remains unbe-
queathed herein. And, in case it should so happen that this my Executrix

^T. 89.] LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON-. cxTx

should dye before me — I do then appoint my forementiond nephew &
niece (William Hawkins «S: Anne Hawkins) jointly my executors, giving &
bequeathing unto them the Remainder of my Estate unbequeathed, to be
divided between them into Three parts, whereof ray nephew is to have two
Thirds, & my neice one Third part.

Isaac Walton.

Sip^ned, sealed, published & declared as the last Will & Testament of the
within named Isaac Walton, in the presence of us who have subscribed
our names as witnesses to the same on the request of the said Isaac
Walton & in his presence and in presence of each other

Edward Seale.
Stephen Gaisford.
Geo: Frome."

In the handwriting of the testator,

•♦Last Will & Testam* of J: W:
July 14. 1 714."

"Probat Londini &c decimo quarto die mensis Nov"* Anno D'ni 1720
coram Veiili viro Humphredo Henchman Legum D'core Surro &c Jurto
GulTmi Hawkins ari uii Extof substitu! &c cui &c, De bene &c jural
Reservata potestate silem coinnem faciendi Annae Hawkins juil alter
Execut substituf &c. cum venerit eandem petitura Anna Hawkins seii
Extrice in dco Testo nominal in vita Testatoris mortem obeunte.
140 Nov"s 1 720.
"Guilielmus Hawkins Arfii unus Executor substitu! jurat reserv^r, potes-
tate Anne Hawkins juil alteri Execut Anna Hawkins sen. ExecutriC in Vita
Testatoris mortem obiunte.

Coram me

Hum. Henchman,
Surr.

** Testator fuit unus Canoniconim Residentiarium Ecclesiae Cathedralis
S'* Beatce Marise Virginis Sarum et obijt mense Decembris ult."

The strong allusion which Canon Walton makes to his " many
and grievous sins," and to the " manifold scandals which his very
irregular, negligent, and most unprofitable course of life had too
surely administered," probably originated in extreme humility, and
ought not to be construed literally. Like his father, he professed
his ardent attachment to the Church of England, as she had then
reformed herself ; and he also imitated his example, by desiring
to be interred in the most unostentatious manner.

Anne Walton, the only daughter of Izaak Walton who attained

cxx LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON.

womanhood, married about the year 1676 Dr William Hawkins, a
prebendary of Winchester, and rector of Droxford in Hampshire,
who died on the 17th of July 1691. She died on the i8th of
August 17 1 5, aged sixty-seven, and was buried, with her husband,
in Winchester Cathedral. The following inscriptions, with the
crest and arms of Hawkins, without an impalement, are placed on
their tomb : —

"h. s. e.
gulielmus hawkins

S. T. P.

HUJUS ECCLESIiE PR^BENDARIUS

QUI OBIIT JUL. 170

ANNO DOMINI 169I

i^TATIS SU/E 58.

H. S. E.

ANNA ETIAM ISAACI WALTON FII.IA

QU-<E OBIIT SUPER MEMORATI GULIELMI VIDUA

AUG. 18° A. D, 1 715

^TATIS SU^ 67."

They left only two surviving children ; viz., William and Anne
Hawkins. The latter lived for many years with her uncle. Canon
Walton, and superintended his domestic affairs ; and after his
decease she continued to reside at Salisbury.*' Her uncle, Bishop
Ken, left her ;!^5o in 1711 ; and dying unmarried on the 27th of
November 1728, was buried in Salisbury Cathedral, where the
following inscription is placed to her memory: —

"here LIETH the BODY

OF

ANN HAWKINS

ONLY DAUGHTER OF WILLIAM HAWKINS D.D.

SOMETIME PREBENDARY OF WINTON

AND OF ANNE HIS WIFE SISTER OF

ISAAC WALTON LATE CANON RESIDENTIARY

OF THIS CHURCH.

MORE I AM FORBID.

SHE DYED NOV. 27,

1728."

Wilham Hawkins was born about 1678, entered of the Middle
Temple, and was called to the bar. He was the executor of
Bishop Ken, whose will he proved on the nth of April 1711 ;
and in 17 13 he published a short account of that prelate. Some
time before his death he unfortunately became blind,' and died on

6 Hawkin's Life of Walton, p. 56. 7 ibid. p. 56.

LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. cxxi

the 29th of November 1748, aged seventy. He married Jane, the
beautiful^ daughter of John Merewether, M.D., who survived him
until the iith of June 1761. She was buried with her husband
in SaUsbury Cathedral, beneath a stone which is thus inscribed : —

"HERE LIES BURIED WILLIAM HAWKINS, ESQ.

BARRISTER AT LAW

WHO DIED NOV. 29, 1 748

AGED 70.

ALSO LIETH JANE THE RELICT OF

WILLIAM HAWKINS

AND DAUGHTER OF JOHN MEREWETHER, M.D,

DIED JUNE II, 1761."

Their issue were one son, William Hawkins ; and four
daughters, Jane, Anne, Henrietta-Rebecca, and Mary. Jane, the
eldest daughter, died on the nth of April 1728, to whose
memory her parents caused the following inscription to be placed
over her grave : —

"HERE LYE THE DEAR REMAINS OF

JANE

ELDEST DAUGHTER OF

WILLIAM AND JANE HAWKINS

WHOSE CAPACITY AND DISPOSITION

EXCEEDING EVEN PARENTS* HOPES

SHE BECAME AN UNCOMMON LOSS

ON THE IITH DAY OF APRIL 1 728

IN THE I2TH YEAR OF HER INNOCENCE.

god's WILL BE DONE !

Why should we grieve for what we must approve
The joys of Heaveo surpass our fondest love."

Her sisters, Henrietta- Rebecca and Mary Hawkins, also died
unmarried. Anne married the Reverend John Hawes, rector of
Wilton and Fugglestone St Peter's in Wiltshire.

William Hawkins, the only son of William Hawkins by Jane
Merewether, left an only child, Frances, who married in 1790
the late Mr Thomas Knapp Blagden, a bookseller at Winchester,
to whom she was the second wife. She had no issue.

The Reverend John Hawes died in December 1787, having had
issue by his wife, Anne Hawkins, who died in June 1797, four
children, viz., Margaret-Jane, and Anne, who both died unmarried;
the Reverend Henry Hawes, minister of Clifton, who married Miss
Brown, and died without issue in March 1 809 ; and the Reverend
Doctor Herbert Hawes, prebendary of Salisbury.

8 See Bowles's Life of Ken, ii. 267.

cxxii LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON.

Of some of the relations mentioned in the wills of the Waltons
it is difficult to speak with certainty. It is most probable that
their affinity was produced by Izaak Walton's marriage with Anne
Ken ; and as nothing is known of his wife's half-sisters, Margaret
and Elizabeth Ken, it may be conjectured, from the position of
tl;ie name of his " sister Pye," in Izaak Walton's will, where it
occurs immediately after the Kens, that she was one of the
bishop's sisters. His "brother Beacham " was James Beacham,
the husband of Martha Ken : he was living in July 17 14, and
had two sons Jon and William Beacham, the latter of whom was
a fellow of New College, but appears to have died before 17 13, as
his cousin Mr Hawkins does not mention him among Bishop Ken's
relations, in his account of that prelate,^ though he particularly
notices his brother Jon Ken, who proceeded M.A. in November
1683, and B.D. on the 23rd of March 1693. The said Jon
Beacham obtained the vicarage of East Brent in March 1688,
and the prebendary of Wanstrowin October 1689, from his uncle,
Bishop Ken, who bequeathed part of his books, and ^50 to him
by his will. He was a fellow of Trinity College in 1 7 1 3, after which
year nothing has been found respecting him.

Jon Ken, the elder brother of Bishop Ken, who married Rose,
the sister of Sir Thomas Vernon, was sometime treasurer of the
East India Company. He was living in 1683, and had issue by
his wife, who is mentioned in Canon Walton's will in 1 7 1 4, a son,
who was at Cyprus about the year 1707/ and two daughters,
Rose,^ who died in 1700, unmarried, when administration of her
effects was granted to her mother ; and Martha, who married
Christopher Frederic Kreinberg, resident for the Elector of Hanover
in London. She was bequeathed a legacy of ^50 by Bishop Ken;
and Canon Walton left her, and her husband, ;^io each, in 17 14,
after which time they have not been traced.

9 Mr Hawkins says that Bishop Ken "left behind him but few relations: Martha, the
daughter of his brother, Mr Jon Ken, by Rose, his wife, which Martha married to the
Honourable Christopher Frederic Kreinberg, resident of his Electoral Highness of
Hanover in London. Jon Beacham, at this time fellow of Trinity College, and William
Beacham, sometime fellow of New College, Oxon, and since deceased, who were the
sons of his sister Martha, by her husband, Mr James Beacham. Izaac Walton, residen-
tiary of the cathedral church of Sarum, and Anne, son and daughter of his sister Anne,
by her husband, Mr Izaac Walton, of London, which Anne havine: married to William
Hawkins, D. D., sometime prebendary of the cathedral church of Winton, had issue by
him, William and Anne, both living ; which William being, by will proved in the Pre-
rogative Court of Canterbury, April 24, 1711, appointed executor, and having had
opportunities of knowledge and inquiry of him, submits this impartial, and he hopes not
unacceptable account to the public." — Short Account of the Life of Bishop Ken, by
William Hawkins, of the Middle Temple, Esq. 8vo, 1713, p. 46.

1 Pedigree compiled by Mr Dale, one of the Heralds, about the year 1707, and
obligingly communicated by Charles George Young, Esq., York Herald.

LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. - cxxiii

Canon Walton also bequeathed legacies to his three cousins',
Elizabeth, William, and Susan Hoskins, children of Matthew
Hoskins ; but it has not been discovered in what way they were
related to him. It is,' however, most likely that they were the
children of one of Bishop Ken s sisters, as the bishop bequeathed
£20 to his niece, Mrs Elizabeth Hoskins,^ to be paid her on the
day of her marriage. Matthew Hoskins was perhaps the father
of the " little Matthew," whom Bishop Ken thus mentions in one
of his letters from Wincl>ester : " Little Matthew is very well, and
the schoolmaster, at whose house I lodge, tells me he is very
regular and minds his book."^ Mrs Mary Ireland, and Mrs Anne
Farwell, the two other cousins mentioned by Canon Walton, have
not been identified ; nor does any clue exist by which to ascertain
the parentage of his "godson Isaac Walton." A Mr Richard
Walton is mentioned in Izaac Walton's will in 1683 j but neither
he nor the godson are called relations. As there is cause to
believe that branches of the Walton family continued for several
generations in Staffordshire, it is extraordinary that none of them
should be mentioned in the will of Izaak Walton, or of his son.

It is not by his literary reputation alone that the memory of -
Izaak Walton is preserved from oblivion. His benefactions to his
native town still exist, and are recorded on a tablet in St Mary's
Church at Stafford.*

This Memoir must not be concluded without alluding to th^-
tributes which some of the most distinguished writers of the present
age have paid to Izaak Walton's memory; and it is gratifying to
perceive that time has had no injurious effect upon his fame, that
men of the highest attainments, with minds of kindred goodness
to his own, have generously paid homage to his worth, and that,
in his case at least, it may be truly said, that virtue can never die.
In the wide range of British literature, from the sage to the poet,
from the profound philosopher to the frivolous antiquary, and
imaginative novelist, writers of every class, and of every degree of
fame, have expressed their admiration of " honest Izaak Walton."

The giant of English literature, Dr Johnson, ranks foremost
among the modern admirers of Walton. It is said that he, at one
time, intended to write his life ; and it is a subject of regret
that his virtues and talents were not immortalised by his pen.
It was at Johnson's suggestion that the " Complete Angler "

'Erroneously printed Hawkins in the copy of Bishop Ken's will, in Mr Bowles's life
of that prelate. 3 Bowles's Life of Ken, ii. 329.

* For a copy of that inscription, and an account of Walton's charities, see the
Appendix.

cxxiv LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON.

was reprinted by the Rev. Moses Browne in 1772,^ the last pre-
ceding edition being that of 1676. Dr Johnson, moreover, once
thought of editing Walton's Lives of Donne, Wotton, Hooker,
Herbert, and Sanderson, which was one of his favourite books. ^
The work v/as originally contemplated by Dr Home, President
of Magdalene College, and afterwards Bishop of Norwich, who
requested Johnson to contribute to it ; but he declined, under the
idea that Lord Hailes intended to reprint it.^ In April 1777,
however, he desired Boswell to get him all the editions of Walton's
lives, as he says, " I have a notion that the republication of them
with notes will fall upon me, between Dr Home and Lord
Hailes." ^ He preferred the Memoir of Donne to any of the
others ; ^ and it is characteristic of him, that he complained of
the omission of Donne's vision in a recent edition, which he said
should be restored ; adding that " there ought to be a critical
catalogue given of the works of the different persons whose lives
were written by Walton, and therefore their works must be care-
fully read by the editor." ^
\J Sir Walter Scott's admiration of Walton is known to all the
world, because his works contain several allusions to him, and
always in terms of praise.

Wordsworth's exquisite sonnet on Walton's biographical labours
caniiot"15eTTJO't)ften reprinted : —

" There are no colours in the fairest sky

So fair as these ; the feather whence the pen
Was shaped that traced the lives of these good Men,
Dropped from an Angel's wine;. With moistened eye,
We read of faith and purest charity,
In Statesman, Priest, and humble Citizen.
Oh could we copy their mild virtues, then
What joy to live, what blessedness to die !
Methinks their very Names shine still and bright,
Apart — like glow-worms in the woods of spring.
Or lonely tapers shooting far a light
That guides and cheers — or seen like stars on high,
Satellites burning in a lucid ring,
Around meek Walton's heavenly memory." ^

A critic in the Quarterly Review ^ has thus spoken of the same
work : —

" Izaak Walton, in the enjoyment of a green and cheerful old
age, the reward of a tranquil life, produced without art or study,
his inimitable pieces of biography, not unconscious how rich a

5 Preface to Moses Browne's edition of the Complete Angler, pp. 14-16.

6 Boswell's Life of Johnson, ed. 1811, vol. iii. 74.

7 Ibid. ii. 401, 405 ; iii. 162, 163. 8 ibid. iii. 303.

8 Ibid. iii. 74. 1 Ibid. iii. 163.
2 Ecclesiastical Sketches, London, 1822. 3 Vol. xxix. p. 212.

\J

LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON,

treasure he was preserving for posterity, but not dreaming of the
honour in which his own name would lastingly be held for those
labours of love."

Nor have the fair sex withheld their admiration from Walton ;
and the following graceful verses were written in a copy of the
" Complete Angler " which belonged to Sir Humphrey Davy, " by a
noble lady, long distinguished at court for pre-eminent beauty and
grace, and whose mind possesses undying charms," who is sup-
posed to be the present Lady Charlotte Bury, then Lady Charlotte
Campbell : —

" Albeit, gentle angler, I
Delight not in thy trade ;

Yet in thy pages there doth He '

So much of quaint simplicity.

So much of mind

Of such good kind,
That none need be afraid.
Caught by thy cunning bait, this book,
To be ensnared ou thy hook.

Gladly from thee, I'm lured to bear
With things that seem'd most vile before ;
For thou didst on poor subjects rear
Matter the wisest sage might hear ;

And, with a grace,

That doth efface
More labour'd works, thy simple lore
Can teach us that thy skilful lines
More than the scaly brood confines.

Our hearts and senses too, we sea
Rise quickly at thy master hand,
And, ready to be caught by thee,
Are lured to virtue willingly;

Content and peace, •

With health and ease,
Walk by thy side ; at thy command
We bid adieu to worldly care.
And joy in gifts that all may share.

Gladly with thee I pace along,
And of sweet fancies dream ;
Waiting still some inspired song.
Within my memory cherish'd long,

Comes fairer forth,

With more of worth,
Because that time, upon its stream,
Feathers and chaff will bear away.
But give to gems a brighter ray.

C. C. 1812.

There is much that the admirers of Walton will read with
pleasure in a criticism which appeared in another quarter of the
globe in " The American Review " of the Diary of Wilson, the
ornithologist. Wilson says : —

^

**i8io. April 25. Breakfasted at Walton's, thirteen miles from
Nashville. The hospitable landlord, Isaac Walton, upon setting out

cxxvi LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON.

early the next morning, refused to take anything for my fare ; saying,
* Vou seem to be travelling for the good of the world, and I cannot, I will
not charge you anything ; whenever you come this way, call and stay with
me, you shall be welcome.' This is the first instance of such hospitality
which I have met with in the United States."

On this passage the American Reviewer observes : —

**Upon reading this note, our faith in the doctrine of Pythagoras grew
strong. Can it be that the soul of that gentle parent of the angle, old Izaac
Walton, in winging its terrestrial flight from the margin of the sea, found a
kindred tenement in mine excellent host of Tennessee ? We fear poor
Wilson never luxuriated over the verdant pages of that golden book, ' The
Complete Angler,' or he would have anticipated our passing tribute to its
author. We too had, peradventure, died in ignorance, had it not been
pointed out to us by the venerable author of the Man of Feeling, himself a
brother of the gentle craft. We recall the era of the event as one of the
greenest spots both in our literary and piscatoiy existence, and have ever
since held it a settled maxim of our belief, in defiance of which we are
ready to do battle, that no brother of the angle can by any possibility prove
a recreant. " *

The following beautiful sonnet on Walton, by Mr Moxon, would
do credit to a veteran poet : —

" Walton ! when weary of the world, I turn
My pensive soul to thee, and soothing find
The meekness of thy plain contented mind
Act like some healing charm. From thee I Icarn
To sympathise with Nature, nor repine
At Fortune, who, though lavish of her store,
Too often leaves her favourites richly poor ;
Wanting both health and energy divine,
Life's blessings to enjoy. Methinks, e'en now
I hear thee 'neath the milk-white scented thorn
Communing with thy pupil, as the morn
Her rosy cheek displays ; while streams that flow,
And all that gambol near their rippling source,
Enchanted listen to thy sweet discourse."

Two scholars, of spme celebrity for their accomplishments and
taste, have combined to do honour to Walton in the annexed
verses. The original was written by James Park, Esq., late
Professor of Law, of King's College, London j ^ and the transla-
tion is by Archdeacon Wrangham : —

" At nobis rigui fontes et flumina cordi ;
Nos potius tua, Sancta Senex, veneranda per aevum
Auguria, et grato exequimur praecepta labore ;
Omnia quae quondam Lese labentis ad undam
Cantastj : neque enim mihi fas, Waltone, tacere
Mentem in te facilem, et nullis palleniia culpis
Pectora, et antiqua sanctam pietate senectam.

♦ American Review, No. xvi. Becember 1830, p. 376.

* Printed in the Cambridge Triposes of 1802.

LIFE OF IZAAK WAL TON. cxxvii

Felix, cui plncidse fraudes atque otia curae,
Piscator ! tibi enim tranquillo ia corde seveium
Subsidet desiderium, tibi sedulus angor :
Uum tremula undarum fades, et mobib's umbra,
Dum purae grave murmur aquae, virtute quieta
Composuere animum, et blandis affectibus implent."

*' Mine be the brook's green side, the river stream.
Whilst stil', obedient to the instructive theme,
Sport of thy simple mus*? by eliding Len^
I strive with grateful toil, to follow thee.
For, Walton, crime it were to leave unsung
Thy gentle mind, thy breast unblanch'd by wrong ;
And, vivid glowing on the graphic page,
Thy guileless manners, and thy hallowed age.

Happy Piscator ! with the viewless line
Tranquil to dupe the finny tribe was thine.

Fled from thy tranquil bosom gnawing care, ^

No tumult throbb'd, no malice darken d there :
The stream light quivering to the summer breeze,
The quickly-shifting shade of clouds or trees,
The ripple's murmur breathed a holy re*r,
And to complacent calmness luU'd thy breast."

There is truth in the remark of the first of the modern editors of
the "Complete Angler," the Reverend Moses Browne, that " it was
chiefly by Walton's pleasing sweetness of nature and conversation,
innate simplicity of manners, and, above all, his religious integrity
and undissembled honesty of heart, for which he was so remarked
and endeared to the affections of all that ever knew him. They
sat so naturally on him, you may trace them in everything he writ ;
he drew his own picture in almost every line ; I think there are
hardly any writings ever showed more the features and limbs, the
very spirit and heart, of an author."

Dr Zouch has almost exhausted panegj'ric in his praises of
Walton ; and has thus commented upon his personal appearance
in the conclusion of his memoir. The engraving to which he
alludes gives a very imperfect idea of the original ; but his de-
scription is still more applicable to the perfect copy of Walton's
portrait, which is prefixed to this volume. " The features of the
countenance," he says, " often enable us to form a judgment, not
very fallible, of the disposition of the mind. In few portraits can
this discovery be more successfully pursued than in that of Izaak
Walton. Lavater, the acute master of physiognomy, would, I think,
instantly acknowledge in it the decisive traits of the original, —
mild complacency, forbearance, mature consideration, calm activity,
peace, sound understanding, power of thought, discerning attention,
and secretly active friendship. Happy in his unblemished in-
tegrity, happy in the approbation and esteem of others, he inwraps
himself in his own virtue. The exultation of a good conscience
eminently shines forth in this venerable person —

LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON.

* Candida semper
Gaudia, et in vultu curarum igiiara voluptas.'"

The cento of Walton's praises would not be complete without
an allusion to the glowing descriptions of his merits, which occur
in the edition of Pope's Works, as well as in the Life of Bishop
Ken, by the Rev. WilUam Lisle Bowles, whose genius and
goodness alike give value to his eulogy. If the gentle spirit of
" honest Izaak " is permitted to know by whom his memory is
cherished, it has derived the highest gratification from the tributes
paid to his virtues by the Rector of Bremhill, the friend of his
descendant, and from congenial feelings, the warm admirer of the
talents, piety, and moral excellence, for which Izciak Walton
was distinguished.

THE FISHING-HOUSE OF SIR HENRY
WOTTON.

The following description of the spot where Sir Henry Wotton and Izaak
Walton used to angle, by that excellent troller and amiable disciple of
Walton, Edward Jesse, of Hampton Court, Esq., author of ''Gleanings
in Natural History " and " An Angler's Rambles," forms an appropriate
illustration in the preceding Memoir.

The life, conversation, and pursuits of the revered Izaak Walton,
the purity of his moral character, and his tender sentiments of
benevolence, peculiarly fitted him to be the friend and companion
of the learned, witty, and cheerful Sir Henry Wotton, " one of the
delights of mankind." We accordingly find that they "often
fished and conversed " together, both of them being " most dear
lovers and frequent practisers of the art of angling."

It is well known that when Sir Henry became Provost of
Eton College, Master Izaak Walton frequently went iX) see him,
giving him " his own ever-welcome company at the time of the
F/y and the Cori\" A spot is still pointed out, about half a mile
from the venerable college of Eton, where these loving friends
and companions pursued their innocent pleasures of the angle.
Here we can fancy them seated quietly in a summer's even-
ing "on a bank a-fishing," while the beauteous Thames glided
calmly, and softly, and sweetly by them. Here also Sir Henry
might have composed his pretty description of the spring, begin-
ning

"This day Dame Nature seem'd in love" —

and in which he apostrophised his companion "our honest
father : "—

"There stood 1x1^ friend with patient skill,
Attending to his trembling quill."

The whole scenery of the spot in question appears suited to a
lover of angling. A little green lawn slopes gently down to the

t

cxxx FISHING- HOUSE OF

river, and on the top of it a modest fishing-house is seen, just such
a one as we may suppose the provost and his friend would retire
to, either for shelter or to partake of a fisherman's fare. It might
have had Piscatoribus Sacrum inscribed over its door. It stands
on an ayte, round which the " dehcate clear river " finds its way.
To the left, the turrets of Windsor Castle are seen through a vista
of magnificent elms ; and to the right, the chapel and college of
Eton, with their venerable and beautiful architecture, add to the
charm of the scenery. A stand of eel-krails, which is let down to
catch these wandering fish when the river is swollen by rains, is
not without its interest, placed as it is between two clusters of
graceful willows, amongst which the sedge-bird and the willow-
wren sing in concert day and night.

Such is the spot which we have endeavoured to delineate in the
accompanying engravings, and which will always be viewed with
interest by every admirer of Izaak Walton. The ayte is still the
property of the Provost and Fellows of Eton College, and is rented
of them by Mr Bacheldor of Windsor, a worthy and expert brother
of the angle, who has done much to improve the spot, and to keep
up the interest which is attached to it.

It is, indeed, almost impossible for an honest disciple of Izaak
Walton to visit it without his imagination wandering to the times
when the excellent Provost of Eton and his friend were seated to-
gether on that identical bank, holding sweet discourse, and thank-
ing God for the very many blessings He had bestowed on them,
and for the quiet and peaceable amusement they were enjoy-
ing. He will fancy that he sees them sometimes walking on
the banks of their favourite river ; and at others seated quietly
on its side " trying to catch the other brace of trout." He
may also picture to himself the " ever-memorable " Sir Henry
Wotton, reclining with his head resting on his hand, and with
his " curious pencil " addressing some such lines as the following
to his companion : —

Good Izaak, let us stay, and rest us here ;

Old friends when near
Should talk together oft, and not lose time

In silly rhyme,
That only addles men's good brains to write,
While those who read, bless God they don't indite.

There is a tree close by the river's side :

There let's abide,
And only hear far ofiF the world's loud din.

Where all is sin ;
While we our peaceful rods shall busy ply
When fish spring upward to the dancing fly.

S//^ HENRY WOT TON,

Our sports and life oft contemned are
By men that spare

No cost of time, wealth, life, to gain their end.
And often spend

Them all in hopes some happiness to see

In what they are not, but they mean to be.

We will not search for that we may not find.

But dearly bind
Our hearts, friend Izaak, in a tighter knot.

And this our lot
Here long to live together in repose.
Till death for us the peaceful scene shall close.

I. PEDIGREES OF WALTON,

\Compiled from Vincent's Stafford^ No. 1 13, in the
RICHARD WALTON, of Marchington, Woodland-;, in the parish of Hanbury, co. Stafford. Will

Henry Walton, of Dovebridge, co. Derby.
Query, if the Henry Walton, son of Richard
Walton, who is mentioned in his Will, dated
31st October 1557?

Margaret, daughter of Henry Milward,
of Dovebridge, co. Stafford, third son of
Robert Milward, of Catton, co. Derby.

James Walton, of Dovebridge. Presumed — •
to have been the James Walton men-
tioned in the Will of George Walton, of
Yoxhall, as his brother, in Feb. 1570-71.

Henry Walton. William Walton.

James Walton, of Dove-
bridge. Query, if the James
Walton, alias Harrison,
of Dovebridge, whose Will
was proved by Constance,
his widow, April 20, 161 5.

William Walton, living Feb.
1570-1. Query, if the William
Walton, of St Mary's, Stafford,
who was buried there April 28,
1604, and whose Will was proved
November g, 1604.

T

Jer"<s Walton, living Feb.
1570-1. Presumed to have
been the Jervis Walton,
of Stafford, who was buried
at St Mary's, Stafford, nth
February 1596-7.

T

William =

= Isabel,

Walton,

daughter of

of Dove-

Lawrence

bridge.

Shrigley,

of Sinfin, CO.

Derby, widow

of Crispes.

Katherine,

m. Francis

Burton, Esq.,

May 5, 1622.

I i I
Anna.

Richard.

George.

William
Walton,
a minor gth
Nov. 1604.

All minors April 1615.

John
Walton.

Living
February

1570-1-

Elizabeth.

William
Walton.
Living 161 9.

Richard

Walton.

Baptized at

St Mary's,
Stafford,

23d Decem-
ber 1603.

Elizabeth.
Baptized at
St Mary's,

Stafford, 4th
June 1606.

Eleanor.
Baptized at
St Mary's,
Stafford,
loth Febru-
ary 1613-14.

Henry

Henry

Anne

Walton.

Walton.

Walton.

Baptized at

Baptized at

Born 10th

St Dunstan'.s,

St Dunstan's,

July 1640.

London,

21 St March

Died nth

1 2th, and

1633-4-

May 1642.

buried there

Buried there

17th October

4th Decem-

1632.

ber 1634.

William Hawkins, only son, born about 1678. Called =Jane, daughter of John Merevvether, of
to the Bar by the Honourable Society of the Middle Devizes, M.D. Married bef<,)re Ju'y

Temple. Died 2gth November 1748, aet. 70. Buried
in SaUsbury Cathedral, M. I.

1714. Died nth June 1761
Salisbury Cathedral, M. I.

Buried

Rev. William Hawkins, only
son. Vicar of Boldre, co. Hants.
Died about 1776 or 1777.

- Widow of
• Treherne.

Frances Hawkins, only 1= Mr Thomas

child. Married at St Thomas', Knapp Blagden,

Winchester, gth May 1790. of Winchester,

Living at St Maloes, in deceased.

France, without issue, April ^c^

1836. — Second wife. **

Jane Hawkins, eldest daughter. Bom
1716. Died i2th Aoril 1728, ^t. 12.
Buried in Salisbury Cathedral, M. I.

Rev. Henry Hawes,
of Clifton. Born

27th October 1756.
Died 17th March

1809, without issue.

: Elizabeth, daughter
of William Brown,

Esq. Married

January 1786. Living

June 1836.

[ 132]

HAWKINS, AND HAWES.

College of Arms ^ Wills, and other Authorities^
dated 31st October 1557. Proved by Robert Milward and Thomas Boobye in 1566.

Margery.

James.

William.

Mary.

Elizabeth.

Ellem.

All living October 1557.

George Walton, bailiff of Yoxall, co, Stafford. Will
dated loth February 1 570-1. Proved 7th April fol-
lowing.

Denstell
Walton.

Anne
Walton.

Alice, m. —
Haslam.

All living February 1570-1.

Isabel. Proved her
husband s Will 7th
April 1571.

George Walton, = Elizabeth.

of St Mary's, Administered to

Stafford. Buried her husband's

there March 24, effects Sept. 25,

1597-8. 1598.

Ambrose

Rachel, daughter of =

Walton.

Floud. Born about 1 605.

; Buried at

Married at St Mildred's,

St Mary's,

Canterbury, Dec. 27,

Stafford,

1626. Died 22d, and

3d March

buried at St Dunstan's in

1595-6.

the West, London, 25th

Aug. 1640.— First wife.

IZAAK WALTON. Bom:
at Stafford, gth Aug^ust, and
baptized at St Mary's, in
that town, 21st September
1593- Will dated August
9, 1683. Proved February
4, 1683-4. Died December
15, and buried at Winches-
ter December 1683.

TzAAK IzAAK WALTON. Baptized at Clerkenwell Anne Walton. '■

Walton. 7th September 1651. Proceeded M.A. Bom nth March

Baptized at 13th March 1675. Obtained the rectory 1647-8. Married

Clerkenwell of Polshot, co. Wilts, about 1681, and about 1676. Died

loth Fcbru- afterwards was a Canon of Salisbury 18th August

a ry 1649-50. Cathedral. Will dated 14th July 1714. 1715, set. 67.

Buried there Proved i8th November 1720. Died in Buried in

loth Jime London, unmarried, 29ih December Winchester

following. 1719. Buried in Salisbury Cathedral, Cathedral, M. I.
M. I.

: Anne, daughter of
Thomas Ken, Attor-
ney of the Court of
Common Pleas. Bom
1 610. Married about
1646. Died 17th April
1662, set. 52. Buried in
Worcester Cathedral
2oth April 1662, M.I.

: Dr William
Hawkins, Preben-
dary of Winchester
Cathedral, Rector of
Droxford, co. Hants.

Born 1633. Died

17th July i6qi, act. 58.

Buried in Winchester

Cathedral, M. I.

Anne

[awkins, only daughter. Died unmarried 27th November 1728. Buried
in Salisbury Cathedral, M. I.

Henrietta-
Rebecca.

Mary.

Died unmarried.

Anne Hawkins. Bom 1719.
Died 2d June 1797, act. 78,
Buried at Bemerton, co.
Wilts, M. I.

Rev. John Hawes, M. A., Rector of
Wilton and Fugglestone St Peter,
CO. Wilts. Died i6th Dec. 1787,
aet. 68. Buried at Bemerton, M. I.

Rev. Herbert Hawes, D.D.,

Prebendary of Salisbury.

Living unmarried at Salisbury

June 1836,

Margaret-Jane. Bom

14th May 1755. Died
unmarried 31st July 1820.
Buried at Bemerton, M.I.

Anne, Bom 7th M.iy

1761. Died 7th June

following.

[133]

II. PEDIGREE

[Compiled from Herald'' s Visitations, Le Neve^s Pedigrees of

THOMAS CRANMER, of Aslacton, co. Notts, Esq. -j- Agnes, daughter

John Cranmer, of As-
lacton, CO. Notts, Esq.
Son and heir.

Joan. =Thomas Cranmer, second
First wife. son. Born 1489. Conse-

crated Archbishop of Can-
terbury 30th March 1533.
Martyred 21st March 1555.

Thomas Cranmer,

of Kirkstall, co. York.

Living 1582.

Anne.

Anne, niece to the
wife of Oziandek.
Second wife.

Margaret.

George Cranmer,

Thomas

William Cranmer, =

= Susannah,

Dorothy.

Rachel.

son and heir.

Cranmer.

of London, Merchant,

daughter of
Powell :

Baptized

Baptized

Admitted scholar

Living

Deputy-Governor of

1575. Mar-

1577. Mar-

of Christ Church,

1617, a

the Hamburgh Com-

sister and co-heir

ried

ried, 1597,

Oxford, 1577 or

lunatic.

pany at Rotterdam.

of Sir Edward

Field {vide

John

1579, then set. 14.

Died 1650, at

Powell, of

Memoir of

Blowfield,

Slain in Ireland

Rotterdam.

Pengethly, co.

Walton, p.

Gent. Died

T3th Nov. 1600.

Hereford, and of

xxii. note).

24th August

Died unmarried.

Fulham, Bart.

Living 1635.

1600.

George
Cranmer,
1650. Died
unmarried.

Sir William Cran-
mer, of London,

knighted 14th

December 1689,

Governor of the

Hamburg Company,

and of the Merchants

Adventurers of

London. Died

unmarried 20th Sept,

1697, set. 67. Buried

at Bromley, co.

Middlesex, M. I. in

St Mildred's,

Canterbury.

Susan, eldest ■
daughter. Born
before April 1635.
MarriedEowARD

Kenrick, of

London, Mer-
chant, and third
son of John

Kenrick, of
Shropshire.

First husband.

John Kenrick,

of London,

Merchant,

executor to his

uncle.

Sir William

Cranmer,

in 1697,

■^

= Thomas
Tomlins,
of London,
Merchant,
and of
Bromley, co,
Middlesex,

Second
husband.

Matthew,

Susan.
Dorothy.

^111
Rebecca.

Mary.

Other
Children.

Mary. —

= Thomas

Married

Janes, or
Eyans, or

Thomas

Hartley,

Evans, of

of London,

Bow, CO.

Merchant.

Middlesex.

First hus-

Second

band. Both

husband.

living 1650.

Thomas

Tomlins.

Died young.

Sarah
Tomlins,
daughter

and
eventually
sole heir.

Sir Robert

Jenkinson, of

Oxfordshire^

Bart.

A quo the Earl of Liverpool.

Note.—OnQ of the daughters of Thomas Cranmer and Anne Carpenter married Dr John

have been the wives
[ 134]

F CRANMER.

tights in Harleian MS. 5802, and other Authorities^
Laurence Hatfield, of Willoughby, co. Notts.

MONO Cranmer,
rd son. Collated
:hdeacon of Can-
rbury gth March
3. Deprived 1554.
Died 1571.

Anne,
daughter of

Saunde,

of Kent.

Jane, married

John Monings,

Lieutenant of

Dover Castle.

Isabel,

Lady

Sheppy.

Anne, wife of

Edmund

Cartwright,

of Ossington,

CO. Notts.

Dorothy,

wife of
Harrold

ROSSELL.

OMAS Cranmer, = Anne- She is presumed to have been a daughter of

)f St Mildred's,
mterbury, Gent.
ied 1604, act. 69.
M.L

John Carpenter, of Rye, co. Sussex, and sister of
John Carpenter, who married Anne, sister of
William Davison, Secretary of State to Queen
Elizabeth. Died 161 7.

Alice, wife of

Thomas Norton,

of Wiltshire.

I

itLIZABETH.
ptized 1574.
arried, 1592,
Ilkxandkr
RWOOD. Both
iving 1617.

Jane.

Baptized

1580.

Susannah.

Baptized 2d

August 1579.

Will dated
20th April, and

proved 27th
November 1635.

'• — ^ Floud,

of Canterbury. "

Living 1617.

Died before 1635

(^iiie Memoir

of Walton,

p. xxi).

Akne.

Margaret.

Baptized

Baptized

X581. Living

1585. Living

1617. Mar-

X604.

ried John

Sellar,

B.D.

.IZABETH.

rn before
Til 1635.
VI arried
hn Webb
or

EHBURIE,

of

)tterdam,
erchant.

Anns =
Cranmer.
She married
first

Slane,

of , and

secondly,
Nathaniel

South,

President of

India.

: Sir John
Cleobury,
ofBradstone,
CO. Devon,
B.irt. Third
husband.
Ob. 1687.

Robert

Floud,

eldest son.

Proceeded

B.A. at St

John's

College,

Cambridge,

1627.

Executor to

his mother

1635. Living

1655-

John
Floud,
not 28 in

1635-
M.A., and
living iu

IZAAK

WALTON

See

Pedigree

No. I.

Rachel =

Floud. Bom

about 1605.

Married at

St Mildred's,

Canterbury,

Dec. 27, 1626.

Buried at St

Dunstan's in

the East, Aug.

25, 1640.

First wife.

See Pedigree No. I.

SAN Janes, = William May-

nard, second

son of William

Lord Maynard,

executor to

Sir William

Cranmer in

1697.

Anne.
Married Sir
John Holt,

Bart.

Katherine.

Married

William

Bromley, son of

Sir William
Bromley, K.B.

Susan.

Married

Sir Thomas

Trollope,

Bart.

Mary.

Married SiR

John Noel,

of Kirby, co.

Leicester,

Bart.

ENCER, the pupil and friend of Hooker ;
• Boote and Parry.

and two of his other daughters are supposed to

[135]

I

APPENDIX TO THE MEMOIR
OF WALTON.

Note A. [Referred to in p. xvii.]

EXTRACTS FROM WILLS, &c. OF PERSONS OF THE
NAME OF WALTON,

IN THE bishop's REGISTRY AT LICHFIELD.

Ralph Walton of the parish of the Holy Trinity, in Coventry.
Proved at Lichfield on the 29th July 155 1, by his widow, relict and
executrix.

John Walton of the parish of Worfield. Proved at that place 26th
September 1552, by William Walton, his son and executor.

John Walton of Radford. Proved at Coventry on the 17th April
1553, by Thomas Walton, his son and executor.

John Walton of Granborow. Proved at Coventry on the 17th April
1553, by Alexander Walton, his son and executor.

Richard Walton of Burton upon Trent. Proved by Nicolas Walton,
his son and executor, at Lichfield, on the 6th September 1555.

Letters of administration of the goods of NicOLAS Walton of Burton
upon Trent, were granted on the 21st of January 1556, at Lichfield, to
Edith Walton.

William Walton of the parish of Muccleston. Proved at Lichfield on
the last day of August 1557, by Thomas Walton, his son and executor.

Letters of administration of the goods of Thomas Walton of Alfreton,
were granted to Isabella, his widow, on the l6th of September 1557.

John Walton of the parish of Long Frith. Proved at Ashboum 17th
September 1558, by Margaret Walton, his relict, and Prudence Walton,
his daughter, the executrixes.

Letters of administration of the goods of Roger Walton of the parish
of Muccleston, were granted to William Walton, his son, at Stafford, nth
April 1559.

Henry Walton of Bridgenorth. Proved at Lichfield on the 20th
August 1559, by Dorothy . . . . , and Henry . . . . , the executors.

Richard Walton of the parish of Muccleston. Proved by ... . and

cxxxviii APPENDIX TO THE

William Adams, the executors, at Stafford, on the 5th day of May

1561.

Letters of administration of the goods of William Walton of the
parish of Muccleston, were granted to Alice, his widow, at Stafford, on the
19th day of April 1564.

Edyth Walton of Burton upon Trent, dated 8th March 1557. Proved
at Lichfield 17th July 1559, by Joanna and Agnes, her daughters and
executrixes. This will is very short ; no person of the name of Walton are
mentioned, nor is any one designated a relation in it.

Richard Walton of Marchington Woodlands, in the parish of Han-
bury, in the county of Stafford, dated the last day of October 1557,
proved by Robert Millwood [query Millward] and Thomas Boobye at
Uttoxeter, 1566. The testator mentions his having seven children, viz.
Henry, Margery, James, William, Mary, Elizabeth, and Ellen, to each of
whom he left a legacy.

Alice Walton of Marchington Woodlands, dated 22nd March 1561,
proved at Uttoxeter, 1562, by Richard W^alton. She mentions her
daughters, Margaret, Joan, and Agnes, Thomas Boobye her son in law,
and Richard Walton.

George Walton of Yoxall, dated loth February 1570. Proved by
Isabella, his widow, 7th April 15 71. He mentions his children, Denstell
Walton, Jervis Walton, Anne Walton, and William Walton. John Walton,
son of William Walton, Alice Haslam, his daughter, and James Walton,
his brother. He is described in the signature to the will, as " late Baylie
of Yoxall."

Agnes Walton of the parish of Madeley, in the county of Stafford,
dated 28th November 1572. Proved 22nd April 1573, by John Offley. No
person is described as a relation in this will ; but a John Walton is
mentioned.

Thomas Walton of Swinnerton, dated 7th January 1582. Proved in
1584, by Margaret, his widow. He mentions his wife, Margaret, and his
children, Richard, Thomas, Robert, John, and Margery.

William Walton of Stafford, dated 22nd April 1604. Proved l^y
William Clarke in November following. He left the whole of his property,
except a few trifling legacies, to his son, William Walton, who is the only
person of the name of Walton mentioned.

Nicolas Walton of Kettleston. Proved at Ashbourn on the 27th
April 1574, by Ellen, his widow.

William Walton of Bowleborough, was proved by ... . Walton
and Thomas . . . . , at Chesterfield, the 12th April 1575.

Lawrence Walton of the parish of Beighton. Proved at Lichfield
the 13th of October 1585, by Isabella, his widow.

John Walton of the parish of Radford, proved at Coventry, 20th June
1597, by Francis Walton, his executor.

Alexander Walton of the parish of Granborowe, proved at Coventry
20th June 1597, by John Walton, his son and executor.

Letters of administration of the goods of Robert Walton, alias
Callow^e, of Birmingham, were granted to Johanna, his widow, at
Lichfield, the 9th February 1597.

Letters of administration of the goods of Nicolas Walton of the
parish of Granborowe, were granted to Elizabeth, his widow, at Coventry,
27th April 1598.

MEMOIR OF WALTON. cxxxix

Letters of administration of the goods of Thomas Walton of the
parish of Swinnerton, were granted to Richard Walton the elder, his
brother, at Lichfield, the 25th of August 1598.

Letters of administration of the goods of George Walton of the
parish of St Mary, Stafiford, were granted to Elizabeth Walton, his widow,
at Lichfield, the 25th day of September 1598.

Letters of administration of the goods of Richard Walton of the
parisli of Fellongley were granted to Johanna Walton, his widow, at
Lichfield, 26th May 1599.

William Walton of the parish of St Mary, Stafford. Proved at
Lichfield, the 9th day of November 1604, by William Starkie, his executor.

On the same day, the guardianship of William Walton, the son of
the said William Walton deceased, was assigned to the said William
Starkie during his minority, &c.

Jane Walton of the town of Derby. Proved at Lichfield 29th January
1605, by Raymond Firman, one of the executors.

John Walton of the parish of Willington. Proved by Richard his son
and executor, at Salop, 12th May 1605.

Letters of administration of the goods of Elizabeth Walton of the
parish of Willington, were granted to Richard Walton her son, at Lichfield
3rd of June 1607-

Letters of administration of the goods of John Walton of the parish of
Drayton Bassett, were granted to Richard Walton and Margery Wilcox,
his brother and sister, the 9th of September 1607.

Letters of administration of the goods of Robert Walton of Seighford,
were granted to Elizabeth Walton, his widow, at Lichfield, the 15th of
Deceml^er 1607.

At the same time letters of administration of the goods of the said de-
ceased, bequeathed by his will to his son, John Walton, a minor, were
granted to the said Elizabeth Walton, his mother, during his minority.

John Walton of Grindon. Proved at Lichfield 31st May 1609, by
Alice, his widow, and William, his son, the executors.

James Harrison, alias Walton, of Doveridge. Proved at Lichfield,
the 20th April 1 615, by Constance, his widow and executrix.

At the same time letters of administration of the goods of the said James
Harrison, alias Walton, deceased, given by his will to his childrcii,
Katherine, Anna, Richard, and George (minors), were granted to their
mother, the said Constance Harrison, alias Walton, during their
minority.

Humfrey Walton of Aston juxta Birmingham. Proved at Lichfield
l6th day of June 1615, by Margery, his widow.

Letters of administration of the goods of Thomas Walton, alias
Callowe, of the paiish of Aston juxta Birmingham, were granted to
Maria, his relict, at Lichfield, October 25th, 1615. Also the guardianship,
&c. of his children, Maria, John, Dorothy, Margaret, Margery, and
Elizabeth Walton, alias Callowe, during their minority.

Robert Walton of Sandon. Dated 22nd December 1616, and proved
in 1617, by William Poker, George Pul.ston, and Francis Smith, the
executors. At the same time the guardianship and letters of administration
of the goods given by the said deceased to his diildren, George, Elizabeth,
and John Walton, minors, were granted to the said executors during the
minority of the said children.

cxl APPENDIX TO THE

Agnes Walton of the parish of Pinckeston. Proved by William her
son and executor, at Lichfield, the 20th February i6i6.

John Walton of the parish of Pinckeston. Proved 14th February
1616, by Agnes Walton, his mother and executor.

James Walton of the parish of Leighe, proved at Lichfield, 12th
November 1616, by Katharine Walton his relict, one of the executors,
power being reserved for William Walton, another executor. Also the
guardianship of the deceased's children, Katherine Walton, and James
Walton, minors, being granted to the said widow during their minority.

Isabella Walton exhibited an inventory of the goods of her deceased
husband, William Walton, of Bentley, on the ist July 161 7.

John Walton of Leamington Hastings. Proved on the 30th July
16 18, by Henry Walton, his son and executor.

Note B. [Referred to in pp. xli. and Ixix.]

The following entries occur in Izaak Walton's copy of the Book of
Common Prayer, printed by Barker, London, 1639, small folio, in the
possession of the Rev. Dr Hawes.

In the handwriting of Isaak Walton the elder : —

My dafter Ann borne the eleventh of March, 1647.

My last son Izaak borne the 7° of Sept. 165 1, at halfe an houre after
2 a Clock in the afternoone, being Sunday, and he was baptized in the
evening by Mr Thrustros, in my howse in Clarkenwell. Mr Henry
Davison, and brother Beacham were his god fathers, and Mrs Roe his
godmother.

Rachell Walton dyed the 22° of August, about 12 on that day, 1640,
buried the 25° day.

Her dafter Ann borne the 10" of July, 1640, dyed the ii° of May,
1642.

Ann Walton senyer dyed the 17° of Aprill about one a Clock in that
night, and was buried in the Virgin Mary Chappell in the Cathedrall in
Worcester, the 20th day.
A grave stone their laid over her, in M'hich this written :
Here lyeth buried so much as could dye of Ann, the wife of Izaak
Walton.

A woman who was of remarkable prudence

And

of the primitive pietie

Her greate and generall knowledg

Being adorned with such trew humillitie

And blest with soe much Christian

Meeknes as made her worthy

Of a more memorable monument. She dyed

Alas ! Alas ! that she is ded.

Aprill. 17. 1662.

MEMOIR OF Walton: cxii

In the ha7idwriting of Izaak Walton the younger : —

My father, Izaak Walton, dyed Dec. 15, 1683.

Thomas Ken, Bp. of Bath and Wells, deprived, dyed March 19,
1710-1.

In the handwriting of William Hawkins^ the biographer of Ken: —

Dr William Hawkins my Father dyed July 17, 1691. W. H.
My sister Anne Hawkins dyed Aug. 18, 17 15. I. W.
My uncle, Mr Isaac Walton Jun. dyed December 29, 1 719. W. H.
My sister, Anne Hawkins, died Nov. 1728. W. H.

I

Note C. [Referred to in p. Ixx,]

DR DONNE'S (THE YOUNGER'S) LAST WILL AND
TESTAMENT. JULY 21, 1657.

_„ , ,. , A Dieu mon droit.

Video mehora proboque. pje^, ^.^ ^^^ ^jroit.

3In tbc name of <J5oD, ?Cmcn. I, John Donne, by the mercy of Christ Jesus,
being at this time in good and perfect understanding, do hereby make my
last Will and Testament, in manner and form following : First, I give my
good and gracious God an intire sacrifice of body and soul with my most
humble thanks, for that his blessed spirit imprints in me now an assuredness
of salvation of one, and the resurrection of the other ; and for that con-
stant and cheerful resolution which the same spirit established in me, to
live and dye in the same religion established in England by the known law.
In expectation of the resurrection, t desire that my body may be buried in
the most private manner that may be, in the churchyard of the parish
where I now live, without the ceremony of calling any officers. And I
desire to be carried to my grave by the ordinary bearers of the dead, with-
out troubling any of my friends, or letting them know of my death by any
means but by being put into the earth. And I desire my executor to
interpret my meaning in this request by my word, and not by his own
discretion ; who, peradventure, for fashion sake, and apprehending we
shall never meet, may think to order things better for my credit ; (God be
thanked,) I have not lived by jupgling, therefore I desire to dye and be
buried without any : and not having (as I hope,) been burdensome to my
friends in my life, I would not load their shoulders being dead. I desire
and appoint the Right Honourable Jerome, Earl of Portland, to be my
executor, hoping that for all his cares of me, and kindnesses to me, he will
undertake to see this my Will punctually performed, especially concerning
my burial. To the most excellent, good, kind, virtuous, honourable Lady
Portland, I give all the rest that I have in this Will unbequeathed : and I

cxlii APPENDIX TO THE

do not this foolishly (as may at the first sight appear,) because my lord is
my executor, but because I know it will please the gaiety of her humour,
which ought to be preserved for all their sakes that have the honour and
happiness to be known unto her. To the Right Honourable the Lord
Newport, I bequeath the picture of St Anthony, in a round frame. To
my very good friend, Mr John Harvy, the picture of the Samaritan, by
■whose kindness I have been often refreshed. To my good friend, Mr Chr,
Gise, Sir Thomas Moor's head, which upon my conscience I think was not
more ingenious than his own. And I write this rather as a commemoration
than a legacy, for I have always made a difference between kindnesses and
courtesies. To Mr George Pitt, I give the picture of my Dutch Fair, which
is full of business, but where there is always room for a kindness. And I
brag of the favours I received from him, because they came not by chance.
To my cousin, Henry Stafford, son to my kind friend, Mr William Stafford,
I give all my printed books, which although they are of no great value,
yet they may seem proportionable to his youth, and may serve as a
memorial to incline him to be as indulgent to poor scholars as his father
and grandfather have been before him. And by this means I give not
only a legacy, but entail it upon other men that deserve their kindness.
To my honourable friend, Sir Allen Broderick, I give my cedar table, to
add a fragour to his excellent writing. To my kind friend, Mr Tho..
Killigrew, I give all my doves, that something may descend upon a courtier
that is an emblem of kindness and truth. To my servant, Mary Web, if
she be with me at the time of my death, I give all my linen that belongs to
my personal use, and forty shillings above her wages, if it does not appear
that she hath occasioned my death ; which I have often lived in fear of,
but being alone could never help, although I have often complained of my
sad condition to my nearest relations, 'twas not fit to trouble others. To
Mr Isaac Walton, I give all my writings under my father's hand, which
may be of some use to his son, if he makes him a scholar. To the
Reverend Bishop of Chichester, I return that cabinet that was my father's,
now in my dining-room, and all those papers which are of authors
analysed by my father ; many of which he hath already received with his
Common Place Book, which I desire may pass to Mr Walton's son, as
being more likely to have use for such a help, when his age shall require it.
These four sides of this small paper being written by my own hand, I hope
will be a sufficient testimony that this is my last Will. And such trivial
things were not fit for a greater ceremony than my own hand and seal, for
I have lived alwaies without all other witnesses but my own conscience,
and I hope I have honestly discharged that. I have in a paper annexed
something at this present ; and may do some things hereafter, which I
presume my most honourable good Lord of Portland will see performed.

JOHN DONNE.

Witnesses : When I made this Will I was alone; after-

Marleburgh. wards I desired my good friends, the Earl of

Will. Glascocke. Marleburgh, and Mr Glascocke to witness it.

Which was in Novemb. the i^, 1661.

JOHN DONNE."

Non euro quid de me Judicet hceres. HoR.
Printed February 23, 1662

MEMOIR OF WALTON, cxiiii

Note D. [Referred to in p. Ixxxi.]

{From FulmarCs MSS. C.C.C. Oxon. vol, xtj.)

WALTON'S MEMORANDA RESPECTING JOHN HALES.

"John Hales, the fourth sonne of John Hales of High Church, neer
Bath, in Somersetshire, by Brigide his wife, one of the Goldsburghs of
Knahill, in Wiltshire, was born in the City of Bath, where his Father
then dwelt, (his Grandfather yet living at Highchurch.) His parents
being of Gentile quality, kept him to school at Wells and Killmaston in
that countrey, till he was fit for the universitie which was about the thir-
teenth yeare of his age.

He was admitted Scholar of Corpus Christi in Oxford, 1597, Ap. 16.

But being under age, not then sworn, till Aug. 17, 1599.

There he continued till he was Bachelor of Arts. Admitt. Jul. 9, 1603.
Determ. Lent following.

1605. But then by the perswasion of Sir Henry Saville much taken with
his excellent parts, he removed to Merton College, where he was chosen
I'rob. Sept. 2. Admitted Oct. 9. Admitted Fellow, Oct. 13, 1606.

He proceeded to his Master's Degree. Admitted Jun. 20, 1609. At
the Act 1609, July 10.

Regius Professor of Greek, 1612, (potius 1613 or 15.) Left it 1619.

He left his Fellowship at Merton College. Admitted Fellow of Eton
College, May 24, 1613. 4?

I Chaplain to Sir Dudley Carleton, Ambassador to the States ; and by
that meanes present at the Synod of Dort. Perhaps for that end.
Came to Dort, Nov. 13, 16 18. Went away about Feb. 8. V. Lett. pp.
93, 100, 97.
In his being there appeares no ground for the story of Episcopius urging
Joh. 3, 16.
Qu. Whether it were not rather Martinius. V. Lett. pp. 87, 92.
Insignia. Johannes Halesius Hujus Coll. Socius et Canonicus de
Windsor,
Vide Heyl, Life of A. B. Laud, p. 362, and Parker's Reproof, p. 135, etc.
Prob. of Windsor, May (end) 1639.
Turned out of his Fellowship upon the engagement, 1649.
L Musarum et Charitum Amor

f Johannes Halesius

f (Nomen non tarn Hominis quam Scientiae^

Hie non jacet
At Lutum quod assumsit optimum
Infra ponitur

« This intelligence I had from a sister of his, being a widow, antient, and in want,
named Brigide Gulliford, who came to Oxford to desire reliefe, Jan. 20, 1663. But the
Register of C.C.C. Oxf. diff. 1597, Ap. 16: Johannem Hales natum in villa vocat.
Highchurch in com. Somerset. Bathon et Wellens. Dioces. aetatis suae annum agentem
decimum teriium ciiciter fcstum sive* diem Paschalis ult. praeterit. (uti asseruit) in
Discip. diet. Coll. admis.

• Easter Day, April 19, 1584.

cxliv APPENDIX TO THE

Nam certe supra mortales emicuit

Moribus Suavissimis

Ingenio subtilissimo pectore pleno sapuit

Mundo sublimior

Adeoque aptior Angelonim choro

^tatis suae 72.

Impensis Pet. Curweni olim hujus Coll

Alumni 72.

Hales was born, 1584. Bapt. in St James' Church, Bath, 5 May.
King's Professor of Greek, by grant dated 15 Sept. 161 2, which took
effect shortly after Doctor Perin dying May 3, 1615.

The following is an original Letter of Walton's, inserted in the Collections
about John Hales : —

**I have told you that he satisfied many scruples, and in order to what
followes, I must tell you that a yeare or two after the beginning of the
long parliament, the citisens and many yong lecturers (scollers of their
zeale and pich for Learning, and precedence) had got Mr Brightman's
booke or Coment on the Revelations to be reprinted and greatly magnified :
in which was so many gros Errors and absurd conclusions about govern-
ment by Bishops, and other explications to the humors and the present
ringleaders of the then Parliament (all whereof Brightman is now proved
false, and that party not yet ashamed) with which the lecturers and their
followers were so transported with Brightman's opinions, that they
swallowed them without chawing, and all thought simple that approved
him not.

" About this time comes a friend to Mr Hales (being a neighbour
gentleman,) and requests that a kinsman of his that was trobled with some
sad thoughts and scruples might obtain a conference with him, in order
to the quieting of his minde : which was redyly granted by Mr Hales.
"When the perplext partie came to him at the howre apoynted, Mr Ha.
having taken him into his study, and shut the dore in order to a private and
larg discourse with him, the perplext partie being set down takes out of his
pocket a bible, turnes to the profit Daniell, reades a part of one of the
chapters, askes the meaning of that, and how it was to be reconciled with a
part of the revelation of St John. When Mr Ha. had heard him reade,
and heard him make his queries or scruples, he told him, he was mistaken
in taking him for a fit man to satisfie his conscience, and that if he wood
be satisfied he must goe to some of the young devines now about London,
and not come to so old a devine as he was, but they wood doe it
readily.

"About the time he was forc't from the Lady Saltrs, that family or
collage broke up, or desolv'd, a little before which time, they were resolv'd
to have Mr Ha. picture taken, and to that end, a picture maker had
promised to atend at Ricking to take it, but fail'd of his time, and Mr Ha.
being gone thence, dyed not long after. The not having his picture was
lamented very much by the societie in w":^ number the Bish^ sister (once
M"5 Anne King, now the Lady How) undertooke boeth for theirs and her
owne satisfaction to draw it, and did so, in black and white, boeth
excellently well as to the curiousness and as well as to the likenes. But

I

MEMOIR OF WALTON. cxlv

before she wood shew it to any that knew either him or herselfe, she writ
underneth it, this which she ment to be an Apologie for her luider-
taking it.

Though by a sudden and unfeard surprize,

'J'hou lately taken wast from thy friends' eies:

Even in that instant, when they had design'd

To keipe thee by thy picture still in minde :

Least thou like others lost in deth's dark night

Shouldst stealing hence vanish quite out of sight ;

I did contend with greater zeale then art,

This shadow of my phansie to impart :

Which all shood pardon, when they understand

The lines were figur'd by a woman's hand,

Who had noe copy to be guided by

But Hales imprinted in her memory.
Thus ill cut Brasses serve uppon a grave,
Which less resemblance of the persons have.

You may take notice that she is a most generous and ingenious Lady.
Greater friendship 'twixt her and Mr Ha. she has told me he told her he
had liv'd 14 days with bere and bred and tosts, in order to try how litell
would keepe him if he were sequestered. She told me he would eate very
fully at a diner, and of the strongest or coarsest of the mete rather than
the finest.

She told me he was never out of Humour but always even, and humble,
and quiet, never disturbed by any news, or any losse or any thing that
concerned the world, but much affected if his friends were in want or sick.

At his being at Rickkings towards his later end when he was alone he
was usually reading Tho. a Kempis, which of a small print he read without
specktacels.

He kept his opinions to himself especially towards his later part of his
life : and would often say there was plainness in all necessary trewths.

He was Bowser about that time when in the contest began betwixt the
King and Parliament (and) boeth armies had sequestered the College rents :
so that he could not get money to pay wages to the servants, or for victuals
for the schollers. But after 9 weekes hiding himselfe to preserve the
college writings and keyes, he was forc'd to appere, at the end of which
time, the old woman that conceal'd him demanded but dd. a weeke for his
browne bread and bere, which was all his meate, and he wood give her
\2d. His concealment was so nere the Cottage or Highway, that he said
after, pleasantly, those that searched for him might have smelt him, if he
had eaten garlick.

This was told me by Mrs Powney, from whome Mr Montague it may be,
had (it ?) more perfectly.

He lived 5 yeares after he was sequestered. He dyed the 19th of May,
Anno — q — , Mrs Powny, and was by his owne comand buried next day in the
Church yeard. He had a monument made for him (by some friend) w'^'^ is
now in Eaton church yard.

He was not good at any continuance to get or save money for himselfe ;
yet he undertook to do it for Sir H. Wotton, who was a neglector of
mony, and Mr Ha. told me he had got ;^300 together at the time of his
deth, a some to which Sir H. had long been a stranger, and would ever have
been if he had managed his owne money-business. It was happily got
together to bury him, and inable him to doe some ofhces of honor, and
justice, and gratitude, and charitie.

k

cxivi APPENDIX TO THE

Mrs Powny told me Sir Fra. Bacon and the Lord Falkland came one
day purposely from London to sup and discourse with him, and return'd
early next morning.

Mr Ha. like Paule at Damascus, eate not in 3 dayes.

I thinke he bought and gave the howse in which he dyed to Mrs
Pownye's husband, who had been his honest servant of which — q —

I have heard that Mr Ha. being suppos'd to hold some heterodox
opinions, he, to testifie the contrary, did in his sickness (which was not
long,) declare his beleife to his pupell, the Lady Salter's son, which he
tooke in his writing from his owne mouth. This, Mr Salter (who is now
dead,) told me long since, and promised me a Copie of it.

Mr Montague, formerly the scolem"" of that college and now fellow 'tis
like has it, and he hath promis'd me to write and give me what materiall
passages he can rem' concerning him, and he will give them to Mr- Marryot
if the be cal'd for.

He or Mrs Powny will answere all the q as to the yeare of his deth,
and who was at the charge of his monument, how long he lay sick, his
behaviour then, and what ells is defective in theise collections gathered by
me. Mrs Powny dwells nere the college, and Mr Montague is constantly
in it being now sickly.

As you reade this make y' que. and let them be ^v&n to me or Mr
Marryot who may get a resolution for you, J. W. Octo. 20, 73.

I think the Lady Salter did many yeares since tell me she had the pro-
fession of the beliefe taken by her son, Salter, from Mr Hales' mouth.
If she have it, I will endeavour to get it of her. Her Husband's name was
Sir William, her son's name, Emund. (? William, see Will.)

Then was told this by Mr Anthony Faringdon, and have heard it
discourst by others, that Mr Thomas Gary, a poet of note, and a great
libertine in his life and talke, and one that had in his youth bein ac-
quainted with Mr Ha. sent for Mr Hales to come to him in a dangerous
fit of sickness, and desired his advice and absolution, which Mr Hales,
uppon a promise of amendment, gave him, (this was I think in the
country.) But Mr Gary came to London, fell to his old company, and
into a more visable scandalous life, and especially in his Discourse, and be
(being?) taken very sick, that which proved his last, and being much
trowbled in mind procured Mr Ha. to come to him in this his sickness
and agony of minde, desyring earnestly, after a confession of many of
his sins to have his Prayers and his absolution. Mr Ha. told him he
shood have his Prayers, but wood by noe meanes give him then either the
sacrament or absolution.

The following was communicated by N. Ingelo, dated, Eton Coll. Oct.
29. (1675?) to Mr Marriot. The writer begs his hearty respects to Mr
Isaac Walton.

"Mr Montague says, that he (Hales) gave an Explication of his belief
concerning the Trinity to Mr Salter, according to the Doctrine of the
Church of England.

" Abp. Laud gave him the Preb. of Windsor at a publike Dinner.

"Abp. Laud also sent for him, and told him he might have what

MEMOIR OF WALTON. cxivii

preferment lie would ; and he answered, if it please your grace I have all
I desire.

" He was made prebendary of Windsor about two years before the Wars,
and enjoyed it but two years.

**Hewas not long sick; about a fortnight, and then not very ill, but
discoursed with all his friends as freely as in his Health, till within half
an hour before his death, for Mr Montague was then talking with him,
and left him for half an Hour, and before he returned he was dead, and
had his perfect senses to the last minute.

" After he came to Eton, for thirty years together he was never hindered
by any sickness from studying constantly from 5 o'clock in the morning
till night, seldom eating any Dinner.

"About the time of Archb. Laud's Death, he retired from his Lodgings
in the College into a private chamber in Eton, where he remained for a
quarter of a yeare unknown to any body, and spent in that time only dd.
p week, living only upon Bread & Beere, and as he had formerly fasted
from Tuesday night to Thursday night, so in that time of his retirement he
absteined from his Bread & Beer, and when he heard that Abp. Laud was
murdered, he wished his head had been cut off for him."

Then follows the Will ; with two letters of Hales on Cases of Con-
science ; and one or two tracts.

Note E. [Referred to in p. cxviL]

• BOOKS IN THE CATHEDRAL LIBRARY, SALISBURY,
FORMERLY BELONGING TO IZAAK WALTON.

1. King James' Works, fol. Lond. 1616. */*. Walton^

2. Charon of Wisdom, 4to. Lond. n. d. * Izaak Walton, price 4r. ^.

Nov. 17, 1652.'

3. Heylin's Microcosmus, 4to. 1621. ' haak Walton.'

4. HeyUn's Parable of the Tares, 4to. 1659. 'Izaak Walton given me

May 28, 1659, by Mr Richard Marryot.*

5. Shute's Divine Cordials in X Sermons, 4to. 1644. * Izaak Walton'

6. Bishop Reynolds' Treatise of the Passions, 4to. 1640. 'Izaak Walton.''

7. Dr Thomas Fuller, Abel Redivivus, 4to. 1651. 'Izaak Walton.'

8. Hammond's, The Christian's Obligations to Peace and Charity, X

Sermons, 4to. 1649. 'Izaak Walton.'

9. Camerarius', Living Library, fol. Lond. 1621. 'Izaak Walton, given

mee by my very good friend
Ma*" henry ffield, Jidy 29, 1 634. '

10. R. Sibb's, The Saint's Cordiall, fol. 1658. 'Izaak Walton, 1682.'

11. Pat. Syuison's Historie of the Church, 4to. Lond. 1624.

'Izaak Walton:

cxlviii APPENDIX TO THE

12. Dr Donne's Letters, 4to. Lond. 165 1. ' Izaak Walton?

13. Mornay, of the Christian Religion, 4to. 1617. 'Izaak Walton^

July 5, 1 62 1.'

14. Cowper's Heaven opened, 4to. 1613. ^ Liber Izak Walton J

15. Cowley's Works, fol. 1674. 'Izaak Walton, 1682.'

16. Donne's 80 Sei-mons, fol. 1640. 'Izaak Walton.^

17. Hooker's Eccles. PoHtie, fol. 1666. 'Izaak Walton.''

18. Ovid's Metamorphoses, by G. S[andys], fol. 1626.

'Izaak Walton, pr. ^^s*

19. Sibb's Returning Backslider, 4to. Lond. 1650. On the title —

* Of this blest man let this just prahe be given,

* Heaven was in hijn, before he was in heaven.

' Izaak Walton:

20. Eusebius, Socrates, and Evagiius, Ecclesiastical Histories, fol. Lond.
1636.

On the flyleaf, ei-ased, 'Francis Garrard his booked

On the title-page, ' Izaak Walton:

On the inside of the cover, in Walton's writing —

*A* his conversion take out of Jeremy the ways of man are not in his owne
power. 7

Loke doc' denes letter to Tilman.8

And on S' Philip Sidneys Salms.9

On this booke folyo 28 himns and psalms w<"> was his holy recreation the latter part of
his life and is now his imployment in heven where he makes new ditties in the praise of
that god in 3 persons, to whome be glorie. And his better part is now doing tliat in
heaven which was most of his imployment on earth magnyfying the mercies and making
himns and singing them, to that god to whome be glory and honor.

Vew Hookers preface ; and hooker 226 & 223

Vew the verses before Sands psalms and Sir Tho. Haukins his Horrace doc dons
letters and the elegies on him

In heaven wher his imployment is to sing such himns as he made on erth in prase of
that god to whome be glory and honor

His deth was the prolog to joye and the end of treble

Vew Chudleys elegies and godolphins on doc'" done where they are scratcht and vew
the elegies on Cartwrite.^

Vew Doc Cozens devotions

Vew the complete woman of a good grace. Vew the penygerick on M' Harvie

Make his description that he was 1° for his complexion, then his behaviour, then his
stature, then his discourse in my lord grace to the honor that he was like the dove with-
out gall.

doc taylor, living and dying

doc' Pridiex

M' Gouldsmithes poem. Vossius then.'

7 See Donne's Poems, p. 372, ed. 1635. 8 See p. 369, ib.

» See p. 366. 1 See ib. p.

MEMOIR OF WALTON. cxlix

Note F. [Referred to in p. cxxiii.]
ACCOUNT OF WALTON'S CHARITIES.

The following statement occurs in the parish church of St Mary, at
Stafford :—

"The Gift of M' Isaac Walton, borne in y* Burrough of Stafford, A
worthy & generous benefactor to this Burrough as followeth.

First y* said M' Walton in his life tyme gave a garden of eight shillings
a yeare in y« possession of widdow Tildesley to buy coales for ye poore
yearely about Christmas.

Alsoe y® said M' Walton in his life tyme gave 22 pounds to build a
stone wall about St Chad's church yard in this Burrough, and alsoe set
forth 9 boys apprentices, and gave to each 5 pounds, viz.

Samuel Henshaw Francis Battey Richard Lees

Richard Hanson John Boulton George Sutton

Daniel Bullock James Eaton Adam Hubball

The said M' Walton at his death gave by his Will to this Burrough one
Messuage or Tenement in Shalford in this county w*" all the lands
thereto belonging of the yearly value of ;^20. 10. 6. besides Taxes and
Repairs to the use hereafter as in & by his Will is mentioned, viz. *' I
would have & doe give 10 pounds of the said rent to bind out yearley 2
boys y* sonns of honest & poore parents to be apprentices to some trades-
men or handicraft men to y* intent y* said boys may y* better afterwards
gett their owne living. And I doe also give 5 pounds yearley out of y*
said rent to be given to some maid servant y* hath attained y* age of 21
yeares not less & dwelt long in one service or to some honest poore Man's
daughter y* hath attained to y* age to bee paid her at or on y« day of her
marriage. And this being done my will is, that what rent shall remaine of
y* said farme or land shall be disposed of as followeth. First I doe give
yearley 20 shillings to bee by the Major of Stafford and those that shall
collect the said rent and dispose of it as I have or shall hereafter direct.
And that what money or rent shall remain undisposed of shall bee em-
ployed to buy coles for some poore people that shall most need them in
the said town : the said coales to bee delivered in the last weeke in January
or every first weeke in February I say then because I take that tyme to
bee the hardest and most pincheinge tyme with poore people."

Before inserting the following account of the present state of those
Charities, from a pamphlet which was published about twenty-seven years
ago, ^ it must be observed, that the farm there mentioned did not become
the property of the Corporation of Stafford until the death of Canon
Walton in 1719.

"This farm is now [1808] let at the yearly rent of ;^8o, and, excepting
the application of the money directed to be given to some maid servant or
poor man's daughter, I believe that the trusts of the will have for some
years past been complied with. With respect to that sum, it has been the
practice almost invariably for the mayor to give it to his own servant,

2 A Letter to the Inhabitants of Stafford.

cl APPENDIX TO THE

without even considering, in some instances the time she may have
continued in her service.

"Upon St Thomas's day last, the only application made was by the
mayor's servant, so useless is it supposed to be to oppose the pretensions
of a person claiming the money under such authority.

"It seems to have been the intention of Mr Walton, that whether the
money be given to a servant or poor man's daughter, it should be paid on
the day of her marriage ; but admitting that construction of his words to
be wrong, to bestow it upon a servant who has not ' dwelt long in one
service' is certainly incorrect. That the mayor's servant may sometimes
be as well entitled to it as any other person is not to be disputed, but that
it should so happen nine years out of ten, is somewhat too improbable to
obtain belief ; and such a disposition of this charity must unquestionably
create a suspicion as to the motives of the gift which, it is to be presumed,
the chief magistrate of a town would be desirous of avoiding." — P. 41, 42.

The author of the pamphlet next proceeds to describe Startin's charity,
and Mr Walton's gift in his lifetime.

" Richard Startin, who was a baker in Stafford, gave £^0 to the corpo-
ration to be put out at interest, and to be applied and given weekly in bread
for ever, in the parish church of St Mary. By the advice, and with the
assistance of Mr Isaac Walton, the money was laid out in the year 1672
in the purchase of a fee-farm rent of £% ds. Sd. payable to the crown from
the borough. In a deed made in the following year, to which Mr Walton
and the corporation were parties, it is stated that by the will of Mr Startin
£2, I2S. only were to be paid to the poor, and that the corporation had, at
Mr Walton's request, agreed to apply the surplus of the fee-farm rent
(being 14s.) in the purchase of coals for the poor. By that deed, and, it
should seem, in order to induce the corporation to accede to his wishes,
Mr Walton granted to them a garden near the gaol (as it then stood), in
trust that the rent should be disposed of by the mayor with the alderman
and church-wardens of the parish of St Mary's, * towards the buying of
coals for the poor of the borough of Stafford, according to the discretion of
the mayor, &c. at two days in the year ; viz. one half of the coals to be
given at or before St Thomas's day, and the other half at the Purification
of the Blessed Virgin Mary.' It was also provided, that in case the coals
were not disposed of as directed, the rent of the garden should be paid to
the church-wardens of the parish of St Chad, either to keep in repair the
wall of St Chad's church, or to buy coals for the poor of the parish, at
their discretion. Mr Walton's suspicions that the trusts, which he had
reposed in the corporation, might in after-times be disregarded, appear as
well by this deed as by his will, and even the members of that body must
admit that they were but too well founded. In the gift of both charities he
prudently endeavoured to guard against their abuse; but neither his
exhortations to his trustees to a faithful discharge of their duty, nor the
condition which he annexed to the non-conformance of it, seem to have
had any effect. Of part of the garden, upon which four cottages have been
erected, two leases, each for ninety-nine years, have been made, and none
of the rent has been laid out in the purchase of coals ; neither has the
surplus of the fee-farm rent been applied for that purpose. For the amount
of those sums, the corporation will therefore have to account ; of the
money appropriated to the purchase of bread, is. is laid out weekly ; and
the bread is given away in St Mary's church on a Sunday."

MEMOIR OF WALTON, cli

Since that statement was written, the following remarks on the subject
have been communicated to the Gentleman's Magazine by an intelligent
correspondent : —

" The estate has not hitherto been forfeited, although as appears from
the Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into Public Charities
(wherein it is particularly described,) complaints have occasionally been
made that the money was not distributed with perfect impartiality. The
subjoined accounts of the manner in which the receipts have been ex-
pended in one or two recent instances are from the Stafford Newspaper.
* This week has been dispensed to the poor of the Borough of Stafford the
bounty of the celebrated and ingenious Izaak Walton, a native of the
place, .who bequeathed a portion of the "rents and profits of a farme " for
the purchase of coals "for some poor people," to be delivered in January
or February. "I say then" run the words of the humane testator,
*' because I take that time to be the hardest and most pinching time with
poor people." The farm in question is now of considerable value, bringing
in, we believe, about 80/. a year, and after deducting a moiety of the
profits directed to be applied to the apprenticing of two boys, and in a
gift to a maid servant, or some honest poor man's daughter, a sufficient
sum has this year remained for the purchase of a small allowance of coal
to almost every poor family, which has this week been distributed.' —
Staffordshire Advertiser, 27th January 1827,

'Cn Monday last (Sunday being St Thomas's Day) the Corporation
of this borougli, in pursuance of the will of " good old Izaak Walton," gave
5/. ea:h with the son of Charles Smith's widow, and the son of William
Pilsbury, on their being bound apprentices ; also 5/. to Martha Smith, for
long servitude in one place and general good conduct, and 40J. each to ten
burgesses of this borough.' — Ibid. 27 Dec. 1828." — Gentleman's Magazine,
vol xcix. pt; ii. p. 1 1 1.

Note G.
LIST OF PORTRAITS OF WALTON'S FAMILY,

IN THE POSSESSION OF HIS DESCENDANT, THE REV. DR HAWES,
AT SALISBURY, JUNE 1 836.

Izaak Walton, by Housman, set. 79.

a crayon drawing, ait. 82,

Izaak Walton, Jun. by A. Bega.

Dr Hawkins, by

Mrs Hawkins, Daughter of Izaak Walton, by Hous^man.

Anne Hawkins, Daughter of the above.

William Hawkins, Esq.

His Wife.

Bishop Ken, by F. Skiffer.

clii APPENDIX TO THE

Note H.

EXTRACTS FROM THE PARISH BOOKS OF ST DUNSTAN'S
IN THE WEST, AND FROM THE REGISTERS OF THAT
PARISH.

In 1627, 1628, 1629, 1630, 1631, 1632, and 1640, Izaak Walton resided
in Chancery Lane about the seventh or eighth house from Fleet Sti-eet, and
paid 2s. %d. to the scavenger's rate. His house was never described as a
shop.

He vi^as nominated on the petty jury on St Thomas's Day, 1628.

He was presented for the office of scavenger for the parish of St
Dunstan's, 21st December, 1632.

He was on the grand jury in 1633, and 2 1st December, 1638.

He was on the wardmote inquest of the parish of St Dunstan's on the
20th December, 1636, and was then appointed a constable.

On the 18th April, 1639, Isaak Walton and Daniel Holtenby were
elected overseers of the poor and sidemen to serve for the year ensuing.

He and others were elected vestrymen in February 1639-40, and he was
appointed examiner of St Dunstan's on the 27th August, 1641.

He was also on the vestry in February 1643-4.

At a vestry holden 20th August, 1644, divers persons were chosen
vestrymen in the room of Thomas Taglis, &c. and *' Isaak Walton, lately
departed out of this parish, and dwelling elsewhere."

EXTRACTS FROM THE REGISTERS OF ST DUNSTAN'S
IN THE WEST.

1627. Dec. 19. Izacke, the sonne of Isack Walton, was baptized out
of Chancery Lane.

1629. July 23. John, the sonn of Isaack Walton, was baptized.

l63o[i]. Jan. 20. Thomas, sonne of Isaack Walton, baptized.

i63o[i]. Mar. 6. Thomas, sonne of Isaack Walton, was buried out of
Chancery Lane.

1 63 1. Mar. 28. Isaac Walton, sonne of Isaac Walton, was buried out
of Chancery Lane.

1632. Oct. 12. Henry, Sonne of Isaac Walton, was baptized.

1632. Oct. 17. Henry, sonne of Mr Isacke Walton, was buried out
of Chancery Lane.

i633[4]. Mar. 21. Henry, sonne of Isaac Walton, was baptized out of
Fleet Street.

1634. Dec. 4. Henry, sonne of Isacke Walton, buried.

1637. Aug. 19, William, sonn of Izack Walton, was buried.

1640. Aug. 25. Rachell, wife of Isaack Walton, was buried.

1642. May 13. Anne, daughter of Isaac Walton, was buried.

MEMOIR OF WALTON. cliii

OTHER ENTRIES OF THE NAME OF WALTON.

1607. June 3. Ellin Walton, from Fewter Lane buried.
1620. June 27. Jeffrey Walton, Gent, was buried.

1622. Nov. 19. Mary, daughter of Thomas Walton and Mary, his wife,
baptized.

1623. Dec. 14. Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Walton and Mary his
wife, baptized.

1625. Sept. 4. Alice, daughter of Thomas Walton, was buried out of
Fetter Lane.

1625. Sept. 28. Thomas Walton buried out of Fetter Lane.
1630. Nov. 28. Sara, the daughter of John Walton, was baptized.
1630. Dec. II. Sara, daughter of John Walton, was buried out of

Fleet Street.

1630. Feb. 20. William Walton and Alice Chapman married by banns.

1632. Aug. 8. Margaret, daughter of John Walton, baptized.

1632. Oct. 2. Margaret, daughter of John Walton, buried out of
Fleet Street.

1641. Sept. 14. William Walton was buried.

It appears from these extracts, which were not discovered until very
recently, that Izaak Walton had four children besides those mentioned in
the pedigree in the Appendix, No, I. ; namely, Izaak, bom in December
1627, who died in March 1631 ; John, born in July 1629, of whom nothing
more is known, and who probably died very young ; Thomas, who was
born in January, and died in March 1630-1 ; and William, who died in
August 1637.

The register of St Dunstan's contains also notices of the following
persons, who were probably related to those of the same names mentioned
by Walton.

16 10. April 22. Jane Marriott, widow, Fewter Lane, buried.

1622. April 9. John, the sonne of John Marriott, stationer, buried.

1628. March 25. John, son of John Marriott, was buried out of the
Gardens in Fetter Lane.

1628. August 29. Edward, son of John Marriott, (buried) out of the
Gardens.

1626. May 15. Mary, the daughter of John Marriott, baptized.
i629[3o]. March 2. Elizabeth, daughter of John Marriott, was

baptized.

1634. April 17. Valentine and Sarah, sonne and daughter of John
Marriott, baptized.

1635. April 17. Elizabeth, daughter of John Marriott, buried.
1638. September 7. Ann, daughter of Richard Marriott, was buried.
1649. January 23. Elizabeth, wife of John Marriott, bookseller.
1656. July 12. Richard Marriott, infant, buried out of Crane Court in

the churchyard.

1613. April 17. John Grinsells, son of Thomas Grinsells, buried.
1609. July 8. Thomas, a chrizom child of Thomas Grinsells, buried.
1609. October 24. Walter, sonne of Thomas Grinsell, buried.
1644. March 5. Mr Thomas Grensells was buried.

cliv APPENDIX TO THE

1647. October 2. Mrs Ann Grinsell, widow, buried in the body of the
church.

1 62 1. July 15. Francis, son of John Cranmer, buried.

1621. December 8. Humphry Cranmer buried.

1 63 1. November 8. Samuel, son of Mr Francis Underbill, buried out
of White's Alley.

1635. January 23. Francis Underbill buried.

Note I.

Extracts from the Registers of St Afary, Stafford.

Jun. 1564. Baptizatus fuit Edwardus Walton filius Willielmi Walton,
et Agnetis uxoris ejus primo die mensis et anni prsedictorum.

Jan. 1579. Baptizata fuit Elizabetha filia illegitima Margaretse Phil-
lippes ex fornicario concubitu cum quodam Francisco Waltone ut dicit,
sexto die mensis Januarii.

Sept. 1593. Baptizatus fuit Isack filius Jervis Walton xxj die mensis
et anni prsedictorum.

Oct. 1593. Sepultus fuit Ricardus Walton lethaliter vulneratus decimo
quarto die Octobris.

Mar. 1595. Sepultus fuit Ambrosius filius Jervis Walton tertio die
mensis et anni prsedictorum.

Feb. 1596. Sepultus fuit Jarvicius Walton xj° die mensis prsedicti.

Mar. 1597. Sepultus fuit Georgius Walton xxiiij" die mensis et anni
prsedictorum.

Sept. 1605. Matrimonium solemnizatum fuit iij'^^ Johannem Forde et
Elizabetham Walton quarto die Septembris anno 1605.

Jun. 1606. Baptizata fuit Elizabetha filia Johannis Walton et Eliza-
bethse uxoris ejus quarto die Junii an. 1 606.

Feb. 1613. Baptizata fuit Helena filia Johannis Walton et Elizabethse
uxoris ejus decimo die Februarii, 161 3.

Note K.

With reference to the early part of the Walton pedigree, it may be
observed tliat it is extremely probable that George Walton was a younger
son of Henry Walton of Dovebridge, by Margaret, daughter of Henry,
and sister of John Milward of that place, whose descendants are mentioned
in Izaak Walton's will. George Walton, of Yoxhall above mentioned,
died in 1571 ; and it appears from his will, which was dated on the lOth of
February, and proved by Isabella his widow on the .7th of April in the
same year, that he had three sons, Denstell, Jervis, and William ; and two
daughters, Anne and Alice, the latter of whom was then the wife of a person
of the name of Haslam. Extracts from the wills of several persons of the
name of Walton will be found in Note A.

MEMOIR OF WALTON. dv

Note L,

The following is a full abstract of the will of "Samuel Walton, of St
Mary's Cray, in Kent, gentleman," dated on the 2nd of April 1 631, and
proved at Doctors' Commons on the 9th of the same month. He be-
queathed to his uncle John Walton, of Mathfield, in the county of Stafford,
yeoman, an annuity of five pounds ; to his brother-in-law, Henry King, of
Foster Lane, London, gentleman, and John King, of Fleet Street, London,
gentleman ; to his sister-in-law, Elizabeth Long, of Bury St Edmunds ; to
his " kinsman," George Rowell, citizen and upholder of London; to his
cousin, Anne Brookhouse, of Bubton in the county of Derby, sister of the
said George Rowell, and wife of Robert Brookhouse, husbandman ; to his
cousin, Thomas Kerobyn, of Burton, in the county of Stafford, chirurgeon ;
to his cousin Anne Aldridge, sister of the said Thomas Kerobyn, and
wife of Robert Aldridge, gentleman, of Burton, a gift of thirty shillings
each : to his cousin and late servant, William Walton, of Bromley, in
Kent, yeoman, a house and garden in Bromley, which was purchased by
the testator's late father, Henry Walton, citizen and clothworker, of
London : to his cousin, Margaret Burrows, of Ashbourn, in the county of
Derby, widow, and to his cousin, Matthew Andrews, of Mathfield, a gift
of thirty shillings each ; to Elizabeth Chatfield, of Bermondsey Street, in
Southwark, wife of William Chatfield, twenty shillings ; to his tenant,
Ellen Hobson, of Bromley, widow, thirty shillings ; and he appointed his
cousin, Henry Walton, of Whitechapel, citizen and haberdasher, his
residuary legatee and sole executor.

The other reasons for supposing that Izaak Walton was apprenticed to
Henry Walton of Whitechapel, besides those already mentioned, are his
friendship with the family of King ; his having become connected with
the county of Kent, in which Samuel Walton resided and had property ;
and his having called two of his children by the baptismal name of Henry y
a mark of respect which he is very likely to have shown to his master and
kinsman.

NOTE M.

Since the Memoir of Walton was printed, the following Deed, to which
he was a party, has been obligingly communicated by Thomas B. Chinn,
of Lichfield, Esq. It appears from it, that in December 1658, Walton
was at Worson Farm, in the parish of St Mary's, in Stafford.

This Indenture Tripertite made the second day of December in
the year of our Lord God accordinge to the Englishe accompt one thousand
six hundred and fifty eight between Mary Fitzwilliams of Malpas in the
County of Chester Widdowe Walter Heveningham of Aston neare Stone
in the county of Stafford Esquire and Isaacke Walton of Worson Farme
in the parish of St Marye's in Stafforde in the county of Stafforde Gent,
and Raphe Smith of Stone aforesaid Gent, of the first part. Francis
Bagshawe of the Middle Temple London Esq. and Richard Bold servant
to the said Francis Bagshawe of the second part and William Chetwinde
of Rugeley in the said county of Stafford Esquire and Edward Arblaster
of Longston in the said county of Stafford Esquire of the third part.
WITNESSETH that for and in consideracion of the summe of tenne pounds

clvi APPENDIX TO THE

of lawfull English money by the said Francis Bagshawe and Richard Bold
to the said Mary Fitzwilliams Walter Heveningham Isaacke Walton and
Raphe Smith in hand paid whereof they and every of them doe hereby
confesse the Receipt and thereof acquitt the said Francis Bawshawe and
Richard Bold their heires executors and administrators for ever by theise
presents. They the said Mary Fitzwilliams Walter Heveningham Isaacke
Walton and Raphe Smith have granted bargained and sold and by theise
presents doe grant bargain and sell to the said Francis Bagshawe and
Richard Bold and theire Heires all and every the Messuages Cottages
Lands Tenements Meadowes Leasowes Pastures Rents Reversions Re-
mainders Services and Hereditaments whatsoever with theire and every
of theire Appurtenants of them the said Mary Fitzwilliams Walter
Heveningham Isaacke Walton and Raphe Smithe and every of them
situate lyinge and beinge at Blyminhall otherwise Blimhill and Brynton
in the said County of Stafforde or either of them And also all that the
moity of the Mannor Lordship or Farme of Creswell situate lyinge and
beinge or reputed to be situate lyinge and beinge in the parish of St
Marye's in Stafforde aforesaid and the moity of all and every the Messuages
Houses Buildings Lands Tenements Meadowes Leasowes Pastures Rents
Revertions Remainders Fishinges Services and Hereditaments whatsoever
with theire and every of theire Appurtenants to the said Mannor Lordship
or Farme of Creswell aforesaid belonginge or in anywise apperteyninge or
to or with the same usually used demised occupied or enjoyed or reputed
taken or knowne as part parcell or member thereof To have and to
HOLDE the said Messuages Lands Meadowes Pastures Moity of the said
Mannor Lordshippe or Farme and all and singular the premises with
theire and every of theire Appurtenants to the said Francis Bagshawe and
Richard Bold and theire Heires to the use of the said Francis Bagshawe
and Richard Bold and theire Heires. Nevertheless upon this speciall
trust and confidence and to the intent and purpose that they the said
Francis Bagshawe and Richard Bold may become perfect Tenants of the
Freehold to the intent a good and perfect common Recovery may be had
and suffered of all and singular the said Messuages Lands and premises in
which said Recovery the said William Chetwinde and Edward Arblaster
shall be demandants the said Francis Bagshawe and Richard Bold shall be
the Tenants who shall appeare and enter into warrantie and vouch over
the said Mary Fitzwilliams who shall also appeare and enter into warrantie
and vouch over the common vouchee who shall also appeare enter into
warrantie imparte and make default and thereuppon a good and perfect
common Recovery may be had and suffered of the same manor and
premises accordinge to the usuall course of sufiferinge of common Recoveryes
in the Court of Common Pleas at Westminster. And it is declared by
theise presents and all the parties to the same and the said Mary Fitzwilliams
for her and her heires doth declare that the said Recovery shall be and
inure and the said William Chetwinde and Edward Arblaster and theire
heires shall stand and be seized of the said messuages lands and premises
to the use of them the said William Chetwind and Edward Arblaster their
heires and assignes for ever. In witness whereof the said parties to
theise presents have interchangeably putt to theire hands and seals 1658.

Mary Ffitzwilliam. Wa. Heveningham.

IzAAK Walton. Ralph Smythe.

MEMOIR OF WALTON. clvfl

Sealed and delivered by the within-named Mary Fitzwilliams and
Walter Heveningham in the presence of Mary Flunkett, Oswald
Eynes, The x mark of John Curtis. Sealed and delivered by the
within-named Isaacke Walton in the presence of Rt. Milward, Wa.
HiGGES. Sealed and delivered by the within-named Raphe Smith in
the presence of Cr. Heveningham, William Cartwright.

Indorsed. — A Deed inrolled between Mary Fitzwilliam Walter Heven-
ingham Isaac Walton and Ralph Smith of the 1st part Francis Bagshawe
and Richard Bold of the 2nd part and William Chetwynde and Edward
Arblaster of the 3rd part in order to suffer a Common Recovery 2nd Dec.
1658. Inrolled in the Close Rolls in Chancery the six-and-twentieth day
of January in the year of our Lord 1658 by Humfrey Jaggard.

There was no impression on the wax of Walton's seal, and judging from
its perfect state, none could ever have been made on it.

LIFE OF CHARLES COTTON,

To the Right Honourabk

GEORGE JOHN LORD VERNON

Baron of Kinderton in the County of Chester

the following Memoir is respectfully inscribed

by his obliged and faithful servant

N. HARRIS NICOLAS.

August 1836.

PORTRAIT OF CHARLES CGTTOII.ESQ..

EROK A PICTURZ BY SIR PETER LELY

MEMOIR OF CHARLES COTTON

" All he desires, all that he would demand,
Is only that some amicable hand
Would but irriguate his fading bays
With due, and only with deservecf praise."

The family of Cotton, of which the subject of this memoir was a
younger branch, is both ancient and honourable ; and his immediate
ancestor, Sir Richard Cotton, Comptroller of the Household and
Privy Councillor to Edward the Sixth, was settled at Warblenton,
in the county of Sussex, and at Bedhampton, in Hampshire.^ His
grandfather. Sir George Cotton, who died in 1613, left issue by
Cassandra , Mac William,* his wife, two children, Charles and
Cassandra. The latter died unmarried before the year 1649, ^"^
an elegy was written on her decease by the friend of her father
and brother. Colonel Richard Lovelace.'^

Charles Cotton, the father of the poet, and the only son of Sir
George Cotton, is said to have lived at Ovingdean in Sussex ; but
having married Olive, the daughter of Sir John Stanhope, of

' Sir George Cotton (the poet's gfrandfather) who died in 1613. is described in the
Heralds' Visitation of Staffordshire in 1664, as "a younger son of Cotton, of Warblenton,
in the county of Sussex, and of Bedhampton, in the county of Hants ;" but though con-
siderable trouble has been taken to ascertain the connection, it has not been successful.
Sir George Cotton of Warblenton was living in 1595, and by Mary, daughter of John
Shelley, of Michelgrove, in Sussex, had several children, but none of the name of Charles
or George are mentioned in the pedigrees of the family ; and it is doubtful whether Sir
George Cotton (the grandfather of the poet) was a younger son of Sir George Cotton by
Mary Shelley, or whether he was that identical person, who may have married
Cassandra Mac William to his second wife, and by her have been the father of a son
named Charles, who was possibly so called after Charles Earl of Kent, the husband of
Susan Cotton, sister of the said Sir George Cotton of Warblenton.

* It is most probable that Cassandra Mac William was the daughter of Henry Mac
William, by Margaret or Maria, daughter and coheir of Richard Hill, Sergeant of the
Wine-cellar to Henry VIII., and widow of Sir John Cheeke, Secretary of Sute and
Preceptor to Edward VI. The said Llaria Hill was one of the maids-of-honour to Queen
Elizabeth. Vide Harleian MS. 801, f. 49, and Anthony Wood's MSS. 8469, f. i02«>.
Cassandra Mac William is said, in the Visitation of Staffordshire in 1664, to have been
the "daughter and heiress of Mac William," but the pedigree in the Harleian MS. 891,
states that Henry Mac William had by Margaret (or Maria) Hill two sons, Henry
and Ambrose, and three daughters, Susan, the wife of Edward .Saunders, Cicely, and
Cassandra.

* Lucasta, 8vo, 1649, p. 112 "An Elegie on the death of Mrs CassanJra Cotton,
only si.ster to Mr C. Cotton."

clxiv LIFE OF

Elvaston in Derbyshire, by his first wife Olive, daughter and
heiress of Edward Beresford, of Beresford in Staffordshire, and of
Bentley in the county of Derby, he succeeded to those estates in
her right, and settled at Beresford. Mr Cotton was distinguished
for his talents and accomplishments, and was the friend and
companion of many of the most eminent of his contemporaries,
including Ben Jonson, Sir Henry Wotton, Dr Donne, Selden,
Fletcher, '^ Herrick,^ Carew, Lovelace, Davenant, and May, the
Lord Chief Justice Vaughan, and the great Lord Clarendon. Some
of those writers celebrated his merits in their verses ; and Lord
Clarendon has particularly mentioned him in his well-known
autobiography.^

Mr Cotton's marriage connected him with the families of Stan-
hope, Cokayne, Aston, Port, and others of the highest rank in the
counties of Derby and Stafford. Mrs Cotton died at Beresford
between 1650 and 1658, in the thirty-eighth year of her age;
and her cousin, Sir Aston Cokayne, wrote some verses to her
memory.^

fi Vide Cokayne's Poems, p. 91, and the Apology to the Reader.

7 Herrick inscribed one of his poems to the elder Cotton, 8vo, 1648, p. 352.

8 " Charles Cotton was a gentleman born to a competent fortune ; and so qualified
in his person and education, that for many years he continued the greatest ornament of
the town, in the esteem of those who had been best bred. His natural parts were very
great, his wit flowing in all the parts of conversation ; the superstructure of learning not
raised to a considerable height : but having passed some years in Cambridge, and then
in France, and conversing always with learned men, his expressions were ever proper
and significant, and gave great lustre to his discourse upon any argument ; so that he was
thought by those who were not intimate with him, to have been much better acquainted
with books than he was. He had all those qualities which in youth raise men to the
reputation of being fine gentlemen ; such a pleasantness and gaiety of humour, such a
sweetness and gentleness of nature, and such a civility and delightfulness in conversation,
that no man, in the court or out of it, appeared a more accomplished person : all these
extraordinary qualifications being supported by as extraordinary a clearness of courage
and fearlessness of spirit, of which he gave too often manifestation. Some unhappy suits
in law, and waste of his fortune in those suits, made some impression on his mind ;
•which, being improved by domestic afflictions, and those indulgences to himself which
naturally attend those afflictions, rendered his age less reverenced than his youth had
been, and gave his best friends cause to have wished that he had not lived so long." —

Clarendon^ s Life, vol. i. p. 36, ed. Oxford, 1827.

9 Cokayne's Poems, 8vo, 1658. " On the death of my dear cousin germane Mrs
Olive Cotton, who deceased at Beresford the 38th year of her age, and lyes buried at
Bently by Ashbourne."— He also wrote verses "To my cousin german Mrs Olive
Cotton," p. 138 ; and " Of my staying supper with my cousin Mrs Olive Cotton," p. 139;
and the following

EriTAPH ON MV DEAR COUSIN GERMAN MRS OLIVE COTrON.

Passenger, stay, and notice take of her
"Whom this sepulchral marble doth inter:
For Sir John Stanhope's daughter and his heir,
By his first wife, a Beresford, lies here.
Her husband of a noble house was, one
Every where for his worths belov'd and known.
One only son she left, whom we presage
A grace t' his family, and to our age.

CHARLES COTTON. clxv

Charles Cotton, the only child ^ of Mr Cotton by Olive Stan-
hope, was born at Beresford on the 28th of April 1630. No
particulars are preserved respecting the place of his education ;
but he is supposed to have become a member of the University of
Cambridge sometime about the year 1649, though that fact can
only be reconciled with his having been a pupil of Mr Ralph
Rawson, Fellow of Brazen Nose College, Oxford, by supposing that
Rawson removed to Cambridge on being ejected from his fellow-
ship by the Parliamentary visitors in 1648.2 His affection for his
tutor is strongly expressed in the translation of an ode of Johannes
Secundus -^ and his cousin Sir Aston Cokayne likewise showed his
esteem for him in a similar manner ; but some verses by Cokayne
render it doubtful whether Rawson ever removed from Oxford to
Cambridge.* If, however. Cotton was educated at either of the
Universities, he did not take his degree, as his name is not
mentioned by Anthony Wood among the writers of Oxford ; nor
does it occur in the manuscript list of graduates of Cambridge in
the British Museum.^ That he possessed considerable classical

She was too good to live, and young to die,
Yet stay'd not to dispute with destiny.
But (soon as she receiv'd the summons given)
Sent her fair soul to wait on God in heaven.
Here, what was mortal of her turns to dust.
To rise k glorious body with the just.
Now thou mayst go ; but take along with thca
(To guide thy life and death) her memory.

* In the parish register of St Dunstan's in the West the following entry occurs:
"1653, Sept. 6, Persis, daughter of Charles Cotton, was baptized ; " but as the younger
Cotton was then unmarried, and his father aged and a widower, it is not likely that
either of them was the person alluded to.

2 Aihen. Oxon. ed. Bliss, vol. iv. p. 635.

•T Poems on Several Occasions written by Charles Cotton, Esq., 8vo, 1689. "An
Ode of Johannes Secundus translated. To my dear Tutor, Mr Ralph Rawson," p. 547.
Rawson acknowledged his kindness in some verses addressed " To my dear and honoured
patron, Mr Charles Cotton, Ode, occasioned by his translation of an ode of Johannes
Secundus directed to me, and inserted amongst his other Poems," a copy of which occurs
ill a manuscript containing the greater part of Cotton's Poems, some, if not all, of which
:irc apparently in his own handwriting.

* Cokayne's Poems, p. 207. "To Mr Ralph Rawson. lately Fellow of Brazen Nose
College." It commences : —

*• Though I of Cambridge was, and far above
Your mother Oxford did my Cambridge love ;
I those affections (for your sake) remove.
And (above Cambridge) now do Oxford love."
and thus concludes : —

"I far above
My Cambridge, and your Oxford shall it love."

Had Rawson removed to Cambridge, some allusion would probably have been made
to the circumstance in these verses, which were evidently written after he was ejected
from his fellowship at Oxford.

* Additional MSS. in the British Museum, No, 5885. Cole, however, mentions
Cotton among the writers who belonged to that University, in his manuscript collections
tor an Athenae Cantabrigiensis in the Additional MS. 5865, f. 47, in the British
Museum.

clxvi LIFE OF

attainments, and united with them an extensive knowledge of
modern languages, particularly of French and Italian,'^ together
with the usual accomplishments of the age, is however unquestion-
able. It does not appear that he was intended for any profession,^
and the early part of his life seems to have been passed in the
society of the wits and other literary men of his time. He was
himself ardently attached to literature ; but except a few poems, he
wrote nothing which was published until after the Restoration.
Before that period the little which is known of his pursuits has
been gleaned from the works of one or two of his friends, and
from his own verses ; but he probably went abroad before he
attained his twenty-fourth year, as he certainly had travelled in
France and Italy.

That Cotton wrote many of the poems which were for the first
time collected and published after his decease, at an early period
of his life,s is not only proved by internal evidence, but it is placed
beyond dispute, by the subjoined verses addressed to him by Sir
Aston Cokayne : —

"to my most honoured cousin MR CHARLES COTTON THB
YOUNGER, UPON HIS EXCELLENT POEMS.

Bear back, you crowd of wits, that have so long
Been the prime glory of the English tongue,
And room for our arch-poet make, and follow
His steps, as you would do your great Apollo.
Nor is he his inferior, for see
His picture, and you'll say that this is he ;
So young and handsome both, so tress'd alike.
That curious Lilly, or most skill'd Vandyke,
Would prefer neither. Only here's the odds,
This gives us better verse than that the Gods.

6 It appears that Cotton's library contained some of the best Italian authors, as
Cokayne says in one of his effusions, p. 231,

" D'Avila, Bentivoglio, Guicciardine,
And Machiavil the subtile Florentine,
In their originals, I have read through,
Thanks to your library, and unto you ;
The prime historians of late times ; at least.
In the Italian tongue allow'd the best."

7 Cotton says in his " Voyage to Ireland : " " Indeed I had a small smattering of Law,"
but his legal knowledge appears to have been gained from the performance of the duties
of a Justice of the Peace, as he adds ; —

" Which I lately had got more hy practice than reading,
In sitting d tH! Bench, whilst others were pleading."

8 Among the poems attributed to the younger Cotton are an Elegy upon Henry Lord
Hastings, only son of Ferdinand Earl of Huntingdon, who died in June 1649, which
■was printed in Brome's " Lachrymae Musarum, the Tears of the Muses, expressed in
elegies written by divers persons of nobility and worth " upon that young nobleman's
death, 8vo, 1650, when Cotton was only twenty years of age ; and a copy of verses
prefixed to Edmund Prestwich's Translation of the Hippolitus of Seneca in 1651.

CHARLES COTTON. clxvu

Beware, you poets, that (at distance) you

The reverence afford him that is due

Unto his mighty merit, and not dare

Your puny threads with his lines to compare ;

Lest (for so impious a pride) a worse

Than was Arachne's fate or Midas' curse,

Posterity inflicts upon your fames.

For vent'ring to approach too near his flames,

Whose all-commanding muse disdains to be

Equall'd by any, in all poesy.

As the presumptuous son of Clymene,

The sun's command importun'd for a day
I Of his unwilling father, and for so

Rash an attempt, fell headlong into Po.

So you shall fall or worse ; not leave so much

As empty names, to show there once were such*

The Greek and Latin language he commands.

So all that then was writ m both these lands ;

The French and the Italian he hath gain'd.

And all the wit that in them is contam'd.

So, if tie pleases to translate a piece

From France or Italy, old Rome or Greece^

The understanding reader soon will find.

It is the best of any of that kind ;

But when he lets his own rare fancy loose,

There is no flight so noble as his muse.

Treats he of war? Bellona doth advance,

And leads his march with her refulgent lance.

Sini^s he of love ? Cupid about him lurks,

And Venus in her chariot draws his works.

Whate'er his subject be, he'll make it fit

To live hereafter emperor of wit.

He is the Muses* darling, all the nine

Phoebus disclaim, and term him more divine.

The wondrous Tasso, that so long hath borue

The sacred laurel, shall remain forlorn.
. Alonso de Ercilla, that in strong

And mighty lines hath Araucana sung,

And Sallust, that the ancient Hebrew story

Hath poetiz'd, submit unto your glory.

So the chief swans of Tagus, Arne, and Seine,

Must yield to Thames, and veil unto your strain.

Hail, generous magazine of wit, you bright

Planet of learning, dissipate the night

Of dulness, wherein us this age involves.

And (from our ignorance) redeem our souls.

A word at parting, Sir, I could not choose

Thus to congratulate your happy muse ;

And (though I vilify your worth) my zeal

(And so in mercy think) intended well.

The world will find your lines are great and strongi

The ftihil ultra of the English tongue. "

Cokayne also celebrated Cotton's merits on several other
occasions,^ but only two of those effusions are deserving of notice,
the one for the pithiness of the compliment paid to him, and the
other because his father is mentioned : —

"to my HONOURBD cousin MR CHARLES COTTON, JUNIOR.

Donne, Suckling, Randolph, Drayton, Massinger,
Habington, Sandys, May, my acquaintance were ;

' Poems, pp. 147, 154.

clxviii LIFE OF

Jonson, Chapman, and Holland I have seen,
And with them too should have acquainted been.
What needs this catalogue? Th' are dead and gone,
And to me you are all of them in one."

"to my cousin MR CHARLES COTTON THE YOUNGER.

In how few years have you rais'd up an high
Column of learning by your industry,
More glorious than those pyramids that old
Canopus view'd, or Cair doth yet behold !
Your noble father (that for able parts
Hath won an high opinion in all hearts)
May like the elder Scaliger look down
With admiration on his worthy son.
Proceed, fair plant of ex'ellencies, and grow
So high to shadow all that are below."

Colonel Lovelace, who addressed an ode^ to Cotton's father,
and wrote an elegy on his aunt, Cassandra, inscribed " The
Triumphs of Philamore and Amoret, to the noblest of our youth
and best of friends, Charles Cotton, Esquire, being at Beresford,
at his house in Staffordshire, from London." ^ In these verses he
laments Cotton's absence, and thus affectionately anticipates his
return : —

" But all our clouds shall be o'erblown when thee
In our horizon, bright, once more we see ;
When thy dear presence shall our souls new dress ;
And spring an universal cheerfulness.
When we shall be o'erwhelm'd in joy, like they
That change their night for a vast half-year's day.
Then shall the wretched few that do repine
See and recant their blasphemies in wine ;
Then shall they grieve that thought I've sung too freo
High and aloud of thy true worth and Thee :
And their foul heresies and lips submit
To th' all-forgiving breath of Amoret ;
And me alone their anger's object call.
That from my height so miserably did fall ;
And cry out my invention thin and poor.
Who have said nought, since I could say no more."

The most remarkable lines are, however, the following, because
they seem to corroborate Aubrey's statement that Cotton had
relieved Lovelace in his distress : ^ —

" What fate was mine when in my obscure cave
Shut up almost close prisoner in a grave
Your beams could reach me through this vault of night.
And canton the dark dungeon with light !
Whence me, as gen'rous Spahys, you unbound.
Whilst I know myself both free and crown'd."

Lucasta. edit. 1649. " The Grasshopper, To my noble friend, Mr Charles Cotton."

P.

Lucasta. Posthume Poems of Richard Lovelace, Esq., 8vo, 1659.
3 " Lovelace died in 1658, in a mean lodging in Gunpowder Alley, near Shoe Lane.
Aubrey's statement is, that ' George Petty, haberdasher in Fleet Street, carried twenty

shillings to him every Monday morning from Sir Many, and Charles Cotton, Esq.,

for months, and was never repaid.' " Athen. Oxon. ed. Bliss, vol. iii. pp. 462, 463.

CHARLES COTTON. clxix

Cotton^ and several other persons wrote Elegies to Lovelace's
memory, which were printed at the end of his " Lucasta and
Posthume Poems" in 1659.

The most material facts which Cotton's own poems establish
are, that he was a zealous Royalist, and an uncompromising enemy
of Cromwell. He omitted no opportunity of expressing his
sentiments;^ and a decisive proof of his political opinions is
exhibited in his verses on the execution of James Earl of Derby,
in 1 65 1,® and in his severe castigation of Waller for writing a
panegyric on the Protector about the year 1654 : —

" TO rOET E, W. OCCASIONED FOR HIS WRITING A PANEGYRIC
ON OLIVER CROMWELL.

From whence, vile Poet, didst thou glean the wit.

And words for such a vitious poem fit?

Where couldst thou paper find was not too white.

Or ink that could be black enough to write?

What servile devil tempted thee to be

A flatterer of thine own slavery ?

To kiss thy bondage and extol the deed.

At once that made thy prince, and country bleed f

I wonder much thy false heart did not dread.

And shame to write what all men blush to read ;

Thus with a base ingratitude to rear

Tiophies unto thy master's murtherer?

Who call'd the coward ( — ) much mistook
The characters of thy pedantic look ;

* See Cotton's Poems, p. 481.

* For example, in his Voyage to Ireland : —

" We enter'd the port.
Where another King's head invited me down.
For indeed I have ever been true to the Crown." — P. 198.

\\\ his CoDtentation, he says : "The man is happy

Who free from debt, and clear from crimes,

Honours those laws that others fear.
Who ill of princes in worst times.

Will neither speak himself, nor hear." — P. 25S.

In his Ode to Melancholy :—

" An infamous Usurper's come,
Whose name is sounding in mine ear
Like that, methinks, oi Oliver."

" And yet, methinks, it cannot be
That he
Should be crept into me.
My skin could ne'er contain sure so much evil,
Nor any place but hell can hold so great a Devil." — Pp. 264, 263.

The Chorus to one of his Bacchanalian songs is :—

" Then let us revel, quaff, and sing.
Health and his sceptre to the King." — P. 448.

See also his Epode to Alexander Brome on the King's return, p. 511, and several other
invtances throughout his Poems.
C Cotton's Poem.s, p. 411.

clxx LIFE OF

Thoi: hast at once abused thyself and us ;
He's stout that dares flatter a tyranne thus.

Put up thy pen and ink, muzzle thy musCi
Adulterate hag fit for a common stews,
No good man's library ; writ thou hast
Treason in rhyme has all thy works defaced :
Such is thy fault, that when I think to find
A punishment of the severest kind.
For thy offence, my malice cannot name
A greater ; than, once to commit the same.

Where was thy reason then, when thou began
To write against the sense of God and man ?
Within thy guilty breast despair took place,
Thou wouldst despairing die in spite of grace.
At once thou art judge, and malefactor shown,
Each sentence in thy poem is thine own.

Then, what thou hast pronounced go execute,
Hang up thyself, and say, I bid thee do it ;
Fear not thy memory, that cannot die,
This panegyric is thy elegy.
Which shall be when, or wheresoever read,
A living poem to upbraid thee dead."

Though ardent Royalists, both Cotton and his father seem to
have escaped the persecutions to which the CavaUers were exposed,
as their names have not been found in connection with any pubHc
event during the Commonwealth ; nor do they appear to have
been obliged to purchase safety by compounding for their estates.
Of Cotton's acquaintances at this period, the most remarkable,
with reference to this work, was Isaak Walton, his adopted father
in the art of Angling, who became one of his intimate friends, and
whose esteem is strong evidence of Cotton's moral worth. Walton
was also known to his father, for in speaking of the Lives of Donne
and Wotton, Cotton observes,

** How happy was tfty father, then, to see
Those men he lov'd, by him he lov^d to be
Rescued from frailties and mortality."

Literature and the pleasures of society did not, however, entirely
engross his time ; for besides his favourite pursuit of Angling,
which he followed before he was seventeen,'^ he amused himself in
gardening and planting. Upon the latter subject, he not only
afterwards wrote a treatise,^ but proved that his knowledge was
practical, by planting his own grounds near Beresford Hall ; ^ and

7 Cotton says in his part of "The Complete Angler," in 1676: "I will tell you
nothing, I have not made myself as certain of as any 7fian can be in thirty year^
experience, for so long I have been a dabbler in that art."— P. 406.

* Vide postea.

9 '' Viator. It [Beresford Hall] appears on a sudden, but not before 'twas looked for.
It .stands prettily, and here's wood about it too, but so young as appears to be of your
oiuii planting.

" Piscator. It is fc»."— Cotton's part cf " The Complete Angler," p. 420.

CHARLES COTTON. clxxi

the taste with which he improved that place, caused him to be
complimented by his constant eulogist, Sir Aston Cokayne.^

Towards the end of July or early in August 1656, when Cotton
was in his twenty-seventh year, he married his cousin Isabella,
daughter of Sir Thomas Hutchinson, of Owthorpe, in Nottingham-
shire.^ In contemplation of that aUiance, his father and himself
vested the manors of Bentley, Borrowashe, and Beresford, together
with the rectory of Spoondon, and other lands, in trustees, to sell
so much of the same as would pay off a mortgage of ^^1700,
granted in July 1655, by the younger Cotton; and to hold the
surplus in trust for him and his heirs. The manor of Beresford
was then settled upon his father for life, with remainder to his
children ; and a life interest in his other property was secured to
his intended wife, Isabella Hutchinson, in case she survived him.*

In December 1658, Cotton lost his father, who appears from
Lord Clarendon's account of him, to have lived to an advanced age,
and to have injured his property by lawsuits. This circumstance
ought not to be forgotten in forming a judgment of his son's char-
acter : nor is it less material to remember, that though he may
have inherited his father's talents, and been much indebted to his
assistance during his education, yet his parent's conduct, par-
ticularly in the latter part of his life, afforded him an example of
imprudence and irregularity, which he too closely followed.

Upon the restoration of Charles the Second, Cotton first appeared
before the public as an author. He addressed a panegyric to the
King, consisting of fourteen pages in prose, but it contains nothing
which distinguishes it from the numerous other productions with
which Charles's return was greeted.* In the same year he became
(probably for the first time) a father, by the birth of his eldest son,
to whom he gave the name of Beresford. All which is known of
Cotton during the ensuing four years is, that in 1664 he published
a burlesque poem entitled " Scarronides, or the First Book of
Virgil Travestie," which will be again alluded to ; and that he
prepared for the press a translation of " The Moral Philosophy of

1 "Your Basford house you have adorned much.
And Bently hopes it shortly shall be such ;
Think on't ; and set but Bentlv in repair,
To both those Basfords you will show y' are heir."

* Vide the accompanying pedigree.
3 Stat. 27 Car. II. 1675.

* Several of the.se addresses are collected in one volume in the British Mu.srum ; and
the exact date of their respective appearance, with some corrections of the names of their
authors, have been added in a contemporary hand. Cotton's Pancgyrick is dated 27Lh
August 1660.

clxxii LIFE OF

the Stoics/' from the French of Dii Vaix, but which was not
pubhshed until 1667.^ In the dedication of that volume to his
friend and kinsman John Ferrers, Esq., dated on the 27th of Feb-
ruary 1663-4, he says he had translated it some years before by
his father's command, who was a great admirer of the author,
"so," he tells Ferrers, "that which you see was an effect of my
obedience, and no part of my choice, my little studies, especially
at that time, lying another way, neither had I now published it,
but that I was unwilling to have a thing, how mean soever, turned
to waste paper that cost me some hours' pains, and which, how-
ever I may have disguised it, is no ill thing in itself."

Cotton having found his income inadequate to his expenses, he
was obliged to apply to Parliament for power to sell part of his
estates for the payment of his debts ; and an Act was accordingly
passed in the i6th Charles II., 1665, for that purpose.^ He was
at that time employed in translating Corneille's Tragedy of Horace,
for the amusement of his wife's sister. Miss Stanhope Hutchinson.
It was pubhshed in 1671, with a dedication to that lady, dated at
Beresford, 7th November 1665, in which he says it was never to
be made public ; and in the printed address to the reader, written
at the same place in October 1670, he refers to the dedication as
proof that it was not intended for publication, but had been written
for the " private amusement of a fair young lady." He adverted
to Mrs Katherine Philips' translation of the same play in very
respectful terms ; and says that the songs and choruses to the Acts
were "all wholly his own."

Between the years 1665 and 1670, the only thing which is
positively known of Cotton is, that about 1667 he wrote some
verses on the Poems of his friend Alexander Brome, who died in
June 1666, which were prefixed to a collection of his works pub-
lished in 1668. In those verses he thus justly noticed the neglect
which attends a Poet, in comparison with the fame that awaits a
Hero and a Statesman : —

" To advance their names no cost is spar'd ;
Medals are cast, and obelisks are rear'd ;
The marble quarry is torn up, the mine
Is search'd, and robb'd to make their triumphs shine;
But the neglected Poet when he dies,
Or with obscure, or with no obsequies

•^ The Imprimatur is dated 13th April 1664.

6 In consequence of the fire in the House of Lords, which has caused great confusion
among the Parliamentary Records, the Act cannot at this moment be found.

CHARLES cotton: clxxiii

Is lay'd aside ; and though by living verse,
Strev/d on this Hero's and that Statesman's hearse,
His pen graves characters by which they live
A longer life, than brass or marble give :
Yet has this generous Poet no return,
None to weep o'er his urn, nay, scarce an urn.
O undiscerning world ! The Soldier's brave
Either for what he wants, or thirsts to have :
His breast opposing against fire and flame,
Either for riches or a glorious name.
Reward and honour make the Soldier's trade.
And if he cither win, the man's well paid.
The Statesman, on the other side, takes pains
To smooth that war to peace, and works his brains.
Or to appease an enemy, or make
Such friends, as may at need make good the stake.
Nor is his reverend care, when all is done,
More for his country's safety, than his own ;
And that which makes his city's freedom dear.
Is that himself and his inhabit there.
Whereas the Poet, by more generous ways
Distributes boughs of oak, and shoots of bays
According to due merit, nor docs take
Thought of reward, but all for virtue's sake.
It were in vain to write on other score,
The Poet knows his lot is to be poor :
For whatsoe'er's well done, well writ, well said.
The Eard is ever the last man that's paid ;
The wary world has wisely taken time.
Till the Greek Calends to account for rhyme.
Nor do I here intend the gold that's hurl'd
Like flaming brands thorough the peaceful world,
To make whole kingdoms into faction split.
Should be supposed the recompense of wit :
The Poet scorns that sordid seed of earth.
The world's alluring, but unhappy birth.
All he desires, all that he would demand,
Is only that some amicable hand
Would but irriguate his fading bays
With due, and only with deserved praise ;
Yet even this, so modest a request,
The age denies."

That edition of Brome's Poems contains an epistle to Cotton
with his answer ; but the latter is only remarkable for the abhor-
rence which he expressed at being obliged to live in the country
with no other friends, visitors, or company,

" But such, as I still pray, I may not see,
Such craggy, rough-hewn rogues, as do not tit.
Sharpen and set, but blunt the edge of wit ;
Any of which (and fear has a quick eye)
If through a perspective I chance to spy,
Though a mile off, I take the alarm and run
As if I saw the Devil or a dun ;
And in the neighbouring rocks take sanctuary.
Praying the hills to fall and cover me ;
So that my solace lies amongst my grounds,
And my best company's my horse and hounds."

The same feeling of dislike at being separated from his literary
companions, and from those intellectual enjoyments which a
capital, and a capital only, affords, may be frequently traced in his

I

clxxiv LIFE OF

other pieces/ It is most likely that many of his poems were
written about this period ; and it is nearly certain that the one in
which he gives the fullest and most interesting account of himself,
namely, " A Voyage to Ireland in Burlesque," was composed about
the year 1670 or 1671, because he says he was then forty years
old. For this reason it is desirable to insert several extracts
from it, the length of which is justified by the humorous descrip-
tions which they contain of his history, situation, and feehngs.
Cotton had, it appears, before that time entered the army, in which
he then held a captain's commission ; and being sent to Ireland,
he describes his journey from Beresford to the place of embarka-
tion in Wales.

His narrative thus commences : —

" The lives of frail men are compar'd by the sages.
Or unto short journeys, or pilgrimages,
As men to their inns do come sooner or later.
That is, to their ends, to be plain in my matter ;
From whence, when one dead is, it currently follows.
He has run his race, though his goal be the gallows ;
And this 'tis, I fancy, sets folks so a-madding,
And makes men and women so eager of gadding;
Truth is, in my youth I was one of those people
Would have gone a great way to have seen a high steeple.
And though I was bred 'mong the wonder o' th' Peak,
Would have thrown away money, and ventur'd my neck
To have seen a great hill, a rock, or a cave,
And thought there was nothing so pleasant and brave ;
But at forty years old you may, if you please,
Think me wiser than run such errands as these ;
Or, had the same humour still ran in my toes,
A voyage to Ireland, I ne'er should have chose:
But to tell you the truth on't, indeed it was neither
Improvement nor pleasure for which I went thither;
I know then you'll presently ask me, for what ?
Why, faith, it was that makes the old woman trot ;
And therefore I think I'm not much to be blam'd
If I went to the place whereof Nick was asham'd."

Among his regrets at taking leave of his home, his favourite
pursuit of Angling is not forgotten : —

" And now farewell, Dove, where I've caught such brave dishes
Of over-grown, golden, and silver-scal'd fishes :
Thy trout and thy grayhng may now feed securely,
I've left none behind me can take 'em so surely ;
Feed on, then, and breed on, until the next year.
But if I return I expect my arrear."

Of the ale which he drank at Holmes-Chapel, he observes,

"I speak it with tears,
Though I have been a toss-pot these twenty good vears,
And have drank so much liquor has made me a debtor.
In my days, that I know of, I never drank better."

7 Vide Cotton's Poems, ed. 1689, pp. 86, 128, 129.

CHARLES C07T0N. clxxv

At Chester he was taken ill, but he speedily recovered; and
after he had

" Comb'd out and powder'd my locks that were grizzle,"

he went to the Cathedral, and when the service was ended, he fell
into the rear of the procession of the mayor and aldermen ;

" For why, 'tis much safer appearing, no doubt,

In authority's tail, than the head of a rout.

In this rev'rend order we marched from prayer,

The mace before me borne as well as the Mayor,

Who looking behind him, and seeing most plain

A glorious gold belt in the rear of his train,

Made such a low congd, forgetting his place,

1 was never so honouPd before in my days ;
■ But then off went my scalp-case, and down went my fist.

Till the pavement, too hard, by my knuckles was kiss'd.

By which, though thick-skull'd, he roust understand this,

That I was a most humble servant of his ;

Which also so wonderful kindly he took »

(As I well percciv'd both b' his gesture and look),

That to have me dogg'd home, he straightway appointed.

Resolving, it seems, to be better acquainted ;

I was scarce in my quarters, and set down on crupper.

But this man was there too, to invite me to supper ;

I start up, and after most respective fashion

Gave his worship much thanks for his kind invitation.

But begg'd his excuse, for my stomach was small.

And I never did eat any supper at all ;

But that after supper I would kiss his hands.

And would come to receive his worship's commands."

The mayor however insisted upon having his company at supper :
he obeyed, and

" Supper being ended, and things away taken,
Master Mayor's curiosity 'gan to awaken ;
Wherefore making me draw something nearer his chair.
He will'd and requir'd me there to declare
My country, my birth, my estate, and my parts,
And whether I was not a master of arts ;
And eke what the biis'ness was had brought me thither,
With what I was going about now, and whither?
Giving me caution, no lie should escape me,
For if I should trip, he should certainly trap me."

His answer to these inquiries contains an amusing account of
himself : —

" I answer'd, my country was fam'd Staffordshire;
That in deeds, bills, and bonds, 1 was ever writ Squire ;
That of land I had both sorts, some good and some evil,
But that a great part on't was pawn'd to the devil ;
That as for my parts, they were such as he saw ;
That indeed I had a small smatt'ring of law.
Which I lately had got more by practice than reading,
By sitting o' th' bench, whilst others were pleading;
But that arms I had ever more studied than arts.
And was now to a Captain rais'd by my deserts ;
That the business which led me through Palatine ground
Into Ireland was, whither now I was bound."

clxxvi LIFE OF

It may be inferred from Cotton's description of a storm which
he inscribed to a nobleman whose name is not mentioned,^ that
he was nearly shipwrecked in his passage to Ireland.

Allusions to himself also occur in his " Epistle to Sir Clifford
Clifton, then sitting in Parhament," and in several other of his
pieces. He tells CHfton

" That you may guess at the party that writes t'ee,
And not grope in the dark, I'll hold up these lights t'ee.

For his stature, he's but a contemptible male,
And grown something swab with drinking good ale ;
His locks, than your brown, a little thouglu brighter,
Which grey hairs make every year whiter and whiter :
His visage, which all the rest mainly disgraces.
Is warp't, or by age, or cutting effaces.
So that, whether 'twere made so, or whether 'twere mari'd,
In good sooth, he's a very unpromising bard :
His legs, which creep out of two old-fashion'd knapsacks,
Are neither two mill-posts, nor yet are they trap-sticks :
They bear him, when sober, bestir 'em and spare not,
And who the devil can stand when they are not?

Thus much for his person, now for his condition.
That's sick enough full to require a physician:
He always wants money, which makes him want ease,
And he's always besieg'd, tho' himself of the peace.
By an army of duns, who batter with scandals,
And are foemen more fierce than the Goths or the Vandals.
But when he does sally, as sometimes he does,
Then hey for Bess Juckson, and a fig for his foes :
He's good fellow enough to do every one right.
And never was first that ask'd, what time of night ?
His delight is to toss the cann merrily round,
And loves to be wet, but hates to be drown'd :
He fain would be just, but sometimes he cannot,
Which gives him the trouble that other men haVe not.
He honours his friend, but he wants means to show it,
And loves to be rhyming, but is the worst poet.
Yet among all these vices, to give him his due,
He has the virtue to be a true lover of you.
But how much he loves you, he says you may guess it,
Since nor prose, nor yet metre, he swears can express it."

In 1670 he published a new edition of his "Virgil Travestie,"
which contained the first and fourth books.^ To this work he is
principally indebted for his hterary fame ; for such is the caprice
of the public, that whilst his other, and far more important writings
have been comparatively neglected, this absurd burlesque has gone
through no less than fifteen editions. Upon a work which is so
well known it is unnecessary to make any critical remarks ; and
though no person would wish the example of one of Cotton's
biographers 1 to be followed, by introducing a long dissertation on

8 Poems, p. 199.

9 Cotton did not affix his name to this work, which was thus advertised by Henry
Brome in 1668, " Scarronides, or Virgil Travestie, both parts by a person of honor, in
8vo."

1 Oldys.

CHARLES COTTON. clxxvii

that kind of composition, there are some facts connected with that
poem which must be stated. The chief objection which has been
urged against it is that it is disfigured by indecent and vulgar
expressions ; and though it is by no means intended to defend
them, still much allowance ought to be made for the taste of the
age in which Cotton lived, which produced Hudibras, and several
other worlcs of a similar nature. But it is remarkable that the
early editions of " Virgil Travestie " are free from many of the
grosser allusions that occur in the later impressions ; and as
Cotton's motive for introducing them into the subsequent editions
is not known, it is doubtful whether the appetite of the public or
his own feelings had become more depraved, or whether they
were the suggestions of some of his companions. The deterior-
ation may however have arisen from the desire of his bookseller to
give greater piquancy to the later editions, for the sake of the sale ;
but as they were made in the author's lifetime, that circumstance
would not excuse him.

It has been said that some lines in "Virgil Travestie" gave so
much offence to a female relation, whose name he had used in
allusion to her i-uff, that she changed her intention of leaving him
her fortune, amounting to between four or five hundred pounds per
annum. This anecdote has however been doubted, because he
liad neither an aunt nor grandmother whose name was Cokayne ; 2
and another ^ of his biographers even denies that such an offensive
passage can be found in any of his writings. The lines in question
are thus printed in all the early editions : —

" And then there is a fair great niffi
Made of a pure and costly stuff.
To wear about her Highness neck.
Like Mrs Cockaynes in the Peak."*

The tradition on the subject is, that the lady alluded to was
Cotton's cousin, Miss Lucy Cokayne, youngest daughter of Thomas
Cokayne, of Ashbourn Hall, in Derbyshire, and sister of Sir Aston
Cokayne ; that she was deformed, and to conceal the defect wore a
remarkably large ruff ; and that when Cotton was remonstrated
with, and requetitcd to substitute some other lines, he replied, " I
will not spoil my joke for any humpbacked b in Christendom."^

2 Biographia Britannica. ^ 5;^ jo},^ j^^^j^jng^

* Altered in the collected edition of Cotton's works in 1715, to "Like Miss Cockayne's

in the Peak," probably for the sake of the metre, which is, however, perfectly correct as

the line was originally written, if " Mrs," when printed at length, stood as it ought to do,

*' Mistress," which was then the usual appellation of unmarried women.

5 From the information of the late William Bateman, Esq. of Middleton, near Bake-

clxxviii LIFE OF

Part of this story is, however, rendered extremely doubtful by the
following facts. The lady ^ was a younger child of a large family,
and therefore was not likely to have had much fortune at her own
disposal : moreover, she appears to have died before Cotton was
twenty years of age, and long before " Virgil Travestie " was
published ; and whilst he was only distantly related to her,
she had a brother, several sisters, and many nephews and
nieces.

In the same year, 1670, Cotton published a translation of Ger-
ard's History of the Life of the Duke of Espernon, in a folio
volume, which he dedicated to Dr Gilbert Sheldon, Archbishop of
Canterbury. His motive for inscribing it to that prelate he thus
explained in his letter to the Archbishop, dated at Beresford on the
30th of October 1669 : —

" I have been prompted thereunto by an honest vanity I have, the world
should take notice, that how private soever my life has been, I have not
altogether conversed with obscurity ; but that I have had the honour to be
sometime known unto, and to have been favoured by one of the greatest
Prelates, and the best men upon earth. "

He also said that the work " has so the much better title to your
acceptance, as it is the fruit of the most innocent part of my time ;
and offered with a heart as grateful for the many favours I have
received from your Grace's bounty, and as full of honour and
reverence for your person and dignity, as any man who in a better
and more studied stile, may take the boldness to subscribe himself,"
&c.

Some extracts from the preface will be read with interest
because they afford information about Cotton himself : —

"Having about three years since, and in the vacancy of a country life,
taken this volume in hand, before I had gone through the first three
books, I was called away first by employment, and after dismissed from
that, taken off by so long and so uncomfortable a sickness, that I found
myself utterly unfit for any undertaking of this, or any other kind ; and
consequently, had almost given over all thoughts of proceeding in a work,

•well. That gentleman added, " This tradition has been handed down in a family for
four generations from the great-grandfather, John Marsh, who was a servant in the
Cotton family, and a great favourite of the poet's, to John Marsh, his great-grandson,
who has often related it to me as being certainly what liappened."

6 Lucy Cokayne was the fifth daughter of Thomas Cokayne. She was bora shortly
after 1612, and died tmmarried at the age of thirty-four, probably about 1647, and cer-
tainly before 1658. See an epitaph by Sir Aston Cokayne on his dear sister Mrs Lettice
Armstrong, "who deceased about the 43d of her age, and of Mrs Lucy Cokayne, who
died about the 34th of hers, and lye both buried at Ashborn." Cokayne's Poems, p.
214.

CHARLES COTTON. clxxix

which at some melancholy times, I believed I might not live to finish.
Being since restored to a better state of health, and coming to review my
papers, either the dislike of what I had already done, the shame of having
been so long in doing it, the indisposition of my disease left still hanging
upon me, the bulk of what I had undertaken, the little leisure I conceived
I might have wherewith to perform it, or all together, had almost per-
suaded me to hold on the same resolution, and for ever to let it alone ; till
recollecting myself, I remembered I had a greater obligation upon me
(which nevertheless I do not think fit to publish in this place) to go through
with what I had already begun, than was to be dissolved by any truant
humour, or private aversion of my own. I, therefore, reassumed my
former purpose, and some months since took the book again in good
earnest in hand, which when I have said, any ingenious person may
reasonably wonder, how a man in good earnest, and that has so little to do
in the world as I have, could be all this tedious time about such a piece of
work as this : to which, if what I have already said will not serve for an
excuse, I shall answer, that although by my incapacity, my ill fortune, or
both, I stand excused from public employment, I have notwithstanding so
much private concern of my own to divert me, and so few moments to
bestow upon myself, that I wonder it is done so soon ; an apology I might
however have spared, since my haste will I fear be too legible in every
line."

It would seem that Cotton had met with some pecuniary losses
from his previous publications, and that he was not induced to
translate the work from any expectation of profit, as he says : —

**It was not, therefore, out of any ambition I had to be again in print,
I having suffered too much that way already ; nor to be reputed a good
translator, the best whereof sit in the lowest form of writers," — "neither
was I prompted to it by any design of advantage, that consideration being
ever very much below my thoughts ; nor to oblige the world, that being as
much above my expectation : but having an incurable humour of scribbling
upon me, I believed I could not choose a braver subject for my friends'
diversion, and my own entertainment than this."

He often adverts to the Duke of Espemon's loyalty in terms
of admiration, and states that it was his greatest inducement to
undertake the work, " especially," he adds, " when I reflected up-
on the times we ourselves have too lately seen, when loyalty was
not very much in fashion, or not to be owned without manifest
ruin." He then makes a pleasing acknowledgment to his
publisher, Henry Brome, who was, it is presumed, the brother of
the poet of that name, with whom, as has been already observed,
both Walton and Cotton were intimate : —

** Lastly, in the behalf of my bookseller Mr Brome (to whose kindness
I owe more than I can pay him by this impression) I am to say, that
although I dare not answer how far this history may suffer by my over-
sights or mistakes, or by the faults escaped the press, which (I know not

clxxx LIFE OF

by what accident) are very many, and some of them very considerable ;
yet I dare pronounce it one of the best things I have seen in that language,
I do not mean for the excellency, or harmony of the style which in the
original itself, though the words there be very significant, elegant, and
admirably well chosen, is notwithstanding none of the smoothest I have
read : but for the importance of the subject, wherein you will find much
of the policy of that time, not only of France itself, but moreover of the
courts of England, Rome, Spain, Savoy, Germany, Sweden, and the States
of the United Provinces, together with a narrative of all the most cele-
brated battles, skirmishes, rencounters, combats, sieges, assaults and
stratagems, for above threescore years, together with the descriptions of
the strengths, situations, and distances of cities, towns, castles, citadels,
forts, rivers, countries, seignories, jurisdictions and provinces, and all this
collected and delivered by a judicious and impartial hand, an extraordinary
effect of a French pen, that nation (especially in records that immediately
concern their own honor) having been commonly observed to be very
civil to themselves ; so that methinks the dignity of the subject, and the
ingenuity of the author considered, a work how unhappily soever performed
by me, undertaken nevertheless merely for the common benefit and delight,
ought not to be discountenanced, nor very ill received. Yet do I not
(though in the foregoing paragraph I have discovered something of the
charlatan in the behalf of my bookseller) hereby intend to beg any favour
for myself, or by these large promises to bribe my reader into milder
censures, neither do I think it fit to provoke him by a defiance ; for that
were to be an ill man as well as an ill writer. I therefore frankly, and
without condition expose myself to every man's judgment, of which such
as appear civil to me are my friends, and I shall owe them the same
respect when it shall be my turn to judge, as it is now to be censured.
Those who will not be so, I shall threaten no further, than to put them in
mind, that if ever they attempt anything of the same nature, they will then
lie under the same disadvantage I now do, and consequently may meet
with the same injustice."

Between 1670 and 1674, Cotton translated "The Commentaries
of De Montluc, Marshal of France ; " which was published in
1674. He dedicated that volume to his distant relation''' the Earl
of Chesterfield, to whom he expressed much gratitude for " many
and great obligations ; " and he said, " I confess I have a desire
both to be more universally known your servant, and that the
world at the same time should take notice, that though you may
in my person have placed your favours upon an unworthy, yet
they have nevertheless been conferred upon a grateful man."

In his preface he again mentions the little success which had
attended his hterary efforts, and explains the reason of his con-
tinuing nevertheless to WTite : —

•' A man that has had no better luck in printing books than I, and received
' See the accompanying pedigree-

CHARLES COTTON. clxxxi

from the world so little thanks for his labour, should, one would have thought,
have taken some reasonable warning, and in some moderate time have given
over scribbling ; but notwithstanding these discouragements, I have
hitherto, and do yet continue incorrigible, as whoever will take the pains
to read them, will see by the following Commentaries ; and seeing I
acknowledge this to be a fault, and that every fault requires some excuse,
I think fit to give the reader some account why I still persist so obsti-
nately to pester the world with my writings. It is not then out of any ill-
natured desire I have to be troublesome, or any great ambition I have to
be laughed at ; but being by a perpetual confinement to the solitude of my
own house, put eternally upon reading, that reading, when I meet with
anything that pleases my own fancy, inspires me with a desire to com-
municate such things as I conceive are worth knowing, and are out of the
common road of ordinary readers, to their observation, and to dedicate
those hours which I myself have spent with some delight in such translations,
to their vacancy and diversion."

Cotton prefixed some verses to the volume " On the brave
Marshal de Montluc, and his Commentaries writ by his own
hand ; " and Flatman and Newcourt wrote several lines " On the
worthy Translator," but none of these pieces merit further notice.
A work was published in the same year, called " The Complete
Gamester,"^ which has been confidently attributed to Cotton f but
there is nothing to prove that it was written by him. He likewise
published a small volume in 1674, entitled "The Fair One of
Tunis ; or, The Generous Mistress : a new piece of gallantry out of
French,"! which has been considered a mere translation ; but it
would appear from the curious " Advertisement to the Reader,"
that it was almost, if not entirely, an original work : —

8 Or " Instructions how to play at Billiards, Trucks, Bowls, and Chess ; together with
all manner of usual and most gentele Games, either on Cards or Dice, to which is
added, the Art and Mysteries of Riding, Racing, Archery and Cock-fighting." London,
printed by A. M. for R. Culien, and to be sold by Henry Brome, at the Gun, at the
west end of St Pauls, 8vo, 1674.

9 In the preface to "The Compleat Gamester, written for the use of the young
Princesses, by Richard Seymour, Esq.," the fifth edition of which was printed in 17^4,
it is said that "the second and third parts of this treatise were originally written by
Charles Cotton, Esq., some years since."

1 " The Fair One of Tunis ; or, The Generous Mistres : a new piece of gallantry.
Out of French.

Tibul. Eleg. 2, 1. i.

* Fortes adjuvat ipsa Venus,
Quisquis amore tenetur, eat tutusq : sacerq :
Qualibet, insidias non tiniuisse decet.'

London : Printed for Henry Brome, at the Gun in St Paul's Churchyard, 1674." 8vo,
pp. 312.

It has a frontispiece, representing a knight in armour on horseback receiving a spear
entwined with laurel from Mars, and a chapiet from Venus. Above, on a scroll, is wriiten
"The Fayre One of Tvnis; or the Generovs Mistri^s." In the catalogue of Brome's

fublications, at the end of " The Planter's Manual," in 1675, it is thus advertised : " The
air One of Tunis, a new piece of gallantry, by C. Cot. Esq. in oct. 2j. dd."

clxxxii LIFE OF

" Courteous Reader, — Without regarding after what manner the world
shall please to receive it, and at the hazard of increasing the number of ill
authors, I have undertaken to write a book ; which I have beea the rather
encouraged to do, by reason that so many nowadays take upon them
that employment. The booksellers pay no excise that I know of : our
masters (blest be God) have not yet unbethought them of imposing a gable
upon that sort of commodity. I cannot, however, but confess it would
bring in a great revenue ; and 'tis pity the officers of excise should lose so
fair an opportunity of filling his majesty's coffers (or rather their own).
For the number of ill writers is much greater than any man would
imagine, and certainly a penny a quire for all the trumpery the press sends
out in a year, would amount to a pretty matter. But possibly they are
afraid these pretenders to wit should rise in rebellion, and nobody is willing
to draw upon himself a whole library of invectives. But be it how it will,
I found myself in the humour, and at leisure to play the fool a little as
well as others; I had nothing else to do, and thought it was better to spoil
a little paper at home in my chamber, than to wear out my shoes in
walking the streets to no purpose.

*' In this, my first and principal design was to divert myself ; my next
(dear Reader) to please thee, in saying here and there some things, that I
thought were pleasant and rational enough. If thou likest it, I have my
end, and demand nothing of thee in return, but that thou wilt confess it ;
which I shall hear of by somebody or another : only I think fit to give
thee this Advertisement, that it is really a tiiie history, excepting that
part of the Sultaness her escape, with that of Don Pedro and Isabella
Albirond only getting off clear in the truth of the story ; and therefore do
not look upon it as a mere piece of invention, for it is no such thing.

' Fu quel ch' io dico, e non v'aggiungo un pelo ;
lo '1 vidi, Io '1 so.'

** It is not so long since this happened neither, that we can reckon by
anything but the months ; and therefore has at least the grace of novelty,
which no one can deny it. If I would have taken the liberty of the
romance writers, who make what adventures they please, and carry them
on at the extravagant rate of their own fancy, I could peradventure have
made this more modish, and much fuller of affairs and intrigues. A few
hours' meditation would have done that, but for once I paint by the life,
and not by invention. The aforesaid gentlemen raise their fabulous stories
to such a degree of surprise, or impossibility indeed, that they seem some-
times to drop out of the clouds : but in the meantime, truth is doubtless
that which best pleases in a narrative. If thou art of this opinion, thou
wilt take more pleasure in reading such a piece of gallantry as this, which
has really come to pass, than one of those celebrated fables, that has hardly
ever entered into more than one man's imagination.

" What there is more of rare in this is, that never any bagatelle of love
came out of Barbary till now. The pirates of Tunis and Algier do not
much intrigue themselves in gallantry ; but another sort of pirate is here
come under the standard of love, to cany away from these barbarians the
greatest beauty their nation ever had : whether or no it be lawful prize, do
thou (friendly Reader) judge ; and if it prove otherwise, arraign him rather
than me. I have followed the Mesmoires that were delivered to me, to

CHARLES COTTON. ckxxiii

which I have only given words, and wherein the workmanship has nothing
defaced the natural truth of the story. Farewell."

In 1675 Cotton printed another work in the style of *' Virgil
Travestie," entitled " Burlesque upon Burlesque, or the Scoffer
Scoft, being some of Lucian's Dialogues, newly put into English
Fustian."^ His name is not placed in the title-page, and the
same objections apply to this production as to his " Virgil
Travestie." In a prologue he alludes to the Duchess of New-
castle's plays, and says of his Burlesque, that

" For a fine piece 'twas not intended.
Since in a month 'twas both begun and ended.''

There was perhaps much tmth in the reason which he assigns
in the Epilogue for writing " such trumpery a dog would tire/*
namely, that

" In the precious age we live in.
Most people are so lewdly given,
Coarse hempen trash is sooner read.
Than poems of a finer thread."

This, he says, made him
He adds,

"Wisely choose
To dizen up his dirty muse.
In such an odd fantastic weed,
As every one he knew would read."

'* Yet is he wise enough to know,
His muse however sings too low
(Though warbling in the newest fashion),
To work a work of reformation :
And so writ this (to tell you true),
To please himself as well as you."

If the public gave the work as favourable a reception as " others
much of the same fashion," he promised to travesty Lucian's
Dialogues of the dead in a similar manner,^ but which he never
performed.

Another of Cotton's works, "The Planter's Manual,"* also
appeared in 1675, wherein he displayed considerable knowledge

2 " For the consideration of those who had rather laugh and be merry, than be meny
and wise." Printed by Henry Brome, 8vo, 1675.

3 " He'll do what ne'er wriS done by any,
And raise the dead* to entertain ye."

* "The Planter's Manual, being instructions for the raising, planting, and cultivating
all sorts of Fruit-Trees, whether stone-fruits or pepin-fruits, with their natures and sea-
sons. Very useful for such as are curious in planting and grafting. By Charles Cotton,
Esq. London, printed for Henry Brome, in St Paul's Church- Yard, 1675, 8v<x

• " Lucian's Dialogues of the Dead."

clxxxiv LIFE OF

of the subject of which he treats. In the Address to the Reader
he says it " was only written for the private satisfaction of a very
worthy gentleman, who is exceedingly curious in the choice of his
fruits, and has great judgment in planting ; " but as that person
had expressed a strong opinion of its utility, Cotton thought
proper to publish it. The following passage, in which he recom-
mends that fruit-trees should be imported from France, is remark-
able : " Seeing that (for aught I ever heard) fruit-trees are no
contraband commodity betwixt the nations, I cannot conceive but
that it is worth the curiosity, pains, and cost, to furnish ourselves
from thence with those of the greatest excellency, both for beauty
and flavour ; nor why we should not as well better ourselves by
them this way, as altogether be debauched by their effeminate
manners, luxurious kickshaws, and fantastic fashions, by which we
are already sufficiently Frenchified, and more than in the opinion
of the wiser sort of men, is consistent either with the constitution,
or indeed the honour of the English nation."

Cotton had the misfortune to lose his wife about the year 1670.
He had by her three sons, Beresford, Wingfield,^ and Charles
Cotton, and five daughters, Ohve, Katherine, Isabella, Jane, and
Mary. Of these children, Charles, WingfieJd, Isabella, Jane, and
Mary were born after 1664 ; but only five of them were living in
1675. It is uncertain how long he continued a widower; but
probably only a short time, as before 1675 he had married Mar>%
the eldest daughter of Sir William Russell, of Strensham, in Wor-
cestershire, Bart,; and widow of Wingfield, fifth Baron Cromwell,
and second Earl of Ardglass, who died in 1668. That lady is
said to have had a jointure of ;^i 500 per annum ; but this increase
to his income did not prevent the necessity of his again applying
to Parliament in the 27th Car. II. 1675, for authority to sell part
of his estates, for the payment of his debts ; and an Act was passed
in that year which affords much information about his affairs.
After reciting the settlement of his estates in July 1656, which has
been already mentioned,^ the Act states that his wife Isabella was
then dead ; that she had left one son and four daughters, who were
prevented by their father's mortgages, and other incumbrances,
from enjoying the advantages to which they were entitled under
that settlement ; and that he therefore was willing to divest him-

• This son was probably so called after Wingfield Cromwell, Earl of Ardglass, whose
•widow Cotton married. As Sir Aston Cokayne calls the Earl of Ardglass "his noble
kinsm.an," that nobleman must have been also distantly related to Cotton.

6 Vide page clxxi. antea.

I

CHARLES COTTON. clxxxv

self of his title to his property for the payment of his debts, which
together with ^2000 to be raised for his daughters' portions,
amounted to about ^8000. It was therefore enacted that all his
lands should be vested in trustees, who should allow him to retain
Beresford Hall, and to receive the sum of ^40 per annum, during
his own life and the life of the Right Honourable Dame Mary
Countess- Dowager of Ardglass, and after her decease the sum of
£,(iO yearly, above the said annuity of ;^4o, so long as he might
live ; that as much land should be sold as would pay his debts,
and raise ;i{^20oo for his daughters' portions ; and that the rest of
his estates should be conveyed to his only son, Beresford Cotton,
and the heirs of his body, with remainder to the heirs of his
father.'

The next occasion on which a notice of Cotton has been found
was in P'ebruary 1676, when Walton requested him to fulfil his
promise of writing a Treatise on Fly-Fishing for a second part of
the " Complete Angler." As some remarks on that production will
be found in the Memoir of Walton, it is not necessary to make
many observations upon it here. It was written in ten days ; and
in imitation of the plan of the " Complete Angler," the instructions
are conveyed in a dialogue between Cotton, who is the Piscator
of the piece, and a Traveller. The latter individual is supposed
to be overtaken by Cotton near Brailsford, a small village about
five miles from Ashbourn, on the road from Derby. He informs
Cotton that he came from Essex, and was going into Lancashire
on some business for a near relation ; and the conversation hap-
pening to turn on fish and fishing, they discover that they were
both friends of Izaak Walton, and that the traveller is the person
who is described in the " Complete Angler " under the name of
Venator. This leads to an immediate intimacy between them,
and Cotton insists upon his accompanying him to Beresford, where
he promises to give him practical lessons in catching trout. On
arriving at his house he heartily welcomes him ; and after supper
some ale and pipes are ordered by the host, who assures his guest
that his tobacco is the best he could procure in London, which is
deserving of notice, as proof that Cotton's denouncement of that
" pernicious and stinking weed," in one of his poems,^ could
scarcely have been sincere, unless his taste had changed after it
was written. They proceeded next morning to their sport, which
is continued for two days, during which time Cotton instructs him

» Private Act, 27 Car II. No. 4. 8 Cotton's Poems, p. 514.

dxxxvi LIFE OF

in fly-fishing, making flies, and other arcana of the art ; and they
separate, Viator having first assured him, that if he Hves until the
following May twelvemonth, he will pay him another visit, "either
with my master Walton or without him ; and in the meantime
shall acquaint him how much you have made of me for his sake ;
and I hope he loves me well enough to thank you for it."

This allusion to fly-fishing affords an opportunity of printing,
for the first time, a very interesting letter,^ from Henry Vernon,
Esq., of Congerton, in Cheshire, dated in June 1637, apparently
to Sir Edward Vernon, of Sudbury, the immediate ancestor of the
present Lord Vernon, which cannot fail to please all true brothers
of the Angle, as it is written in the spirit which animated the great
patriarch of their art, with whom it is probable that the writer was
acquainted.

" Good Uncle and Fellow^-Fisher, — My kind and true respects re-
membred unto you, &c. I have gott soe many sonnes that I have troubled
most of my old friends in Com : Cest : to bee godfathers, whereby I am
enforced to flie to that port where I first arrived. Your readinesse in
doeing mee the favour to bee a godfather to my child I doubt not of, yett
I earnestly desier it ; and I entreate you to remember to brmge your tack-
ling for two penie trouts (for better wee have none) and your furniture for
fishing, to bee joviall with mee a weeke at the least who soever comes
and goes. For your entertainement you shall have what you can catch,
and if you will stay I will goe with you to Sudburie, then I will tire
Dove bridge and devoure all the fish in Eaton foards, in which having
cooled our selves, the houndes will call us to the hills where wee will use
a contrarie violence, and moderate our courses in mingling extremities.
Thus having passed the day the time growes short, yett when you come
to Congerton which must bee before Thursday, you may there find readie
at commaund your loving kinsman and true Graylinge hunter,

" Hen. Vernon.

*' My wife remembers her kind respects unto you.
"Congerton, June 2^^ 1637."

In 1 68 1 Cotton published " The Wonders of the Peak," a poem
descriptive of Chatsworth, and of the wild and dreary scenery
in the vicinity of the Peak, in Derbyshire. He is said to have
written this piece, which in his dedication of it to the Countess
of Devonshire he calls an " Essay," in imitation of Hobbes' " De
Mirabilibus Pecci." Though the merits of the poem are not strik-
ing, it was reprinted in 1683 ; a fourth edition appeared in 1699;
and it was included in the collection of his works in 17 15. The

9 The original is preserved among the valuable family papers of Lord Vernon, who has
obligingly contributed it to this work.

CHARLES COTTON. clxxxvii

last work which was published in his lifetime was a translation of
Montaigne's Essays, which was printed in three volumes in 1685,
and which is considered to be his most important contribution to
English literature ; for, unlike translations in general, it is said
rather to excel than be inferior to the original. He dedicated
his labours to George Savile, Marquess of Halifax, then Lord
Privy Seal, to whom he says he had become slightly known some
years before. The Marquess acknowledged the compliment in
the following letter to Cotton, which from so excellent a judge of
literature, must have been highly gratifying to him : —

•'This for Charles Cotton, Esq., at his house at Beresford, to be left
at Ashburne, in Derbyshire.

" Sir,— I have too long delayed my thanks to you for giving me such an
obliging evidence of your remembrance. That alone would have been a
welcome present, but when joined with the book in the world I am the
best entertained with, it raiseth a strong desire in me to be better known,
where I am sure to be so much pleased. I have 'till now thought wit could
not be translated, and do still retain so much of that opinion, that I believe
it impossible, except by one whose genius cometh up to that of the author.
You have the original strength of his thought, that it almost tempts a man
to believe the transmigration of souls, and that his being used to hills, is
come into the moorlands, to reward us here in England, for doing him
more right than his country will afford him. He hath by your means
mended his first edition.

" To transplant and make him ours, is not only a valuable acquisition
to us, but a just censure of the critical impertinence of those French scrib-
blers, who have taken pains to make little cavils and exceptions to lessen
the reputation of this great man, whom nature hath made too big to con-
fine him to the exactness of a studied stile. He let his mind have its full
flight and sheweth, by a generous kind of negligence, that he did not write
for praise, but to give the world a true picture of himself and of mankind.
He scorned affected periods, or to please the mistaken reader with an
empty chime of words. He hath no affection to set himself out, and de-
pendeth wholly upon the natural force of what is his own, and the excellent
application of what he borroweth.

•* You see, Sir, I have kindness enough for Monsieur de Montaigne to
be your rival ; but nobody can now pretend to be in equal competition
with you. I do willingly yield it is no small matter for a man to do to a
more prosperous lover ; and if you will repay this piece of justice with
another, pray believe, that he who can translate such an author without
doing him wrong, must not only make me glad, but proud of being his
very humble servant, Halifax."

It appears from the preface,^ as well as from the address of

* He says, "The errors of the press, I must in part take upon myself, living at so
remote a distance from it, and supplying it with a slubbered copy from an illiterate
amanuensis.

clxxxviii LIFE OF

Lord Halifax's letter, that Cotton was living at Beresford so lately
as 1684 or 1685, though it is said that he surrendered that estate
to Joseph Woodhouse, of Wollescote, in Derbyshire, gentleman,
on the 26th March 168 1, who sold it in the same year to John
Beresford, Esq., of Newton Grange, in that county.^ It is also to
be observed that Dr Plot, in his Natural History of Staffordshire,
which was licensed to be printed in April 1686, repeatedly men-
tions his " worthy, learned, and most worthy friend, the worship-
ful Charles Cotton, of Beresford, Esquire ;"^ to whom he inscribed
one of the plates in that work " in memory of his favours," and
he speaks of " his pleasant mansion at Beresford." ^

After the publication of the translation of Montaigne's Essays,
Cotton employed himself in translating the Memoirs of the Sieur
de Pontis, and he was engaged on that work at the time of his
death, which event is said to have occurred on the 13th of Feb-
ruary 1687. It is also stated that he was buried at St Martin's
Church,^ but no entry of the fact occurs in the Register of St
Martin's-in-the-Fields, or of St Martin's, Ludgate. That he died
in or before that year is however certain, as on the 12th of Sep-
tember 1687 letters of administration of the effects of Charles
Cotton, late of Beresford, in the county of Stafford, deceased, with-
in the parish of St James, Westminster, were granted to " Eliza-
beth Bludworth, widow, his principal creditrix, the Honorable
Mary Countess-Dowager of Ardglass, his widow, Beresford Cotton,
Esq., Olive Cotton, Katherine Cotton, Jane Cotton, and Mary
Cotton, his natural and lawful children, first renouncing."

As he died of a fever, his death was probably sudden ; and it
is not known whether his last hours were cheered by the presence
of his family, or in what condition as to personal comforts he
expired. Soon after his decease, a hasty and imperfect edition of
his poems was published, without a preface, or a single word
respecting the author. Of that volume the following information
occurs in the publisher's preface to Cotton's translation of the
Memoirs of the Sieur de Pontis ; whence it seems that he had
prepared an edition of his poems^ for the press, and that the

^ "Blore'sMS. Collections for a History of Staffordshire, late in the possession of
William Hamper. Esq." 3 Pp. 48, 89, 115. * Pp. 165, 276, 396.

5 "18 February 1687, Charles Cotton, died in London on Sunday last, of a feaver,
and buried at St Martin's Church." — MS. Diary.

« The MS. copy of some of Cotton's poems which has been before mentioned (p.
clxv.J contains the following title : — .

"EPrA-'APrA

Oiiantis Opera.
Under which is written : —

CHARLES COTTON. clxxxix

publication of it was prevented by the appearance of the
surreptitious collection, which occasioned much annoyance to his

*' Mr Cotton began it " [the translation of the Memoirs of Pontis]
"some six months before his death, and at his leisure hours had made
so considerable a progress, that some of the first part was transcribed fair
for the press. The papers left in the hands of one of his children, lay
neglected for some years, till at last, a relation happening to read some
of them, undertook to see them corrected, and perfected for the world,
as you now have them. Had the author himself been living, they had
appeared long ago ; or had good fortune directed to the perusing them
sooner, there had been no place for an objection, of coming out five years
after the author's decease. I know what injuries men receive sometimes
from posthumous pieces, and were not this genuine, the most part now by
me, under his own hand, and such as I know to have been certainly
intended for the public, I durst not have made bold with his memory and
his name. I would not have done it with any man's, but especially not
with his, which has suffered too much already, by the indirect publication
of another piece.

" The only thing I shall say (though not the only one that deserves to be
said) on this occasion is, that if the person who disposed of those Poems
to the booksellers, had consulted Mr Cotton's relations, as he ought to have
done, both his memory and the world had been much more obliged to him.
For by these ungenerous proceedings he hath obstructed the publishing of
a collection very different from that ; and well chosen by the author, with
a preface prepared by himself, and all copied out for the press. This
digression I thought due to the character of a person, whose other
performances have been so well received, who knew how to distinguish
between writing for his own diversion, and the entertainment of others ;
and had a better judgment than to thiiist anything abroad unworthy himself
or his readers. I only beg pardon for being in one sense very unreason-
able ; for, in tnith, the world ought to have been undeceived in this point
a great deal sooner, and by an advertisement very different from this."

It is nevertheless from this volume that the most valuable and
interesting facts illustrative of Cotton's feelings and character
have been obtained ; and his graver poems must excite no less
respect for the elevated tone of morality and religion which
pervades them, than commiseration for his misfortunes. To his
pecuniary difficulties the allusions are frequent, sometimes in a
jocular strain, but much oftener in one of deep melancholy. Thus

'* Scribere jussit amor.

Ad amicutn scriptorem

Ut tibi versiculos recito, tu Posthume, scribis ;
Carmina si mea sunt, sunt tua scripta tamen."

Tliose lines are printed in the collection of Cotton's Poems in i68g, p. 338, Init wiih tho
variations of "Candidum" for "Amicum," and of "Candide" for "Pcsthimc."

cxc LIFE OF

in his " Voyage to Ireland" he says that great part of his land
was '* pawned to the devil, " and in his Burlesque on the Great
Frost, that he

" Was numb'd in that strange fashion,
I would not sign an obligation
(Though heaven such a friend ne'er sent me).
Would one a thousand pounds have lent me
On my own bond."

In his epistle to the Earl of , after complaining that he

had heard nothing of his lordship for a long time, he proceeds : —

"But let that pass, you now must know
We do on our last quarter go ;
And that I may go bravely out.
Am trovvling merry bowl about.
To lord, and lady, that and this.
As nothing were at all amiss,
When after twenty days are past,
Poor Charles has eat and drunk his last-
No more plum-porridge then, or pie,
No brawn with branch of rosemary.
No chine of beef, enough to make
The tallest yoeman's chine to crack ;
No bagpipe humming in the hall.
Nor noise of housekeeping at all.
Nor sign, by which it may be said.
This house was once inhabited.
I may perhaps, wiih much ado,
Rub out a Christmas more or two ;
Or, if the fates be pleas'd, a score.
But never look to keep one more,"

It would seem from what follows that he once contemplated
flying to France or Flanders for refuge, and that the nobleman to
whom the epistle is addressed commanded the regiment in which
he had served as a Captain : —

" But that's too serious. Then suppose,
Like travelling Tom, with dint of toes,
I'm got unto extremes! shore,
Sick, and impatient to be o'er
That channel which secur'd my state
Of peace, whilst I was fortunate.
But in this moment of distress,
Confines me to unhappiness :
But Where's the money to be had
This surly Neptune to perswade?
It is no less then shilHngs ten,
Gods will be brib'd as well as men*,
Imagine then your Highlander
Over a cann of muddy beer.
Playing nt passage with a pair
Of drunken fumblers for his fare ;
And see I've won, oh, lucky chance,
Hoist sail amain, my mates, for France ;
Fortune was civil in this throw,
And, having robb'd me, lets me go.
I've won, and yet how could I choose,
He needs must win, that cannot lose ;
Fate, send me then a happy wind,
And better luck to those behind.

CHARLES COTTON, cxci

But what advantage will it be
That winds and tides are kind to me.
When still the wretched have their woes,
Wherever they their feet dispose?
What satisfaction, or delight
Are ragouts to an appetite?
What ease can France or Flanders give
To him that is a fugitive? : ^

Some two years hence, when you come o'er.
In all your state, ambassador,
If my ill nature be so stron;^
T' outlive my infamy so long,
You'll find your little officer
Ragged as his old colours are ;
And naked, as he's discontent.
Standing at some poor sutler's tent.
With his pike cheek't, to guard the tun
He must not taste when he has done.
Hump, says my Lord, I'm half afraid.
My captain's turn'd a reformade,
That scurvy face 1 sure shoiild know :
Yes faith, my Lord, 'tis even so,
I am that individual he :
I told your Lordship how 'twould be.
Thou didst so, Charles, it is confest.
Yet still I thought thou wert in jest;
But comfort I poverty's no crimci
I'll take thy word another time.

This matters now are coming to,
And I'm resolv'd upon't ; whilst you,
Sleeping in fortune s arms, ne'er dream
Who feels the contrary extreme ;
Faith, write to me, that I may know
Whether you love me still, or no ;
Or if you do not, by what ways
I've pull'd upon me my disgrace ;
For whilst I still stand fair with you,
I dare the worst my fate can do ;
But your opinion long' I find,
I'm sunk for ever to mankind."

His real feelings, and perhaps his situation, are however
most strongly described in his Ode to Poverty: —

" Yet Poverty, as I do take it,

Is not so epidemical
As many in the world would make it.
Who all that want their wishes poor do call ;
For if who is not with his divident
Amply content,
Within that acceptation fall,
Most would be poor, and peradventure all.
This would the wretched with the rich confound ;
But I not call him poor does not abound,
But him, who snar'd in bonds, and endless strife.
The comforts wants more than supports of life ;
Him whose whole age is measur'd out by fears.
And though he has wherewith to eat,

His bread does yet "
Taste of affliction, and his cares
His purest wine mix and aLay with tears.

I

7 Sic, but query if not a misprint for "gone.

cxcii LIFE OF

'Tis in this sense that I am poor,

And I'm afraid shall be so still,
Obstrep'rous creditors besiege my door,

And mv whole house clamorous echoes fill :
From these there can be no retirement free,
From room to room, they hunt, and follow me ;
They will not let me eat, nor sleep, nor pray,
But persecute me night and day ;
♦ Torment my body, and my mind,

Nay if 1 take my heels and fly,
They follow me with open cry,
At home no rest, abroad no refuge can I find.

Thou worst of ills I what have I done

That heaven should punish me with thee 1
From insolence, fraud, and oppression,
I ever have been innocent and free.

Thou wert intended (Poverty)
A scourge for pride and avarice,
I ne'er was tainted yet with either vice ;

I never in prosperity,
Nor in the height of all my happiness,
Scorn'd, or neglected any in distress,
My hand, my heart, my door
Were ever open to the poor ;
And I to others in their need have granted,
Ere they could ask, the thing they wanted.
Whereas I now, although I humbly crave it.
Do only beg for peace, and cannot have it.

Give me but that, ye bloody persecutors
(Who formerly have been my suitors),
And I'll surrender all the rest
For which you so contest,
For heaven's sake, let me but be quiet,
I'll not repine at clothes, nor diet,
Any habit ne'er so mean
Let it be but whole and clean.
Such as nakedness will hide.
Will amply satisfy my pride ;

And for meat
Husks and acorns will I eat.
And for better never wish ;
^ But when you will me better treat,

A turnip is a princely dish :
Since then I thus far am subdu'd,

And so humbly do submit.
Faith, be no more so monstrous rude,

But some repose at least permit ;
Sleep is to life and human 'nature due,
And that, alas, is all for which I humbly sue."

The complaint of having been deserted by his friends as well
as by those whom he had served, also occurs in other places ;
and in one of his Eclogues he says,

"Clotten. — The want of wealth I reckon not distress,
But of enough to do good offices ;
Which growing less, those friends will fall away ;
Poverty is the ground of all decay ;
With our prosperities our friendships end.
And to misfortune no one is a friend.
Which I already find to that degree,
That my old friends are now afraid of me,

CHARLES COTTON. |:xciii

And all avoid me, as good men would fly

The common hangman's shameful company.

M'hose who by fortune were advanced above,

Being obliged by my most ready love,

Shun me, for fear lest my necessity

Should urge what they're unwilling to deny.

And are resolved they will not grant ; and those

Have shared my meat, my money, and my clothes

Grown rich with others' spoils as well as mine.

The coming near me now do all decline,

Lest shame and gratitude should draw them in.

To be to me what I to them have been ;

By which means I am stripjj'd of all supplies.

And left alone to my own miseries.

CoRVDON. — In the relation that thy grief has made.
The world's false friendships are too true display'd ;
But, courage, man, thou hast one friend in store
Will ne'er forsake thee for thy being poor ;
I will be true to thee in worst estate,
And love thee more now thau when fortunate.

Clotten. — All goodness then on earth I see's not lost^
I of one friend in misery can boast.
Which is enough, and peradventure more
Than any one could ever do before ;
And I to thee as true a friend will prove
Not to abuse but to deserve thy love."

His Ode to Hope merits insertion, not only from its being a
picture of his own mind, but as a fair specimen of his poetical
pow^^rs : —

"HOPE.

PINDARICK ODE.

Hope, thou darling, and delight
Of unforeseeing reckless minds,
Thou deceiving parrisite,
Which no where entertainment finds
But with the wretched or the vain ;
'Tis they alone fond hope maintain.
Thou easy fool's chief favorite ;
Thou fawning slave to slaves, that still remains

In galleys, dungeons, and in chains ;
Or with a whining lover lov'st to play,
With treach'rous art
Fanning his heart,
A greater slave by far, than they
Who in worst durance wear their age away.
Thou, whose ambition mounts no higher,
Nor does to greater fame aspire,
Than to be ever found a liar :
Thou treach'rous fiend, deluding shade,
Who would with such a phantom be betray 'd.
By whom the wretched are at last more wretched made.

Yet once, I must confess, I was
Such an overweening ass.

LTFE OF

As in fortune's worst distress;
To believe thy promises ;
Which so brave a change foretold.
Such a stream of happiness,
Such mountain hopes of glitt'ring gold.
Such honours, friendships, offices.
In love and arms so great success ;
That I e'en hugg'd myself with the conceit.
Was myself party in the cheat,
And in my very bosom laid
That fatal Hope by which I was betray'd,
Thinking myself alread}' rich and great :
And in that foolish thought despis'd
Th' advice of those who out of love advis'd ;
As I'd foreseen what they did not foresee,

A torrent of felicity,
And rudely laugh'd at those, who pitying wept for me.

But of this expectation, when't came to't.

What was the fruit ?
In sordid robes poor disappointment came,
Attended by her handmaids, grief and shame ;
No wealth, no titles, no friend could I see,

For they still court prosperity,
Nay, what was worst of what mischance could do,

My dearest love forsook me too ;
My pretty love, with whom, had she been true,

Even in banishment,
I could have liv'd most happy and content.
Her sight which nourish't me withdrew,-
I then, although too late, perceiv'd
I was by flattering Hope deceiv'd,
And call'd for it t' expostulate
The treachery and foul deceit :
But it was then quite fled away,
And gone some other to betray,
Leaving me in a state
By much more desolate.
Than if when first attack't by fate,
I had submitted there
And m.ade my courage yield unto despair.
For Hope, like cordials, to our wrong
Does but our miseries prolong,

Whilst yet our vitals daily waste,
And not supporting life, but pain,
Call their false friendships back again,
And unto death, grim death, abandon us at last.

In me, false Hope, in me alone,

Thou thine own treach'ry hast outdone :

For chance, perhaps, may have befriended

Some one th' hast laboured to deceive
With what by thee was ne'er intended,

Nor in thy pow'r to give :
But me thou hast deceived in all, as well
Possible, as impossible,
And the most sad example made
Of all that ever were betray'd.
But thou hast taught me wisdom yet,

Henceforth to hope no more

Than I see reason for,
A precept I shall ne'er forget :

CHARLES COTTON. cxcv

Xor is there any thing below

Worth a man's wishing, or his care.
When what we wish begets our wo,

And Hope deceiv'd becomes despair.
Then, thou seducing Hope, farewell.
No more thou shalt of sense bereave me,

No more deceive me,
I now can countercharm thy spell,

And for what's past, so far I will b** even,
Never again to hope for any thing but Heaven."

For the same reason the conclusion of his Ode to Melancholy
ought not to be omitted : —

"Go, foolish soul, and wash thee white, ^

Be troubled for thine own misdeeds

That heav'nly sorrow comfort breeds.
And true contrition tunis delight.
Let princes thy past services forget,

Let dear-bought friends thy foes become,
Though round with misery thou art beset.

With scorn abroad and poverty at home,
Keep yet thy hands but clear, and conscience pure,

And all the ills thou shalt endure

Will on thy worth such lustre set
As shall outshine the brightest coronet.
And men at last will be asham'd to see,
That still,

For all their malice, and malicious skill,
Thy mind revive as it was us'd to be,
And that they have disgrac't themselves to honor thee."

Similar pathos and sensibility are apparent in many other of
Cotton's pieces, particularly in his Quatrains on Morning, Noon,
and Evening ; his Hymn on Christmas Day ; his verses on The
World, on Death, and on Contentment ; and more particularly in
his stanzas on Retirement, addressed to Izaak Walton. The
extracts from Cotton's poems will be concluded with his " Con-
tentation," which he also addressed to Walton ; but it must first
be observed that justice to his fame as a poet, as well as to his
personal character, renders it very desirable that the more
valuable of his productions should be reprinted. That the public
would appreciate the collection is almost certain ; for the late
Mr Coleridge, when speaking of Waller's song, " Go, lovely Rose,
&c,," has truly observed, " If I had happened to have had by me
the Poems of Cotton, more but far less deservedly celebrated as
the author of Virgil Travestied, I should have indulged myself,
and I think have gratified many vv^ho are not acquainted with his
serious works, by selecting some admirable specimens of this style-
There are not a few of his poems replete with every excellence
of thought, images and passions which we expect or desire in the
poetry of the milder muse ; and yet so worded, that the reader
iie^s no one reason either in the selection or the order of the

cxcvi LIFE OF

words, why he might not have said the very same in an appropri-
ate conversation, and cannot conceive how indeed he could have
expressed such thoughts otherwise, without loss or injury to his
meaning." ^

"CONTENTATION.

DIRECTED TO MY DEAR FATHER, AND MOST WORTHY FRIEND,
MR IZAAC WALTON.

Heav'n, what an age is this ! what race
Of giants are sprung up, that dare

Thus fly in the Almighty's face,

And with his providence make war I

I can go no where but I meet
With malcontents, and mutineers.

As if in life was nothing sweet
And we must blessings reap in tears.

O senseless man, that murmurs still
For happiness, and does not know.

Even though he might enjoy his will,
What he would have to make him so.

Is it true happiness to be

By undiscerning fortune plac't.

In the most eminent degree,
Where few arrive, and none stand fast?

Titles and wealth are fortune's toils

Wherewith the vain themselves ensnare I

The great are proud of borrow'd spoils,
The miser's plenty breeds his care.

The one supinely yawns at rest,

Th' other eternally doth toil.
Each of them equally a beast,

A pamper'd horse, or lab'ring moil.

The Titulado's oft disgrac'd.

By public hate, or private frown.
And he whose hand the creature rais'd.
Has yet a foot to kick him down.

The drudge who would all get, all save.
Like a brute beast both feeds, and lies.

Prone to the earth, he digs his grave,
And in the very labour dies.

Excess of ill-got, ill-kept pelf,

Does only death, and danger breed,

Whilst one rich worldling starves himself
With what would thousand others feed.

By which we see what wealth and pow'r
Although they make men rich and great.

The sweets of life do often sour,
And gull ambition with a cheat.

Nor is he happier than these.

Who in a moderate estate.
Where he might safely live at ease,

Has lusts that are immoderate.

For he, by those desires misled,

Quits his own vine's securing shade,

T' expose his naked, empty head
To all the storms man's peace invade.

Nor is he happy who is trim,
Trick't up in favoixrs of the fair,

Mirrors, with every breath made dim.
Birds caught in every wanton snare.

Woman, man's greatest woe, or bliss.
Does ofter far, than serve, enslave,

And with the magic of a kiss
Destroys whom she was made to save.

Oh fruitful grief, the world's disease 1
And vainer man to make it so,

Who gives his miseries increase
By cultivating his own woe.

There are no ills but what we make.
By giving shapes and names to things;

Which is the dangerous mistake
That causes all our sufferings.

We call that sickness, which is health.
That persecution, which is grace ;

That poverty, which is true wealth,
And that dishonour, which is praise.

Providence watches over all,
And that with an impartial eye.

And if to misery we fall,

'Tis through our own infirmity.

'Tis want of foresight makes the bold
Ambitious youth to danger climb.

And want of virtue, when the old
At persecution do repine.

Alas, our time is here so short.

That in what state soe'er 'tis spent,

Of joy or woe does not import.
Provided it be innocent.

8 Biographia Literaria, vol.

p. 96.

CHARLES COTTON. cxcvii

But we may make it pleasant too, Who, with his angle, and his books,

If we will take our measures right. Can think the longest day well spent.

And not what Heav'n has done, undo And praises God when back he looks,

I5y an unruly appetite. And finds that all was innocent.

'Tis Contentation that alone This man is happier far than he

Can make us happy here below, Whom public business oft betrays.

And when this little life is gone. Through labyrinths of policy,

Will lift us up to Heav'n too. To crooked and forbidden ways.

A very little satisfies The world is full of beaten roads.

An honest, and a grateful heart. But yet so slippery withall,

And who would more than will suffice. That where one walks secure, 'tis odds

Does covet more than is his part. A hundred and a hundred falL

That man is happy in his share, Untrodden paths are then the best,

Who is warm clad, and cleanly fed, Where the frequented are unsure,

Whose necessaries bound his care. And he comes soonest to his rest,

And honest labour makes his bed. Whose journey has been most secure.

Who free from debt, and clear from crimes, It is Content alone that makes

Honours those laws that others fear. Our pilgrimage a pleasure here,

Who ill of princes in worst times And who buys sorrow cheapest, takes

Will neither speak himself, nor hear. An ill commodity too dear.

Who from the busy world retires, But he has fortunes worst withstood,
To be more u«efnl to it still, And happiness can never miss,

And to no greater good aspires. Can covet nought, but where he stood.
But only the eschewing ill. And thinks him happy where he is."

Several stones are related of Cotton's pecuniary distress, but
though it is unquestionable that he generally laboured under
embarrassments, and that he hints that he had occasionally
concealed himself from his creditors, yet there ' is no better
authority for the following anecdotes than tradition. Sir John
Hawkins states that " a natural excavation in the rocky hill on
which Beresford Hall stands, is shown as Mr Cotton's occasional
refuge from the pursuit of his creditors ; and but a few years since
the granddaughter of the faithful woman who carried him food while
in that humiliating retreat, was living ; " ^ and he adds, that during
Cotton's confinement on one occasion in a prison in the city, he
inscribed these lines on the walls of his apartment : —

"A prison is a place of cure
Wherein no one can thrive ;
A touchstone sure to try a friend,
A grave for men alive." 1

Cotton's literary merits do not appear to be sufficiently appreci-
ated at the present day, probably because the works by which he
is best known are not calculated to create respect for his abilities,
and because there is no popular or selected edition of his poems.
As his prose writings consist almost entirely of translations

» Life of Cotlon, 382-3. 1 Ibid.

cxcviii LIFE OF

(and with the exception of Montaigne's Essays) of Memoirs of
Warriors, whose deeds have been edipsed by modern prowess,
it is not surprising that his labours should be forgotten ; but his
biographer may refer to them as proofs that indolence at least
was not among his faults.

It has been taken for granted that Cotton was at one period of
his life an author by profession, and that he lived by his pen;^
but those who have made this statement, could scarcely have
read the prefaces to his publications, wherein he expressly says
that he had lost much money by his writings, and that the expec-
tation of gaining anything by them was always very much beneath
his thoughts. The fact appears to be that he usually gave his
manuscripts to his friend Henry Brome, who incurred the expense
of their publication. This arrangement seems to have been
sometimes attended with loss to his publisher, and to have
produced disputes between them ; for in his epistle to John
Bradshaw, Esq., describing his journey from London to Beresford,
he says —

" And now I'm here set down again in peace
After my troubles, business, voyages,
The same dull northern clod I was before.
Gravely inquiring how ewes are a score,
How the hay-harvest, and the corn was got,
And if or no there's like to be a rot ;
Just the same sot I was ere I remov'd,
Nor by my travel, nor the court improv'd ;
The same old-fash ion'd squire, no whit refin'd.
And shall be wiser when the devil's blind:
But find all here too in the self-same state,
And now begin to live at the old rate,
To bub old ale, which nonsense does create.
Write lewd epistles, and sometimes translate
Old tales of tubs, of Guyenne, and Provence,
And keep a clutter with th' old blades of France
As D'Avenant did with those of Lombardy,
Which any will receive, but none will buy,
And that has set H. B. and me awry."

Cotton's conduct and character were naturally much influenced
by the manners of his times, and by the political feelings of his
party. He was generous, frank, and, in pecuniary matters,
thoughtless, if not extravagant. A boon companion, and, like all
the Cavaliers, a hater of those qualities, as well good as evil,
which distinguished the Roundheads. As a son, a husband, a
father, and a friend, he appears in an amiable light ; and many
of his contemporaries bear testimony to his social worth no less
strongly than to his talents. His religious impressions appear
from his serious writings to have been fervent and sincere ; and

2 Vide his Life by Hawkins and others.

CHARLES COTTON. cxcix

those lighter and objectionable eflfusions by which he is principally
known to posterity, ought not to be considered as indications of
his true character or sentiments. Genius, as if to show its versa-
tility, has often delighted in fantastic exhibitions ; and when Cotton
lived, a fashion for burlesque humour and obscenity prevailed,
which he is censurable for having followed ; but the fault
belonged as much to the age as to the individual.

His first marriage may be supposed, from the following lines
in his satirical poem, called " The Joys of Marriage," to have
increased his happiness : —

"Yet with me 'tis out or season
To complain thus without reason.
Since the best and sweetest fair
Is allotted to my share :
But alas ! I love her so
That my love creates my woe ;
For if she be out of humour,
Straight displeas'd I do presume her,
And would give the world to know
What it is oflends her so ;
Or if she be discontented.
Lord, how am I then tormented !
And am ready to persuade her
That I have unhappy made her:
But if sick I then am dying,
Meat and med'cine both defying."

Nor is there any reason to doubt that his second alliance with the
Countess of Ardglass was equally fortunate. He addressed one
of his poems, in very affectionate terms, to his sister Anne,^ who
married John King, the son of Walton's friend, Henry, Bishop of
Chichester ; and secondly, Sir Thomas Millington, M.D.

Cotton's person seems, from one of Sir Aston Cokayne's verses,
to have been graceful and handsome.* His portrait, painted by
his friend Sir Peter Lely, is now in the possession of John
Beresford, Esq., of Ashbourn, and the engraving in this work
is taken from a copy of the original recently painted by Mr
Inskipp.

Of his children little is known. Beresford Cotton, the only
son who survived him, entered the army, and served in Ireland.
He was a captain in Colonel George Villier's Regiment of Foot,
and his name occurs among the other officers of the ten regiments
which were disbanded in Ireland in 1698, and to whom a reduced
allowance, or, as it was termed, " subsistence," of three shillings a
day was granted.* The date of his death has not been discovered ;

3 " La Illustrissima. On my fair and dear sister Mrs Anne King," p. 6i.
•• Vide page cixvi. antea.

^ Vide Sir Robert Southwell's papers in the Additional MS. No. 9762, in the British
Museum.

cc LIFE OF

but it is said that he was never married, and that he died at
Nottingham. In 1694 Beresford Cotton published his father's
translation of the Memoirs of the Sieur de Pontis, which has been
already noticed, and which he dedicated to the Duke of Ormond.
He states that the work was translated by the particular choice
and recommendation of his Grc.ce's illustrious grandfather, and
says " The Sieur de Pontis therefore for himself, and I for the
translator, my deceased father, beg leave to plead succession and
descent." ®

Olive Cotton, the eldest daughter of Charles Cotton, married early
in 1690, Dr George Stanhope, Dean of Canterbury, and died in
June 1707, having had a son, George Stanhope, who was a
captain in the army, and died unmarried in 1725 ; and five
daughters, Katherine, Mary, Jane, Charlotte, and Elizabeth.
Mary, the eldest daughter of Dr Stanhope by Olive Cotton,
married William Burnet, Governor of New York, eldest son of
the celebrated Dr Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury, by whom she had
a son, Gilbert Burnet, who was a minor in May 1727, and died
about the year 1770, leaving Thomas Burnet his only child, who
was then an apothecary in John Street, Clerkenwell. Mrs
Burnet, who died in 17 14, is said to have been distinguished for
her beauty, wit, good - humour, and various accomplishments.
The '' ruling passion " was as strongly exhibited by her as by
Pope's Narcissa ; for on her attendants rubbing her temples with
Hungary water, in her dying moments, she desired them to desist,
lest it " should make her hair grey " ! Charlotte, the fourth
daughter of Dr Stanhope, married the Rev. Dr Henry Archer,
Rector of Feversham, in Kent, and died in 1744. She left issue,
and her present representative is Robert Selby, Esq., of Kings-
bury, in Middlesex. Katherine, Jane, and EHzabeth, the other
daughters of Dr Stanhope, appear to have died unmarried before
May 1727.

Dr Stanhope married a second time, and died in March
1728. His will, which is dated on the 2d of May 1727, and
was proved at Doctors' Commons on the 4th of May 1728,
contains some notices of his first wife and of her family. He
desired that his body should be buried at Lewisham, near his late
dear wife Olivia : he confirmed the articles made on the 30th of
November 1709, on his marriage with his then wife Anne : he
stated that one-fourth part of the Rectory of Spoondon, in the
county of Derby, was vested in him on his marriage with his

6 Kippis' Biographia Britannica, vol. iii. p. 39.

CHARLES COTTON. cci

former wife, Olivia, daughter of Charles Cotton, Esq. ; and that
one other fourth part had been purchased by him of Katherine,
her sister, now Lady Lucy. He bequeathed to his daughter,
Charlotte Archer, " the mourning gold ring with which her dear
mother was married, and the cornelian ring which she, in her life-
time, and I, since her death, did constantly wear, and with it also
the pictures of her mother, and of her aunt, the Lady Lucy, in
crayons ; the pictures of her brother George, and her sister
Elizabeth, in oil colours."

Katherine, the second daughter of Charles Cotton, married
Sir Berkeley Lucy, Bart., and died in June 1740, leaving an only
child Mary, who married the Honorable Charles Compton, a
younger son of George, fourth Earl of Northampton, from whom
the present Marquess of Northampton is descended.

Jane Cotton, the third daughter, became the wife of Beaumont
Parky ns, of Sutton Bonington, in Nottinghamshire, Esq., by whom
she had eight children. They all died young, and apparently
before their mother, who died in January 1738, aged seventy-two.

Of Mary Cotton, the poet's youngest daughter, all which can
be said is, that she married Augustine Armstrong, of the parish of
St George the Martyr, Bloomsbury, and had by him two children,
Charles and Katherine, to whom Dr Stanhope, in his will, left
legacies of £20 each. In a codicil to his will, dated 8th January
1727-8, Dr Stanhope bequeathed ;^2oo to "my poor niece
Catherine, daughter of Augustine Armstrong, of the parish of St
George the Martyr, near Ormond Street, which was born to him
by my sister-in-law, formerly Mrs Mary Cotton ; and I do also
order that the legacy already left her in the said will, be added to
that which I have left to her brother Charles." The descendants
of Mary Cotton have not been traced.

PEDIGREE

{^Compiled from the Heralds Visitations of

CORDELL, daughter and co-heir of Richard = Sir John Stanhope, of Shelton, co. Notts,
Allington, Esq.— First wife. I and of Elvaston, co. Derby. Ob. 1610.

Sir Philip Stanhope, Anne = Thomas Cokayne, of

created Baron Stanhope Stan-
of Shelford in 1616, and hope.
Earl of Chesterfield in
1628. Died in 1656.

Sir
Henry
Stan-
hope,
K.B.
Ob.
vita
pairis,
1634.

Ashbourne, co. Derbv.
Ob. 27th January 1638.
Buried in St Giles' in
the Fields, London.

Katherine.
Second wife.

Sir Thomas

Hutchinson

of Owihorpe,

CO. Notts.

- Katherine,
daughter and co-heir
of Thomas Lord
Wotton. Created
Countess of Chester-
field for life in 1660.
To this lady and to
her mother and sis-
ters, Walton dedicated
the ist and 2d editions

of the ' Reliquiae
Wottonianae ' in 1651
and 1654. Ob. 1677.

Cokayne.
Born Dec. 28.
1608. Married
Mary, daugh-
ter of Sir
Gilbert
Kniveton, of

Marcaston,

CO. Derby, and

died leaving

issue.

Thomas.

Born 1610.

Died at Bath

5th Sept.

1629.

Anne. Mt.

1^ in 1611.

Married

Sir Francis
Boteler,
of Lewin,
CO. Herts.

I

Lettice.

Married

Gilbert

Armstrong.

Katherine.
Married
Richard
Weston, a
Baron of the
Exchequer.

Lucy Isabella.

Cokayne, Died

supposed to unmarried

have been set. 18, and

the ' Mrs buried at
Cokayne* of Ashbourne
' Virgil Tra- before
vestie.* Died 1658.

unmarried
ait. 34, and

buried at

Ashbourne
before 1658.

Philip Stanhope, second

Earl of Chesterfield, to whom

Walton dedicated the third

edition of the ' Reliquias

Wottonianae' in 1673 ; and to

whom Cotton dedicated the

' Commentaries of Montluc'

in 1674. Ob. 1713.

A quo the Earls of
Chesterfield.

Beresford
Cotton, s.andh.
Born i66o, set. 4,
1664. A captain
in the army tevtp.

William III.
Living 1698. He

is said to have
died at Notting-
ham unmarried.

Charles

Cotton.

Born after
1664. Died
before 1677.
Wingfield

Cotton.
Died before

1677.

Isabella.

Died before

1677.

Olive :

Cotton. Born

about 1664.

Marriage

licence dated

ist January

1689-90, then

aet. 26. Died

ist June 1707.

Buried at

Lewisham,

CO. Kent.

: Dr George

Stanhope, Dean

of Canterbury.

Died March 18,

172.7-8, set. 68.

Will dated May

2, 1727. Codicil

dated 8th Jan.

1727-8. Proved

4th May 1728.

Buried at

Lewisham.

George Stan-
hope, s. and h.,
a captain in the
army. Died
without issue,
1725.

Mary, 2d = William Burnet, Charlotte, fourth = Rev. Dr Henry

daughter
and co-heir.
Died 1714.
First wife.

Governor of New
York, eldest son of
Gilbert, Bishop of
Salisbury. Died 7th
Sept. 1729. Will dated
6th Dec. 1727. Proved
gth July 1730.

daughter and co-heir.

Born Jan. 27, 1695.

Married before May
1727. Died between
Aug. 19 and Dec. 17,

1744, at Canterbury.

Archer, Rector

of Feversham,

CO. Kent. Died

i6th Feb. 1744.

Gilbert Burnet,

a minor in May 1727.

Living 1758. Died

circa 1770.

Henry Archer, = Elizabeth

of Tha.xted.

Buried there

22d December

1758.

Debat.
Ob. 1800.

Stanhope

Archer.

Died unmarried

in 1750.

Charlotte.

Married Robert

Turner.

IF

Thomas Burnet,

only issue. An

Apothecary, living

in John St., Clerk-

enwell, in 1770.

Henry
Archer.
Died an

infant.

Elizabeth.

Died
unmarried
in 1808.

John.
Born and
died 1754.

William.
Born 1755.
Died 1765.

John. Born
1766. Died
unmarried

l8l2.

Four
daughters.

[ 202 ]

OF COTTON.

Stafford and Derby, and other Sources. ]

Katherine, daughter of Thomas Trentham, of Rowcester, co. Stafford.— Second wife.

Mary, =
daughter of

Sir John
Ratclyffe,
ofOrdsall,co.

Lancaster.
Second wife.

Sir John

Stanhope,

of Elvaston,

CO. Derby.

Knighted 1607.

Died 29th May

1638.

: Olivia, daughter and
heir of Edward Beres-

FORD, of Beresford,

CO. Stafford, aet. 20 in

161 1, and then married.

Died before 1628.

First wife.

COTTON.
Sir George Cotton, = Cassandra,

a younger son of

Cotton of Warblenton,

CO. Sussex, and of

Bedhampton, co.

Southampton, ob. 1613

{vide p. clxiii. note).

daughter
and heir of

Mac

William

(vide p.

clxiii. note)t

John Stanhopf^ son Olive, daughter of Sir John == Charles Cotton, Cassandra.

aiidheir, jet. 9 inOct. Stanhope, of Elvaston, co. of Ovingdean, co. Died

1627. Ancestor of the Derby; heir to her mother. Sussex. Ob. 8th unmarried

Earls of Harrington. Died before 1658, act. 38. December 1658. before 1649.

Mrs Stanhope

Hutchinson,

to whom Cotton

dedicated his

translation of

Corneille's

Horace in Nov.

1665, then

unmarried.

Charles
Hutchinson,
of Willoua;hby
on the Wolds,
CO. Derby, sx.

26, 1663,

I

Isabella, =

daughter of

Sir Thomas

Hutchinson,

of Owthorpe, co.

Notts. Married

about July 1656.

Died before 1677.

: CHARLES =

COTTON,

of Beresford,

CO. Stafford, and

of Bentley, co.

Derby. Born

38th April 1630;

aet. 34, 1664.

Died 12th

February 1687.

Buried at St

Martin's.

: Mary, eldest
daughter of Sir
William Russell,

of Strensham, co.

Worcester, Bart., and

widow of Wingfield,

Baron Cromwell in

England, and Earl

of Ardglass in
Ireland. Married
before 1677.
ife.

Second wif

Katherine==

Cotton.

Unmarried

Sept. 1687.

Died June

1740.

I

Sir

Berkeley

Lucy, of

Broxbourne,

CO. Herts,

Bart. Died

Nov. 19,

1759, aet. 87,

s. p, M.

Jane Cotton. :
Born after 1664,
and before 1677.

Unmarried

September 1687.

Died Jan. 29,

1738, act. 72.

Buried at Bunny,

CO. Notts.

: Beaumont

Parkyns, of

Sutton Bonning-

ton, CO. Notts,

younger brother

of Sir Thomas

Parkyns, Bart.

Died Dec. 23,

1714. Buried at

Bunny,co. Notts.

Mary
Cotton.
Born after
1664, and
before 1677.
Unmarried
Sept. 1687.

Augustine
Armstrong,
of the parish
of St George
the Martyr,
Bloumsbury.

Elizabeth,

5th
daughter.

I I

Katherine.

eldest

daughter.

Jane, 3d

daughter.

All died unmarried before
1727.

Mary Lucy,:

daughter
and sole heir.
Married 14th
Aug. 1727.

Hon. Charles

COMPTON, 4th

son of George,

4th Earl of

Northampton.

Died 2oth Nov.

1755-

Eight
Children,

all of
whom died

s. P. Both living Jan. 1727-8.

Charles Katherine.

Arm-
strong.

t

I I
Olivia Alcione. =
Born 1726. Died

Dec. 24, 1770.

milv. Living 1744.

: John Selby, of Godmanches-

ter, CO. Hunts, of Downham,

CO. Cambridge, and lastly,

of Kingsbury, co. Middlesex.

Died March 14, 1784.

Charles Compton,
Succeeded, in 1758, as
7th Earl of Northamp-
ton. Died i8th Oct.
1763, s. p. m.

Spencer, 8th Earl

of Northampton.
Died April 7, 1796.

Robert Selby. Born 26th Jan. = ELizABETH.danghter
1758. Living July 1836. One I of William Moore.
OF THE present representa- | Married 1783. Died
tives of Charles Cotton. cg° ad November 1825.

Charles, 9th Earl of Northampton.

Created Earl Compton and Marquess

of Northampton, 7th September i8ia.

Died 24th May 1828. :=^

[203 ]

Spencer Joshua Alwyne, 2d Marquess and loth Earl of Northampton.
Onb of the present representatives of Charles Cotton.

' III. PEDIGREE OF KEN.

\Compiled f 1-07)1 the Herald's Visitation of London in 1634, marked Q. 24, in the
College of Arms ; Parish Registers, Wills, ajtd other Authorities. 1

WILLIAM KEN^of Somersetshire.
T

Matthew Ken, of London = Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Barret, of London.

Jane, daughter of —

Rowland Hughes,

of Essenden, co.

Herts.* She died

before 1626.

First wife.

Thomas Ken, of London, attor-z
ney in the Court of Common
Pleas, Gentleman, citizen and
barber- surgeon. Died 12th
June 1651. Will dated 12th
April 1651. Proved 18th May
1653-

:Martha, daughter of Jon Chalkhill,
of Kinijsbury, co. Middlesex. Buried
at St Giles', Cripplegate, 19th March
1640-1. Administration of her effects
granted to her husband 12th July 1641.
Second wife.

Thomas
Ken, son and
heir in 1634.

Buried at

St Giles',
Cripplegate,

Feb. 1636.

Jane Ken,

married

John

Symond.s,

Both living

April 1651.

Anne.

Born 1610.

Married,

about 1646,

IZAAK
WALTON,
anddiediyth
April 1622.

w

John Ken,
second son
and eldest
son by the
second wife.
Baptized at

St Giles',

Cripplegate,

I St January

1626-7. Will

dated 26th

April, and

proved by

his brother

and sole

executor,

JoN Ken,

31st May

1651. Died

unmarried.

Jon :
Ken,
third
son,
baptized
at St
Giles',
Cripple-
gate,
July 10,
1632.
Some-
time
Trea-
surer of
the East
India
Com-
pany.
Living
August
1683.

: Rose,
sister of

Sir
Thomas
Vernon,
of Cole-
man
Street,
London.
Living
July
1714.

Mar- :

THA

Ken,

baptized
at St
Giles',

Cripple-
gate,

June 28,
1628.
Living

August
1683.

I I I I I

; James Mary Ken. Bap-

Beach- tized at St Giles'

am, of aforesaid 23d Feb.

London, 1629-30. Presumed

gold-
smith.
Living
July
1714.

to have died before
1634.

Margaret Ken.
Baptized at StGiles*
aforesaid March 26,
1631. Presumed to

have died before
1634.

Elizabeth Ken.

Baptized at StGiles'

aforesaid 14th

April 1635.

Mary Ken. Bap-
tized at St Giles'
aforesaid 17th Aug.
1638. Buried there
7th Dec. 1639.

Martin Ken.

Baptized at St

Giles' aforesaid

March 16, 1640-1.

Thomas Kej

youngest s(

Born at Littlt

Berkhampste

CO. Herts, in
July 1637. Pr<
ceeded B.A.
New Colleg
Oxon. M..
3TSt Jan. 166,
B.D. 1678. D.;
June 30, 1679

Installed

Prebendary 0

Winchester

April 12, i66g

Consecrated

Bishop of Bat]

and Wells

Jan. 25, 1684.

Deprived Feb.

i6go-i. Diei

March 21,

1710-11, set. 73

— Ken,

Martha

= Christopher

Rose Ken, of

JONBEACHAM,of

William

son. At

Ken.

Frederick

Marvlebone,

Trinity College,

Beacham,

Cvprus

Living

Kreinberg,

CO. Middlesex.

Oxford. Pro-

Fellow of

about

1714.

Resident for the

Died unmarried.

ceeded M.A. 6th

New Colleg

1707.

Elector of

and Administra-

Nov. 1683, and

Oxford. Dii

Hanover in

tion of her effects

B.D. 22d March

before 1713S

London. Living

granted to her

1693. Fellow of

1714.

mother in March

the said College

1 700-1.

in 1713.

* He was probably the person who is thus mentioned in Smith's Catalogue of Persons deceased
(Addit. MS, 886, in Brit. Mus.) : "April 30, 1642, the wife of Rowland Hughes, Attorney, died."

[ 204 ]

IV. PEDIGREE OF CHALKHILL.

{Compiled from Wills and other Authorities:^

CHALKHILL —

ChALKHILL :;^-

i ^~'~^

Richard John William
ALKHiLL. Chalk- Chalkhill,
led before hill. of Fulham,
Dec. 1606. Living co. Middle-
cjp Dec. sex, yeoman.

° 2606. Will dated

14th Dec.
1606. Proved
loth January
1606-7.

Chalkhill == . Living 1615.

= Cecily, Jon Chalkhill, ;
daughter of Kingsbury, co.

of , Middlc'^ex, i6o6.

widow of and of Northall, in

Dixon. that county, Gent.

-3S in 1615. Will dated

*' 17th August 1615,

and proved 28th of

the same month.*

illiam

ALKHILL,

Hammer-
niith, in

ham, CO.

lidlescx,
landman,
dcr agein
;c. 1606.

11 dated
th Nov.
r. Proved

Nov.
1654.

[ I

: JlDITH, ElIZA-

daiighter bkth,

of widow

Tanner, of

and sister Barker.
of John Living

and Nov. 1651.
Joseph

Tanner. Anne,
wife

of

Nichols.

:Martha, daugh-
ter of— Browne,
and sister of John

and Thomas

Browne. Will

dated 13th July

and proved 8th

Dec. 1620.

^ I

SrSANNAH,

wife of

Martvn,
1626.

John Chalk- Margaret ==

hill, not 25 in Chalkhill,

1615. Executor under 21 in
to his mother in 1615.

1620.

Jon Chalkhill,
under 25 in 1615,
and was then .
abroad.

Mary Chalk-

hill. Living

1620, m. Edward

Wakefield, of

London. Ob.s.p.

Martin

Browne,

surgeon,

Alderman

of London.

Mar- =Thomas

THA

Chalk-
hill,
under 2r
in 1615.

Rebecca,

d.nughter

and heiress.

Ken.

: Sir Hum-
phrey
Winch, of
Hannes,
CO. Bed-
ford, Bart.
Ob. circa
1703,5. P.M.

See Pedigree
No. IlL

M Chalkhili^ of = Mary, executrix of her

chgreen, in Fulha

)mnn. Will dated

ti Dec. 1672. Proved

7ih October 1676.

husband's will in October

1676. (Query, if she

was not a daughter

of Eaursbe.)

John

Chalkhill,

under age in

Nov. 1651.

,11 n

JiniTH. Mary.
I'-ETHiA. Rose.

All living in 1651
and 1672.

Mary, wife of
Joseph Rollinson,
of London, druggist

Judith Chalkhill. Hannah. RebLcca.

-^- —— ^ ^

All under 20 in December 1672.

[ 205 ]

THE COMPLETE ANGLER;

OR,

Contemplative Man's Recreation.

PORTRAIT OP IZAAK WALTON
FROM. A PAINTrNG- BY INSKIPP

THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.

TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFUL JOHN OFFLEY, OF
MADELEY MANOR, IN THE COUNTY OF STAF-
FORD, ESQUIRE,* MY MOST HONOURED
FRIEND.

Sir, — I have made so ill use of your former favours, as by them
to be encouraged to entreat, that they may be enlarged to the
patronage and protection of this Book : and I have put on a
modest confidence, that I shall not be denied, because it is a
discourse of Fish and Fishing, which you know so well, and both
love and practise so much.

You are assured, though there be ignorant men of another
belief, that Angling is an Art : and you know that Art better than
others ; ^ and that this is truth is demonstrated by the fruits of

Variation. J i than any that I know. — xst and 2d edit.

* Son and heir of Sir John Offley, of Madeley, in the county of Stafford, Knight,
and great-grandson of Sir Thomas Offley, who was Lord Mayor of London in
1 557. Mr Offley. to whom this work is dedicated, succeeded his father in 1646, and was
twice married : first to Dorothy, daughter of Sir John Lidcott, of Mousley in Surrey;
smd secondly, to Mary, daughter of Thomas Broughton, of Broughton in Staffordshire.
He died in 1658, leaving, by his second wife, John, who was thirteen vears old in 1663 ;
Thomas, then aged twelve ; and Mary, who became the wife of Sir Willoughby Aston,
of Aston, in the county of Chester, Bart. John Offley, the eldest son, acquired Crew,
in Cheshire, in right of his wife, Ann, daughter and co-heiress of John Crew, of that

Iilace, Esq., by whom he had, first, John ; second, Crew ; third, Mary, who married
Robert, Viscount Kilmorrey. John Offley, his son and heir, assumed the name of Crew,
and died in 1749, leaving John Crew, of Crew, Esq., his son and heir, who was living in
1751, three other sons, and three daughters. Crew Offley, of Wichner, in the county of
Stafford, the second son, married Mary, daughter of Sir Thomas Lawrence, of Chelsea;
and dying in 1739, left, by her, two sons, John Offley, of Wichner, in the county of
Stafford, living unmarried, and aged thirty-four, in 1751, and Lawrence Offley, who died
in 1749, unmarried. — Records of the College 0/ Arms, marked C 36 and 3 D 14. This
Dedication is not the only evidence of a personal acquaintance between the families of
^Vaiton and Offley : a John Offley proved the will of Agnes Walton, of the parish of
JIadeley, on the 22d of April 1573.

L

^ THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.

that pleasant labour which you enjoy, when you purpose to give
rest to your mind, and divest yourself of your more serious
business, and, which is often, dedicate a day or two to this recrea-
tion. At which time, if common Anglers should attend you, and
be eyewitnesses of the success, not of your fortune, but your skill,
it would doubtless beget in them an emulation to be hke you, and
that emulation might beget an industrious diligence to be so ; but
I know it is not attainable by common capacities : and there be
now many men of great wisdom, learning, and experience, which
love and practise this Art, that know I speak the truth.^

Sir, this pleasant curiosity of Fish and Fishing, of which you
are so great a master, has been thought worthy the pens and
practices of divers in other nations, that have been reputed men
of great learning and wisdom. And amongst those of this nation,
I remember Sir Henry Wotton, a dear lover of this Art, has told
me, that his intentions were to write a Discourse of the Art, and
in praise of Angling ; and doubtless he had done so, if death had
not prevented him ; the remembrance of which had 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 under-
taken, I could never yet see in Enghsh.

But mine may be thought as weak, and as unworthy of
common view ; and I do here freely confess, that I should rather
excuse myself, than censure others, my own discourse being liable
to so many exceptions ; against which you, Sir, might make this
one, that it can contribute nothing to YOUR knowledge. And
lest a longer epistle may diminish your pleasure, I shall make this
no " longer than to add this following truth, that I am really, Sir,
your most affectionate Friend, and most humble Servant,

Iz. Wa.

VARIATIONS.

2 "and there be," &c., to "the truth," added in the 2</edit.
S of which I am one. — xst edit.

* some treatise of this art worthy. — Ibid.

* shall not adventure to make this epistle any longer. — First four editions.

TO THE READER.

THE EPISTLE TO THE READER IN
THE FIRST EDITION.

TO THE READER OF THIS DISCOURSE, BUT ESPECIALLY
TO THE HONEST ANGLER.

I THINK fit to tell thee these following truths ; that I did not undertake
to write, or to publish this Discourse of Fish and Fishing, to please
myself, and that I wish it may not displease others ; for I have confessed,
there are many defects in it. And yet, 1 cannot doubt, but that by it,
some Readers may receive so much profit or pleasure, as if they be not
very busy men, may make it not unworthy the time of their perusal ; and
this is all the confidence that I can put on concerning the merit of this
book.

And I wish the Reader also to take notice, that in writing of it, I have
made a recreation of a recreation ; and that it might prove so to thee in
the reading, and not to read dull and tediously, 1 have in several places
mixed some innocent mirth; of which, if thou be a severe sour-com-
plexioned man, then I here disallow thee to be a competent judge. For
divines say, there are offences given ; and offences taken, but not given.
And I am the willinger to justify this innocent mirth, because the whole
Discourse is a kind of picture of my own disposition, at least of my dis-
position in such days and times as I allow myself, when honest Nat. and
R. R. and I go a-fishing together ; and let me add this, that he that likes
not the Discourse, should like the pictures of the Trout and other fish,
which I may commend, because they concern not myself.*

And I am also to tell the Reader, that in that which is the more useful
part of this Discourse ; that is to say, the observations of the nature and
breeding, and seasons, and catching of fish, I am not so simple as not to
think but that he may find exceptions in some of these ; and therefore I
must entreat him to know, or rather note, that several countries, and
several rivers alter the time and manner of fishes' breeding ; and therefore
if he bring not candour to the reading of this Discourse, he shall both
injure me, and possibly himself too, by too many criticisms.

Now for the Art of catching fish ; that is to say, how to make a man
that was none, an Angler by a book : he that undertakes it, shall under-
take a harder task than Hales, that in his printed book f undertook by it
to teach the Art of Fencing, and was laughed at for his labour. Not but

* Sir John Hawkins supposes the Fish to have been engraved upon silver : that
the conjecture is erroneous, is proved by the fact that the same title-page and plates were
used in^z'^ editions of this work, and also in five editions of Venables' " Experienced
Angler ; " half the number of which impressions would have worn out a silver plate.
It is probable they were engraved by Lombart, Faithorne, or Vaughan.

t Called the Private School of Defence,

4 TO THE READER.

that something useful might be observed out of that book : but that Art
was not to be taught by words ; nor is the Art of Angling. And yet, I
think, that most that love that game, may here learn something that may
be worth their money, if they be not needy : and if they be, then my
advice is, that they forbear j for I write not to get money, but for pleasure ;
and this Discourse boasts of no more : for I hate to promise much, and
fail.

But pleasure I have found both in the search and conference about what
is here offered to thy view and censure ; I wish thee as much in the per-
usal of it, and so might here take my leave ; but I will stay thee a little
longer by telling thee, that whereas it is said by many, that in fly-fishing
for a Trout, the Angler must observe his twelve flies for every month, I
say, if he observe that, he shall be as certain to catch fish, as they that
make hay by the fair days in Almanacs, and be no surer : for doubtless,
three or four flies rightly made, do serve for a trout all summer ; and for
winter-flies, all Anglers know, they are as useful as an Almanac out of
date.

Of these (because no man is bom an artist nor an Angler) I thought fit
to give thee this notice. I might say more, but it is not fit for this place ; but
if this Discourse which follows shall come to a second impression, which
is possible, for slight books have been in this age observed to have that
fortune, I shall then, for thy sake, be glad to correct what is faulty, or by
a conference with any to explain or enlarge what is defective : but for this
time I have neither a willingness nor leisure to say more, than wish thee
a rainy evening to read this book in, and that the east wind may never
blow when thou goest a-fishing. Farewell.

Iz. Wa.

THE EPISTLE TO THE READER IN
THE SECOND EDITION.

TO THE READER OF THIS DISCOURSE, BUT ESPECIALLY
TO THE HONEST ANGLER.

I THINK fit to tell every Reader these following truths ; that I did neither
undertake, nor write, nor publish, and much less own this Discourse to
please myself, and wish it may not displease others : for I have confessed
there are many defects in it.

And yet I cannot doubt, but that by it some Readers may receive so
much pleasure or profit as may make it worthy the time of their perusal,
if they be not very busy men. And this is all the confidence that I can
put on concerning the merit of what is here offered to their consideration
and censure.

Being a Difcourfe of

FISH and FISHING,

Not unwortliy the peiTifal of moft Anglers.

Simon Y^Xsxfaid, I go a fifliing : and'theyfaid, We
(dfo wilgo ivith thee. Jolin 21.3.

FAC-SIM.ILE OF THE TITLE PAGE OF THE FIRST EDITION OF
THE CORPLEAT ANGLER, 1653.

TO THE READER. 5

And I v/ish the Reader also to take notice, that in writing of it, I have
made myself a recreation of a recreation ; and that it might prove so to
him, and not read dull and tediously, I have in several places mixed
(not any scurrility, but) some innocent, harmless mirth, of which, if thou
be a severe, sour-complexioned man, then I here disallow thee to be a
competent judge ; for divines say, there are offences given, and offences
not given, but taken.

And I am the willinger to justify the pleasant part of it, because, though
it is known I can be serious at seasonable times, yet the whole Discourse
is a kind of picture of my own disposition in such days and times,
as I allow to myself, when honest Nat. and R, R. and I go a-fishing
together.

And let me add this, that he that likes not the book, should like the
picture of the Trout, and the other fish, which I dare commend, because
they concern not myself.

Next, let me tell the Reader, that in that which is the more useful part
of this Discourse; that is to say, the observations of the nature, and
breeding, and seasons, and catching of fish, I am not so simple as not to
know, but that a captious reader may find exceptions against something
said of some of these ; and therefore I must entreat him to consider, that
experience teaches us to know, that sevei-al countries alter the time, and I
think almost the manner, of fishes' breeding, but doubtless, of their being
in season ; as may appear by three rivers in Monmouthshire, namely,
Severn, Wye, and Usk, where Camden* observes, that in the river Wye,
Salmon are in season from September to April, and we are certain, that
in the other two, and in Thames and Trent, and in most other rivers, they
be in season the six hotter months.

Now for the Art of catching fish, that is to say, how to make a man that
was none, to be an Angler by a book ; he that undertakes it shall under-
take a harder task than Mr Hales, that in a printed book, called *'The
Private School of Defence," undertook to teach the science or art of fencing,
and was laughed at for his labour. Not but that many useful things might
be observed out of that book ; but that the art was not to be taught by words :
nor is the Art of Angling ; nor have I undertaken to leave out nothing
that might be said of it, but to acquaint the Reader with many things that
are not usually known to every Angler ; and I shall leave gleanings and
ol)servations enough to be made out of the experience of all that love and
practise this recreation, to which I shall encourage them. For Angling
may be said to be like the Mathematics, that can never be fully learnt ; at
least, not so fully, but that there will still be more new experiments left
for the trial of other men that succeed us.

But I think all that love this game may here learn something that may
be worth their money, if they be not poor and needy men ; and in case
they be, I then wish them to forbear to buy it ; for I write not to get
money, but for pleasure, and this Discourse boasts of no more ; for I hate
to promise much, and fail.

liut pleasure I have found both in the search and conference about what
is here offered to the Reader's view and censure ; I wish him as much in
the perusal of it, and so might here take my leave : but must stay a little

* Britannia, foL 633, edition 1637, which is the one quoted by Walton throughout the
work.

6 TO THE READER,

and tell him, that whereas it is said by many, that in fly-fishing for a Trout,
the Angler must observe his twelve several flies for the twelve months of
the year ; I say, he that follows that rule, shall be as sure to catch fish, as
he that makes hay by the fair days in an Almanac, and no surer ; for
those very flies that use to appear about and on the water in one month of
the year, may the following year come almost a month sooner or later, as
the same year proves colder or hotter ; and yet in the following Discourse
I have set down the twelve flies that are in reputation with many Anglers,
and they may serve to give him some light concerning them. And he
may note, that there is in Wales, and other countries, peculiar flies, proper
to the particular place or country ; and doubtless, unless a man makes a fly
to counterfeit that very fly in that place, he is like to lose his labour : but
for the generality, three or four flies neat and rightly made, and not too
big, serve for a Trout in most rivers all the summer. And for winter fly-
fishing it is as useful as an Almanac out of date. And of these (because
as no man is bom an artist, so no man is born an Angler) I thought fit to
give thee this notice.

When I have told the Reader, that in this second impression there are
many enlargements, gathered both by my own observation, and the com-
munication of friends, I shall stay him no longer than to wish him a rainy
evening to read this following Discourse ; and that (if he be an Angler)
the east wind may never blow when he goes a-fishing,

I. W.

THE EPISTLE TO THE READER IN
THE FIFTH EDITION.*

TO ALL READERS OF THIS DISCOURSE, BUT
ESPECIALLY TO THE HONEST ANGLER.

I THINK fit to tell thee these following truths ; that I did neither under-
take, nor write, nor publish, and much less own, this Discourse to please
myself : and, having been too easily drawn to do all ^ to please others, as
I propose not the gaining of credit by this undertaking, so I would not
Avillingly lose any part of that to which I had a just title before I began it ;
and do therefore desire and hope, if I deserve not commendations, yet I
may obtain pardon.

Variation.] 6 to do v,\\.— Omitted in 3d edit.

* The variations between this, and the third and fourth editions, are pointed out in
the notes.

TO THE READER. 7

And though this Discourse may be liable to some exceptions, yet I can-
not doubt but that most Readers may receive so much pleausre or profit
by it, as may make it worthy the time of their perusal, if they be not too
grave or too busy men.'' And this is all the confidence that I can put on,
concerning the merit of what is here offered to tlieir consideration and
censure ; and if the last prove too severe, as I have a liberty,** so I am
resolved to use it, and neglect all sour censures.

And I wish the Reader also to take notice, that in writing of it I have
made myself a recreation of a recreation ; and that it might prove so to
him, and not read dull and tediously, I have in several places mixed, not
any scurrility, but some innocent, harmless mirth, of which if thou be a
severe, sour-complexioned man, then I here disallow thee to be a com-
petent judge ; for divines say, there are offences given, and offences not
given but taken.

And I am the willinger to justify the pleasant part of it, because though
it is known I can be serious at seasonable times, yet the whole Discouree
is, or rather was, a picture of my own disposition, especially in such days
and times as I have laid aside business, and gone a-fishing with honest
Nat. and R. Roe ; * but they are gone, and with them most of my pleasant
hours, even as a shadow that passeth away and returns not.

And next let me add this, that he that likes not the book, should like
the excellent picture of the Trout, and some of the other fish, which I may
take a liberty to commend, because they concern not myself.

Next, let me tell the Reader, that in that which is the more useful part
of this Discourse, that is to say, the observations of the nature and breeding,
and seasons, and catching of fish, I am not so simple as not to know, that
a captious reader may find exceptions against something said of some of
these ; and therefore I must entreat him to consider, that experience
teaches us to know that .several countries alter the time, and I think,
almost the manner, of fishes' breeding, but doubtless of their being in season;
as may appear by three rivers in Monmouthshire, namely, Severn, Wye,
and Usk, where Camden t observes, that in the river Wye, Salmon are in
season from September to April ; and we are certain, that in Thames and
Trent, and in most other rivers, they be in season the six hotter
months.

Now for the Art of catching fish, that is to say, how to make a man
that was none to be an Angler by a book, he that undertakes it shall
undertake a harder task than Mr Hales, a most valiant and excellent
fencer, who in a printed book, called " A Private School of Defence," under-
took ^ to teach that art or science, and was laughed at for his labour. Not

VARIATIONS.

7 if they be not very busy men. — 3*/ edit.

8 too severe, I have a liberty, and am resolved to neglect it. — Ibid,

9 by k.—Ibid.

* It has not been ascertained who these persons were, but it may be presumed that
they were related to Walton, for, in a presentation copy of his "Lives of Donne, Sir
Henry Wotton, Hooker, and Herbert,' there is written by the author on the frontis-
piece, " For my cousin Roe." In the first and second editions of the Angler, they are
thus spoken of: "When honest Nat. and R. R. and I go a-fishing together;" but in the
third, and subsequent editions, they are mentioned as above, so that it is evident they
were living in 1655, and died before 1664.

t Britannia, f. 633.

8 TO THE READER,

but that many useful things might be learned by that book, but he was
laughed at because that art was not to be taught by words, but practice : and
so must Angling. And note also, that ^ in this Discourse I do not undertake
to say all that is known, or may be said of it, but I undertake to acquaint
the Reader with many things that are not usually known to every Angler ;
and I shall leave gleanings and observations enough to be made out of the
experience of all that love and practise this recreation, to which I shall
encourage them. For Angling may be said to be so like the Mathematics,
that it can never be fully learnt ; at least not so fully, but that there will
still be more new expeiiments left for the trial of other men that succeed
us.

But I think all that love this game may here learn something that may
be worth their money, if they be not poor and needy men : and in case
they be, I then wish them to forbear to buy it ; for I write not to get money,
but for pleasure, and this Discourse boasts of no more, for I hate to promise
much, and deceive the Reader.

And however it proves to him, yet I am sure I have found a high con-
tent in the search and conference of what is here offered to^ the Reader's
view and censure. I wish him as much in the perusal of it, and so I might
here take my leave ; but will stay a little and tell him, that whereas it is
said by many, that in fly-fishing for a Trout, the Angler must observe his
twelve several flies for the twelve months of the year, I say, he that follows
that rule, shall be as sure to catch fish, and be as wise, as he that makes
hay by the fair days in an Almanac, and no surer ; for those very flies
that used to appear about, and on, the water in one month of the year,
may the following year come almost a month sooner or later, as the same
year proves colder or hotter : and yet, in the following Discourse, I have
set down the twelve flies that are in reputation with many anglers ; and
they may serve to give him some observations^ concerning them. And
he may note, that there are in Wales, and other countries, peculiar flies,
proper to the particular place or country ; and doubtless, unless a man
makes a fly to counterfeit that very fly in that place, he is like to lose his
labour, or much of it ; but for the generality, three or four flies neat and
rightly made, and not too big, serve for a Trout in most rivers, all the
summer : and for winter fly-fishing it is as useful as an Almanac out of
date. And of these, because as no man is born an artist, so no man is
born an Angler, I thought fit to give thee this notice.

When I have told the reader, that in this fifth* impression there are
many enlargements, gathered both by my own observation, and the com-
munication with friends, I shall stay him no longer than to wish him a
rainy evening to read this following Discourse ; and that if he be an honest
Angler, the east wind may never blow when he goes a-fishing.

I. W

VARIATIONS.

1 And in this Discourse I do not, &c. — ^d edit. 2 to his view. — Ibid.

8 light.— /Z^A/. 4 third. — yi a7id i,th edit.

I

A M r L 1. D A M

DRAWN BY DELAKOTTE

COMMENDATORY VERSES.*

TO MY DEAR BROTHER-IN-LAW,+ MR IZAAK WALTON,
UPON HIS "COMPLETE ANGLER."

Erasmus in his learned Colloquies
Has mixt some toys,*^ that by varieties
He might entice all readers : for in him
Each child may wade, or tallest giant swim.
And such is this discourse : there's none so low,
Or highly learn'd, to whom hence may not fiuw
Pleasure and information : both which are
Taught us with so much art, that I might swear
Safely, the choicest critic cannot tell,
"Whether your matchless judgment most excel
In Angling or its praise : where commendation
First charms, then makes an art a recreation.

'Twas so to me ; who so the cheerful spring
Pictur'd in every meadow, heard birds sing
Sonnets in every grove, saw fishes play
In the cool crystal streams, like lambs in May :
And they may play, till Anglers read this Book ;
But after, 'tis a wise fish 'scapes a hook.

Jo. Floud, Mr. ofArts.X

TO THE READER OF "THE COMPLETE ANGLER."

First mark the Title well : my Friend that gave it
Has made it good ; this book deserves to have it.

Variation.] * mirth. — -zd edit, as in text in -^d edit,

* None of the verses occur in the first, but they are all to be found in t)je second
edition, excepting the two last by Dr Duport, which were inserted for the first time in
the fiftk edition.

t In the filth edition, the words " in-law " are omiited ; but as they correctly explain
the writer's relationship, they are here adopted.

X Some account of this person, who was the brother of Walton's first wife, and of his
family, will be found in the Life of Walton, at the commencement of the volume.

lo COMMENDATORY VERSES.

For he that views it with judicious looks
Shall find it full of art, baits, lines, and hooks.

The world the river is ; both you and I,
And all mankind, are either fish or fry.
If we pretend to reason, first or last,
His baits will tempt us, and his hooks hold fast.
Pleasure or profit, either prose or rhyme.
If not at first, will doubtless take's in time.

Here sits, in secret, blest Theology,
Waited upon by grave Philosophy,
Both natural and moral ; History,
Deck'd and adorn'd with flowers of Poetry,
The matter and expression striving which
Shall most excel in worth, yet not seem rich.
There is no danger in his baits ; that hook
Will prove the safest, that is surest took.

Nor are we caught alone, but, which is best,
We shall be wholesome, and be toothsome drest ;
Drest to be fed, not to be fed upon :
And danger of a surfeit here is none.
The solid food of serious contemplation
Is sauced, here, with such, harmless recreation,
That an ingenuous and religious mind
Cannot inquire for more than it may find
Ready at once prepared, either t' excite,
Or satisfy, a curious appetite.

More praise is due : for 'tis both positive
And tmth, which once was interrogative,
And utter'd by the poet, then, in jest—
"Et piscatorem piscis amare potest."

Ch. HarVie, Mr. of Arts.*

TO MY DEAR FRIEND, MR IZ. WALTON, IN PRAISE OF
ANGLING, WHICH WE BOTH LOVE.

Down by this smooth stream's wandering side,*

Adorn'd and perfumed with the pride

Of Flora's wardrobe, where the shrill

Aerial choir ^ express their skill.

First, in alternate melody, ^

And, then, in chorus all agree.

Whilst ^ the charm'd fish, as ecstasied

With sounds, to his own throat denied,

VARIATIONS.

6 Down by this wand'ring stream's smooth side. — zd edit.

7 Choir of the air. — /did. 8 harmony. — /did. 9 Where. — Tl>id.

* In the second and third editions the initials C. H. only occur ; the name was
printed at length in the fifth edition for the first time. An account of Harvey will be
found in a subsequent note

COMMENDATORY VERSES. It

Scorns his dull element, and springs
r the air, as if his fins were wings.

'Tis here that pleasures sweet and high
Prostrate to our embraces lie :
Such as to body, soul, or fame,-^
Create no sickness, sin, or shame :
Roses, not fenc'd with pricks, grow here,
No sting to the honey-bag is near :
But, what's perhaps their prejudice,
They difficulty want and price.

An obvious rod, a twist of hair,
With ^ hook hid in an ^ insect, are
Engines of sport,* would fit^ the wish
Of th' Epicure, and ^ fill his dish.

In this clear stream let fall a grub ;
And, straight, take up a Dace or Chub.
I' the mud, your worm provokes a snig,*
Which being fast, if it prove big,t
The Gotham folly will be found
Discreet, ere ta'en she ' must be drown'd.
The Tench, physician of the brook,
In yon ^ dead hole expects your hook ;
Which having first your pastime been,
Serves then'' for meat or medicine.^
Ambush'd behind that root doth stay
A Pike, to catch, and be a prey.
The treacherous quill in this slow stream *
Betrays the hunger of a Bream.^
And at ^ that nimble ford, no doubt,
Your false fly cheats a speckled * Trout.

VARIATIONS.

' name.— zd eefit. * And. — /did. * some. — /did.

* Emblems of skill.— /^/V. ^ feed.— /^w'. « or.— /bid.

7 \t—lbU. 8 that.— //■/./. a next.— /bid.

1 The following lines here occur in the 2d edition, but aire omitted in all ih©
others : —

" And there the cunning Carp you may
Beguile with paste; if you'll but stay,
And watch in time, you'll have your wish,
For paste and patience catch this fish."

2 These two lines are omitted in the 2d edit. 3 in. — 2d edit.

* dappled. — /bid.

* Snig, a term more generally applied to the small nine-eyed eel, commonly found
about the apron of an old weir, or in shallow parts of the river Lee, and forms the
amusement of sniggling to youthful Anglers.— Eu. H.

t " If it prove big" alludes to one of the stories told of the Wise Men of Gotham, a
facetious penny history much in circulation in the time of Walton. It is there related
that the men of Gotham, upon a Good Friday, after due consultation, collected all their
white herrings, red herrings, sprats, and salt fish, and cast the whole into a pond, in
order to secure a sufficient store of fi^h for the next Lent. In due time upon dragging
the pond, there was found only a very large eel, and it being suspected the same must,
by the size, have devoured the intended stock, it was concluded that such a voracious
monster ought to be destroyed, and, as a death-warrant, it was determined that it should
be put in another pond, in order that it might be drowned.— Eu. H.

12 COMMENDATORY VERSES.

When ^ you these creatures wisely choose
To practise on, which to your use
Owe their creation, and when
Fish from your arts do rescue men,'
To plot, delude, and circumvent,
Ensnare, and spoil, are innocent.
Here by these crystal streams you may
Preserve a conscience clear as they ;
And when by sullen thoughts you find
Your harassed, not busied, mind
In sable melancholy clad,
Distemper'd, serious, turning sad ;
Hence fetch your cure, cast in your bait,
All anxious thoughts and cares will straight
Fly with such speed, they'll '' seem to be
Possest with the hydrophoby.
The water's calmness ^ in your breast,
And smoothness on your brow, shall rest.

Away with sports of charge and noise,
And give me cheap and silent joys/
Such as Actseon's game pursue.
Their fate oft makes the tale ^ seem true.
The sick or'suUen hawk, to-day,
Flies not ; to-morrow, quite away.
Patience and purse to cards and dice
Too oft are made a sacrifice :
The daughter's dower, th' inheritance
O' th' son, depend on one mad chance.
The harms and mischiefs which th' abuse*
Of wine doth every day produce,
Make good the doctrine of the Turks,
That in each grape a devil lurks.
And by yon ^ fading sapless tree,
'Bout which the ivy twin'd you see.
His fate's foretold, who ^ fondly places
His bliss in woman's soft embraces.
All pleasures, but the Angler's, bring
r the tail repentance, like a sting.

Then on these banks ^ let me sit^ down,
Free from the toilsome sword and gown ;
And pity those that do ^ affect
To conquer nations and protect.
My reed affords such true^ content,
Delights so sweet and ^ innocent,

VARIATIONS.

5 Whilst. — 2^ edit. 6 Yqu fishes choose to rescue mtn.—Ibid.

7 you'll. — Ibid. 8 Then this stream's calmness. — Ibid.

9 And give me cheap and quiet joys.— Ibid. Sweeter are cheap and silent joys.—
"^d edit. 1 oft makes that fable xxn^.—zd edit.

2 This, and the four following lines first appeared in the -^d edit.

3 that.— 2rf^^zV. 4 that— /Zi/rf. » this bank.— /<;i/^. G Vie.— Ibid.
7 sixAl—Ibid. 8 affords me such content.— Ibid. » so.— Ibid.

COMMENDATORY VERSES. 13

As seldom fall unto ^ the lot
Of sceptres, though they're justly got.
1649. Tho. Weaver, Mr. of Arts.*

TO THE READERS OF MY MOST INGENIOUS FRIEND'S
BOOK, "THE COMPLETE ANGLER."

He that both knew and writ the Lives of men,
Such as were once, but must not be again ;
Witness his matchless Donne and Wotton, by
Whose aid he could their speculations try :

He that conversed with angels, such as were
Ouldsworth f and Featly,! each a shining star
Showing the way to Bethlem ; each a saint,
Compared to whom our zealots, now, but paint.

He that our pious and learn'd Morley § knew,
And from him suck'd wit and devotion too.

He that from these such excellencies fetch'd.
That he could tell how high and far they reach'd ;
What learning this, what graces th' other had ;
And in what several dress each soul was clad.

Reader, this He, this Fisherman, comes forth,

And in these Fisher's weeds would shroud his worth.

Now his mute harp is on a willow hung,

With which, when finely touch'd, and fitly strung,

He could friends' passions for these times allay.

Or chain his fellow-Anglers from their prey.

But now the music of his pen is still,

And he sits by a brook, watching a quill :

Variation.] 1 As falls but seldom to the lot. — 2d edit.

* The son of Thomas Weaver, of Worcester. He entered of Christ's Church, Oxford,
in 1633, being then seventeen years of age, and took his Master's degree in 1640, about
which time he was made one of the Chaplains or petty Canons of the Cathedral. He
was ejected by the Parliament in 1648, when " he shifted from place to place, and lived
upon his wits." After the Restoration, he was made an exciseman at Liverpool, and
was commonly called " Captain Weaver ; " but "prosecuting too much the -crimes of
poets," he died at Liverpool on the 3d of January 1662-3. 'His works are Songs and
Poems of Love, 1654 ; Choice Drollery ^ •with Songs and Sonnets, 1656. Wood's A then.
Oxon., by Bliss, vol. iii. p. 623. No date occurs to the verses in the text in any earlier
edition than the fifth.

t Dr Richard Holdsworth. See an account of him in the Fasti Oxon., by Bliss, p.
376 ; and in Ward's Lives of the Gresham Professors. — H.

X Dr Daniel Fairclough, alias Feaily, about whom see Athen. Oxon., by Bliss, vol.
iii. p. 156. — H.

3 Said by Hawkins to have been Dr George Morley, who became Bishop of Worcester
in 1660 ; was translated to Winchester in 1662 ; and died in 1684, to whom Walton dedi-
cated his Life of Hooker. A Life of this prelate will be found in Wood's Athen. Oxon.,
by Bliss, vol. iv. p. 14^. The only thing which renders it doubtful whether Bishop
Morley was alluded to, is that it would seem, from the manner in which the person is
mentioned, that he was not then, i.e., in 1650, living.

I

14 COMMENDATORY VERSES.

Where with a fixt eye, and a ready hand,
He studies first to hook, and then to land
Some Trout, or Perch, or Pike ; and having done,
Sits on a bank, and tells how this was won.
And that escaped his hook, which with a wile
Did eat the bait, and Fisherman beguile.
Thus, whilst some vex they from their lands are thrown,
He joys to think the waters are his own ;
And like the Dutch, he gladly can agree
To live at peace now, and have fishing free.
April -^^ 1650.* Edw. Powel, Mr. of Arts. \

TO MY DEAR BROTHER-IN-LAW,T MR IZ. WALTON,
ON HIS '' COMPLETE ANGLER."

This book is so like you, and you like it.
For harmless mirth, expression, art, and wit,
That I protest ingenuously, 'tis true,
I love this mirth, art, wit, the book, and you.

Rob. Floud, C.%

TO HIS INGENIOUS FRIEND, MR IZAAK WALTON,
ON HIS "COMPLETE ANGLER." I"

Since 'tis become a common fate, that we
Must in this world or Fish or Fishers be ;
And all neutrality herein's denied,
'Tis not my fault that I am not supplied
With those three grand essentials of your Art,
Luck, skill, and patience : for I have a heart
That's as inclinable as others be,
Whose fortune imps their ingenuity.

* The date does not occur in the second edition.

t Probably the Edward Powel "of the borough of Stafford, Minister," whose son
Charles took his degree of B.A. in 1666, became Rector of Cheddington, and was the
author of The Religious Rebel. Wood's Fasti Oxo7i., by Bliss, vol. ii. p. 289. An " Ed.
Powel," and most likely the same person, addressed some Complimentary Verses to his
" very worthy and most ingenious friend, Mr James Shirley," which are prefixed to
Shirley* s Poems, 8vo, 1646.

X Thus in the second, but the words " in-law" are omitted in the third and subsequent
editions.

5 Elder brother of John Floud, M.A., before mentioned, and brother of Walton's first
wife. See Life of Walton.

\ These verses occur in the second edition only. For what reason Walton omitted
them in the three subsequent impressions, which were published in his lifetime, it is not
easy to guess, unless it was because he thought slightingly of their merits. That it was
not from a quarrel with the author is certain, from his having addressed "An humble
Eclogiie" to him as late as May 1660, in which Walton calls him his "ingenious
friend."

COMMENDATORY VERSES. 1$

But then what make I here, to write of that,
I'm unskill'd in, and talk I know not what?
And that in verse too? 'Tis an itch we've got.
We must be scribbling whether learn'd or not.
Nay, here's some reason for't ; the form we see
Clubbing with matter, makes a thing to be.
And trains of livery'd servitors, we know,
Makes not a prince, but signifies he's so.
Ciphers to figures join'd, make sums ; and we
Make something, Friend, when we are join'd to thee.

Yet I shall hardly praise, or like thy skill ;
For we're all prone enough to catch and kill ;
Thou need'st not make an art on't : they that are
Once listed in the new saint's calendar,
Do't as they pray and preach by inspiration ;
No heathen rules, or old premeditation.
Nor antichristian acts ; who reads our story,
"Will find we do't without thy directoiy.

But when I think with what a pleasing art
Thou dost thy rules both practise and impait,
I am delighted too, as well as taught ;
And fishes leap for joy when they are caught :
I could unman myself, and wish to be
A fish, so that I might be took by thee.
Blest then are thy companions, who with thee
Participate of such felicity.
Such undisturb'd, such dangerless delight.
That does at once both satiate and invite.
"Whence more safe joy, more true contentment springs
Than from the courts of those gay pageants, kings
Or great king-riders, who still hurried are
With those grand tyrants, business and care ;
And fling upon base acts, and filthy vice,
Spurr'd on by ambition and by avarice.

Whilst by some gliding river thou sit'st down,
Thy mind's thy kingdom, and content's thy crown,
Conversing with the silent fish, and when
Thou'rt killing them, thou think'st of once dead men ;
And from oblivion and the grave set'st free
Names, whom thou robest with immortality.
For he that reads thy Wotton and thy Donne
Can't but believe a resurrection ;
And spite of envy, this encomium give,
By Thee fish die ; by Thee dead friends revive.

Alex. Brome.*

* One of the twelve adopted sons of Ben Jonson, and the author of The Cunning
LoTtrs, a Tragedy, 1654 ; Songs, and other Poems, 1664 ; and Covent Garden Drollery,
i6j2, &c.

1 6 LA UDA TOR UM CARMINA.

CLARISSIMO AMICISSIMOQUE FRATRI, DOMINO IS A AGO
WALTON, ARTIS PISCATORI^ PERITISSIMO.

Unicus est medicus reliquorum piscis, et istis,
Fas quibus est medicum tangere, certa salus.

Hie typus est Salvatoris mirandus Jesu,
^ Litera mysterium quselibet hujus habet.

Hunc cupio, hunc capias (bone frater arundinis), t'x^w :

^ Solveret hie pro me debita, teque Deo.
Piscis is est, et piscator, mihi credito, qualem

Vel piscatorem piscis amare velit.

:e^

^2,

FISCIS.

I

'I?70-oDs,

Jestis.

X

Xpt(TTbs

Christus.

e

OeoO,

Dei.

T

Tibs,

Filius.

s

Z0}Ti]p,

Salvator.

^ Matt. xvii. 27, the last words of the chapter.

Henry Bayley, Artium Magister*

AD VIRUM OPTIMUM, ET PISCATOREM PERITISSIMUM,
ISAACUM WALTONUM.t

Magister artis docte Piscatorise,
Waltone, salve ! magne dux arundinis,
Sen tu reducta valle solus ambulas,
Praeterfluentes interim observans aquas,
Seu forte puri stans in amnis margine,
Sive in tenaci gramine et ripi sedens,
Fallis perita squameum pecus manu ;
O te beatum ! qui procul negotiis,
Forique et urbis pulvere et strepitu carens,
Extraque turbam, ad lene manantes aquas
Vagos honesta fraude pisces decipis.
Dum caetera ergo pene gens mortalium
Aut retia invicem sibi et technas struunt,
Donis, ut hamo, aut divites captant senes ;
Gregi natantum tu interim nectis dolos,
Voracem inescas advenam hamo lucium,

* Henry Bagley in the second, third, ^\\A fourth editions. A Henry Bagley was
minister of the Savoy from 1623 to 1625. — H.

t These verses occur for tlie first time in xhejifth edition.

LA UDA TO RUM CARMINA. 1 7

Avidamve percam parvnlo alburno capis,

Aut verme rulTo, muscula aut truttam levi,

Cautumve cyprinum, et fere indocilem capi

Calamoque linoque (ars at hunc superat tua) ;

Medicamve tincam, gobium aut esca trahis,

Gratum palato gobium, parvum licet ;

Proedamve, non aque salubrem barbulum,

Etsi ampliorem, et mystace insignem gravi.

Hffi sunt tibi artes, dum annus et tempus sinunt,

Et nulla transit absque linea dies.

Nee sola praxis, sed theoria et tibi

Nota artis hujus ; unde tu siniul bonus

Piscator, idem et Scriptor ; et calami potens

Utriusque, necdum et ictus, et tamen sapis.

Ut hamiotam nempe tironem instruas,

Stylo eleganti scribis en Halieutica

Oppianus alter, artis et methodum tuoe, et

Prsecepta promis rit^ piscatoria,

Varias et escas piscium, indolem, et genus.

Nee tradere artem sat putas piscariam

(Virtutis est hcec et tamen quaedam schola

Patientiamque et temperantiam docet) ;

Documenta quin majora das, et regulas

Sublimioris artis, et perennia

Monimenta morum, vitse et exempla optima ;

.Dum tu profundum scribis Hookerum et pium

DoNNUM ac disertum ; sanctum et Herbertum, sacrum

Vatem : hos videmus nam penicillo tuo

Graphic^, et perita, Isace, depictos manu.

Post fata factos hosce per te Virbios.

O quae voluptas est legere in scriptis tuis I

Sic tu libris nos, lineis pisces capis,

Musisque litterisque dum incumbis, licet

Intentus hamo, interque piscandum studes.*

AD ISAACUM WALTONUM, VIRUM ET PISCATOREM
OPTIMUM.f

Isace, macte hac arte piscatorid ;
Hac arte Petrus principi censum dedit ;
Hac arte princeps, nee Petro mult6 prior,
Tranquillus ille, teste Tranquillo,J pater
Patriae, solebat recreare se lubens

* By Dr James Duport. See next page.

t These verses occur for the first time in ^&fi/th edition.

% i.e., Suetonius Tranquillus.

1 8 LAUDATORUM CARMIAA,

Augustus, hamo instructus ac arundine.
Tu nunc, Amice, proximum clari es decus
Post Csesarem hami, gentis ac Halieuticse :
Euge, O professor, artis baud inglorise,
Doctor cathedrae, prslegens Piscariam !
Nse tu Magister, et ego discipulus tuus
(Nam candidatum et me ferunt arundinis\
Socium hac in arte nobilem nacti sumus.
Quid amplius, Waltone, nam dici potest ?
Ipse hamiota Dominus en orbis fuit.

Jaco. Dup. D.D.

* James Diiport, S. T. P. Master of Magdalen College, Cambridge, in 1668, and
became Dean of Peterborough on the 27th of July 1664. He was the son of John
Duport, who assisted in the translation of King James's Bible, and was Fellow of Trin-
ity College, Cambridge ; was afterwards Professor of Greek in that University ; and
died about 1679. — Fuller's Church History, B. x. p. 46. Walton, in his Life of Herbert,
says that Dr Duport had collected and published Herbert's Poems. In a collection of
Latin Poems, by Dean Duport, entitled Musa Subseciva, printed in 8vo, 1676, the
verses in the text, those in the preceding page, and some on Walton's Life 0/ Herbert,
will be found, pp. loi, 118, 371. A short account of this person is given by Bishop
Keiinett in the Lansdowne MSS. 986 and 987.

THE GREETHTG AT TOTTENHAM HIGR GROSS.

Cfie J?irgt Das*

CONFERENCE BETWIXT AN ANGLER, A FALCONER,
AND A HUNTER, EACH COMMENDING
HIS RECREATION,

CHAPTER I.

PISCATOR, VENATOR, AUCEPS.*

1 "piSCATOR. You are well overtaken, Gentlemen ! A good
JL morning to you both ! I have stretched my legs up Tot-
tenham Hill to overtake you, hoping your business may occasion

VARIATION.

[ Where not otherwise marked all the variations are in the^x%\. edition, 1653, in
which the dialogue is between two persons, namely, Piscator and Viator. ^

* Piscator. You are well overtaken, Sir ; a good morning to you : I have stretched
my legs upTotnam Hill to overtake you, hoping your business may occasion you towards
Ware, this fine pleasant fresh May-day in the morning.

♦ There is so striking a resemblance between the commencement of x\m first edition
of "The Complete Angler," and the opening of "A Treatise of the Nature of God,"
i2mo, 1599, that it is almost certain it was the model of Walton's work. The conver-
sation in that Treatise is between a " Gentleman " and a "Scholar," and commences
thus : —

" Gent. Well overtaken. Sir !

Scholar. You are welcome, Gentleman !

Gent. No great gentleman, Sir ; but one that wisheth well to all that mean well. I
pray you, how far do you travel this way ?

Scholar. As far as York.

Gent. I should be glad, if I might have your company thither.

Scholar. And I, if my company might stand you in any stead ; but howsoever it be,
you may command it ; and, by vouchsafing me the benefit of your company, make me
much beholden to you," &c.

Many other parts of the Treatise appear to have been imitated both by Walton and
Cotton.

I

22 THE COMPLETE ANGLER, [part i.

an enemy to the Otter : for you are to note, that we Anglers all
love one another, and therefore do I hate the Otter ^ both for my
own, and their sakes who are of my brotherhood.

Venator. And I am a lover of Hounds ; I have followed
many a pack of dogs many a mile, and heard many merry
Huntsmen ^ make sport and scoff at Anglers.

AuCEPS. And I profess myself a Falconer, and have heard
many grave, serious men pity them, it is such a heavy, contempt-
ible, dull recreation.

® PiSCATOR. You know. Gentlemen, it is an easy thing to scoff
at any art or recreation ; a little wit mixed with ill-nature, confi-
dence, and malice, will do it ; but though they often venture boldly,
yet they are often caught, even in their own trap, according to
that of Lucian, the father of the family of Scoffers : —

Lucian, well skill'd in scoffing, this hath writ,
Friend, that's your folly, which you think your wit :
This you vent oft, void both of wit and fear,
Meaning another, when yourself you jeer."

^ If to this you add what Solomon f says of Scoffers, that they

VARIATIONS.

which we contemn and pity ; men of sour complexions ; money-getting men, that spend
all their time, first in getting, and next in anxious care to keep it : men that are con-
demned to be rich, and always discontented, or busy. For these poor rich men, we
Anglers pity them ; and stand in no need to borrow their thoughts to think ourselves
happy : for, trust me, Sir, we enjoy a contentedness above the reach of such disposi-
tions.

«> the Otter perfectly, even for their sakes. — \st edit, the Otter, even. — "zd edit.

7 many men. — 2^, -^d, and 4th edit.

S But if this satisfy not, I pray bid the Scoffer put this epigram into his pocket, and
read it every morning for his breakfast, for I wish him no better ; he shall find it fixed
before the Dialogues of Lucian, who may be justly accounted the father of the family of
all Scoffers : and though I owe none of that fraternity so much as good will, yet I have
taken a little pleasant pains to make such a conversion of it as may make it the fitter
for all of that fraternity.

Lucian, well skill'd in scoffing, this hath writ, etc."
9 But no more of the Scoffer ; for since Solomon says, he is an abomination to men,
he shall be so to me ; and, I think, to all that love Virtue and Angling.

* As might be inferred from the conclusion of the paragraph which precedes these
verses in the _^rj^ edition, they were slightly altered by Walton from the original, which
occurs in "Certain Select Dialogues of Lucian, together with his true History, trans-
lated from the Greek into English, by Mr Francis Hickes." Oxford, 1634, 410. That
work was published by the son of the author, Thomas Hickes, M.A.; aiid at the end of
an address "to the honest and judicious reader" is the epigram in question, in Greek
and English, and signed " T. H."

" Lucian, well skill'd in old toyes, this hath writ ;
For all's but folly that men thinke is wit ;
No settled judgement doth in men appear ,'
But thou admirest that which others jeer."
That Walton has much improved on the original is obvious.— T.

t Proverbs xxiv. 9, "The thought of foolishness is sin ; and the scorner is an abom-
ination to men."

CHAP. I.] THE FIRST DA K 23

are an abomination to mankind, let him that thinks fit scoff on,
and be a Scoffer still ; but I account them enemies to me and all
that love Virtue and Angling.

And for you that have heard many grave, serious men pity
Anglers ; let ^ me tell you, Sir, there be many men that are by
others taken to be serious and grave men, whom we contemn and
pity. Men that are taken to be grave, because nature hath made
them of a sour complexion ; money-getting men, men that spend
aP their time, first in getting, and next, in anxious care to keep
it ; men that are condemned to be rich, and then always busy or
discontented : for these poor rich men, we Anglers pity them per-
fectly, and stand in no need to borrow their thoughts to think our-
selves so happy, No, no, Sir, we enjoy a contentedness above
the reach of such dispositions, and as the learned and ingenuous
Montaigne* says, hke himself, freely, *' When my Cat and I
entertain each other with mutual apish tricks, as playing with a
garter, who knows but that I make my Cat more sport than she
makes me .'' Shall I conclude her to be simple, that has her time
to begin or refuse, to play as freely as I myself have .'* Nay, who
knows but that it is a defect of my not understanding her language,
for doubtless Cats talk and reason with one another, that we agree
no better : and who knows but that she pities me for being no
wiser than to play with her, and laughs 2 and censures my folly,
for making sport for her, when we two play together ? "

Thus freely speaks Montaigne concerning Cats ; and I hope I
may take as great a liberty to blame any man, and laugh at him
too, let him be never so grave,^ that hath not heard what Anglers
can say in the justification of their Art and Recreation ; which I
may again tell you, is so full of pleasure, that we need not borrow
their thoughts, to think ourselves happy.

VARIATIONS.

1 And as for any scoffer, ^ui mockat mockabitur. Let me tell you, that you may
tell him what the witty frenchman says in such a case : " When my Cat and I enter-
tain each other with mutual apish tricks, as playing with a garter, who knows but that
I make her more sport than she makes me? Shall I conclude her simple, that has her
time to begin or refuse sportiveness as freely as I myself have? Nay, who knows but
that our agreeing no better is the defect of my not understanding her language ? for,
doubtless, Cats talk and reason with one another ; and that she laughs at and censures
my folly for making her sport, and pities me for understanding her no better ?" To this
purpose speaks Montaigne concerning Cats ; and I hope I may take as great a liberty to
blame any Scoffer, that has never heard what an Angler can say in justification of his
Art and Pleasure.

• than to play with her, and laughs. — Omitted in the yi edition.

3 serious. — until sM edit.

* In the Apology for Raimonde deSebotide.

24 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i

Venator. Sir, you have almost amazed me ; for though I am
no Scoffer, yet I have, I pray let me speak it without offence,
always looked upon Anglers, as more patient, and more simple
men, than I fear I shall find you to be.

PiSCATOR. Sir, I hope you will not judge my earnestness to
be impatience : and for my simplicity, if by that you mean a
harmlessness, or that simplicity which was usually found in the
primitive Christians, who were, as most Anglers are, quiet men,
and followers of peace ; men that were so simply wise, as not to
sell their consciences to buy riches, and with them vexation and a
fear to die ; if you mean such simple men as lived in those times
when there were fewer lawyers ; when men might have had a lord-
ship safely conveyed to them in a piece of parchment no bigger
than your hand, though several sheets will not do it safely in this
wiser age ; I say. Sir, if you take us Anglers to be such simple
men as I have spoke of, then myself and those of my profession
will be glad to be so understood : But if by simplicity you meant
to express a general defect in those that profess and practise the
excellent Art of Angling, I hope in time to disabuse you, and make
the contrary appear so evidently, that if you will but have patience
to hear me, I shall remove all the anticipations that discourse,^ or
time, or prejudice, have possessed you with against that laudable
and ancient Art ; for I know it is worthy the knowledge and
practice of a wise man.

But, Gentlemen, though I be able to do this, I am not so un-
mannerly as to engross all the discourse to myself ; and therefore,
you two having declared yourselves, the one to be a lover of
Hawks, the other of Hounds, I shall be most glad to hear what
you can say in the commendation of that recreation which each of
you love and practise ; and having heard what you can say, I

VARIATION.

* Discourse may have possessed you with, against that ancient and laudable Art.

Viator. Why, Sir, is Angling of antiquity, and an Art, and an Art not easily
learned?

Piscator. Yes, Sir ; and I doubt not but that if you and I were to converse together
but till night, I should leave you possessed with the same happy thoughts that now
possess me ; not only from the antiquity of it, but that it deserves commendations ; and
that it is an Art, and worthy the knowledge and practice of a wise and a serious man.

Viator. Sir, I pray speak of them what you shall think fit ; for we have yet five
miles to walk before we shall come to the Thatched House. And, Sir, though my
infirmities are many, yet I dare promise you, that both my patience and attention will
endure to hear what you will say till we come thither: and if you please to begin in
order with the antiquity, when that is done you shall not want my attention to the
commendations and accommodations of it: and lastly, if you shall convince me that it is
an Art, and an Art worth learning, I shall beg I may become your scholar, both to wait
upon you, and be instructed in the Art itself.

CHAP. I.] THE FIRST DA Y. 25

shall be glad to exercise your attention with what I can say con-
cerning my own recreation and Art of Angling, and by this means
we shall make the way to seem the shorter : and if you like my
motion, I would have Mr Falconer to begin.

AUCEPS. Your motion is consented to with all my heart ; and
to testify it, I will begin as you have desired me.

And first for the Element that I use to trade in, which is the
Air, an element of more worth than weight, an element that doubt-
less exceeds both the Earth and Water ; for though I sometimes
deal in both, yet the air is most properly mine, I and my Hawks use
that most, and it yields us most recreation. It stops not the high
soaring of my noble generous Falcon ; in it she ascends to such a
height, as the dull eyes of beasts and fish are not able to reach to ;
their bodies are too gross for such high elevations ; in the Air my
troops of Hawks soar up on high, and when they are lost in the
sight of men, then they attend upon and converse with the Gods ;
therefore I think my Eagle is so justly styled Jove's servant in ordi-
nary : and that very Falcon, that I am now going to see, deserves no
meaner a title, for she usually in her flight endangers herself, like
the son of Dasdalus, to have her wings scorched by the sun's heat,
she flies so near it, but her mettle makes her careless of danger ;
for she then heeds nothing, but makes her nimble pinions cut the
fluid air, and so makes her highway over the steepest mountains
and deepest rivers, and in her glorious career looks with contempt
upon those high steeples and magnificent palaces which we adore
and wonder at ; from which height, I can make her to descend
by a word from my mouth, which she both knows and obeys, to
accept of meat from my hand, to own me for her Master, to go
home with me, and be willing the next day to afford me the like
recreation.

And more ; this element of air which I profess to trade in, the
worth of it is such, and it is of such necessity, that no creature
whatsoever — not only those numerous creatures that feed on the
face of the earth, but those various creatures that have their dwell-
ing within the waters, every creature that hath life in its nostrils,
stands in need of my element. The waters cannot preserve the
Fish without air, witness the not breaking of ice in an extreme
frost ; the reason is, for that if the inspiring and expiring organ
of any animal be stopped, it suddenly yields to nature, and dies.
Thus necessary is air, to the existence both of Fish and Beasts,
nay, even to Man himself; that air, or breath of life, with which
God at first inspired mankind, he, if he wants it, dies presently,

26 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

becomes a sad object to all that loved and beheld him, and in an
instant turns to putrefaction.

Nay more ; the very birds of the air, those that be not Hawks,
are both so many and so useful and pleasant to mankind, that I
must not let them pass without some observations. They both
feed and refresh him ; feed him with their choice bodies, and
refresh him with their heavenly voices : — I will not undertake to
mention the several kinds of Fowl by which this is done : and his
curious palate pleased by day, and which with their very excre-
ments afford him a soft lodging at night : — These I will pass by,
but not those little nimble musicians of the air, that warble forth
their curious ditties with which nature hath furnished them to the
shame of art.

As first the Lark, when she means to rejoice, to cheer herself
and those that hear her ; she then quits the earth, and sings as
she ascends higher into the air, and having ended her heavenly
employment, grows then mute, and sad, to think she must descend
to the dull earth, which she would not touch, but for necessity.

How do the Blackbird and Thrassel with their melodious voices
bid welcome to the cheerful Spring, and in their fixed months
warble forth such ditties as no art or instrument can reach to !

Nay, the smaller birds also do the like in their particular
seasons, as namely the Laverock, the Tit-lark, the little Linnet,
and the honest Robin that loves mankind both alive and dead.

But the Nightingale, another of my airy creatures, breathes such
sweet loud music out of her little instrumental throat, that it
might make mankind to think miracles are not ceased. He that
at midnight, when the very labourer sleeps securely, should hear,
as I have very often, the clear airs, the sweet descants, the natural
rising and falling, the doubling and redoubUng of her voice, might
well be lifted above earth, and say, " Lord, what music hast thou
provided for the Saints in Heaven, when thou affordest bad men
such music on Earth ! " '^

And this makes me the less to wonder at the many Aviaries in
Italy, or at the great charge of Varro's Aviary, the ruins of which
are yet to be seen in Rome, and is still so famous there, that it is
reckoned for one of those notables which men of foreign nations

* This passage has been frequently noticed for its great beauty. Bishop Home has
quoted it in his Commentary on the Psalms, in consequence of its natural piety.
Psalm civ. Dr Drake considers that the description of the Nightingale surpasses all
that the poets have written on the subject. Literary Hours, No. xxxiv. : and Headley
had before made the same observation in his Select Beauties of Ancient English Poetry:
Notes, vol. ii. p. 167. — P.

CHAP. I.] THE FIRST DA K 27

either record, or lay up in their memories when they return from
travel.

This for the birds of pleasure, of which very much more might
be said. My next shall be of birds of political use. I think it is
not to be doubted that Swallows have been taught to carry letters
between two armies \ but 'tis certain that when the Turks besieged
Malta or Rhodes, I now remember not which it was. Pigeons are
then related to carry and recarry letters : and Mr G. Sandys,*
in his " Travels," relates it to be done betwixt Aleppo and Babylon.
But if that be disbelieved, it is not to be doubted that the Dove
was sent out of the ark by Noah, to give him notice of land, when
to him all appeared to be sea ; and the Dove proved a faithful
and comfortable messenger. And for the sacrifices of the law, a
pair of Turtle-doves, or young Pigeons, were as well accepted as
costly Bulls and Rams ; and when God would feed the Prophet
Elijahjt after a kind of miraculous manner, he did it by Ravens,
who brought him meat morning and evening. Lastly, the Holy
Ghost, when he descended visibly upon our Saviour, did it by
assuming the shape of a Dove. J And, to conclude this part of

* Mr George Sandys, a very pious, learned, and accomplished gentleman, was the
youngest son of Dr Edwin Sandys, Archbishop of York. He published his Travels to
the Holy Land, i^gyptt and elsewhere, in folio, 1615 ; and made an excellent Paraphrase
on the Psalms, Canticles, and Ecclesiastes, in verse ; and also translated Ovid's
Metamorphoses. He was one of the best versifiers of that age, and died in 1642. — H.
George Sandys was born in the archiepiscopal palace, at Bishops Thorpe, in 1577, was
entered at St Mary's Hall, Oxford, in 1588. and in August 1610 commenced his travels
through Europe and Asia, which occupied two years- His Travels have been often
reprinted ; and besides the works just noticed, he was the author of Christ's Passion,
a tragedy, translated from Grotius, 1640, i2mo ; and a Paraphrase on the Song of
Solomon, 4to, 1641. He died in 1643 : the following passage which is cited in the text
occurs in his " Relation of a Journey," 1615, fol. p. 209 — T.

" A thing usual it is betweene Tripoly and Aleppo, as betweene Aleppo and Babylon,
to make tame Doves the speedy transporters of their Letters ; which they wrap about
their legs like jesses ; trained thereunto at such time as they have yong ones, by
bearing them from them in open cages. A fowle of a notable memory. Nor is it a
moderne invention. For we reade that Thaurosthones, by a pigeon stained with purple,
gave notice of his victory at the Olimpian games the selfe same day to his father in
iEgina. By which meanes also the Consul Hircus held intelligence with Decimus
Brutus besieged in Mutina. The like perhaps is meant by the Poet, when he saith

* Tanquam e diversis partibus Orbis
Anxia praccipiti vcnisset Epistola prima.'— 7«z/. Sat. &>c.

As if from parts removed farre, from some
A wofull Letter swiftly wing'd should come.

When the Christians besieged Acre, Saladine sent out one of these winged scouts to
confirme the courages of the besieged, with promise of a .speedy reliefe : when I knowr
not by what chance or policy, intercepted, and furnished with a contrary message,
occasioned a sodaine surrender." — E.

t 1 Kings xvii. 4-6.

t Docs not Walton here mistake the sense of two passages in Scripture, viz.. Matt. iii.
16. "And Jesus when he was baptized went up straightway out of the water : and, lo,
the Heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a

28 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

my discourse, pray remember these wonders were done by birds
of the air, the element in which they, and I, take so much plea-
sure.

There is also a little contemptible winged creature, an inhabitant
of my aerial element, namely, the laborious Bee, of whose prudence,
policy, and regular government of their own commonwealth, I might
say much, as also of their several kinds, and how useful their
honey and wax are both for meat and medicines to mankind ; but
I will leave them to their sweet labour, without the least disturb-
ance, believing them to be all very busy at this very time amongst
the herbs and flowers that we see nature puts forth this May
morning.

And now to return to my Hawks, from whom I have made too
long a digression. You are to note, that they are usually dis-
tinguished into two kinds ; namely, the long-winged, and the
short-winged Hawk: of the first kind, there be chiefly in use
amongst us in this nation.

The Gerfalcon and Jerkin,

The Falcon and Tassel-gentle,

The Laner and Laneret,

The Bockerel and Bockeret,

The Saker and Sacaret,

The Merhn and Jack Merlin,

The Hobby and Jack :
There is the Stelletto of Spain,

The Blood-red Rook from Turkey,

The Waskite from Virginia :
And there is of short-winged Hawks,

The Eagle and Iron,

The Goshawk and Tarcel,

The Sparhawk and Musket,

The French Pye of two sorts :
These are reckoned Hawks of note and worth ; but we have also
of an inferior rank.

The Stanyel, the Ringtail,

Dove and lighting upon him ;" and Luke iii. 22. "And the Holy Ghost descended in a
bodily shape like a Dove upon him," in which the baptism of our Lord is related ? The
meaning of both is, that the Holy Spirit descended, as a Dove uses to descend upon
any thmp, hovermg and overshadowing it. Vide Whitby on Luke iii. 22. Dr Hammond
on the passage, and Bishop Taylor's Diictor Duhitantiuui, 254. — H. The Rev. Moses
Browne's remark on this passage is, "The author seems to have fallen into a common
mistake : most learned men think the original passage, Matt. iii. 16, implies the mafiner
of the Holy Spirit's descendmg like a Dove, i.e., as a Dove descends, with a fluttering
gentle motion ; and not that of any corporal likeness, the visibility being on an effulgency
of visible light or glory."

CHAP. I.] THE FIRST DA Y. 29

The Raven, the Buzzard,

The Forked Kite, the Bald Buzzard,

The Hen-driver, and others that I forbear to name.*

Gentlemen, if I should enlarge my discourse to the observation
of the Eires, the Brancher, the Ramish Hawk, the Haggard, and
the two sorts of Lentners, and then treat of their several Ayries,
their Mewings, rare order of casting, and the renovation of their
feathers : their reclaiming, dieting, and then come to their rare
stories of practice ; I say, if I should enter into these, and many
other observations that I could make, it would be much, very
much pleasure to me : but lest I should break the rules of civility
with you, by taking up more than the proportion of time allotted
to me, I will here break off, and entreat you, Mr Venator, to say
what you are able in the commendation of Hunting, to which you
are so much affected ; and if time will serve, 1 will beg your
favour for a further enlargement of some of those several heads of
which I have spoken. But no more at present.

Venator. Well, Sir, and I will now take my turn, and will
first begin with a commendation of the Earth, as you have done
most excellently of the Air; the Earth being that element upon
which I drive my pleasant, wholesome, hungry trade. The Earth
is a solid, settled element ; an element most universally beneficial
both to man and beast ; to men who have their several recreations
upon it as horse-races, hunting, sweet smells, pleasant walks : the
earth feeds man, and all those several beasts that both feed him,
and afford him recreation. What pleasure doth man take in
hunting the stately Stag, the generous Buck, the wild Boar, the
cunning Otter, the crafty Fox, and the fearful Hare ! And if I
may descend to a lower game, what pleasure is it sometimes with
gins to betray the very vermin of the earth ; as namely, the
Fichat, the Fulimart,t the Ferret, the Polecat, the Mouldwarp,
and the Hke creatures, that live upon the face, and within the
bowels of the Earth. How doth the Earth bring forth herbs,
flowers, and fruits, both for physic and the pleasure of mankind !

* See Turberville, Latham, and Markham, on Falcofiry, — B.

t Dr Skinner, in \{\% Etymologicon Linguee Av^licana, Lond. fol. 1671, voce " Fuli-
mart," gives us to understand that this word is Vox quae nusquam, nisi in libro "The
Complete Angler" dicto, occurrit. Upon which it may be observed, that Dame
Juliana Bemers, in her Book of Hunting, ranks the Fulmarde among the beasts of
chase; and that both in the Dictionary of Dr Adam Littleton, and that of Phillips,
entitled the World of Words, it occurs : the first renders it Putorius, mus Ponticus ; the
latter a kind of Polecat. In Junius it is Fullmer, and said to be idem quod Polecat ; but
in this interpretation they seem all to be mistaken, for Walton here meutions the Polecat
by name, as does also Dame Juliana Bemers in her Book.— H.

30 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

and above all, to me at least, the fruitful vine, of which when I
drink moderately, it clears my brain, cheers my heart, and sharpens
my wit. How could Cleopatra have feasted Mark Antony with
eight wild Boars roasted whole at one supper, and other meat suit-
able, if the earth had not been a bountiful mother ? But to pass
by the mighty Elephant, which the Earth breeds and nourisheth,
and descend to the least of creatures, how doth the earth afford
us a doctrinal example in the little Pismire,* who in the summer
provides and lays up her winter provision, and teaches man to do
the like ! The earth feeds and carries those horses that carry us.
If I would be prodigal of my time and your patience, what might
not I say in commendations of the earth .? That puts limits
to the proud and raging sea, and by that means preserves both
man and beast, that it destroys them not, as we see it daily doth
those that venture upon the sea, and are there shipwrecked,
drowned, and left to feed Haddocks ; when we that are so wise as
to keep ourselves on earth, walk, and talk, and live, and eat, and
drink, and go a-hunting : of which recreation I will say a little
and then leave Mr Piscator to the commendation of Angling.

Hunting is a game for princes and noble persons ; it hath been
highly prized in all ages ; it was one of the qualifications that
Xenophon bestowed on his Cyrus, that he was a hunter of wild
beasts. Hunting trains up the younger nobility to the use of
manly exercises in their riper age. What more manly exercise
than hunting the Wild Boar, the Stag, the Buck, the Fox, or the
Hare ? How doth it preserve health, and increase strength and
activity !

And for the dogs that we use, who can commend their excellency
to that height which they deserve ? How perfect is the hound at
smelling, who never leaves ^ or forsakes his first scent but follows
it through so many changes and varieties of other scents, even
over, and in, the water, and into the earth ! What music doth a
pack of dogs then make to any man. whose heart and ears are so
happy as to be set to the tune of such instruments ! How will a
right Greyhound fix his eye on the best Buck in a herd, single
him out, and follow him, and him only through a whole herd of
rascal t game, and still know and then kill him ! For my hounds,

Variation.] 5 who never loses.— u/ and id edit.

* An excellent paper on this subject will be found in the Guardian, No. 156.— B.

t " Rascal, Saxon, a lean beast. Continued in that sense among hunters for a deer
not fit to hunt or kill. 'A father that doth let loose his son to all experiences is most
like a fond hunter, that letteth slip a whelp to the whole herd ; twenty to one he shall
fall upon a rascal, and let go the fair game.' '"—Aschatn's Sdiolemaster, p. 61. Nares's

CHAP. I.] THE FIRST DA Y. 31

I know the language of them, and they know the language and
meaning of one another, as perfectly as we know the voices of
those with whom we discourse daily.

I might enlarge myself in the commendation of Hunting, and
of the noble Hound especially, as also of the docibleness of dogs
in general ; and I might make many observations of land-
creatures, that for composition, order, figure, and constitution,
approach nearest to the completeness and understanding of man ;
especially of those creatures, which Moses in the Law permitted
to the Jews, which have cloven hoofs, and chew the cud ; which
I shall forbear to name, because I will not be so uncivil to
Mr Piscator, as not to allow him a time for the commendation of
Angling, which he calls an art ; but doubtless it is an easy one :
and, Mr Auceps, I doubt we shall hear a watery discourse of it,
but I hope it will not be a long one.

Auceps. And I hope so too, though I fear it will.

Piscator. Gentlemen, let not prejudice prepossess you. I
confess my discourse is like to prove suitable to my recreation,
calm and quiet ; we seldom® take the name of God into our
mouths, but it is either to praise him, or pray to him : if others
use it vainly in the midst of their recreations, so vainly as if they
meant to conjure, I must tell you, it is neither our fault nor our
custom ; we protest against it. But, pray remember, I accuse
nobody ; for as I would not make a " watery discourse," so I
would not put too much vinegar into it ; nor would I raise the
reputation of my own art, by the diminution or ruin of another's.
And so much for the prologue to what I mean to say.

And now for the Water, the element that I trade in. The
water is the eldest daughter of the creation, the element upon
which the Spirit of God did first move, the element which God
commanded to bring forth living creatures abundantly ; and
without which, those that inhabit the land, even all creatures that
have breath in their nostrils, must suddenly return to putrefaction.
Moses, the great lawgiver and chief philosopher, skilled in all the
learning of the Egyptians, who was called the friend of God, and

VARIATION.

8 we seldom make the welkin to roar: we seldom take the name, &c.—\si and nd edit.

Glossary. But query if rascal is not rather applied to animals of an inferor kind to those
usually hunted? In the Boke 0/ St Albans the word is thus used : "The manere of
huntynge for all manere of bestys, whether they ben bestys, or venery, or chace, or
rascal!" After mentioning bucks, does, foxes, marterons, and wild roes : —

" Other bestys all
Where so ye theym fynde rascall ye shall them call."

I

32 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

knew the mind of the Almighty, names ^ this element the first in
the creation : this is the element upon which the Spirit of God
did first move, and is the chief ingredient in the creation : many
philosophers have made it to comprehend all the other elements,
and most allow it the chiefest in the mixtion of all living creatures.

There be that profess to believe that all bodies are made of
water, and may be reduced back again to water only : they
endeavour to demonstrate it thus :

Take a willow, or any like speedy-growing plant, newly rooted
in a box or barrel full of earth, weigh them all together exactly
when the tree begins to grow, and then weigh all together after
the tree is increased from its first rooting, to weigh a hundred
pound weight more than when it was first rooted and weighed ;
and you shall find this augment of the tree to be without the
diminution of one drachm weight of the earth. Hence they infer
this increase of wood to be from water of rain, or from dew, and
not to be from any other element ; and they affirm, they can
reduce this wood back again to water ; and they affirm also, the
same may be done in any animal or vegetable. And this I take
to be a fair testimony of the excellency of my element of water.

The water is more productive than the earth. Nay, the earth
hath no fruitfulness without showers or dews ; for all the herbs,
and flowers, and fruit, are produced and thrive by the water ; and
the very minerals are fed by streams that run under ground,
whose natural course carries them to the tops of many high moun-
tains, as we see by several springs breaking forth on the tops of
the highest hills ; and this is also witnessed by the daily trial and
testimony of several miners.

Nay, the increase of those creatures that are bred and fed in
the water are not only more and more miraculous, but more
advantageous to man, not only for the lengthening of his life, but
for the preventing of sickness ; for it is observed by the most
learned physicians, that the casting off of Lent, and other fish
days, which hath not only given the lie to so many learned, pious,
wise founders of colleges, for which we should be ashamed, hath
doubtless been the chief cause of those many putrid, shaking inter-
mitting agues, unto which this nation of ours is now more subject,
than those wiser countries that feed on herbs, salads, and plenty
of fish ; of which it is observed in story, that the greatest part of

VARIATION.

7 names this the first in the creation : the element upon which the Spirit of God
<iid firit move, makes water the chief ingredient in the first creation. — \st and zd edit.

CHAP. L] THE FIRST DA Y. 33

the world now do. And it may be fit to remember that Mose§ *
appointed fish to be the chief diet for the best commonwealth that
ever yet was.

And it is observable, not only that there are fish, as, namely, the
Whale, three times as big as the mighty Elephant, that is so fierce
in battle, but that the mightiest feasts have been of fish. The
Romans, in the height of their glory, have made fish the mistress
of all their entertainments ; they have had music to usher in
their Sturgeons, Lampreys, and Mullets, which they would pur-
chase at rates rather to be wondered at than believed. He
that shall view the writings of Macrobius,t or Varro,;): may be
confirmed and informed of this, and of the incredible value of
their fish and fish-ponds.

But, Gentlemen, I have almost lost myself, which I confess I
may easily do in this philosophical discourse ; I met with most of
it very lately, and I hope, happily, in a conference with a most
learned physician, § Dr Wharton, ^ a dear friend, that loves both

«» VARIATION.

8 The name of " Dr Wharton " occurs for the first time in the.;7/?A edition.

* Lev. xi. 9 ; Deut. xiv. 9.

t Aurelius Macrobius, a learned writer of the fourth century ; he was chamberlain to
the Emperor Theodosius. Fabricius makes it a question whether he was a Christian or
a Pagan. His works are, A Covtmentary on the Somnium Hcipionis of Cicero, in two
books ; and Saturnalia Convivia, in seven. Besides these, he was the author of
many which are lost. — H.

X Marcus Terentius Varro, a most learned Roman, contemporary with Cicero, and
author, as it is said, of nearly five hundred volumes. He is one of the best writers on
agriculture. — H.

2 Dr Wharton, who is again noticed, and in term<; of great esteem, was one of the
most eminent physicians of his day. He was born at Winston, in the county of Durham,
in 1614, and received the first part of his University education at Pembroke Hall, in
Cambridge. Afterwards, before the Civil War broke out, he entered of Trinity College
in the sister University ; and for a short time practised physic in the metropolis, under
Dr Bathurst. In 1647, having retired to his College, he became M.D. by virtue of the
Letters of Sir Thomas Fairfax. — H.

Mr Oughtred, in his Key to the I^rathematics, published just before, says that if any
fruit is to be reaped by his new edition thereof, the thanks are due chiefly to Mr Thomas
Wharton, who, as he is no mean proficient in tliose studies, so he may with success
serve this age in the necessary mysteries of Botany, Anat<>niy, and Hermetic Learning;
who not only amended the errors, but bestowed exceeding great pains and expense in
correcting the press. About 1649, Dr Wharton appears to have settled entirely in
London In 1656 he published " Adenographia ; sive Giandularum totius Corporis
Descriptio," in a small octavo : reprinted in duodecimo, at Amsterdam, in 1659 : and
again, i2mo, Vesaliae, 1671 : consisting of a Course of Lectures which Dr Prujean, the
President of the College of Physicians, h.nd imposed upon him as an exercise in 1652.
During the time of the great Plague, in 1665, Dr Wharton continued in London, when
many other physicians fled the contagion.

He died at his house in Aldersgate Street, Nov. 14, 1673 : and was buried at St
Michael Kassishaw. — £.

See Wood's Athevce Oxon., by Ens';, vol. iii. p. 1000. Dr Wharton is frequently
mentioned in Ashmole's Diary. On the 2d February 1654, he says, " I acquainted Dr
Whaiton with my secret for the cure of the illiaca />nssio : and he applied it this morn-
ing to Mr Faithorne the graver, and it cured )iim." His name is mentioned for the first
time in the_/f//// edition, three years after Dr Wharton's death, so that he ought to have
been spoken of in the past tense.

Q

}

34 TBE COMPLETE ANGLER, [part r.

me and my art of Angling. But, however, I will wade no deeper
into these mysterious arguments, but pass to such observations as
I can manage with more pleasure, and less fear of running into
error. But I must not yet forsake the waters, by whose help we
have so many known advantages.

And first, to pass by the miraculous cures of our known baths,
how advantageous is the sea for our daily traffic, without which
we could not now subsist. How does it not only furnish us with
food and physic for the bodies, but with such observations for the
mind as ingenious persons would not want !

How ignorant had we been of the beauty of Florence, of the
monuments, urns, and rarities that yet remain in and near unto
Old and New Rome, so many as it is said will take up a year's
time to view, and afford to each of them but a convenient consider-
ation ! And therefore it is not to be wondered at that so learned
and devout a father as St Jerome, after his wish to have seen
Christ in the flesh, and to have heard St Paul preach, makes his
third wish, to have seen Rome in her glory : and^ that glory is
not yet all lost, for what pleasure is it to see the monuments of
Livy, the choicest of the historians ; of Tully, the best of orators ;
and to see the bay-trees that now grow out of the very tomb of
Virgil ! '"■■ These, to any that love learning, must be pleasing.
But what pleasure is it to a devout Christian to see there the
humble house in which St Paul was content to dwell,i and to view
the many rich statues that are made in honour of his memory !
Nay, to see the very place in which St Peter f and he lie buried

VARIATIONS.

9 and yet all that beauty is not lost. — xst and 2d edit, and that bpauty is not yet all
lost. — -^d and /^th edit.

1 to live. — ist and id edit.

* Walton has here made a mistake. Virgil's tomb is at Naples.

t The Protestants deny not only that St Peter lies buried in the Vatican, as the
Romish writers assert, but that he ever was at Rome. See the Historia Apostolica of
l.ud. Capellus. The sense of the Protestants on this point is expressed in the following
epigram, alluding to the pra^nomen of Peter, "Simon," and to the simony practised in
th.it city : —

" An Petrus fuerit Romae, sub judice lis est ;
Simorien Romse nemo fuisse negat."

Many that Peter ne'er saw Rome declare,
But all must own that Simon hath been there.

Of which that may be observed which I have heard said of libels, " the more true the
more provoking ;" and this the author, John Owen, the famous epigrammatist, found to
his cost ; for his uncle, a Papist, was so stung by these lines that, in revenge, he dis-
inherited him, and doomed him to extreme poverty the remainder of his life. A then.
O.von. vol. i. 471. The Romanists have also taken their revenge on the boojc that
contains them, by inserting it in their Index Expzirgatorins. Ibid. — H.

m'^;^':;<m^<,i^il<i^m^i^.^^^

CHAP. I.] THE FIRST DA V. 35

together : These are in and near to Rome. And how much
more doth it please the pious curiosity of a Christian to see that
place on which the blessed Saviour of the world was pleased to
humble himself, and to take our nature upon him, and to converse
with men : to see Mount Sion, Jerusalem, and the very sepulchre
of our Lord Jesus ! How may it beget and heighten the zeal of
a Christian, to see the devotions that are daily paid to him at
that place ! Gentlemen, lest I forget myself, I will stop here,
and remember you, that but for my element of water, the inhabit-
ants of this poor island must remain ignorant that such things
ever were, or that any of them have yet a being. 2

Gentlemen, I might both enlarge and lose myself in suchlike
arguments. I might tell you that Almighty God is said to have
spoken to a fish, but never to a beast ; that he hath made a
whale a ship, to carry and set his prophet, Jonah, safe on the
appointed shore. Of these I might ^peak, but I must in manners
break off, for I see Theobald's House.* I cry you mercy for
being so long, and thank you for your patience.

VARIATION.

2 ignorant that such things yet are. — 2d edit, ignorant that spch things have yet a
being. — 3^ and ^th edit.

* The site of Theobald's Palace lies a little to the north of the road to Ware, at the
distance of twelve ipiles from London, in the parish of Cheshunt. It was built about
1560 by Sir William Cecil, afterwards Lord Burleigh, and is said to have been first
intended as a small mansion for the residence of his younger son. Queen Elizabeth
liaving honoured it with a visit in 1564, her minister was induced to enlarge it ; and he
completed the whole upon a more extensive scale in 1571. Her visits to it, as appears
from Lord Burleigh's Diary, were repeated ten times between 1572 and 1597. In 1603,
Sir Robert Cecil, his son, afterwards Earl of Salisbury, entertained King James the
First at it, in his way from Scotland to London, when he came to take possession of the
crown ; and in 1606 gave him a second entertainment : soon after which the palace and
manor were exxhanged for the ancient royal residence at Hatfield. Theob.ilds became
afterwards one of King James's favourite places of retirement : and he died there, March
27th, 1625. It was also an occasional place of residence with his successor, who went
from it in 1642 to put himself at the head of the army. Norden, in his Description of
Hertfordshire, says, "To speake of the state and beauty thereof at large as it deserveth,
fur curious buildinges, delightfull walkes, and pleasant conceites, within and without,
and other things very glorious and ellegant to be seene, would challenge a great portion
of this little treatise ; and therefore, leaste I should come shorte of that due commenda-
tion that it deserveth, I leave it, as indeed it is, a princely seate." After the Restoration
of King Charles the Second, the house, park, and manor were granted to the Duke of
Albemarle, on the death of whose son without male issue they again reverted to the
Crown ; and were granted to the Duke of Portland by King William the Third in 1689.
In 1762 the property of Theobalds was sold by the late Duke of Portland to George
Prescott, Esq., who, three years after, pulled down what remained of the house, and
built another for himself about a mile to the south of it. It is now, 1814, held on lease,
under the representatives of Sir George William pre.scott, Bart., by Job Matthew Raikes,
Esq. An idea of the mansion, as it appeared in Walton's time, may be obtained from
Mr Lysons's Description in the "Environs of London," edit. 1811, vol. i. part ii. p. 773,
chiefly taken from the Parliamentary Survey of 1650, now in the Augmentation Office.
A representation of the exterior will be found in King's Sheet of Views, to illustrate
Camden's Britannia. One of the best views of the interior is in the background of a
picture at Earl Poulet's, Hinton St George, in Somersetshire. The stables of Theobalds

36 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

AUCEPS. Sir, my pardon is easily granted you : I except
against nothing that you have said : nevertheless, I must part
with you at this park wall, for which I am very sorry ; but I
assure you, Mr Piscator, I now part with you full of good thoughts,
not only of yourself but your recreation. And so. Gentlemen,
God keep you both.

Piscator. Well now, Mr Venator, you shall neither want
time nor my attention to hear you enlarge your discourse con-
cerning hunting.

Venator. Not I, Sir : I remember you said that Angling
itself was of great antiquity, and a perfect art, and an art not
easily attained to ; and you have so won upon me in your former
discourse, that I am very desirous to hear what you can say
further concerning those particulars.

Piscator. Sir, I did say so : and I doubt not but if you and
I did converse together but a few hours, to leave you possessed
with the same high and happy thoughts that now possess me of
it ; not only of the antiquity of Angling, but that it deserves
commendations ; and that it is an art, and an art worthy the
knowledge and practice of a wise man.

Venator. Pray, Sir, speak of them what you think fit, for we
have yet five miles to the Thatched House ; during which walk, I
dare promise you, my patience and diligent attention shall not be
wanting. And if you shall make that to appear which you have
undertaken, first, that it is an art, and an art worth the learning,
I shall beg that I may attend you a day or two a-fishing, and that
I may become your scholar, and be instructed in the art itself
which you so much magnify.

3 Piscator. O, Sir, doubt not but that Angling is an art ;
is it not an art to deceive a Trout with an artificial Fly ? a Trout!
that is more sharp-sighted than any Hawk you'^ have named, and

VARIATION.

3 Piscator. Oh, Sir, it is not to he questioned but that it is an art, and an art worth
your learning : the question will rather be, whether you be capable of learning it ? For
he that learns it must not only bring an inquiring, searching, and discerning wit ; but
he must bring also that patience you talk of, and a love and propensity to the art iiself ;
but, having once got and practised it, then doubt not but the art will (both for the
pleasure and profit of it) prove like to virtue, a reward to itself.

stood on the opposite side of the road leading from Waltham-Cross to Cheshunt: and
adjoining was a large building called the Alms-house, supposed to have been built by
Lord Burleigh, and appropriated as a residence for some of his pensioners: it had a hall
and chapel. Tliis building, with the arms of Cecil in front, was standing till within these
three years. — E.

* This is a mistake: it was Auceps, and not Venator, that named the Hawks; and
Auceps had before taken his leave of these his companions. — H. The discrepancy does

CHAP. I.] THE FIRST DA Y. 37

more watchful and timorous than your high-mettled Merlin is
bold ? and yet I doubt not to catch a brace or two to-morrow for
a friend's breakfast : doubt not, therefore, Sir, but that Angling is
an art, and an art worth your learning. The question is rather,
whether you be capable of learning it ? for angling is somewhat
like poetry, men are to be born so : I mean, with inclinations to
it, though both may be heightened by discourse and practice : *
but he that hopes to be a good angler, must not only bring an
inquiring, searching, observing wit, but he must bring a large
measure of hope and patience, and a love and propensity to the
art itself; * but having once got and practised it, then doubt not
but angling will prove to be so pleasant, that it will prove to be,
like virtue, a reward to itself.

^ Venator. Sir, I am now become so full of expectation,
that I long much to have you proceed, and in the order that you
propose.

PiSCATOR. Then first, for the antiquity of Angling, of which
I shall not say much, but only this ; some say it is as ancient as
DeucaHon's flood : others, that Belus, who was the first inventor
of godly and virtuous recreations, was the first inventor of
Angling : f and some others say, for former times have had their
disquisitions about the antiquity of it, that Seth, one of the sons

VARIATIONS.

* heightened by practice and experience. — Until sth edit.

5 Viator. Sir, I am now become so full of expectation, that I long much to have you
proceed in your discourse : and first, I pray, Sir, let me hear conceniing the antiquity
of it.

Piscator. Sir, I will preface no longer, but proceed in order as you desire me : and
first for the antiquity of Angling, I shall not say much ; but only this ; some say it is as
ancient as Deucalion's flood : and others (which I like better) say that Belus (who was
the inventor of godly and virtuous recreations) was the inventor of it.

not occur in any edition before ihe Ji/th, because in all the others the pass.ige, " Is it
not an art to deceive a trout with an artificial fly? a trout that is more sharp-sighted
than any hawk you [r friend has] have named, and more watchful and timorous than
your [his] high-mettled Merlin is bold ; and yet I doubt not to catch a brace or two
lo-morrow for a friend's breakfast. Doubt not, therefore. Sir, that Angling is an art,"
is omitted ; and Piscator's reply reads thus, " O, Sir, doubt not but that Angling is an
art, and an art worth your learning." The objection would be removed by the alter-
ations suggested within brackets.

* Markhain, in his Country Contentments., has a whole chapter on the subject of the
Angler's Apparel, and inward Qualities: some of which arej "That he be a general
scholar, and seen in all the liberal sciences ; as a g^rammarian, to know how to write,
or discourse, of his art in true and fitting terms. He should," says he, " have sweetness
of speech, to entice others to delight in an exercise so much laudable. He should have
strength of argument, to defend and maintain his profession against envy and slander."
"Then must he \)^ strong &x\A valiant: neither to be amazed with storms, nor affrighted
with thunder : and if he is not temperate, but has a gnawing stomach that will not endure
much fasting, but must observe hours ; it troubleth the mind and body, and loseth that
delight which maketh the pastinie only pleasin;:." — H.

t Opposite to this passage in the ^rj/ edition, "J. Da. Jer. Mar." occur, by which
was probably meant John Davors, author of the Secrets of Atigiing, a poem, from which
Walton has given an extract in a subsequent page, and Jcrvase Markham. The passage

38 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

of Adam, taught it to his sons, and that by them it was derived
to posterity : others say that he left it engraven on those pillars
which he erected, and trusted to preserve the knowledge of the
mathematics, music, and the rest of that precious knowledge,
and those useful arts, which by God's appointment or allowance,
and his noble industry, were thereby preserved from perishing in
Noah's flood.

These, Sir, have been the opinions of several men, that have
possibly endeavoured to make angling more ancient than is need-
ful, or may well be warranted ; but for my part, I shall content
myself in telling you that angling is much more ancient than the
incarnation of our Saviour ; for in the Prophet Amos * mention
is made of fish-hooks ; and in the Book of Job,f which was long
before the days of Amos, for that book is said to have been
written by Moses, mention is made also of fish-hooks, which must
imply anglers in those times. J

But, my worthy friend, as I would rather prove myself a gentle-
man, by being learned and humble, valiant and inoffensive,
virtuous and communicable, than by any fond ostentation of
riches, or, wanting those virtues myself, boast that these were in
my ancestors ; and yet I grant, that where a noble and ancient
descent and such merit meet in any man, it is a double dignifica-
tion of that person ; so if this antiquity of angling, which for my
part I have not forced, shall, like an ancient family, be either an
honour or an ornament to this virtuous art which I profess to love
and practise, I shall be the gladder that I made an accidental
mention ^ of the antiquity of it, of which I shall say no more,
but proceed to that just commendation which I think it deserves.

VARIATIONS.

<> accidental mention of it ; and shall proceed to the justification, or rather commen-
dation of it.

Viator. My worthy friend, I am much pleased with your discourse, for that you
seem to be so ingenuous, and so modest, as not to stretch arguments into hyperbolical
expressions, but such as indeed they will reasonably bear ; and, I pray, proceed to the
justification, or commendations of Angling, which I also long to hear from you.

Piscator. Sir, I shall proceed ; and my next discourse shall be rather a commendation
than a justification of Angling: for, in my judgment, if it deserves to be commended, it
is more than justified, for some practices ihat may be justified, deserve no commendation:
yet there are none that deserve commendation but may be justified.

6 accidental mention of it ; and so I pass from the antiquity of Angling to the com-
mendation of it. — id edit.

in the Secrets of Angling to which Walton alludes is in the division of the poem entitled
"The Author of Angling. Poetical Fictions."

"Then did Deucalion first the art invent."
The passage referred to in Markham, whose opinion Walton says, in X^ciz first edition,
he " likes better," is in the " Pleasures of Princes, or Good Men's Recreations, con-
taining a Discourse of the General Art of Fishing with an Angle or otherwise," 4to, 1614,
p. 3. — T. * Chap. iv. 2. f Chap. Ixi. i, 2. \ See also Isaiah xix. 8.

CHAP. I.] 7HE FIRST DA V. 39

" And for that, I shall tell you, that in ancient times a debate
hath risen, and it remains yet unresolved, whether the happiness
of man in this world doth consist more in contemplation or
action ? * Concerning which, some have endeavoured to maintain
their opinion of the first ; by saying that the nearer we mortals
come to God by way of imitation, the more happy we are. And
they say that God enjoys himself only by a contemplation of his
own infiniteness, eternity, power, and goodness, and the like.
And upon this ground, many cloisteral men of great learning, and
devotion, prefer contemplation before action. And many of the
Fathers seem to approve this opinion, as may appear in their
commentaries upon the words of our Saviour to Martha.f

And on the contrary, there want not men of equal authority
and credit, that prefer action to be the more excellent ; as, namely,
experiments in physic, and the application of it, both for tlie
ease and prolongation of man's life ; by which each man is
enabled to act and do good to others, either to serve his country,
or do good to particular persons : and they say also, that action
is doctrinal, and teaches both art and virtue, and is a maintainer
of human society ; and for these, and other like reasons, to be
preferred before contemplation.

Concerning which two opinions I shall forbear to add a third,
by declaring my own ; and rest myself contented in telling you,
my very worthy friend, that both these meet together, and do
most properly belong to the most honest, ingenuous, quiet, and
harmless art of angling.

8 And first, I shall tell you what some have obsen'cd, and I
have found it to be a real truth, that the very sitting by the
river's side is not only the quietest and fittest place for contem-
plation, but will invite an angler to it : and this seems to be
maintained by the learned Peter du Moulin,i who, in his discourse

VARIATIONS.

7 And now having said thus much by way of preparation, I am next to tell you that
in ancient times a debate hath risen (and it is not yet resolved) whether contemplation
or action be the chiefest thing wherein the happiness of a man doth most consist in ihis
world? Concerning which, &c.

8 And first I shall tell you what some have observed, and I have found in myself, that
the very sitting by the river's side is not only the fittest place for, but will invite the
anglers to contemplation : that it is the fittest place seems to be wituessed by the children
of Israel, who having banished, &c.

• This is a question which many persons of wit, especially among the Italian writers,
have discussed ; a disquisition in the judgment of Lord Clarendon about as profitable as
whether a long journey is best undertaken on a black or a bay horse. See Lord Claren-
don's Tracts, p. 167. — H. f Luke x. 41, 42.

I Dr Peter du Moulin, Prebendary of Canterbury, and author of several pieces in the

I

40 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

of the fulfilling of Prophecies, observes, that when God intended to
reveal any future events or high notions to his prophets, he then
carried them either to the deserts or the sea-shore, that having so
separated them from amidst the press of people and business,
and the cares of the world, he might settle their mind in a quiet
repose, and there make them fit for revelation.

And this seems also to be intimated by the children of Israel,''*
who having in a sad condition banished all mirth and music
from their pensive hearts, and having hung up their then mute
harps upon the willow-trees growing by the rivers of Babylon, sat
down upon those banks, bemoaning the ruins of Sion, and con-
templating their own sad condition.

And an ingenious Spaniard f says that " rivers and the
inhabitants of the watery element were made for wise men to
contemplate, and fools to pass by without consideration." And
though I will not rank myself in the number of the first, yet give
me leave to free myself from the last, by offering to you a short
contemplation, first of rivers, and then of fish ; concerning which
I doubt not but to give you many observations that will appear
very considerable : I am sure they have appeared so to me, and
made many an hour pass away more pleasantly, as I have sat
quietly on a flowery bank by a calm river, and contemplated what
I shall now relate to you.

^And first concerning rivers ; there be so many wonders

VARIATION.

8 Concerning rivers, there be divers wonders reported of them by authors of such
credit, that we need not deny them an historical faith. As of a river in Epinis,
that puts out any hghted torch, and kindles any torch that was not lighted. Of the
river, Seiarus, that in a few hours turns a rod or a wand into stone, and our Camden
mentions the like wonder in England. That there is a river in Arabia, of which all the
sheep that drink thereof have their wool turned into a vermilion colour. And one of no
less credit than Aristotle, tells us of a merry river, the river Elusina, that dances at tlie
noise of music, that with music it bubbles, dances, and grows sandy, but returns to a
wonted calmness and clearness when the music ceases. And lastlv, for I would not tire
your patience, Josephus, that learned Jew, tells us of a river in Judea, and runs and
moves swiftly all the six days of the week, and stands still and rests upon their Sabbatii-
day.

Romish controversy.— H. Du Moulin's Treatise, entitled " The Accomplishment of the
Prophecies," was translated from the French, by J. Heath, and printed in octavo, at
Oxford, in 1613. The passage which Walton quotes, or rather applies to his purpose, is
in the Preface to the Reader. " For as God intending to reveale future events to his
prophets, withdrew them aside, and carried them either to the desert, or els to the sea-
shore, that so having pluckt them from amidst the presse, he might settle their minds in
a quiet repose ; so thinke I, that to dive into their prophecies a man need be free from
all cares, and to partake of their rest, that he may partake of the cleernesse of their
spirit." — E.

* Psalm cxxxvii.

t It is said by Moses Browne, that the person here meant was John Valdesso, and that
the passage in the text occurs in his Considerations : but upon a careful perusal of that
book for the purpose, no such sentiment has been found. — H.

I

CHAP. I.] THE FIRST DA V. 4I

reported and written of them, and of the several creatures that be
bred and live in them, and those by authors of so good credit
that we need not to deny them an historical faith.

As, namely, of a river in Epirus that puts out any lighted torch,
and kindles any torch that was not lighted. Some waters being
drunk, cause madness, some drunkenness, and some laughter to
death. The river Belarus in a few hours turns a rod or wand to
stone : and our Camden mentions the like in England, and the
like in Lochmere in Ireland. There is also a river in Arabia, of
which all the sheep that drink thereof have their wool turned into
a vermilion colour. And one of no less credit than Aristotle *
tells us of a merry river, the river Elusina, that dances at the
noise of music, for with music it bubbles, dances, and grows
sandy, and so continues till the music ceases, but then it pre-
sently returns to its wonted calmness and clearness. And Cam-
den tells us of a well near to Kirby, in Westmoreland, that ebbs
and flows several times every day : and he tells us of a river in
Surrey, it is called Mole, that after it has run several miles, being
opposed by hills, finds or makes itself a way under ground,t and
breaks out again so far off that the inhabitants thereabout boast,
as the Spaniards do of their river Anus, that they feed divers
flocks of sheep upon a bridge. And lastly, for I would not tire
your patience, one of no less authority than Josephus, that learned

* " In his Wonders of Nature. This is confirmed by Ennius, and Solon in his Holy
History." — Note to \\icyirst edition.

t Defoe in his Tour through. England satisfactorily proves that this is a mistake,
and attempts to explain the cause of the opinions. — B. Drayton, Milton, and Pope
have, however, fallen into the same error : —

"Which like a noozling Mole
Doth noozle underneath." — Polyolbion.

•' And underneath the earth, for three miles space doth creep."

Ibid. Song 17.
'•Or sullen Mole that runneth underneath." — Miltoti on Rivers.

•'And sullen Mole that hides his diving flood."

Pope's Windsor Forest, 1. 345.

Mr Dallaway, in a privately printed and beautiful little volume, entitled Letherttum
live Horti Letluraani, containing etchings of views in the Vicarage of Letherhead,
thus alludes to the subject : "The Mole is a river which has excited much curiosity and
discussion. There is a notion of very early establishment adopted by Camden and later
topographers, that 'it runs under ground.' But, generally speaking, its bed is an
absorbent earth, above the surface of which it often occurs, during dry seasons, that no
stream appears. Frequent banks or reefs of chalk intervene, and over these it is both
perennial and clear. The river Mole is so called from its being supposed to have a sub-
terraneous current : be this circumstance as it may, it differs from other rivers in having
its bed in certain places occasionally dry : various conjectures have been formed as to
this peculiarity. In some parts of the river where the bed is a little elevated, in small
detached pieces, there are holes which the country-people call Swallows. These are
dry apertures during summer, but in wet seasons are full of water, and at those times
the bed of the river becomes the channel of a rapid stream." — Pp. 14, 15.

42 THE COMFLETE ANGLER, [part i.

Jew, tells us of a river in Judea that runs swiftly all the six days
of the week, and stands still and rests all their Sabbath.'^

But I will lay aside my discourse of rivers, and tell you some
things of the monsters, or fish, call them what you will, that they
breed and feed in them. Phny the philosopher says, in the third
chapter of his ninth book, that in the Indian Sea the fish called
Balsena or Whirlpool f is so long and broad as to take up
more in length and breadth than two acres of ground ; and of
other fish of two hundred cubits long ; and that in the river
Ganges there be Eels of thirty feet long. He says there, that
these monsters appear in that sea only when the tempestuous
winds oppose the torrents of water falling from the rocks into it,
and so turning what lay at the bottom to be seen on the water's
top. And he says that the people of Cadara, an island near this
place, make the timber for their houses of those fish bones. He
there tells us that there are sometimes a thousand of these great
Eels found wrapt or interwoven together. He tells us there, that
it appears that dolphins love music, and will come when called
for, by some men or boys that know, and use to feed them ; and
that they can swim as swift as an arrow can be shot out of a bow ;
and much of this is spoken concerning the dolphin, and other fish,
as may be found also in the learned Dr Casaubon's % " Discourse
of Credulity and Incredulity," printed by him about the year
1670,

I know we Islanders are averse to the belief of these wonders ;
but there be so many strange creatures to be now seen, many
collected by John Tradescant,§ and others added by my friend

* The same is related by Philo. — B.

t BalcBna properly means a ivhale.

X Meric, son of Isaac Casaubon, born at Geneva in 1599. but educated at Oxford,
•was for his great learning preferred to a Prebend in the Cathedral of Canterbury, and
the Rectory of Ickham near that city. Oliver Cromwell would have engaged him, by a
pension of three hundred pounds a year, to write the history of his time, but Casaubon
refused it. Of many books extant of his writing, that mentioned in the text is one. He
died in 1671, leaving behind him the character of a religious man, loyal to his prince,
exemplary in his life and conversation, and very charitable to the poor. A then. Oxon.
vol. ii. 485, edit. 1721.— H. Casaubon s work " Of Credulity and Incredulity in Things
Natural, Civil, and Divine," was first printed at London, in 8vo, 1668 ; and again in 1670,
What relates to the Dolphins is at p. 243 of the first edition. Caspar Peucerus, quoted
by Walton, part i. chap, v., about Menwolves, is mentioned at p. 252 of the same work.
It contains a great deal of curious anecdote. — E.

5 There were, it seems, three of the Tradescanis, grandfather, father, and son : the
son is the person here meant : the two former were gardeners to Queen Elizabeth, and
the latter to King Charles the First. They were all great botanists, and collectors of
natural and other curiosities, and dwelt at South Lambeth in Surrey ; and, dying there,
were buried in Lambeth Churchvard. Mr Ashmole contracted an acquaintance with the
last of them, and, together with his wife, boarded at his house for a summer, during
which Ashmole agreed for the purchase of Tradescant's collection, and the same was
conveyed to him by a deed of gift from Tradescant and his wife. Tradescant soon after
died, and Ashmole was obliged to file a bill in Chancery for the delivery of the

CHAP. I.] THE FIRST DA K 43

Elias Ashmolc. Esq., who now keeps them carefully and methodi-
cally at his house near to Lambeth, near London,* as may get
some belief of some of the other wonders I mentioned. I will
tell you some of the wonders that you may now see, and not till
then believe, unless you think fit.

You may there see the Hog-fish, the Dog-fish, the Dolphin, the
Cony-fish, the Parrot-fish, the Shark, the Poison-fish, Sword-fish,
and not only other incredible fish, but you may there see the
Salamander, several sorts of Barnacles, of Solan Geese, the Bird
of Paradise, such sorts of Snakes, and such Birds' nests, and of so
various forms, and so wonderfully made, as may beget wonder and
amusement in any beholder ; and so many hundred of other
rarities in that collection, as will make the other wonders I spake

curiosities, and succeeded in his suit. Mrs Tradescant, shortly after the pronouncing
the decree, was found drowned in her pond. This collection, with what additions he
afterwards made to it, Mr Ashmole gave to the University of Oxford, and so became the
Founder of the Ashntolean Museum. A monument for the three Tradescants, very
curiously ornamented with sculptures, is to be seen in Lambeth Churchyard ; and a
representation thereof, in four plates, and also some particulars of the family, are given
in the Philosophical Transact ions, volume Ixiii. part i. p. -jt^et seq. The monument,
by the contribution of some friends, to their memory, was in the year 1773 repaired ;
and the following lines, formerly intended for an epitaph, inserted thereon ; —

Know, stranger ! ere thou pass, beneath this stone
Lie John Tradescant, grandsire, father, son.
The last dy'd in his spring : the other two
Liv'd till they had travell'd art and nature thro' ;
As by their choice collections may appear,
Of what is rare in land, in seas, in air ;
Whilst they (as Homer's Iliad, in a nut)
A world of wonders in one closet shut.
These famous Antiquarians, that had been
Both Gardeners to the Rose and Lily Queen,
Transplanted now themselves, sleep here ; and when
Angels shall with their trumpets waken men,
And fire shall purge the world, these hence shall rise.
And change their gardens for a Paradise.

The Tradescants were the first collectors of natural curiosities in this kingdom. TTie
younger of them published in 1656, i2mo, "Museum Tradescantianum ; or a Collection
of Rarities preserved at South Lambeth, near London," containing portraits of his father
and himself, engraved by Hollar. Tradescant's House is still known by the name of
Turret-House, and is now, or was in 1809, in the occupation of Charles Bedford,
Esq.— E.

* Ashmole was at first a Solicitor in Chancery ; but marrying a lady with a large
fortune, and being well skilled in history and antiquities, he was promoted to the office
of Windsor Herald, and wrote the "History of the Order of the Garter," published in
1672, in folio. But addicting himself to the then fashionable studies of chemistry and
judicial astrology ; and associating himself with that silly crackbrained enthusiast, John
Aubrey, Esq. of Surrey, and that egregious impostor, Lilly the Astrologer, he became a
dupe to the knavery of the one and the follies of both ; and lost in a great measure the
reputation he had acquired by this and other of his writings. Of his weakness and
superstition he has left on record this memorable instance: "nth April 1681, I took,
early in the morning, a good dose of elixir, and hung three spiders about my neck ; and
they drove my ague away- Deo gratias." See " Memoirs of the Life of that Antiquarian,
Elias Ashmole, Esq., drawn up by himself by way of Diar>', published by Charles Burman,
Esq., i2mo, 1717." — H.

I

44 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

of, the less incredible; for, you may note, that the waters are
Nature's storehouse, in which she locks up her wonders.

But, Sir, lest this discourse may seem tedious, I shall give it a
sweet conclusion out of that holy poet, Mr George Herbert, his
divine " Contemplation on God's Providence." ^

Lord !^ who hath praise enough, nay, who hath any?
None can express thy works, but he that knows th< m ;
And none can know thy works, they 3 are so many,
And so complete, but only he that owes them.
We all acknowledge both thy power and love
To be exact, transcendant, and divine ;
Who dost so strangely * and so sweetly move,
Whilst^ all things have their end, 6 ye none but thine.

Wherefore, most sacred Spirit ! I here present,
For me, and all my fellows, praise to thee ;
And just it is, that I should pay the rent,
Because the benefit accrues to me.

And as concerning fish, in that psalm,'" wherein, for height of
poetry and wonders, the prophet David seems even to exceed
himself, how doth he there express himself in choice metaphors,
even to the amazement of a contemplative reader, concerning the
sea, the rivers, and the fish therein contained ! And the great
naturalist Pliny says, " That nature's great and wonderful power
is more demonstrated in the sea than on the land." And this may
appear, by the numerous and various creatures inhabiting both in
and about that element ; as to the readers of Gesner,t Rondeletius,|

VARIATIONS.

1 Walton probably wrote from memory, as the stanzas which form part of a poem
entitled " Providence" are here transposed, and the following variations occur in Herbert's
printed work.

2 But. ^ which. * strongly. ^ While.

6 will. Herbert's "Temple," ed. 1633, p. 109. Of George Herbert, whose life was
written by Walton, some account will be found in the Memoir at the commencement of
this volume.

* Psalm civ.

_t Conrade Gesner, an eminent physician and naturalist, was born at Zurich in 1516.
Hif? skill in botany and natural history was such as procured him the appellation of the
Pliny of Germany : and Beza, who knew him, scruples not to assert that he concentrated
in himself the learning of Pliny and Varro. Nor was he more distinguished for his
learning than esteenied and beloved for that probity and sweetness of manners which
rendered him conspicuous through the course of his life ; notwithstanding which, he
laboured under the pressure of poverty to a degree that compelled him to write for
sustenance, and that in such haste that his works, which are very numerous, are not
exempt from marks of it. Besides Bibliotheca sive Catalogus Scriptorum Lat. Gr. &
Hebr. tarn extantium quam non extantium, Tiguri, 1545-55. he wrote Historia Ani-
malium, and De Serpentum Natura, Tiguri, 1551-87 ; to both which works Walton
frequently refers. This excellent person died in 1565. — H.

X Guillaume Rondelet, an eminent physician, born at Montpelier in Languedoc, 1507.
He wrote a treatise De Piscibus marinis, Lugd. 1554-5, where all that Walton has taken
from him is to be found. He died, very poor, of a surfeit, occasioned by eating figs to
excess, in 1566. — H.

CHAP. I.] THE FIRST DAY. 45

•

Pliny, Ausonius,* Aristotle, and others, may be demonstrated.
But I will sweeten this discourse also out of a contemplation in
divine Du Bartas,t who says : —

God quickened in the sea, and in the rivers,

So many fishes of so many features,

That in the waters we may see all creatures,

Even all that on the earth are to be found.

As if the world were in deep waters drown'd.

For seas — as well as skies — have Sun, Moon, Stars 1

As well as air — Swallows, Rooks, and Stares ; \

As well as earth— Vines, Roses, Nettles, Melons,

Mushrooms, Pinks, Gilliflowers, and many millions

Of other plants, more rare, more strange than the^e

As very fishes, living in the seas ;

As a'so Rams, Calves, Horses, Hares, and Hogs,

Wolves, Urchins, Lions, Elephants, and Dogs ;

Yea Men and Maids ; and, which I most admire.

The mitred Bishop and the cowled Friar : }

Of which, examples, but a few years since,

Were shown the Norway and Polonian prince.

These seem to be wonders ; but have had so many confir-
mations from men of learning and credit, that you need not doubt
them. Nor are the number, nor the various shapes, of fishes
more strange, or more fit for contemplation, than their different
natures, inclinations, and actions ; concerning which, I shall beg
your patient ear a little longer.

The Cuttle-fish will cast a long gut out of her throat, which, like

♦ Decius Ausonius, a native of Bordeaux, was a Latin poet, Consul of Rome, and
Preceptor to the Emperor Gratian. He died about 390. — H.

t Guillaume de Saluste Sieur du Bartas was a poet of great reputation in Walton's
time. He wrote, besides numerous other productions, a poem in French, called Divine
Weeks and Works ; which was translated into English by Joshua Sylvester. The

Eassage in the text occurs in the fifth day. — H. To Du Bartas, Milton is considered to
ave been much indebted.

The names quoted above, Gesner, Rondeletius, PUny, &c., are the writers from whom
Topsel, who wrote the History of Four-footed Beasts, Fishes, &c., compiled his work,
from whicii it is most probable Walton derived his information, rather than from the
original authoiities.

X Or Starlings. Minsheu. — H.

j This story of the Bishop-fish is told by Rondeletius, and vouched by Bellonius.
Without taking much pains in the translation, it is as follows: " In the year 1531, a
fish was taken in Polonia, that represented a bishop. He was brought to the king ; but,
seeming to desire to return to his own element, the king commanded him to be carried
back to the sea, into which he immediately threw himself." Rondeletius had before
related the story of a Monk-fish, which is what Du Bartas means by the "cowled Friar."
The reader may see the portraits of these wonderful personages in Rondeletius ; or, in
the Posthumous Works of the reverend and learned Mr John Gregory, in 410, Lond. 1683,

Sages 121, 122. Stow, in his Annals., p. 157, from the Chronicle of Radulphus Cogges^
ale, gives the following relation of a sea-monster, taken on the coast of Suffolk, temp.
Hen. ii : "Neare unto Orford in Suffolk, certaine fishers of the sea tooke in their nets a
fish, having the shape of a man in all points : which fish was kept by Bartlemew de
Glaunville, custos of the castle of Orford, in the same castle, by the space of six moneths
and more, for a wonder. He spake not a word. All manner of meates he did eate, but
most greedily raw fish, after he had crushed out the moisture. Oftentimes, he was
brought to the church, where he shewed no tokens of adoration." "At length," s.iys
this author, " when he was not well looked to, he stole away to the sea, and never after
appeared." — H.

i^6 THE COMILETE ANGLER. [part i.

as an Angler doth his hne, she sendeth forth, and pulleth in again
at her pleasure, according as she sees some little fish come near
to her ; and the Cuttle-fish/'^ being then hid in the gravel, lets the
smaller fish nibble and bite the end of it ; at which time she, by-
little and little, draws the smaller fish so near to her, that she may-
leap upon her, and then catches and devours her : and for this
reason some have called this fish the Sea-angler.

And there is a fish called a Hermit, that at a certain age gets
into a dead fish's shell, and, like a hermit, dwells there alone,
studying the wind and weather ; and so turns her shell, that she
makes it defend her from the injuries that they would bring upon
her.

There is also a fish called by ^Elianf the Adonis, or Darhng of
the Sea ; so called, because it is a loving and innocent fish, a fish
that hurts nothing that hath life, and is at peace with all the
numerous inhabitants of that vast watery element ; and truly, I
think most Anglers are so disposed to most of mankind.

And there are, also, lustful and chaste fishes ; of which I shall
give you examples.

And first, what Du Bartas says of a fish called the Sargus ;
which, because none can express it better than he does, I shall
give you in his own words, supposing it shall not have the less
credit for being verse ; for he hath gathered this and other
observations out of authors that have been great and industrious
searchers into the secrets of nature.

The adult'rous Sargus doth not only change

Wives every day, in the deep streams, but, strange I

As if the honey of sea-love delight

Could not suffice his ranging appetite,

Goes courting she-goats on the grassy shore.

Horning their husbands that had horns before.

And the same author writes concerning the Cantharus, that
which you shall also hear in his own words : —

But, contrary, the constant Cantharus
Is ever constant to his faithful spouse ;
In nuptial duties, spending his chaste life ;
Never loves any but his own dear wife.

Sir, but a httle longer, and I have done.

Venator. Sir, take what liberty you think fit, for your discourse
seems to be music, and charms me to an attention.

PiSCATOR. Why then. Sir, I will take a little liberty to tell, or

* Montaigne, Essays, and others, affirm this.

t Ninth book Of Living Creatures, ch. 16. Claudius ^lianus was born at Praeneste
in Italy, in the reign of the Emperop Adrian. He wrote De Animalium Natura, and
other works. — H.

CHAP. I.] THE FIRST DA Y. 47

rather to remember you what is said of Turtle-doves ; first, that
they silently plight their troth, and marry ; and that then the
survivor scorn, as the Thracian women are said to do, to outhve
his or her mate ; and this is taken for a truth ; and if the sur-
vivor shall ever couple with another, then, not only the living, but
the dead, be it either the he or the she, is denied the name and
honour of a true Turtle-dove.*

And to parallel this land-rarity, and teach mankind moral faith-
fulness, and to condemn those that talk of religion, and yet come
short of the moral faith of fish and fowl, men that violate the law
affirmed by St Paul,t to be writ in their hearts, and which, he
says, shall at the Last Day condemn and leave them without
excuse — I pray hearken to what Du Bartas \ sings, for the hear-
ing of such conjugal faithfulness will be music to all chaste ears,
and therefore I pray hearken to what Du Bartas sings of the
Mullet.

But for chaste love the Mullet liath no peer ;
For, if the fisher hath surpris'd her pheer.J
As mad with wo, to shore she foUoweth,
Prest I to consort him, both ia life and death.

On the contrary, what shall I say of the House-Cock, which
treads any hen ; and then, contrary to the Swan, the Partridge,
and Pigeon, takes no care to hatch, to feed, or cherish his own
brood, but is senseless, though they perish. And it is consider-
able, that the Hen, which, because she also takes any Cock,
expects it not, who is sure the chickens be her own, hath by a
moral impression her care and affection to her own brood more
than doubled, even to such a height, that our Saviour, in express-
ing his love to Jerusalem,ir quotes her, for an example of tender
affection, as his father hath done Job, for a pattern of patience.

And to parallel this Cock, there be divers fishes that cast their
spawn on flags or stones, and then leave it uncovered, aqd exposed

* Of Swans it is also said that if either of a pair die, or be otherwise separated from
its mate, the other does not long suryive. — H.
t Rom. ii. 14, 15. t Du Bartas, fifth day.

2 Or Fellow ; so Eed-pheer, Bedfellow.— H.

II I'rest, from the French pret, Lat. paratus, ready, prepared. So Psalq) ciy. old
vcrbion : —

He maketh his spirites as heralds to go.
And lightnings, to serve, we see also prest. — H.
Moses Browne has substituted a more elegant version :—

But in chaste love the Mullet all outvies ;
For when her mate the fisher makes his prize,

KMad to the shore she follows in despair,
In life and death, resolved his fate to share.
1 Matt, xxiii. 37.

48 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

to become a prey and be devoured by vermin or other fishes.
But other fishes, as, namely, the Barbel, take such care for the
preservation of their seed, that, unlike to the Cock, or the Cuckoo,
they mutually labour, both the spawner and the melter, to cover
their spawn with sand, or watch it, or hide it in some secret place,
unfrequented by vermin or by any fish but themselves.

Sir, these examples may, to you and others, seem strange ; but
they are testified, some by Aristotle, some by Pliny, some by
Gesner, and by many others of credit ; and are believed and
known by divers, both of wisdom and experience, to be a truth ;
and indeed are, as I said at the beginning, fit for the contempla-
tion of a most serious and a most pious man. And doubtless
this made the prophet David say,* " They that occupy themselves
in deep waters, see the wonderful works of God : " indeed such
wonders, and pleasures too, as the land affords not.

And that they be fit for the contemplation of the most prudent,
and pious, and peaceable men, seems to be testified by the prac-
tice of so many devout and contemplative men, as the Patriarchs
and Prophets of old ; and of the Apostles of our Saviour in our
latter times, of which twelve, we are sure, he chose four that were
simple fishermen, whom he inspired, and sent to publish his
blessed will to the Gentiles ; aTid inspired them also with a power
to speak all languages, and by their powerful eloquence to beget
faith in the unbelieving Jews ; and themselves to suffer for that
Saviour, whom their forefathers and they had crucified ; and, in
their sufferings, to preach freedom from the incumbrances of the
law, and a new way to everlasting life : this was the employment
of these happy fishermen. Concerning which choice, some have
made these observations : —

First, that he never reproved these, for their employment or
calling, as he did the Scribes and the Money-changers. And
secondly, he found that the hearts of such men, by nature, were
fitted for contemplation and quietness ; men of mild, and sweet,
and peaceable spirits, as indeed most Anglers are : these men
our blessed Saviour, who is observed to love to plant grace in
good natures, though indeed nothing be too hard for him, yet
these men he chose to call from their irreprovable employment of
fishing, and gave them grace to be his disciples, and to follow him,
and do wonders ; I say four of twelve.

And it is observable that it was our Saviour's will that these,
our four fishermen, should have a priority of nomination in the

* Psalm cvii. 23, 24.

CHAP. I.] THE FIRST DAY. 49

catalogue of his twelve Apostles,* as, namely, first St Peter, St
Andrew, St James, and St John ; and then the rest in their
order.

And it is yet more observable that when our blessed Saviour
went up into the mount, when he left the rest of his disciples,
and chose only three to bear him company at his Transfiguration,
that those three were all fishermen. And it is to be believed
that all the other Apostles, after they betook themselves to follow
Christ, betook themselves to be fishermen too ; for it is certain
that the greater number of them were found together, fishing, by
Jesus after his resurrection, as it is recorded in the twenty-first
chapter of St John's Gospel.

And since I have your promise to hear me with patience, I
will take a liberty to look back upon an observation that hath
been made by an ingenious and learned man ; who observes
that God hath been pleased to allow those whom he himself hath
appointed to write his holy will in holy writ, yet to express his
will in such metaphors as their former affections or practice had
inclined them to. And he brings Solomon for an example, who,
before his conversion, was remarkably carnally amorous ; and
after, by God's appointment, wrote that spiritual dialogue, or holy
amorous love-song, the Canticles, betwixt God and his Church :
in which he says, " his beloved had eyes like the fish-pools of
Heshbon."

And if this hold in reason, as I see none to the contrary, then
it may be probably concluded that Moses, who I told you before
writ the Book of Job, and the prophet Amos, who was a shepherd,
were both Anglers ; for you shall, in all the Old Testament, find
fish-hooks, I think, but twice mentioned, namely, by meek Moses
the friend of God, and by the humble prophet Amos.f

Concerning which last, namely, the prophet Amos, I shall make

* Matt. X. 2.

t Walton was a good Scripturist, and therefore can hardly be supposed to have been
ignorant of the passage in Isaiah, chap. xix. 8, " The fishers shall mourn, and all they
th.nt cast angle upon the brooks shall lament, and they that spread nets upon the
waters shall languish." Which words, as they do but imply the use of fish-hooks, he
might think not directly to his purpose ; but in the translation of the above prophet by
the learned Bishop Lowth, who himself assures me that the word hook is truly rendered^
the passage stands thus : —

" And the fishers shall mourn and lament ;
All those that cast the hook in the river,
And those that spread nets on the face of the waters shall languish."

The following passage Walton seems likewise to have forgotten when he wrote the
above, unless the reason before assigned induced him to reject it : " They take iin all
of them with the angle, they catch them in their net, and gather them in their drag*
therefore they rejoice and are glad." — Habakkuk i. 15. — H.

D

I

so THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part r.

but this observation, that he that shall read the humble, lowly,
plain style of that prophet, and compare it with the high, glorious,
eloquent style of the prophet Isaiah, though they be both equally
true, may easily believe Amos to be, not only a shepherd, but a
good-natured plain fisherman. Which I do the rather believe,
by comparing the affectionate, loving, lowly, humble Epistles of
St Peter, St James, and St John, whom we know were all fishers,
with the ^ glorious language and high metaphors of St Paul, who
we may believe was not.

And for the lawfulness of fishing : it may very well be main-
tained by our Saviour's bidding St Peter cast his hook into the
water and catch a fish, for money to pay tribute to Caesar. And
let me tell you that Angling is of high esteem, and of much use
in other nations. He that reads the Voyages of Ferdinand Men-
dez Pinto * shall find that there he declares to have found a king
and several priests a-fishing. And he that reads Plutarch shall
find that Angling was not contemptible in the days of Mark
Antony and Cleopatra, and that they, in the midst of their won-
derful glory, used Angling as a principal recreation.f And let
me tell you, that in the Scripture Angling is always taken in the
best sense ; and that though hunting may be sometimes so taken,
yet it is but seldom to be so understood. And let me add this
more : he that views the ancient Ecclesiastical Canons, shall
find hunting to be forbidden to Churchmen, as being a turbulent,
toilsome, perplexing recreation ; and shall find Angling allowed
to clergymen, as being a harmless recreation, a recreation that
invites them to contemplation and quietness.

VARIATION.

7 the glorious language and high metaphors of St Paul, whom we know was not.

* A traveller whose veracity is much que'^tioned. — H. He was born about 1510,
and for one-and-twenty years travelled in the East. During that time he was five times
shipwrecked, seventeen times sold, and thirteen times made a slave : he returned to
Lisbon 22d September 1558. The passage alluded to by Walton occurs in " The
Voyages and Adventures of Ferdinand Mendez Pinto, done into English by H[enry]
C[ogan], Gent., London, 1633," fol. chap. Ixxix. p. 319.— T.

t The fact related by Plutarch is the following: "It would be very tedious and
trifling to recount all his follies ; but his fishing must not be forgot. He went out one
day to angle with Cleopatra ; and being so unfortunate as to catch nothing in the
presence of his mistress, he was very much vexed, and gave secret orders to the fisher-
man to dive underwater, and put fishes that had been fresh taken upon his hook. After
he had drawn up two or three, Cleopatra perceived the trick : she pretended, however,
to be surprised at his good fortune and dexterity ; told it to all her friends, and invited
them to come and see him fish the next day. Accordingly, a very large company went
out in the fishing-vessels ; and as soon as Antony had let down his line, she commanded
one of her servants to be beforehand with Antony's, and, diving into the water, to fix
upon his hook a salted fish, one of those which were brought from the Euxine Sea."
— H.

CHAP. I.] THE FIRST DAY. 51

I might here enlarge myself, by telling you what commenda-
tions our learned Perkins bestows on Angling . and how dear a
lover, and great a practiser of it, our learned Dr Whitaker * was ;
as indeed many others of great learning have been. But I will
content myself with two memorable men, that lived near to our
own time, whom I also take to have been ornaments to the art
of Angling.

^ The first is Dr Nowel, sometime dean of the cathedral
church of St Paul, in London, where his monument stands yet
undefaced ; t a man that, in the reformation of Queen Elizabeth,
not that of Henry VIII., was so noted for his meek spirit, deep
learning, prudence, and piety, that the then Parliament and Con-
vocation, both chose, enjoined, and trusted him to be the man to
make a Catechism for public use, such a one as should stand as
a rule for faith and manners to their posterity. And the good
old man, though he was very learned, yet knowing that God leads

VARIATION.

8 Let me give you the example of two men more, that have lived nearer to our own
times : first Doctor Nowel, sometimes Dean of St Paul's (in which church his monument
stands yet undefaced), a man, &c.

* William Perkins was a learned divine, and a pious and painful preacher : Dr
William Whitaker was an able writer in the Romish controversy, and Regius Professot
of Divinity in the University of Cambridge. They both flourished at the latter end oi
the sixteenth century. I remark the extreme camion of our author in this passage ; for
he says not of Perkins, as he does of Whitaker, that he was a practiser of, but only that
he bestows (in some of his writings we must conclude) great commendations on angling.
Perkins had the misfortune to want the use of his right hand ; as we find intimated ia
this distich on him :—

Dextera quamtumvis fuerat tibi manca, docendi
Pollebas mira dexteritate tamen.

Though Nature hath thee of thy right hand bereft,
Right well thou writest with thy hand that's left.

And therefore can hardly be supposed capable of even baiting his hook. The fact
respecting Whitaker is thus attested by Dr Fuller, in his Holy State, book iii. chap. 13 :
" Fishing with an angle is to some rather a torture than a pleasure, to stand an hour as
mute as the fish they mean to take ; yet herewithal Dr Whitaker was much delighted."
To these examples of divines lovers of Angling, I here add (1784) that of Dr Leigh, the
present Master of Baliol College, Oxford, who, though turned of ninety, makes it the
recreation of his vacant hours. — H. He died in 1790.

t Dr Alexander Nowel, a learned divine, and a famous preacher in the reign of King
Edw. VI. ; upon whose death he, with many other Protestants, fled to Germany, where
he lived many years. In 1561 he was made Dean of St Paul's ; and in 1601 died. The
monument mentioned in the text was undoubtedly consumed, with the church, in the
fire of London ; but the inscription thereon is preserved in Stow's Survey, edit. 1633,
page 362. See A then. Oxoti. 313. An engraving of the monument itself is'in Dugdales
History 0/ St Paul's Cathedral.— H. Dr Dunham Whitaker, in his History 0/
Whalley, says of Nowel, " He is recorded by Isaac Walton, a man of the same tranquil
devotion, and who attained nearly to the same length of days with himself, to have
spent a tenth part of his time in Angling, an amusement suited beyond every other to
calm and contemplative minds, and sacred, as it should seem, to the relaxation of emi-
nent divines, Donne, Herbert, Whitaker, and after them Archbishop Sheldon, having
been fondly attached to it." — P, 482,

i

52 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

us not to heaven by many, nor by hard questions, hke an honest
Angler, made that good, plain, unperplexed Catechism which is
printed with our good old Service-book.* I say, this good man'
was a dear lover and constant practiser of Angling, as any age
can produce : and his custom was to spend besides his fixed
hours of prayer, those hours which, by command of the Church,
were enjoined the clergy, and voluntarily dedicated to devotion
by many primitive Christians, I say, besides those hours, this
good man was observed to spend a tenth part of his time in
Angling ; and, also, for I have conversed with those which have
conversed with him, to bestow a tenth part of his revenue, and
usually all his fish, amongst the poor that inhabited near to those
rivers in which it was caught ; saying often, " that charity gave
life to religion : " and, at his return to his house, would praise
God he had spent that day free from worldly trouble ; both
harmlessly, and in a recreation that became a Churchman. And
this good man was well content, if not desirous, that posterity
should know he was an Angler ; as may appear by his picture,
now to be seen, and carefully kept, in Brazen-nose College, to
which he was a liberal benefactor. In which picture he is drawn,
leaning on a desk, with his Bible before him ; and on one hand
of him, his lines, hooks, and other tackling, lying in a round ;
and on his other hand are his Angle-rods of several sorts ; and

* The question who was the compiler of our Church Catechism must, I fear, be reck-
oned among the desiderata of our ecclesiastical history. It is certain that Nowel_ drew
up two catechisms, a greater and a less ; the latter in the Title, as it stands in the
English translation, expressly directed "to be learned of all youth, next after the little
Catechisme appoynted in the Booke of Common Prayer." But, besides that both were
originally written in Latin, and translated by other hands, the lesser, though declared to
be an abridgment of the greater, was at least twenty times longer than that in the
Common Prayer Book. And whereas, Walton says, that in the reformation of Eliza-
beth, the then Parliament enjoined Nowel to make a Catechism, &c., and that he made
that which is printed in our old Service-book, the catechism in question is to be found in
both the Liturgies of Edw. VL (the first whereof was set forth in 1549), and also in his
Primer, printed in 1552 ; and Nowel is not enumerated among the compilers of the
Service-book. Further, both the Catechisms of Nowel contain the doctrine of the
sacraments ; but that in the old Service-book is silent on that head, and so continued,
till, upon an objection of the Puritans in the conference at Hampton Coutt, an expla-
nation of the sacraments was drawn up by Dr John Overall, and printed in the next
impression of the Book of Common Prayer. It may further be remarked that, in the
conference above mentioned, the two Catechisms are contradistinguished, in an
expression of Dr Reynolds ; who objected that the Catechism in the Common Prayer
Book was too brief, and that by Dean Nowel too long for novices to learn by heart.
See Fuller's Ch. Hist, book x. page 14. So much of Walton's assertion as respects the
sanction given to a catechism of Nowel's is true ; but it was the larger catechism, drawn
up at the request of Secretary Cecil and other great persons, that was so approved, and
that not by Parliament, but by a convocation held anno 1562, temp. Eliz. See Strype's
Life of Archbishop Parker, 202. From all which particulars it must be inferred that
Walton's assertion with respect to the Catechism in the Service-book, i.e., the Book of
Common Prayer, is a mistake ; and although Strype, in his Memorials, vol. ii. page 442,
concludes a catechism of Nowel's (mentioned in the said book, page 368, et i?i loc. cit.)
to be the Church Catechism joined, ordinarily with our Common Prayer, he also must
have misunderstood the fact.— H.

CHAP. I.] THE FIRST DAY. 53

by them this is written, *'that he died 13 Feb. 1601, being
aged ninety-five years, forty-four of which he had been Dean of
St Paul's Church ; and that his age neither impaired his hearing,
nor dimmed his eyes, nor weakened his memory, nor made any
of the faculties of his mind weak or useless." * It is said that
Angling and temperance were great causes of these blessings ;
and I wish the like to all that imitate him, and love the memory
of so good a man.

My next and last example shall be that undervaluer of money,
the late Provost of Eton College, Sir Henry Wotton,t a man
with whom I have often fished and conversed, a man whose
foreign employments in the service of this nation, and whose
experience, learning, wit, and cheerfulness, made his company to
be esteemed one of the delights of mankind. This man, whose
very approbation of Angling were sufficient to convince any
modest censurer of it, this man was also a most dear lover, and
a frequent practiser of the art of Angling ; of which he would say,
" it was an employment for his idle time, which was then not idly
spent ; " for Angling was, after tedious study, '' a rest to his mind,
a cheerer of his spirits, a diverter of sadness, a calmer of unquiet
thoughts, a moderator of passions, a procurer of contentedness ;
and that it begat habits of peace and patience in those that pro-
fessed and practised it." Indeed, my friend, you will find Ang-
ling to be like the virtue of humility, which has a calmness of
spirit, and a world of other blessings attending upon it.

Sir, this was the saying of that learned man. And I do easily
believe that peace, and patience, and a calm content did cohabit
in the cheerful heart of Sir Henry Wotton, because I know that
when he was beyond seventy years of age, he made this descrip-
tion of a part of the present pleasure that possessed him, as he
sat quietly, in a summer's evening, on a bank a-fishing. It is a
description of the spring ; which, because it glided as soft and

* The inscription under Dean Nowel's picture at Brazenose College, which Walton
translated, is

"ALEXANDER NOWELLUS, Sacrae Theologia Professor,

S. Pauli Decanus, obiit 13 Febr. Anno Dom. 1601. R.R. Eliz. 44.

An. Decanatus 42. iEtatis suae 95 ; cum neqne Oculi

caligarent, neque Aures obtusiores, neque Memoria

iniu-mior, neque Animi ullae facultates victae essent.

Piscator Hominum."

The portrait has been lately engraved in Churton's Life of Nowei, 8vo, Oxford, 1809,
p. 366.— E.

t Of whom see an account in the Life of Walton.

54 " THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

sweetly from his pen as that river does at this time, by which it
was then made, I shall repeat it unto you : ^ —

This day dame Nature ^ seem'd in love ;
The lusty sap began to move ;
Fresh'^ juice did stir th' embracing vines;
And birds had drawn their valentines.

The jealous trout, that low did lie.
Rose at a well-dissembled fly;
There stood my Friend, with patient skill,
Attending of his trembling quill.

Already were the eves possest
With the swift pilgrim's daubed nest ;
The groves already did rejoice,
In Philomel's triumphing voice :

The showers were short, the weather mild,
The morning fresh, the evening smil'd.
Joan takes her neat-rubb'd pail, and now.
She trips to milk the sand-red cow ;

Where, for some sturdy football swain,
Joan strokes a syllabub or twain.
The fields and gardens were beset
With tulips, crocus, violet ;

And now, though late, the modest rose
Did more than half a blush disclose.
Thus all looks 3 gay, and * full of cheer.
To welcome the new-livery'd year.

These were the thoughts that then possessed the undisturbed
mind of Sir Henry Wotton. Will you hear the wish of another
Angler, and the commendation of his happy life, which he also
sings in verse : viz., Jo. Davors, Esq. ? *

VARIATIONS.

9 These verses occur in every edition of the Angler exactly as they are here printed,
but the following variations exist between them and the copy printed by Wotton in his
ReliquicB Wottoniancs, p. 384, where they are entitled, " On a Bank as I sate a Fishing ;
a Description of the Spring."

1 And now all Nature. 2 New. •'' look'd.

* all. It can scarcely be doubted that the "Friend " alluded to was Izaak Walton.

* John Davors, Esq., was the author of a poem entitled the Secrets of Angling,
teaching the choicest tools, baits., and seasons for the taking of any Fish in />ond or
river, practised atid familiarly opened in three books, by J. D., Esquire, i2mo, 1613,
augmented with many approved experiments, by W. Lauson, and reprinted in 1652.
Again reprinted from that edition by Triphook in 1811. The verses in the text have
been collated with the reprint, and the most important variations are shown in the notes.
The work was, however, entered on the books of the Stationers' Company as the pro-
duction of John Dennys, Esq. " 1612, 23 Martij. Mr Roger Jackson entred for his
copie under thands of Mr Mason and Mr Warden Hooper, a booke called the Secrete of
AngHng, teaching the choycest tooles, bates, and seasons for the taking of any Fish in
any pond or river, practised and opened in three bookes, by John Dennvs, Esquire."
It was dedicated to John Harboone, of Tackley in Oxfordshire, Esq., by "R- I.," who
states in the dedication that the author was dead. Fourteen lines " in due praise
of his praiseworthy skill and work," signed "Jo. Daves," are prefixed.

CHAP. L] THE FIRST DA Y,

Lei me live harmlessly, and near the brink

Of Trent or Avon have a dwelling-place ; '
"Where I may see my quill, or cork, down sink

With eager bite of Perch, or Bleak, or Dace ; «
And on the world and my ^ Creator think :

Whilst some men strive ill-gotten goods t' embrace ; ^
And others spend their time in base excess
Of wine, or worse, in war and wantonness.
Let them that list, these pastimes still 9 pursue,

And on such ' pleasing fancies feed their fill ;
So I the fields and meadows green may view,

And daily by fresh rivers walk at will,2
Among the daisies and the violets blue.

Red hyacinth, and yellow daffodil,
Purple Narcissus like the morning rays.
Pale gander-grass,3 and azure culver-keys.

I count it higher * pleasure to behold

The stately 5 compass of the lofty sky ;
And in the midst thereof, like burning gold,

The flaming chariot of the world's great eye :
The watery clouds that in the air up-roU'd

With sundry kinds of painted colours fly ;
And fair Aurora, lifting up her head,
Still* blushing, rise from old Tithonus' bed.
The hills and mountains raised from the plains.

The plains extended level with the ground,
The grounds divided into sundry veins,

The veins inclos'd with rivers running 7 round ;
These 8 rivers making way through nature's chains,

With headlong course, into the sea profound ;
The raging 9 sea, beneath the vallies low,
Where lakes, and rills, and rivulets do flow : ^

The lofty woods, the forests wide and long.

Adorned with leaves and branches fresh and green,

In whose cool bowers the birds with many a song,2
Do welcome with their quire the summer's Queen ;

The meadows fair, where Flora's gifts, among
Are intermixt, with 3 verdant grass between ;

The silver-scaled fish that softly swim

Within the sweet brook's crystal, watery stream.*

All these, and many more of his creation
That made the heavens, the Angler oft doth see ;

Taking* therein no little delectation,
To think how strange, now wonderful they be :

Framing thereof an inward contemplation
TTo set his heart from 6 other fancies free ;

And whilst he looks on these with joyful eye.

His mind is rapt above the starry sky.

55

VARIATIONS.

5 Oh, let me rather on the pleasant brink

Of Tyne and Trent possess some dwelHng-place.

6 With eager bite of Barbel, Bleak, or Dace.

8 While they proud Thais painted sheet embrace.
And with the fume of strong tobacco's smoke,
All quaffing round are ready for to choke.

1 their.

2 And by the rivers fresh may walk at will.

* better. ^ goodly. 6 All.

8 The. 8 surging.

* The vallies sweet, and lakes that lovely flow.

2 In whose cool brows the birds with chanting song.

* Within the brooks and crystal wat'ry brim.

6 his thoughts on.

7 his.

» then.

S ganderglas.
7 running rivers

» the.

6 And takes.

56 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

Sir, I am glad my memory has not lost these last verses,
because they are somewhat more pleasant and more suitable to
May-day than my harsh discourse. And I am glad your patience
hath held out so long as to hear them and me, for both together
have brought us within the sight of the Thatched House.* And
I must be your debtor, if you think it worth your attention, for the
rest of my promised discourse, till some other opportunity, and a
like time of leisure.

Venator. Sir, you have angled me on with much pleasure to
the Thatched House ; and I now find your words true, " that good
company makes the way seem short ; " for trust me. Sir, I thought
•we had wanted three miles of this house, till you showed it to me.
But now we are at it, we'll turn into it, and refresh ourselves with
a cup of drink and a little rest.

PiSCATOR. Most gladly, Sir, and we'll drink a civil cup to all
the Otter-hunters f that are to meet you to-morrow.

Venator. That we will. Sir, and to all the lovers of Angling
too, of which number I am now willing to be one myself ; for, by
the help of your good discourse and company, I have put on new
thoughts, both of the art of Angling and of all that profess it ; and
if you will but meet me to-morrow at the time and place appointed,
and bestow one day with me and my friends in hunting the Otter,
I will dedicate the next two days to wait upon you ; and we too
will, for that time, do nothing but angle, and talk of fish and fishing.

PiSCATOR. It is a match, Sir, I will not fail you, God willing,
to be at Am well Hill % to-morrow morning before sunrising.

* In the first edition Piscator says, " I know the Thatched House well, I often
make it my resting-place, and taste a cup of ale there, for which liquor that place is very
remarkable."

t In the Whitehall Evening Post, in May 1760, appeared the following advertisement:
*'To be disposed of, at Barton under Needwood, near Litchfield, Staffordshire, Otter
Hounds, exceeding staunch, and thoroughly well trained to the hunting of this animal.
The pack consists of nine couple and a terrier, and are esteemed to be as good, if not
the best hounds in the kingdom. In the winter season they hunt the hare, except about
two couple and a half that are trained to the Otter only ; but there are about two couple
of harriers, that have never been entered at the Otter, which will go with the rest ; be-
sides three couple of year-old hounds, now fit to enter at either or both ; and one couple
of whelps, ready to go to walks. The greatest part of them are the blood of as high
breed a fox hound as any in England. The proprietor disposes of them for the two
following reasons only : first, because all the Otters, except about three or four, are
killed within this hunt, which consiFts of all the rivers in this county (except the Dove,
where Otters are not to be killed with hounds), Leicestershire, and Warwickshire ; but
more especially because the proprietor finds himself too infirm to follow them. None
but principals will be treated with. Direct to Walter Biddulph, of Barton, aforesaid,
Esq., by whom all letters from principals will be duly answered.

"N.B. Mr Biddulph has killed within these last six years with these hounds, above
Burton upon Trent only, seventy-four Otters. There are six spears to be disposed of
with the hounds."

X Now called Amwellbury. This beautiful village is the subject of a poem, by John
Scott, Esq., 8vo, 1782, in which Walton is thus alluded to : —

" 2
« §

H

s;

I

CHAP. 1.] THE FIRST DA Y.

"It little yields
Of interesting act, to swell the page
Of history or song ; yet much the soul
Its sweet simplicity delights, and oft
From noise of busy towns, to fields and groves,
The Muse's sons have fled to find repose.
Fam'd Walton, erst, the ingenious fisher swain,
Oft our fair haunts explored ; upon Lea's shore
Beneath some green tree oft his angle laid,
His sport suspending to admire their charms."— P. 8ob

57

Cfie ©econti Dag*

CHAPTER II.

PISCATOR AND VENATOR.

VENATOR. My friend Piscator, you have kept time with my
thoughts ; for the sun is just rising, and I myself just now
On the Otter come to this place, and the dogs have just now
and the Chub. p^^ ^own an Otter. Look ! down at the bottom
of the hill there, in that m.eadow, chequered with water-lilies and
lady-smocks ; there you may see what work they make ; look ! look !
you may see all busy ; men and dogs : dogs and men ; all busy.

Piscator. Sir, I am right glad to meet you, and glad to have
so fair an entrance into this day's sport, and glad to see so many
dogs, and more men, all in pursuit of the Otter. Let us compli-
ment no longer, but join unto them. Come, honest Venator, let
us be gone, let us make haste ; I long to be doing ; no reasonable
hedge or ditch shall hold me.

Venator. Gentleman Huntsman, where found you this Otter ?

Huntsman. Marry, Sir, we found her a mile from this place,
a-fishing. She has this morning eaten the greatest part of this
Trout ; she has only left thus much of it as you see, and was
fishing for more ; when we came we found her just at it : but we
were here very early, we were here an hour before sunrise, and

CHAP. II.] THE SECOND DAY. 59

have given her no rest since we came ; sure she will hardly escape
all these dogs and men. I am to have the skin if we kill her.

Venator. Why, Sir, what is the skin worth ?

Huntsman, It is worth ten shillings to make gloves; the
gloves of an Otter are the best fortification for your hands that
can be thought on against wet weather.

PISCATOR. I pray, honest Huntsman, let me ask you a pleasant
question : do you hunt a beast or a fish ,''

Huntsman. Sir, it is not in my power to resolve you ; I
leave it to be resolved by the college of Carthusians, who have
made vows never to eat flesh. But, I have heard, the question
hath been debated among many great clerks, and they seem to
differ about it ; yet most agree that her tail is fish : and if her
body be fish too, then I may say that a fish will walk upon land :
for an Otter does so sometimes, five or six or ten miles in a night,
to catch for her young ones, or to glut herself with fish. And I
can tell you that Pigeons will fly forty miles for a breakfast : but,
Sir, I am sure the Otter devours much fish, and kills and spoils
much more than he eats. And I can tell you that this dog-fisher,
for so the Latins call him, can smell a fish in the water a hundred
yards from him : Gesner says much farther : and that his stones
are good against the falling sickness ; and that there is an herb,
Benione, which, being hung in a linen cloth near a fish-pond, or
any haunt that he uses, makes him to avoid the place ; which
proves he smells both by water and land. And, I can tell you,
there is brave hunting this water-dog in Cornwall ; * where there
have been so many, that our learned Camden says there is a river
called Ottersey, which was so named by reason of the abundance
of Otters that bred and fed in it.

And thus much for my knowledge of the Otter ; which you
may now see above water at vent, and the dogs close with him ;
I now see he will not last long. Follow, therefore, my masters^
follow ; for Sweetlips was like to have him at this last vent.

Venator. Oh me ! all the horse are got over the river,
what shall we do now .'' shall we follow them over the water ?

Huntsman. No, Sir, no ; be not so eager ; stay a little,
and follow me ; for both they and the dogs will be suddenly on
this side again, I warrant you, and the Otter too, it may be.
Now have at him with Kilbuck, for he vents again.

* In Devonshire. The River Ottersey is thus noticed in Cough's edition of Camden's
Britannia: " More eastward the Otterey (q.d., the Otter's river) tails into the sea,
passing by Honiton."— Vol. i. p. 29. Though pointed cut by Mr Moses Browne, the
error is not noticed by subsequent editors.

i

6o THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

Venator. Marry I so he does ; for, look ! he vents in that
corner. Now, now, Ring wood has him : now, he is gone again,
and has bit the poor dog. Now Sweethps has her ; hold her,
Sweetlips ! now all the dogs have her ; some above and some
under water : but, now, now she is tired, and past losing. Come
bring her to me, Sweetlips. Look ! it is a Bitch-otter, and she
has lately whelp'd. Let's go to the place where she was put
down ; and not far from it, you will find all her young ones, I
dare warrant you, and kill them all too.

Huntsman. Come, Gentlemen ! come, all ! let's go to the
place where we put down the Otter. Look you ! hereabout it
was that she kenneled ; look you ! here it was indeed ; for here's
her young ones, no less than five : come, let us kill them all.

PiSCATOR. No : I pray, Sir, save me one, and I'll try if I
can make her tame, as I know an ingenious gentleman in
Leicestershire, Mr Nich. Segrave,* has done ; who hath not only
made her tame, but to catch fish,t and do many other things of
much pleasure.

Huntsman. Take one with all my heart ; but let us kill the
rest. And now let's go to an honest alehouse, where we may
have a cup of good barley wine, and sing " Old Rose," J and all of
us rejoice together.

Venator. Come, my friend Piscator, let me invite you along
with us. I'll bear your charges this night, and you shall bear
mine to-morrow ; for my intention is to accompany you a day or
two in fishing,

Piscator. Sir, your request is granted ; and I shall be right glad
both to exchange such a courtesy, and also to enjoy your company.

* Charles Segrave of Scalford in Leicestershire, Esq., who was living in 1606, left issue,
by Alice his wife, daughter of John Flower of Whitwell, in the county of Rutland, four
sons, the fourth of which was named Nicholas, and who was probably the person men-
tioned in the text. Nichols' Leicestershire, vol. ii. part i. p. 314.
"f Duncombe, in his translation of Vanier, says —

If you should find the young ones, steal away.
In th' absence of the dam, the tender prey.
And by his youthful years yet pliant, breed
The gentle otter to the fishing trade ;
For when suspended in the stream you place
Your flaxen snares, to catch the finny race.
He will explore each cavern and retreat,
And rouse the fish, and hunt them to the net.— Eu. H.
X The song alluded to was the following. It was inserted in Dr Harington's Collection
from a publication temp. Charles I.

Now we're met like jovial fellows. When the jowl with claret glows,

Let us do as wise men tell us, And wisdom shines upon ihe nose.

Sing Old Rose and burn the bellows ; O then is the time to sing Old Rose,

Let us do as wise men tcU us, And burn, burn, the bellows,

Sing, &c. The bellows, and burn, burn, the bellows,

the bellows.

Clje CljirO IDag.

CHAPTER 11. TO CHAPTER IV.

PISCATOR AND VENATOR.

VENATOR. Well, now let's go to your sport of Angling.
PiSCATOR. Let's be going,^ with all my heart. God keep
you all, Gentlemen ; and send you meet, this day, with another
Bitch-otter, and kill her merrily, and all her young ones too.

Venator. Now, Piscator, where will you begin to fish ?

PiSCATOR. We are not yet come to a likely place ; I must
walk a mile further yet before I begin.

Venator. Well then, I pray, as we walk, tell me freely, how
do you like your lodging, and mine host ^ and the company ? Is
not mine host a witty man ?

3 Piscator. Sir, I will tell you, presently, what I think of
your host : but, first, I will tell you, I am glad these Otters were
killed ; * and I am sorry there are no more Otter-killers ; for

VARIATIONS.

1 Well now let's be going. — ist and ■2d edit.

8 Tell me freely how do you like mine host. — Till $th edit.

3 In the_/frj/ edition Piscator's reply commences with : —

Sir, to speak truly, he is not to me ; for most of his conceits were either, &.c.

* Gay has thus alluded to the Otter : —

" Would you preserve a num'rous finny race?
Let your fierce dogs the rav'nous Otter chase,

62 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

I know * that the want of Otter-killers, and the not keeping the
fence-months for the preservation of fish, will, in time, prove the
destruction of all rivers. And those very few that are left, that
make conscience of the laws of the nation, and of keeping days
of abstinence, will be forced to eat flesh, or suffer more incon-
veniences than are yet foreseen.

Venator. Why, Sir, what be those that you call the fence-
months .''

PiSCATOR. Sir, they be principally three, namely, March,
April, and May : for these be the usual months that Salmon come
out of the sea to spawn in most fresh rivers. And their fry would,
about a certain time, return back to the salt water, if they were
not hindered by weirs and unlawful gins, which the greedy fisher-
men set, and so destroy them by thousands ; as they would, being
so taught by nature, change the fresh for salt water. He that
shall view the wise Statutes made in the 13th of Edward the
First,* and the like in Richard the Second,t may see several

Variation.] * I may tell you. — isi and id edit,

Th' amphibious monster ranges all the shores,
Darts thro' the waves, and ev'ry haunt explores ;
Or let the gin his roving steps betray,
And save from hostile jaws the scaly prey."

* The statute of the 13th Edw. I. cap. 47, is as follows : "It is provided, That the
waters of Humber, Ouse, Trent, Dove, Arre, Derewent, Wherfe, Nid, Yare, Swale,
Tese, and all other waters (wherein salmons be taken within the kingdom), shall be in
defence for taking salmons from the Nativity of our Lady unto St Martin's Day : and
that likewise young salmon shall not be taken nor destroyed by nets, nor by other
engine, at millpools, from the midst of April unto the Nativity of St John the Baptist.
And in places where such rivers be, there shall be assigned overseers of this statute,
•which being sworn, shall oftentimes see and enquire of the offenders ; and for the first
trespass, they shall be punished by burning of their nets and engines ; and for the
second time, they shall have imprisonment for a quarter of a year ; and for the third
trespass, they shall be imprisoned a whole year ; and as their trespass increaseth, so
shall the punishment."

t The statute referred to was enacted in the 13th year of the reign of Richard the
Second, cap. 19, of which the following is a copy : " Item, Whereas it is contained in
the Statute of Westminster the Second, that young salmons shall not be taken nor
destroyed by nets, nor by other engines, at milldams, from the midst of April till the
Nativity of St John the Baptist, upon a certain pain limited in the same statute ; " 'it is
accurded and assented. That the said statute be firmly holden and kept, joyning to the
same, that young salmons shall not be taken, during the said time, at milldams, nor in
other places upon the same pain. And that no fisher, or garth-man, nor any other, of
what estate or condition that he be, shall from henceforth put in the waters of Thamise,
Humber, Ouse, Trent, nor any other waters of the realm by the said time, nor in other
time of the year, any nets called stalkers, nor other nets nor engines whatsoever they be,
by which the fry or the breed of the salmons, lampreys, or any other fish, may in any
wise be taken or destroyed, upon the pain aforesaid.' " And also where it is contained
in the same statute, that all the waters in the which salmons be taken within the realm,
shall be put in defence as to the taking of salmons, from the Day of the Nativity of our
Lady, until St Martin's Day ;" 'it is ordained and assented, that the waters of Low,
Wyre, Mersee, Rybbyl, and all other waters in the county of Lancaster, be put in
defence, as to the taking of salmons, from Michaelmas Day to the Purification of our
Lady, and in no other time of the year, because that salmons be not seasonable in the

■ T pre

CHAP. IL] TBJT THIRD DA Y. 63

provisions made against the destruction of fish : and though I
profess no knowledge of the law, yet I am sure the regulation of
these defects might be easily mended. But I remember that a
wise friend of mine did usually say, " That which is everybody's
business is nobody's business : " if it were otherwise, there could
not be so many nets and fish, that are under the statute size, sold
daily amongst us ; and of which the conservators of the waters
should be ashamed.*

But, above all, the taking fish in spawning-time may be said to
be against nature : it is like taking the dam on the nest when she
hatches her young, a sin so against nature that Almighty God
hath in the Levitical law made a law against it.f

But the poor fish have enemies enough besides such unnatural
fishermen ; as, namely, the Otters that I spake of, the Cormorant,
the Bittern, the Osprey, the Seagull, the Hern, the King-fisher,
the Gorara, the Puet, the Swan, Goose, Duck, and the Craber,
which some call the Water-rat : against all which any honest man
may make a just quarrel, but I will not ; I will leave them to be
quarrelled with and killed by others, for I am not of a cruel nature,
I love to kill nothing but fish.

And, now, to your question concerning your host. To speak
truly, he is not to me a good companion, for most of his conceits
were either Scripture jests, or lascivious jests ; for which I count
no man witty : for the devil will help a man, that way inclined, to
the first ; and his own corrupt nature, which he always carries
with him, to the latter. But a companion that feasts the company

said waters in the time aforesaid. And in the parts where such rivers be, there shall be
assigned and sworn good and sufficient conservators of this statute, as it is ordained iu
the said Statute of Westminster, and that they shall punish the offenders after the pain
contained in the same statute, without any favour thereof to be showed.'

By Statute 17 Rich. II. c. 9, all justices of the peace were constituted conservators of
the Stat. 13 Edw. I., with power to appoint under-conservators ; and the lord mayor was
appointed conservator of that statute in the Thames. Various statutes have since been
enacted for preserving the spawn and fry of fish. See Index to the Statutes at Large,
articles " Fish," " Salmon," and " Rivers."

In the 8 Rich. II., 1384, the Commons complained that in the Thames, Medway, and
other great rivers, there was an abundance of the fry offish, that is to say, of " Troutes,
Samons, Pykes, Roches, Barbils," and other fish, which fry, if preserved, would pro-
duce great profit to the lords and commons of the land ; but that diverse persons dwell-
ing ne.^r those rivers, took the fry with their '' subtils reetz," and other " subtiis instrt»
mcnts," and sold it as food for pigs for a penny a bushel, and sometimes for six eggs a
bushel. They therefore prayed that no fish might be taken with any net unless the
mesh was of the size ordained by the former statute. The king commanded that the
said statute should be kept and put in due execution. Rot. Pari. vol. iii. p. 200.

* See note to page 63.

t The command alluded to occurs in Deuteronomy, chap. xxii. ver. 6 and 7 : " If a
bird's nest chance to be before thee in the way in any tree, or on the ground, whether
they be young ones, or eggs, and the dam sitting upon the young, or upon the eggs,
thou shalt not take the dam with the young : but thou shall in any wise let the dam go,
and take the young to thee; that it may be well with thee, and that thou maycst pro-
long thy days."

64 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

with wit and mirth, and leaves out the sin which is usually mixed
with them, he is the man ; and indeed such a companion should
have his charges borne ; and to such company I hope to bring
you this night ; for at Trout-hall, not far from this place, where I
purpose to lodge to-night,* there is usually an Angler that proves
good company. And let me tell you, good company and good
discourse are the very sinews of virtue. But for such discourse
as we heard last night, it infects others : the very boys will learn
to talk and swear, as they heard mine host, and another of the
company that shall be nameless. I am sorry the other is a
gentleman, for less religion will not save their souls than a
beggar's : I think more will be required at the last great day.
Well ! you know what example is able to do ; and I know what
the poet says in the like case, which is worthy to be noted by all
parents and people of civility : ^ —

Many a one
Owes to his country his religion ;
And in another, would as strongly grow,
Had but his nurse or mother taught him so.

This is reason put into verse, and worthy the consideration of a
wise man. But of this no more ; for though I love civility, yet I
hate severe censures. I'll to my own art ; and I doubt not but
at yonder tree I shall catch a Chub : and then we'll turn to an
honest cleanly hostess, that I know right well ; rest ourselves
there ; and dress it for our dinner.

Venator. Oh, Sir ! a Chub is the worst fish that swims ; I
hoped for a Trout to my dinner.

PiSCATOR. Trust me, Sir, there is not a likely place for a Trout
hereabout : and we stayed so long to take our leave of your hunts-

VARIATION.
5 But for such discourse as we heard last night, it infects others ; the very boys will
learn to talk and swear as they heard mine host, and another of the company that shall
be nameless, ["I am sorry the other is a gentleman" — "at the last great day"] well,
you know what example is able to do, and I know what the poet says in the like case,
which is worthy to be noted by all parerits and people of civility. -~

Many a one, &c.
xst edit., the words in italic were added to the id, and those in brackets to the id edit.

* Trout-hall was probably a name given by Anglers to some little inn which they were
in the habit of frequenting, and possibly the sign was a Trout. Piscator did not, how-
ever, fulfil his intention of sleeping at Trout-hall, because we find that his scholar and
himself returned and slept at the alehouse where they dined, and which it would appear
from his conversation with the milkwoman, was called Bleak-hall. The cause of this
alteration in his plan, Piscator seems to explain to Venator, in a subsequent page, where
he says they would eat the trout he had caught for supper, and would go to his hostess,
from whence they came, \becatise'\ "on going out of the door, she told him that his
brother Peter and a cheerful companion had sent word they would lodge there that
night."

THE BREAKFAST

BT T. STOTHARD, R.A.

CHAP. II.] THE THIRD DAY. 65

men this morning, that the sun is got so high, and shines so clear,
that I will not undertake the catching of a Trout till evening. And
though a Chub be, by you and many others, reckoned the worst
of fish, yet you shall see I'll make it a good fish by dressing it.

Venator. Why, how will you dress him ?

PiscATOR. I'll tell you by-and-by, when I have caught him.
Look you here, Sir, do you see "i but you must stand very close,
there lie upon the top of the water, in this very hole, twenty
Chubs. I'll catch only one, and that shall be the biggest of them
all : and that I will do so, I'll hold you twenty to one, and you
shall see it done.

Venator. Ay, marry ! Sir, now you talk like an artist ; and
I'll say you are one, when I shall see you perform what you say
you can do : but I yet doubt it.

Piscator. You shall not doubt it long ; for you shall see me
do it presently. Look ! the biggest of these Chubs has had some
bruise upon his tail, by a Pike or some other accident ; and that
looks like a white spot. That very Chub I mean to put into your
hands presently ; ^ sit you but down in the shade, and stay but a
little while ; and I'll warrant you I'll bring him to you.

Venator. I'll sit down ; and hope well, because you seem to
be so confident.

Piscator. Look you, Sir, there is a trial of my skill ; there he
is : that very Chub, that I showed you, with the white spot on his
tail. And I'll be as certain to make him a good dish of meat as
I was to catch him : I'll now lead you to an honest alehouse,
where we shall find a cleanly room, lavender in the windows, and
twenty ballads stuck about the wall. There my hostess, which I
may tell you is both cleanly, and handsome, and civil, hath
dressed "^ many a one for me ; and shall now dress it after my
fashion, and I warrant it good meat.*

Venator. Come, Sir, with all my heart, for I begin to be
hungry, and long to be at it, and indeed to rest myself too ; for
though I have walked but four miles this morning, yet I begin to
be weary ; yesterday's hunting hangs still upon me.

Piscator. Well, Sir, and you shall quickly be at rest, for
yonder is the house I mean to bring you to.

VARIATIONS.

* I mean to catch, sit you, &c. — xst and zd edit.

7 There my hostess, which I may tell you is both cleanly and conveniently handsome,
has dressed, &c. — ist edit.

* The word *' meat" was then used synonymously with food. Thus corn and hay for
horses were called horse-meat.

66 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

Come, hostess, how do you ? Will you first give us a cup of
your best drink,^ and then dress this Chub, as you dressed my
last, when I and my friend were here about eight or ten days ago ?
But you must do me one courtesy, it must be done instantly.

Hostess. I will do it, Mr Piscator, and with all the speed I can.

PiSCATOR. Now, Sir, has not my hostess made haste ? and
does not the fish look lovely ?

Venator. Both, upon my word, Sir ; and therefore let's say
grace and fall to eating of it.

Piscator. Well, Sir, how do you like it ?

Venator. Trust me, 'tis as good meat as I ever tasted. Now
let me thank you for it, drink to you and beg a courtesy of you ;
but it must not be denied me.

Piscator. What is it, I pray, Sir ? You are so modest, that
methinks I may promise to grant it before it is asked.

Venator. Why, Sir, it is that from henceforth you would
allow me to call you Master, and that really I may be your
scholar; for you are such a companion, and have so quickly
caught and so excellently cooked this fish, as makes me ambitious
to be your scholar.

Piscator. Give me your hand; from this time forward I
will be your Master, and teach you as much of this art as I am
able ; and will, as you desire me, tell you somewhat of the nature
of most of the fish that we are to angle for, and I am sure I both
can and will tell you more than any common angler yet knows. ^

The Chub though he eat well, thus dressed, yet
to"fishfor,'and°tJ ^s he is usually dressed, he does not. He is
dress, the Cha- objected against, not only for being full of small

vender or Chub. ^ i i i t i i i n i • -i i ,

forked bones, dispersed through all his body, but
that he eats waterish, and that the flesh of him is not firm, but
short and tasteless. The French esteem him so mean, as to call

VARIATIONS.

8 your best ale, and, &c.— is^ and zd edit.

9 In \.\\ei first edition tlie next paragraph is : —

And first I will tell you how you shall catch such a Chub as this was ; and then how
to cook him as this was. I could not have begun to teach you to catch any fish more
easily than this fish is caught ; but then it must be this particular way, and this you
must do : —

Go to the same hole, where in most hot days you will find floating near the top of the
water at least a dozen or twenty Chubs ; get a grasshopper or two as you go, and get
secretly behind the tree, put it then upon your hook, and let your hook Jiang a quarter
of a yard short of the top of the water, and 'tis very likely that the shadow of your rod,
which you must rest on the tree, will cause the Chubs to sink down to the bottom with
fear ; for they be a very fearful fish, and the shadow of a bird flying over them will make
them do so ; but they will presently rise up to the top again, and there lie soaring till
some shadow affrights them again : when they lie upon the top of the water, &c.

CHAP. III.] THE THIRD DAY. 67

him Utt Villain; nevertheless he may be so dressed as to make
him very good meat ; as, namely, if he be a large Chub, then
dress him thus : —

First, scale him, and then wash him clean, and then take out
his guts ; and to that end make the hole as httle, and near to his
gills, as you may conveniently, and especially make clean his
throat from the grass and weeds that are usually in it ; for if that
be not very clean, it will make him to taste very sour. Having
so done, put some sweet herbs into his belly ; and then tie him
with two or three splinters to a spit, and roast him, basted often
with vinegar, or rather verjuice and butter, with good store of salt
mixed with it.

Being thus dressed, you will find him a much better dish of
meat than you, or most folk, even than anglers themselves, do
imagine : for this dries up the fluid wateiy humour with which all
Chubs do abound. But take this rule with you, That a Chub
newly taken and newly dressed, is so much better than a Chub
of a day's keeping after he is dead, that I can compare him to
nothing so fitly as to cherries newly gathered from a tree, and
others that have been bruised and lain a day or two in water.
But the Chub being thus used, and dressed presently ; and not
washed after he is gutted, for note, that lying long in water, and
washing the blood out of any fish after they be gutted, abates
much of their sweetness ; you will find the Chub, being dressed
in the blood, and quickly, to be such meat as will recompense
your labour, and disabuse your opinion.

Or you may dress the Chavender or Chub thus : —

When you have scaled him, and cut off his tail and fins, and
washed him very clean, then chine or slit him through the middle,
as a salt fish is usually cut ; then give him three or four cuts or
scotches on the back with your knife, and broil him on charcoal,
or wood coal, that are free from smoke : and all the time he is a-
broiling, baste him with the best sweet butter, and good store of
salt mixed with it. And to this add a little thyme cut exceeding
small, or bruised into the butter. The Cheven thus dressed hath
the watery taste taken away, for which so many except against
him. Thus was the Cheven dressed that you now liked so well,
and commended so much. But note again, that if this Chub that
you eat of had been kept till to-morrow, he had not been worth a
rush. And remember, that his throat be washed very clean, I
say very clean, and his body not washed after he is gutted, as
indeed no fish should be.

68 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

Well, scholar, you see what pains I have taken to recover the
lost credit of the poor despised Chub. And now I will give you
some rules how to catch him : and I am glad to enter you into
the art of fishing by catching a Chub, for there is no fish better
to enter a young Angler, he is so easily caught, but then it must
be this particular way : —

Go to the same hole in which I caught my Chub, where, in
most hot days, you will find a dozen or twenty Chevens floating
near the top of the water. Get two or three grasshoppers, as you
go over the meadow : and get secretly behind the tree, and stand
as free from motion as is possible. Then put a grasshopper on
your hook, and let your hook hang a quarter of a yard short of
the water, to which end you must rest your rod on some bough
of the tree. But it is likely the Chubs will sink down towards
the bottom of the water, at the first shadow of your rod (for Chub
is the fearfullest of fishes), and will do so if but a bird flies over him
and makes the least shadow on the water ; but they will presently
rise up to the top again, and there lie soaring till some shadow
affrights them again. I say, when they lie upon the top of the
water, look out the best Chub, which you, setting yourself in a fit
place, may very easily see, and move your rod, as softly as a snail
moves, to that Chub you intend to catch ; let your bait fall gently
upon the water three or four inches before him, and he will
infallibly take the bait. And you will be as sure to catch him ;
for he is one of the leather-mouthed fishes, of which a hook does
scarce ever lose its hold ; and therefore give him play enough
before you offer to take him out of the water. Go your way
presently ; take my rod, and do as I bid you ; and I will sit
down and mend my tackling till you return back.

Venator. Truly, my loving master, you have offered me as
fair as I could wish. I'll go and observe your directions.

Look you, master, what I have done, that which joys my heart,
caught just such another Chub as yours M^as.

PiSCATOR. Marry, and I am glad of it : I am like to have a
towardly scholar of you. I now see, that with advice and practice,
you will make an Angler in a short time. Have but a love to it ;
and I'll warrant you.

Venator. But, master ! what if I could not have found a
grasshopper ?

PiSCATOR. Then I may tell you, That a black snail, with his
belly slit to show his white, or a piece of soft cheese, will usually
do as well. Nay, sometimes a worm, or any kind of fly, as the ant-

^tH^^cn/ a^<ic-/n.e^ cn>oc4^ a^ /ucuyht ,u/tt^ .

CHAP. III.] THE THIRD DAY. 69

fly, the flesh-fly, or wall-fly ; or the dor or beetle, which you may
find under cow-dung ; or a bob, which you will find in the same
place, and in time will be a beetle ; it is a short white worm, like
to and bigger than a gentle ; or a cod-worm ; or a case-worm ;
any of these will do very well to fish in such a manner.

And after this manner you may catch a Trout in a hot evening :
when, as you walk by a brook, and shall see or hear him leap at
flies, then, if you get a grasshopper, put it on your hook, with
your line about two yards long ; standing behind a bush or tree
where his hole is : and make your bait stir up and down on the
top of the water. You may, if you stand close, be sure of a bite,
but not sure to catch him, for he is not a leather-mouthed fish.
And after this manner you may fish for him with almost any kind
of live fly, but especially with a grasshopper.

Venator. But before you go further, I pray, good master,
what mean you by a leather-mouthed fish ?

PiSCATOR. By a leather-mouthed fish, I mean such as have
their teeth in their throat, as the Chub or Cheven ; and so
the Barbel, the Gudgeon, and Carp, and divers others have. And
the hook being stuck into the leather, or skin, of the mouth of
such fish, does very seldom or never lose its hold : but on the
contrary, a Pike, a Perch, or Trout, and so some other fish, which
have not their teeth in their throats, but in their mouths, which
you shall observe to be very full of bones, and the skin very thin,
and little of it. I say, of these fish the hook never takes so sure
hold but you often lose your fish, unless he have gorged it.

Venator. I thank you, good master, for this observation.
But now what shall be done with my Chub or Cheven that I have
caught ?

PiSCATOR. Marry, Sir, it shall be given away to some poor
body ; for I'll warrant you I'll give you a Trout for your supper :
and it is a good beginning of your art to oft'er your first-fruits to
the poor, who will both thank you and God for it,i which I see

VARIATION.

1 To the poor, who will both thank God and you for if.

And now let's walk towards the water again, and as I go I'll tell you, when you catch
yviur next Chub, how to dress it as this was.

Viator. Come, good Master, I long to be going and learn your directions.

Piscator. You must dress it, or see it dressed thus : When you have scaled him,
wash him very clean, cut off his tail and fins ; and wash him not after you gut him, but
chine or cut him through the middle as a salt fish is cut, then give him four or five
scotches with your knife, broil him upon wood, coal, or charcoal ; but as he is broiling,
baste him often with butter that shall be choicely good ; and put good store of salt into
your butter, or salt him gently as you broil or baste him ; and bruise or cut very small
into your butter a little thyme, or some other sweet herb that is in the garden where you
eat him : thus used, it takes away the waterish taste which the Chub or Cheven has, and

70 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part r.

by your silence you seem to consent to. And for your willingness
to part with it so charitably, I will also teach more concerning
Chub-fishing. You are to note that in March and April he is
usually taken with worms ; in May, June, and July, he will bite
at any fly, or at cherries, or at beetles with their legs and wings
cut off, or at any kind of snail, or at the black bee that breeds in
clay walls. And he never refuses a grasshopper, on the top of a
swift stream,* nor, at the bottom, the young humble bee that
breeds in long grass, and is ordinarily found by the mower of it.
In August, and in the cooler mcnths, a yellow paste, made of the
strongest cheese, and pounded in a mortar, with a httle butter and
saffron, so much of it as, being beaten small, will turn it to a
lemon colour. And some make a paste for the winter months, at
which time the Chub is accounted best, for then it is observed
that the forked bones are lost, or turned into a kind of gristle,
especially if he be baked, of cheese and turpentine.^ He will bite
also at a minnow, or penk,f as a Trout will : of which I shall tell
you more hereafter, and of divers other baits. But take this for a
rule, that, in hot weather, he is to be fished for towards the mid-

VARIATIONS.

makes him a choice dish of meat, as you yourself know ; for thus was that dressed which
you did eat of to your dinner.

Or you may (for variety) dress a Chub another way, and you will find him very good,
and his tongue and head almost as good as a Carp's : but then you must be sure that no
grass or weeds be left in his mouth or throat.

Thus you must dress him : Slit him through the middle, then cut him into four pieces;
then put him into a pewter dish, and cover him with another, put into him as much
white wine as will cover him, or spring water and vinegar, and store of salt, with some
branches of thyme, and other sweet herbs ; let him then be boiled gently over a chafing
dish with wood coals, and when he is almost boiled enough, put half of the liquor from
him, not the top of it ; put then into him a convenient quantity of the best butter you
can get, with a little nutmeg grated into it, and sippets of white bread ; thus ordered,
you will find the Cheven and the sauce too a choice dish of meat : and I have been the
more careful to give you a perfect direction how to dress him, because he is a fish
undervalued by many, and I would gladly restore him to some of his credit which he has
lost by ill cookery.

Viator. But, Master, have j'ou no other way to catch a Cheven or Chub?

Piscator. Yes, that I have, but I must take time to tell it you hereafter ; or indeed,
you must learn it by observation and practice, though this way that I have taught you
was the easiest to catch a Chub, at this time, and at this place. And now we are come
again to the river, I will (as the soldier says) prepare for skirmish ; that is, draw out my
tackling, and try to catch a Trout for supper.

Viator. Trust me. Master, I see now it is a harder matter to catch a Trout than a
Chub, &c.

2 if he baked with a paste made of cheese and turpentine. — id, 2^, and ^th edit.

* In the Thames above Richmond, the best way of using the grasshopper for Chub is
to fish with it as with an artificial fly ; the first joints of the legs must be pinched off,
and in this way, when the weed is rotten, which is seldom till September, the largest
Dace are taken. — H.

t In "Practical Observations on Angling in the River Trent," i2mo, Newark, 1801,
p. 42, it is said, "Chub will also take small Gudgeons in the way you troll for Pike ;
the hook ought not to be so heavy leaded upon the shank ; they gorge immediately on
taking the bait." — E.

I

CHAP. IV.] THE THIRD DA K. 71

water, or near the top ; and in colder weather, nearer the bottom ;
and if you fish for him on the top, with a beetle, or any fly, then
be sure to let your line be very long, and to keep out of sight. And
having told you that his spawn is excellent meat, and that the
head of a large Cheven, the throat being well washed, is the best
part of him, I will say no more of this fish at the present, but
wish you may catch the next you fish for. 3

But, lest you may judge me too nice in urging to have the
Chub dressed so presently after he is taken, I will commend to
your consideration how curious former times have been in the
like kind.

You shall read in Seneca, his " Natural Questions," * that the
ancients were so curious in the newness of their fish, that that
seemed not new enough that was not put alive into the guest's
hand ; and he says that to that end they did usually keep them
living in glass bottles in their dining-rooms, and they did glory
much in their entertaining of friends, to have that fish taken from
under their table alive that was instantly to be fed upon ; and he
says they took great pleasure to see their Mullets change to
several colours when they were dying. But enough of this ; for
I doubt I have stayed too long from giving you some Observations
of the Trout, and how to fish for him, which shall take up the
next of my spare time.f

PiscATOR. The Trout is a fish highly valued,
Sje^NatiTe and ^°^^^ ^^ *^^^ ^^^ foreign nations. He may be
Breeding of the justly Said, as the old poct Said of wine, and we

Trout, and how t- t i. r • ^ t. /? i_

to fish for him. English Say of venison, to be a generous fish : a
fish that is so like the buck, that he also has his
seasons ; for it is observed that he comes in and goes out of
season with the stag and buck. Gesner says his name is of a
German offspring ; and says he is a fish that feeds clean and
purely, in the swiftest streams, and on the hardest gravel ; and
that he may justly contend with all fresh-water fish, as the Mullet

VARIATION.

3 the next you fish for. And now my next observation and direction shall be concern-
ing the Trout (which I love to angle for above any fish). But lest you, &c.— ar/, yl, and
^tli edit.

* Lib. iii. cap. 17.

t The haunts of the Chub are streams shaded with trees : in summer, deep holes,
where they will sometimes float near the surface of the water, and under the boughs on
the side of a bank. Their spawning-time is towards the beginning of April : they are in
season from about the middle of May till the middle of February ; but are best in winter.
At mid-water, and at bottom, use a float ; at top, either dib, or, if you have room, use
the fly-line, as for Trout. They are so eager, in biting, that, when they take the bait,
you may hear their jaws chop like those of a dog. — H.

72 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

may with all sea fish, for precedency and daintiness of taste ; and
that being in right season, the most dainty palates have allowed
precedency to him.

And before I go farther in my discourse, let me tell you, that
you are to observe, that as there be some barren does that are
good in summer, so there be some barren Trouts that are good
in winter ; but there are not many that are so ; for usually they
be in their perfection in the month of May, and decline with the
buck. Now you are to take notice, that in several countries,
as in Germany, and in other parts, compared to ours, fish do
differ much in their bigness, and shape, and other ways ; and so
do Trouts. It is well known that in the Lake Leman, the Lake
of Geneva, there are Trouts taken of three cubits long ; as is
affirmed by Gesner, a writer of good credit : and Mercator * says,
the Trouts that are taken in the Lake of Geneva are a great part
of the merchandise of that famous city. And you are further to
know, that there be certain waters that breed Trouts remarkable,
both for their number and smallness. I know a little brook in
Kent that breeds them to a number incredible, and you may
take them twenty or forty in an hour, but none greater than about
the size of a Gudgeon. There are also, in divers rivers, especially
that relate to, or be near to the sea, as Winchester, or the Thames
about Windsor, a little Trout called a Samlet, or Skegger Trout,
in both which places I have caught twenty or forty at a standing,
that will bite as fast and as freely as Minnows : these be by some
taken to be young Salmons ; but, in those waters they never grow
to be bigger than a Herring.

There is also in Kent, near to Canterbury, a Trout called there
a Fordidge Trout, a Trout that bears the name of the town where
it is usually caught, that is accounted the rarest of fish ; * many
of them near the bigness of a Salmon, but known by their differ-
ent colour ; and in their best season they cut very white : and
none of these have been known to be caught with an angle, unless
it were one that was caught by Sir George Hastings, an excellent
angler, and now with God : f and he hath told me, he thought

Variation.] * accounted rare meat ; many of them, &c.— 2^, -^d, and /^th edit.

* Gerard Mercator, of Ruremond in Flanders, a man of such intense application to
mathematical studies, that he neglected the necessary refreshments of nature. He
engraved with his own hand, and coloured the maps to his geographical writings. He
wrote several books of Theology ; and died in 1594.— H.

t Apparently Sir George Hastings, son and heir of the celebrated Henry Hastings, of
Woodlands, second son of George, 4th Earl of Huntingdon. Sir George Hastings died
25th October 1651, aet. 63. — CoUini Peerage, ed. 1779, vol. iii. p. 97.

CHAP. IV.] THE THIRD DAY. 73

that Trout bit not for hunger but wantonness ; and it is the
rather to be believed, because both he then, and many others
before him, have been curious to search into their bellies, what
the food was by which they lived ; and have found out nothing by
which they might satisfy their curiosity.

Concerning which you are to take notice, that it is reported by
good authors,^ that grasshoppers * and some fish have no mouths,
but are nourished and take breath by the porousness of their
gills, man knows not how : and this may be believed, if we con-
sider that when the raven hath hatched her eggs, she takes no
further care, but leaves her young ones to the care of the God of
nature, who is said, in the Psalms, " to feed the young ravens
that call upon him.'' And they be kept alive and fed by a dew ;
or worms that breed in their nests ; or some other ways that we
mortals know not. And this may be believed of the Fordidge
Trout, which, as it is said of the stork, that he knows his season,
so he knows his times, I think almost his day of coming into
that river out of the sea ; where he lives, and, it is like, feeds,
nine months of the year, and fasts three in the river of Fordidge,
And you are to note, that those townsmen are very punctual in
observing the time of beginning to fish for them ; and boast much,
that their river affords a Trout that exceeds all others. And just
so does Sussex boast of several fish ; as, namely, a Shelsey
Cockle, a Chichester Lobster, an Arundel Mullet, and an Amerly
Trout.

And, now, for some confirmation of the Fordidge Trout : you
are to know that this Trout is thought to eat nothing in the fresh
water; and it may be the better believed, because it is well
known, that swallows, and bats, and wagtails, which are called

VARIATION.

* That there is a fish that hath not any mouth, but lives by taking breath by the
porings of her gills, and feeds and is nouiished by no man Knows what, and this may be
believed of the Fordidge Trout, &c. — 2</, yi, and 4th edit.

* It has been said by naturalists, particularly by Sir Theodore Mayerne, in an Epistle
to Sir William Paddy, prefixed to the translation of Mouffet's Theatr. Insect, printed
with Topsel's History 0/ four-footed Beasts and Serpents, that the grasshopper has no
mouth, but a pipe in his breast, through which it sucks the dew, which is its nutriment.
There are two sorts, the green and the dun ; some say there is a third, of a yellowish

Seen. They are found in fong grass, from June to the end of September, and even in
ctober, if the weather be mild. In the middle of May, you will see, in the joints of
rosemary, thistles, and almost all the larger weeds, a white fermented froth, which the
country-people call Cuckow's Spit ; in these the eggs of the grasshopper are deposited ;
and if you examine them, you will never fail in finding a yellowish insect, of about the
size and shape of a grain of wheat, which, doubtless, is the young grasshopper. A
passage to this purport is in Leigh's History of Lancashire, page 148. — H.

74 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

half-year birds, and ^ not seen to fly in England for six months
in a year, but about Michaelmas leave us for a hotter climate,
yet some of them that have been left behind their fellows, have
been found, many thousands at a time, in hollow trees,^ or clay
caves, where they have been observed to live, and sleep out the
whole winter, without meat."^ And so Albertus t observes. That
there is one kind of frog \ that hath her mouth naturally shut up
about the end of August, and that she lives so all the winter :
and though it be strange to some, yet it is known to too many
among us to be doubted. §

And so much for these Fordidge Trouts, which never afford an
angler sport, but either live their time of being in the fresh water,
by their meat formerly gotten in the sea, not unlike the swallow
or frog, or, by the virtue of the fresh water only ; or, as the birds
of Paradise and the cameleon are said to live, by the sun and the
air. II

There is also in Northumberland a Trout called a Bull-trout,
of a much greater length and bigness than any in these southern
parts ; and there are, in many rivers that relate to the sea, Salmon-
trouts, as much different from others, both in shape and in their
spots, as we see sheep in some countries differ one from another
in their shape and bigness, and in the fineness of the wool : and,
certainly, as some pastures breed larger sheep ; so do some
rivers, by reason of the ground over which they run, breed larger
Trouts.

Now the next thing that I will commend to your consideration
is, that the Trout is of a more sudden growth than other fish.
Concerning which, you are also to take notice, that he lives not
so long as the Pearch, and divers other fishes do, as Sir Francis
Bacon hath observed in his History of Life and Death.

And next you are to take notice, that ^ he is not like the

VARIATIONS.

* that swallows, which are not seen to fly, &c. — 2^, -^d, and ^th edit.

7 hollow trees, where they, &c. — ^d, ■>>d, and \th edit.

8 that after he is come, &c. — 7.d, 2,d, and i,th edit.

* View Sir Francis Bacon, Exper. 899.

t Albertus Magnus, a German Dominican, and a very learned man. Urban IV.
compelled him to accept of the bishopric of Ratisbon. He wrote a treatise on tJie
Secrets of Nature, and twenty other volumes in folio ; and'died at Cologfte, 1280.— H.

X See Topsel on Frogs. Edward Topsel was the author of a History of four-footed
Beasts and Serpents, collected out of the works of Gesner, and other authors, in folio,
Lond. 1658. In this history he describes the several kinds of frogs ; and in page 721
thereof cites from Albertus the fact here related.— H. § See Chap. VIII.

II That the Catneleon lives by the air alone is a vulgar error, it being well known that
its food is flies and other insects. — H.

CHAP. IV.] THE THIRD DA K 7$

Crocodile, which if he lives never so long, yet always thrives till
his death : but His not so with the Trout ; for after he is come to
his full growth, he declines in his body, and keeps his bigness, or
thrives only in his head till his death. And you are to know,
that he will, about, especially before, the time of his spawning,
get, almost miraculously, through weirs and flood-gates, against
the stream ; even through such high and swift places as is almost
incredible. Next, that the Trout usually spawns about October
or November, but in some rivers a little sooner or later ; which
is the more observable, because most other fish spawn in the
spring or summer, when the sun hath warmed both the earth and
water, and made it fit for generation. And you are to note, that
he continues many months out of season ; for it may be observed
of the Trout, that he is hke the Buck or the Ox, that will not be
fat in many months, though he go in the very same pastures that
horses do, which will be fat in one month : and so you may
observe, That most other fishes recover strength, and grow
sooner fat and in season than the Trout doth.

And next you are to note. That till the sun gets to such a
height as to warm the earth and the water, the Trout is sick, and
lean, and lousy, and unwholesome ; for you shall, in winter, find
him to have a big head, and then to be lank and thin and lean ;
at which time many of them have sticking on them Sugs, or
Trout-slice ; which is a kind of a worm, in shape like a clove, or
pin with a big head, and sticks close to him, and sucks his mois-
ture ; those, I think, the Trout breeds himself : and never thrives
till he free himself from them, which is when warm weather
comes ; and then, as he grows stronger, he gets from the dead
still water into the sharp streams and the gravel, and there
rubs off these worms or lice ; and then, as he grows stronger,
so he gets him into swifter and swifter streams, and there lies
at the watch for any fly or minnow that comes near to him ;
and he especially loves the May-fly, which is bred of the cod-
worm, or cadis ; and these make the Trout bold and lusty,
and he is usually fatter and better meat at the end of that month
than at any time of the year.

Now you are to know that it is observed, that usually the best
Trouts are either red or yellow ; though some, as the Fordidge
Trout, be white and yet good ; but that is not usual : and it is a
note observable, that the female Trout hath usually a less head,
and a deeper body than the male Trout, and is usually the better
meat. And note, that a hog-back and a little head, to either

76 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

Trout, Salmon, or any other fish, is a sign that that fish is in
season.^

But yet you are to note, that as you see some willows or palm-
trees bud and blossom sooner than others do, so some Trouts be,
in rivers, sooner in season : and as some hollies, or oaks, are
longer before they cast their leaves, so are some Trouts, in rivers,
longer before they go out of season.

And you are to note, that there are several kinds of Trouts :
but these several kinds are not considered but by very few men ;
for they go imder the general name of Trouts : just as pigeons
do, in most places ; though it is certain, there are tame and wild
pigeons : and of the tame, there be helmits and runts, and
carriers and cropers, and indeed too many to name. Nay, the
Royal Society have found and published lately, that there be
thirty-and-three kinds of spiders ; and yet all, for aught I
know, go under that one general name of spider. And it is so
with many kinds of fish, and of Trouts especially ; which differ
in their bigness, and shape, and spots, and colour. ^ The great
Kentish hens may be an instance, compared to other hens : and,
doubtless, there is a kind of small Trout, which will never thrive
to be big ; that breeds very many more than others do, that be
of a larger size : which you may rather believe, if you consider
that the little wren and titmouse will have twenty young ones at
a time, when, usually, the noble hawk, or the musical thrassel
or blackbird, exceed not four or five.

And now you shall see me try my skill to catch a Trout ; and
at my next walking, either this evening or to-morrow morning, I
will give you direction how you yourself shall fish for him.

Venator. Trust me, master, I see now it is a harder matter
to catch a Trout than a Chub : for I have put on patience, and
followed you these two hours, and not seen a fish stir, neither at
your minnow nor your worm.

PiSCATOR. Well, scholar, you must endure worse luck some-
time, or you will never make a good angler. But what say you
now .? there is a Trout now, and a good one too, if I can but
hold him ; and two or three turns more will tire him. Now you
see he lies still, and the sleight is to land him : reach me that

VARIATIONS.

9 male Trout. And a hog-back and a little head, to any fish, either Trout, &c. — id,
yl, and j^th edit.

^ And you are to note that there are several kinds of Trouts, though they all go under
that general name ; just as there be tame and wild pigeons : and of tame there be
cropers, carriers, runts, and too many to name, which all differ, and so do Trouts, in
their bigness, shape, and colour. The great Kentish, &c. — id, 3^', a7td 4th edit.

CHAP. IV.] THE THIRD DAY. 77

landing-net. So, Sir, now he is mine own : what say you now,
is not this worth all my labour and your patience ? ^

Venator. On my word, master, this is a gallant Trout ;
what shall we do with him .'*

PiSCATOR. Marry, e'en eat him to supper : we'll go to my
hostess from whence we came ; she told me, as I was going out
of door, that my brother Peter, a good angler and a cheerful
companion, had sent word he would lodge there to-night, and
bring a friend with him. My hostess has two beds, and I know
you and I may have the best : we'll rejoice with my brother
Peter and his friend, tell tales, or sing ballads, or make a catch,
or find some harmless sport to content us,^ and pass away a
little time without offence to God or man.

Venator. A match, good master, let's go to that house, for
the linen looks white, and smells of lavender, and I long to lie
in a pair of sheets that smell so. Let's be going, good master,
for I am hungry again with fishing.

Piscator. Nay, stay a little, good scholar. I caught my
last Trout with a worm ; now I will put on a minnow, and try
a quarter of an hour about yonder trees for another ; and, so,
walk towards our lodging. Look you, scholar, thereabout we
shall have a bite presently, or not at all. Have with you. Sir :
o' my word I have hold of him. Oh ! it is a great logger-headed
Chub ; come, hang him upon that willow twig, and let's be
going. But turn out of the way a little, good scholar ! towards
yonder high honeysuckle hedge ; there we'll sit and sing, whilst
this shower* falls so gently upon the teeming earth, and gives
yet a sweeter smell to the lovely flowers that adorn these verdant
meadows.

Look ! under that broad beech-tree I sat down, when I was
last this way a-fishing; and the birds in the adjoining grove seemed
to have a friendly contention with an echo, whose dead voice
seemed to live in a hollow tree ^ near to the brow of that prim-
rose-hill. There I sat viewing the silver streams glide silently
towards their centre, the tempestuous sea ; yet sometimes
opposed by rugged roots and pebble-stones, which broke their
waves, and turned them into foam ; and sometimes I beguiled
time by viewing ^ the harmless lambs ; some leaping securely in

VARIATIONS.

* and your patience ?— srf edit. 3 " and pass away,"—" or man."— 2</ edit.

* toward yonder high hedge, we'll sit whilst this shower, &C.-'isi, 2d, ^ct, and ^th edit.

5 cave. — 1st, 2d, 2d, and ^th edit.

6 and sometimes viewing, &c.— is/, 2d, 2d, and i,th edit.

II

78 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [rARri.

the cool shade, whilst others sported themselves in the cheerful
sun ; and saw others craving comfort from the swollen udders
of their bleating dams. As I thus sat, these and other sights
had so fully possest my soul with content, that I thought, as the
poet has happily exprest it,

I was for that time lifted above earth ;
And possest joys not promis'd in my birth.

As I left this place, and entered into the next field, a second
pleasure entertained me ; 'twas a handsome milkmaid, that had ''
not yet attained so much age and wisdom as to load her mind
with any fears of many things that will never be, as too many
men too often do ; but she cast away all care, and sung like a
nightingale. Her voice was good, and the ditty fitted for it ; it
was that smooth song which was made by Kit Marlow,* now at
least fifty years ago ; and the milkmaid's mother sung an answer
to it, which was made by Sir Walter Raleigh, in his younger
days. They were old-fashioned poetry, but choicely good ; I
think much better than the strong lines that are now in fashion ^
in this critical age. Look yonder ! on my word, yonder they
both be a-milking again. I will give her the Chub, and persuade
them to sing those two songs to us.

God speed you, good woman ! I have been a-fishing ; and am
going to Bleak Hallf to my bed; and having caught more fish
than will sup myself and my friend, I will bestow this upon you
and your daughter, for I use to sell none.

MiLKWOMAN. Marry ! God requite you, Sir, and we'll eat it
cheerfully.^ And if you come this way a-fishing two months
hence, a grace of God ! I'll give you a syllabub of new verjuice,

VARIATIONS.

7 that had cast away all care, and sung, &e. — ist, 2^, -^d, and d^th edit.

8 better than that now in fashion. — \st, -zd, 3^, a7id A,tn edit.
^ cheerfully. Will you drink a draught of red cow's milk ?
Piscator. No, I thank you, &c.'— i^-^ edit.

* Christopher Marlow was a poet of some eminence, as may be inferred from the
frequent mention of him in the writings of his contemporaries. He was sometime a
student at Cambridge, and, after that, an actor on, and writer for, the stage. There are
extant, of his writing, five tragedies ; and a poem that bears his name, entitled Hero and
Leander (possibly a translation from Musaeus), which, he not living to complete it, was
finished by Chapman. Some remarks will be found in a subsequent page on the song
mentioned by Walton. Of Marlow it is said that he was the author of divers atheistical
and blasphemous discourses ; and that in a quarrel with a serving-man, his rival in a
connection with a lewd woman, he received a stab with a dagger, and shortly after died
of the stroke. Wood, Athen. Oxon. vol. i. 338. — H. Marlowe's Dramatic and other
Poetical Works have been collected, with some Account of his Life, by George Robinson,
Esq., 3 vols. cr. 8vo, Lond. 1826.

t A fishing-house on the banks of the Lea, about one mile from Edmonton, was called
Bleak Hall, and is presumed to be the place alluded to.

^ o

w

THE MILK MAIDS SONG
BY T. STOTHARD,R..A.

'(^6/9y?,€y <^yrlt:UC€::6^'.

■?9y, j^^C'^^^^^/C^y Ay/W- j/z^y/-'/

//Z?:*?*'-^'

I

CHAP. IV.] THE THIRD DAY. 79

in a new-made haycock, for it. And my Maudlin shall sing you
one of her best ballads ; for she and I both love all anglers, they
be such honest, civil, quiet men. In the meantime will you drink
a draught of red cow's milk .^ you shall have it freely.

PiSCATOR. No, I thank you ; but, I pray, do us a courtesy

that shall stand you and your daughter in nothing, and yet we will

" think ourselves still something in your debt : it is but to sing us

a song that was sung byi your daughter when I last passed over

this meadow, about eight or nine days since.

MiLKWOMAN. What song was it, I pray? Was it, "Come,
Shepherds, deck your herds " ? or, " As at noon Dulcina rested " ?
or, "Phillida flouts me"?^ or, " Chevy Chace " ? or, "Johnny
Armstrong " ? or, " Troy Town ".? *

PiSCATOR. No, it is none of those ; it is a song that your
daughter sung the first part, and you sung the answer to it.

MiLKWOMAN. O, I know it now. I learned the first part in
my golden age, when I was about the age of my poor^ daughter ;
and the latter part, which indeed fits me best now, but two or
three years ago, when the cares of the world began to take hold
of me : but you shall, God willing, hear them both ; * and sung as
well as we can, for we both love anglers. Come, Maudlin, sing
the first part to the gentlemen, with a merry heart ; and I'll sing
the second when you have done.^

Come, live with me, and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove,
That valleys, groves, or hills, or fields,'
^Or woods, and steepy mountains yields ;

VARIATIONS.

I by you and your daughter. — \sti id, -^d, and t,th edit,

* or "Chevy Chace"? or, "Johnny Armstrong" f or, "Troy Tovra"^^lHSgrUdiH<,th
edit.

' poor.— 5^A edit. * hear them both. Come, Maudlin.— s^A edit.

5 Milkwoman. O, I know it now, I learned the first part in my golden age. when I
was about the age of my daughter ; and the latter part, which indeed fits me oest, but
two or three years ago ; you shall, God willing, hear them both. Come, Maudlin, sing
the first part to the gentlemen with a merry heart, and I'll sing the second. — ist edit.

Variations from England's Helicon.] " groves, hills, and fields.
7 Woods, or steepie mountains yeelds.

• The songs, "As at Noon," " Chevy Chace," "Johnny Armstrong," and "Troy
Town," are printed in Percy's "Reliques of Ancient English Poetry ; " and "As at
Noon," in Durfey's Collection. "Phillida flouts me" is to be found in Ritson's
"Ancient Songs, from Henry III. to the Revolution " 1790, taken from the "Theatre of
Compliments; or, New Academy," Lond. 1689, i2nio; and "The Hive," a Collection
of Songs, vol. ii. p. 270. " Come, Shepherds," is not known. Ritson observes that
there is an answer to " Phillida flouts me," by A. Bradley, which is modern.

8o

THE COMPLETE ANGLER.

[pari I.

^ Where we will sit upon the rocks,
* And see the shepherds feed our ^ flocks,
By shallow rivers, to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.

And I will make thee beds of roses ;
2 And, then, a thousand fragrant posies ;
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle.
Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle ;

A gown made of the finest wool.
Which from our pretty lambs we pull ;
^ Slippers, lin'd choicely for the cold.
With buckles of the purest gold ;

A belt of straw and ivy-buds,
With coral clasps, and amber studs.
And if these pleasures may thee move.
Come, live with me, and be my love.

[Thy silver dishes, for thy meat,
As precious as the Gods do eat.
Shall, on an ivory table, be
Prepared each day for thee and me.]

The shepherd swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight, each May morning.
If these delights thy mind may move.
Then live with me, and be my love.*

VARIATIONS.

8 And we.

2 And a thousand.

9 Seeing.

3 Faire lined slippers.

1 their.

■* It has been much disputed whether this song was written by Christopher Marlowe
or by Shakespeare. The first time which it appeared in print, as far as can be traced,
was in " The Passionate Pilgrim and other Sonnets, by Mr William Shakespeare," printed
by Jaggard, in 1599, where it is thus given : —

Live with me, and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove.
That hills and valleys, dales and fields,
And all the craggy mountains yield.
There will we sit upon the rocks,
And see the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers, by whose falls.
Melodious birds sing madrigals.

There will I make thee a bed of roses,
With a thousand fragrant posies ;
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle.
Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle.

A belt of straw and yvye-buds,
With coral clasps, and amber studs ;
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Then live with me, and be my love.

LOVE'S ANSWER.

If that the world and love were young.

And truth in every shepherd's tongue,

These pretty pleasures might me move

To live with thee, and be thy love.
Several lines are also quoted in the " Merry Wives of Windsor," act iii. sc. i, which
was first printed in 1602, and upon this evidence it has, with much reason, been attri-
buted to Shakespeare. But in " England's Helicon," which was published in 1600, seven
years after Marlow^s death, the song occurs as printed by Walton (excepting the
trifling variations which have been pointed out), with the name of Christopher Marlowe
attached, and entitled '|The Passionate Shepherd to his Love." In the Jew of Malta,
however, a tragedy which was written by Marlowe before 1593, but not printed until
1633, he introduced the first line of the song in the following manner :—

CHAP. IV.] THE THIRD DAY. 81

Venator. Trust me, master, it is a choice song, and sweetly
sung by honest MaudHn.'* I now see it was not without cause
that our good queen Elizabeth did so often wish herself a milkmaid
all the month of May, because they are not troubled with fears
and cares, but sing sweetly all the day, and sleep securely all the
night : and without doubt, honest, innocent, pretty Maudlin does
so. I'll bestow Sir Thomas Overbury's milkmaid's wish upon

VARIATION.

* Viator. Trust me, master, it is a choice song, and sweetly sung by honest Maudh'n :
I'll bestow Sir Thomas Overbury's milkmaid's wish upon her, That she may die in the
Spring, and have good store of flowers stuck round about her winding-sheet. — ist edit.

"Thou in whose groves by Dis above,
Shall live with me, and be my love."

The fact that Walton calls it Marlowe's son^, is entitled to very little weight in deciding
by whom it was written, because it is certam that his authority for the assertion was
his finding Marlowe's name attached to it in " England's Helicon." In the second, and
every subsequent edition of the Angler, however, he added the sixth stanza, which,
as has been well observed, contains images that destroy the simplicity and pastoral
character of the piece. The "Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd," or as Walton calls it,
"The Milkmaid's Mother's Answer," which is assigned by Walton to Sir Walter
Raleigh, was also taken from "England's Helicon," where it was printed with the sig-
nature, " S. W. R.," but in most copies of that work those initials were pasted over,
and "Ignoto" substituted for them, which tends to prove that it was not written by
Raleigh ; and Walton's error probably arose from using a copy in which the alteration
had not been made. It is impossible to say who was the author of the "Nymph's
Reply;" but as the first stanza occurs in the poems attributed by Jaggard to Shake-
speare, at the end of "Come, live with me," entitled " Love's Answer," the evidence is
as strong in favour of his having written so much of it, as that he was the author of
"Come, live with me." Walton, it appears, also added the sixth stanza of the Reply
in the second and subsequent editions of the Angler.

If tho popularity of a song is to be estimated by the number of imitations of it,
" Come, live with me," must have been eminently popular, one of these beginning—

" Come, live with me, and be my dear,"
will be found in " England's Helicon." Dr Donne has imitated it in a poem, entitled
"The Bait," commencing —

*' Come, live with me, and be my love,
And we will some new pleasures prove,"
which Walton has introduced in the text. Chap. XII.

Herrick, in his Hesperides, vol. i. p. 269, ed. 1825 —

"Live, live with me, and thou shalt see."

The late editor of Marlowe's Works has printed the song, vol. iii. p. 419, apparently
from a different copy, in which there are few variations. The foUowbg is perhaps for
the better, I. 10 —

"And twine a thousand fragrant posies."

This ballad, Steevens remarks, appears to have furnished Milton with the hint for the
last lines of L'Allegro and Penseroso.

The tune to which |'Come, live with me" was sung. Sir John Hawkins discovered in
a MS. which he says is as old as Shakespeare's time, and will be found in Johnson and
Steevens's Shakespeare, ed. 1793, vol. iii. p. 402.

A ballad, entitled Queen Elinor, to the tune of " Come, live with me," is printed in
Dcloney's "Strange Histories, or Songes and Sonnets," izmo, 1607.

Nicolas Breton, in his " Poste with a Packet of Mad Letters," 1637, 4to, alludes to
it in these words: —

"You shall heare the old song that you were wont to like well of, sung by the black
browes with the cherrie-cheeke, under the side of the pide-cowe : Come, live with me,
and be my love : you know the rest, and so I rest,"

II

82 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

her, " that she may die in the Spring ; and, being dead, may have
good store ^ of flowers stuck round about her winding-sheet."*

If all ^ the world and love were young.
And truth in every shepherd's tongue,
These pretty pleasures might me move
To live with thee, and be thy love.

But time ^ drives flocks from field to fold ;
When rivers rage, and rocks grow cold ;
Then ^ Philomel becometh dumb ;
And age ^ complains of cares to come.

The flowers do fade, and wanton fields
To wayward winter reckoning yields.

VARIATIONS.

* and have good store, &c. — Until stk edit.

6 If that. — Shakespeare' s Sonnets.

7 Time drives the. — Englatid's Helicon.

8 And. — Angler, xst edit., and England^ s Helicon.

^ The rest. — Angler, xst edit., and Englattd's Helicon.

* ^'A/air and happy -milkmaid " is one of the " Characters" printed with Sir Thomas
Overbnry's "Wife," of which near twenty editions had been published before Walton
wrote his Angler. It is as follows ; —

"A Fair and Happy Milkmaid
Is a country wench, that is so far from making herself beautiful by art, that one look
of hers is able to put all face-physic out of countenance. She knows a fair look is but a
dumb orator to commend virtue, therefore minds it not. All her excellencies stand in
her so silently, as if they had stolen upon her without her knowledge. The lining of her
apparel (which is herself) is far better than outsides of tissue ; for though she be not
arrayed in the spoil of the silkworm, she is decked in innccency, a far better wearing.
She doth not, with lying long abed, spoil both her complexion and conditions ; nature
hath taught her too immoderate sleep is rust to the soul ; she rises therefore with
chanticleer, her dame's cock, and at night makes the lamb her curfew. In milking a
cow, and straining the teats through her lingers, it seems that so sweet a milk-press
makes the milk the whiter or sweeter ; for never came almond glue or aromatic ointment
of her palm to taint it. The golden ears of corn fall and kiss her feet when she reaps
them, as if they wished to be bound and led prisoners by the same hand that felled
them. Her breath is her own, which scents all the year long of June, like a new-made
haycock. She makes her hand hard with labour, and her heart soft with pity: and
when winter evenings fall early (sitting at her merry wheel) she sings defiance to the
wheel of Fortune. She doth all things with so sweet a grace, it seems ignorance will
not suffer her to do ill, being her mind is to do well. She bestows her year's wages at
next fair ; and in choosing her garments, counts no bravery in the world like decency.
The garden and beehive are all her physic and chirurgery, and she lives the longer for it.
She dares go alone, and unfold sheep in the night, and fears no manner of ill, because she
means none : yet to say truth, she is never alone, for she is still accompanied with old
songs, honest thoughts, and prayers, but short ones ; yet they have their efficacy, in that
they are not pauled with ensuing idle cogitations. Lastly, her dreams are so chaste, that
she dare tell them : only a Friday's dream is all her superstition : that she conceals
for fear of anger. Thus lives she, and all her care is she may die in Spring-time, to have
store of flowers stuck upon her winding-sheet." — i2th edit. 8vo, Lond. 1627. — E.

t The first stanza only of this song occurs in the " Passionate Pilgrim," but the whole
in " England's Helicon," excepting the sixth stanza, which was not printed in the firit
edition of the Angler. See note ante.

{

CHAP. IV.] THE THIRD DA Y. 83

A honey tongue, a heart of gall,
Is fancy's spring but sorrow's fall.

Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of roses.
Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies,
Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten ;
In folly ripe, in reason rotten.

Thy belt of straw, and ivy buds,
Thy coral clasps, and amber studs,
All these in me no means can move
To come to thee, and be thy love.

[What should we talk of dainties, then,
Of better meat than's fit for men ?
These are but vain : that's only good
Which God hath blessed, and sent for food.]

But could youth last, and love still breed j
Had joys no date, nor age no need ;
Then those delights my mind might move
To live with thee, and be thy love.

MOTHER.i Well ! I have done my song. But stay, honest
anglers ; for I will make Maudlin sing you one short song more.*
Maudlin ! sing that song that you sung last night, when young
Coridon the shepherd played so purely on his oaten pipe to you
and your cousin Betty.

Maudlin. I will, mother.

I married a wife of late,
The more's my unhappy fate :
I married her for love.
As my fancy did me move,
And not for a worldly estate :

But oh ! the green sickness
Soon changed her likeness j
And all her beauty did fail.
But 'tis not so
With those that go
Thro' frost and snow.
As all men know,
And carry the milking- pail.

PiSCATOR. Well sung, good woman ; I thank you. I'll give

^ This pas<;age, the reply, and the following song, occur, for the first time, in the
fifth edit. In the preceding editions, Piscator's commendation ''Well sung," &c., is
applied to the milkmaid's mother's answer.

* A song, entitled "The Bonny Milk Maid," in the same metre, is printed in Durfey's
Pills to purge Melancholy, vol. i. 1719, izmo.

84 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

you another dish of fish one of these days ; and then beg another
song of you. Come, scholar ! let Maudlin alone : do not you
offer to spoil her voice. Look ! yonder comes mine hostess, to
call us to supper. How now ! is my brother Peter come ?

Hostess. Yes, and a friend with him. They are both glad
to hear that you are in these parts, and long to see you ; ^ and
long to be at supper, for they be very hungry.

Chap. V. PiscATOR. WELL met, brother Peter ! I heard

On the Trout. yQ^ ^nd a friend would lodge here to-night ; and
that hath made^ me to bring my friend to lodge here too. My
friend is one that would fain be a brother of the angle : he hath
been an angler but this day ; and I have taught him how to catch
a Chub, by dapping with a grasshopper ; ^ and the Chub he caught
was a lusty one of nineteen inches long. But pray, brother Peter,
who is your companion 1

Peter. Brother Piscator, my friend is an honest countryman,
and his name is Coridon ; ^ and he is a downright witty companion,
that met me here purposely to be pleasant and eat a Trout ; and
I have not yet wetted my line since we met together : but I hope
to fit him with a Trout for his breakfast ; for I'll be early up.

Piscator. Nay, brother, you shall not stay so long ; for look
you ! here is a Trout will fill six reasonable bellies.

Come, hostess,^ dress it presently; and get us what other meat
the house will afford ; and give us some of your best barley-wine,
the good liquor that our honest ''^ forefathers did use to drink of;
the drink which preserved their health, and made them live so long,
and to do so many good deeds.

Peter. On my word, this Trout is perfect in season. Come,
I thank you, and here is a hearty draught to you, and to all the
brothers of the angle wheresoever they be, and to my young
brother's good fortu»ne to-morrow. I will furnish him with a rod,
if you will furnish him with the rest of the tackling : we will set

VARIATIONS.

2 long to see you, and are hungry, and long to be at supper.— TtH s^k edit.

3 hath made me and my friend cast to lodge here too. — Till e^th edit.

* grasshopper ; and he hath caught a lusty one of nineteen inches long. But I pray,
brother, who is it that is your companion?— T'iV/ 5^-4 edit.

* Coridon, a most downright, witty, and merry companion, that met me here purposely
to eat a Trout and to be pleasant, and I have not yet wet my line since I came from
home : but I will fit him to-morrow with a Trout for his breakfast, if the weather be
anything like.

Piscator. Nay, brother, you shall not delay him so long, for look you, here is a
ItqwX.— Till sth edit.

6 Come, hostess, dress it presently, and get us what other meat the house will afford,
and give us some good ale, and let's be merry.— uif edit.

7 that our good honest forefathers used to drink of, which preserved, &c — Till^th edit.

O

CHAP, v.] THE THIRD DA V, 85

him up, and make him a fisher. And I will tell him one thing
for his encouragement, that his fortune hath made him happy to
be scholar to such a master ; a master that knows as much, both
of the nature and breeding of fish, as any man ; and can also tell
him as well how to catch and cook them, from the Minnow to the
Salmon, as any that I ever met withal.

PiSCATOR. Trust me, brother Peter, I find my scholar to be
so suitable to my own humour, which is to be free and pleasant
and civilly merry, that my resolution is to hide nothing that I know
from him. Believe me, scholar, this is my resolution ; and so
here's to you a hearty draught, and to all that love us and the
honest art of Angling.

Venator. Trust me, good master, you shall not sow your
seed in barren ground ; for I hope to return you an increase
answerable to your hopes : but, however, you shall find me
obedient, and thankful, and serviceable to my best ability.

PiSCATOR. 'Tis enough, honest scholar ! come, let's to supper.
Come, my friend Coridon, this Trout looks lovely ; it was twenty-
two inches when it was taken ; and the belly of it looked, some
part of it, as yellow as a marigold, and part of it as white as a
lily ; and yet, methinks, it looks better in this good sauce.

Coridon. Indeed, honest friend, it looks well, and tastes
well : I thank you for it, and so doth my friend Peter, or else he
is to blame.

Peter. Yes, and so I do ; we all thank you : and when wo
have supped, I will get my friend Coridon to sing you a song for
requital.

Coridon. I will sing a song, if anybody will sing another :
else, to be plain with you, I will sing none. I am none of those
that sing for meat, but for company : I say,

"Tis merry in hall,
"When men sing all."*

PiSCATOR. I'll promise you I'll sing a song that was lately
made, at my request, by Mr William Basse ; one that hath made
the choice songs of the " Hunter in his career," and of ** Tom of
Bedlam," t and many others of note ; and this, that I will sing, is
in praise of Angling.

* A parody on the adage,

" It's merry in hall,
When beards wag all."
i.f., when all are eating. — H.

t This song, beginning " Forth from my sad and darksome cell," with the music to it,
set by Hen. Lawes, is printed in a book entitled Playford's^«/iV/o/^ against Melancholy,

THE COMPLETE ANGLER.

[part r.

CORIDON. And then mine shall be the praise of a Country-
man's life. What will the rest sing of?

Peter. I will promise you, I will sing another song in praise
of Angling to-morrow night ; for we will not part till then ; but
fish to-morrow, and sup together : and the next day every man
leave fishing, and fall to his business.

Venator. 'Tis a match ; and I will provide you a song or a
catch against then, too, which shall give some addition of mirth
to the company ; for we will be civil and as merry ^ as beggars.

PiSCATOR. 'Tis a match, my masters. Let's e'en say grace,
and turn to the fire, drink the other cup to. whet our whistles, and
so sing away all sad thoughts. Come on, my masters, who
begins 1 I think it is best to draw cuts, and avoid contention.

Peter. It is a match. Look, the shortest cut falls to Coridon.

CORIDON. Well, then, I will begin, for I hate contention.

CoriUon's Song*

Oh the sweet contentment
The countryman doth find !

Heigh trolollie lollie loe,

Heigh trolollie lee.
That quiet contemplation
Possesseth all my mind :

Then care away,

And wend along with me.

For Courts are full of flattery,
As hath too oft been tried ;

Heigh trolollie lollie loe, &c.
The city full of wantonness,
And both are full of pride :

Then care away, &c.

But oh, the honest countryman
Speaks truly from his heart,

Heigh trolollie lollie loe, &c.
His pride is in his tillage.
His horses, and his cart :

Then care away, &c.

Our clothing is good sheep-skins,
Grey russet for our wives ;

Heigh trolollie lollie loe, &c.
'Tis warmth and not gay clothing
That doth prolong our lives :

Then care away, &c.

The ploughman, tho' he labour hard.
Yet on the holyday.

Heigh trolollie lollie loe, &c.
No emperor so merrily
Does pass his time away :

Then care away, &c.

To recompense our tillage,
The heavens afford us showers ;

Heigh trolollie lollie loe, &c.
And for our sweet refreshments
The earth affords us bowers :

Then care away, &c.

Variation.] 8 for we will he merry. — Till sth edit.

8vo, 1669 ; and in Choice Ayres, Songs, and Dialogues, to sing to the Theorbo, Lute,
and Bass Viol, folio, 1675 : also in Dr Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, vol.
ii- P- 357 ; but in the latter with a mistake, in the last line of the third stanza, of the
word Fentarchye for Pentateuch. — H.

CHAP, v.] THE THIRD DA Y. 87

The cuckow and the nightingale This is not half the happiness
Full merrily do sing, The countryman enjoys ;

Heigh trolollie lollie loe, &c. Heigh trolollie loUie loe, &c.

And with their pleasant roundelays Though others think they have as much,
Bid welcome to the spring : Yet he that says so lies :

Then care away, &c. Then come away,

Turn countrymen with me.

Jo. Chalkhill.*

PiSCATOR. Well sung, Coridon, this song was sung with
mettle ; and it was choicely fitted to the occasion : I shall love
you for it as long as I know you. I would you were a brother of
the angle ; for a companion that is cheerful, and free from swear-
ing and scurrilous discourse, is worth gold. I love such mirth as
does not make friends ashamed to look upon one another next
morning ; nor men, that cannot well bear it, to repent the money
they spend when they be warmed with drink. And take this for
a rule : you may pick out such times and such companies, that
you make yourselves merrier for a little than a great deal of
money ; for " 'Tis the company and not the charge that makes
the feast ;" and such a companion you prove : I thank you for it.

But I will not compliment you out of the debt that I owe you,
and therefore I will begin my song, and wish it may be so well
liked.

* John Chalkhill, of whom and his family a notice will be found in the Life of
Walton, prefixed to this volume. "To this song the merry chorus of ' Hey trolly lo'
is attached as a burthen, which was then in much repute. A song, entitled Troly Lo, is
printed by Ritson (Antient Songs from Hen. III. to the Revolution, 1790, p. 92) from
a MS. in the Sloane Collection, No. 1584, commencing : —

' So well ys me be gone, troly lole so
Well ys me be gone troly loley.'

"Tn/l neiv and merry Enterlude called the Triall 0/ Treasure, 1567, where a drinking
chaunt of ' Luste like a gallant ' has the following lines : —

Hey rowse, fill all the pottes in the house,

Tushe man, in good felowship let vs be mery,
Locke vp like a man or it is not worth a louse.
Hey how troly lowe, hey dery, dery.
In the comedy of The late Lancashire Witches, 1634, the song to the familiars, Mawsy,
Puckling, &c. invites them to

Suck our blouds freely, and with it be jolly.
While merrily we sing. Hey trolly lolly.
And in Brome's comedy of The Jovial Cre^v, or the Merry Beggars, 1641, is the follow-
ing catch, afterwards inserted in nearly every musical collection of that period :—
There was an old fellow at Waltham Cross,
Who merrily sung when he liv'd by the loss ;
He never was heard to sigh with hcy-ho,
But sent it out with a haigh trolly lo.
He chear'd up his heart, when his goods went to wrack.
With a heghm, boy, heghm, and a cup of old sack.

In the Weekly Journal of 30th July 1715, there is mention of a noted female offender,
prostitute, and housebreaker, called Trolly Lolly, who had been tried at nine assizes, and
always saved herself from the capital part of the offence by pregnancy."— Eu. H.

THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

As inward love breeds outward talk,
The hound some praise, and some the hawk,
Some, better pleas'd with private sport.
Use tennis, some a mistress court :
But these delights I neither wish.
Nor envy, while I freely fish.

Who hunts, doth oft in danger ride ;

Who hawks, lures oft both far and wide :

Who uses games shall often prove

A loser ; but who falls in love,

Is fetter'd in fond Cupid's snare :
My angle breeds me no such care.

Of recreation there is none
So free as fishing is alone ;
All other pastimes do no less
Than mind and body both possess : •

My hand alone my work can do.

So I can fish and study too.

I care not, I, to fish in seas.
Fresh rivers best my mind do please.
Whose sweet calm course I contemplate.
And seek in life to imitate :

In civil bounds I fain would keep,
And for my past offences weep.

And when the timorous Trout I wait

To take, and he devours my bait,

How poor a thing, sometimes I find,

Will captivate a greedy mind :

And when none bite, I praise the wise
Whom vain allurements ne'er surprise.

But yet, though while I fish, I fast,

I make good fortune my repast ;

And thereunto my friend invite.

In whom I more than that delight :
Who is more welcome to my dish
Than to my angle was my fish.

As well content no prize to take.

As use of taken prize to make :

For so our Lord was pleased, when

He fishers made fishers of men ;

Where, which is in no other game,
A man may fish and praise his name.

The first men that our Saviour dear
Did choose to wait upon him here,

CHAP, v.] THE THIRD DAY. 89

Blest fishers were, and fish the last

Food was that he on earth did taste :
I therefore strive to follow those
"Whom he to follow him hath chose.

W. B.*

CORIDON. Well sung, brother, you have paid your debt in
good coin. We anglers are all beholden to the good man that
made this song : come, hostess, give us more ale, and let's drink
to him. And now let's every one go to bed, that we may rise
early : but first let's pay our reckoning, for I will have nothing to
hinder me in the morning ; for my purpose is to prevent the sun-
rising.

Peter. A match. Come, Coridon, you are to be my bed-
fellow. I know, brother, you and your scholar will lie together.
But where shall we meet to-morrow night ? for my friend Coridon
and I will go up the water towards Ware.

PiscATOR. And my scholar and I will go down towards
Waltham.

Coridon. Then let's meet here, for here are fresh sheets that
smell of lavender ; and I am sure we cannot expect better meat,
or better usage in any place.

Peter. 'Tis a match. Good-night to everybody.

PiSCATOR. And SO say I.

Venator. And so say I.

• These initials, apparently of William Basse, occur in the first edition only, and proT«
that Walton, in saying that this song '' was lately made at my request " by that composer,
did not refer to the music only. In the Life and Remains of Dean Bathurst, by Warton,
8vo., 1761, are verses" To Mr W. Basse upon the intended publication of his Poems, Jan.
13, 1651," to which Warton adds in a note, "I findnoaccount of this writer or his poems.*

Cfte JTourtf) Dag.

CHAPTER V. TO CHAPTER XVI.

PISCATOR AND VENATOR.

PISCATOR. Good-morrow, good hostess, I see my brother
Peter is still in bed. Come, give my scholar and me ^ a
morning-drink, and a bit of meat to breakfast : and be sure to get
a dish of meat or two against supper, for we shall come home as
hungry as hawks. Come, scholar, let's be going.

Venator.2 Well now, good master, as we walk towards the
river, give me direction, according to your promise, how I shall
fish for a Trout.

PISCATOR. My honest scholar, I will take this very convenient
opportunity to do it.

The Trout is usually caught with a worm, or a minnow, which
some call a penk, or with a fly, w>., either a natural or an arti-
ficial fly : concerning which three, I will give you some observations
and directions.

And, first, for worms. Of these there be very many sorts :

VARIATIONS.

* and me a cup of ale, and be sure you get us a good dish of meat, 8ic.— isf edit.

2 Viator. Good master, as we walk towards the water, will you be pleased to make
the way seem shorter by telling me first the nature of the Trout, and then how to catch
him?

CHAP, v.] THE FOURTH DAY. 91

some breed only in the earth, as the earth-worm ; others of, or
amongst plants, as the dug-worm ; and others breed either out of
excrements, or in the bodies of living creatures, as in the horns
of sheep or deer ; or some of dead flesh, as the maggot or gentle,
and others.

Now these be most of them particularly good for particular
fishes. But for the Trout, the dew-worm, which some also call
the lob-worm, and the brandling, are the chief ; and especially
the first for a great Trout, and the latter for a less. There be
also of lob-worms, some called squirrel-tails, a worm that has a red
head, a streak down the back, and a broad tail, which are noted
to be the best, because they are the toughest and most lively, and
live longest in the water ; for you are to know that a dead worm
is but a dead bait, and like to catch nothing, compared to a lively,
quick, stirring worm. And for a brandling, he is usually found
in an old dunghill, or some very rotten place near to it, but most
usually in cow-dung, or hog's-dung, rather than horse-dung, which
is somewhat too hot and dry for that worm. But the best of them
are to be found in the bark of the tanners, which they cast up in
heaps after they have used it about their leather.

There are also divers other kinds of worms, which, for colour
and shape, alter even as the ground out of which they are got ; as
the marsh-worm, the tag-tail, the flag-worm, the dock-worm, the
oak-worm, the gilt-tail, the twachel or lob-worm,* which of all
others is the most excellent bait for a salmon, and too many to
name, even as many sorts as some think there be of several herbs
or shrubs, or of several kinds of birds in the air :^ of which I shall
say no more, but tell you, that what worms soever you fish with,
are the better for being well scoured, that is, long kept before they
be used :* and in case you have not .been so provident, then the

It

VARIATIONS.

even as many sorts as some think there be of several kinds of birds in the air. — xsi
edit.

* are the better for being long kept before they be used.— u/, -id, 3^, and i,th edit.

* To avoid confusion, it may be necessary to remark that the same kind of worm is,
in different places, known by different names : thus the marsh and the meadow worm
are the same : the lob-v/orm or twachel is called the dew-worm, and the garden worm :
and the dock-worm is, in some places, called the flag-worm. The tag-tail is found in March
and April., in marled lands or meadows, after a shower of rain ; or in a morning, when
the weather is calm, and not cold. To find oak-worms, beat on an oak-tree that grows
over a highway or bare place, and they will fall. To find the dock or flag worm, go to
an old pond or pit, and pull up some of the flags ; shake the roots, and amongst the
fibres that grow from them you will find little husks, or cases, of a reddish or yellowish
colour ; open these, and take thence a little worm, pale and yellow, or white, like a
gentle, but longer and slenderer, with rows of feet down his belly, and a red head ; this
is an excellent bait for Grayling, Tench, Bream, Carp, Roach, and Dace.— H.

I

92 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part r.

way to cleanse and scour them quickly is, to put them all night
in water, if they be lob-worms, and then put them into your bag
with fennel. But you must not put your brandlings above an
hour in water, and then put them into fennel, for sudden use :
but if you have time, and purpose to keep them long, then they
be best preserved in an earthen pot, with good store of moss,
which is to be fresh every three or four days in summer, and every
week or eight days in winter ; ^ or, at least, the moss taken from
them, and clean washed, and wrung betwixt your hands till it be
dry, and then put it to them again. And when your worms,
especially the brandhng, begins to be sick and lose of his bigness,
then you may recover him, by putting a little milk or cream, about
a spoonful in a day, into them, by drops on the moss ; and if
there be added to the cream an ^g^ beaten and boiled in it, then
it will both fatten and preserve them long.* And note, that when
the knot, which is near to the middle of the brandling, begins
to swell, then he is sick; and, if he be not well looked to, is
near dying. And for moss, you are to note that there be divers
kinds of it,f which I could name to you, but I will only tell you
that that which is likest a buck's-horn is the best, except it be
soft white moss, which grows on some heaths, and is hard to be
found. And note, that in a very dry time, when you are put to
an extremity for worms, walnut-tree leaves squeezed into water, or
salt in water, to make it bitter or salt, and then that water poured
on the ground where you shall see worms are used to rise in the
night, will make them to appear above ground presently. J And

VARIATION.

5 with good Store of moss, which is to be fresh every week or eight days. — \st edit.

* Observe that the lob, marsh, and red worms will bear more scouring than any others,
are better for long keeping, and that when changing their moss, particular care should
be taken to remove those which are dead or wounded, as they soon become putrid and
infect the others. — H.

t Naturalists reckon above two hundred. — H.

X This practice was one of the common sports of schoolboys at the time Erasmus
wrote his Colloquies. In that entitled Venatio, or Hunting, a company of them go
abroad into the fields, and one named Laurence proposes fishing ; but having no worms,
Bartholus objects the want of ihem, till Laurence tells him how he may get some. The
dialogue is very natural and descriptive. " Lau. I should like to go a-fishing ; I have
a neat hook. Barth. But where will vou get baits? Lmi. There are earth-worms
everywhere to be had. Barth. So there'are, if they would but creep out of the ground
to you. /,««. I will make a great many thousands jump out presently. Barth. How?
by witchcraft?. Lau. You shall see the art. Fill this bucket with water ; break these
green shells of walnuts to pieces, and put them into it ; wet the ground with the water.
Now, mind a little. Do you see them coming out? Barth. I see a miracle ; I believe
the armed men started out of the earth after this manner, from the serpent's teeth that
were sown."

The above exclamation is clearly an allusion to the fable in the second book of Ovid's
Metamorphoses : where Cadmus, by scattering the serpent's teeth on the ground, causes
armed men to spring out of it. — H.

CHAP, v.] THE FOURTH DA Y. 93

you may take notice, some say that camphire put into your bag
with your moss and worms gives them a strong and so tempting
a smell, that the fish fare the worse and you the better for it.

And now, I shall show you how to bait your hook with a
worm so as shall prevent you from much trouble, and the loss of
many a hook, too, when you fish for a Trout with a running line ; *
that is to say, when you fish for him by hand at the ground. I
will direct you in this as plainly as I can, that you may not
mistake.

Suppose it be a big lob-worm : put your hook into him some-
what above the middle, and out again a little below the middle :
having so done, draw your worm above the arming of your hook ;
but note that, at the entering of your hook, it must not be at the
head-end of the worm, but at the tail-end of him, that the point
of your hook may come out toward the head-end ; and having
drawn him above the arming of your hook, then put the point of
your hook again into the very head of the worm, till it come near
to the place where the point of the hook first came out, and then
draw back that part of the worm that was above the shank or
arming of your hook, and so fish with it. And if you mean to
fish with two worms, then put the second on before you turn back
the hook's-head of the first worm. You cannot lose above two or
three worms before you attain to what I direct you ; and having
attained it, you will find it very useful, and thank me for it : for
you will run on the ground without tangling.

Now for the Minnow or Penk : he is not easily found and
caught till March, or in April, for then he appears first in the
river ; nature having taught him to shelter and hide himself, in the
winter, in ditches that be near to the river ; and there both to
hide and keep himself warm in the mud, or in the weeds,^ which
rot not so soon as in a running river, in which place if he were
in winter, the distempered floods that are usually in that season

VARIATION.

8 For the Minnow or Penke, he is easily found and caught in Apr!], for then he
appears in the rivers ; but nature hath taught him to shelter and hide himself in the
winter in ditches that be near to the river, and there both to hide and keep himself warm
in the weeds, &c. — ist and "zd edit.

* The running line, so called because it runs along the ground, is usually made of
strong silk ; but many prefer hair, thus fitted up. About ten inches from the end, fasten
a small cleft shot; then make a hole through a pistol or musket bullet, according to the
swiftness of the stream you fish in ; and put the line through it, and draw the bullet
down to the shot : to the end of your line fasten an Indian-grass or silkworm gut, with
a large hook. Or you may, instead of a bullet, fix four large shot, at the distance of
eight inches from the hook. This line is used for Trout, Grayling, and Salmon-sraelts ;
and is proper only for streams and rapid waters.

94 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part I.

would suffer him to take no rest, but carry him headlong to mills
and weirs, to his confusion. And of these Minnows : first, you
are to know that the biggest size is not the best ; and next, that
the middle size and the whitest are the best ; and then you are to
know that your minnow must be so put on your hook that it
must turn round when 'tis drawn against the stream ; and, that
it may turn nimbly, you must put it on a big-sized hook, as I shall
now direct you, which is thus : Put your hook in at his mouth,
and out at his gill ; then, having drawn your hook two or three
inches beyond or through his gill, put it again into his mouth, and
the point and beard out at his tail ; and then tie the hook and his
tail about, very neatly, with a white thread, which will make it
the apter to turn quick in the water ; that done, pull back that
part of your line which was slack when you did put your hook into
the minnow the second time ; I say, pull that part of your line
back, so that it shall fasten the head, so that the body of the
minnow shall be almost straight on your hook : this done, try how
it will turn, by drawing it across the water or against a stream ;
and if it do not turn nimbly, then turn the tail a little to the right
or left hand, and try again, till it turn quick ; for if not, you are
in danger to catch nothing : for know, that it is impossible that it
should turn too quick. And you are yet to know, that in case
you want a minnow, then a small loach, or a stickle-bag, or any
other small fish that will turn quick, will serve as well. And you
are yet to know that you may salt them, and by that means keep
them ready and fit for use three or four days, or longer ; and
that, of salt, bay-salt is the best.

And here let me tell you, what many old anglers know right
well, that at some times, and in some waters, a minnow is not to
be got ; and therefore, let me tell you, I have, which I will show
to you, an artificial minnow, that will catch a Trout as well as an
artificial fly : and it was made by a handsome woman that had a
fine hand, and a live minnow lying by her : the mould or body
of the minnow was cloth, and wrought upon, or over it, thus, with
a needle ; the back of it with very sad French green silk, and
paler green silk towards the belly, shadowed as perfectly as you
can imagine, just as you see a minnow : the belly was wrought also
with a needle, and it was, a part of it, white silk ; and another
part of it with silver thread : the tail and fins were of a quill,
which was shaven thin : the eyes were of two little black beads :
and the head was so shadowed, and all of it so curiously wrought,
and so exactly dissembled, that it would beguile any sharp-sighted

AP. v.] THE FOURTH DAY. 95

Trout in a swift stream. And this minnow I will now show you,
look, here it is, and, if you like it, lend it you, to have two or three
made by it ; for they be easily carried about an angler, and be of
excellent use : for note, that a large Trout will come as fiercely at
a minnow as the highest-mettled hawk doth seize on a partiidge,
or a greyhound on a hare, I have been told that one hundred
and sixty minnows have, been found in a Trout's belly : either
the Trout had devoured so many, or the miller that gave it a
friend of mine had forced them down his throat after he had
taken him.

Now for Flies ; which is the third bait wherewith Trouts are
usually taken. You are to know that there are so many sorts of
ilies as there be of fruits : I will name you but some of them ; as
the dun-fly, the stone-fly, the red-fly, the moor-fly, the tawny-fly,
the shell-fly, the cloudy or blackish fly, the flag-fly, the vine-fly ;
there be of flies, caterpillars, and canker-flies, and bear-flics ; and
indeed too many either for me to name or for you to remember.
And their breeding is so various and wonderful that I might easily
amaze myself and tire you in a relation of them.

And, yet, I will exercise your promised patience by saying a little
of the caterpillar, or the palmer fly or worm ; that by them you may
guess what a work it were, in a discourse, but to run over those
very many flies, worms, and little living creatures, with which the
sun and summer adorn and beautify the river-banks and meadows,
both for the recreation and contemplation of us anglers ; pleasures
which, I think, myself enjoy more than any other man that is not
of my profession.

Pliny holds an opinion, that many have their birth, or being,
from a dew that in the spring falls upon the leaves of trees ; and
that some kinds of them are from a dew left upon herbs or flowers ;
and others from a dew left upon coleworts or cabbages : all which
kinds of dews being thickened and condensed, are by the sun's
generative heat, most of them, hatched, and in three days made
living creatures : * and these of several shapes and colours ; some
being hard and tough, some smooth and soft ; some are horned
in their head, some in their tail, some have none ; some have hair,
some none : some have sixteen feet, some less, and some have
none : but, as our Topsel hath with great diligence observed,t

The doctrine of spontaneous or equivocal generation is now universally exploded ;
and all the />ha'7io7iie>ia that seem to support it are accounted for on other principles.
See Derham's Phys. Theol. chap. 15, and the authorities there cited ; Mr Ray's WiadoiK
0/ God vtani/ested in tlie Works 0/ the Creation, 298. and Franc. Redi, De Gen. Insect.
— H. f In his History of Serpents.

96 THE COMFLETE ANGLER. [part i.

those which have none, move upon the earth, or upon broad leaves,
their motion being not unlike to the waves of the sea. Some
of them he also observes to be bred of the eggs of other cater-
pillars, and that those in their time turn to be butterflies ; and
again, that their eggs turn the following year to be caterpillars.*
And some affirm that every plant has its particular fly or cater-
pillar, which it breeds and feeds. I have seen, and may there-
fore affirm it, a green caterpillar, or worm, as big as a small
peascod, which had fourteen legs ; eight on the belly, four under
the neck, and two near the tail. It was found on a hedge of
privet ; and was taken thence, and put into a large box, and a little
branch or two of privet put to it, on which I saw it feed as sharply
as a dog gnaws a bone : it lived thus, five or six days, and thrived,
and changed the colour two or three times, but by some neglect
in the keeper of it, it then died, and did not turn to a fly : but if
it had lived, it had doubtless turned to one of those flies that some
call Flies of prey, which those that walk by the rivers may, in
summer, see fasten on smaller flies, and, I think, make them their
food. And 'tis observable, that as there be these flies of prey,
which be very large ; so there be others, very little, created, I
think, only to feed them, and breed out of I know not what ; whose
life, they say, nature intended not to exceed an hour ; f and yet
that life is thus made shorter by other flies, or accident.

'Tis endless to tell you what the curious searchers into nature's
productions have observed of these worms and flies : but yet I
shall tell you what Aldrovandus,J our Topsel, and others, say of
the Palmer-worm, or Caterpillar : '' that whereas others content
themselves to feed on particular herbs or leaves ; for most think,
those very leaves that gave them life and shape, give them a par-
ticular feeding and nourishment, and that upon them they usually
abide ; yet he observes that this is called a pilgrim or palmer
worm, for his very wandering life, and various food ; not con-
tenting himself, as others do, with any one certain place for his

7 but yet I shall tell you what our Topsel says of the Canker, or Palmer-worm, or
Caterpillar. — ist edit.

* Whoever is desirous of knowing more of Catei-pillars, and of the several flies pro-
duced by them, may consult Joannes Goedartius De Insectis with the Appetidix of Dr
Lister, Land. 8vo, 1685.— H.

t That there are creatures "whose life nature intended not to exceed an hour," is, I
believe, not so well agreed, as that there are some whose existence is determined in five
or six.

% Ulyssei Aldrovandns, an eminent physician and naturalist of Bologna: he wrote
one hundred and twenty books on several subjects, and a treatise De Piscibus, published
at Franckfort, 1640. — H.

:hap. v.] THE FOURTH DAY. 97

abode, nor any certain kind of herb or flower for his feeding, but
will boldly and disorderly wander up and down, and not endure
to be kept to a diet, or fixed to a particular place.

Nay, the very colours of caterpillars are, as one has observed,
very elegant and beautiful. I shall, for a taste of the rest, de-
scribe one of them ; which I will, some time the next month, show
you feeding on a willow-tree ; and you shall find him punctually
to answer this very description : his lips and mouth somewhat
yellow ; his eyes black as jet ; his forehead purple ; his feet and
hinder parts green ; his tail two-forked and black ; the whole
body stained with a kind of red spots, which run along the neck
and shoulder-blade, not unlike the form of St Andrew's cross, or
the letter X, made thus crosswise, and a white line drawn down
his back to his tail ; all which add much beauty to his whole
body. And it is to me observable, that at a fixed age this cater-
pillar gives over to eat, and towards winter comes to be covered
over with a strange shell or crust, called an aurelia ; and so lives
a kind of dead life, without eating all the winter.* And as others
of several kinds turn to be several kinds of flies and vermin the
Spring following ; so this caterpillar then turns to be a painted
butterfly.

Come, come, my scholar, you see the river stops our morning
walk : and I will also here stop my discourse : only as we sit
down under this honeysuckle hedge, whilst I look a line to fit
the rod that our brother ?eter hath lent you, I shall, for a little
confirmation of what I have said, repeat the observation of Du
__Bartas : ® —

God, not contented to each kind to give
And to infuse the virtue generative,
Made, by his wisdom, many creatures breed
Of lifeless bodies, without Venus' deed.

So, the cold humour breeds the Salamander,
Who, in effect, like to her birth's commander,
With child with hundred winters, with her touch
Quencheth the fire, tho' glowing ne'er so much.

So of the fire, in burning fumnce, springs
The fly Pyrausta with the flaming wings :
Without the fire it dies : within it joys.
Living in that which each thing else destroys.

So slow Bootes underneath him sees,t
In th' icy isles, those goslings hatch'd of trees ;
Whose fruitful leaves, falling into the water,
Are turn'd, they say, to living fowls soon after.

Variation.] » the Lord Bartas,— 15/ edit.

* View Sir Fra. Bacon's Exper. 728 and 90, in his Natural History.
1 View Gerh. Herbal and Camden.

98 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part I.

So, rotten sides of broken ships do change
To barnacles. O transformation strange !
'Twas first a green tree ; then, a gallant hull ;
Lately a mushroom ; now, a flying gull.*

Venator. O my good master, this morning walk has been
spent to my great pleasure and wonder : but, I pray, when shall
I have your direction how to make artificial flies, like to those
that the Trout loves best ; and, also, how to use them ?

PISCATOR. My honest scholar, it is now past five of the clock :
we will fish till nine, and then go to breakfast. Go you to
yonder sycamore-tree, and hide your bottle of drink under the
hollow root of it ; for about that time, and in that place, we will
make a brave breakfast with a piece of powdered beef, and a
radish or two that I have in my fish-bag : we shall, I warrant you,
make a good, honest, wholesome hungry breakfast. And I will
then give you direction for the making and using of your flies :
and in the mean time, there is your rod and line ; and my advice
is that you fish as you see me do, and let's try which can catch
the first fish.

Venator. I thank you, master. I will observe and practise
your direction as far as I am able.

PiSCATOR. Look you, scholar ; you see I have hold of a good
fish : I now see it is a Trout. I pray, put that net under him ;
and touch not my line, for if you do, then we break all. Well
done, scholar : I thank you.

Now for another. Trust me, I have another bite. Come,
scholar, come lay down your rod, and help me to land this as you
did the other. So now we shall be sure to have a good dish cf
fish for supper.

Venator. I am glad of that : but I have no fortune : sure,
master, yours is a better rod and better tackling.

PiSCATOR. Nay, then, take mine ; and I will fish with yours.
Look you, scholar, I have another. Come, do as you did before.
And now I have a bite at another. Oh me ! he has broke all ;
there's half a line and a good hook lost.

Venator. Ay, and a good Trout too.

PiSCATOR. Nay, the Trout is not lost ; for pray take notice,
no man can lose what he never had.

Venator. Master, I can neither catch with the first nor
second angle : I have no fortune.

PiSCATOR. Look you, scholar, I have yet another. And now,

* These verses occur in the sixth day of the first week of Du Bartas, by Sylvester,
ed. 1608, 4to, p. 182.

THE SYCAMORE TREE

BY T. ST OTHARD . R_A..

ay^^/y /^->n,^ '^^r^

'-^4 'fi^?..oeyyn

CHAP, v.] THE FOURTH DAY. 99

having caught three brace of Trouts, I will tell you a short tale
as we walk towards our breakfast. A scholar, a preacher I
should say, that was to preach to procure the approbation of a
parish that he might be their lecturer, had got from his fellow-
pupil the copy of a sermon that was first preached with great com-
mendation by him that composed it ; and though the borrower of
it preached it, word for word, as it was at first, yet it was utterly
disliked as it was preached by the second to his congregation,
which the sermon-borrower complained of to the lender of it :
and was thus answered : " I lent you indeed, my fiddle, but not
my fiddle-stick ; for you are to know that every one cannot make
music with my words, which are fitted for my own mouth."
And so, my scholar, you are to know, that as the ill-pronunciation
or ill-accenting of words in a sermon spoils it, so the ill-carriage
of your line, or not fishing even to a foot in a right place, makes
you lose your labour : and you are to know, that though you have
my fiddle, that is, my very rod and tacklings with which you see I
catch fish, yet you have not my fiddlestick, that is, you yet have
not skill to know how to carry your hand and line, nor how to
guide it to a right place : and this must be taught you ; for you
are to remember, I told you Angling is an art, either by practice
or a long observation, or both. But take this for a rule. When
you fish for a Trout with a worm, let your line have so much, and
not more lead than will fit the stream in which you fish ; that is
to say, more in a great troublesome stream than in a smaller that
is quieter ; as near as may be, so much as will sink the bait to
the bottom, and keep it still in motion, and not more.

But now, let's say grace, and fall to breakfast. What say you,
scholar, to the providence of an old angler .? Does not this meat
taste well 1 and was not this place well chosen to eat it .-* for this
sycamore-tree will shade us from the sun's heat.

Venator. All excellent good ; and my stomach excellent
good too. And I now remember, and find that true which
devout Lessius* says, "that poor men, and those that fast often,
have much more pleasure in eating than rich men and gluttons,
that always feed before their stomachs are empty of their last
meat, and call for more ; for by that means they rob themselves
of that pleasure that hunger brings to poor men." And I do

* Leonard Lessins, a very learned Jesuit, professor of divinity in the Collefre of
Jesuits at Louvain : he was born at Antwerp, 1554 ; and became very famous for his
skill in divinity, civil law, mathematics, physic, and history: he wrote several theo-
logical tracts, and a book entitled Hygiasticon, seu vera ratio vaUti*dinis bona &*
I'itce ad extremant senectutem conservandee. From this tract of Lessius it is probable
the passage in the text is cited. He died 1O23.— H.

lOO THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part r.

seriously approve of that saying of yours, '■'■ that you had rather
be a civil, well-governed, well-grounded, temperate, poor angler,
than a drunken lord : " but I hope there is none such. However,
I am certain of this, that I have been at many very costly dinners
that have not afforded me half the content that this has done ; for
which I thank God and you.

And now, good master, proceed to your promised direction
for making and ordering my artificial fly.

PiSCATOR. My honest scholar, I will do it ; for it is a debt due
unto you by my promise. And because you shall not think your-
self more engaged to mx than indeed you really are, I will freely
give you such directions as were lately given to me by an ingenious
brother of the angle, an honest man, and a most excellent fly-
fisher,^

You are to note, that there are twelve kinds of artificial-made
Flies, to angle with upon the top of the water. Note, by the way,
that the fittest season of using these is in a blustering windy day,
when the waters are so troubled that the natural fly cannot be
seen, or rest upon them. The first is the dun-fly, in March : the
body is made of dun wool ; the wings, of the partridge's feathers.
The second is another dun-fly : the body of black wool ; and the
wings made of the black drake's feathers, and of the feathers
under his tail. The third is the stone-fly, in April : the body is
made of black wool ; made yellow under the wings and under the
tail, and so made with wings of the drake. The fourth is the
ruddy-fly, in the beginning of May : the body made of red wool,
wrapt about with black silk ; and the feathers are the wings of
the drake ; with the feathers of a red capon also, which hang
dangling on his sides next to the tail. The fifth is the yellow or
greenish fly, in May likewise : the body made of yellow wool ;
and the wings made of the red cock's hackle or tail. The sixth
is the black-fly, in May also : the body made of black wool, and
lapt about with the herle of a peacock's tail ; the wings are made
of the wings of a brown capon, with his blue feathers in his head.
The seventh is the sad yellow-fly, in June : the body is made of

VARIATION.
9 And because you shall not think yourself more engaged to me than indeed you really
are, therefore 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 with a fly for a Trout, that I will give you his very directions without
much variation. — ist edit. Then follow Barker's instructions, differing little from them
as printed in a subsequent part of the text. The "excellent fly-fisher" to whom Walton
alludes, was Leonard Mascall, from whose " Booke of Fishing with Hooke and Line,
&c., 4to, Lond. 1600," the ensuing list of flies is copied verbatim.

r

CHAP, v.] THE FOURTH DAY. loi

black wool, with a yellow list on either side ; and the wings taken
off the wings of a buzzard, bound with black braked hemp. The
eighth is the moorish-fly: made with the body of duskish wool ;
and the wings made of the blackish mail of the drake. The ninth
is the tawny-fly, good until the middle of June : the body made
of tawny wool ; the wings made contrary one against the other,
made of the whitish mail of the wild drake. The tenth is the
wasp-fly, in July : the body made of black wool, lapt about with
yellow silk ; the wings made of the feathers of the drake, or of
the buzzard. The eleventh is the shell-fly, good in mid-July : the
body made of greenish wool, lapt about with the herle of a pea-
cock's tail ; and the wings made of the wings of the buzzard. The
twelfth is the dark drake-fly, good in August : the body made
with black wool, lapt about with black silk ; his wings are made
with the mail of the black drake, with a black head. Thus have
you a jury of flies, likely to betray and condemn all the Trouts in
the river.

I shall next give you 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.

First let your rod be light, and very gentle : I take the best

• A notice of Barker will be found in the Memoir of Walton. The following extract
occurs in his "Art of Angling :" —

*' My lord sent to me, at sun-going-down, to provide him a good dish of Trouts
against the next morning, by six o'clock, I went to the door to see how the wanes of
the air were like to prove. I returned answer, that I doubted not, God willing, but to be
provided at the time appointed. I went presently to the river, and it proved very dark :
I threw out a line of three silks and three hairs twisted, for the uppermost part ; and a
line of two hairs and two silks twisted, for the lower part — with a good large hook. I
baited my hook with two lob-worms, the four ends hanging as meet as I could guess
them in the dark. I fell to angle. It proved very dark, so that I had good sport ;
angling with the lob-worms as I do with the flies, on the top of the water : You shall
hear the fish rise at the top of the water ; then, you must loose a slack line down to the
bottom, as nigh as you can guess ; then hold your line straight, feeling the fish bite ; give
time, there is no doubt of losing the fish, for there is not one amongst twenty but doth
gorge the bait: the least stroke you can strike fastens the hook, and makes the fish
sure, letting the fish take a turn or two ; you may take him up with your hands. The
night began to alter and grow somewhat lighter ; I took off the lob-worms, and set to
my rod a white palmer-fly made of a large hook ; I had good sport for the time, until it
grew lighter ; so I took off the white palmer, and set to a red palmer, made of a large
hook ; 1 had good sport until it grew very light ; then 1 took off the red palmer, and set
to a black palmer ; I had good sport, and made up the dish of fish. So I put up my
tackles, and was with my lord at his time appointed for the service.

"These three flies, with the help of the lob-worms, serve to angle all the year for the
night ; observing the times — as I have showed you— in this night-work ; the white fly for
darkness, the red fly in medio, and the black fly for lightness. This is the true experi-
ence for Angling in the night ; which is the surest angling of all, and killeth the greatest
Trouts. Your lines may be strong, but must not be longer than your rod."

Upon this passage, Mr Daniel observes: " Night-fishing with a fly is best from May
to the end of August ; but the largest fish are caught in the latter month. Trout will
take in the dark nights of any of the subsequent months, provided they be soft and
ca\m"— Field Sports, ii. 290.

v

102 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

to be of two pieces. And let not your line exceed especially for
three or four links next to the hook, I say, not exceed three or
four hairs at the most ; though you may fish a little stronger
above, in the upper part of your line : but if you can attain to
angle with one hair, you shall have more rises, and catch more
fish. Now you must be sure not to cumber yourself with too
long a line, as most do. And before you begin to angle, cast to
have the wind on your back ; and the sun, if it shines, to be before
you ; and to fish down the stream ; and carry the point or top of
your rod downward, by which means the shadow of yourself, and
rod too, will be the least offensive to the fish ; for the sight of any
shade amazes the fish, and spoils your sport, of which you must
take great care.

In the middle of March, till which time a man should not in
honesty catch a Trout ; or in April, if the weather be dark, or
a little windy or cloudy; the best fishing is with the palmer-worm,
of which I last spoke to you ; but of these there be divers kinds,
or at least of divers colours : these and the May-fly are the ground
of all fly-angling : which are to be thus made : — ■

First, you must arm your hook with the line, in the inside of it :
then take your scissors, and cut so much of a brown mallard's
feather as, in your own reason, will make the wings of it, you
having, withal, regard to the bigness or littleness of your hook ;
then lay the outmost part of your feather next to your hook ; then
the point of your feather next the shank of your hook, and having
so done, whip it three or four times about the hook with the same
silk with which your hook was armed ; and having made the silk
fast, take the hackle of a cock or capon's neck, or a plover's top,
which is usually better : take off the one side of the feather, and
then take the hackle, silk or crewel, gold or silver thread ; make
these fast at the bent of the hook, that is to say, below your
arming ; then you must take the hackle, the silver or gold thread,
and work it up to the wing^, shifting or still removing your finger
as you turn the silk about the hook, and still looking, at every
stop or turn, that your gold, or what materials soever you make
your fly of, do lie right and neatly ; and if you find they do so,
then when you have made the head, make all fast : and then work
your hackle up to the head, and make that fast : and then, with
a needle or pin, divide the wing into two ; and then, with the
arming silk, whip it about crossways betwixt the wings : and then
with your thumb you must turn the point of the feather towards
the bent of the hook : and then work three or four times about

CHAP, v.] THE FOURTH DA V. 103

the shank of the hook ; and then view the proportion ; and if all
be neat, and to your liking, fasten.

I confess, no direction can be given to make a man of a dull
capacity able to make a fly well : and yet I know this, with a
little practice, will help an ingenious angler in a good degree.
But to see a fly made by an artist in that kind,^ is the best teach-
ing to make it. And, then, an ingenious angler may walk by the
river, and mark what flies fall on the water that day ; and catch
one of them, if he sees the Trouts leap at a fly of that kind : and
then having always hooks ready-hung with him, and having a bag
also always with him, with bear's hair, or the hair of a brown or
sad-coloured heifer, hackles of a cock or capon, several coloured
silk and crewel to make the body of the fly, the feathers of a
drake's head, black or brown sheep's wool, or hog's wool, or hair,
thread of gold and of silver ; silk of several colours, especially
sad-coloured, to make the fly's head : and there be also other
coloured feathers, both of little birds and of speckled fowl : * I

Variation.] ^ by another. — jst edit.

* The Author not having particularly enumerated the Materials necessary for Fly-
making, it will not be improper to do it here. For Dubbitiz, you must be provided with
bear's hair of divers colours ; as grey, dun, light and dark coloured, bright brown and
that which shines ; also camel's hair, dark, light, and of a colour between both : badger's
hair, or fur : spaniel's hair from behind the ear, light and dark brown, blackish, and
black : hog's down, plucked from under the throat, and other soft places, and of these
colours, black, red, whitish, and sandy ; other colours you may get dyed at a dyer's :
seal's fur is to be had at the trunkmaker's ; get this also dyed of the colours of cow's
and calf's hair, in all the different shades, from light to the darkest brown ; you will
then never need cow's or calf's hair, both which are harsh, and will never work kindly,
nor lie handsomely : get also mohairs, black, blue, purple, white, violet, yellow, and
orange : camlets, both hair and worsted, blue, yellow, dun, light and dark brown, red,
violet, purple, black, horse-flesh, pink, and orange colours. Some recommend the hair
of abortive colts and calves ; but seal's fur, dyed as above, is much better.

Turkey carpet will furnish excellent dubbing : untwist the yam, and pick out the
wool, separating the different colours.

Some use for dubbing, barge-sail ; but these sails are made of sheep's wool, which
soaks in the water, and soon becomes very heavy : however, get of this as many different
shades as you can : and have seal's fur and hog-wool dyed to match them ; which, being
more turgid, stiff, and light, are in most cases to be preferred to worsted, crewels, and
other kinds of wool ; hog-wool is best for large, and seal's fur for small flies.

Get also furs of the squirrel, particularly from his tail ; fox-cub, from the tail where
it is downy and of an ash-colour ; an old fox ; an old otter ; otter-cub ; badger ; fulimart
or filmcrt ; from the neck of a hare where it is of the colour of withered fern ; and, above
all, the yellow fur of the martern, from off the gills or spots under the jaws. These, and
almost every other kind of fur, are got at the farrier's.

Hackles, the long slender feathers on the neck and near the tail of a cock, are very
useful in fly-making ; be careful that they are not too rank, which they are when the
fibres are more than half an inch long ; be provided with these of the following colours —
red, dun, yellowish, white, orange, and black ; and whenever you meet with a cock of
the game breed, whose hackles are of a strong brown-red, never fail to procure some :
but, observe that the feathers of a cock chicken, and of the Bantam cock are too downy
and weak to stand erect after they are once wet.

Feathers are absolutely necessary for the wings and other parts of flies : get therefore
feathers from the wild mallard, or drake ; front the partridge, especially those red ones
in the tail ; from a cock-pheasant's breast and tail ; from the wings of a blackbird, a
brown hen, a starling, a jay, a landrail, a throstle, a field-fare, and a watcrcoot ; from

B

I04 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

say, having those with him in a bag,'^ and trying to make a fly,
though he miss at first, yet shall he at last hit it better, even to
such a perfection as none can well teach him. And if he hit to
make his fly right, and have the luck to hit, also, where there is
store of Trouts, a dark day, and a right wind, he will catch such
store of them as will encourage him to grow more and more in
love with the art of fly-making.

Venator. But, my loving master, if any wind will not serve,
then I wish I were in Lapland, to buy a good wind of one of the
honest witches that sell so many winds there, and so cheap.

PiSCATOR. Marry, scholar, but I would not be there, nor
indeed from under this tree ; for look how it begins to rain, and
by the clouds, if I mistake not, we shall presently have a smoking
shower, and therefore sit close ; this sycamore-tree will shelter
us : and I will tell you, as they shall come into my mind, more
observations of fly-fishing for a Trout.

But first for the wind : you are to take notice that of the winds
the south wind is said to be best. One observes, that

When the wind is south.
It blows your bait into a fish's mouth.

Next to that, the west wind is believed to be the best : and

the crown of the pewit, plover or lapwing ; green and copper-coloured peacock's, and
black ostrich, herle ; also from a heron's neck and wings. And remember that, in most
instances, where the drake's or wild mallard's feather is hereafter in the text directed,
that from a starling's wing will do much better, as being of a finer grain, and less
spongy.

Be provided with marking-silk of all colours ; fine, but very strong flaw-silk ; gold
and silver flatted wire, or twist ; a sharp knife ; hooks of all sizes ; hog's bristles for loops
to your flies ; shoemaker's wax ; a large needle to raise your dubbing, when flatted with
working ; and a small, but sharp pair of scissors.

Remember, with all your dubbing to mix bear's hair and hog's wool, which are stiff,
and not apt to imbibe the water, as fine furs and most other kinds of dubbing do J
remember also, that martern's fur is the best yellow you can use.

On the subject of flies, it is only necessary to add, in addition to what Walton has said,
that colour is more attractive than form, and that an ill-made fly of a right colour is often
more killing than the neatest of a colour not frequently seen on the water. In clear
rivers small flies will be found best, but if the river be discoloured, or the weather cloudy,
they may be used larger. The flies should be made on the finest gut, and the hooks not
too large and heavy. Hackles of different colours, the bodies of each varied in tint, are
perhaps best, for a hackle always falls light on the water, and does not create suspicion.

'•He who attends to the catalogue of flies published in most fishing-books, will find
himself perplexed and confounded; and will frequently see a homely fisherman with a
hazel wand, and an extra fly or two in reserve twisted round the band of his hat, filling
his hamper, whilst he, so fastidious in his choice, is selecting from his book of ready-
made London flies, one for the month, nav, even the hour of the day ! ! A man may
as well attempt to learn the Chinese characters and language, as fish by books en-
thralled and entangled with a multiplicity of flies. I am much mistaken if he does not
soon find from experience that these flies are like quack medicines— made to sell." —
Sporting Mao. Oct. 1823.

* The use of a Bag is attended with many inconveniences ; to prevent which, the
Angler is recommended either to make a parchment book, according to the directions
given in Daniel's Rural Sports, vol. fi. p. 295, or to procure a similar one at a fisliing-
lackle maker's.

CHAP, v.] THE FOURTH DAY. 105

having told you that the east wind is the worst, I need not tell
you which wind is the best in the third degree : and yet, as Solo-
mon observes, that "he that considers the wind shall never sow;"
so he that busies his head too much about them, if the weather be
not made extreme cold by an east wind, shall be a little super-
stitious : for as it is observed by some, that " there is no good
horse of a bad colour ; " so I have observed, that if it be a cloudy
day, and not extreme cold, let the wind sit in what corner it will
and do its worst, I heed it not. And yet take this for a rule, that
I would willingly fish, standing on the lee-shore : and you are to
take notice, that the fish lies or swims nearer the bottom, and in
deeper water, in winter than in summer ; and also nearer the
bottom in any cold day, and then gets nearest the lee-side of the
water.

But I promised to tell you more of the fly-fishing for a Trout ;
which I may have time enough to do, for you see it rains May
butter. First for a May-fly : you may make his body with
greenish-coloured crewel, or willowish colour ; darkening it in
most places with waxed silk ; or ribbed with black hair ; or, some
of them, ribbed with silver thread ; and such wings, for the colour,
as you see the fly to have at that season, nay, at that very day on
the water. Or you may make the Oak-fly : with an orange, tawny,
and black ground ; and the brown of a mallard's feather for the
wings.* And you are to know, that these two are most excellent
flies, that is, the May-fly and the Oak-fly.

And let me again tell you, that you keep as far from the water
as you can possibly, whether you fish with a fly or worm ; and
fish down the stream. And when you fish with a fly, if it be
possible, let no part of your line touch the water,t but your fly
only; and be still moving your fly upon the water, or casting it into
the water, you yourself being also always moving down the stream.

Mr Barker commends \ several sorts of the palmer-flies ; not
only those ribbed with silver and gold, but others that have their

* Some dub the Oak-fly, with black wool, and Isabella-coloured mohair, and bright
brownish bear's liair, warped on with yellow silk, but the head of an ash colour ;
others dub it with an orange, tawny, and black ground ; others with blackish wool and
gold-twist; the wings of the brown of a mallard's feather. Bowlker, in his Art of
Angling, p. 63, says, "The body may be made of a bittern's feather, and the wings of
the feather of a woodcock's wing." — H.

t This is impossible, unless you dib with the artificial as with the natural fly, which is
never practised.

t A brother of the angle must always be sped
_^pr With three black palmers, and also two red ;

■■» And all made with hackles. In a cloudy day,

I^B' Or in windy weather, angle you may :

io6 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

bodies all made of black ; or some with red, and a red hackle.
You may also make the Hawthorn-fly : which is all black, and not
big but very small, the smaller the better. Or the oak-fly, the body
of which is orange colour and black crewel, with a brown wing.
Or a fly made with a peacock's feather is excellent in a bright day :
you must be sure you want not in your magazine-bag the pea-
cock's feather ; and grounds of such wool and crewel as will make
the grasshopper. And note, that usually the smallest flies are the
best ; and note also, that the light fly does usually make most
sport in a dark day, and the darkest and least fly in a bright or
clear day : and lastly note, that you are to repair upon any
occasion to your magazine-bag : and upon any occasion, vary and
make them lighter or sadder, according to your fancy, or the day.
And now I shall tell you, that the fishing with a natural fly is
excellent, and affords much pleasure. They may be found thus :
the May-fly, usually in and about that month, near to the river-side,
especially against rain : the Oak-fly, on the butt or body of an
oak or ash, from the beginning of May to the end of August ; it
is a brownish fly and easy to be so found, and stands usually with
his head downward, that is to say, towards the root of the tree : *
the small black-fly, or Hawthorn-fly, is to be had on any haw-
thorn bush after the leaves be come forth. With these and a
short line, as I showed to angle for a Chub, you may dape or dop,
and also with a grasshopper, behind a tree, or in any deep hole ;
still making it to move on the top of the water as if it were alive,
and still keeping yourself out of sight, you shall certainly have
sport if there be Trouts ; yea, in a hot day, but especially in the
evening of a hot day, you will have sport.t

But morning and evening, if the day be bright:

And the chief point of all is to keep out of sit^ht.

" In the month of May, none but the May-fly,

For every month, one," is a pitiful lye.

The black Hawthorn-fly must be very small ;

And the sandy hog's hair is, sure, the best of all

(For the mallard-wing May-fly, and peacock's train,

Will look like the flesh-fly) to'kill Trout amain.

The Oak-fly is good, if it have a brown wing.

So IS the grasshopper, that in July doth sing :

With a green body make him, on a middle-siz'd hook.

But when you have catcht fish, then play the good cook.

Once more, my good brother, I'll s'peak in thy ear :

Hog's, red cow's, and bear's wool, to float best appear :

And so doth your fur, if rightly it fall :

But always remember, Make two, and make all. — H.

* The Oak-fly is known also by the names of the Ash-fly and the Woodcock-fly ; and
in Shropshire it is called the Cannon or Downhill fly.

t The following observations on Daping and Fly-fishing, by a writer contemporary

THE FOURTH DA Y. 107

And now, scholar, my direction for fly-fishing is ended with
this shower, for it has done raining. And now look about you,
and see how pleasantly that meadow looks ; nay, and the earth
smells as sweetly too. Come, let me tell you what holy Mr
Herbert says * of such days and flowers as these, and then we will
thank God that we enjoy them, and walk to the river and sit
down quietly, and try to catch the other brace of Trouts.

Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright, Sweet spring, full of sweet days and roses.

The bridal of the earth and sky, A box where sweets compacted lie ;

Sweet dews shall weep thy fall to-night, My music shows you have your closes.
For thou must die. And all must die.

Sweet rose, whose hue, angry and brave, Only a sweet and virtuous soul,

Bids the rash gazer wipe his eye. Like season'd timber, never gives.

Thy root is ever in its grave. But when the whole world turns to coal,
Ajid thou must die. Then chiefly lives.

Venator. I thank you, good master, for your good direction
for fly-fishing, and for the sweet enjoyment of the pleasant day,
which is so far spent without offence to God or man : and I thank
you for the sweet close of your discourse with Mr Herbert's
verses ; who, I have heard, loved angling ; and I do the rather
believe it, because he had a spirit suitable to anglers, and to
those primitive Christians that you love, and have so much
commended.

PiSCATOR. Well, my loving scholar, and I am pleased to

with Walton, are preserved in the Sloane MS. 1032, and although evidently not intended
for publication, are so judicious that their insertion may be excused : "You must have
a quick eye. In the evening of a hot day, or in a hot calm d.ay, and the still deep is to
be preferred, though on the side of a stream when the water is clearing after great rains
or a flood is very proper. Observe to keep out of sight : keep your fly moving. In dib-
bing for roach, dace, or chub, I must not let my motion be swift : when I see any of
them coming towards the bait, I must make two or three short removes, and then let it
glide gently with the stream, if possible towards the fish.* If it be slow or standing
water, I must keep it moving with my hand, not just upon him, but sideways and sloping
by him: when a pretty good gale stirs the water it is best. If the fish will not rise at
top, I will try a little lower. When the wind furls the water, and few flies appear on it
or over, I think it a good time for daping. If the sun shines I'll get under a tree, that
neither my body nor my rod may shine in the water. If I find not that they will rise at
top, I will sink the fly even to mid-water. Before the flies are naturally in season, I will
go to the bushes and trees that are adjacent to the river or pond, and observe what are
flying near over it, or on the water, and the fly that swarms there most is in season.
Some open the first fish they take and look in its stomach ; but my conjecture is, that it
must either be partly consumed, or so discoloured that it cannot well be known; and
again, fish will take such food at one time that they will not at another which they alto-
gether dislike ; therefore I think it is insignificant. In casting I'll do it with a little
circling about my head by waving the rod, or else the fly may with too smart a jerk be
apt to snap off", and so I must stay a quarter of an hour it may be to get another. In
casting I will observe always to do it before me that it may fall on the water and no part
of the line shall dash to scare the fish ; and if I can without making any circling in the
water, I will. If the wind be high, I will let .some of the line be in the water to keep
the fly from being blown out. I will stand if I possibly can with the sun in my face and
the wind to my back. In still or slow water I'll cast my fly almost across, and draw it
towards me gently a little way."
* The Temple. Sacred Poems, &a p. 80, edit 1633.

Io8 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

know that you are so well pleased with my dh-ection and dis-
course.^

And since you like these verses of Mr Herbert's so well, let me
tell you what a reverend and learned divine that professes to
imitate him, and has indeed done so most excellently, hath writ
of our Book of Common Prayer ; which I know you will like the
better, because he is a friend of mine, and I am sure no enemy
to angUng.*

What ! Pray'r by th* book ? and Common ? Yes ; why not \
The spirit of grace
And supplication
Is not left free alone
For time and place.
But manner too : to read, or speak, by rote,
Is all alike to him that prays,
In's3 heart, what with his mouth he says.

They that iu private, by themselves alone,

Do pray, may take
What liberty they please.
In chusing of the ways
Wherein to make
Their soul's most intimate affections known
To him that sees in secret, when
Th' are most conceal'd from other men.

But he, that unto others leads the way

In public prayer,
Should do it so,-*
As all, that hear, may know
They need not fear
To tune their hearts unto his tongue, and say
Amen; not * doubt they were betray'd
To blaspheme, when they meant to have pray'd.6

Devotion will add life unto the letter :

And why should not
That, which authority
Prescribes, esteemed be
' Advantage got ?

If th' prayer be good, the commoner the belter.
Prayer m the Church's words, as well
As sense, of all prayers bears the bell.f Ch. Harvie.

VARIATIONS.

2 and I hope you will be pleased too if you find a trout at one of our angles which we
left in the water to fish for itself, &c. — ist edit.

3 With's. * Should choose to do it so. * nor.

6 To blaspheme, when they should have pray'd.

* This passage goes very near to unfold the name of the author of the Synagogue, a
collection of poems, suppletory to that of Air George Herbert entitled the Temple. For we
see " Ch. Harvie " subscribed to the ensuing eulogium on the Common Prayer, which is
also to be found in the Synagosrue. And I find in t\ie:Athen. Oxon. vol. i. 267, a Christopher
Harvey : a Master of Arts, Vicar of Clifton in Warwickshire ; born in 1597, and who
lived to 1663, and perhaps after. Further, the second copy of commendatory verses,
prefixed to this book, has the subscription " Ch. Harvie, MA." The presumption there-
fore is very strong, that both were written by the Christopher Harvey above mentioned.
At the end of the Synagogue are some verses subscribed " Iz. Wa." — H. Anthony
Wood says the Synagogue was written by Thomas Harvey. A then. Oxon. by Bliss.

t These verses were written at or near the time when the Liturgy was abolished by

ciiAi'. v.] THE FOURTH DA Y. 109

And now, scholar, I think it will be time to repair to our angle-
rods, which we left in the water to fish for themselves ; and you
shall choose which sliall be yours ; and it is an even lay, one of
I hem catches.

And, let me tell you, this kind of fishing with a dead rod, and
laying night-hooks, are like putting money to use ; for they both
work for the owners when they do nothing but sleep, or eat, or
rejoice, as you know we have done this last hour, and sat as
quietly and as free from cares under this sycamore, as Virgil's
Tityrus and his Melibccus did under their broad beech-tree. No
life, my honest scholar, no life so happy and so pleasant as the
life of a well-governed angler ; ^ for when the lawyer is swallowed
up with business, and the statesman is preventing or contriving
plots, then we sit on cowslip-banks, hear the birds sing, and
possess ourselves in as much quietness as these silent silver
streams, which we now see glide so quietly by us. Indeed, my
good scholar, we may say of angling, as Dr IJoteler* said of
strawberries, " Doubtless God could have made a better berry,
but doubtless God never did ; " and so, if I might be judge, God
never did make a more calm, quiet, innocent recreation than
angling.

I'll tell you, scholar ; when I sat last on this primrose-bank,
rind looked down these meadows, I thought of them as Charles
the Emperor did of the city of Florence : " That they were too
pleasant to be looked on, but only on holydays." As I then sat
on this very grass, I turned my present thoughts into verse : 'twas
a Wish, which I'll repeat to you : t —

VARIATIOK.

7 No life, my honest ncholar, no life «o happy and fo pleawnt an the angler*!!, unlem
ft be the begKstr's life in summer ; for then only they take no care, but are a« happy a*
we anKlers. — xtt edit.

uii ordinance of Parliament, and while it was agitating, a* a theological que»tion,
whether, of the two, preconceived or extemporary prayer be mo«t agreeable to the
vMMr.,fS. ript.iro?-lf.

i ■: irientioncd I take to be Dr IVilliam Butler, an eminent phynician

' , styled by Fuller, in his li^ortfiies, Suffolk, (>■?, ihe A'.scu\A\>'\\i% of

•I 1 'i medical drink, called " ])r IUitlcr'» Ale," which, if not now, wa»

a very I . sold at certain hoiises in London which had hix head for a «ign.

One of Ivy Lane, and anotlier in an alley leading from Coleman Street to

Basinyii "r was a creat humourist ; a circumstance in hi« character which,

joined to Ms r- |-iit.-ifion for skill in his profession, might contribute to render him
popular. — H. Dr Kutlcr was born at Ipswich about 1515, and educated at Clare Hall,
Cambridge. He died Jan. 29, 1O18, and was buried at .St Mary's Church, Cambridge,

t It cannot be doubted that the following beatitiful stanzas which occur for the rir«t
time in the third edition, were written by Walton. The allusion to " Kenna," which
prob.ibly referred to the maiden name of his wife " Ken," is not 10 be found in the t/iird,
or /oT/rt A cdxiion, in both of which the word " Chlora " is sub»tituted for it, which, with
the substitution of one vowel for another, formed the anagram of his first wife's name —
Kachel.

IIO THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part I.

I in these flowery meads would be :
These crystal streams should solace me ;
To whose harmonious bubbling noise
I with my Angle would rejoice :
Sit here, and see the turtle-dove
Court his chaste mate to acts of love :

Or, on that bank, feel the west wind

Breathe health and plenty : please my mind,

To see sweet dewdrops kiss these flowers,

And then washed off by April showers :

Here, hear my Kenna sing* " a song ; [« Like Hermit Poor.

There, see a blackbird feed her young,

* '^ Like Hermit Poor."

The following is the song to which Walton alludes. It occurs in a Collection of Poems
entitled the "Phoenix Nest," published in 1593.!

Like to a Hermite poore, in place obscure,^

I ineane to spend my daies of endles doubt,
To v/aile such woes as time cannot recure,

Where none b but Love shall ever finde me out.
My foode shall be of care and sorow made,

My drinke nought else but teares falne from mine eies ;
And for my light, in such obscured shade.

The flames shall '^ serve, which ^ from my hart arise.
A gowne of graie <? my bodie shall attire,

My stafFe of broken hope whereon He stale ;/
Qig late repentance, linckt with long desire.
The couch is fram'de whereon my limbes He lay ;*
And at my gate Dispaire shall linger still.
To let in Death, when Love and Fortune will.
The same ideas occur in a poem printed five years earlier, which is probabl>^ from the
Italian, a language to which the poets of that day were much indebted ; it is entitled
Scillaes Metamorphosis : Enterlaced with the vnfortunate love 0/ Glaucus, &"€. by
Thomas Lodge, 1589, 4to.

I will become a Hermit now, and doo my penance straight,
For all the errors of mine eyes with foolish rashness fil'd :
My hermitage shall placed be where mellancholies waight,
And none but love alone shall knowe the bower I meane to build.
My daylie diet shall be care, made calme by no delight :
My dolefuU drinke my drierie teares, amidst the darksome place.
The fire that burnes my heedless heart shall stand in stead of light.
And shall consume my wearie life mine errors to deface.
My gowne shall be of spreding gray to clad my limmes withal! ;
My late repent vpon my browe shall plainly written be.
My tedious griefe and great remorse that doth my soul enthrall,
Shall serue to plead my wearie paines and pensiue miserie.
Of faintfull hope shall be my staffe and daylie when I pray.
My mistris picture plac't by loue shall witnes what I say.
"Like Hermit Poor" was set to music by Mr Nicholas Laneare, an eminent master

t Another copy of this Sonnet, but with the following variations, occurs in the
Harleian MS. 6019, f. 139, in the writing of the time of James the First.
« Like Hermit poor in pensive place obscure.
* nought. c may. rf that. < grief.

yAnd broken hope shall be my strength and stay.
g And. * Shall be the couch whereon my limbs I'll lay.

CHAP. V. ] THE FOURTH DA\. in

Or a leverock build her nest :
Here, give my weary spirits rest,
And raise my lovv-pitch'd thoughts above
Earth, or what poor mortals love :

Thus, free from lawsuits and the noise

Of princes' courts, I would rejoice :
Or, with my Bryan,* and a book.
Loiter long days near Shawford-brook ; f
There sit by him, and eat my meat,
There see the sun both rise and set :
There bid good-morning to next day ;
There meditate my time away,

And Angle on ; and beg to have

A quiet passage to a welcome grave.

When I had ended this composure, I left this place, and saw a
brother of the angle sit under that honeysuckle hedge, one that
will prove worth your acquaintance. I sat down by him, and
presently we met with an accidental piece of merriment, which I
will relate to you, for it rains still.®

VARIATION.

8 And now let me tell you, my honest scholar, what an accidental piece of merriment
chanced last summer, as I and a brother of the angle, which will prove worth your
acquaintance, sat under this honeysuckle hedge. — ■2d edit.

of Walton's time, whose portrait is yet to be seen in the Music School at Oxford ; and is
printed with the notes, in a collection entitled Select musical Ayres and Dialogues,
folio, 1653. It was also set by Sig. Alfonso Ferabosco, and publi:ihed in a collection of
his airs, in folio, 1609.

This song appears to have been a great favourite for some years after the Restoration,
and very popular while ballad-music remained in fashion. That accurate observer,
Pepys, tells us in his Diary, Feb. 12, 1666-7 [vol. ii. p. 14], that " he [T. Kiliigrew] hath
ever endeavoured in the late King's time and in this to introduce good musique,
but he never could do it, there never having been any musique here better than ballads."
Adding '" Hermit poore ' and * Chiuy Chase' was all the musique we had." The three
first words of it were become a phrase. The Hon. Roger North, in his Life o/the Lord-
keeper Guildford, page 212, 410 edit., speaking of Sir Job Charleton, then chief-justice
of Chester, says, he wanted to speak with the King ; and went to Whitehall, where,
returning from his walk in St James's Park, he must pass ; and there he sat him down,
" like hermit poor." Among the poems of Phineas Fletcher, hereafter mentioned, is a
metaphrase of the xliind Psalm ; which, it is said, may be sung to the tune of "Like
Hermit Poor." There is also an allusion to this song in Hudibras, Part I. canto ii.
*iae 1169,

" That done, they ope the trap-door gate,
And let Crowdero down thereat;
Crowdero making doleful face,
' Like hermit poor in pensive place. ^"

It was also printed in the Academy of Compliments, 1650, In the Tixall poetry,
1813, edited by Mr Clifford, from a manuscript collection nearly contemporary with
Walton, it forms, by an arbitrary disposition of the words, a little irregular ode, entitled
Despair.— "^w. H.

* It has been conjectured that this is the name of his favourite dog. — H.

t Sh.'iwford-brook is the name of that part of the river Sow that runs through the land
which Walton bequeathed to the corporation of Stafford to find coals for the poor : the
right of fishery attaches to the little estate. Shawford, or Shalk)w-ford, is a liberty in
the parish of St Mary Stafibrd, though five miles distant from the town. The messu.ige
there described in Walton's will is now divided into two tenements. It is a poor cottage,
thatched, and old. Shawford-brook winds beautifully tlirough a narrow vale, and
deserved Walton's commendation. — E.

112 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [parti.

On the other side of this very hedge sat a gang of gypsies ; and
near to them sat a gang of beggars. The gypsies were then to
divide all the money that had been got that week, either by steal-
ing linen or poultry, or by fortune-telling or legerdemain, or, indeed,
by any other sleights and secrets belonging to their mysterious
government. And the sum that was got that week proved to be
but twenty and some odd shillings. The odd money was agreed
to be distributed amongst the poor of their own corporation : and
for the remaining twenty shillings, that was to be divided unto
four gentlemen gypsies, according to their several degrees in their
commonwealth. And the first or chiefest gypsy was, by consent,
to have a third part of the twenty shillings, which all men know
is 6s. 8d. The second was to have a fourth part of the 20s.,
which all men know to be 5 s. The third was to have a fifth part
of the 20s., which all men know to be 4s. The fourth and last
gypsy was to have a sixth part of the 20s., which all men know to
be 3s. 4d.

As for example,

3 times 6s. Sd. are .... 20s.

And so is 4 times 5s. . . . . 20s.

And so is 5 times 4s. . . . . 20s.

And so is 6 times 3s. 4d. ... 20s.

And yet he that divided the money was so very a gypsy, that
though he gave to every one these said sums, yet he kept one
shilling of it for himself.

As for example, s. d.

6 8

5 o

4 o

3 4

make but . . 19 o

But now you shall know, that when the four gypsies saw that
he had got one shilling by dividing the money, though not one
of them knew any reason to demand more, yet, like lords and
courtiers, every gypsy envied him that was the gainer ; and
wrangled with him ; and every one said the remaining shilling
belonged to him ; and so they fell to so high a contest about it,
as none that knows the faithfulness of one gypsy to another will
easily believe ; only we that have lived these last twenty years
are certain that money has been able to do much mischief.
However, the gypsies were too wise to go to law, and did there-
fore choose their choice friends Rook and Shark, and our late
English Gusman,'^ to be their arbitrators and umpires. And so

* The English Gitstnan occurs in Walton's second edition, 1655 : a«d his alUision is

CHAP, v.] THE FOURTH DA V. 1 13

they left this honeysuckle hedge ; and went to tell fortunes and
cheat, and get more money and lodging in the next village.

When these were gone, we heard as high a contention amongst
the beggars, whether it was easiest to rip a cloak, or to unrip a
cloak ? One beggar affirmed it was all one : but that was denied,
by asking her, if doing and undoing were all one ? Then another
said, 'twas easiest to unrip a cloak ; for that was to let it alone :
but she was answered, by asking her, how she unript it if she let
it alone ? and she confest herself mistaken. These and twenty
suchlike questions were proposed and answered, with as much
beggarly logic and earnestness as was ever heard to proceed from
the mouth of the most pertinacious schismatic ; and sometimes
all the beggars, whose number was neither more nor less than the
poets' nine muses, talked all together about this ripping and
unripping ; and so loud, that not one heard what the other said :*
but, at last, one beggar craved audience ; and told them that old
father Clause, whom Ben Jonson, in his Beggar's Bush,* created
King of their corporation, was to lodge at an alehouse, called
*' Catch-her-by-the-way," not far from Waltham Cross, and in the
highroad towards London ; and he therefore desired them to
spend no more time about that and suchlike questions, but refer
all to father Clause at night, for he was an upright judge, and in
the meantime draw cuts what song should be next sung, and who
should sing it. They all agree4 to the motion ; and the lot fell
to her that was the youngest, and veriest virgin of the company.
And she sung Frank Davison's f song, which he made forty years

Variation.] ' talked all togethei^ and none hear^ what the other said. — 2d edit.

to a Work which had appeared three years hefore ; The English Gusvtan ; or, the
History of that unparalleled Thief, James Hind, written by G. F. (George Fidge), 410,
Lond. 1652. Hind appears to have been " the grandest thief" of his age. He was the
son of a saddler at Chipping Norton, in Oxfordshire : and was apprenticed to a butcher.
From some of the single sheets which were printed during the great Rebellion, he
appears to have attached himself to the Royal Cause ; and was actively engaged in the
battles both of Worcester and Warrington, in 1651 he was arrested by order of the
Parliament, having taken shelter, under the name of Brown, at " one Demy's, a barber,
over against Saint Dunstan's Church in Fleet Street." This latter circum.stance might
probably introduce him to Walton's notice, who lived in the neighbourhood. Our late
English Gusman seems to intimate that Hind was dead in 1655 ; though from none of
the publications of the time does the date of his death appear. — E.

* The Comedy of The Royal Mercliant, or Beggar's Bush, was written by Fletcher,
and not by Ben Jonson. It was licensed in 1622, and first printed in the folio of 1647 ;
with the title of The Beggar's Bush only.— Collier's Hist, of Dramatic Poetry, vol. 1.
P- 436.

t Francis Davison was the eldest son of Secretary Davison, the victim of the mean
and cowardly device of Queen Elizabeth to remove from herself the odium of the murder
of Mary Queen of Scots. He was born about the year 1575, and was intended for the
bar, but abandoned that pursuit for Potsy. In 1602, he published the Poetical
Khafisody, which went through four editions, 1602, 1608, 1611, and 1621, and has been
twice reprinted, in which miscellany he inserted the "Beggar's Song;" but there a:o

i

114 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

ago '} and all the others of the company joined to sing the
burthen with her. The ditty was this ; but first the burthen : —

Bright shines the sun ; play, Beggars, play ;
Here's scraps enough to serve to-day.

What noise of viols is so sweet.

As when our merry clappers ring?
What mirth doth want where Beggars meet ?

A Beggar's life is for a King.
Eat, drink, and play ; sleep when we list ;
Go where we will, so stocks be mist.

Bright shines the sun ; play, Beggars, play ;

Here's scraps enough to serve to-day.

The world is ours, and ours alone ;

For we alone have world at will ;
We purchase not ; all is our own ;

Both fields and streets we Beggars fill.
Nor care to get, nor fear to keep/-*
Did ever break a Beggar's sleep.

Play, Beggars, play ; play, Beggars, plaj' ;

Here's scraps enough to serve to-day.

A hundred head of black and white

Upon our gowns securely feed ;
If any dare his master -^ bite,

He dies therefore, as sure as creed.
Thus Beggars lord it as they please ;
And only Beggars live at ease.

Bright shines the sun ; play, Beggars, play ;

Here's scraps enough to serve to-day.

* Venator. I thank you, good master, for this piece of merri-
ment, and this song, which was well humoured by the maker, and
well remembered by you.

PiSCATOR. But, I pray, forget not the catch which you promised

VARIATIONS.

1 In the first edition the song is thus introduced after the passage, " No life, my
honest scholar, no life so happy and so pleasant as the angler's, unless it be the beggar s
life in summer, for then only they take no care, but are as happy as we anglers.

Viator. Indeed, master, and so they be, as is witnessed by the beggar's song, made
long since by Frank Davison, a good poet, who was not a beggar, though he were a
good poet.

Piscator. Can you .sing it, scholar ?

Viator. Sit down a little, good master, and I will try."

In the second edition, however, it occurs as in the text.

2 These two lines have been supplied from the Rhapsody, because it is evident from
the song itself, that they were accidentally omitted, and because it is accurately given
in every other instance, with the exception of one line.

3 Walton has printed this line.

"And yet if any dare us bite."
These two variations occur in every edition of the Angler.

* Piscator. I thank you, good scholar, this song was well humoured by the maker,
and well remembered and sung by you ; and I pray forget not the catch, &c. — \st
edit.

reasons for believing that it was not written by him, but by a poet whose initials were
"A. W." One or two facts tend, however, to identify Davison with A. W., and the
question is investigated in the reprint of the Rhapsody in 1826, vol. i. p. cxxv. Between
1655, when the second edition of the Angler appeared, and 1602, when the Rhapsody was
first published, fifty-three years had elapsed, so that Walton probably referred to the
edition of 1611. The song is there entitled, "A Song in praise of a Beggar's Life."

CHAP, v.] THE FOURTH DAY. 115

to make against night ; for our countryman, honest Coridon, will
expect your catch, and my song, which I must be forced to patch
up, for it is so long since I learnt it, that I have forgot a part of
it. But, come, now it hath done raining, let's stretch our legs a
little in a gentle walk to the river, and try what interest our angles
will pay us for lending them so long to be used by the Trouts ;
lent them indeed, like usurers, for our profit and their destruc-
tion.

Venator. Oh me ! look you, master, a fish ! a fish ! Oh,
alas, master, I have lost her.

PisCATOR. Ay marry. Sir, that was a good fish indeed: if I
had had the luck to have taken up that rod, then 'tis twenty to
one he should not have broke my line by running to the rod's end,
as you suffered him. I would have held him within the bent of
my rod, unless he had been fellow to the great Trout that is near
an ell long, which was of such a length and depth that he had
his picture drawn, and now is to be seen at mine host Rickabie's,
at the George in Ware,^ and it may be, by giving that very great
Trout * the rod, that is, by casting it to him into the water, I
might have caught him at the long-run, for so I use always to do
when I meet with an over-grown fish ; and you will learn to do so
too, hereafter, for I tell you, scholar, fishing is an art, or, at least,
it is an art to catch fish.

Venator. But, master, I have heard that the great Trout
you speak of is a Salmon,

VARIATION.

5 I would have held him, unless he had been fellow to the great Trout that is near an
ell long, which had his picture drawn, and now is to be seen, &c. — \st edit.

* In the reign of Charles the Second a Trout was taken in the river Kennet near
Newbury, with a casting net, which measured forty-five inches in length. Gainsford,
in "The Glory of England," 4to. Lond- 1619, p. 147, mentions one takea near Tyrone,
forty-six inches long, " the portraiture of which worthy Sir Josias Bodley hath depicted
in piano." The largest Trout known to have been caught with a minnow, in the South
of England, was taken in 1755, by Mr Howell of Cateaton Street, at Hambledon Lock
(between Maidenhead and Henley), the weight of which was sixteen pounds. In 1794,
Mr Daniel, the author of " Rural Sports," killed a Trout near Richmond Bridge, that
weighed ten pounds and a half ; and in the following year, a Mr Jons speared, at Cook's
Ferry in the river Lea, a Trout weighing fifteen pounds. An instance of the longevir/
of the Trout is cited in the Sporting Magazine for September 1826 : " Fifty-three years
ago Mr William Mossop of Board Hall, near Broughton in Fumess, placed a small trout
in a well in the orchard belonging to his family, where it has ever since remained until
last week, when it died for want of water, the severe drought having dried up the

spring by which the well was supplied. This fish would receive from Mr M 's hands

snails, worms, and bread, and always s#emed pleased at the presence of its feeder, fre-
quently moving its tail and fins with the greatest rapidity, and approaching the surface
of the water. Trout were several times put into the well, which were as constantly
devoured by the solitary inmate, who had increased in size, and weighed at his death
about two pounds."

Ii6 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [parti.

PiSCATOR. Trust me, scholar, I know not what to say to it.
There are many country-people that believe hares change sexes
every year : and there be very many learned men think so too,
for in their dissecting them they find many reasons to incline them
to that belief.* And to make the wonder seem yet less, that
hares change sexes, note that Dr Mer. Casaubon affirms, in his
book " Of credible and incredible things," that Gasper Peucerus,
a learned physician,! tells us of a people that once a year turn
wolves, partly in shape, and partly in conditions. And so,
whether this were a Salmon when he came into fresh water, and
his not returning into the sea hath altered him to another colour
or kind, I am not able to say ; but I am certain he hath all the
signs of being a Trout, both for his shape, colour, and spots ; and
yet many think he is not.

Venator. But, master, will this Trout which I had hold of
die ? for it is like he hath the hook in his belly.

PiSCATOR. I will tell you, scholar, that unless the hook be
fast in his very gorge, 'tis more than probable he will live, and a
little time, with the help of the water, will rust the hook, and it will
in time wear away, as the gravel doth in the horse-hoof, which
only leaves a false quarter.

And now, scholar, let's go to my rod. Look you, scholar, I
have a fish too, but it proves a logger-headed Chub : and this is
not much amiss, for this will pleasure some poor body, as we go
to our lodging to meet our brother Peter and honest Coridon.
Come, now bait your hook again, and lay it into the water, for it
rains again ; and we will even retire to the sycamore-tree, and
there I will give you more directions concerning fishing, for I
would fain make you an artist.

Venator. Yes, good master, I pray let it be so.

PiSCATOR. Well, scholar, now we are sate down and are at
ease, I shall tell you a little more of Trout-fishing, before I speak
of the Salmon, which I purpose shall be next, and then of the
Pike or Luce.

* This belief was not confined to "country-people " or to " learned men ;" but sports-
men of the highest reputation entertained the same opinion : thus Tvvety, Master of the
Game to King Edward the Second, in a treatise on "The craft of venery," written for
that monarch's use, says, " Now we will begyne at the hare. And wherefore at the hare
rather then at eny other best. For why? it is the most merveylous beste that is in this
iond. And wherfore ? _ For as miche as he berithe grese and crotyth and zongith and
so dothe no beste in this land but he, and sume tyme he is male and sume fetnale. And
for that cause a man may not blowe meene of hym, as men don of other bestes, but he
IS enchased." MS. penes G. Baker, Esq. of Northampton. Another copy of the Treatise
occurs in the Cotton M.S. Vesp. f. xii.

t And mathematician, born at Lusatia in 1525 ; he married the daughter of Melanc-
thon, wrote many books on various subjects, and died in 1602, aged 78. — H.

CHAP, v.] THE FOURTH DAY, 117

You are to know, there is night as well as day fishing for a
Trout ; and that, in the night, the best Trouts come out of their
holes.® And the manner of taking them is on the top of the
water with a great lob or garden worm, or rather two, which you
are to fish with in a stream where the waters run somewhat quietly,
for in a stream the bait will not be so well discerned. I say, in
a quiet or dead place, near to some swift, there draw your bait
over the top of the water, to and fro, and if there be a good Trout
in the hole, he will take it, especially if the night be dark, for then
he is bold, and lies near the top of the water, watching the motion
of any frog or water-rat, or mouse, that swims betwixt him and
the sky ; these he hunts after, if he sees the water but wrinkle or
move in one of these dead holes, where these great old Trouts
usually lie, near to their holds ; for you are to note, that the great
old Trout is both subtle and fearful, and lies close all day, and does
not usually stir out of his hold, but lies in it as close in the day
as the timorous hare does in her form ; for the chief feeding of
either is seldom in the day, but usually in the night, and then the
great Trout feeds very boldly.'

And you must fish for him with a strong line, and not a little
hook ; and let him have time to gorge your hook, for he does not
usually forsake it, as he oft will in the day-fishing. And if the
night be not dark, then fish so with an artificial fly of a light
colour, and at the snap : nay, he will sometimes rise at a dead
mouse, or a piece of cloth, or anything that seems to swim across
the water, or to be in motion. This is a choice way, but I have
not oft used it, because it is void of the pleasures that such days
as these, that we two now enjoy, afford an angler.

And you are to know, that in Hampshire, which I think exceeds
all England for swift, shallow, clear, pleasant brooks, and store of
Trouts, they used to catch Trouts in the night, by the light of a
torch or straw, which, when they have discovered, they strike with
a Trout-spear, or other ways. This kind of way they catch very
many : but I would not believe it till I was an eyewitness of it,
nor do I like it now I have seen it.

Venator. But, master, do not Trouts see us in the night ?

PiSCATOR. Yes, and hear, and smell too, both then and in the

VARIATIONS.

6 and that then the best are out of their holds. — xsi and id edit. "Holds," a word
far preferable to " holes," is used in the first four editions.

' if the night be dark ; for then he lies boldly near the top of the water, watching the
motion of any fro^ or water-mouse, or rat betwixt him and the sky, which he hunts for,
&c. — xst edit.

ii8 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [parti.

daytime : for Gesner observes, the Otter smells a fish forty fur-
longs off him in the water : and that it may be true, seems to be
affirmed by Sir Francis Bacon, in the eighth century of his Natural
History, who there proves that waters may be the medium of
sounds, by demonstrating it thus : " That if you knock two stones
together very deep under the water, those that stand on a bank
near to that place may hear the noise without any diminution of
it by the water/' He also offers the like experiment concerning
the letting an anchor fall, by a very long cable or rope, on a rock,
or the sand, within the sea. And this being so well observed and
demonstrated as it is by that learned man, has made me to believe
that Eels unbed themselves and stir at the noise of thunder, and
not only, as some think, by the motion or stirring of the earth
which is occasioned by that thunder.

And this reason of Sir Francis Bacon,* has made me crave
pardon of one that I laughed at for affirming that he knew Carps
come to a certain place, in a pond, to be fed at the ringing of a
bell or the beating of a drum. And, however, it shall be a rule
for me to make as little noise as I can when I am fishing, until
Sir Francis Bacon be confuted, which I shall give any man leave to
do.sf

And lest you may think him singular in this opinion, I will tell
you, this seems to be believed by our learned Doctor Hakewill,
who in his Apology of God's power and providence,:}: quotes
Pliny to report that one of the emperors had particular fish-ponds,

VARIATION.

8 In \}ci& first edition, Walton adds here, "and so leave off this philosophical discourse,
for a discourse of fishing ; " and continues, " of which my next shall be to tell you, it is
certain, that certain fields," &c., as in a subsequent part of the text with the exception of
the passage from St James, which was inserted in the third edition.

* Exper. 792.

t That fish hear, is confirmed by the authority of late writers : Swammerdam asserts
it, and adds, that "they have a wonderful labyrinth of the ear for that purpose." See
Swammerdam, Of Insects, edit. London, 1758, p. 50. A clergyman, a friend of mine,
assures me, that at the abbey of St Bernard, near Antwerp, he saw Carp come at the
whistling of the feeder. — H.

X "f. 360." This book, which was published in folio, 1635, and is full of excellent
learning and good sense, contains an examination and censure of that common error
which philosophers have fallen into, "that there is in nature a perpetual and universal
decay ; " the contrary ^yhereof, after an extensive view of the history of the physical and
moral world, and a judicious and impartial comparison of former ages with that wherein
the author lived, is with great force of argument demonstrated. The reader may, in this
book, meet with a relation of that instance of Lord Cromwell's gratitude to Sig. Fresco-
baldi, a Florentine merchant, which is given, in a dramatic form, in the History of
Thomas Lord Croviwell, published as Shakespeare's by some of the earlier editors of
his works. — H. See Le Neve's Fasti. Lloyd's Memoirs, p. 540. Wood's Hist, and
Antiq. Oxon. 1. ii. p. 204. Athen. Oxon. 1. ii. 64. Dr Hakewill was rector of Exeter
College, Oxford : and had the living of Heanton, near Barnstaple, in Devonshire, where
he died in the beginning of April 1649. — E.

CHAP, v.] THE FOURTH DAY. 119

and, in them, several fish that appeared and came when they
were called by their particular names.* And St James tells us,t
that all things in the sea have been tamed by mankind. And
Pliny tells us,J that Antonia, the wife of Drusus, had a Lamprey
at whose gills she hung jewels or ear-rings ; and that others have
been so tender-hearted as to shed tears at the death of fishes
which they have kept and loved. And these observations, which
will to most hearers seem wonderful, seem to have a further con-
firmation from Martial, § who writes thus : —

Piscator, fuge : ne nocetts, 6r'c.
Angler ! wouldst thou be guiltless ? then forbear ;
For these are sacred fishes that swim here,
"Who know their sovereign, and will lick his hand,
Than which none's greater in the world's command ;
Nay more, they've names, and, when they called are.
Do to their several owner's call repair.

All the further use that I shall make of this shall be, to advise
anglers to be patient, and forbear swearing, lest they be heard,
and catch no fish.||

And so I shall proceed next to tell you, it is certain that certain
fields near Leominster, a town in Herefordshire, are observed to
make the sheep that graze upon them more fat than the next, and
also to bear finer wool ; that is to say, that that year in which
they feed in such a particular pasture, they shall yield finer wool
than they did that year before they came to feed in it ; and
coarser, again, if they shall return to their former pasture ; and,
again, return to a finer wool, being fed in the fine- wool ground :
which I tell you, that you may the better believe that I am certain,
if I catch a Trout in one meadow, he shall be white and faint,
and very like to be lousy ; and, as certainly, rf I catch a Trout in
the next meadow, he shall be strong, and red, and lusty, and
much better meat. Trust me, scholar, I have caught many a
Trout in a particular meadow, that the very shape and the
enamelled colour of him hath been such as hath joyed me to look

* Mons. Bcrnier, in his History of Indostan, reports the like of the Great Mogul.— H.
t Chap. iii. 7. X Lib. ix. 35.

\ Lib. iv. Epigr. 30. The verses cited are as follow : —
" Piscatorj fuge ; ne nocens recedas,

Sacris piscibus hae natantur undae ;

Qui nSrunt dominum, manumque lambunt

Iliam, qua nihil est, in orbe, majus :

Quid, quod nomen habent ; et ad magistri

Vocem quisque sui venit citatus."
I This saying occurs in Sicelides a Piscatory [by Phineas Fletcher], as it hath been
acted in Kittg's College in Cambridge. Lotid. 1631, 410.

*' Nay if you sweare, we shall catch no fish."

I20 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i,

on him : * and I have then, with much pleasure, concluded with
Solomon, " Everything is beautiful in his season." ^ f

I should, by promise, speak next of the Salmon ; but I will, by
your favour, say a little of the Umber or Grayling ; which is so
like a Trout for his shape and feeding, that I desire I may exercise
your patience with a short discourse of him ; and then, the next
shall be of the Salmon.^

Chap VI The PiSCATOR. THE Umber and Grayling are thought
Umber or Gray- by some to differ as the Herring and Pilchard do.
'"^* But though they may do so in other nations, I

think those in England differ nothing but in their names. Aldro-
vandus says, they be of a Trout kind ; and Gesner says, that in
his country, which is Switzerland, he is accounted the choicest of
all fish. And in Italy, he is, in the month of May, so highly
valued, that he is sold there at a much higher rate than any other
fish. The French, which call the Chub Un Villain, call the
Umber of the Lake Leman, Un Umble Chevalier ; and they value
the Umber or Grayling so highly, that they say he feeds on gold ;
and say, that many have been caught out of their famous river of
Loire, out of whose bellies grains of gold have been often taken.

VARIATIONS.

" I have with Solomon concluded, &c. — i^^ edit.

1 It is now time to tell you next, according to promise, some observations of the
Salmon : but first I will tell you there is a fish called by some an Umber, and by some a
Grayling, a choice fish, esteemed by many to be equally good with the Trout : it is a fish
that is usually about eighteen inches long, he lives in such streams as the Trout does:
and is indeed taken with the same bait as a Trout is, for he will bite both at the minnow,
the worm, and the fly both natural and artificial : of this fish there be many in Trent, and
in the river that runs by Salisbury, and in some lesser brooks : but he is not so general
a fish as the Trout is ; of which two fishes I will now take my leave, and come to my
promised Observations on the Salmon, and a little advice for the catching him. —
1st edit.

* 'Tis delightful the trout to ensnare.
To gaze on his spots, like the cheek of the fair.
And sigh when their brilliancy sinks in decay.
As bright as the rainbow, yet fleet as its ray. Anon.
t The Trout delights in rivers, and brooks, and gravelly bottoms, and swift streams;
His haunts are eddies, behind stones, logs, or banks that project forward into the river,
and against which the stream drives ; shallows between two streams ; or, towards the
latter end of the summer, mill-tails and old weirs. His hold is usually in the deep, under
the hollow of a bank, or the root of a tree. The Trout spawns about the beginning of
November, and does not recover till the beginning of March. In addition to what
Walton has said on the subject of Trout-fishing, the following directions and observation?
may be inserted. When you fish for Trout or Salmon, a -winch screwed on the butt oi
the rod will be very useful : upon the rod whip a number of small rings of about an eighth
of an inch in diameter, at first about three feet distant from each other, but diminishing
gradually in their distances towards the top. When you have struck a fish that may
endanger your tackle, let the line run, wind him up as he tires, and take him out with a
landing net. In angling for Trout, whether with a fly or at the ground, you need make
but three or four trials in a place ; and, if unsuccessful, you may conclude there are none
there ; the same rule applies to Perch in a running stream.

THE FLY-FISHER

BY IN^,KIPP

I

CHAP. VI.] THE FOURTH DAY. 121

And some think that he feeds on water-thyme, and smells of it at
his first taking out of the water ; and they may think so with as
good reason as we do that our Smelts smell hke violets at their
being first caught, which I think is a truth. Aldrovandus says,
the Salmon, the Grayling, and Trout, and all fish that live in
clear and sharp streams, are made by their mother Nature of such
exact shape and pleasant colours purposely to invite us to a joy
and contentedness in feasting with her. Whether this is a truth
or not, is not my purpose to dispute : but 'tis certain, all that
write of the Umber declare him to be very medicinable. And
Gesner says, that the fat of an Umber or Grayling, being set,
with a little honey, a day or two in the sun, in a little glass, is
very excellent against redness or swarthiness, or anything that
breeds in the eyes. Salvian * takes him to be called Umber from
his swift swimming, or gliding out of sight more hke a shadow or
a ghost than a fish. Much more might be said both of his smell
and taste : but I shall only tell you that St Ambrose, the glorious
Bishop of Milan, who lived when the Church kept fasting-days,
calls him the flower-fish, or flower of fishes ; and that he was so
far in love with him, that he would not let him pass without the
honour of a long discourse ; but I must ; and pass on to tell you
how to take this dainty fish.

First note, that he grows not to the bigness of a Trout ; foi
the biggest of them do not usually exceed eighteen inches.t He
lives in such rivers as the Trout does ; and is usually taken with
the same baits as the Trout is, and after the same manner ; for
he will bite both at the minnow, or worm, or fly, though he bites
not often at the minnow, and is very gamesome at the fly ; and
much simpler, and therefore bolder than a Trout ; for he will rise
twenty times at a fly, if you miss him, and yet rise again. He
has been taken with a fly made of the red feathers of a paroquet,
a strange outlandish bird ; and he will rise at a fly not unlike a
gnat, or a small moth, or, indeed, at most flies that are not too
big. He is a fish that lurks close all Winter, but is very pleasant
and jolly after mid-April, and in May, and in the hot months.
He is of a very fine shape, his flesh is white, his teeth, those little
ones that he has, are in his throat, yet he has so tender a mouth,
that he is oftener lost after an angler has hooked him than any

* Hippolito Salviani, an Italian physician of the sixteenth century: he wrote a
treatise De Piscibus, cum eorumjizitris, and died at Rome, 1572, aged 59. — H.

t Pennant notices as a rarity, a Grayling taken near Ludlow, above half a yard long,
and weighing four pounds six ounces. Another was killed near Shrewsbury which
weighed full five pounds.

122 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part r.

other fish. Though there be many of these fishes in the dehcate
river Dove, and in Trent, and some other smaller rivers, as that
which runs by Salisbury, yet he is not so general a fish as the
TrouL, nor to me so good to eat or to angle for.* And so I shall
take my leave of him : and now come to some observations of the
Salmon, and how to catch him.

Chap. vii. Piscator. The Salmon is accounted the King of

The Salmon, fresh-water fish ; and is ever bred in rivers relating
to the sea, yet so high, or far from it, as admits of no tincture of
salt, or brackishness. He is said to breed or cast his spawn,
in most rivers, in the month of August : f some say, that then
they dig a hole or grave in a safe place in the gravel, and there
place their eggs or spawn, after the melter has done his natural
office, and then hide it most cunningly, and cover it over with
gravel and stones ; and then leave it to their Creator's protection,
who, by a gentle heat which he infuses into that cold element,
makes it brood, and beget life in the spawn, and to become
Samlets early in the spring next following. ^

The Salmons having spent their appointed time, and done this
natural duty in the fresh waters, they then haste to the sea before
winter, both the melter and spawner : but if they be stopt by
floodgates or weirs, or lost in the fresh waters, then those so left
behind by degrees grow sick and lean, and unseasonable, and
kipper, that is to say, have bony gristles grow out of their lower
chaps, not unlike a hawk's beak, which hinders their feeding ;
and, in time, such fish so left behind pine away and die. 'Tis
observed, that he may live thus one year from the sea ; but he

VARIATION.

2 protection, by whose power the spawn becomes Samlets the next spring following.
— 2rf edit.

* Notwithstanding Wahon's assertion, experienced anglers affirm that although the
Grayling may, yet he very rarely does, take the minnow. He will take gentles very
eagerly. When you fish for him with a fly, you can hardly use one too small. The
Grayling is found in great plenty in many rivers in the north, particularly the Htiviber.
And in the Wye^ which runs through Herefordshire and Monmouthshire into the
Severn, have been taken, with an artificial fly, very large ones : as also great numbers of
a small, but excellent fish, of the Trout kind, called a Last-spring. They are not easily
to be got at without a boat, or wading ; for which reason those of that country use a
thing they call a Corracle, or truckle : in some places it is called a coble, from the Latin
corbula, a little basket; it is a basket, shaped like the half of a walnut-shell, but
shallower in proportion, and covered on the outside with a horse's hide ; it has a bench
in the middle, and will just hold one person, and is so light, that the countrymen will
hang it on their heads like a hood, and so travel, with a small paddle which serves for
a stick, till they come to a river ; and then they launch it, and step in. There is great
difficulty in getting into one of these tr\ickles, for the instant you touch it with your foot
it flies from you ; and when you are in, the least inclination of the body oversets it.— H.

t Their usual time of spawning is about the beginning of September, but it is said
those in the Severn spawn in May. — H.

CHAP. VII.] THE FOURTH DA V. lis'

then grows insipid and tasteless, and loses both his blood and
strength, and pines and dies the second year. And 'tis noted,
that those little Salmons called Skeggers, which abound in many-
rivers relating to the sea, are bred by such sick Salmons that
might not go to the sea, and that though they abound, yet they
never thrive to any considerable bigness.^

But if the old Salmon gets to the sea, then that gristle which
shows him to be kipper, wears away, or is cast off, as the
eagle is said to cast his bill, and he recovers his strength, and
comes next summer to the same river, if it be possible, to enjoy
the former pleasures that there possest him ; * for, as one has
wittily observed, he has, like some persons of honour and riches
which have both their winter and summer houses, the fresh rivers
for summer, and the salt water for winter, to spend his life in ;
which is not, as Sir Francis Bacon hath observed in his " History
of Life and Death," above ten years. And it is to be observed,
that though the Salmon does grow big in the sea, yet he grows
not fat but in fresh rivers ; and it is observed, that the farther
they get from the sea, they be both the fatter and better.

Next, I shall tell you, that though they make very hard shift
to get out of the fresh rivers into the sea, yet they will make
harder shift to get out of the salt into the fresh rivers, to spawn,
or possess the pleasures that they have formerly found in them :
to which end, they will force themselves through floodgates, oi
over weirs, or hedges, or stops in the water, even to a height
beyond common belief. Gesner speaks of such places as are

VARIATION.

8 The observations on Salmon-fishing, as printed in the^rj^ edition, vary considerably
from those subsequently published. They commence thus: "The Salmon is ever bred
in the fresh rivers, and m most rivers about the month of August, and never grows big
but in the sea ; and there to an incredible bigness in a very short time ; to which place
they covet to swim, by the instinct of nature about a set time : but if they be stopped by
mills, floodgates, or weirs, or be by accident lost in the fresh water, when the others go,
which is usually by flocks or shoals, then they thrive not.

"And the old Salmon, both the Melter and Spriwner, strive also to get into the sea
before winter : but being stopped that course, or lost, grow sick in fresh waters, and by
degrees unseasonable and kipper, that is, to have a bony gristle to grow, not unlike a
h.iwk's beak, on one of his chaps, which hinders him from feeding, and then lie pines
and dies.

" But if he goes to sea, then that gristle," &c., as in text.

* The migration of the Salmon and divers other sorts of fishes is analogous to that of
Birds : and Mr Ray confirms Walton's assertion, by saying, that " Salmon will yearly
ascend up a river four or five hundred miles, only to cast their spawn, and secure it in
banks of sand till the young be hatched and excluded ; and then return to sea again."
— IVisdom of God manifested in the Works o/ the Creation, p. 130. It may not be
improper here to take notice, that in this, and sever.il other parts of the book, the facts
related by the author do most rem.Trkably coincide with latter discoveries of the most
diligent and sagacious naturalists.— H.

K

124 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

known to be above eight feet high above water. And our
Camden mentions, in his '' Britannia/' the Hke wonder to be in
Pembrokeshire, where the river Tivy falls into the sea ; and that
the fall is so downright, and so high, that the people stand and
wonder at the strength and sleight by which they see the Salmon
use to get out of the sea into the said river ; and the manner and
height of the place is so notable, that it is known, far, by the
name of the Salmon-leap. Concerning which, take this also out
of Michael Drayton,* my honest old friend ; as he tells it you, in
his " Polyolbion : " ^ —

And when the Salmon seeks a fresher stream to find
(Which hither from the sea comes, yearly, by his kind),
As he towards season grows ; and stems the wat'ry tract
Where Tivy, falling down, makes an high cataract,
Forc'd by the rising rocks that there her course oppose,
As tho' within her bounds they meant her to inclose ;
Here, when the labouring fish does at the foot arrive.
And finds that by his strength he does but vainly strive ;
His tail takes in his mouth, and, bending like a bow
That's to full compass drawn, aloft himself doth throw,
Tlien springing at his height, as doth a little wand
That bended end to end, and started from man's hand,
Far off itself doth cast ; so does the Salmon vault :
And if, at first, he fail, his second summersault
He instantly essays, and, from his nimble ring
Still yerking, never leaves until himself he fling
Above the opposing stream. . . .

VARIATION.

* Concerning which, take this also out of honest Michael Draiton. — zd edit.

The whole of the preceding paragraph is in the /irst edition much condensed. It
runs thus : ' ' And it is to be observed, that, to the end they may get far from the sea, either
to spawn or to possess the pleasure that they then and there find, thfey will force them-
selves over the tops of weirs or hedges, or stops in the water, by taking their tails into their
mouths and leaping over those places, even to a height beyond common belief: and
sometimes by forcing themselves against the stream through sluices and floodgates
beyond common credit."

• A celebrated poet, who was bom in Warwickshire, 1563. Among his works, which
are very numerous, is the Polyolbion, a chorographical description of the rivers, moun-
tains, forests, castles, &c., in this island. Though this poem has great merit, it is rendered
much more valuable by the learned notes of Mr Selden. Drayton died in 1631, and lies
buried among the poets in Westminster Abbey. Bishop Warburton, in the Prejace to
his Shakespeare, speaking of this poem, says it was written by one Drayton; a mode
of expression very common with great men, when they mean to consign the memory of
others to oblivion and contempt. Bishop Burnet, speaking of the negotiations previous
to the peace of Utrecht, says in like manner, that '■'•one Prior vfa.s employed to finish
the treaty," But both those prelates, in this their witty perversion of an innocent mono-
syllable, were but imitators of the Swedish ambassador, who complained to Whitlocke,
that a treaty had been sent to be translated by one Mr Milton, a blind 7nan. Whitlocke's
Mem. 633. — H. An equally remarkable example of aristocratic superciliousness occurs
in the case of Doctor Johnson. Earl Gower being asked to assist in obtaining the degree
of Master of Arts for Johnson, from the University of Dublin, wrote to a friend of Dean
Swift on the subject. After noticing that Johnson was the " author of London, a Sat-
ire, and some other Poetical pieces, and was much respected," his lordship alludes to
him as " thispoorman : " he says, " they highly extol t/ie man's learning and probity :"
and adds that he is assured that his correspondent's willingness to relieve merit in distress,
will incline him to serve " the poor jnan." Boswell's Lyfe of Johnson. The noble Earl

CHAP. VII.] THE FOURTH DAY. 125

This Michael Drayton tells you, of this leap or summersault of
the Salmon.

And, next, I shall tell you, that it is observed by Gesner and
others, that there is no better Salmon than in England ; and that
though some of our northern counties have as fat, and as large,*
as the river Thames, yet none are of so excellent a taste.*

And as I have told you that Sir Francis Bacon observes, the
age of a Salmon exceeds not ten years ; so let me next tell you,
that his growth is very sudden, it is said, that after he is got into
the sea, he becomes, from a Samlet not so big as a Gudgeon, to
be a Salmon, in as short a time as a gosling becomes to be a
goose. Much of this has been observed, by tying a riband, or
some known tape or thread, in the tail of some young Salmons
which have been taken in weirs as they have swimmed towards
the salt water ; and then by taking a part of them again, with the
known mark, at the same place, at their return from the sea,
which is usually about six months after ; and the like experiment
hath been tried upon young swallows, who have, after six months'
absence, been observed to return to the same chimney, there to
make their nests and habitations for the summer following ; which
has inclined many to think, that every Salmon usually returns to
the same river in which it was bred, as young pigeons taken out
of the same dovecote have also been observed to do.

And you are yet to observe further, that the He-Salmon is
usually bigger than the Spawner ; and that he is more kipper,
and less able to endure a winter in the fresh water than the She
is : yet she is, at that time of looking less kipper and better, as
watery, and as bad meat.

And yet you are to observe, that as there is no general rule
without an exception, so there are some few rivers in this nation
that have Trouts and Salmon in season in winter, as 'tis certain

VARIATION.

* And 'tis observed by Gesner, that there is none bigger than In England, nor none
better than in Thames. — xst edit.

and "the poor man "have both been long consigned to their kindred dust; but the
contrast, with respect to their memories, is more striking than the difference in their situa-
tions when living — complete oblivion is already the lot of the one ; whilst the fame of
the other is identified with the English language, and will endure when insignificant
nobles are " forgotten as fools, or remembered as worse."

* The following appeared in one of the London Journalsi i8 April 1789 ; " The
largest salmon ever caught was yesterday brought to London. This extraordinary fish
measured upwards of four feet, from the point of the nose to the e.xtremity of the tail :
and three feet round the thickest part of the body : its weight was seventy pounds within
a few ounces. A fishmonger in the Minories cut it up at oue shilling per pound, and the
whole was sold almost immediately." — H.

126 . THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

there be in the river Wye in Monmouthshire, where they be in
season, as Camden observes, from September till April.* But,
my scholar, the observation of this and many other things I must
in manners omit, because they will prove too large for our narrow
compass of time, and therefore I shall next fall upon my direc-
tions how to fish for this Salmon.

And, for that : First you shall observe, that usually he stays
not long in a place, as Trouts will, but, as I said, covets still to
go nearer the spring-head : t and that he does not, as the Trout
and many other fish, lie near the water-side or bank, or roots ot
trees, but swims in the deep and broad parts of the water, and
usually in the middle, and near the ground, and that there you are
to fish for him, and that he is to be caught, as the Trout is, with
a worm, a minnow, which some call a penk, or with a fly.

And you are to observe, that he is very seldom observed to
bite at a minnow, yet sometimes he will, and not usually at a fly,
but more usually at a worm, and then most usually at a lob or
garden worm, which should be well scoured, that is to say, kept
seven or eight days in moss before you fish with them : and if

* Mr Buncombe, speaking of the Salmon, says, " They are found in the Wye at all
times, but they are only in perfection from December to August." The assertion of
Doctor Fuller {Worthies, p. 34), that "the Salmon of the Wye are in season all the year
long, is altogether groundless. They formerly abounded so much, that it was a common
clause in the indentures of children apprenticed in Hereford, that thej' should not be com-
pelled to live on Salmon more than two days in a week." Such precautions are, how-
ever, now unnecessary. "After a short continuance in freshwater," adds Mr Dun-
combe, " they tend rapidly to impoverishment, and as they are only stationary when
there is not a sufficient stream to admit of their proceeding, a moderate swell puts the neiu
fish in motion up the river, and enables the fishermen to calculate their approach with
considerable accuracy. They are very rarely found to proceed against a current of
cold or very hard water : when therefore the Wye is swelled by snow dissolving in large
quantities from the mountains towards its source, which occasionally happens as late as
April, or even May, all attempts to take them are suspended for the time. They are
not intercepted by the fishermen when returning to the sea, as it is known that the
voyage which they have performed has deprived them of their principal value : and in
this state they are denominated old fish. The spawn deposited in the river produces fish
of very minute size, which about April become as heavy as a gudgeon, but more taper
and delicate in their form : these are in some parts termed salmon-fry, but are here
known by the name of last-springs from the date of their annual appearance, and are
readily taken by the artificial fly. Two kinds of last-springs are found in the Wye, the
one which is the larger, and more common sort, leaves the river in the spring floods :
the smaller is termed the gravel last-spring, and is met with, particularly in shoals,
during the whole summer. The general opinion is, that the last-springs, after making
a voyage to the sea, return botchers in the beginning of the following summer. Botchers
are taken from three to twelve poimds weight ; they are distinguished from the Salmon
by a smaller head, more silvery scales, and by retaining much of the delicate appear-
ance of the last-spring. In the third year they become Salmon, and often weigh from
forty to fifty pounds each. These are the generally-received opinions respecting the
progress of the last-spring to the botcher and Salmon : but it must not be omitted, that
some able_ naturalists of the present time contend that the last-spring and botcher are
each distinct in their species from the Salmon, and that the botcher resembles the
suiii taken in the Welsh rivers, or that it is even the same fish." — Collections towards
the History and Antiquities of Herefordshire, p. 161 et seq.

t The Salmon delights in large rapid rivers, especially such as have pebbly, gravelly,
and sometimes weedy bottoms.

< s

CHAP. VII.] THE FOURTH DAY. 127

you double your time of eight into sixteen, twenty, or more days,
it is still the better ; for the worms will still be clearer, tougher,
and more lively, and continue so longer upon your hook. And
they may be kept longer by keeping them cool, and in fresh moss ;
and some advise to put camphire into it.*

Note also, that many use to fish for a Salmon with a ring of
wire on the top of their rod, through which the line may run to
as great a length as is needful, when he is hooked. And to that
end, some use a wheel about the middle of their rod, or near their
hand, which is to be observed better by seeing one of them than
by a large demonstration of words.

And now I shall tell you that which may be called a secret. I
have been a-fishing with old OUver Henly, now with God, a
noted fisher both for Trout and Salmon ; and have observed,
that he would usually take three or four worms out of his bag,
and put them into a little box in his pocket, where he would
usually let them continue half an hour or more, before he would
bait his hook with them. I have asked him his reason, and he
has replied, " He did but pick the best out to be in readiness
against he baited his hook the next time : " but he has been
observed, both by others and myself, to catch more fish than I, or
any other body that has ever gone a-fishing with him, could do,
and especially Salmons. And I have been told lately, by one of
his most intimate and secret friends, that the box in which he put
those worms was anointed with a drop, or two or three, of the oil
of ivy-berries, made by expression or infusion ; and told, that by
the worms remaining in that box an hour, or a like time, they had
incorporated a kind of smell that was irresistibly attractive, enough
to force any fish within the smell of them to bite. This I heard
not long since from a friend, but have not tried it ; yet I grant it
probable, and refer my reader to Sir Francis Bacon's *' Natural
History," where he proves fishes may hear, and, doubtless, can
more probably smell .• and I am certain Gesner says, the Otter
can smell in the water ; and I know not but that fish may do so
too. 'Tis left for a lover of angling, or any that desires to improve
that art, to try this conclusion.

* Baits for Salmon .ire : lob-worms, for the ground ; smaller worms and bobs,cad-bait,
and, indeed, most of the baits taken by the trout, at the top of the water. Flies should
be made of the most gaudy colours, and very large. There is a fly called the horse-leech
fly, which he is very fond of: they are of various colours, have great heads, large
bodies, very long tails, and two (and some have three) pairs of wings, placed behind
each other : in imitating this fly, behind each pr.ir of wings, whip the body about with
gold or silver twist, or both, and do the same by the head. Fisli with it at length, as
for Trout and Grayling. If you dib, do it with two or three butterflies of difl"crent
colours, or with some of the most glaring small flies you can find.

128 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

I shall also impart two other experiments, but not tried by
myself, which I will deliver in the same words that they were
given me by an excellent angler and a very friend, in writing : he
told me the latter was too good to be told, but in a learned lan-
guage, lest it should be made common.

" Take the stinking oil drawn out of polypody of the oak by a
retort, mixed with turpentine and hive-honey, and anoint your
bait therewith, and it will doubtless draw the fish to it." The
other is this : " Vulnera hederse grandissimae inflicta sudant
balsamum oleo gelato, albicantique persimile, odoris vero long^
suavissimi." " ^Tis supremely sweet to any fish, and yet assa-
fcetida may do the like." *

But in these I have no great faith ; yet grant it probable ;
and have had from some chymical men, namely, from Sir George
Hastings and others, an affirmation of them to be very advan-
tageous. But no more of these; especially not in this place.f

I might here, before I take my leave of the Salmon, tell you
that there is more than one sort of them, as, namely, a Tecon, and

* At the end of the Secrets of Angling, by J. D., is the followino: recipe of " R. R.,"
who possibly may be the " R. Roe " mentioned in the Pre/ace to Walton : —

Wouldst thou catch fish ?

Then here's thy wish,

Take this receipt,

To anoint thy bait.
Thou that desirest to fish with h"ne and hook,
Be it in pool, in river, or in brook,
To bliss thy bait, and make the fish to bite,
Lo ! here's a means, if thou canst hit it right ;
Take gum of life, well beat and laid to soak

In oil well drawn from that« which kills the oak. [« Ivy.

Fish where thou wilt, thou shalt have sport thy fill ;
When twenty fail, thou shalt be sure to kill.

Prodaftufi.
It's perfect and good
If well understood.
Else not to be told
For silver or gold. R. R.

The following recipe for catching pikes occurs in an old MS. on vellum, written about
the year 1550, and now in the possession of Dr Bliss : —

A CRAFT TO TAK PYKS, ETC

Tak asafetida of the fattest an ownce. Stanch gryme di quarter of an ownce, Gunie
arabek lik myche, Blak berys iij or iiij small broken, The yolk of an egge rostit harde
like myche. Then take iij or iiij dropis of olium benedictum, To temper thies togedre
lik past, And rubbe and anonyte the end of the lyne that the hooke ys hopon.

t The following extract of a letter which appeared in one of the London papers, 21st

^une 1788, should operate as a general caution against using, in the composition of
aits, any ingredient prejudicial to the human constitution : " Newcastle, June 16.
Last week, in Lancashire, two young men having caught a large quantity of Trout by
mixing the water in a small brook with lime, ate heartily of the Trout at dinner the next
day : they were seized, at midnight, with violent pains in the intestines ; and though
medical assistance was immediately procured, they expired before noon in the greatest
agonies." — H.

CHAP. VIII.] THE FOURTH DA Y. 129

another called in some places a Samlet, or by some a Skegger ;
but these, and others which I forbear to name, may be fish cf
another kind, and difiter as we know a Herring and a Pilchard
do,* which, I think, are as different as the rivers in which they
breed, and must, by me, be left to the disquisitions of men of
more leisure, and of greater abilities than I profess myself to
have.

And lastly, I am to borrow so much of your promised patience,
as to tell you that the trout, or Salmon, being in season, have, at
their first taking out of the water, which continues during life, their
bodies adorned, the one with such red spots, and the other
with such black or blackish spots, as give them such an addition
of natural beauty as, I think, was never given to any woman by
the artificial paint or patches in which they so much pride them-
selves in this age.t And so I shall leave them both ; and pro-
ceed to some observations of the Pike.

PiSCATOR. The mighty Luce or Pike is taken to be the
Chap. VIII. On tyrant, J as the Salmon is the king, of the fresh
the Luce or Pike, waters. 'Tis not to be doubted but that they
are bred, some by generation, and some not; as, namely, of a weed
called pickerel- weed, unless learned Gesner be much mistaken, for
he says this weed and other glutinous matter, with the help of
the sun's heat, in some particular months, and some ponds apted
for it by nature, do become Pikes. But, doubtless, divers Pikes
are bred after this manner, or are brought into some ponds some
such other ways as is past man's finding out, of which we have
daily testimonies.^

VARIATION.

^ It is not to be doubted but that the Luce, or PickreU» or Pike, breeds by spawning :
and yet Gesner says that some of them breed where uone ever was, out of a weed

• There is a fish, in many rivers, of the Salmon kind, which though very small, is
thought by some curious persons to be of the same species ; and this, I take it, is the
fish known by the different names of Salmon-Pink, Shedders, Skeggers, Last-springs,
and Gravel Last-springs. But there is another small fish very much resembling these
in shape and colour, called the Gravel Last-spring, found only in the river Wye, and
Severn ; which is, undoubtedly, a distinct species : These spawn about the beginning
of September : and in the Wye I have taken them with an ant-fly as fast as I could
throw. Perhaps this is what Walton calls the Tecon. — H.

t This passage occurs in theyfrj/ edition. Several allusions to the fashion of women
wenring patches occurs in Pepys' Diary. "August 30, 1660. This is the first day that
ever I saw my wife wear black patches since we were married." " October 20, 1660. I
dined with my Lord and Lady [Sandwich], he was very merry and did talk very high
how he would have a F'rench cook, and a master of his horse, and his lady and child to
wear black patches." "4 Nov. My wife seemed very pretty to-day, it being the first
time I had given her leave to wear a black patch." Speaking of the Queen, he savs,
"Hut my wife standing near her iniih two or three black patches on and well dre>sed,
did seem to me mucti handsomer than she."

\ Pupc also ca>U Pikes

" The tyrants of the wat'ry plains."

I

130 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

Sir Francis Bacon, in his History of Life and Death, observes
the Pike to be the longest lived of any fresh- water fish ; and yet
he computes it to be not usually above forty years ; and others
think it to be not above ten years : and yet Gesner mentions a
Pike taken in Svs^edeland, in the year 1449, with a ring about
his neck, declaring he was put into that pond by Frederick the
Second, more than two hundred years before he was last taken,
as by the inscription in that ring, being Greek, was interpreted
by the then Bishop of Worms.* But of this no more ; but
that it is observed, that the old or very great Pikes have in
them more of state than goodness ; the smaller or middle-sized
Pikes being, by the most and choicest palates, observed to
be the best meat : and, contrary, the Eel is observed to be the
better for age and bigness.

All Pikes that live long prove chargeable to their keepers,
because their life is maintained by the death of so many other
(ish, even those of their own kind ; which has made him by some
writers to be called the tyrant of the rivers, or the fresh-water
wolf, by reason of his bold, greedy, devouring disposition ; which
is so keen, as Gesner relates, A man going to a pond, where it
seems a Pike had devoured all the fish, to water his mule, had
a Pike bit his mule by the lips ; to which the Pike hung so fast,
that the mule drew him out of the water ; and by that accident,
the owner of the mule angled out the Pike. And the same Gesner
observes, that a maid in Poland had a Pike bit her by the foot, as
she was washing clothes in a pond. And I have heard the like
of a wom-an in Killi^gworth pond, not far from Coventry. But I
have been assured by my friend Mr Segrave, of whom I spake to
you formerly, that keeps tame Otters, that he hath known a Pike,
in extreme hunger, fight with one of his Otters for a Carp that
the Otter had caught, and was then bringing out of the water. I
have told you who relate these things ; and tell you they are

called Pickrell-weed, and other glutinotxs matter, which, with the help of the sun's heat,
proves, in some particular ponds, apted by nature for it, to become Pikes.— u/ edit.

* Walton probably quoted from memory. The story is in his favourite writer, Hake-
will, who in his " Apologie of the power and providence of God," fol. Ojtr/l 1635, P. I.
p. 145, says, " I will close up this Chapter with a relation of Gesner's, in his Epistle to
the Emperor Ferdinand, prefixed before his booke De Piscibics, touching the long life
of a Pike, which was cast into a pond or poole neare Hailebrune in Swevia, with this
inscription ingraven upon a collar of brasse fastened about his necke. Ego sum Hie
piscis huic stagtto omnium primus impositus per mundi rector is Frederici Secuttdt
tftanus, 5 Octobris, anno 1230. I am that fish which was first of all cast into this poole
by the hand of Fredericke the Second, governour of the world, the fift of October, in the
yeare 1230. He was againe taken up in the yeare 1497, and by the inscription it appeared
he had then lived there 267 yeares." — E.

CHAP. VIII.] THE FOURTH DAY. 131

persons of credit ; and shall conclude this observation, by telling
you, what a wise man has observed, " It is a hard thing to persuade
the belly, because it has no ears," *

But if these relations be disbelieved, it is too evident to be
doubted, that a Pike will devour a fish of his own kind that shall
be bigger than his belly or throat will receive, and swallow a part
of him, and let the other part remain in his mouth till the
swallowed part be digested, and then swallow that other part that
was in his mouth, and so put it over by degrees ; which is not
unlike the Ox, and some other beasts taking their meat, not out
of their mouth immediately into their belly, but first into some place
betwixt, and then chew it, or digest it by degrees after, which is
called chewing the cud. And, doubtless. Pikes will bite when they
are not hungry ; but, as some think, even for very anger, when a
tempting bait comes near to them.

And it is observed, that the Pike will eat venomous things, as
some kind of frogs are, and yet live without being harmed by them ;
for, as some say, he has in him a natural balsam, or antidote
against all poison. And he has a strange heat, that though
it appear to us to be cold, can yet digest or put over any fish-flesh,
by degrees, without being sick. And others observe, that he
never eats the venomous frog till he have first killed her, and then
as ducks are observed to do to frogs in spawning-time, at which

* Bowlker, in his Art of Angling before cited, pap:e 9, gives the following instance
of the exceeding voracity of this fish : " My father catched a Pike in Barn-Meer (a large
standing-water in Cheshire), was an ell long, and weighed thirty-five pounds, which he
brought to the Lord Cholmondeley ; his lordship ordered it to be turned into a canal in
the garden, wherein were abundance of several sorts of fish. About twelve months
after, his lordship draw'd the canal, and found that this overgrown Pike had devoured
all the fish, except one large Carp, that weighed between nine and ten pounds, and that
was bitten in several places. The Pike was then put into the canal agaui, together with
abundance of fish with him to feed upon, all which he devoured in less than a yeaPs
time ; and was observed by the gardener and workmen there, to take the ducks, and
other water-fowl, under water. Whereupon they shot magpies and crows, and threw
them into the canal, which the Pike took before their eyes : of this they acquainted their
lord ; who, thereupon, ordered the slaughterman to fling in calves-bellies, chickcns-gnts,
and suchlike garbage to him, to prey upon : but being soon after neglected, he died,
as supposed, for want of food."

The following relation was inserted as an article of news in one of the London papers,
ad Jan. 1755: —

Extract of a Letterfrom Littleport, Dec. 17.

"About ten davs ago, a large Pike was caught in the river Ouse, which weighed up-
wards of 28 pounds, and was sold to a gentleman in the neighbourhood for a guuiea. As
the cook-maid was gutting the fish, she found, to her great astonishment, a watch with a
black ribbon and two steel seals annexed, in the body of the Pike : the gentleman's butler,
upon opening the watch, found the maker's name, Thomas Cranefield, Buniham, Norfolk.
Upon a strict inquiry, it appears that the said watch was sold to a gentleman's servant,
who was unfortunately drowned about six weeks ago, in his way to Cambridge, between
this place and South-Ferry. The watch is still in the possession of Mr John Roberts,
at the Cross-Keys in Littleport, for the inspection of the public."

In Dr Plot's History of iitaffordshire, 246, are sundry relations of Pike of great
magnitude ; one in particular, caught in the Thame, an ell and two inches long.

132 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

time some frogs are observed to be venomous, so thoroughly
washed her, by tumbling her up and down in the water, that he
may devour her without danger. And Gesner affirms, that a
Polonian gentleman did faithfully assure him, he had seen two
young geese at one time in the belly of a Pike/ And doubtless a
Pike in his height of hunger will bite at and devour a dog that
swims in a pond ; and there have been examples of it, or the
like ; for as I told you, " The belly has no ears when hunger
comes upon it."

The Pike is also observed to be a solitary, melancholy, and a
bold fish : melancholy, because he always swims or rests him-
self alone, and never swims in shoals or with company, as Roach
and Dace, and most other fish do ; and bold, because he fears not
a shadow, or to see or be seen of anybody, as the Trout and Chub,
and all other fish do.

And it is observed by Gesner, that the jawbones, and hearts,
and galls of Pikes, are very medicinable for several diseases, or
to stop blood, to abate fevers, to cure agues, to oppose or expel
the infection of the plague, and to be many ways medicinable and
useful for the good of mankind : but he observes, that the biting
of a Pike is venomous, and hard to be cured.

And it is observed, that the Pike is a fish that breeds but once
a year ; and that other fish, as, namely. Loaches, do breed oftener :
as we are certain tame Pigeons do almost every month ; and yet
the Hawk, a bird of prey, as the Pike is a fish, breeds but once
in twelve months. And you are to note, that his time of breeding,
or spawning, is usually about the end of February, or, somewhat
later, in March, as the weather proves colder or warmer : and to
note, that his manner of breeding is thus : a he and a she Pike
will usually go together out of a river into some ditch or creek ;
and that there the spawner casts her eggs, and the melter hovers
over her all that time that she is casting her spawn, but touches
her not.*

VARIATION.

7 Here, \ri\}n^ first edition, follows this passage: " And he observes that in Spain
there are no Pikes, and that the biggest are in the Lake Thracimane in Italy, and the
next, if not equal to them, are the Pikes of England."

_ * Very late discoveries of naturalists contradict this hypothesis concerning the genera-
tion of fishes, and prove that they are produced by the conjunction of the male and
female, as other animals are. See the Philosophical Transactions, vol. xlviii. part ii. for
the year 1754, page 870. — H.

" The ingendring and breeding of the like fish as aforesaid, I have noted to be in this
manner, sometime in May, and sometime in June, as the season happeneth to fall out
apt for generation, the water by God's providence having then a natural warmth to per-
forme the same, the male fish by course of nature, will chase about the female, seeking

CHAP. VIII.] THE FOURTH DA F. 133

I might say more of this, but it might be thought curiosity or
worse, and shall therefore forbear it ; and take up so much of
your attention as to tell you that the best of Pikes are noted to be
in rivers ; next, those in great ponds or meres ; and the worst, in
small ponds.

But before I proceed further, I am to tell you, that there is a
great antipathy betwixt the Pike and some frogs : and this may
appear to the reader of Dubravius, a bishop in Bohemia,* who,
in his book " Of Fish and Fish-ponds," relates what he says he
saw with his own eyes, and could not forbear to tell the reader.
Which was : —

" As he and the Bishop Thurzo were walking by a large pond
in Bohemia, they saw a frog, when the Pike lay very sleepily and
quiet by the shore-side, leap upon his head ; and the frog having
expressed malice or anger by his swoln cheeks and staring eyes,
did stretch out his legs and embrace the Pike's head, and presently
reached them to his eyes, tearing with them and his teeth, those
tender parts : the Pike, moved with anguish, moves up and down
the water, and rubs himself against weeds, and whatever he
thought might quit him of his enemy; but all in vain, for the frog
did continue to ride triumphantly, and to bite and torment the
Pike till his strength failed ; and then the frog sunk with the Pike

copulation : and as in all other creatures, so in this the female seemeth to shun and flie
from the male, so that you shall see three, foure, or five male fish chase one female, and
so hold her in on every side, that they will force her to swimme through weedes, grasse,
rushes, straw, or any suchlike thing that is in the pond, wherein she being entangled
and wearied with their chasing, they find opportunitie to joyne in copulation with her,
mingling their milt with her spawne, sometime one of them, sometime another, at which
time the spawne falleth from her like little egges, and sticketh fast to the sayd weedes :
some eight, nine, or ten dayes after which time it quickneth, taketh life, and hath the
proportion of a fish : yea two or three days before it quicken, if you take such an egge
and breake it uppon your naile, you shall perceive the proportion of a fish therein. After
it is quicke it mooveth very little for some fortnight or tnree weeks, and then it gathereth
together into sculles by the shore-side, where the water is shallow : howbeit the Tench
frie will lie scattering in the weedes, and not flote in sculles." — Taverner, Certaine
Experiments concerning Fish, 1600, 4to, p. 18.

* Janus Dubravius Scala, Bishop of Oimutz in Moravia in the sixteenth century, was
bom at Pilsen in Bohemia. The duties of the bishopric did not hinder him from being
an ambassador into Sicily, then into Bohemia, and President of the chamber established
to prdceed against the rebels who had borne a part in the troubles of Smalcald. Besides
the above book (the Latin title whereof is, De Piscinis, <5r» Piscium qui in eis aluntnr
vaiuris), he appears, by the Bodleian Catalogue, to have written, in Latin, a History 0/
Bofumia: and an oration to Sigismund King of Poland, exhorting him to make war on
the Turks. He seems to have practised the ordering of fish-ponds and the breeding of
fish, both for defight and profit. Hoffman, who in his Lexicon has given his name a

f)lace, says, he died with the reputation of a pious and learned prelate, in 1553 ; which
ast particular m.-iy admit of question, for, if it be true, it makes all his writings post-
humous publications, the earliest whereof bears date anno 1559-

His book On Fish and Fish-ponds, in which are many pleasant relations, was in 1599
translated into English, and published in 4to by George Churchey, Fellow of Lion's Inn,
with the title oi A ne^v Book of good Httsbnndry, very pleasant and of great pro^t, both.

134 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

to the bottom of the water : then presently the frog appeared
again at the top, and croaked, and seemed to rejoice Hke a con-
queror, after which he presently retired to his secret hole. The
bishop, that had beheld the battle, called his fisherman to fetch
his nets, and by all means to get the Pike that they might declare
what had happened : and the Pike was drawn forth, and both his
eyes eaten out ; at which when they began to wonder, the fisher-
man wished them to forbear, and assured them he was certain
that Pikes were often so served." ^

I told this, which is to be read in the sixth chapter of the f
book of Dubravius, unto a friend, who replied, " It was as im-
probable as to have the mouse scratch out the cat's eyes." But
he did not consider, that there be Fishing- frogs, which the
Dalmatians call the Water-devil, of which I might tell you as
wonderful a story : but I shall tell you that 'tis not to be doubted
but that there be some frogs so fearful of the water-snake, that
when they swim in a place in which they fear to meet with him,
they then get a reed across into their mouths ; which, if they two
meet by accident, secures the frog from the strength and malice
of the snake ; and note, that the frog usually swims the fastest of
the two.^

And let me tell you, that as there be water and land frogs, so
there be land and water snakes. Concerning which take this
observation, that the land-snake breeds and hatches her eggs,
which become young snakes, in some old dunghill, or a like hot
place : but the water-snake, which is not venomous, and as I
have been assured by a great observer of such secrets, does not

VARIATION.

8 which secures him if they two meet by accident, for you are to note, that the frog
swims the faster. — zd edit.

* Mr Pennant, in his Zoology, 4to, Lond. 1776, vol. iv. p. 10, has the following re-
mark on this passage of the Complete Angler : —

" As frogs adhere closely to the backs of their own species, so we know they will do
the sanne by fish : Walton mentions a strange story of their destroying pike ; but that
they will injure, if not entirely kill carp, is a fact indisputable from the following rela-
tion : Avery few years ago, on fishing a pond belonging to Mr Pitt, of Encombe,
Dorsetshire, great numbers of the carp were found each with a frog mounted on it, the
hind legs clinging to the back, the fore legs fixed in the corner of each eye of the fish,
which were thin and greatly wasted, teased by carrying so disagreeable a load. These
frogs we imagine to have been males disappointed of a mate."— E.

^ "In the moneth of March, at which tmie Todes doe ingender, the Tode will many
times covet to fasten himselfe uppon the head of the Carpe, and will thereby invenime
the Carpe, in such sort that the Carpe will swell as great as he may held, so that his
scales will stand as it were on edge, and his eyes stand out of his head neare halfe an
inch, in very ugly sort : and in the end will for the most part die thereof: and it is
very dangerous for any person to eate of any such Carpe so invenimed."— Taverner's
Experiments on Fish, &c. 410, 1600, p. 23.

t Walton should have said of the ^r^^ book ; for there it is to be found.— H.

5

CHAP. VIII.] THE FOURTH DAY. 135

hatch, but breed her young alive, which she does not then for-
sake, but bides with them, and in case of danger will take them
all into her mouth and swim away from any apprehended danger,
and then let them out again when she thinks all danger to be
past : these be accidents that we Anglers sometimes see, and
often talk of.

But whither am I going ? 1 had almost lost myself, by remember-
ing the discourse of Dubravius. I will therefore stop here ; and
tell you, according to my promise, how to catch this Pike.

His feeding is usually of fish or frogs ; and sometimes a weed
of his own, called pickerel-weed, of which I told you some think
Pikes are bred ; for they have observed, that where none have
been put into ponds, yet they have there found many ; and that
there has been plenty of that weed in those ponds, and that that
weed both breeds and feeds them : but whither those Pikes, so
bred, will ever breed by generation as the others do, I shall leave
to the disquisitions of men of more curiosity and leisure than I
profess myself to have : and shall proceed to tell you, that you
may fish for a Pike, either with a ledger or a walking bait ; and
you are to note, that I call that a Ledger-bait, which is fixed or
made to rest in one certain place when you shall be absent from
it ; and I call that a Walking-bait, which you take with you, and
have ever in motion. Concerning which two, I shall give you
this direction ; that your ledger-bait is best to be a living bait
(though a dead one may catch), whether it be a fish or a frog:
and that you may make them live the longer, you may, or indeed
you must, take this course : —

First, for your LIVE-BAIT. Of fish, a roach or dace is, I think,
best and most tempting ; and a perch is the longest lived on a
hook, and having cut off his fin on his back, which may be done
without hurting him, you must take your knife, which cannot be
too sharp, and betwixt the head and the fin on the back, cut or
make an incision, or such a scar, as you may put the arming-wire
of your hook into it, with as httle bruising or hurting the fish as
art and diligence will enable you to do ; and so carrying your
arming-wire along his back, unto or near the tail of your fish,
betwixt the skin and the body of it, draw out that wire or arming
of your hook at another scar near to his tail : then tie him about
it with thread, but no harder than of necessity, to prevent hurting
the fish ; and the better to avoid hurting the fish, some have a
kind of probe to open the way for the more easy entrance and
passage of your wire or arming : but as for these, time and a

136 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

little experience will teach you better than I can by words.
Therefore I will for the present say no more of this ; hvX come
next to give you some directions how to bait your hook with a
frog.

Venator. But, good master, did you not say even now, that
some frogs were venemous ; and is it not dangerous to touch
them?

PiscATOR. Yes, but I will give you some rules or cautions
concerning them. And first you are to note, that there are two
kinds of frogs, that is to say, if I may so express myself, a flesh
and a fish frog. By flesh-frogs, I mean frogs that breed and live
on the land ; and of these there be several sorts also, and of
several colours, some being speckled, some greenish, some black-
ish, or brown : the green frog, which is a small one, is, by Topsel,
taken to be venemous ; and so is the paddock, or frog-paddock,
which usually keeps or breeds on the land, and is very large and
bony, and big, especially the she-frog of that kind : yet these will
sometimes come into the water, but it is not often : and the land-
frogs are some of them observed by him, to breed by laying eggs ;
and others to breed of the slime and dust of the earth, and that
in winter they turn to slime again, and that the next summer that
very slime returns to be a living creature ; this is the opinion of
Pliny.* And Cardanus t undertakes to give a reason for the
raining of frogs : ;|: but if it were in my power, it should rain none
but water-frogs ; for those I think are not venemous, especially
the right water-frog, which, about February or March, breeds in
ditches, by slime, and blackish eggs in that slime : about which
time of breeding, the he and she frogs are observed to use divers
summersaults, and to croak and make a noise, which the land-
frog, or paddock-frog, never does.

Now of these water-frogs, if you intend to fish with a frog for a
Pike, you are to choose the yellowest that you can get, for that
the Pike ever likes best. And thus use your frog, that he may
continue long alive : —

Put your hook into his mouth, which you may easily do from

* In his 19th took, De Subtil, ex.

t Hieronymus Cardanus, an Italian physician, naturalist, and astrologer, well known
by the many works he has published : he died at Rome. 1576. It is said that he had fore-
told the day of his death ; and that, when it approached, he suffered himself to die of
hunger, to preserve his reputation. He had been in England, and wrote a character of
our Edward VI. — H.

% There are many well-attested accounts of the raining of frogs ; but Mr Ray rejects
them as utterly false and ridiculous ; and demonstrates the impossibility of their produc-
tion in any such manner. Wisdom of God in the Creation, 310. See also Derham's
Fhys. Theol. 244, and Pennant's Zoology, 410, Lond. 1776, vol. iv. p. 10. — H.

tt

CHAP. VIII.] THE FOURTH DA Y. \yi

the middle of April till August ; and then the frog*s mouth grows
up, and he continues so for at least six months without eating,
but is sustained, none but He whose name is Wonderful knows
how : I say, put your hook, I mean the arming-wire, through his
mouth, and out at his gills ; and then with a fine needle and silk
sew the upper part of his leg, with only one stitch, to the arming-
wire of your hook ; or tie the frog's leg, above the upper joint, to
the armed-wire ; and, in so doing, use him as though you loved
him, that is, harm him as Httle as you may possibly, that he may
live the longer.

And now, having given you this direction for the baiting your
ledger-hook with a live fish or frog, my next must be to tell you,
how your hook thus baited must or may be used ; and it is thus :
having fastened your hook to a line, which if it be not fourteen
yards long should not be less than twelve, you are to fasten that
line to any bough near to a hole where a Pike is, or is likely to
lie, or to have a haunt ; and then wind your line on any forked
stick, all your line, except half a yard of it or rather more ; and
split that forked stick, with such a nick or notch at one end of it
as may keep the line from any more of it ravelling from about
the stick than so much of it as you intend. And choose your
forked stick to be of that bigness as may keep the fish or frog
from pulling the forked stick under the water till the Pike bites ;
and then the Pike having pulled the line forth of the cleft or nick
of that stick in which it was gently fastened, he will have Hne
enough to go to his hold and pouch the bait. And if you would
have this ledger-bait to keep at a fixt place undisturbed by wind
or other accidents which may drive it to the .shore-side, for you
are to note, that it is likeliest to catch a Pike in the midst of the
water, then hang a small plummet of lead, a stone, or piece of
tile, or a turf, in a string, and cast it into the water with the
forked stick to hang upon the ground, to be a kind of anchor to
keep the forked stick from moving out of your intended place till
the Pike come : this I take to be a very good way to use so many
ledger-baits as you intend to make trial of.

Or if you bait your hooks thus with live fish or frogs, and in a
windy day, fasten them thus to a bough or bundle of straw, and
by the help of that wind can get them to move across a pond or
mere, you are like to stand still on the shore and see sport pres-
ently, if there be any store of Pikes. Or these live baits may
make sport, being tied about the body or wings of a goose or duck,

138 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

and she chased over a pond/^ And the Hke may be done with
turning three or four live baits, thus fastened to bladders, or boughs,
or bottles of hay or flags, to swim down a river, whilst you walk
quietly alone on the shore, and are still in expectation of sport.
The rest must be taught you by practice ; for time will not allow
me to say more of this kind of fishing with live baits.

And for your DEAD BAIT for a Pike : for that you may be taught
by one day's going a-fishing with me, or any other body that fishes
for him ; for the baiting your hook with a dead gudgeon or a
roach, and moving it up and down the water, is too easy a thing
to take up any time to direct you to do it. And yet, because I
cut you short in that, I will commute for it by telling you that that
was told me for a secret : it is this : Dissolve gum of ivy in oil of
spike, and therewith anoint your dead bait for a Pike ; and then
cast it into a likely place ; and when it has lain a short time at
the bottom, draw it towards the top of the water, and so up the
stream ; and it is more than likely that you have a Pike follow
with more than common eagerness. And some affirm, that any
bait anointed with the marrow of the thigh-bone of a heron is a
great temptation to any fish.f

These have not been tried by me, but told me by a friend of
note, that pretended to do me a courtesy. J But if this direction

* A rod twelve feet long, and a ring of wire,
A winder and barrel, will help thy desire
In killing a Pike : but the forked stick,
With a slit and a bladder, and that other fine trick,
"Which our artists call snap, with a goose or a duck,
Will kill two for one, if you have any luck :
The gentry of Shropshire do merrily smile,
To see a goose and a belt the fish to beguile.
When a Pike suns himself, and a-frogging doth go,
The two-inched hook is better, I know,
Than the ord'nary snaring. But still I must cry,
"When the Pike is at home, mind the cookery."

Barker's Art of Angling. — H.
t This latter recipe does not occur in \}nt. first edition.

\ The Pike loves a still, shady, unfrequented water, and usually lies amongst, or near
weeds ; such as flags, bulrushes, candocks, reeds, or in the green fog that sometimes
covers standing waters, though he will sometimes shoot out into the clear stream. Their
time of spawning is about the end of February or the beginning of March; and'chief
season, from the end of May to the beginning of February. Pikes are called Jacks, till
they become twenty-four inches long. The baits for Pike, besides those mentioned by
Walton, are a small trout ; the gudgeon, loach, and millers-thumb ; the head end of nn
eel with the skin taken off below the fins ; a small jack ; a lob-worm ; and in winter, the
fat of bacon. And notwithstanding what Walton and others say against baiting with a
perch, it is certain that Pikes have been taken with a small perch with the back fins
cut off, when neither a roach nor bleak would tempt them. Let your baits for Pike
be as fresh as possible. Dead ones should be carried in fresh bran, which will dry up
that moisture that otherwise would infect and rot them.

As this volume is to be considered a reprint of Walton's " Complete Angler," and not
a new treatise on the art of fishing, it is deemed unnecessary to give directions for troll-
ing, although a method of Pike-fishing almost universally practised, and one of which
Walton has said so little. He, however, who wishes for instructions, may consult the

CHAP. VIII.] THE FOURTH DA Y. 139

to catch a Pike thus do you no good, yet I am certain this direc-
tion how to roast him when he is caught is choicely good ; for I
have tried it, and it is somewhat the better for not being common.
But with my direction you must take this caution, that your Pike
must not be a small one, that is, it must be more than half a yard,
and should be bigger.

" First, open your Pike at the gills, and if need be, cut also a
little slit towards the belly. Out of these, take his guts ; and
keep his liver, which you are to shred very small, with thyme,
sweet marjoram, and a little winter-savoury ; to these put some
pickled oysters, and some anchovies, two or three ; both these
last whole, for the anchovies will melt, and the oysters should not ;
to these you must add also a pound of sweet butter, which you
are to mix with the herbs that are shred, and let them all be well
salted. If the Pike be more than a yard long, then you may put
into these herbs more than a pound, or if he be less, then less
butter will suffice : These, being thus mixt, with a blade or two of
mace, must be put into the Pike's belly ; and then his belly so
sewed up as to keep all the butter in his belly if it be possible ;
if not, then as much of it as you possibly can. But take not oft
the scales. Then you are to thrust the spit through his mouth,
out at his tail. And then take four or five or six split sticks, or
very thin laths, and a convenient quantity of tape or filleting ;
these laths are to be tied round about the Pike's body, from his
head to his tail, and the tape tied somewhat thick, to prevent his
breaking or falling off from the spit. Let him be roasted very
leisurely ; and often basted with claret wine, and anchovies, and
butter, mixt together ; and also with what moisture falls from him
into the pan. When you have roasted him sufficiently, you are
to hold under him, when you unwind or cut the tape that ties him,
such a dish as you purpose to eat him out of; and let him fall
into it with the sauce that is roasted in his belly ; and by this
means the Pike will be kept unbroken and complete. Then, to
the sauce which was within, and also that sauce in the pan, you
are to add a fit quantity of the best butter, and to squeeze the
iuice of three or four oranges. Lastly, you may either put it into
the Pike, with the oysters, two cloves of garlic, and take it whole
out, when the Pike is cut off the spit ; or, to give the sauce a
haut goQt, let the dish into which you let the Pike fall be rubbed

"Complete Troller," by Ro. Nobbes, i2mo, 1682; the "Angler's sure Guide" already
alluded to; Howitt's "Angler's Manual," 1808; and particularly Daniels* "Field
Sports,'' vol. ii., wherein will be found evRiy thing necessary to be known on the
subject.

I40 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part r.

with it : The using or not using of this garlic is left to your
discretion.* M. B."

This dish of meat is too good for any but anglers, or very honest
men ; and I trust you will prove both, and therefore I have trusted
you with this secret.

Let me next tell you, that Gesner tells us, there are no Pikes
in Spain, and that the largest are in the Lake Thrasymene in Italy;
and the next, if not equal to them, are the Pikes of England ; and
that in England, Lincolnshire boasteth to have the biggest. f Just
so doth Sussex boast of four sorts offish, namely, an Arundel Mullet,
a Chichester Lobster, a Shelsey Cockle, and an Amerly Trout.

But I will take up no more of your time with this relation, but
proceed to give you some observations of the Carp, and how to
angle for him ; and to dress him, but not till he is caught.

Chap. IX. PiSCATOR. The Carp is the queen of rivers ; a

On the Carp, stately, a good, and a very subtile fish ; that was
not at first bred, nor hath been long in England, but is now

* It may perhaps be deemed amu'^ing to compare Walton's method of cooking the
pike, with that practised in the Royal kitchens in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries,
as preserved in the Sloane MS. No. x2oi. " For to make a pyke in galentyne. Take a
pyke and quarter hym, and sethe hym in scharpe sawse, and than pille awey the skynne
and ley hym in a fayre vessell of tre or of erthe, and than take whyte wyne and whyte
vynegre, and take fayre breed and put thereto, and make it hoote over the fyre, and
than drawe it thorough a streynor. Than caste tliereto powdre of pepper and of galyn-
gale of cloves, salt it fayre and gyffe it a lytell hete and stere it wele togedre and put it
to thy fyssche, and whan thou wilte have of it. take uppe apece or two with the sawse,
and cast powdre of gynger uppon it and serve it forth.

" A pyke boyled. Take and make a sawse of fayre water and salt and a lyttell ale and
a percyle and then take a pyke and nape hym and drawe hym in the bely, and slytte
hym thorow the bely, backe, and hede, and tayle with a knyfe in two peces, and smyte
the sydes in quarteres, and wasshe hem clene, and yiffe thow wilt have hym rownde
scoche hym by the hede in the backe, and drawe hym there, and scoche hym in two
places or iij in the backe, but not thorough. And slytte the pouche and kepe the frye
or the lyvre, and cutte awey the galle, and whan the sawse begynneth to boyle, skym it,
and wasche the pyke, and cast hym thereinne, and cast the frye and the pouche thereto,
and lete it boyle togedres. And then make the sawse thus: niynse small the pouche
and the frye in a lytell gravey of the pyke, and cast thereto powdre of gynger, cavell,
verjuice, and mustard, and salt."

t It has been a common notion that the Pike was not extant in England till the reign
of Henry the Eighth ; but it occurs very frequently in the " Forme of Cury," compiled
about 1390. The old name was Luce, or Lucy. An ancient MS. formerly in the pos-
session of John Topham, Esq., written about 1250, mentions '■'■ Lupos nqtiaticos sive
Luceos" amongst the fish which the fishmongers were to have in their shops. Three
Lucies were the arms of the Lucy family, as early as the reign of Henry the Third ; and
in a contemporary Roll of arms they are thus described, "Geffrey de Lucy, de goules
trois lucies dor." In the 6th Rich. II. Ao. 1382, the mayor and citizens of London
prayed that no fishmonger, nor any other person free of the City, might thenceforward
buy any kind of fish to sell again in the City, excepting pikes and fresh eels, " forspris
pikes, anguilles fresshes," &c. Rot. Pari. vol. iii. p. 142. b In the Roll of the same
Parliament, the words " horspris anguilles fresshes, beketes on pikes," occur. Ibid.

Compare Pennant's Zoologv, vol. iii. p. 280, 4to. Lelandi Collectanea, vol. vi. i, 5, 6.

That the Pike was here in Edward the Third's time is evident from Chaucer's Prologue
to the Canterbury Tales, edit. Tyrwh. p. 351, 352 : —

" Full many a fair partrich hadde he in mewe,
And many a Breme and many a Luce in stewe."

o 3

CHAP. IX.] THE FOURTH DA Y. 141

naturalised. It is said, they were brought hither by one Mr
Mascal, a gentleman that then lived at Plumsted in Sussex,
a county "' that abounds more with this fish than any in this
nation.

You may remember that I told you Gesner says there are no
Pikes in Spain ; and doubtless there was a time, about a hundred
or a few more years ago, when there were no Carps in England,
as may seem to be affirmed by Sir Richard Baker, in whose
Chronicle you may find these verses : —

Hops and turkies, carps and beer,
Came into England all in a year.

And doubtless, as of sea-fish the Herring dies soonest out of
the water, and of fresh-water fish the Trout, so, except the Eel,
the Carp endures most hardness, and lives longest out of its own
proper element ; and, therefore, the report of the Carp's being
brought out of a foreign country into this nation, is the more
probable.®

Carps and Loaches are observed to breed several months in one
year, which Pikes and most other fish do not ; and this is partly
proved by tame and wild rabbits ; as also by some ducks, which
will lay eggs nine of the twelve months ; and yet there be other
ducks that lay not longer than about one month. And it is the
rather to be believed, because you shall scarce or never take a

VARIATION.

9 Considerable variations exist in the observations on the Carp as printed in the first
and second editions of the "Complete Angler." In the former, the commencement of
the chapter runs thus : —

Fiscator. The Carp is a stately, a good, and a subtle fish, a fish that hath not, as it
is said, been long in England, but said to be by one Mr Mascall, a gentleman then living
at Plumsted in Sussex, brought into this nation : and for the better confirmation of this,
you are to remember I told you that Gesner says there is not a pike in Spain, and that
except the eel, which Hves longest out of the water, there is none that will endure more
hardness or live longer than a carp will out of it, and so the report of his being brought
out of a foreign nation into this is the more probable.

• For proof of this fact, we have the testimony of the author of the Booke of Fishing
with Hooke and Line, 4to, Lond. 1600, who, though the initials only of his name are
given in the title, appears to have been Leonard Mascal, the translator of a book of
Planting and Grafting, 4to, 1589, 1592, and the author of a book On Cattel, ^to, 1596.
— H. In the Book of St Albans Carp are thus spoken of, which proves that they were
known in England for more than a century before Mascal wrote : "The Carp is a deyntous
fysshe : but there ben but fewe in Englonde, And therfore I wryte the lasse of hym.
He is an evyll fysshe to take, for he is too strong enarmyd in the mouthe, that there
maye noo weke harnays holde hym. And as touchyng his baytes I have but lytyll
knowlege of it, and we were loth to wryte more than I knowe and have provyd. But
well I wote that the redd worme and the menow been good batys for hym at all tymes
as I have herde saye of persones credyble and also founde wryten in bokes of credence."
This writer is, however, decidedly wrong as to the "batys" which " been good for hym
at all tymes." The " menow " he will not touch unless compelled by hunger, nor is the
"redd worme " by any means so tempting bait as some others. In the Privy Purse
Expenses 0/ Kinz Henry the Eighth, in 1532, various entries are made of rewards to
persons for bringing Carres to the King, pp. 62, 74, 100, 267.

142 THE COMPLETE ANGLER, [parti.

male Carp without a melt, or a female without a roe or spawn,
and for the most part very much, and especially all the summer
season ; and it is observed, that they breed more naturally in
ponds than in running waters, if they breed there at all ; and that
those that live in rivers are taken by men of the best palates to be
much the better meat.

And it is observed that in some ponds Carps will not breed,
especially in cold ponds ; but where they will breed, they breed
innumerably : Aristotle and Pliny say, six times in a year, if there
be no Pikes nor Perch to devour their spawn, when it is cast upon
grass or flags, or weeds, where it lies ten or twelve days before it
be enlivened.

The Carp, if he have water-room and good feed,* will grow to
a very great bigness and length ; I have heard, to be much above
a yard long.f It is said by Jovius,| who hath writ of fishes, that
in the Lake Lurian in Italy, Carps have thriven to be more than
fifty pounds weight : which is the more probable, for as the bear
is conceived and born suddenly, and being born is but short lived ;
so, on the contrary, the elephant is said to be two years in his
dam's belly, some think he is ten years in it, and being born,
grows in bigness twenty years ; and it is observed too, that he
lives to the age of a hundred years. And 'tis also observed, that
the crocodile is very long lived ; and more than that, that all that
long life he thrives in bigness ; and so I think some Carps do,
especially in some places, though I never saw one above twenty-
three inches, which was a great and goodly fish ; but have been
assured there are of a far greater size, and in England too.§

Now, as the increase of Carps is wonderful for their number,
so there is not a reason found out, I think, by any, why they

* The following receipt for making a Carp fat in gravelly water is taken from Lord
Burleigh's Papers, Lansd. MS. No. loi, art. 9: "The carpe (which coveteth to lye in
the mudde and will fat soonest in muddy or claye waters) so where the waters be
gravillie would be placed in the smallest pondes and stewes and made fatt with chippins
or graynes, or with the bloude of any slaughter beaste, or newe horse donnge hanged in
basketts, or with a mixture of the said dunge and clay wroughte together in fashion of a
longe salte stone with dyverse holes in the same, laied in the water for them to sucke on."

t The widow of the late David Garrick once told me, that in her native country, Italy,
she had seen the head of a Carp served up at table, big enough to fill a large dish. — H.

X Pauhts Jovius, an Italian historian of very doubtful authority : he lived in the i6th
century ; and wrote a small tract De Rotnafiis Piscibus. He died at Florence,
1552.— H.

^ § The author of the Angler's Sure Guide savs, that he has taken Carp above twenty-
six inches long in rivers ; and adds that they are often seen in England above thirty
inches long. The usual length is from about twelve to fifteen or sixteen inches. — H.

The largest Carp mentioned by Pennant did not exceed twenty pounds. In the park
of Mr Ladbroke of Gatton, a brace were taken which weighed thirty-five pounds. In
a piece of water at Stourhead, a Carp was caught in 1793, which was thirty inches long,
upwards of twenty-two broad, and eighteeo pounds ia weight.

CHAP. IX.] THE FOURTH DAY. 143

should breed in some ponds, and not in others, of the same nature
for soil and all other circumstances. And as their breeding, so
are their decays also very mysterious : I have both read it, and
been told by a gentleman of tried honesty, that he has known
sixty or more large Carps put into several ponds near to a house,
■where, by reason of the stakes in the ponds, and the owner's constant
being near to them, it was impossible they should be stole away
from him ; and that when he has, after three or four years, emptied
the pond, and expected an increase from them by breeding young
ones, for that they might do so he had, as the rule is, put in three
melters for one spawner, he has, I say, after three or four years,
found neither a young nor old Carp remaining. And the like I
have known of one that had almost watched the pond, and, at a
like distance of time, at the fishing of a pond, found, of seventy
or eighty large Carps, not above five or six : and that he had
forborne longer to fish the said pond, but that he saw, in a hot day
in summer, a large Carp swim near the top of the water with a
(rog upon his head ; and that he, upon that occasion, caused his
pond to be let dry : and I say, of seventy or eighty Carps, only
found five or six in the said pond, and those very sick and lean,
and with every one a frog sticking so fast on the head of the said
Carps, that the frog would not be got off without extreme force or
killing. And the gentleman that did affirm this to me, told me
he saw it ; and did declare his belief to be, and I also believe the
same, that he thought the other Carps, that were so strangely lost,
were so killed by the frogs, and then devoured.

And a person of honour, now living in Worcestershire,* assured
me he had seen a necklace, or collar of tadpoles, hang like a chain
or necklace of beads about a Pike's neck, and to kill him :
Whether it were for meat or malice, must be, to me, a question.

But I am fallen into this discourse by accident ; of which I
might say more, but it has proved longer than I intended, and
possibly may not to you be considerable : I shall therefore give
you three or four more short observations of the Carp, and then
fall upon some directions how you shall fish for him.

The age of Carps is by Sir Francis Bacon, in his History of Life

* "Mr Fr. Ru." This passage occurs for the first time in the Jlfth edition. The
only person mentioned in the last Herald's Visitation of Worcestershire, whose names
agree with that reference, is Francis Rufford, of Sapy in that county, esquire, who died

about the year 1678, aged eighty-two, leaving by Margaret, daughter of Brydges

of Upleaden, in the county of Hereford — i. Francis, his son and heir, aet. 37, in 1683,
who was then married and had three children ; 2. Tamarlane of the city of London, who

I was also married and had issue ; 3. Benjamin, who died unmarried in 1680 ; and a
jdaughter Ann, the wife of John Yananion of Redstone, in the county of Worcester.

144 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part I.

and Death, observed to be but ten years ; yet others think they live
longer. Gesner says, a Carp has been known to live in the
Palatine above a hundred years.* ^ But most conclude that,
contrary to the Pike or Luce, all Carps are the better for age and
bigness. The tongues of Carps are noted to be choice and costly
meat, especially to them that buy them : but Gesner says. Carps
have no tongue like other fish, but a piece of fleshlike fish in their
mouth like to a tongue, and should be called a palate : but it is
certain it is choicely good, and that the Carp is to be reckoned
amongst those leather-mouthed fish which, I told you, have their
teeth in their throat ; and for that reason he is very seldom lost
by breaking his hold, if your hook be once stuck into his chaps.

I told you that Sir Francis Bacon thinks that the Carp lives
but ten years: but Janus Dubravius ^ has writ a book " Of Fish and
Fish-ponds," t in which he says that Carps begin to spawn at the
age of three years, and continue to do so till thirty : he says also,
that in the time of their breeding, which is in summer, when the
sun hath warmed both the earth and water, and so apted them
also for generation, that then three or four male Carps will follow
a female ; and that then, she putting on a seeming coyness, they
force her through weeds and flags, where she lets fall her eggs ol
spawn, which sticks fast to the weeds ; and then they let fall their
melt upon it, and so it becomes in a short time to be a living fish,
and, as I told you, it is thought that the Carp does this several
months in the year ; \ and most believe, that most fish breed after

VARIATIONS.

1 This passage from Gesner does not occur in the first edition : and the following
sentence is added in the second, "and it is believed of carps as it is written of crocodiles,
that they also thrive in bigness all their lives."

2 In ^& first edition is added, "a German as I think."

* Lately, viz., in one of the daily papers for the month of August 1782, an article
appeared, purporting that in the bason at Emanuel College, Cambridge, a Carp was
then living that had been in the water thirty-six years ; which, though it had lost one
eye, knew, and would constantly approach, its feeder, who was Dr Farmer, Master of
the College.

At the seat of the Prince of Conde at Chantilly, are, or rather were, immense shoals of
very large Carp, " silvered o'er with age," like silver fish, and perfectly tame, so that
when any passengers approached their watery habitation, they used to come to the shore
in such numbers as to heave each other out of the water, begging for bread, of which a
quantity was always kept at hand on purpose to feed them. They would even allow
themselves to be handled. Sir J. E. Smith's Tour on the Cofitinent, vol. i. 95, ed. 1807.
In the preface to the second edition, it is said the tame Carp at Chantilly were destroyed
very early in the Revolution, p. xxx. t Vide antea, p. 133, &c.

\ An anonymous writer giving instructions to Lord Burleigh for the regulations of
his fish-ponds, &c., says : " Because the carpe will eate his owne spawne, youe must
before Marche lay iij or iiij faggotts of osiers or willowe bowes in the ponde wher your
spawners be (which would not be above ij or iij in a ponde and iij or v melters withall)
and so bynd the said faggotts small in the middle, and laye the toppes verve brode and
bushy at eche end, and the spawner will sleke her bellie and spawne thereon, and the

CHAiMX.] THE FOURTH DAY, 145

this manner, except the Eel. And it has been observed, that
when the spawner has weakened herself by doing that natural
office, that two or three melters have helped her from off the weeds,
by bearing her up on both sides, and guarding her into the deep.*
And you may note, that though this may seem a curiosity not
worth observing, yet others have judged it worth their time and
costs to make glass hives, and order them in such a manner as to
see how bees have bred and made their honeycombs, and how
they have obeyed their king, and governed their commonwealth.
But it is thought that all Carps are not bred by generation ; but
that some breed other ways, as some Pikes do.

The physicians make the galls and stones in the heads of Carps
to be very medicinable. But it is not to be doubted but that in
Italy they make great profit of the spawn of Carps, by selling it
to the Jews, who make it into red caviare ; the Jews not being
by their law admitted to eat of caviare made of the Sturgeon, that
being a fish that wants scales, and, as may appear in Leviticus
xi., by them reputed to be unclean.

Much more might be said out of him, and out of Aristotle,
which Dubravius often quotes in his " Discourse of Fishes : " but
it might rather perplex than satisfy you ; and therefore I shall
rather choose to direct you how to catch, than spend more time
in discoursing either of the nature or the breeding of this
Carp, or of any more circumstances concerning him. But yet I
shall remember you of what I told you before, that he is a very
subtile fish, and hard to be caught.

And my first direction is, that if you will fish for a Carp, you
must put on a very large measure of patience, especially to fish
for a river Carp : I have known a very good fisher angle diligently
four or six hours in a day, for three or four days together, for a
river Carp, and not have a bite. And you are to note, that, in
some ponds, it is as hard to catch a Carp as in a river ; that
is to say, where they have store of feed, and the water is of a
clayish colour. But you are to remember that I have told you
there is no rule without an exception; and therefore being possest
with that hope and patience which I wish to all fishers, especially
to the Carp-angler, I shall tell you with what bait to fish for him.

j younge frye afterwardes will shoote in thither as into a sanctuary from daunger of
I devouringe.

j " The carpe will not fatt where store of tenches be, ne get brede where store of roches

I be, nor the tenche ever fatt where the carpe ys, because he will sucke the tenchc without

measure."— Lansdowne MS. No. loi, art. 9.
A * This account of the Carp is taken from Taverner's Experiments on Fish, 4to> 1600.
^HKidep. 132, note.

I

146 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part r.

But first you are to know, that it must be either early or late ;
and let me tell you, that in hot weather, for he will seldom bite in
cold, you cannot be too early or too late at it. And some have
been so curious as to say, the tenth of April is a fatal day for
Carps.

The Carp bites either at worms or at paste : and of worms I
think the bluish marsh or meadow worm is best ; but possibly
another worm, not too big, may do as well, and so may a green
gentle : and as for pastes, there are almost as many sorts as
there are medicines for the toothache ; but doubtless sweet pastes
are best ; I mean, pastes made with honey or with sugar : which,
that you may the better beguile this crafty fish, should be thrown
into the pond or place in which you fish for him, some hours, or
longer, before you undertake your trial of skill with the angle-rod ;
and doubtless, if it be thrown into the water a day or two before,
at several times, and in small pellets, you are the likelier, when
you fish for the Carp, to obtain your desired sport. Or, in a
large pond, to draw them to any certain place, that they may the
better and with more hope be fished for, you are to throw into it,
in some certain place, either grains, or blood mixt with cow-dung
or with bran ; or any garbage, as chicken's guts or the like ; and
then, some of your small sweet pellets with which you purpose to
angle : and these small pellets being a few of them also thrown in
as you are angling, will be the better.

And your paste must be thus made ; take the flesh of a rabbit,
or cat, cut small ; and bean-flour ; and if that may not be easily
got, get other flour ; and then, mix these together, and put to
them either sugar, or honey, which I think better : and then beat
these together in a mortar, or sometimes work them in your
hands, your hands being very clean ; and then make it into a
ball, or two, or three, as you like best, for your use : but you
must work or pound it so long in the mortar, as to make it so
tough as to hang upon your hook without washing from it, yet
not too hard : or, that you may the better keep it on your hook,
you may knead with your paste a little, and not too much, white
or yellowish wool.

And if you would have this paste keep all the year, for any other
fish, then mix with it virgin-wax and clarified honey, and work
them together with your hands, before the fire ; then make these
into balls, and they will keep all the year.

And if you fish for a Carp with gentles, then put upon your
hook a small piece of scarlet about this bigness I I, it being soaked

th.

I

CHAP. IX.] TB£ FOURTH DA V. 147

in or anointed with oil of petre, called by some, oil of the rock :
and if your gentles be put, two or three days before, into a box or
horn anointed with honey, and so put upon your hook as to
preserve them to be living, you are as like to kill this crafty fish
this way as any other : but still, as you are fishing, chew a little
white or brown bread in your mouth, and cast it into the pond
about the place where your float swims. Other baits there be ;
but these, with diligence and patient watchfulness, wiU do better
than any that I have ever practised or heard of. And yet I shall
tell you, that the crumbs of white bread and honey made into a
paste is a good bait for a Carp ; and you know, it is more easily
made.* And having said thus much of the Carp,t my next
discourse shall be of the Bream, which shall not prove so tedious ;
and therefore I desire the continuance of your attention.

But, first, I will tell you how to make this Carp, that is so
curious to be caught, so curious a dish of meat as shall make him
worth all your labour and patience. And though it is not without
some trouble and charges, yet it will recompense both.

Take a Carp, alive if possible ; scour him, and rub him clean
with water and salt, but scale him not : then open him ; and put
him, with his blood and his liver, which you must save when you
open him, into a small pot or kettle : then take sweet marjoram,
thyme, and parsley, of each half a handful ; a sprig of rosemary,
and another of savoury ; bind them into two or three small bundles,
and put them to your Carp, with four or five whole onions, twenty
pickled oysters, and three anchovies. Then pour upon your Carp

* And see a bait that serves likewise for the Bream in the next chapter. — H.

t The haunts of the river Carp are, in the winter months, the broadest and most quiet
ts of the river ; but in summer, they lie in deep holes, nooks, and reaches, near some
ur, and under roots of trees, hollow banks, and, till they are near rotting, amongst or
r great beds cf weeds, flags, &c. Pond Carp cannot, with propriety, be said to have
/ haunts : only it is to be noted, that they love a fat rich soil, and never thrive in a
d hungry water. They breed three or four times a year : but their first spawning-time

the beginning of May. Baits for the Carp are, all sorts of earth and dunghill worms ;

g-worms, grasshoppers, though not at top : ox-brains ; the pith of an ox's backbone ;
:en pease ; and red or black cherries, with the stones taken out. Fish with strong
kle, very near the bottom, and with a fine grass or gut next the hook : and use a
jse-quill float. Never attempt to angle for the Carp in a boat ; for they will not

me near it. It is said there are many Carp in the Thames, westward of London : and

at, about February, they retire to the creeks in that river; in some of which, many
ibove two feet long have been taken with an angle. Afigler's Sure Guide, p. 170.

Carp live the longest out of the water of any fish. It is a common practice in Holland
to keep them alive for three weeks or a month, by hanging them in a cool place, with

et moss in a net, and feeding them with bread steeped in milk ; taking care to refresh

le animal now and then by throwing fresh water over the net in which it is suspended.

In Carp-fishing it must be a sine qua non to keep out of sight of the fish, and to prevent
the shadow from falling on the water. Perhaps the most certain mode of taking is to
have a line wholly of gut : and in lieu of a float, a swan-'hot fixed at about two feet
IJibove the hook, and lodged, whilst fishing, upon a dock leaf, or any similar substiince.

148 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

as much claret wine as will only cover him ; and season your
claret well with salt, cloves, and mace, and the rinds of oranges
and lemons. That done, cover your pot and set it on a quick
fire till it be sufficiently boiled. Then take out the Carp ; and
lay it, with the broth, into the dish ; and pour upon it a quarter of
a pound of the best fresh butter, melted, and beaten with half-a-
dozen spoonfuls of the broth, the yolks of two or three eggs, and
some of the herbs shred : garnish your dish with lemons, and so
serve it up. And much good do you ! — Dr T.

PISCATOR. The Bream being, at a full growth, is a large and

stately fish. He will breed both in rivers and ponds : * but loves

Chap. X. best to live in ponds, and where, if he likes the

On the Bream, ^vater and air, he will grow not only to be very large,
but as fat as a hog. He is by Gesner taken to be more pleasant,
or sweet, than wholesome. This fish is long in growing ; but
breeds exceedingly in a water that pleases him ; yea, in many
ponds so fast, as to overstore them, and starve the other fish,^

He is very broad, with a forked tail, and his scales set in ex-
cellent order : he hath large eyes, and a narrow sucking mouth ;
he hath two sets of teeth, and a lozenge- like bone, a bone to help
his grinding. The melter is observed to have two large melts ;
and the female, two large bags of eggs or spawn.

Gesner reports, that in Poland a certain and a great number of
large Breams were put into a pond, which in the next following
winter were frozen up into one entire ice, and not one drop of
water remaining, nor one of these fish to be found, though they
were diligently searched for ; and yet the next spring, when the
ice was thawed, and the weather warm, and fresh water got
into the pond, he affirms they all appeared again. This Gesner
affirms ; and I quote my author, because it seems almost as incred-

VARIATION.

3 The en<:uing observations, in the text, on the Bream, and the method of fishing for
him, were added in the second edition. In the first, the instructions on the subject are
thus briefly given : "The baits good for to catch the Bream are many ; as, namely,
young wasps and a paste made of brown bread and honey, or gentles, or especially a
worm that is not much unlike a maggot which you will find at the roots of docks or of flags,
or of rushes that grow in the water, or watery places, and a grasshopper having his legs
nipt off, or a fly that is in June and July to be found amongst the green reed growing by
the water-side, those are said to be excellent baits. I doubt not but there be many-
others, that both the Bream and the Carp also would bite at : but these, time and experi-
ence will teach you how to find out. And so having according to my promise given
you these short observations concerning the Bream, I shall also give you some observa-
tions concerning the Tench, and those also very briefly."

* The Bream is a native of many parts of Europe, inhabiting the larger kind of lakes,
still rivers, &c., and is sometimes seen even in the Caspian Sea. See Shaw's Zoology,
vol. v. part i. p. 196. — E.

<!
pq g

CHAP. X.] THE FOURTH DA K 149

ible as the resurrection to an atheist : but it may win something,
in point of believing it, to him that considers the breeding or
renovation of the silkworm, and of many insects. And that is
considerable, which Sir Francis Bacon observes in his " History
of Life and Death," fol. 20, that there be some herbs that die and
spring every year, and some endure longer.

But though some do not, yet the French esteem this fish highly ;
and to that end have this proverb, " He that hath Breams in his
pond, is able to bid his friend welcome ; " and it is noted, that the
best part of a Bream is his belly and head.*

Some say that Breams and Roaches will mix their eggs and
melt together ; and so there is in many places a bastard breed of
Breams, that never come to be either large or good, but very
numerous.

The baits good to catch this Bream are many. First, paste
made of brown bread and honey ; gentles ; or the brood of wasps
that be young, and then not unlike gentles, and should be hard-
ened in an oven, or dried on a tile before the fire to make them
tough. Or, there is at the root of docks, or flags, or rushes, in
watery places, a worm not unhke a maggot, at which Tench f
will bite freely. Or he will bite at a grasshopper with his legs
nipt off, in June and July ; or at several flies, under water, which
may be found on flags that grow near to the water-side. I doubt
not but that there be many other baits that are good ; but I will
turn them all into this most excellent one, either for a Carp or
Bream, in any river or mere : it was given to me by a most
honest and excellent angler ; ^ and hoping you will prove both, I
will impart it to you.

Variation.] * by a most excellent angler, as good. — id edit.

The Bream seems formerly to have been a favourite fish in England. Sir William
)ugdale has preserved a curious instance of the great price, at least in the interior parts
f the kingdom, which it bore as long ago as the 7th year of Henry V., when it was
ited at 2od. And he informs us, in the 32d Hen. VI. 1454, "A Pye of four of them,
the expences of two men employed for three days in taking them, in baking them, in
>ur, in spices, and conveying it from Sutton in Warwickshire, to the Earl of Warwick,
Mydlam in the North Country, cost xvjJ- ij''." — Antiquities of IVmwickshire, p.
5.— E.

In the Pithy, Profitable, and Pleasant Workes of Maister Skelton, Poet Laureat to
[eury VIII., the following occurs : —

" In the middes a cundite, that curiously was cast
With pypes of golde, engushyng out streames
Of cristall, the clerenes these waters far past
Enswimmyng with roches, barbils, and breames
Whose skales ensilured again the son beames
Englistred : that ioyous it was to beholde
Than farthermore about me my sight I reuolde."

Croivn o/Laurell, p. 30, ed. 1736.
Sic in the second, third, fourth, smdi fifth editions ; but it is evident from the con-
sxt that Piscator is speaking of Bream.

150 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

1. Let your bait be as big a red worm as you can find, without
a knot : get a pint or quart of them in an evening, in garden-
walks, or chalky commons, after a shower of rain ; and put them
with clean moss well washed and picked, and the water squeezed
out of the moss as dry as you can, into an earthen pot or pipkin
set dry; and change the moss fresh every three or four days, for
three weeks or a month together ; then your bait will be at the
best, for it will be clear and lively.

2. Having thus prepared your baits, get your tackling ready
and fitted for this sport. Take three long angling-rods ; and as
many and more silk, or silk and hair, lines ; and as many large

swan or goose-quill floats. Then take a piece of lead
made after this manner, and fasten them to the low ends
of your lines : then fasten your link-hook also to the lead;
and let there be about a foot or ten inches between the
lead and the hook : but be sure the lead be heavy enough to sink
the float or quill, a little under the water ; and not the quill to
bear up the lead, for the lead must lie on the ground. Note that
your link next the hook may be smaller than the rest of your line,
if you dare adventure, for fear of taking the Pike or Perch, who
will assuredly visit your hooks, till they be taken out, as I will
show you afterwards, before either Carp or Bream will come near
to bite. Note also that when the worm is well baited, it will
crawl up and down as far as the lead will give leave, which much
enticeth the fish to bite without suspicion.

3. Having thus prepared your baits, and fitted your tackling,
repair to the river, where you have seen them swim in skulls or
shoals, in the summer-time, in a hot afternoon, about three or
four of the clock ; and watch their going forth of their deep holes,
and returning, which you may well discern, for they return about
four of the clock, most of them seeking food at the bottom, yet
one or two will lie on the top of the water, rolling and tumbling
themselves, whilst the rest are under him at the bottom ; and so
you shall perceive him to keep sentinel : then mark where he
plays most and stays longest, which commonly is in the broadest
and deepest place of the river ; and there, or near thereabouts, at
a clear bottom and a convenient landing-place, take one of your
angles ready fitted as aforesaid, and sound the bottom, which
should be about eight or ten feet deep ; two yards from the bank
is best. Then consider with yourself, whether that water will
rise or fall by the next morning, by reason of any water-mills
near ; and, according to your discretion, take the depth of the

CHAP. X.] THE FOURTH DAY. 151

place, where you mean after to cast your ground-bait, and to fish,
to half an inch ; that the lead lying on or near the ground-bait,
the top of the float may only appear upright half an inch above
the water.

Thus you having found and fitted for the place and depth
thereof, then go home and prepare your ground-bait, which is,
next to the fruit of your labours, to be regarded.

The Ground-Bait.

You shall take a peck, or a peck and a half, according to the
greatness of the stream and deepness of the water, where you
mean to angle, of sweet gross-ground barley-malt ; and boil it in
a kettle, one or two warms is enough : then strain it through a
bag into a tub, the liquor whereof hath often done my horse much
good ; and when the bag and malt is near cold, take it down to
the water-side, about eight or nine of the clock in the evening, and
not before : cast in two parts of your ground-bait, squeezed hard
between both your hands ; it will sink presently to the bottom ;
and be sure it may rest in the very place where you mean to
angle : if the stream run hard, or move a little, cast your malt
in handfuls a little the higher, upwards the stream. You may,
between your hands, close the malt so fast in handfuls that thi^
water will hardly part it with the fall.

Your ground thus baited, and tackling fitted, leave your bag,
with the rest of your tackling and ground-bait, near the sporting-
place all night ; and in the morning, about three or four of the
clock, visit the water-side, but not too near, for they have a cun-

Ining watchman, and are watchful themselves too.
Then, gently take one of your three rods, and bait your hook ;
casting it over your ground-bait, and gently and secretly draw it
to you till the lead rests about the middle of the ground-bait
Then take a second rod, and cast in about a yard above, and
your third a yard below the first rod ; and stay the rods in the
ground ; but go yourself so far from the water-side, that you
perceive nothing but the top of the floats, which you must watch
most diligently. Then when you have a bite, you shall perceive
the top of your float to sink suddenly into the water : yet, never-
theless, be not too hasty to run to your rods, until you see that
the line goes clear away ; then creep to the water-side, and give
as much line as possibly you can : if it be a good Carp or Bream,
they will go to the farther side of the river : then strike gently,
and hold your rod at a bent, a little while ; but if you both pull

I

152 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part l

together, you are sure to lose your game, for either your line, or
hook, or hold, will break : and after you have overcome them,
they will make noble sport, and are very shy to be landed. The
Carp is far stronger and more mettlesome than the Bream.

Much more is to be observed in this kind of fish and fishing,
but it is far fitter for experience and discourse than paper. Only,
thus much is necessary for you to know, and to be mindful and
careful of, that if the Pike or Perch do breed in that river, they
will be sure to bite first, and must first be taken. And for the
most part they are very large ; and will repair to your ground-
bait, not that they will eat of it, but will feed and sport them-
selves among the young fry that gather about and hover over the
bait.

The way to discern the Pike and to take him, if you mistrust
your Bream-hook, for I have taken a Pike a yard long several
times at my Bream-hooks, and sometimes he hath had the luck
to share my line, may be thus : —

Take a small Bleak, or Roach, or Gudgeon, and bait it ; and
set it, alive, among your rods, two feet deep from the cork, with
a little red worm on the point of the hook : then take a few
crumbs of white bread, or some of the ground-bait, and sprinkle
it gently amongst your rods. If Mr Pike be there, then the little
fish will skip out of the water at his appearance, but the live-set
bait is sure to be taken.

Thus continue your sport from four in the morning till eight,
and if it be a gloomy windy day, they will bite all day long : but
this is too long to stand to your rods, at one place ; and it will
spoil your evening sport that day, which is this.

About four of the clock in the afternoon repair to your baited
place ; and as soon as you come to the water-side, cast in one-
half of the rest of your ground-bait, and stand off; then whilst
the fish are gathering together, for there they will most certainly
come for their supper, you may take a pipe of tobacco : and then,
in with your three rods, as in the morning. You will find excellent
sport that evening, till eight of the clock : then cast in the residue
of your ground-bait, and next morning, by four of the clock, visit
them again for four hours, which is the best sport of all ; and
after that, let them rest till you and your friends have a mind to
more sport.

From St James's-tide until Bartholomew-tide is the best ; when
they have had all the summer's fopd, they are the fattest.

Observe, lastly, that after three or four days' fishing together,

CHAP. XL] THE FOURTH DAY. 153

your game will be very shy and wary, and you shall hardly get
above a bite or two at a baiting : then your only way is to desist
from your sport, about two or three days : and in the mean time,
on the place you late baited, and again intend to bait, you shall
take a turf of green but short grass, as big or bigger than a round
trencher ; to the top of this turf, on the green side, you shall, with
a needle and green thread, fasten one by one, as many little red
worms as will near cover all the turf : then take a round board
or trencher, make a hole in the middle thereof, and through the
turf placed on the board or trencher, with a string or cord as long
as is fitting, tied to a pole, let it down to the bottom of the water,
for the fish to feed upon without disturbance about two or three
days ; and after that you have drawn it away, you may fall to,
and enjoy your former recreation. B. A.

PiscATOR. The Tench, the physician of fishes, is observed to

love ponds better than rivers, and to love pits better than either :

Chap. XI. Y^^ Camden observes, there is a river in Dorset-

On the Tench, shire that abounds with Tenches, but doubtless
they retire to the most deep and quiet places in it.

This fish hath very large fins, very small and smooth scales, a
red circle about his eyes, which are big and of a gold colour, and
from either angle of his mouth there hangs down a little barb.
In every Tench's head there are two little stones which foreign
physicians make great use of, but he is not commended for whole-
some meat,* though there be very much use made of them for
outward applications. Rondeletius says, that at his being at
Rome, he saw a great cure done by applying a Tench to the feet
of a very sick man. This, he says, was done after an unusual
manner, by certain Jews. And it is observed that many of those
people have many secrets yet unknown to Christians ; secrets that
have never yet been written, but have been since the days of their
Solomon, who knew the nature of all things, even from the cedar
^o the shrub, delivered by tradition, from the father to the son,
md so from generation to generation, without writing ; or, unless

The following directions for dressing the Tench, as practised in the fourteenth
itury, is taken (rom the Harleian MS. No. 279, fo. 18 b : " Tenche in bruette. Take
le Tenche an sethe hem and roste hem, an grynde pepir, an safroiin, bred and ale, and
mpere wyth the brothe an boyle it, then take the Tenche y rostyd an ley hym on a
irgeoure, than lay on the sewe above.

"Tenche in eyncye. Take a Tenche an skalde hym, roste hym, grynde pepir an
ifroun, brede an ale, and messe it to gederys, take onyonys, hakke hem an frye hem in
irle, and do hem thereto and messe hem forth.

Tenche in sawce. Take a Tenche whan he is y sothe, and ley hym on a dy.sshe,
ake percely and onyonys and mynce hem to gederys, take pouder pepir and canelle and
traw thereon, take vynegre an caste safroun thereon, an coioure it an serve it forth
rhanne all colde."

154 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [parti.

it were casually, without the least communicating them to any
other nation or tribe ; for to do that they account a profanation.
And, yet, it is thought that they, or some spirit worse than they,
first told us, that lice, swallowed alive, were a certain cure for the
yellow jaundice. This, and many other medicines, were discovered
by them, or by revelation ; for, doubtless, we attained them not
by study.^

Well, this fish, besides his eating, is very useful, both dead and
alive, for the good of mankind. But I will meddle no more with
that, my honest, humble art teaches no such boldness : there are
too many foolish meddlers in physic and divinity that think
themselves fit to meddle with hidden secrets, and so bring de-
struction to their followers. But I'll not meddle with them, any
farther than to wish them wiser ; and shall tell you next, for I
hope I may be so bold, that the Tench is the physician of fishes,
for the Pike especially, and that the Pike, being either sick or
hurt, is cured by the touch of the Tench. And it is observed
that the tyrant Pike will not be a wolf to his physician, but for-
bears to devour him though he be never so hungry.*

This fish, that carries a natural balsam in him to cure both
himself and others, loves yet to feed in very foul water, and

VARIATION.

S The observations on the Tench originally appeared in very different form, but with
the exception of the passage beginning "and yet it is thought," and ending "not by
study," were altered as in the text in the second edition. The passage alluded to was
inserted in the third and subsequent editions. The Jirsi edition ran thus : " The Tench
is observed to love to live in ponds: but if he be in a river, then in the still places of the
river ; he is observed to be a physician to other fishes, and is so called by many that havh
been searchers into the nature of fish : and it is said that a pike will neither devour ncr
hurt him, because the pike being sick or hurt by any accident, is cured by touching the
Tench, and the Tench does the like to other fishes, either by touching them or by being
in their company.

*' Rondeletius says in his discourse of fishes, quoted by Gesner, that at his being at
Rome, he saw certain Jews apply Tenches to the feet of a sick man for a cure : and it is
observed, that many of those people have many secrets unknown to Christians, secrets
which have never been written, but have been successively, since the days of Solomon,
who knew the nature of all things from the shrub to the cedar, delivered by tradition
from the father to the son, and so from generation to generation without writing, or
unless it were casually, without the least communicating them to any other nation or
tribe, for to do so, they account a prophanation : yet this fish that does by a natural
inbred balsam, not only cure himself if he be wounded, but others also, loves not to live
in clear streams paved with gravel, but in standing waters where mud and the worst of
weeds abound, and therefore it is I think, that this Tench is by so many accounted better
for medicines than for meat : but for the first I am able to say little, and for the latter,
can say positively, that he eats pleasantly, and will therefore give you a few and but a
lew directions how to catch him.

" He will bite at a paste," &c., as in the text.

* That this idea prevailed nearly a century before the time when Walton wrote,
appears by the following extract from Lord Burleigh's Papers: "The perche and the
pike will agree best together, and the pike will not hurt the tenche, as being the
physician of all freshe-water fishe." — Burleigh Papers, Lansd. MS. loi, art. 9.

i!lii;::3;i„,;;ii;i!„!;,i,.„

CHAP. XII. J THE FOURTH DA Y. 155

amongst weeds. And yet, I am sure, he eats pleasantly, and,
doubtless, you will think so too, if you taste him. And I shall
therefore proceed to give you some few, and but a few, directions
how to catch this Tench, of which I have given you these
observations.

He will bite at a paste made of brown bread and honey, or
at a marsh-worm or a lob-worm ; he inclines very much to any
paste with which tar is mixt, and he will bite also at a smaller
worm with his head nipped off, and a cod-worm put on the hook
before that worm. And I doubt not but that he will also, in the
three hot months, for in the nine colder he stirs not much, bite at
a flag-worm, or at a green gentle ; but can positively say no more
of the Tench,* he being a fish I have not often angled for ; but
I wish my honest scholar may, and be ever fortunate when he
fishes.6

PiSCATOR. The Perch is a ver>' good, and a very bold biting
fish. He is one of the fishes of prey that, like the Pike and

Chap. XII. Trout, Carries his teeth in his mouth, which is very

On the Perch, large : "^ and he dare venture to kill and devour
several other kinds of fish. He has a hooked or hog back, which
is armed with sharp and stiff bristles, and all his skin armed, or
co\'ered over with thick dry hard scales, and hath, which few

VARIATIONS.

8 Here, in the Jirsi edition, the dialogue is continiied thus : —

Viator. I thank you, good master: but I pray, sir, since you see it still rains May-
butter, give me some observations and directions concerning the Perch, for they say he
is both a very good and a bold biting fish, and I would fain learn to fish for him.

Piscator. You say true, scholar, the Perch is a very good, &c.
7 In ihe first edition, in lieu of " which is very large, "^ the words

not in his throat '

* The haunts of Tench are nearly the same with those of the Carp. They delight
more in ponds than in rivers ; and lie under weeds, near sluices, and at pond-heads.
They spawn about the beginning of July ; and are best in season from the beginning of
September to the end of May. They will bite all the hot months ; but are best taken
in April and May. There are no better baits for this fish than a middle-sized lob-worm,
or red-worm, well scoured ; a gentle ; a young wasp-grub, boiled ; or a green worm
shook from the boughs of a tree. Use a strong grass, or gut ; and a goose-quill float
without a cork, except in river-;, where the cork is always to be preferred. Fish very
near the ground : and if you bait with gentles, throw in a few at the taking every fish,
which will draw them to your hook, and keep them together. — H.

The Tench appears to be a native of most parts of the globe. Its general length is
about twelve or fourteen inches, but, like most other fishes, it is occasionally found of
far greater magnitude ; and we are told that it has sometimes been found to measure two
or three feet in length, and to weigh no less than eight, ten, or even twenty pounds. See
Shaw's Geti. Zool. vol. v. part i. p. 214. — ^^E. In cleansing an old pond at Thornville
Royal in Yorkshire, in 1801, there was discovered under some roots what was at first
conjectured to bean otter. It proved, however, to be a Tench of most singular form.
" having literally assumed the shape of the hole in whicli he had of course been for
many years confined. His length from eye to fork was two feet nine inches, his circum-
ference, almost to the tail, two feet three inches ; his weight eleven pounds nine ounces.
See Daniel's Rural Sports, vol. ii. p. 263, edit. 1802, where an engraving of the fish is
given.

156 THE COMFLETE ANGLER. [part i.

other fish have, two fins on his back. He is so bold that he will
invade one of his own kind, which the Pike will not do so will-
ingly ; and you may, therefore, easily believe him to be a bold biter.

The Perch is of great esteem in Italy, saith Aldrovandus : and
especially the least are there esteemed a dainty dish. And Gesner
prefers the Perch and Pike above the Trout, or any fresh-water
fish : he says the Germans have this proverb, " More wholesome
than a Perch of Rhine : " and he says the River-Perch is so whole-
some that physicians allow him to be eaten by wounded men, or
by men in fevers, or by women in childbed.

He spawns but once a year ; and is, by physicians, held very
nutritive ; yet, by many, to be hard of digestion. They abound
more in the river Po, and in England, says Rondeletius, than
other parts : and have in their brain a stone, which is, in foreign
parts, sold by apothecaries, being there noted to be very medicin-
able against the stone in the reins. These be a part of the com-
mendations which some philosophical brains have bestowed upon
the fresh-water Perch : yet they commend the Sea-Perch, which
is known by having but one fin on his back, of which they say we
English see but a few, to be a much better fish.

The Perch grows slowly, yet will grow, as I have been credibly
informed, to be almost two feet long ; for an honest informer told
me, such a one was not long since taken by Sir Abraham Williams,
a gentleman of worth, and a brother of the angle, that yet lives,
and I wish he may : this was a deep-bodied fish, and doubtless
durst have devoured a Pike of half his own length. For I have
told you, he is a bold fish ; such a one as but for extreme hunger
the Pike will not devour. For to affright the Pike, and save him-
self, the Perch will set up his fins, much like as a turkey-cock will
sometimes set up his tail.

But, my scholar, the Perch is not only valiant to defend him-
self, but he is, as I said, a bold-biting fish : yet he will not bite at
all seasons of the year ; he is very abstemious in winter, yet will
bite then in the midst of the day, if it be warm : and note, that
all fish bite best about the midst of a warm day in winter. And
he hath been observed, by some, not usually to bite till the mul-
berry-tree buds ; that is to say, till extreme frosts be past the
spring ; for, when the mulberry-tree blossoms, many gardeners
observe their forward fruit to be past the danger of frosts ; and
some have made the like observation of the Perch's biting.

But bite the Perch will, and that very boldly. And, as one
has wittily observed, if there be twenty or forty in a hole, they

CHAP. XII.] THE FOURTH DAY. 157

may be, at one standing, all catched one after another; they
being, as he says, like the wicked of the world, not afraid, though
their fellows and companions perish in their sight. And you
may observe, that they are not like the solitary Pike, but love to
accompany one another, and march together in troops.

And the baits for this bold fish are not many : I mean, he will
bite as well at some, or at any of these three, as at any or all
others whatsoever ; a worm, a minnow, or a little frog, of which
you may find many in hay-time. And of worms ; the dunghill
worm called a brandling I take to be best, being well scoured in
moss or fennel ; or he will bite at a worm that lies under cow-
dung, with a bluish head. And if you rove for a Perch with a
minnow, then it is best to be alive ; you sticking your hook
through his back fin ; or a minnow with the hook in his upper
lip, and letting him swim up and down, about mid-water, or a
little lower, and you still keeping him to about that depth by a
cork, which ought not to be a very little one : and the like way
you are to fish for the Perch with a small frog, your hook being
fastened through the skin of his leg, towards the upper part of
it : and, lastly, I will give you but this advice, that you give the
Perch time enough when he bites ; for there was scarce ever any
angler that has given him too much.* And now I think best
to rest myself; for I have almost spent my spirits with talking
so long.

Venator. Nay, good master, one fish more, for you see it
rains still : and you know our angles are like money put to usury ;
they may thrive, though we sit still, and do nothing but talk and
enjoy one another. Come, come, the other fish, good master.

PiSCATOR. But, scholar, have you nothing to mix with this
discourse, which now grows both tedious and tiresome ? Shall I

* Although Perch, like Trout, delight in clear swift rivers, with pebbly, gravelly-
bottoms, they are often found in sandy, clayey soils : they love a moderately deep water,
and frequent holes by the sides of or near little streams, and the hollows under banks.

The Perch spawns about the beginning of March : the best time of the year to angle
for him is from the beginning of May till the end of June, yet you may continue to fish
for him till the end of September: he is best taken in cloudy windy weather. Other,
baits for the Perch are, loaches, millers-thumbs, sticklebacks ; lob, marsh, and red
worms. When you rove for Perch with a minnow or other small fish, use a large cork
float, and lead your line about nine inches from the bottom, otherwise the bait will come
to the top of the water ; but in the ordinary way of fishing, let your bait hang within
about six inches from the ground. — H.

Pennant mentions a Perch that was taken in the Serpentine river, Hyde Park, that
weighed nine pounds. He also mentions a very singular variety of the Perch ; the back
quite hunched, and the lower part of the backbone, next the tail, strangely distorted,
found in a lake called Llyn Raithlyn, in Merionethshire. "They are not peculiar to this
water, for Linnaeus (he adds) takes notice of a similar variety found at Fahlun, in his
own country. I have also heard that it is to be met with in the Thames, near Marlow."

E. Brit. Zoology., vol. iii. p. 224, edit. 1776.

I

158

THE COMPLETE ANGLER.

[part I.

have nothing from you, that seem to have both a good memory
and a cheerful spirit ?

Venator, Yes, master, I will speak you a copy of verses that
were made by Doctor Donne, and made to show the world that he
could make soft and smooth verses, when he thought smoothness
worth his labour : ^ and I love them the better, because they
allude to Rivers, and Fish and Fishing. They be these : * —

Come, live with me, and be my love,
And we will some new pleasures prove,
Of golden sands, and crystal brooks,
With silken lines, and silver hooks.

There will the river whisp'ring run,
Warm'd by thy eyes more than the sun ;
And there the enamel'd fish will stay.«
Begging themselves they may betray.

When thou wilt swim in that live bath,
Each fish, which every channel hath.
Most amorously to thee will swim.
Gladder to catch thee, than thou him.

If thou, to be so seen, beest loath
By sun or moon, thou dark'nest both ;

And if mine eyes have leave to see,
I need not their light, having thee.

Let others freeze with angling reeds.
And cut their legs with shells and weeds,
Or treacherously poor fish beset
With strangling snares or windowy net ;

Let coarse bold hands, from slimy nest.
The bedded fish in banks outwrest ;
Let curious traitors sleave silk flies,
To 'witch poor wand'ring fishes' eyes.i5

For thee, thou need'st no such deceit,
For thou thyself art thine own bait;
That fish that is not catcht thereby.
Is wiser far, alas, than \.c

PiSCATOR. Well remembered, honest scholar. I thank you
for these choice verses ; which I have heard formerly, but had
quite forgot, till they were recovered by your happy memory.
Well, being I have now rested myself a little, I will make you
some requital, by telling you some observations of the Eel ; for
it rains still : and because, as you say, our angles are as money
put to use, that thrives when we play, therefore we'll sit still, and
enjoy ourselves a little longer under this honeysuckle-hedge.

PiSCATOR. It is agreed by most men, that the Eel is a most
the Romans have esteemed her the Helena of
their feasts ; and some the queen of palate-
pleasure. But most men differ about their breed-
ing : some say they breed by generation, as other
fish do ; and others, that they breed, as some
worms do, of mud ; as rats and mice, and many other living
creatures, are bred in Egypt, by the sun's heat when it shines

VARIATIONS.

8 when he thought them fit and worth his labour. — \st edit.
8 that the Eel is both a good and a most dainty fish. — i^^ edit.

* As has been observed in a former note, this song is an imitation of the one by Mar-
lowe, which the Milkmaid sung to Piscator and Venator on the Third Day. See page
79. It is printed among Donne's Poems, ed. 1635, p. 39, with the following varia-
tions : —

a And there th' innamour'd fish will stay.

b Bewitch poor fishes wandering eyes.

c Alas, is wiser far than I.

dainty fish : '

Chap. XIII. Of
the Eel, and
other Fish that
want Scales.

CHAP. XIII.] THE FOURTH DAY. 159

upon the overflowing of the river Nilus ; or out of the putrefaction
of the earth, and divers other ways. Those that deny them to
breed by generation, as other fish do, ask, If any man ever saw
an Eel to have a spawn or melt ? And they are answered, That
they may be as certain of their breeding as if they had seen
spawn ; for they say, that they are certain that Eels have all
parts fit for generation, like other fish,* but so small as not to
be easily discerned, by reason of their fatness ; but that discerned
they may be ; and that the He and the She Eel may be distin-
guished by their fins. And Rondeletius says, he has seen Eels
cling together like dew-worms.

And others say, that Eels, growing old, breed other Eels out
of the corruption of their own age ; which. Sir Francis Bacon
says, exceeds not ten years. And others say, that as pearls are
made of glutinous dewdrops, which are condensed by the sun's
heat in those countries, so Eels are bred of a particular dew,
falling in the months of May or June on the banks of some
particular ponds or rivers, apted by nature for that end ; which
in a few days are, by the sun's heat, turned into Eels : and some
of the Ancients have called the Eels that are thus bred, the off-
spring of Jove. I have seen, in the beginning of July, in a river
not far from Canterbury, some parts of it covered over with young
Eels, about the thickness of a straw ; and these Eels did lie on
the top of that water, as thick as motes are said to be in the sun :
and I have heard the like of other rivers, as, namely, in Severn,
where they are called Yelvers ; and in a pond, or mere near unto
Staffordshire, where, about a set time in summer, such small Eels
abound so much, that many of the poorer sort of people that
inhabit near to it, take such Eels out of this mere with sieves or
sheets ; and make a kind of Eel-cake of them, and eat it like as
bread. And Gesner quotes venerable Bede,+ to say, that in
England there is an island called Ely, by reason of the innumer-
able number of Eels that breed in it. But that Eels may be bred
as some worms, and some kind of bees and wasps are, either of
dew or out of the corruption of the earth, seems to be made
probable by the barnacles and young goslings bred by the sun's

* That fishes are furnished with parts fit for generation cannot be doubted, since it is?
a common practice to castrate them. See the method of doing it in Pkilos, Trans, vol.
xlviii. part ii. for the year 1754, page 870.— H.

t The most universal scholar of his time : he was bom at Durham about 671, and
bred under St John of Beverley. It is said that Pope Sergius the First invited him to
Rome ; though others say he never stirred out of his cell. He was a man of great
virtue, and remarkable for a sweet and engaging disposition : he died in 73^^, and lies
buried at Durham. His works make eight volumes in folio. See his Life in the
•aphia Britannica. — H,

r

i6o THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

heat and the rotten planks of an old ship, and hatched of trees ;
both which are related for truths by Du Bartas and Lobel,* and
also by our learned Camden, and laborious Gerhard f in his
Herbal.

It is said by Rondeletius, that those Eels that are bred in rivers
that relate to or be nearer to the sea, never return to the fresh
waters, as the Salmon does always desire to do, when they have
once tasted the salt water ; and I do the more easily believe this,
because I am certain that powdered beef is a most excellent bait to
catch an Eel. And though Sir Francis Bacon will allow the Eel's
life to be but ten years, yet he, in his " History of Life and Death,"
mentions a Lamprey, belonging to the Roman Emperor, to be
made tame, and so kept for almost threescore years ; and that
such useful and pleasant observations were made of this Lamprey,
that Crassus the orator, who kept her, lamented her death ; and
we read in Doctor Hakewill, that Hortensius was seen to weep at
the death of a Lamprey that he had kept long, and loved exceed-
ingly.!

It is granted by all, or most men, that Eels, for about six
months, that is to say, the six cold months of the year, stir not up
or down, neither in the rivers, nor in the pools in which they usually
are, but get into the soft earth or mud ; and there many of them
together bed themselves, and live without feeding upon anything,
as I have told you some swallows have been observed to do in
hollow trees, for those six cold months. And this the Eel and
Swallow do, as not being able to endure winter weather : for
Gesner quotes Albertus to say, that in the year 1125, that year's
winter being more cold than usually, Eels did, by nature's instinct,
get out of the water into a stack of hay in a meadow upon dry

* Matthias ae Lobel, or UObel, an eminent physician and botanist of the sixteenth cen-
tury, was a native of Lisle in Flanders. He was a disciple of Rondeletius ; and being
invited to London, by King James the First, published there his Historia Plantarum,
and died in the year 1616. Vide Hoffmanni Lexicon Universale, art. "Matthias
Lobelius." This work is entitled Plajitarum sen Stirpiiim Historia, and was first pub-
lished at Antwerp in 1576, and republished at London in 1605. He was author likewise
of two other works ; the former of which has for its title Balsami, Opobalsami, Carpo-
balsnmi, et Xylobalsami, cnm suo cortice, Explattatio. Lond. 1598 ; and the latter,
Stirpinvi Illustrationes. Lond. 1655. — H.

t The person here mentioned is John Gerard, one of the first of our English botanists :
he was by profession a surgeon ; and published, in 1597, an Herbal, in a large folio,
dedicated to the Lord-Treasurer Burleigh ; and, two years after, a Catalogue of Plants,
Herbs, d^c, to the number of eleven hundred, raised and naturalised by himself in a large
garden near his house in Holborn. The latter is dedicated to Sir Walter Raleigh. — H.

X Walton, page 119. has cited from Pliny an instance of the fondness of Antonia for a
tame Lamprey. Cnssus was, for this his pusillanimity, reproached in the Senate of
Rome by Domitius in these words : " Foolish Crassus ! you wept for your Murena," or
Lamprey. " That is more," retorted Crassus, " than you did for your two wives." Lord
Bacon's Apothegms. — H.

CHAP. XIII.] THE FOURTH DA Y. l6l

ground ; * and there bedded themselves : but yet, at last, a frost
killed them.^ And our Camden relates, that, in Lancashire, fishes
were digged out of the earth with spades, where no water was
near to the place.f I shall say little more of the Eel, but that,
as it is observed he is impatient of cold, so it hath been observed,
that in warm weather, an Eel has been known to live five days
out of the water.

And lastly, let me tell you, that some curious searchers into the
natures of fish observe, that there be several sorts or kinds of Eels ;
as the silver Eel, and green or greenish Eel, with which the river
of Thames abounds, and those are called Grigs ; and a blackish
Eel, whose head is more flat and bigger than ordinary Eels ; and
also an Eel whose fins are reddish, and but seldom taken in this
nation, and yet taken sometimes. These several kinds of Eels
are, say some, diversely bred ; as, namely, out of the corruption
of the. earth ; and some by dew, and other ways, as I have said
to you : and yet it is affirmed by some for a certain, that the
silver Eel is bred by generation, but not by spawning as other fish
do ; but that her brood come alive from her, being then little live
Eels no bigger nor longer than a pin ; and I have had too many
testimonies of this to doubt the truth of it myself; and if I thought
it needful, I might prove it, but I think it is needless.

And this Eel, of which I have said so much to you, may be
caught with divers kinds of baits : as, namely, with powdered beef;
with a lob or garden worm ; with a minnow ; or gut of a hen,
chicken, or the guts of any fish, or with almost anything, for he
is a greedy fish. J But the Eel may be caught, especially, with a

Variation.] l but yet at last died there. — xst and 2d edit.

* Dr Plot, in his History of Staffordshire, page 242, mentions certain waters, and a
pool, that were stocked by Eels that had from waters they liked not travelled in arido^
or over dry land, to these other. — H. Other instances might be cited of Eels being
found on land : but the fact is so well known, that it would be superfluous.

t Camden's relation is to this cfiect, viz. : "That at a place called Sefton, in the
above county, upon turning up the turf, men find a black deadish water with small
fishes therein." — Britannia, Lancashire. Fuller, who also reports this strange fact,
humorously says " that the men of this place go a-fishing with spades and mattocks ;
adding, that fishes are thus found in the country about Heraclea, and Tins, in Pontus."
— Worthies, in Lancashire, 107. — H.

t To this truth I myself can bear witness. When I dwelt at Twickenham, a large
canal adjoined to my house, which I stocked with fish. I had from time to time broods of
ducks, which with their young ones took to the water. One dry summer, when the canal
was very low, we missed many young ducks, but could not find out how they went.
Resolving to make advantage of the lowness of the water to clean the canal, a work
which had not been done for thirty ye.irs before, I drained and emptied it, and found in
the mud a great number of large Eels. Some of them I reserved for the 'jse of my
family ; which being opened by the cook, surprised us all ; for in the stomachs ofsever.il
of them were found, undigested, the necks and heads of young ducks, which doubtless
were those of the ducks we had missed. — H.

I.

i62 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

little, a very little Lamprey, which some call a Pride, and may,
in the hot months, be found many of them in the river Thames,
and in many mud-heaps in other rivers ; yea, almost as usually as
one finds worms in a dunghill.

Next note, that the Eel seldom stirs in the day, but then hides
himself ; and therefore he is usually caught by night, with one of
these baits of which I have spoken ; and may be then caught by
laying hooks, which you are to fasten to the bank, or twigs of a
tree ; or by throwing a string cross the stream, with many hooks
at it, and those baited with the aforesaid baits ; and a cloth, or
plummet, or stone, thrown into the river with this line, that so you
may in the morning find it near to some fixed place ; and then
take it up with a drag-hook, or otherwise. But these things are,
indeed, too common to be spoken of; and an hour's fishing with
any angler will teach you better, both for these and many other
common things in the practical part of angling, than a week's dis-
course. I shall therefore conclude this direction for taking the
Eel, by telling you, that in a warm day in summer, I have taken
many a good Eel by Snigling, and have been much pleased with
that sport.

And because you, that are but a young angler, know not what
Snigling is, I will now teach it to you. You remember I told you
that Eels do not usually stir in the daytime ; for then they hide
themselves under some covert, or under boards or planks about
floodgates, or weirs, or mills ; or in holes on the river-banks ;
so that you, observing your time in a warm day, when the water
is lowest, may take a strong small hook, tied to a strong line, or
to a string about a yard long ; and then into one of these holes,
or between any boards about a mill, or under any great stone or
plank, or any place where you think an Eel may hide or shelter
herself, you may, with the help of a short stick, put in your bait,
but leisurely, and as far as you may conveniently ; and it is
scarce to be doubted, but if there be an Eel within the sight of it,
the Eel will bite instantly, and as certainly gorge it ; and you
need not doubt to have him if you pull him not out of the hole too
quickly, but pull him out by degrees ; for he, lying folded double
in his hole, will, with the help of his tail, break all, unless you
give him time to be wearied with pulling, and so get him out by
degrees, not pulling too hard.*

* There is also another mode of Eel-fishing, termed Bobbing, which is most com-
monly practised in rivers where the tide runs. The fisherman having procured a num-
ber of red or lob worms well scoured, strings them separately (by running them through
from head to tail with a needle) on worsted. When a sufficient number are strung, he

-J

w

2

W o

( H

CHAP. XIII.] THE FOURTH DAY. 163

And to commute for your patient hearing this long direction, I
shall next tell you how to make this Eel a most excellent dish of
meat.

First, wash him in water and salt ; then pull off his skin below
his vent or navel, and not much further : having done that, take
out his guts as clean as you can, but wash him not : then give
him three or four scotches, with a knive ; and then put into his
belly and those scotches, sweet herbs, an anchovy, and a little
nutmeg grated or cut very small ; and your herbs and anchovies
must also be cut very small, and mixt with good butter and salt \^
having done this, then pull his skin over him, all but his head, which
you are to cut off, to the end you may tie his skin about that part
where his head grew, and it must be so tied as to keep all his
moisture within his skin: and having done this, tie him with tape
or packthread to a spit, and roast him leisurely; and baste him
with water and salt till his skin breaks, and then -with butter ;
and having roasted him enough, let what was put into his belly,
and what he drips, be his sauce.* S. F.

When I go to dress an Eel thus, I wish he were as long and
as big as that which was caught in Peterborough river, in the
year 1667; which was a yard and three-quarters long. If you
will not believe me, then go and see at one of the coffee-houses
in King Street in Westminster.

But now let me tell you that though the Eel, thus drest, be not
only excellent good, but more harmless than any other way, yet
it is certain that physicians account the Eel dangerous meat ; I
will advise you therefore, as Solomon says of honey,t " Hast thou

VARIATION.

2 Neither the instructions for dressing the Eel, nor the observations on the Flounder,
the Char, and the Guiniad, given in the text, occur in \}ci^first edition, which continues
thus : "And thus much for this present time concerning the Eel : I will next tell you
a little of the Barbel, and hope with a little discourse of him to have an end of this
shower, and fall to fishing, for the weather clears up a little."

ties them up in a bunch, and attaches them to the end of a cord about six feet in length,
affixing on the same, immediately above the worms, a piece of lead weighing naif
a pound, more or less, according to the strength of the current. The whole is appended
to a pole from five to six feet in length. Thus prepared, the fisherman stations himself
in a boat and casts his tackle into the stream, taking care that the worms do not touch
the bottom by about two inches. The Eels bite, their teeth get entangled in the
worsted, and it is not unusual for three or more to be hauled into the boat at one jerk.
-J. B.

In the fourteenth century. Eels were cooked after the following recipe : " Elys in
Gauncelye. Take Elys an fle hem an sethe hem in water, an caste a lytel salt thereto,
than take brede y scaldyd and grynd it an temper it with the brothe an with ale, than
take pepir, gyngere, an safroune, an grynde alle y fere, than neme onyonys an percely,
an bryle it in a possenet. Wei then caste alle to gederys an seth y fere an serve forth."
i^-^JIarleian MS. 279, f. 18.

l64 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

found it, eat no more than is sufficient, lest thou surfeit, for it is
not good to eat much honey." And let me add this, that the
uncharitable Italian bids us " give Eels and no wine to our
enemies."

And I will beg a little more of your attention, to tell you that
Aldrovandus, and divers physicians, commend the Eel very much
for medicine, though not for meat. But let me tell you one
observation, that the Eel is never out of season ; as Trouts, and
most other fish, are at set times ; at least most Eels are not.*

* The haunts of the Eel are, weeds, under roots, stumps of trees, holes, and clefts of
the earth, both in the banks and at the bottom, and in the plain mud, where they lie
with only their heads out, watching for prey. They are also found under great stones,
old timber, about floodgates, weirs, bridges, and old mills. They delight in still waters,
and in those that are foul and muddy ; though the smaller Eels are to be met with in all
sorts of rivers and streams.

Although the manner in which Eels, and indeed all fish, arc generated, is sufficiently
settled, as appears by the foregoing notes, there yet remains a question undecided by
naturalists ; and that is, whether the Eel be an oviparous or a viviparous fish ? Walton
inclines to the latter opinion. The following relation from Bowlker may go near to
determine the question : —

" Being acquainted with an elderly woman, who had been wife to a miller near fifty
years, and much employed in dressing of Eels, I asked her whether she had ever found
any spawn or eggs in those Eels she opened ? She said she had never observed any ;
but that she had sometimes found living Eels in them, about the bigness of a small
needle ; and particularly, that she once took out ten or twelve, and put them upon the
table, and found them to be alive ; which was confirmed to me by the rest of the family.
The time of the year when this happened was, as they informed me, about a fortnight
or three weeks after Michaelmas ; which makes me of opinion that they go down to the
sea, or salt water, to prepare themselves for the work of propagating and producing
their young. To this I must add another observation of the same nature, that was made
by a gentleman of fortune not far from Ludlow, and in the commission of the peace for
the county of Salop ; who, going to visit a gentleman, his friend, was shown a very fine
large Eel that was going to be dressed, about whose sides and belly he observed a par-
cel of Httle creeping things, which at first made him suspect it had been kept too long;
but, upon nearer inspection, they were found to be perfect little Eels or Elvers : upon
this it was immediately opened in the sight of several other gentlemen, and in the belly
of it they found a lump about as big as a nutmeg, consisting of an infinite number of
those little creatures, closely wrapped up together, which, being put into a basin of
water, soon separated, and swam about the basin. This he has often told to several
gentlemen of credit in his neighbourhood, from some of whom I first received this
account : but I have lately had the satisfaction of having it from his own mouth ; and
therefore I think this may serve to put the matter out of all doubt, and may be suffi-
cient to prove that Eels are of the viviparous kind."

Taking it for granted then that Eels do not spawn, all we have to say in this place is,
that though, as our author tells us, they are never out of season, yet, as some say, they
are best in winter, and worst in May. And it is to be noted of Eels, that the longer they
live the better they ^x&.— Angler's Sure Guide, p. 164.

Of baits for the Eel, the best are, lob-worms, loach, minnows, gudgeons, bleak, or
small frogs.

As the angling for Eels is usually attended with great trouble and risk of tackle, many,
while they angle for other fish, lay lines for the Eel, which they tie to weeds, flags, &c.,
with marks to find them by ; or take a long packthread line, with a leaden weight at the
end, and hooks looped on at a yard distance from each other ; and fastening one end,
throw the lead out, and let the line lie some time. And in this way Pike may be taken.

The river Kennet in Berkshire, the Stour in Dorsetshire, Irk in Lancashire, and
Ankham in Lincolnshire, are famed for producing excellent Eels : the latter to so great
a degree, as to give rise to the following proverbial rhyme : —
Ankham Eel, and Witham Pike,
In all England is none sike.

But it is said, there are no Eels superior in goodness to those taken in the head of the
New River near Islington.— H.

CHAP. XIII.] THE FOURTH DAY. 165

I might here speak of many other fish, whose shape and nature
are much Hke the Eel, and frequent both the sea and fresh rivers ;
as, namely, the Lamprel, the Lamprey, and the Lampe'*ne : * as
also of the mighty Conger, taken often in Severn, about Glouces-
ter : and might also tell in what high esteem many of them are
for the curiosity of their taste. But these are not so proper to be
talked of by me, because they make us anglers no spcrt ; there-
fore I will let them alone, as the Jews do, to whom they are
forbidden by their law.

And, scholar, there is also a FLOUNDER,t a sea-fish which will
wander very far into fresh rivers, and there lose himself and
dwell : and thrive to a hand's breadth, and almost twice so long :
a fish without scales, and most excellent meat : and a fish that
affords much sport to the angler, with any small worm, but
especially a little bluish worm, gotten out of marsh-ground, or
meadows, which should be well scoured. J But this, though it be
most excellent meat, yet it wants scales, and is, as I told you,
therefore an abomination to the Jews.

But, scholar, there is a fish that they in Lancashire boast very
much of, called a Char ; taken there, and I think there only, in
a mere called Winander Mere ; § a mere, says Camden, that is

* Both the Lampeme and the Lamprey are taken in the Wye, the former during
March and April, the latter in May and June. "The Lamprey, which is highly
esteemed as a delicacy, removes the pebbles from particular spots in the most rapid
stream, and thus forms a very insecure retreat, which is provincially termed a bed : in
these they are taken with a spear. The female is of a rounder form than the male, and
contains a large quantity of spawn, which is fecundated after passing from the body of
the fish. The Lamprey appears to possess an internal heat equal perhaps to terrestrial
animals." — Duncombe's Collections towards the History, &c., of Herefordsh. p. 163.

t The " Flounder," observes Mr Salter in the Angler's Guide, " is only found in rivers
where the tide flows, or those which have connection with the sea, as it is properly a sea-
fish, and only leaves it to spawn. In the creeks frpm Blackwall to Bromley, Stratford
and Westham, also in the docks, and the canal at Limchouse, and in the other docks,
&c., on the opposite side of the river, they are taken either with dead Hnes, or floated in
the same manner as Eels : in fact, when you angle for Eels in this part, you angle for
Flounders also, as they will both take the same baits, and at the same season."

X The author of " Practical Observations on Angling in the River Trent," says : "I
have in the Trent known ten pounds weight of Flounders taken by two anglers in one
afternoon, and a much greater quantity in the same time, by flounder-lines. I have
caught them by angling with lob-worms, nearly a pound weight each ; and with a
minnow I caught one, in 1799, that weighed twenty-three ounces." — E.

J Mr Pennant, in his British Zoology, vol. iii. p. 268, observes: "There are but few
lakes in our island that produce this fish, and even those not in any abundance. It is
found in Winander Mere in Westmoreland ; in Llyn Quellyn, near the foot of Snowdon ;
and before the discovery of the Copper Mines, in those of Llynberris, but the mineral
streams have entirely destroyed the fish in the last lakes. Whether the waters in Ireland
afford the Char, we are uncertain, but imagine not, except it has been overlooked by
their writers on the Natural History of that kingdom. In Scotland it is found in Loch
Inch, and other neighbouring lakes, and is said to go into the Spey to spawn." Mr
Daniel, in the second volume of " Rural Sports," p. 222, says, " In Ireland the Char is
abundant in Lough Esk." — E. Char are also found in certain lakes in Merionethshire ;
as well as in Conningston Mere, in Lancashire. See Leigh's History of Lancashire,
p. 141.

i66 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

the largest in this nation, being ten miles in length, and some say-
as smooth in the bottom as if it were paved with polished marble.
This fish never exceeds fifteen or sixteen inches in length ; and is
spotted like a Trout ; and has scarce a bone, but on the back.
But this, though I do not know whether it make the angler sport,
yet I would have you take notice of it, because it is a rarity, and
of so high esteem with persons of great note.

Nor would I have you ignorant of a rare fish called a GuiNlAD ;
of which I shall tell you what Camden and others speak. The
river Dee, which runs by Chester, springs in Merionethshire ;
and, as it runs toward Chester, it runs through Pemble Mere,
which is a large water : and it is observed, that though the river
Dee abounds with Salmon, and Pemble Mere with the Guiniad,
yet there is never any Salmon caught in the mere, nor a Guiniad
in the river. And now my next observation shall be of the
Barbel.*

PiSCATOR. The Barbel is so called, says Gesner, by reason of
his barb or wattles at his mouth, which are under his nose or chaps.

Chap. XIV. He is one of those leather-mouthed fishes that I
Of the Barbel. ^q|^j y^^ q£^ ^^^ ^^^g ^^^^ Seldom break his hold

if he be once hooked : but he is so strong, that he will often
break both rod and line, if he proves to be a big one.

But the Barbel,f though he be of a fine shape, and looks big,
yet he is not accounted the best fish to eat, neither for his whole-
someness nor his taste ; but the male is reputed much better than

* This fish is found, according to Pennant, in Lough Neagh in Ireland, where it is
termed the Pollen, and hi Lochmaben in Scotland, where it is called the Vangis. It is
also a native of the Lakes of Cumberland, and of Pemble Mere in Merionethshire. In
shape it is somewhat similar to the dace, but attains a much greater size, weighing some-
times three or four pounds. Schaeflfer, however, asserts that in the Alpine parts of
Europe, it is caught of the weight of ten or twelve pounds. One peculiar mark by which
it may be distinguished is, that its ventral fins are of a very deep blue, and the belly at
most seasons marked with blue spots. It is gregarious, and during spring and summer
approaches the shores of the lakes in such vast shoals that an instance is recorded of an
Uileswater fisherman taking at one draught between seven and eight thousand. They
are never, according to some authorities, taken by any bait, but keep at the bottom of
the lake feeding on shells and the leaves of the water gladiol. A writer who styles himself
"Piscator" in the Sporting Magazine for August 1829, observes, however: "There is a
fish ill Bala Lake called 'gwyniad,' or whiting. It is the same fish that is called 'sewin'
in the north, and shows very tolerable sport. It is taken with any of the trout flies, and
is very nimble in its movements. Sir Humphry Davy alludes to it in his ' Salmonia,'
and mentions his having taken some in Bala Lake." The statement of Camden alluded
to in the text, that the guiniad never wanders into the Dee, and that the salmon never
ventures into Pemble Mere, is erroneous, inasmuch as the kite Honourable Daines
Barrington asserts that he had .seen salmon taken in the lake, and had been "most
authentically informed " that guiniad had been taken at LandriUo, six miles below the
lake.

t The coat armour of the ancient Counts of Bar was azure semee of cross- crosslets,
two Barbels addorsed or. •

CHAP. XIV.] THE FOURTH DAY. 167

the female, whose spawn is very hurtful, as I will presently declare
to you.

They flock together like sheep, and are at the worst in April,
about which time they spawn ; but quickly grow to be in season.
He is able to live in the strongest swifts of the water : and in
summer they love the shallowest and sharpest streams : and love
to lurk under weeds, and to feed on gravel, against a rising
ground ; and will root and dig in the sands with his nose like a
hog, and there nests himself : yet sometimes he retires to deep
and swift bridges, or floodgates, or weirs ; where he will nest
himself amongst piles, or in hollow places ; and take such hold
of moss or weeds, that be the water never so swift, it is not able
to force him from the place that he contends for.^ This is his
constant custom in summer, when he and most living creatures
sport themselves in the sun : but at the approach of winter, then
he forsakes the swift streams and shallow waters, and, by degrees,
retires to those parts of the river that are quiet and deeper ; in
which places, and I think about that time, he spawns ; and, as I
have formerly told you, with the help of the melter, hides his
spawn or eggs in holes, which they both dig in the gravel ; and
then they mutually labour to cover it with the same sand, to pre-
vent it from being devoured by other fish.

There be such store of this fish in the river Danube, that
Rondeletius says they may, in some places of it, and in some
months of the year, be taken, by those who dwell near to the
river, with their hands, eight or ten load at a time. He says,
they begin to be good in May, and that they cease to be
so in August : but it is found to be otherwise in this nation.
But thus far we agree with him, that the spawn of a Barbel, if
it be not poison, as he says, yet that it is dangerous meat, and
especially in the month of ]\lay,* which is so certain, that Gesner

VARIATIONS.

3 With the exception already noticed, the preceding observations on the Barbel were
printed in the second edition, as in the text : but in X\\& first they were as follows :
"■ Piscator. The Harbel is so called, says Gesner, from, or by reason of his beard, or
wattles at his mouth, his mouth being under his nose or chaps, and he is one of the leather-
mouthed fish that has his teeth in his throat : he loves to live in very swift streams and
where it is gravelly, and in the gravel will root or dig with his nose like a hog, and there
nest himself, taking so fast hold of any weeds or moss that grows on stones, or on piles
about weirs or floodgates, or bridges, that the water is not able, be it ever so swift, to
force him from the place which he seems to contend for. This is his constant custom,'*
&c.

^^_: ■* and Gesner declares, it had an ill effect upon him to the endangering of his life. —

I^^Btt edit.

i68 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part r.

and Gasius* declare it had an ill effect upon them, even to the
endangering of their lives. f

This fish is of a fine cast and handsome shape, with small
scales, which are placed after a most exact and curious manner :
and, as I told you, may be rather said not to be ill, than to be
good meat. The Chub and he have, I think, both lost part of
their credit by ill cookery ; they being reputed the worst, or
coarsest, of fresh-water fish. But the Barbel affords an angler
choice sport, being a lusty and a cunning fish ; so lusty and
cunning as to endanger the breaking of the angler's line, by
running his head forcibly towards any covert, or hole, or bank,
and then striking at the line, to break it off, with his tail ; as is
observed by Plutarch, in his book " De Industria Animalium : "
and also so cunning, to nibble and suck off your worm close to
the hook, and yet avoid the letting the hook come into his mouth.

The Barbel is also curious for his baits ; that is to say, that
they be clean and sweet ; that is to say, to have your worms well
scoured, and not kept in sour and musty moss, for he is a curious
feeder : but at a well-scoured lob-worm he will bite as boldly as at
any bait, and specially if, the night or two before you fish for him,
you shall bait the places where you intend to fish for him, with
big worms cut into pieces. J And note, that none did ever over-
bait the place, nor fish too early or too late for a Barbel. And
the Barbel will bite also at gentles, which, not being too much
scoured, but green, are a choice bait for him : and so is cheese,
which is not to be too hard, but kept a day or two in a wet linen
cloth, to make it tough ; with this you may also bait the water a
day or two before you fish for the Barbel, and be much the likelier
to catch store ; and if the cheese were laid in clarified honey a
short time before, as, namely, an hour or two, you were still

* Of the latter person Sir John Hawkins says he could find no account. The physi-
cian intended was Antonius Gazius of Padua ; of whom a short account is given by
Moreri. His principal work, to which Walton probably alludes, was his Corona Florida
Medichue, sive de Conservatione Sanitatis, first published at Venice in 1491, in folio,
when he was only twenty-eight years old: the chapters cxxx.-cxxxvii. of which,
inclusive, relate to the different qualities of river-fish as food. He died in 1530 : and not
in 1528, as several writers have asserted. See Moreri Dictionn. Hist. edit. Par. 1759,
torn. V. p. 113. Manget Bibl. Script. Medicor. torn. ii. lib. vii.— E.

t Though the spawn of the Barbel is known to be of a poisonous nature, yet it is often
taken by country-people medicinally ; who find it, at once, a most powerful emetic and
cathartic. And, notwithstanding what is said of the wholesomeness of the Jlesli, with
some constitutions it produces the same effects as the spawn. About the month of Sep-
tember, in the year 1754, a servant of mine, who had eaten part of a Barbel, though, as
I had cautioned him, he abstained from the spawn, was seized with such a violent
purging and vomiting as had like to have cost him his life.— H.

X Graves (which are the sediment of tallow melted for the making of candles), cut
into pieces, are an excellent ground-bait for Barbel, Gudgeons, Roach, and many other
fish, if thrown in the night before you angle. — H.

< ^

« 5

CHAP. XIV.] THE FOURTH DAy. 169

the likelier to catch fish. Some have directed to cut the cheese
into thin pieces, and toast it ; and then tie it on the hook with
fine silk. And some advise to fish for the Barbel with sheep's
tallow and soft cheese, beaten or worked into a paste ; and that
it is choicely good in August : and I believe it. But, doubtless,
the lob-worm well scoured, and the gentle not too much scoured,
and cheese ordered as I have directed, are baits enough, and I
think will serve in any month: though I shall commend any
angler that tries conclusions, and is industrious to improve the
art. And now, my honest scholar, the long shower and my tedious
discourse are both ended together : and I shall give you but this
observation, that when you fish for a Barbel, your rod and line be
both long and of good strength ; for, as I told you, you will find
him a heavy and a dogged fish to be dealt withal ; yet he seldom
or never breaks his hold, if he be once strucken. And if you
would know more of fishing for the Umber or Barbel,* get into

* Of the haunts of the Barbel, the author has spoken sufficiently. Barbel spawn
about the middle of April, and grow in season about a month after. Baits for Barbel,
other than what Walton has mentioned, are the young brood of wasps, hornets, and
humble bees. In fishing for him, use a very strong rod, and a silk line with a shot and
a bullet, as directed for the Trout. Some use a cork float, which, if you do, be sure to
fish as close to the bottom as possible, so as the bait does not touch the ground. In
angling for lesser fish, the angler will sometimes find it a misfortune to hook a Barbel :
a fish so sullen, that, with fine tackle, it is scarcely possible to land one of twelve inches
long. A lover of angling told me the following story : He was fishing in the river Lea,
at the ferry called Jeremy's, and had hooked a large fish at the time when some Lon-
doners, with their horses, were passing : they congratulated him on his success, and got
out of the ferry-boat, but, finding the fish not likely to yield, mounted their horses and
rode off. The fact was, that, angling for small fish, his bait had been taken by a Barbel
too big for the fisher to manage. Nor caring to risk his tackle by attempting to raise
him, he hoped to tire him, and, to that end, suffered himself to be led (to use his own
expression) as a blind man is by his dog, several yards up, and as many down the bank
of the river, in short, for so many hours, that the horsemen above mentioned (who had
been at Walthamstow, and dined) were returned, who, seeing him thus occupied, cried
out, " What, master, anotha- large fish?" " No," says Ptscator, " it is the very same."
" Nay," says one of them, "that can never be ; for it is five hours since we crossed the
river." And not believing him, they rode on their way. At length our angler deter-
mined to do that which a less patient one would have done long before ; he made one
vigorous effort to land his fish, broke his tackle, and lost him.

Fishing for Barbel is, at best, but a dull recreation. They are a sullen fish, and bite
but slowly. The angler drops in his bait ; the bullet, at the bottom of the line, fixes it
to one spot of the river. Tired with waiting for a bite, he generally lays down his rod,
and, exercising the patience of a setting-dog, waits till he sees the top of his rod move ;
then begins a struggle between him and the fish, which he calls his sport : and that being
over, he lands his prize, fresh baits his hook, and lays in for another. — H.

The Barbel-angler has, however, sometimes occasion to exult at the sport which he
finds. As recently as August 9, 1807, at one of the deeps near Shepperton, which had
been prepared by baiting the preceding night, a party of four gentlemen, named Emes,
Atkinson, Hall, and Moore, separated into two boats, began fishing between ten and
eleven in the forenoon : in about five hours they caught the following quantity : —

Emes and Atkinson

3 fish, weighing
6 „ „

30 i» , ». • •

4 „ thrown over.

. 20 lbs.

: ^I

Hall and
2 fish, weighing
20 „ „
23 „ i>

Moore,

. IS lbs.

• 23

• 32

42

Total,

80
87 fish, we

4S
ghing 150 lbs.— E.

•

70

170 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

favour with Dr Sheldon,'"^ whose skill is above others ; and of
that, the poor that dwell about him have a comfortable experience.

And now let's go and see what interest the Trouts will pay us,
for letting our angle-rods lie so long and so quietly in the water
for their use. Come, scholar, which will you take up ?

Venator. Which you think fit, master.

PiSCATOR. Why, you shall take up that ; for I am certain,
by viewing the line, it has a fish at it. Look you, scholar ! well
done ! Come, now take up the other too : well ! now you may
tell my brother Peter, at night, that you have caught a leash of
Trouts this day. And now let's move towards our lodging, and
drink a draught of red cow's milk as we go ; and give pretty
Maudlin and her honest mother a brace of Trouts for their
supper.

Venator. Master, I like your motion very well: and I think
it is now about milking-time ; and yonder they be at it.

PiSCATOR. God speed you, good woman ! I thank you both
for our songs last night : I and my companion have had such
fortune a-fishing this day, that we resolve to give you and Maudlin
a brace of Trouts for supper ; and we will now taste a draught
of your red cow's milk.

MiLKWOMAN. Marry, and thai you shall with all my heart ;
and I will be still your debtor when you come this way. If you
will but speak the word, I will make you a good syllabub of new
verjuice ; and then you may sit down in a haycock and eat it ;
and Maudlin shall sit by and sing you the good old song of the
" Hunting in Chevy Chace," or some other good ballad, for she
hath store of them : Maudlin, my honest Maudlin, hath a not-
able memory, and she thinks nothing too good for you, because
you be such honest men.

Venator. We thank you ; and intend, once in a month, to
call upon you again, and give you a little warning ; and so,
good-night. Good-night, Maudlin. And now, good master, let's

In "The Art of Angling," by R. Brookes, 8vo, 1774, p. 23, it is stated that, on August
23. 1771, Mr Warren, a perfumer of Marybone Street, angled in Walton Deeps, and
before noon caught 280 lb. weight of large-sized Barbel. He usually had the deeps
baited with worms overnight, and in the morning fished from a boat with a perfumed
paste. In June 1772, when Mr Warren came to the usual fishing-hole, a brother angler
told him that a sturgeon had carried away his line. Mr Warren subsequently caught a
Barbel of eleven pounds weight, which had his friend's hook sticking in his gills: he
punched a hole in his tail and turned him again into the Thames, caught him twice
afterwards, and as often released him.

* Dr Gilbert Sheldon, warden of All Souls College, chaplain to King Charles the
First, and, after the Restoration, Archbishop of Canterbury. He founded the theatre
at Oxford, died in 1677, and lies buried under a stately monument at Croydon in
Surrey.

p

p, to

CHAP. XV.] THE FOURTH DAY. 171

lose no time : but tell me somewhat more of fishing; and if you
please, first, something of fishing for a Gudgeon.

PiSCATOR. I will, honest scholar.^

PiscATOR. The Gudgeon is reputed a fish of excellent
taste, and to be very wholesome. He is of a fine shape, of a
silver colour, and beautified with black spots both
the"^^' Gudgeon, 01^ ^is body and tail. He breeds two or three
the Jf"'f^' ^'"^ times in the year ; and always in summer. He is
commended for a fish of excellent nourishment. The
Germans call him GroundHng, by reason of his feeding on the
ground ; and he there feasts himself, in sharp streams and on the
gravel. He and the Barbel both feed so : and do not hunt for
flies at any time, as most other fishes do. He is an excellent fish
to enter a young angler, being easy to be taken with a small red
worm, on or very near to the ground. He is one of those
leather-mouthed fish that has his teeth in his throat, and will
hardly be lost off from the hook if he be once strucken.

They be usually scattered up and down every river in the
shallows, in the heat of summer : but in autumn, when the weeds
begin to grow sour and rot, and the weather colder, then they
gather together, and get into the deeper parts of the water ; and
are to be fished for there, with your hook always touching the
ground, if you fish for him with a float, or with a cork. But
many will fish for the Gudgeon by hand, with a running line
upon the ground, without a cork, as a Trout is fished for : and it
is an excellent way, if you have a gentle rod, and as gentle a
hand.*

There is also another fish called a Pope, and by some a Ruffe ;
a fish that is not known to be in some rivers : he is much like
the Perch for his shape, and taken to be better than the Perch, but
will not grow to be bigger than a Gudgeon. He is an excellent
fish ; no fish that swims is of a pleasanter taste. And he is also
excellent to enter a young angler, for he is a greedy biter: and they
will usually lie, abundance of them together, in one reserved place,

VARIATION.

6 In the first edition, Pi«cator here continues, without beginning a fresh chapter,
"The Gudgeon is an excellent fish to eat, and also good to enter a young angler : he is
easy to be t:iken with a small red worm at the ground, and is one of those leather-
mouthed fish," &c., as in a subsequent part of the text. The alterations in the text were
made in the second ^6\\\ox\.

* In fishing for Gudgeons, have a rake ; and every quarter of an hour rake the bottom
of the river, and the fish will flock thither in shoals.— rH.

Pennant mentions a Gudyeon taken near Uxbridge that weighed half a pound. Zoology^
edit. 1776, vol. iii. p. 316.— E.

172 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

where the water is deep and runs quietly ; and an easy angler,
if he has found where they lie, may catch forty, or fifty, or some-
times twice so many, at a standing.

You must fish for him with a small red worm ; and if you bait
the ground with earth, it is excellent.

There is also a Bleak or fresh-water Sprat ; a fish that is
ever in motion, and therefore called by some the river-swallow ;
for just as you shall observe the swallow to be, most evenings
in summer, ever in motion, making short and quick turns when he
flies to catch flies, in the air, by which he lives ; so does the
Bleak at the top of the water. Ausonius would have him called
Bleak from his whitish colour : his back is of a pleasant sad or
sea- water green ; his belly, white and shining as the mountain
snow. And doubtless, though he have the fortune, which virtue
has in poor people, to be neglected, yet the Bleak ought to be
much valued, though we want AUamot salt, and the skill that the
Italians have, to turn them into anchovies. This fish may be
caught with a Pater-noster line ; * that is, six or eight very small
hooks tied along the line, one half a foot above the other : I have
seen five caught thus at one time ; and the bait has been gentles,
than which none is better.

Or this fish may be caught with a fine small artificial fly, which
is to be of a very sad brown colour, and very small, and the hook
answerable. There is no better sport than whipping for Bleaks
in a boat, or on a bank, in the swift water, in a summer's evening,
with a hazel top about five or six foot long, and a line twice the
length of the rod. I have heard Sir Henry Wotton say, that
there be many that in Italy will catch swallows so, or especially
martins ;t this bird-angler standing on the top of a steeple to do
it, and with a line twice so long as I have spoken of. And let me
tell you, scholar, that both Martins and Bleaks be most excellent
meat.

And let me tell you, that I have known a Heron, that did con-
stantly frequent one place, caught with a hook baited with a big
minnow or a small gudgeon, f The line and hook must be strong :

* A rosary, or string of beads, is used by the Roman Catholic devotees to assist them
in numbering their Pater-nosters: a line with many hooks at small distances from each
other, though it little resembles a string of beads, is thence called a Pater-noster
line.— H.

t This is a common practice in England also. — H.

X This method of taking wildfowl is frequently practised both on the coasts of Eng-
land and of France.

CHAP. XVI.] THE FOURTH DAY. 17$

and tied to some loose staff, so big as she cannot fly away with it :
a line not exceeding two yards. ^

PiscATOR. My purpose was to give you some directions con-
cerning Roach and Dace, and some other inferior fish which
Chap. XVI. Is ^^^^e the angler excellent sport ; for you know there
of nothing, or of is morc pleasure in hunting the hare than in eating
not ing wort ^^^ ^ ^^^ j ^.^j forbear, at this time, to say any more,

because you see yonder come our brother Peter and honest Cori-
don. But I will promise you, that as you and I fish and walk
to-morrow towards London, if I have now forgotten anything
that I can then remember, I will not keep it from you.

Well met, gentlemen ; this is lucky that we meet so just
together at this very door. Come, hostess, where are you .? is
supper ready ? Come, first give us drink ; and be as quick as
you can, for I believe we are all very hungry. Well, brother
Peter and Coridon, to you both ! Come, drink : and then tell me
what luck of fish : we two have caught but ten trouts, of which
my scholar caught three. Look ! here's eight ; and a brace we
gave away. We have had a most pleasant day for fishing and
talking, and are returned home both weary and hungry ; and now
meat and rest will be pleasant.

Peter. And Coridon and I have not had an unpleasant day :
and yet I have caught but five trouts ; for, indeed, we went to a
good honest alehouse, and there we played at shovel-board*
half the day ; all the time that it rained we were there, and as
merry as they that fished. And I am glad we are now with a

VARIATION.

6 After giving the instructions for Bleak-fishing, Piscator, in the ^rst edition, pro-
ceeds : ** I might now tell you how to catch Roach and Dace, and some other fish of
little note, that I have not yet spoke of: but you see we are almost at our lodging, and,
indeed, if we were not, I would omit to give you any directions concerning them, or how
to fish for them, not but that they be both good fish, being in season, and especially to some
palates, and they also make the angler good sport ; and you know the hunter says there
IS more sport in hunting the hare than in eating of her : but I will forbear to give any
directions concerning them, because you may go a few days and take the pleasure of the
fresh air, and bear any common angler company, that fishes for them, and by that means
learn more than any direction I can give you in words can make you capable of; and I
will therefore end my discourse, for yonder comes," &c., as in the text.

* Nares in his Glossary explains Shovel-board to be " a common trivial game, which
consisted in pushing or shaking pieces of money on a board to reach certain marks."
Shovel-board play is graphically described in a poem entitled Mensa Lubrica, written
both in Latin and English by Thomas Master. The English poem is largely cited in
IJliss's edition of Wood's Athenae, vol. iii. p. 84. The Table had lines or divisions marked
with figures according to the value of which the player counted his game. It is minutely
described by Strutt, in his Sports and Pastimes, p. 267, as still in use in pothouses, and
played with a smooth halfpenny. The game was also called Shovil-groat, Shove-board,
and Shuffle-board, and was at one time a very general amusement among all classes. In
the Privy Purse Expenses of Henry VIII. it is stated that his Majesty lost various sums
at " Shovill-abourd," pp. 188, 189, 195, 209.

174

THE COMPLETE ANGLER.

[part I.

dry house over our heads ; for, hark ! how it rains and blows.
Come, hostess, give us more ale, and our supper with what haste
you may : and when we have supped, let us have your song,
Piscator ; and the catch that your scholar promised us ; or else,
Coridon will be dogged.

Piscator. Nay, I will not be worse than my word ; you
shall not want my song, and I hope I shall be perfect in it.

Venator. And I hope the like for my catch, which I have
ready too : and therefore let's go merrily to supper, and then
have a gentle touch at singing and drinking ; but the last with
moderation.

Coridon. Come, now for your song ; for we have fed
heartily. Come, hostess,^ lay a few more sticks on the fire.
And now, sing when you will.

Piscator. Well then, here's to you, Coridon ; and now for
my song.

O the gallant ^ Fisher's life,

It is the best of any ;
'Tis full of pleasure, void of strife,
And 'tis belov'd of many :

Other joys

Are but toys;

Only this

Lawful is ;

For our skill

Breeds no ill,
But content and pleasure.

In a morning up we rise,
Ere Aurora's peeping ;
Drink a cup to wash our eyes ;
Leave the sluggard sleeping :

Then we go

To and fro.

With our knacks

At our backs,

To such streams

As the Thames,
If we have the leisure.

When we please to walk abroad

For our recreation,
In the fields is our abode,
Full of delectation :
Where in a brook
With a hook,

Or a lake,
Fish we take :
There we sit,
For a bit,
Till we fish entangle.

We have gentles in a horn,

We have paste and worms too ;
We can watch both night and mom,
Suffer rain and storms too ;

None do here

Use to swear ;

Oaths do fray

Fish away ;

We sit still.

And watch our quill ;
Fishers must not wrangle.

If the sun's excessive heat

Make our bodies swelter,
To an osier hedge we get
For a friendly shelter ;
Where, in a dike,
Perch or Pike,
Roach or Dace,
We do chase ;
Bleak or Gudgeon,
Without grudging;
We are still contented.

VARIATIONS.

7 give us a little more drink and lay a few more sticks on the fire.— «/ edit.

8 brave. — \st edit.

THE SUPPER

BY T STOTHARD , R,A.
Cor' . '^C^m^, y^tC-U^^?^ yfitt^ i^fp^t^j p»^ -"

CHAP. XVI.]

THE FOURTH DA Y.

175

Or we sometimes pass an hour

Under a green willow,
That defends us from a shower,
Making earth our pillow ;
Where ^ we may
Think and pray

Before death
fiiops our breath.
Other joys
Are but toys,
And to be lamented.

Jo. Chalkhill.*

Variation.] 9 There.— «/, 2d, and 3^ edit.

* The name is affixed for the first time in the third edition. It appears from the
statement of Piscator, in page 176, that though this song was chiefly written by Chalk-
hill, yet that Walton having forgotten some parts of it, had himself supplied the
deficiencies : hence it affords another specimen of his poetical talents. Notices of
Chalkhill will be found in the Life of Walton. The following song, taken from Charles
Cotton's Pcems, 8vo, 1689, p. 76, is to the same purpose, and well deserves a place
here ; —

Away to the brook.

All your tackle outlook,
Here's a day that is worth a year's wishing.

See that all things be right,

For 'tis a very spight
To want tools when a man goes a-fishing.

Your rod with tops two,
For the same will not do

If your manner of angling you vary ;
And full well may you think.
If you troll with a pink,

One too weak will be apt ta miscarry.

nr.

Then basket, neat made

By a master in's trade.
In a belt at your shoulders must dangle

For none e'er was so vain,

To wear this to disdain
Who a true brother was of the angle.

The day's not too bright.

And the wind hits us right.
And all nature does seem to invite us ;

We have all things at will

For to second our skill.
As they all did conspire to delight us.

VIII.

On stream now, or still.

A large pannier we'll fill.
Trout and Grayling to rise are so willing

I dare venture to say,

'Twill be a bloody day.
And we all shall be weary of killing.

Away, then, away,

We lose sport by delay ;
But first, leave all our sorrows behind us;

If Misfortune do come.

We are all gone from home.
And a-fishing she never can find us.

Next pouch must not fail,

StufTd as full as a mail.
With wax, crewels, silks, hair, furs, and

To make several flies [feathers.

For the several skies,
That shall kill in despight of all weathers.

The angler is free

From the cares that Degree
Finds itself with, so ofien, tormented :

And although we should slay

Each a hundred a day,
'Tis a slaughter needs ne'er be repented.

The boxes and books

For your lines and your hooks,
And, though not for strict need notwith-
standing.

Your scissars and your hone

To adjust your points on ;
With a net to be sure of your landing.

VI.

All these being on,

'Tis high lime we were gone,

Down and upward, that all may have plea-
Till, here meeting at night, [sure ;
We sliall have the delight

To discourse of our fortunes at leisure.

And though we display

All our arts to betray
What were made for man's pleasure and
diet,

Yet both princes and states

May, for all our quaint baiis,
Rule themselves and their people in quiet.

We scratch not our pates,
Nor repine at the rates

Our superiors impose on our living ;
15ut do frankly submit,
Knowing they have more wit

In demanding, than we have in giving.

176

THE COMPLETE ANGLER.

[part I.

Venator. Well sung, master; this day's fortune and plea-
sure, and this night's company and song, do all make me more
and more in love with angling. Gentlemen, my master left me
alone for an hour this day ; and I verily believe he retired him-
self from talking with me that he might be so perfect in this song ;
was it not, master 1

PiSCATOR. Yes, indeed, for it is many years since I learned
it ; and having forgotten a part of it, I was forced to patch it up
by the help of mine own invention, who am not excellent at poetry,
as my part of the song may testify ; but of that I will say no
more, lest you should think I mean, by discommending it, to beg
your commendations of it. And therefore, without replications,
let's hear your catch, scholar; which I hope will be a good
one, for you are both musical and have a good fancy to boot.

Venator. Marry, and that you shall ; and as freely as I
would have my honest master tell me some more secrets of fish
and fishing, as we walk and fish towards London to-morrow. But,
master, first let me tell you, that very hour which you were absent
from me, I sat down under a willow-tree by the water-side, and
considered what you had told me of the owner of that pleasant
meadow in which you then left me ; that he had a plentiful estate,
and not a heart to think so ; that he had at this time many law-
suits depending ; and that they both damped his mirth, and took
up so much of his time and thoughts, that he himself had not
leisure to take the sweet content that I, who pretended no title to
them, took in his fields : for I could there sit quietly ; and looking
on the water, see some fishes sport themselves in the silver streams,
others leaping at flies of several shapes and colours ; looking on
the hills, I could behold them spotted with woods and groves ;
looking down the meadows, could see, here a boy gathering lilies
and lady-smocks, and there a girl cropping culverkeys and cow-
slips, all to make garlands suitable to this present month of May:

XIII.
While quiet we sit,
_ We conclude all things fit ;
Acquiescing with hearty submission :
For though simple, we know
That soft murmurs will grow.
At the last, unto downright sedition.

XIV.

We care not who says,

And intends it dispraise,
That an angler to a fool is next neighbour ;

Let him prate ; what care we ?

We're as honest as he ;
And so let him take that for his labour.

XV.
We covet no wealth.
But the blessing of health.

And that greater, good conscience within ;
Such devotion we bring
To our God, and our King,

That from either no ofTers can win.

XVI.

While we sit and fish,

We pray, as we wish,
For long life to our King, James the Second.

Honest anglers then may.

Or they've very foul play.
With the best of good subjects be reckon'd.

CHAP. XVI.] THE FOURTH DA Y. 177

these, and many other field flowers, so perfumed the air, that I
thought that very meadow Mke that field in Sicily of which Dio-
dorus speaks, where the perfumes arising from the place make all
dogs that hunt in it to fall off, and to lose their hottest scent.* I
say, as I thus sat, joying in my own happy condition, and pitying
this poor rich man that owned this and many other pleasant groves
and meadows about me, I did thankfully remember what my
Saviour said, that the meek possess the earth ; ^ or rather, they
enjoy what the others possess, and enjoy not ; for anglers and
meek, quiet-spirited men are free from those high, those restless
thoughts, which corrode the sweets of hfe ; and they, and they
only, can say, as the poet has happily exprest it —

Hail ! blest estate of lowliness ;

Happy enjoyments of such minds
As, rich in self-contentedness,

Can, like the reeds, in roughest winds,
By yielding make that blow but small
At which proud oaks and cedars fall.

There came also into my mind at that time certain verses in
praise of a mean estate and humble mind : they were written by
Phineas Fletcher,t an excellent divine, and an excellent angler ; and
the author of excellent " Piscatory Eclogues," in which you shall
see the picture of this good man's mind : and I wish mine to be
like it.

No empty hopes, no courtly fears him fright ;

No begging wants his middle fortime bite :
But sweet content exiles both misery and spite.

His certain life, that never can deceive him.
Is full of thousand sweets, and rich content ;

The smooth-leav'd beeches in the field receive him,
With coolest shade, till noontide's heat be spent.

His life is neither tost in boisterous seas.

Or the vexatious world, or lost in slothful ease ;
Pleas'd and full blest he lives, when he his God can please.

His bed, more safe than soft, yields quiet sleeps,
While by his side his faithful spouse has place ;

His little son into his bosom creeps,
The lively picture of his father's face.

VARIATION.

1 for indeed they are free from those high, those restless thoughts, ^c.—ist and ^d
edit.

* Diodorus Siculus, lib. v. 3. p. 331, vol. i. ed. Wessellingii.

t He is thus noticed in the second edition, where this poem first occurs, "written by
Pliineas Fletcher, an excellent Angler, who in his Purple Island has so excellently
imitated our Spenser's Fairie Queen.

No empty hopes," &c.
Phineas Fletcher was the son of Giles Fletcher, Doctor of Laws, and ambassador from
Queen Elizabeth to the Duke of Muscovy. He was fellow of King's College, Cambridge,
and the author of an allegorical poem, entitled the Purple Island, printed at Cambridge,
with other of his poems, in 4to, 1633 ; from whence the passage in the text, with a little
variation, is taken.

M

178

THE COMPLETE ANGLER.

[part

His humble hou^^e or poor state ne'er torment him ;
Less he could like, if less his God had lent him ;
And when he dies, green turfs do for a tomb content him.

Gentlemen, these were a part of the thoughts that then possessed
me. And I there made a conversion of a piece of an old catch,*
and added more to it, fitting them to be sung by us anglers.
Come, master, you can sing well : you must sing a part of it, as
it is in this paper.

Man's life is but vain ; for 'tis subject to pain,

And sorrow, and short as a bubble ;
'Tis a hodge-podge of business, and money, and care,

And care, and money, and trouble.

But we'll take no care when the weather proves fair ;

Nor will we vex now though it rain ;
We'll banish all sorrow, and sing till to-morrow,

And angle, and angle again.

A. 2 Voc.

Cantus.
Bassus.

QTJe Angler's Song.

n

Set by Mr H. Lawes.
1 1

T -fe-T^ 1-

.

__^ 1 \-.

t ^-^—^■

-^ — ^ — J-

— ^^^ —

■r r

• -• ^-

V.W ■4-

c

a

1 ■■ \j i>

^

Man's

life is but vain;

1

for 'tis sub - ject to

1

m m m

■=^^k-¥- ^

— h-

~t5 —

— J J—

_j 1 1

—5-4.-

— F=^

•h h

— 1 1 1

01=

pain. And sor-row, and short as a

bub - ble ; 'Tis a hodge-podge of

EE±

bus'-ness, and mon-ey, and care. And care, and mon-ey, and trou-ble.

BI^

:^:

11

:iz:z:^=iil:

♦ The song here sung can in no sense of the word be termed a Catch. It was probably
set to music at the request of Walton, and is to be found in a book, entitled Select
Ayres and Dialogties lor one, two, and three Voyces : to the Theorbo-Lute and Basse
Viol. By John Wilson and Charles Coleman, doctors in music, Henry Lawes and
others. Fol. London, 1659. It occurs in the first edition of Walton's book, published
in 1653. — H.

CHAP. XVI.]

THE FOURTH DA K

179

i^^

Bi

:]^=^--;^lz=

^

-^N ^

But we'll take no care when the wea - ther proves fair; Nor

p— •-,

:i=PFf

;s

a]

will we vex now though it rain ; We'll ban - ish all sor - row, and

t=t

^E3

S^

1^7T

^P

:!=]:

sing till to - mor - row, And an - gle, and an - gle a - gain.

35

^E

i?p:

4=t:

Peter. I marry, Sir, this is music indeed ; this has cheer'd
my heart, and made me remember six verses in praise of music,
which I will speak to you instantly.

Music I miraculous rhetoric, that speak'st sense

Without a tongue, excelling eloquence ;

With what ease might thy errors be excus'd,

Wert thou as truly lov'd as th' art abus'd I

But though dull souls neglect, and some reprove thee,

I cannot hate thee, 'cause the Angels love thee.*

Venator. And the repetition of these last verses of music
has called to my memory what Mr Edmund Waller, a lover of
the angle,t says of love and music.

* See these Verses, with some small variation, at the end of the book, entitled Select
Ayr es and Dialogues, referred to from pa. 200, n. ; with " W. D. knight," under the
bottom line, which I take to signify that they were written by Sir William Davenant.
— H.

t In a poem " Of my Lady Isabella [Thynne] playing on the lute," Waller again
raises music in the following words :—

Such moving sounds, from such a careless touch 1
So unconcern 'd herself, and we so much I
What art is this, that with so little pains
Transports us thus, and o'er our spirits reigns?
The trembling strings about her fingers crowd.
And tell their joy for ev'ry kiss aloud :
Small force there needs to make them tremble so ;
Touch'd by that hand, who would not tremble too ;

l8o THE C0MFLE7E ANGLER. [part l

Whilst I listen to thy voice,

Chloris ! I feel my heart 2 decay ;
That powerful voice •*

Calls my fleeting soul away :
Oh ! suppress that magic sound.
Which destroys without a wound.

Peace, Chloris ! peace, or singing die.
That together you and I

To heaven may go ;

For all we know
Of what the blessed do above,
Is that they sing, and that they love.

PiSCATOR. Well remembered, brother Peter ; these verses
came seasonably, and we thank you heartily. Come, we will all
join together, my host and all, and sing my scholar's catch over
again ; and then each man drink the tother cup, and to bed ;
and thank God we have a dry house over our heads.

PiSCATOR. Well, now, good-night to everybody.

Peter. And so say I.

Venator. And so say I.

CORIDON. Good-night to you all ; and I thank you.

Variations.] 2 In Waller's Poems, "life." 3 "noise."

Here love takes stand, and while she charms the ear,
Empties his quiver on the list'ning deer :
Music so softens, and disarms the mind,
That not an arrow does resistance find.

■ Thus the fair tyrant celebrates the prize,

And acts herself the triumph of her eyes :
So Nero once, with harp in hand, suivey'd
His flaming Rome, and as it burn'd he play'd.
Some unpublished verses by Waller, addressed "To a Lady Fishing," preserved in
MS. late in the Royal Society, will be given in the additional notes.

Cf)e jTiftf) Dag*

CHAPTER XVII. TO CHAPTER XXI.

PISCATOR. Good-morrow, brother Peter, and the like to
you, honest Coridon.

Come, my hostess says there is seven shillings to pay : let's
each man drink a pot for his morning's draught, and lay down his
two shillings, so that my hostess may not have occasion to repent
herself of being so dihgent, and using us so kindly.

Peter. The motion is liked by everybody, and so, hostess,
here's your money. We anglers are all beholden to you ; it will
not be long ere I'll see you again ; and now, brother Piscator, I
wish you, and my brother your scholar, a fair day and good
fortune. Come, Coridon, this is our way.

Venator. Good master, as we go now towards London, he*
Ch p XVII ^^^^^ ^° courteous as to give me more instructions ;
Of Roach and for I have several boxes in my memory, in which
^*"' I will keep them all very safe, there shall not

one of them be lost.

Piscator. Well, scholar, that I will : and I will hide nothing
from you that I can remember, and can think may help you
forward towards a perfection in this art. And because we have

1 82 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

so much time, and I have said so httle of Roach and Dace, I
will give you some directions concerning them.

Some say the Roach is so called from rutihis., which they say
signifies red fins. He is a fish of no great reputation for his
dainty taste ; and his spawn is accounted much better than any
other part of him. And you may take notice, that as the Carp
is accounted the water-fox, for his cunning ; so the Roach is
accounted the water-sheep, for his simplicity or foolishness. It
is noted, that the Roach and Dace recover strength, and grow
in season in a fortnight after spawning ; the Barbel and Chub
in a month ; the Trout in four months ; and the Salmon in the
like time, if he gets into the sea, and after into fresh water.

Roaches be accounted much better in the river than in a pond,
though ponds usually breed the biggest. But there is a kind of
bastard small Roach, that breeds in ponds, with a very forked
tail, and of a very small size ; which some say is bred by the
Bream and right Roach ; and some ponds are stored with these
beyond belief; and knowing-men, that know their difference, call
them Ruds : they differ from the true Roach, as much as a
Herring from a Pilchard. And these bastard breed of Roach are
now scattered in many rivers : but I think not in the Thames,
which I believe affords the largest and fattest in this nation,
especially below London Bridge.*

■* I know not what Roaches are caught below bridge : but above, I am sure they art
very large; for on the 15th of September 1754, at Hampton, I caught one that was
fourteen inches and an eighth from eye to fork, and in weight wanted but an ounce of
two pounds.

The season for fishing for Roach in the Thames begins about the latter end of August,
and continues much longer than it is either pleasant or safe to fish. It requires some
skill to hit the time of taking them exactly ; for all the summer long they live on the
weed, which they do not forsake, for the deeps, till it becomes putrid, and that is sooner
or, later, according as the season is wet or dry ; for you are to know, that much rain
hastens the rotting of the weed. I say it requires some skill to hit the time ; for the
fishermen who live in all the towns along the river, from Chiswick to Staines, are, about
this time, nightly upon the watch, as soon as the fish come out, to sweep them away
with a drag-net : and our poor patient angler is left, baiting the ground and adjustiuij
his tackle, to catch those very fish which, perhaps, the night before haa been carried to
Billingsgate.

The Thames, as well above as below London Bridge, was formerly much resorted to
by London anglers : and, which is strange to think on, considering the unpleasantness
of the station, they were used to fish near the starlings of the bridge. This will account
for the many fishing-tackle shops that were formerly in Crooked Lane, which leads to
the bridge. In the memory of a person not long since living, a waterman that plied at
Essex Stairs, his name John Reeves, got a comfortable living by attending anglers with
his boat: his method was, to watch when the shoals of Roach came down from the
country, and, when he had found them, to go round to his customers and give them
notice. Sometimes they settled opposite the Temple ; at others, at Blackfriars or
Queenhithe ; but most frequently about the Chalkhills, near London Bridge. His hire
was two shillings a tide. A certain number of persons, who were accustomed thus to
employ him, raised a sum sufficient to buy him a waterman's coat, and silver badge, the
impress whereof was, " Himself, with an Angler, in his boat ; " and he had, ancuallyi a
new coat to the time of his death, which might be about the year 1730.

CHAP. xviT.] THE FIFTH DAY. 183

The Roach is a leather-mouthed fish, and has a kind of saw-
hke teeth in his throat. And lastly, let me tell you, the Roach
makes an angler excellent sport, especially the great Roaches
about London, where I think there be the best Roach-anglers.*
And I think the best Trout-anglers be in Derbyshire ; ^ for the
waters there are clear to an extremity.

Next, let me tell you, you shall fish for this Roach in Winter
with paste or gentles ; in April with worms or cadis ; in the very
hot months with little white snails ; or with flies under water,
for he seldom takes them at the top, though the Dace will. 2 In

VARIATIONS.

1 and the best Trout-anglers in Derbyshire. — id edit.

2 The second edition proceeds thus : "and in August you shall fish for him with a
paste made of the crumbs of bread, and much after this manner you shall fish for the
Dace or Dare," &c.

Shepperton and Hampton are the places chiefly resorted to by the Londoners, who
angle there in boats : at each there is a large deep, to which Roach are attracted by
constant baiting. That at Hampton is opposite the churchyard ; and in that cemetery
lies an angler, upon whose gravestone is an inscription, now nearly effaced, consisting
of these homely lines : —

In memory of Mr Thomns Tombs, goldsmith, of London, who departed this life
Aug. i2th, 1758, aged 53 years.

Each brother Bob, that sportive passes here,

Pause at this stone, and drop the silent tear,

For him who lov'd your harmless sport ;

Who to this Pitch a did oft resort ;

Who in free converse oft would pleasci

With native humour, mirth and ease ;

His actions form'd upon so just a plan.

He liv'd a worthy, died an honest man-
Formerly the fishermen inhabiting the villages on the banks of the Thames were used
to enclose certain parts of the river with what they called stops, but which were in effect
•weirs or kidels, b by stakes driven into the bed thereof ; and to these they tied wheels,
creating thereby a current, which drove the fish into those traps. This practice, though
it may sound oddly to say so, is against Magna Charta, and is expressly prohibited by
the 23d chapter of that statute.c In the year 1757, the Lord Mayor. Dickenson, sent the
Water-Bailiff up the Thames, in a barge well manned, and furnished with proper imple-
ments, who destroyed all those enclosures on this side Staines, by pulling up the stakes
and setting them adrift. — H.

• As Walton h.is given no specific directions for Roach-fishing, the following, which
are usually adopted by London anglers, will pe'-haps not be deemed irrelevant. Use a
light cane rod with a fine stiff top, a single gut line, a goose-quill float, and No. 12 hook :
the line, when fishing, should not be above twelve inches long above the float, whicli
must be so shotted, that not more than the eighth of an inch appear above water : keep
the top of the rod over the float, and when the least movement is noticed, strike quickly,
but lightly, letting the movement proceed from the wnst, not from the arm. Use a
landing net, particularly if fishing from a high bank. Before beginning to angle plumb
the depth accurately, and if the stream be influenced by tides, mills, &c , repeat the same
occasionally, fish within six inches of the bottom, and ground-bait with graves mixed with
bran and clay, or with grains or bread. — B.

a A particular spot, called a pitch, from the act of pitching or fastening the boat
there.— H.

b KiDELLi;s. Machina piscatoria in fluminibus ad Salmones aliosque pisces intercipi-
cndos : Settles et Uteres, Angli vocant. Du Cange. — B.

c In these words : " Omnes Kidelli deponantur de cxtero per Thamesiam et Mtd-
weiam et per totam Angliam, nis per costeram." — B.

i84 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part r.

many of the hot months, Roaches may also be caught thus : take
a May-fly, or ant-fly, sink him with a Httle lead to the bottom,
near to the piles or posts of a bridge, or near to any posts of a
weir, I mean any deep place where Roaches lie quietly, and then
pull your fly up very leisurely, and usually a Roach will follow
your bait up to the very top of the water, and gaze on it there,
and run at it, and take it, lest the fly should fly away from him.

I have seen this done at Windsor and Henley Bridge, and great
store of Roach taken ; and sometimes a Dace or Chub, And in
August you may fish for them with a paste made only of the
crumbs of bread, which should be of pure fine manchet ; and that
paste must be so tempered betwixt your hands till it be both soft
and tough too : a very Uttle water, and time, and labour, and
clean hands, will make it a most excellent paste. But when you
fish with it, you must have a small hook, a quick eye, and a
nimble hand, or the bait is lost,* and the fish too ; if one may
lose that which he never had. With this paste you may, as I
said, take both the Roach and the Dace or Dare ; for they be
much of a kind, in manner of feeding, cunning, goodness, and
usually in size. And therefore take this general direction, for
some other baits which may concern you to take notice of : they
will bite almost at any fly, but especially at ant-flies ; concerning
which take this direction, for it is very good.

Take the blackish ant-fly out of the molehill or anthill, in
which place you shall find them in the month of June ; or if that
be too early in the year, then, doubtless, you may find them in
July, August, and most of September. Gather them alive, with
.both their wings : and then put them into a glass that will hold
a quart or a pottle ; but first put into the glass a handful, or more,
of the moist earth out of which you gather them, and as much of
the roots of the grass of the said hillock ; and then put in the
flies gently, that they lose not their wings : lay a clod of earth
over it ; and then so many as are put into the .glass, without
bruising will live there a month or more, and be always in readi-
ness for you to fish with : but if you would have them keep longer,
then get any great earthen pot, or barrel of three or four gallons,
which is better, then wash your barrel with water and honey ; and
having put into it a quantity of earth and grass roots, then put
in your flies, and cover it, and they will live a quarter of a year.
These, in any stream and clear water, are a deadly bait for Roach

* To make the paste stick on the hook, many anglers mix with it a small quantity of
wool. — B.

CHAP. XVII.] THE FIFTH DAY. 185

or Dace, or for a Chub : and your rule is to fish not less than a
handful from the bottom.

I shall next tell you a winter-bait for a Roach, a Dace, or Chub ;
and it is choicely good. About All-hallantide, and so till frost
comes, when you see men ploughing up heath-ground, or sandy
ground, or greenswards, then follow the plough, and you shall find
a white worm as big as two maggots, and it hath a red head : you
may observe in what ground most are, for there the crows will be
very watchful and follow the plough very close : it is all soft, and
full of whitish guts ; a worm that is. in Norfolk and some other
counties,^ called a grub ; and is bred of the spawn or eggs of a
beetle, which she leaves in holes that she digs in the ground under
cow or horse dung, and there rests all winter, and in March or
April comes to be first a red and then a black beetle. Gather a
thousand or two of these, and put them, with a peck or two of their
own earth, into some tub or firkin, and cover and keep them so
warm that the frost or cold air, or winds, kill them not : these you
may keep all winter, and kill fish with them at any time ; and if
you put some of them into a little earth and honey, a day before
you use them, you will find them an excellent bait for Bream,
Carp, or indeed for almost any fish.

And after this manner you may also keep gentles all winter ;
which are a good bait then, and much the better for being lively
and tough. Or you may breed and keep gentles thus : take a
piece of beast's liver, and, with a cross stick, hang it in some
corner, over a pot or barrel half full of dry clay; and as the gentles
grow big, they will fall into the barrel and scour themselves, and be
always ready for use whensoever you incline to fish ; and these
gentles may be thus created till after Michaelmas. But if you
desire to keep gentles to fish with all the year, then get a dead cat,
or a kite, and let it be fly-blown ; and when the gentles begin to be
alive and to stir, then bury it and them in soft moist earth, but as
free from frost as you can ; and these you may dig up at any time
when you intend to use them: these will last till March, and about
that time turn to be flies.

But if you be nice to foul your fingers, which good anglers seldom
are, then take this bait : get a handful of well-made malt, and put
it into a dish of water ; and then wash and rub it betwixt your
hands till you make it clean, and as free from husks as you can ;
then put that water from it, and put a small quantity of fresh water

Ilo it, and set it in something that is fit for that purpose, over the
§ Variation.] 3 "countries," in the \st, -id, ■>,d, and \th edit.

1 86 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

fire, where it is not to boil apace, but leisurely and very softly,
until it become somewhat soft, which you may try by feeling it
betwixt your finger and thumb ; " and when it is soft, then put
your water from it : and then take a sharp knife, and turning the
sprout end of the corn upward with the point of your knife, take
the back part of the husk off from it, and yet leaving a kind of
inward husk on the corn, or else it is marred; and then cut off that
sprouted end, I mean a little of it, that the white may appear ;
and so pull off the husk on the cloven side, as I directed you ; and
then cutting off a very little of the other end, that so your hook
may enter ; and if your hook be small and good, you will find this
to be a very choice bait, either for winter or summer, you some-
times casting a little of it into the place where your float swims.

And to take the Roach and Dace, a good bait is the young
brood of wasps or bees, if you dip their heads in blood ; especially
good for Bream, if they be baked, or hardened in their husks in an
oven, after the bread is taken out of it; or hardened on a fire-shovel :
and so also is the thick blood of sheep, being half dried on a
trencher, that so you may cut into such pieces as may best fit the
size of your hook ; and a little salt keeps it from growing black,
and makes it not the worse, but better : this is taken to be a
choice bait, if rightly ordered.

There be several oils of a strong smell that I have been told of,
and to be excellent to tempt fish to bite, of which I could say much.
But I remember I once carried a small bottle from Sir George
Hastings * to Sir Henry Wotton, they were both chemical men,
ai; a great present: it was sent, and received, and used, with great
confidence ; and yet, upon inquiry, I found it did not answer the
expectation of Sir Henry ; which, with the help of this and other
circumstances, makes me have little belief in such things as many
men talk of. Not but that I think that fishes both smell and hear,
as I have exprest in my former discourse : but there is a mysterious
knack, which though it be much easier than the philosopher's
stone, yet is not attainable by common capacities, or else lies
locked up in the brain or breast of some chemical man, that, like
the RosicrucianSjt will not yet reveal it. But let me nevertheless

* See note, p. 72.

t The Rosicrucians were a sect of frantic enthusiasts, who sprung up in Germany about
the beginning of the fourteenth century : they professed to teach the art of making gold ;
and boasted of a secret, in their power, to protract the period of human life, and even to
restore youth. Their founder having been to the Holy Land, pretended to have learned
all this from the Arabs. They propagated their senseless philosophy by tradition ; and
revealed their mysteries only to a chosen few, and to this practice the author alludes.
Lemery, in his book Oj Chemistry, has thus defined their art : " Ars sine arte : cnjia

CHAP. XVII.] THE FIFTH DA K 187

tell you, that camphire, put with moss into your worm- bag with
your worms, makes them, if many anglers be not very much mis-
taken, a tempting bait, and the angler more fortunate. But I
stepped by chance into this discourse of oils, and fishes smelHng ;
and though there might be more said, both of it and of baits for
Roach and Dace and other float-fish, yet I will forbear it at this
time,* and tell you, in the next place, how you are to prepare
your tackling : concerning which, I will, for sport-sake, give you
an old rhyme out of an old fish-book ; which will prove a part,
and but a part, of what you are to provide.

My rod and my line, my float and my lead.
My hook and my plummet, my whetstone and knife,

My basket, my baits, both living and dead,
My net, and my meat, for that is the chief:

Then I must have thread, and hairs green* and small,

With mine angling purse ; and so you have all.

But you must have all these tackling, and twice so many more,t

Variation.] * great. — jst edit.

principium vtentiri, medium laborare, et finis 7ftendicare." An art without art ; whose
beginning is lying, whose middle is labour, and whose end is beggary. — E.

* Roach delight in gravelly or sandy bottoms : their haunts, especially as winter
approaches, are in clear, deep and still waters ; and at other times, they lie in and near
weeds, and under the shade of boughs : they spawn about the latter end of May, when
they are scabby and unwholesome : but are again in order in about three weeks. The
largest are taken after Michaelmas ; and their prime season is in February or March.
The baits for Roach, not already mentioned, are, cad-bait and oak-worms, for the spring ;
in May, ant's eggs ; and paste made of the crumb of a new roll, both white, and tinged
with red, which is done by putting vermilion into the water wherewith you moisten it ;
this paste will do for the winter also.

The haunts of Dace are, gravelly, sandy, and clayey bottoms ; deep holes that are
shaded ; water-lily leaves ; and under the foam caused by an eddy : in hot weather, they
are to be found on the shallows. They spawn about the latter end of March : and are
in season about three weeks after : they are not very good till about Michaelmas, and
are best in February. Baits for Dace, other than those mentioned by Walton, are, the
oak-worm, red-worm, brandling, gilt-tail ; and indeed any worm, bred on trees or bushes,
that is not too big for his mouth ; almost a'l kinds of flies and caterpillars.

Though Dace are often caught with a float, as Roach, yet they are to be taken with
an artificial gnat, or ant-fly, or indeed almo>t any other small fly in its season ; but in the
Thames, above Richmond, the largest are caught with a green or dun grasshopper, and
sometimes with gentles ; with both of which you are to fish as with an artificial fly.
They are not to be come at till about September, when the weeds begin to rot : but
when you have found where they lie, which, in a warm day, is generally on the shallows,
'tis incredible what havoc you may make : pinch off" the first joint of the grasshopper's
legs, put the point of the hook in at the head, and bring it out at the tail ; and in this
wav of fishing you will catch Chub, especially if you throw under the boughs.

But this can be done only in a boat ; for the management whereof, be provided with a
staff", and a heavy stone fastened to a strong rope of four or five yards in length : fasten
the rope to the head of the boat, and drive down with the stream : when you come to a
place where the fish are likely to lie, drop the stone, and standing in the stem, throw
down the stream, and a little to the right and left : after trying a place, push the boat
lower down, and throw again. Use a common fly-line, about ten yards long, with a
strong single hair ne.xt the hook. It is true there is less certainty of catching in this way
than with a float or ground bait : for which reason, I would recommend it only to those
who can command a boat for that purpose, and can take advantage of a still, warm,
gloomy day ; to such it will aff"ord much more diversion than the ordinary inartificial
method of fishing in the deeps for Roach and Dace. — H.

t I have heard that the tackling hath been priced at fifty pounds, in the inventory of aa
angler.— iVtf/^ by IValtou.

B

i88 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

with which, if you mean to be a fisher, you must store yourself ;
and to that purpose I will go with you, either to ''' Mr Margrave,
who dwells amongst the booksellers in St Paul's Churchyard, or
to Mr John Stubs, near to the Swan in Golding Lane : they be
both honest men, and will fit an angler with what tackling he
lacks.

Venator. Then, good master, let it be at ,t for he is

nearest to my dwelling. And I pray let's meet there the ninth
of May next, about two of the clock ; and I'll want nothing that
a fisher should be furnished with.

PiSCATOR. Well, and I'll not fail you, God willing, at the
time and place appointed.

Venator. I thank you, good master, and I will not fail you.
And, good master, tell me what baits more you remember ; for
it will not now be long ere we shall be at Tottenham High Cross ;
and when we come thither I will make you some requital of your
pains, by repeating as choice a copy of Verses as any we have
heard since we met together ; and that is a proud word, for we
have heard very good ones.

PiSCATOR. Well, scholar, and I shall be then right glad to
hear them. And I will, as we walk, tell you whatsoever comes
in my mind, that I think may be worth your hearing. You may
make another choice bait thus : take a handful or two of the best
and biggest wheat you can get ; boil it in a little milk, like as
frumity is boiled ; boil it so till it be soft ; and then fry it, very
leisurely, with honey, and a little beaten saffron dissolved in
milk ; and you will find this a choice bait, and good, I think, for
any fish, especially for Roach, Dace, Chub, or Grayling : I know

* In \\i&first edition Piscator says, "I will go with you either to Char'es Brandons'
near to tiie Swan in Golding^ Lane, or to Mr Fletcher's, in the court which did once belong
to Dr Nowel, the Dean of Paul's, that I told you was a good man, and a good Fisher :
it is hard by the West end of St Paul's Church : they be both honest men, and will fit an
angler with what tackling he wants." Viator replies, "Then, good master, let it be at
Charles Brandons', for he is nearest to my dwelling, and I pray let's meet there," &c. In
the second edition the same names occur, but after the words St Paul's Church is this
passage, " But if you will buy choice hooks, I will one day walk with you to Charles
Kerbye's in Harp Alley in Shoe Lane, who is the most exact and best hook-maker that
the nation affords. They be all three honest men," &c. The third and fourth editions
agree with the second: but the text has been taken from ihaji/th, published in 1676, at
which time Brandons, Fletcher, and Kerbye were probably dead. At the end of
Cotton's Second Part is the following address, which affords some information about Mr
Margrave : —

" CouRTROUS Reader, — You may be pleased to take notice that at the sign of the
Three Trouts in St Paul's Churchyard, on the north side, you maybe fitted with all sorts
of the best Fishing-tackle, by John Margrave."

The Charles Kerbye abuve alhided to, obtained from Prince Rupert a method of
tempering his hooks, which long continued in the family. A lineal descendant of his,
whose hooks for their shape and temper exceeded all others, was in 1760 living in
Crowthers-well Alley near Aldersgaie Street.

t See above note.

CHAP. XVII.] THE FIFTH DA Y, 189

not but that it may be as good for a river Carp, and especially if
the ground be a little baited with it.

And you may also note, that the SPAWN * of most fish is a very
tempting bait, being a little hardened on a warm tile and cut into
fit pieces. Nay, mulberries, and those blackberries which grow
upon briers, be good baits for Chubs or Carps : with these many
have been taken in ponds, and in some rivers where such trees
have grown near the water, and the fruit customarily dropt into
it. And there be a hundred other baits, more than can be well
named, which, by constant baiting the water, will become a
tempting bait for any fish in it.

You are also to know, that there be divers kinds of Cadis,
or Case-worms, that are to be found in this nation, in several
distinct counties, and in several little brooks that relate to bigger
rivers ; as, namely, one cadis called a piper t whose husk, or case,

* Barker recommends the spawn of Salmon or Trout to his patron in the following
terms: —

" Noble Lord, — I have found an experience of late, which you may angle with, and
take great store of this kind of fish. First, it is the best bait for a Trout that I have seen
in all my time ; and will take great store, and not fail, if they be there. Secondly, it is
a special bait for Dace or Dare, good for Chub or Bottlin, or Grayling. The bait is, the
ROE OF A Salmon or Trout. If it be a large Trout that tlie spawns be anything great,
you may angle for the Trout with this bait as you angle with the brandling ; taking a
pair of scissors, and cut so much as a large hazel-nut, and bait your hook ; so fall to
your sport, there is no doubt of pleasure. If I had known it but twenty years ago, I
would have gained a hundred pounds only with that bait. I am bound in duty to divulge
it to your honour, and not to carry it to my grave with me. I do desire that men of quality
should have it, that delight in that pleasure. The greedy angler will murmur at me, but
for that I care not. For the angling of the Scale-fish : They must angle either with
cork or quill, plumming their ground ; and with feeding with the same bait, taking them
[the spawns] asunder, that they may spread abroad, that the fish may feed, and come
to your place ; there is no doubt of pleasure, angling with fine tackle ; as single-hair lines,
at least five or six length long ; a small hook, with two or three spawns. The bait will
hold one week : if you keep it on any longer, you must hang it up to dry a little ; when
you go to your pleasure again, put the bait in a little water, it will come in kind again."

Others, to preserve Salmon spawn, sprinkle it with salt, and lay it upon wool in a pot,
one layer of wool, and another of spawn. It is said to be a killing bait for the winter or
spring ; especially where Salmon are used to spawn ; for thither the fish gather, and
there expect it — Cheetkanis Angler's Vade Mecum, 53, ed. 1700.

The inhabitants of the villages on the banks of the Thames adopt the following
method of dressing large Roach and Dace, which, as 'tis said, renders them very plea-
sant and savoury food ; without scaling the fish, lay him on a gridiron, over a slow fire,
and strew on him a little flour ; when he begins to grow brown, make a sHt, not more
than skin-deep, in his back, from head to t.iil, and lay him on again : when he is broiled
enough, the skin, scales and all, will peel off, and leave the flesh, which will have become
very firm, perfectly clean ; then open the belly, and take out the inside, and use anchovy
and butter for sauce.

Having promised the reader Mr Barker's recipe for anointing boots and shoes (and
having no further occasion to make use of his authority), it is here given in his own
words : —

" Take a pint of linseed oil, with half a pound of mutton suet, six or eight ounces of
bees-wa.v, and half a pennyworth of rosin: boil all this in a pipkin together; so let it
cool till it be milk-warm ; then take a little hair-brush, and lay it on your new boots ;
but it is best that this stuff be laid on before the bootmaker makes the boots ; then brush
them once over after they come from him : as for old boots, you must lay it on when
your boots be dry." — H.

t The Piper-cadis is supposed to be the largest of the tribe : it is found in rivers run-

190 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

is a pidce of reed about an inch long, or longer, and as big
about as the compass of a twopence. These worms being kept
three or four days in a woollen bag, with sand at the bottom of
it, and the bag wet once a day, will in three or four days turn to
be yellow ; and these be a choice bait for the Chub or Chavender,
or indeed for any great fish, for it is a large bait.

There is also a lesser cadis-worm, called a Cock-spur,* being
in fashion like the spur of a cock, sharp at one end ; and the
case, or house, in which this dwells, is made of small husks, and
gravel, and slime, most curiously made of these, even so as to be
wondered at, but not to be made by man, no more than a king-
fisher's nest can ^ which is made of little fishes' bones,f and have
such a geometrical interweaving and connection as the like is not
to be done by the art of man. This kind of cadis is a choice
bait for any float-fish ; it is much less than the piper-cadis, and
to be so ordered : and these may be so preserved, ten. fifteen, or
twenty days, or it may be longer.

There is also another cadis, called by some a Straw-worm, and
by some a Ru£f-coat,| whose house, or case, is made of little pieces
of bents, and rushes, and straws, and water-weeds, and I know
not what ; which are so knit together with condensed slime, that
they stick about her husk or case, not unlike the bristles of a hedge-
hog. These three cadises are commonly taken in the beginning
of summer ; and are good, indeed, to take any kind of fish, with
float or otherwise. I might tell you of many more, which as they
do early, so those have their time also of turning to be flies in
later summer ; but I might lose myself, and tire you, by such a
discourse : I shall therefore but remember you, that to know these,
and their several kinds, and to what flies every particular cadis
turns, and then hov/ to use them, first, as they be cadis, and after
as they be flies, is an art, and an art that every one that professes

Variation.] ^ no more than the nest of a bird is. — \si and "zd edit.

ning upon beds of limestone or large pebbles, and is common in the Northern and
Western streams. It advances to an Aurelia towards May, and is then usually termed
by Sportsmen the Stone-fly ; but in Wales it is called the Water-cricket. — B.

* Bowlker expressly says, in his "Art of Angling," p. 70, that the Cock-spur produces
the May-fly or Yellow Cadew."— B.

t Dr Shaw tells us that the Kingfishers deposit their eggs in cavities formed in the
banks of rivers : the hole or nest, he adds, if it may be properly so named, being often
deeply lined at the bottom by a stratum of small fish bones and scales.— G.?«£-r. Zool.
vol. viii. parti, p. 53. Pennant thinks these the fragments only of the food of the owner
and its young. — Bf-it. Zool. vol. i. p. 249. — E.

X The Straw-worm or Rough Coat is found in most streams. It pi'oduces various
flies, as the withy fly, ash-coloured duns, and light and dark browns of different shapes
and dimensions. — B.

CHAP. XVII.] THE FIFTH DA Y. 191

to be an angler has not leisure to search after, and, if he had, is
not capable of learning.^

I'll tell you, scholar ; several countries have several kinds of
cadlses, that indeed differ as much as dogs do ; that is to say, as
much as a very cur and a greyhound do. These be usually bred
in the veiy little rills, or ditches, that run into bigger rivers ; and
I think a more proper bait for those very rivers than any other.
I know not how, or of what, this cadis receives life, or what col-
oured fly it turns to ; but doubtless they are the death of many
Trouts : and this is one killing way : —

Take one, or more if need be, of these large yellow cadis : pull
off his head, and with it pull out his black gut ; put the body, as
little bruised as is possible, on a very little hook, armed on with
a red hair, which will show like the cadis-head ; and a very little
thin lead, so put upon the shank of the hook that it may sink
presently. Throw this bait, thus ordered, which will look very
yellow, into any great still hole where a Trout is, and he will
presently venture his life for it, it is not to be doubted, if you be
not espied ; and that the bait first touch the water before the line.
And this will do best in the deepest, stillest water.

Next, let me tell you, I have been much pleased to walk quietly
by a brook, with a little stick in my hand, with which I might
easily take these, and consider the curiosity of their composure :
and if you should ever like to do so, then note, that your stick
must be a little hazel, or willow, cleft, or have a nick at one end
of it, by which means you may, with ease, take many of them in
that nick out of the water, before you have any occasion to use
them. These, my honest scholar, are some observations, told to
you as they now come suddenly into my memory, of which you
may make some use : but for the practical part, it is that that
makes an angler : it is diligence, and observation, and practice,^
and an ambition to be the best in the art, that must do it. I will
tell you, scholar, I once heard one say, " I envy not him that eats
better meat than I do ; nor him that is richer, or that wears better
clothes than I do : I envy nobody but him, and him only, that
catches more fish than I do.'' And such a man is like to prove

VARIATIONS.

6 that every one that professes .ingling is not capable of. — lat and -2(1 edit.

7 In t\\c first edition this chapter concludes, *' It is diligence and observation, and

f practice that must do it ; " and the next begins, "Well, scholar, I have held you too
ong about these Cadis, and my spirits are almost spent, and so I doubt is your patience ;
but being we are now within sight of Tottenham, where I first met you, and where we
are to part, I will give you a little direction how to colour the hair of which you make
your lines," &c.

192 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

an angler ; and this noble emulation I wish to you, and all young
anglers.

PiSCATOR. There be also three or four other little fish that I
had almost forgot ; ^ that are all without scales ; and may for
XVIII excellency of meat, be compared to any fish of
Of the Minnow* greatest value and largest size. They be usually
Btil^Hea'd or^Aiii- ^"^ ^^ ^^^^ °''' spawn, all the months of summer;
ler's - Thumb ; and for they breed often, as 'tis observed mice and many
the sticklebag. ^^ ^^^ smaller four-footed creatures of the earth

do ; and as those, so these come quickly to their full growth and
perfection. And it is needful that they breed both often and
numerously ; for they be, besides other accidents of ruin, both a
prey and baits for other fish. And first I shall tell you of the
Minnow or Penk.

The Minnow hath, when he is in perfect season, and not sick,
which is only presently after spawning, a kind of dappled or
waved colour, like to a panther, on its sides, inclining to a
greenish or sky colour ; his- belly being milk white ; and nis back
almost black or blackish. He is a sharp biter at a small worm,
and in hot weather makes excellent sport for young anglers, or
boys, or women that love that recreation. And in the spring they
make of them excellent Minnow-tansies ; for being washed well in
salt, and their heads and tails cut off, and their guts taken out,
and not washed after, they prove excellent for that use ; that is,
being fried with yolk of eggs, the flowers of cowslips and of prim-
roses, and a little tansy ; thus used they make a dainty dish of
meat.

The Loach is, as I told you, a most dainty fish : he breeds
and feeds in little and clear swift brooks or rills, and lives there
upon the gravel, and in the sharpest streams : he grows not to be
above a finger long, and no thicker than is suitable to that length.
The Loach is not unlike the shape of the Eel: he has a beard or
wattles like a barbel. He has two fins at his sides, four at his
belly, and one at his tail ; he is dappled with many black or
brown spots ; his mouth is barbel-like under his nose. This fish
is usually full of eggs or spawn ; and is by Gesner, and other

* Since Walton wrote, there has been brought into England from Germany, a species
of small fish, resembling Carp in shape and colour, called Crucians, with which many
ponds are now plentifully stocked: and from China, those beautiful creatures Gold and
Silver Fish : which are usually kept in ponds, basins, and small reservoirs of water ; to
■which they are a delightful ornament.' It is now a common practice to keep them in a
large glass vessel like a punch-bowl, with fine gravel strewed at the bottom ; frequently
changing the water, and feeding them with bread and gentles. Those who can take
more pleasure in angling for, than in beholding them, which 1 confess I could never do,
may catch them with gentles : but though costly, they are but coarse food. — H.

CHAP. XVIII.] THE FIFTH DAY. 193

learned physicians, commended for great nourishment, and to be
very grateful both to the palate and stomach of sick persons. He
is to be fished for with a very small worm, at the bottom ; for he
very seldom, or never, rises above the gravel, on which I fold
you he usually gets his living.

The Miller's-thumb, or Bull-head, is a fish of no pleasing
shape. He is by Gesner compared to the Sea-toad-fish, for his
similitude and shape. It has a head big and flat, much greater
than suitable to his body ; a mouth very wide, and usually gap-
ing ; he is without teeth, but his lips are very rough, much like
to a file. He hath two fins near to his gills, which be roundish
or crested ; two fins also under the belly ; two on the back ; one
below the vent ; and the fin of his tail is round. Nature hath
painted the body of this fish with whitish, blackish, brownish spots.
They be usually full of eggs or spawn all the summer, I mean the
females ; and those eggs swell their vents almost into the form of a
dug. They begin to spawn about April, and, as I told you, spawn
several months in the summer. And in the winter, the Minnow,
and Loach, and Bull-head dwell in the mud, as the Eel doth ; or
tve know not where, no more than we know where the cuckoo
and swallow, and other half-year birds,* which first appear to us
in April, spend their six cold, winter, melancholy months. This
Bull-head does usually dwell, and hide himself, in holes, or
amongst stones in clear water ; and in very hot days will lie a
long time very still, and sun himself, and will be easy to be seen
upon any flat stone, or any gravel ; at which time he will suffer
an angler to put a hook, baited with a small worm, very near
unto his very mouth : and he never refuses to bite, nor indeed
to be caught with the worst of anglers. Matthiolus'^ commends
him much more for his taste and nourishment, than for his shape
or beauty.

There is also a little fish called a Sticklebag, a fish without
scales, but hath his body fenced with several prickles- I know
not where he dwells in winter ; nor what he is good for in
summer, but only to make sport for boys and women-anglers, and
to feed other fish that be fish of prey, as Trouts in particular, who
will bite at him as at a Penk ; and better, if your hook be rightly
baited with him, for he may be so baited as, his tail turning like
the sail of a windmill, will make him turn more quick than any

Variation.] 8 Summer birds. — id, yi, and ^tk edit,

• Petrus Andreas Matthiolus, of Sienna, an eminent physician of the sixteenth
ceniuiy, famous for his Commentaries on some of the writings of Dioscorides. — H.

N

194 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

Penk or Minnow can. For note, that the nimble turning of that,
or the Minnow, is the perfection of Minnow-fishing. To which
end, if you put your hook into his mouth, and out at his tail ; and
then, having first tied him with white thread a little above his tail,
and placed him after such a manner on your hook as he is like to
turn, then sew up his mouth to your line, and he is like to turn
quick, and tempt any Trout ; but if he does not turn quick,
then turn his tail, a little more or less, towards the inner
part, or towards the side of the hook ; or put the Minnow or
Sticklebag a little more crooked or more straight on your hoolc,
until it will turn both true and fast ; and then doubt not but to
tempt any great Trout that lies in a swift stream.* And the
Loach that I told you of will do the like : no bait is more tempt-
ing, provided the Loach be not too big.

And now, scholar, with the help of this fine morning, and your
patient attention, I have said all that my present memory will
afford me, concerning most of the several fish that are usually
fished for in fresh waters.

Venator. But, master, you have by your former civility made
me hope that you will make good your promise, and say some-
thing of the several rivers that be of most note in this nation ;
and also of fish-ponds, and the ordering of them : and do it I
pray, good master ; for I love any discourse of rivers, and fish,
and fishing ; the time spent in such discourse passes away very
pleasantly.

PiSCATOR. Well, scholar, since the ways and weather do

both favour us, and that we yet see not Totten-
Chap. xix.t Of , ^ u 11 ir

Rivers, and some ham Cross, you shall scc my wilhngness to

Fuiu"'^^°'^ °^ satisfy your desire. And, first, for the rivers of

this nation : there be, as you may note out of Dr

Heylin's Geography,;}: and others, in number three hundred and

twenty-five, but those of chiefest note he reckons and describes as

followeth.

The chief is Thamisis, compounded of two rivers, Thame and

Isis ; whereof the former, rising somewhat beyond Thame in

* The Minnow, if used in this manner, is so tempting a bait, that few fish are able to

resist it. ITie present Earl of told me, that in ihe month of June last, at Kimptoii

Hoo, near Wellwyn, in Hertfordshire, he caught (with a Minnow) a Rud, a fish described
in page 182, which, in-omuch as the Rud is not reckoned, nor does the situation of his
teeth, which are in his thruat, bespeak him to be a fish of prey, is a fact more extraordi-
naiy than that related by Sir George Hastings, in Chap. IV., of a Fordidge Trout (of
which kind of fish none had ever been known to be taken with an angle) which he
caught, and supposed it bit for wantonness. — H.

t No porrion of this chapter occurs in \\\^fiyxt, but was added in the second and subse-
quent editions. J It should be Dr Heyiin's Cosmography.

CHAF. XIX.] THE FIFTH DAY. 195

Buckinghamshire, and the latter near Cirencester in Gloucester-
shire, meet together about Dorchester in Oxfordshire ; the issue
of which happy conjunction is the Thamisis, or Thames ; * hence
it flieth betwixt Berks, Buckinghamshire, Middlesex, Surrey, Kent,
and Essex : and so weddeth itself to the Kentish Medway, in the
very jaws of the ocean. This glorious river feeleth the violence
and benefit of the sea more than any river in Europe ; ebbing and
flowing, twice a day, more than sixty miles ; about whose banks
are so many fair towns and princely palaces, that a German t poet
thus truly spake : —

Tot camfos, &*c.
We saw so many woods and princely bowers.
Sweet fields, brave palaces, and stately towezs »
So many gardens drest with curious care,
• That Ttuuncs with royal Tiber may compare.

2. The second river of note is Sabrina or Severn : it hath
its beginning in Plinlimmon Hill, in Montgomeryshire ; and his
end seven miles from Bristol ; washing, in the mean space, the
walls of Shrewsbury, Worcester, and Gloucester, and divers other
places and palaces of note.

3. Trent, so called from thirty kind of fishes that are found
in it, or for that it receiveth thirty lesser rivers ; who having his
fountain in Staffordshire, and gliding through the counties of

* Though the current opinion is that the Thames had its name from the conjunction
of Thame and IsLs, it plauily appears that the Isis was always called Thanui, or 1 €ms,
before it came near the Tame. Gibson's Camden, edit. 1753. p. 99. And although the
head of the Thame is generally supposed to be in Oxfordshire, Camden (whom Walton
probably followed), Brit. 315, says it is in Buckinghamshire. Lambarde, however,
adopting the authority of Lcland, says, "Tame springeth out of the hiUes of Hertford-
shire, at a place ca led Bulbume, a few myles from Penlye (the house of a family of
gentlemen called Vemeys) ; it runneth from thence to Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire,
and to Tame (a market-town in Oxfordshire, whearunto it gyveth the name), then pass-
inge under Whetley Bridge, it comcth to Dorchester, and hard by joyneih with Isi*, or
Ouse, and from that place joyneth with it in name aX^o." —DictwnariutH Topographi'
cum, voce Thame. Unfortunately, Leland's manuscript has lost twentj'-five leaves in
that part of it where one might expect to find this pas>a^e. But the following extract
from an author of great authority, and who had a scat in the county of Hertford, will
determine the question : " The Thame (the most famous river of England) issues from
three heads in the parish of Tring : the first rises in an orchard, near the parsonage-
house ; the second in a place called Dundell ; and the other proceeds from a spring
named Bulboume, which last stream joins the other waters at a piace called New Mill ;
whence all, gliding together in one current, through Puttenham in this county, pass by
Aylesbury (a fair market-town in Buckinghamshire) to Etherop (an ancient pleasant
seat of that noble family of the Dormers Earls of Carnarvon) ; and crossing that county,
by Notley Abbey, to Thame (a market-town in Oxfordshire, which borrows its name from
this river), hasteneth away by Whately Bridge to Dorchester (an ancient episcopal seat),
and thence congratulates the his : but both emulating each other for the name, and
neither yielding, they are complicated by that of TTrawrtrij."— Sir Henry Chauncy's
Historical Antiquities of Hertfordshire, p. 2. — H.

t Who this German poet was is not known ; but the verses, in the original Latin, are
in Hcylin's Cosmcgraphyt page 240, and are as follow : —

Tot cnmpos, sylvas. tot regia tecta, tot hortos,
Artificiex cultos dextra, tot vidimus arces ;
Ut nunc Ausonio, Thamisis, cutH Tibride certtU

196 THE COMPLETE ANGLER, [part i.

Nottingham, Lincoln, Leicester, and York, augmenteth the turbu-
lent current of Humber, the most violent stream of all the isle.
This Humber is not, to say truth, a distinct river having a spring-
head of his own, but it is rather the mouth or CBsttmrhun of divers
rivers here confluent and meeting together, namely, your Derwent,
and especially of Ouse and Trent ; and, as the Danow, having
received into its channel the river Dravus, Savus, Tibiscus, and
divers other, changeth his name into this of Huinberabiis, as the
old geographers call it.

4. Medway, a Kentish river, famous for harbouring the royal
navy.

5. Tweed, the north-east bound of England ; on whose
northern banks is seated the strong and impregnable town of
Berwick.

6. Tyne, famous for Newcastle, and her inexhaustible coal-
pits.* These, and the rest of principal note, are thus comprehended
in one of Mr Drayton's Sonnets: —

Our floods' queen, Thames, for ships and swans is crown'd ;

And stately Severn for her shore is prais'd ;
The crystal Trent, for fords and fish renown'd ;

And Avon's fame to Albion's cliifs is rais'd.

Carlegion Chester vaunts her holy Dee ;

York many wonders of her Ouse can tell ;
The Peak, her Dove, whose banks so fertile be,

And Kent will say her Medway doth excel :

Cotswold commends her Isis to the Tame ;

Our northern borders boast of Tweed's fair flood ;
Our western parts extol their Willy's fame,

And the old Lea brags of the Danish blood, t

* It is unnecessary to give here such a description and history of the rivers of this
kingdom as some readers would wish for. They may, however, find a great variety of
curious and useful learning on the subject in Selden's Notes on the Polyolbion. — H.

t " lee flu. Ly53n. Saxon. Luy, Mar. \^forsan Marcellinus]. Lfa, Polydoro.
The name of the water which (runnyn beiwene Ware and London) devydethe, for a
ereat part of the way, Essex and Hertfordshyre. It be.srynnethe near a place called
Whitchurche ; and from thence, passinge by Hertford, Ware, and Waltham, openethe
into the Thamise at Ham in Essex ; wheare the place is, at this day, called Lee Mojtt/ie.
It hathe, of longe tyme, borne vessells from London, 20 myles towarde the head ; for, in
tyme of Kinge Alfrede, the Danes entered Leymouthe, and fortified, at a place adjoyn-
inge to this ryver, 20 myles from London ; where, by fortune, king Alfrede passinge by,
espied that the channell of the ryver might be in such sorte weakened, that they should
want water to returne withe their shippes : he caused therefore the water to be abated by
two greate trenches, and settinge the Londoners upon theim, he made theim batteil ;
wherein they lost four of their captaines, and a great nomber of their common souldiers ;
the rest flyinge into the castle which they had builte. Not longe after, they weareso
pressed that they forsoke all, and lefte their shippes as a pray to the Londoners ; which
breakinge some, and burninge other, conveyed the rest to London. This casile, for the
distance, might .seme Her'forde; but it was some other upon that banke, which had no
longe continuance ; for Edward the elder, and son of this Alfrede, builded Hertiorde
not longe after. "—FzV/^ Lambarde's Z?;i:/?(?«rtw/;;7 Topogrnphicuvt, voce LEE. Dray-
ton's Polyolbion, Song the Twelfth, and the first note thereon. Other authors, vvhtf
confirm this fact, a'so add, that for the purpose aforesaid he opened the mouth of the
river. See Sir William Dugdale's History of the eiithanJcing attd draining the Fens,
and Sir John Spelman's Z^/^ c/ vElfrcd the Great, published by Hearne, in 8vo, 1709:

CHAP. XIX.] THE FIFTH DA Y. 197

These observations are out of learned Dr Heylin, and my old
deceased friend Michael Drayton ; and because you say you love
such discourses as these, of rivers, and fish, and fishing, I love
you the better, and love the more to impart them to you. Never-
theless, scholar, if I should begin but to name the several sorts
of strange fish that are usually taken in many of those rivers that
run into the sea, I might beget wonder in you, or unbelief, or both :
and yet I will venture to tell you a real truth concerning one
lately dissected by Dr Wharton, a man of great learning and
experience, and of equal freedom to communicate it ; one that
loves me and my art ; one to whom I have been beholden for
many of the choicest observations that I have imparted to you.
This good man, that dares do anything rather than tell an un-
truth, did, I say, tell me he had lately dissected one strange fish,
and he thus described it to me : —

" This fish was almost a yard broad, and twice that length ;
his mouth wide enough to receive, or take into it, the head of a
man ; his stomach, seven or eight inches broad. He is of a slow
motion ; and usually lies or lurks close in the mud ; and has a
movable string on his head, about a span or near unto a quarter
of a yard long ; by the moving of which, which is his natural bait,
when he lies close and unseen in the mud, he draws other smaller
fish so close to him, that he can suck them into his mouth, and so
devours and digests them." ^

And, scholar, do not wonder at this ; for besides the credit of
the relator, you are to note, many of these, and fishes which are
of the hke and more unusual shapes, are very often taken on the
mouths of our sea-rivers, and on the sea-shore. And this will be
no wonder to any that have travelled Egypt ; where, 'tis known,
the famous river Nilus does not only breed fishes that yet want
names, but, by the overflowing of that river, and the help of the
sun's heat on the fat slime which that river leaves on the banks
when it falls back into its natural channel, such strange fish and
beasts are also bred, that no man can give a name to ; as Grotius
in his *' Sopham," * and others, have observed.

VARIATION.

9 and then eucLs them into his mouth, and devours them. — isi, 2d, and ^d edit.

the peni.sa.1 of which last-named author will leave the reader in very little doubt but that
these trenches are the very same that now branch off from the river between Temple
Mills and Old Ford, and, crossing the Stratford road, enter the Thames, together with
the priucipal stream, a little below Blackwall. — H.

I* " Of artificial meat, so many dishes,

198 • THE COMPLETE ANGLER. parti.

But whither am I strayed in this discourse. I will end it by
telling you, that at the mouth of some of these rivers of ours,
Herrings are so plentiful, as, namely, near to Yarmouth in Norfolk,*
and in the west country Pilchers so very plentiful, as you will
wonder to read what our learned Camden relates of them in his
" Britannia." f

Well, scholar, I will stop here, and tell you what by reading
and conference I have observed concerning fish-ponds.

Doctor Lebault, the learned Frenchman, in his large dis-

Chap. XX. t course of Maison Rustique, gives this direction for

Of Fish-Ponds. making offish-ponds. I shall refer you to him, to

read it at large : but I think I shall contract it, and yet make it

as useful. §

He adviseth, that when you have drained the ground, and
made the earth firm where the head of the pond must be, that
you must then, in that place, drive in two or three rows of oak
or elm piles, which should be scorched in the fire, or half burnt,
before they be driven into the earth ; for being thus used, it pre-
serves them much longer from rotting. And having done so, lay
fagots or bavins of smaller wood betwixt them : and then earth
betwixt and above them : and then, having first very well rammed
them and the earth, use another pile in like manner as the first
were : and note, that the second pile is to be of or about the
height that you intend to make your sluice or floodgate, or the
vent that you intend shall convey the overflowings of your pond
in any flood that shall endanger the breaking of your pond- dam.

Then he advises, that you plant willows or owlers,i about it, or
both : and then cast in bavins, in some places not far from the

Variation.] i osiers.

Strange beasts from Afric, which yet want a name.
And birds which from the Arabian desert came."
— Grotius. His Sophompaneas or Jose^ph, a tragedy, by Francis Goldsmith, Esq., i2mo,
liond. 1652.

* The town of Yarmouth is bound by charter to send annually to the Sheriffs of Nor-
"wich a hundred herrings, which are to be baked in twenty-four pies or pasties, and
delivered to the lord of the manor of Eastcarlton, who is to convey them to the king. —
Beckwith's Fragmenta Atttiquiiatis, ed. 1784, p. 135.

t P. 178, 186.

X The whole of thi=. chapter was added to the j^c^w^ edition.

§ One of the best French editions of the work here alhided to is mentioned by De
Eure, " L'Agriculture et Maison Rustique de MM. Charles Estienne, et Iean Liebavlt,
Docteurs en Medecine. Edition derniere," 4to, Zjj/f^w- 1594- A translation of this work,
under the title of " Maison Rustique, or the Country Farme," compiled by Charles
Steuens and John Liebault, Doctors of Physicke, and translated into English by Richard
Surflet," appeared in quarto, Land. 1600 ; and a second edition, with large additions, by
Gervase Markham, fol. Land. 1616. The latter is, no doubt, the "large discourse" to
•which Walton alludes. This xxth Chapter of Walton is contracted from the xith, xiith,
xiiith, xivth, and xvth chapters of Liebault's fourth book. — E.

CHAP. XX.] THE FIFTH DA V. 199

.side, and in the most sandy places, for fish both to spawn upon,
and to defend them and the young fry from the many fish, and
also from vermin, that lie at watch to destroy them, especially the
spawn of the Carp and Tench, when 'tis left to the mercy of ducks
or vermin.

He, and Dubravius, and all others advise that you make choice
of such a place for your pond, that it may be refreshed with a
little rill, or with rain water, running or falling into it ; by which
fish are more inclined both to breed, and are also refreshed and
fed the better, and do prove to be of a much sweeter and more
pleasant taste.

To which end it is observed, that such pools as be large and
have most gravel, and shallows where fish may sport themselves,
do afford fish of the purest taste. And note, that in all pools it
is best for fish to have some retiring-place ; as, namely, hollow
banks, or shelves, or roots of trees, to keep them from danger, and,
when they think fit, from the extreme heat of summer ; as also
from the extremity of cold in winter. And note, that if many trees
be growing about your pond, the leaves thereof falling into the
water, make it nauseous to the fish, and the fish to be so to the
eater of it.

'Tis noted, that the Tench and Eel love mud : and the Carp
loves gravelly ground, and in the hot months to feed on grass.
You are to cleanse your pond, if you intend either profit or
pleasure, once every three or four years, especially some ponds,
and then let it lie dry six or twelve months, both to kill the water-
weeds, as water-lilies, candocks, reate, and bulrushes, that breed
there ; and also that, as these die for want of water, so grass may
grow in the pond's bottom, which Carps will eat greedily in all
the hot months, if the pond be clean. The letting your pond dry,
and sowing oats in the bottom is also good, for the fish feed the
faster ; and being sometimes let dry, you may observe what kind
of fish either increases or thrives best in that water; for they
differ much, both in their breeding and feeding.

Lebault also advises, that if your ponds be not very large and
roomy, that you often feed your fish by throwing into them chip-
pings of bread, curds, grains, or the entrails of chickens or of any
fowl or beast that you kill to feed yourselves ; for these afford fish
^ a great relief. He says that frogs and ducks do much harm, and
Ih devour both the spawn and the young fry of all fish, especially of
IH the Carp ; and I have, besides experience, many testimonies of it.

200 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part r.

months, if they be fat : but you are to note that he is a French-
man ; and we English will hardly believe him, though we know
frogs are usually eaten in his country : however he advises to
destroy them and kingfishers out of your ponds. And he advises
not to suffer much shooting at wildfowl ; for that, he says,
affrightens, and harms, and destroys the fish.

Note, that Carps and Tench thrive and breed best when no
other fish is put with them into the same pond ; for all other fish
devour their spawn, or at least the greatest part of it. And note,
that clods of grass thrown into any pond feed any Carps in
summer ; and that garden-earth and parsley thrown into a pond
recovers and refreshes the sick fish. And note, that when you
store your pond, you are to put into it two or three melters for
one spawner, if you put them into a breeding-pond ; but if into a
nurse-pond, or feeding-pond, in which they will not breed, then
no care is to be taken whether there be most male or female Carps.

It is observed that the best ponds to breed Carps are those that
be stony or sandy, and are warm, and free from wind ; and that
are not deep, but have willow-trees and grass on their sides, over
which the water does sometimes flow : and note, that Carps do
more usually breed in marl-pits, or pits that have clean clay
bottoms ; or in new ponds, or ponds that lie dry a winter season,
than in old ponds that be full of mud and weeds.*

* It is observable that the author has said very httle of pond-fishing ; which is, in
truth, a dull recreation ; and to which I have heard it objected, that fish in ponds are
already caught. Nevertheless, I find that in the canal at St James's Park, which,
though a large one, is yet a pond, it was, in the reign of Charles II., the practice of ladies
to angle.

" Beneath, a shole of silver fishes glides.
And plays about the gilded barges' sides ;
The ladies, angling in the chrystal lake,
Feast on the waters with the prey they take :
At once victorious with their lines and eyes.
They make the fishes and the men their prize."
—Waller. Poem On St James's Park, lately improved by his Majesty.

As the method of ordering fish-ponds is now very well known, and there are few
books of gardening but what give some directions about it, it is hoped the reader will
think the following quotation from Bowlker sufficient, by way of annotation on this
chapter : —

" When you intend to stock a pool with Carp or Tench, make a close ethering hedge
across the head of the pool, about a yard distance of the dam, and about three feet above
the water, which is the best refuge for them I know of, and the only method to preserve
pool-fish ; because if any one attempts to rob the pool, muddies the water, or disturbs
it with nets, most of the fish, if not all, immediately fly between the hedge and the dam,
to preserve themselves ; and in all pools where there are such shelters and shades, the
fish delight to swim backwards and forwards, through and round the same, rubbing and
sporting themselves therewith. This hedge ought to be made chiefly of oris, and not
too close ; the boughs long and straggling towards the dam ; by which means you may
feed and fatten them as you please. The best baits for drawing them together, at first,
are maggots, or young wasps ; the next are bullock's brains and lob-worms, chopped
together, and thrown into the pools in large quantities, about two hours before sunset,
summer and winter. By thus using these ground-baits, once a day, for a fortnight

I

CHAP. XX I . ] THE FIFTH DA Y. 20l

Well, Scholar, I have told you the substance of all that either
observation or discourse, or a diligent survey of Dubravius and
Lebault, hath told me : not that they, in their long discourses,
have not said more ; but the most of the rest are so common
observations, as if a man should tell a good arithmetician that
twice two is four. I will therefore put an end to this discourse;
and we will here sit down and rest us.

PiscATOR. Well, Scholar, I have held you too long about
these cadis, and smaller fish, and rivers, and fish-ponds ; and
my spirits are almost spent, and so I doubt is your
patience ; but being we are now almost at Tottenham,
where I first met you, and where we are to part, I will lose no
time, but give you a little direction how to make and order your
lines, and to colour the hair ^ of which you make your lines, for
that is very needful to be known of an angler ; and also how to
paint your rod, especially your top ; for a right-grown top is a
choice commodity, and should be preserved from the water soak-
ifig into it, which makes it in wet weather to be heavy and fish ill-
favouredly, and not true ; and also it rots quickly for want of
painting : 3 and I think a good top is worth preserving, or I had
not taken care to keep a top above twenty years.

VARIATIONS.

2 In the^rj^ edition the chapter commences thus : "Well, Scholar, I have held you
too long about these cadis, and my spirits are almost spent, and so I doubt is your
patience ; but being we are now within sight of Tottenham, where I- first met you, and
where we are to part, I will give you a little direction how to colour the hair," &c.

3 whicii makes it in wet weather to be heavy, and fish ill-favouredly, and also to
rot quickly. — \st edit. In the second edition is added "for want of painting:" the
third and subsequent editions correspond with the text.

together, the fish will come as constantly and naturally to the place as cattle to their
fodder ; and to satisfy your curiosity, and to convince you herein, after you have baited
the pool for some time, as directed, take about the quantity of a twopenny loaf of
wheaten bread, cut it into slices, and wet it : then throw it into the pool where you had
baited, and the Carp will feed upon it : after you have used the wet bread three or four
mornings, then throw some dry bread in, which will lie on the top of the water; and if
you watch, out of sight of the fish, you will presently see them swim to it, and suck it
in. I look upon wheaten bread to be the best food for them, though barley or oaten
bread is very good. If there be Tench and Pearch in the same pond, they will feed
upon the four former bait-, and not touch the bread. Indeed there is no pool-fish so shy
and nice as a Carp. When the water is disturbed. Carp will fly to the safest shelter
they can : which I one day observed, when assisting a gentleman to fish his pool; for
another person disturbed the water, by throwing the casting net, but caught never a
Carp : whereupon two or three of us stripped and went into the pool, which was pro-
vided with such a sort of a hedge in it as is before described, whither the Carp had fled
for safety ; then fisiiing with our hands on both sides of the hedge, that is, one on eithci
sifle, we catched what quantity of Carp was wanting." — Boivlker, p. 62.

The reader may also consult a book published about the year 1712, entitled A DiS'
course 0/ Fish aud Fish-po7ids, by a Person of Honour ; who, I have been told by one
that knew him, was the Hon. Roger North, author of the Life 0/ the Lord Keeper
Guildford. See before, p^ge 143. [The first edition of this work was without a date,
in octavo. It w.ts published again in 1713 and 1715. An edition in quarto appeared
about 1770, with the name of the aiithor in the title. It is also found as an appendage to
" The Gentleman Farmer," 8va Lond. 1726.]

202 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

^ But first for your Line. First note, that you are to take care
that your hair be round and clear, and free from galls, or scabs,
or frets : for a well-chosen, even, clear, round hair, of a kind of
glass-colour, will prove as strong as three uneven scabby hairs
that are ill-chosen, and full of galls or unevenness. You shall
seldom find a black hair but it is round, but many white are flat
and uneven ; therefore, if you get a lodk of right, round, clear,
glass-colour hair, make much of it.

And for making your line, observe this rule : first, let your
hair be clean washed ere you go about to twist it ; and then
choose not only the clearest hair for it, but hairs that be of an
equal bigness, for such do usually stretch all together, and break
all together, which hairs of an unequal bigness never do, but
break singly, and so deceive the angler that trusts to them.^

When you have twisted your links, lay them in water for a
quarter of an hour at least, and then twist them over again before
you tie them into a line : for those that do not so shall usually
find their line to have a hair or two shrink, and be shorter than
the rest, at the first fishing with it, which is so much of the
strength of the line lost for want of first watering it, and then re-
twisting it ; and this is most visible in a seven-hair line, one of
those which hath always a black hair in the middle. •*

And for dyeing of your hairs, do it thus : take a pint of strong
ale, half a pound of soot, and a little ^ quantity of the juice of
walnut-tree leaves, and an equal quantity of alum : put these
together into a pot, pan, or pipkin, and boil them half an hour ;
and having so done, let it cool ; and being cold, put your hair into
it, and there let it lie ; it will turn your hair to be a kind of water or
glass colour, or greenish ; and the longer you let it lie, the deeper
coloured it will be. You might be taught to make many other
colours, but it is to little purpose ; for doubtless the water-colour
or glass-coloured hair is the most choice and most useful for an
angler, but let it not be too green. ^

But if you desire to colour hair greener, then do it thus : take a
quart of small ale, half a pound of alum ; then put these into a
pan or pipkin, and your hair into it with them ; then put it upon

VARIATIONS.

* No portion of this and the two following paragraphs occurs in \!n& first edition : but
they were inserted in the second.

5 for such do usually stretch altogether, and not break singly one by one, but
altogether. — id and ^d edit.

<> a seven-hair line with one of them black in the middle.— 2d edit.

7 like. — 1st edit.

8 «• but let it not be too green," added in the second and subsequent editions.

I

I

CHAP. XXI.] THE FIFTH DAY. 203

a fire, and let it boil softly for half an hour ; and then take out
your hair, and let it dry ; and having so done, then take a pottle
of water, and put into it two handfuls of marigolds, and cover it
with a tile or what you think fit, and set it again on the fire,
where it is to boil again softly for half an hour, about which time
the scum will turn yellow ; then put into it half a pound of
copperas, beaten small, and with it the hair that you intend to
colour ; then let the hair be boiled softly till half the liquor be
wasted, and then let it cool three or four hours, with your hair in
it ; and you are to observe that the more copperas you put into
it, the greener it will be ; but doubtless the pale green is best.
But if you desire yellow hair, which is only good when the weeds
rot, then put in more marigolds ; and abate most of the copperas,
or leave it quite out, and take a Httle verdigris instead of it.

This for colouring your hair.

And as for painting your Rod, which must be in oil, you must
first make a size with glue and water, boiled together until the
glue be dissolved, and the size of a lye colour ; then strike your
size upon the wood with a bristle, or a brush or pencil, whilst it
is hot : that being quite dry, take white-lead, and a little red lead,
and a little coal-black, so much as altogether will make an ash-
colour : grind these altogether with linseed oil ; let it be thick,
and lay it thin upon the wood with a brush or pencil : this do for
the ground of any colour to lie upon wood.

For a green, take pink and verdigris, and grind them together
in linseed oil, as thin^ as you can well grind it : then lay it
smoothly on with your brush, and drive it thin ; once doing, for
the most part, will serve, if you lay it well ; and if twice, be sure
your first colour be thoroughly dry before you lay on a second. ^

Well, Scholar, having now taught you to paint your rod, and
we having still a mile to Tottenham High Cross, I will, as we
walk towards it in the cool shade of this sweet honeysuckle hedge,
mention to you some of the thoughts and joys that have possessed
my soul since we two met together. And these thoughts shall be

VARIATIONS.

» thick.— ij/ ffl'/A

1 In xhti first, second, and third editions, Piscator continues : "Well, Scholar, you
now see Tottenham, and I am weary, and therefore glad that we are so near it : but if
I were to walk many more days with you, I could still be telling you more and more of
the mysterious art of angling ; but I will hope for another opportunity, and then I will
acquaint you with many more both necessary and true observations concerning fish and
fishing : but now no more, let's turn into yonder arbour, for it's a clean and a cool place."
To which Venator replies : " 'Tis a fair motion, and I will requite a part of your
courtesies with a bottle of sack, and milk, and oranges, and sugar, which all put together,
make a drink too good for anybody but us anglers," &c.

204 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

told you, that you also may join with me in thankfulness to the
Giver of every good and perfect gift, for our happiness. And
that our present happiness may appear to be the greater, and we
the more thankful for it, I will beg you to consider with me how
many do, even at this very time, lie under the torment of the
stone, the gout, and toothache ; and this we are free from. And
every misery that I miss is a new mercy ; and therefore let us be
thankful. There have been, since we met, others that have met
-disasters of broken limbs ; some have been blasted, others thunder-
strucken : and we have been freed from these, and all those many
■other miseries that threaten human nature; let us therefore rejoice
and be thankful. Nay, which is a far greater mercy, we are free
from the insupportable burthen of an accusing tormenting con-
science ; a misery that none can bear : and therefore let us praise
Him for His preventing grace, and say, Every misery that I miss
is a new mercy. Nay, let me tell you, there be many that have
forty times our estates, that would give the greatest part of it to
be healthful and cheerful like us, who, with the expense of a little
money, have eat and drunk, and laughed, and angled, and sung,
and slept securely ; and rose next day and cast away care, and
sung, and laughed, and angled again ; which are blessings rich
men cannot purchase with all their money. Let me tell you,
Scholar, I have a rich neighbour that is always so busy that he
has no leisure to laugh ; the whole business of his life is to get
money, and more money, that he may still get more and more
money ; he is still drudging on, and says, that Solomon says,
■*•' The diligent hand maketh rich ; " and it is true indeed : but he
considers not that it is not in the power of riches to make a man
happy ; for it was wisely said, by a man of great observation, "That
there be as many miseries beyond riches as on this side of them."
And yet God deUver us from pinching poverty ; and grant, that
having a competency, we may be content and thankful. Let not
us repine, or so much as think the gifts of God unequally dealt,
if we &ee another abound with riches ; when, as God knows, the
cares that are the keys that keep those riches hang often so heavily
at the rich man's girdle, that they clog him with weary days
and restless nights, even when others sleep quietly. We see but
the outside of the rich man's happiness : few consider him to be
like the silkworm, that, when she seems to play, is, at the very
same time, spinning her own bowels, and consuming herself; and
this many rich men do, loading themselves with corroding cares,
to keep what they have, probably, unconscionably got. Let us,

GHAP. XXI. ] THE FIFTH DA Y. 205

therefore, be thankful for health and a competence ; and above
all, for a quiet conscience.

Let me tell you, Scholar, that Diogenes walked on a day, with
his friend, to see a country fair ; where he saw ribbons, and
looking-glasses, and nut-crackers, and fiddles, and hobby-horses,
and many other gimcracks ; and, having observed them, and all
the other finnimbruns that make a complete country fair, he said
to his friend, " Lord, how many things are there in this world ot
which Diogenes hath no need ! " And truly it is so, or might be
so, with very many who vex and toil themselves to get what they
have no need of. Can any man charge God, that he hath not
given him enough to make his life happy? No, doubtless;
for nature is content with a little. And yet you shall hardly
meet with a man that complains not of some want ; though he,
indeed, wants nothing but his will ; it may be, nothing but his
will of his poor neighbour, for not worshipping, or not flattering
him : and thus, when we might be happy and quiet, we create
trouble to ourselves. I have heard of a man that was angry with
himself because he was no taller ; and of a woman that broke
her looking-glass because it would not show her face to be as
young and handsome as her next neighbour's was. And I knew
another to whom God had given health and plenty ; but a wife
that nature had made peevish, and her husband's riches had made
purse-proud ; and must, because she was rich, and for no other
virtue, sit in the highest pew in the church ; which being denied
her, she engaged her husband into a contention for it, and at last
into a lawsuit with a dogged neighbour who was as rich as he,
and had a wife as peevish and purse-proud as the other : and
this lawsuit begot higher oppositions, and actionable words, and
more vexations and lawsuits ; for you must remember that both
were rich, and must therefore have their wills. Well ! this wilful,
purse-proud lawsuit lasted during the Hfe of the first husband ;
after which his wife vext and chid, and chid and vext, till she also
chid and vext herself into her grave : and so the wealth of these
poor rich people was curst into a punishment, because they wanted
meek and thankful hearts ; for those only can make us happy,
I knew a man that had health and riches ; and several houses, all
beautiful, and ready furnished ; and would often trouble himself
and family to be removing from one house to another : and being
asked by a friend why he removed so often from one house to
another, replied, " It was to find content in some one of them." But
his friend, knowing his temper, told him, *' If he would find con-

2o6 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [parti.

tent in any of his houses, he must leave himself behind him ; for
content will never dwell but in a meek and quiet soul." And this
may appear, if we read and consider what our Saviour says in St
Matthew's Gospel ; for he there says, " Blessed be the merciful,
for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed be the pure in heart, for they
shall see God. Blessed be the poor in spirit, for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven. And, Blessed be the meek, for they shall
possess the earth." Not that the meek shall not also obtain
mercy, and see God, and be comforted, and at last come to the
kingdom of heaven : but in the meantime, he, and he only, pos-
sesses the earth, as he goes towards that kingdom of heaven, by
being humble and cheerful, and content with what his good God
has allotted him. He has no turbulent, repining vexatious
thoughts that he deserves better ; nor is vext when he sees others
possest of more honour or more riches than his wise God has
allotted for his share : but he possesses what he has with a meek
and contented quietness, such a quietness as makes his very dreams
pleasing, both to God and himself.

My honest Scholar, all this is told to incline you to thankfulness ;
and to incline you the more, let me tell you, and though the
prophet David was guilty of murder and adultery, and many other
of the most deadly sins, yet he was said to be a man after God's
own heart, because he abounded more with thankfulness than any
other that is mentioned in Holy Scripture, as may appear in his
Book of Psalms ; where there is such a commixture, of his con-
fessing of his sins and unworthiness, and such thankfulness for
God's pardon and mercies, as did make him to be accounted, even
by God himself, to be a man after his own heart : and let us, in
that, labour to be as like him as we can ; let not the blessings we
receive daily from God make us not to value, or not praise Him
because they be common ; let us not forget to praise Him for the
innocent mirth and pleasure we have met with since we met
together. What would a blind man give to see the pleasant
rivers, and meadows, and flowers, and fountains, that we have
met with since we met together .? I have been told, that if a man
that was born blind could obtain to have his sight for but only
one hour during his whole Hfe, and should, at the first opening of
his eyes, fix his sight upon the sun when it was in its full glory,
either at the rising or setting of it, he would be so transported and
amazed, and so admire the glory of it, that he would not willingly
turn his eyes from that first ravishing object, to behold all the
other various beauties this world could present to him. And this,

THE PARTING AT TOTTENHAM
BY T. STOTHARD,-RJ\..

CHAP. XXI.] THE FIFTH DAY. Tof

and many other like blessings, we enjoy daily. And for most of
them, because they be so common, most men forget to pay their
praises : but let not us ; because it is a sacrifice so pleasing to
Him that made that sun and us, and still protects us, and gives
us flowers, and showers, and stomachs, and meat, and content,
and leisure to go a -fishing.

Well, Scholar, I have almost tired myself, and, I fear, more
than almost tired you. But I now see Tottenham High Cross ;
and our short walk thither shall put a period to my too long
discourse ; in which my meaning was, and is, to plant that in your
mind with which I labour to possess my own soul ; that is, a meek
and thankful heart. And to that end I have showed you, that
riches without them, do not make any man happy. But let me
tell you, that riches with them remove many fears and cares. And
therefore my advice is, that you endeavour to be honestly rich, or
contentedly poor : but be sure that your riches be justly got, or
you spoil all For it is well said by Caussin,* " He that loses his
copscience has nothing left that is worth keeping." Therefore
be sure you look to that. And, in the next place, look to your
health : and if you have it, praise God, and value it next to a
good conscience ; for health is the second blessing that we mortals
are capable of; a blessing that money cannot buy; and there-
fore value it, and be thankful for it. As for money, which may
be said to be the third blessing, neglect it not : but note, that
there is no necessity of being rich ; for I told you, there be as
many miseries beyond riches as on this side them : and if you
have a competence, enjoy it with a meek, cheerful, thankful heart.
I will tell you. Scholar, I have heard a grave divine say,t that
God has two dwellings ; one in heaven, and the other in a meek
and thankful heart ; which Almighty God grant to me, and to
my honest Scholar. And so you are welcome to Tottenham
High Cross.

Venator. Well, Master, I thank you for all your good
directions ; but for none more than this last, of thankfulness,
which I hope I shall never forget. And pray let's now rest our-
selves in this sweet shady arbour, which nature herself has woven
with her own fine fingers ; 'tis such a contexture of woodbines,
sweetbrier, jasmine, and myrtle; and so interwoven, as will

• Nicholas Caussin^ a native of Troyes in Champagne, wrote a book called The Holy
Court, of which there is an English translation in folio. He was esteemrd a person of
great probity ; and of such a spirit, that he attempted to di<place Cardinal Richelieu ; but
that minister proved too hard for him, and e;ot him banished. He returned to Paris
after the Cardinal's death, .ind died there in the convent of Jesuits, July 1651. — H.

t His admired spiritual father, Dr Donne, in his Sermons.

2o8 THE COMPLETE ANGLER, [part r.

secure us both from the sun's violent heat, and from the approach-
ing shower. And being set down, I will requite a part of your
courtesies with a bottle of sack, milk, oranges, and sugar, which,
all put together, make a drink like nectar ; indeed, too good for
any but us Anglers. And so. Master, here is a full glass to you
of that liquor : and when you have pledged me, I will repeat the
Verses which I promised you : it is a Copy printed among some
of Sir Henry Wotton's,* and doubtless made either by him, or
by a lover of angling. Come, Master, now drink a glass to me,
and then I will pledge you, an^ fall to my repetition ; it is a
description of such country recreations as I have enjoyed since I
had the happiness to fall into your company.

Quivering fears, heart-tearing cares, Which done, both bleating run, each to his

Anxious sighs, untimely tears, mother ;

Fly, fly to courts. And wounds are never found,

Fly to fond worldlings' sports, Save what the ploughshare gives the

Where strain'd sardonic smiles are glosing ground.

still,

And Grief is forc'd to laugh against her will : Here are no false entrapping baits,

Where mirth's but mummery, 1"o hasten too, too hasty Fates,

And sorrows only real be. Unless it be

_,, . . - The fond credulity

Fly from our country pastimes, fly, of silly fish, which, worldling-like, still look

bad troops of human misery. Upon the bait, but never on the hook ;

Come, serene looks

Nor envy, unless among

Clear as the crystal brooks, ^j^g ^j^ j f^j. ^.j^^ ^f their sweet song.

Or the pure azur d heaven that smiles to see
The rich attendance of our poverty : Go, let the diving negro seek

Peace and a secure mind, For gems, hid in some forlorn creek :

Which all men seek, we only find. We all pearls scorn,

Abused mortals ! did you know ^ Save what the dewy morn

Where joy, heart's-ease, and comforts grow, .^on.geals upon each little spire of grass,

You'd scorn proud towers. Which careless shepherds beat down a

And seek them in these bowers ; , ^'^^y P^-^^ *, ,

Where winds, sometimes, our woods perhaps ^'^°- g°'a "^ «>■ "^[^ appears

may shake Save what the yellow Ceres bears.

But blust'ring 'care could never tempest p, jj ^ ^

Nor murmurs eer come nigh us, [make, j-, f j^,^'^^^ ^^^JJ ,

Saving of fountains that glide by us. ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^^^^

Here's no fantastic mask, nor dance. For ever pitch their tents

But of our kids that frisk and prance ; Upon these downs, these meads, these rocks,

Nor wars are seen these mountains,

Unless upon the green And peace still slumber by these purling

Two harmless lambs are butting one the Which we may, every year, [fountains :
other, Meet when we come a-fishing here.

PiSCATOR. Trust me, Scholar, I thank you heartily for these
Verses : they be choicely good, and doubtless made by a lover of
angling. Come, now, drink a glass to me, and I will requite you
with another very good copy : it is a farewell to the vanities of
the world, and some say written by Sir Harry Wotton,^ who I

VARIATION.

2 and I will requite you with a very good copy of verses : it is a farewell to the
vanities of the world, and some say written by Dr D. — \st and -zd edit.

* See ReliquicB WottojtiaiKS, 8vo, 1685, page 390.

CHAP. XXI.] THE FIFTH DAY. . 909

told you was an excellent angler. But let them be writ by whom
they will, he that writ them had a brave soul, and must needs be
possest with happy thoughts at the time of their composure.

•Farewell, ye gilded follies, pleasing troubles ;
Farewell, ye honour'd rags, ye glorious bubbles ;
Fame's but a hollow eclio ; Gold, pure clay ;
Honour the darling but of one short day ;
I Beauty, th' eye's idol, but a damask'd skin :

State, but a golden prison, to live in
And torture free-born minds ; embroider'd Trains,
Merely but pageants for proud swelling veins ;
And Blood allied to greatness is alone
Inherited, not purchas'd, nor our own.

Fame, Honour, Beauty, State, Train, Blood and Birth,

Are but the fading blossoms of the earth.

I would be great, but that the sun doth still

Level his rays against the rising hill :

I would be high, but see the proudest oak

Most subject to the rending tnunder-«troke :

I would be rich, but see men, too unkind.

Dig in the bowels of the richest mind : f

I would be wise, but that I often see

The fox suspected, whilst the ass goes free :

I would be fair, but see the fair and proud.

Like the bright sun, oft setting in a cloud :

I would be poor, but know the humble grass

Still trampled on by each unworthy ass :

Rich, hated ; wise, suspected ; scom'd, if poor;

Great, fear'd ; fair, tempted ; high, still envy'd more.
I have wish'd all ; but now I wish for neither.
Great, high, rich, wise, nor fair : poor I'll be rather.

Would the World now adopt me for her heir ;
Would beauty's Queen entitle me the fair ;
Fame speak me fortune's minion ; could I " vie
Angels ' with India ; % with a speaking eye

* These verses are also said to have been written by Sir Walter Raleigh, when a
prisoner in the Tower, shortly before his execution. Walton expresses himself doubtful
as to the author. t Mine.

X An angel is a piece of coin, value ten shillings. The words to " x<ie angels" are a
metonymy, and signify to compare wealth. In the old ballad <7/'M^ Beggat^s Daughter
of Beihnal Green, a competition of this kind is introduced : a young knight, about to
marry the beggar's daughter, is dissuaded from so unequal a match by some gentlemen,
his relations, who urge the poverty of her father: the beggar challenges them to drop
angels with him, and fairly empties the purses of them all. The contest, and its issue,
are related in the following stanzas, part of the ballad : —

Then spake the blind beggar : " Although I be poor,

Yet rail not against my child at my own door :

Though she be not deck'd in velvet and pearl,

"Vet I will drop angels with you for my girl.

And then, if my gold may better her birth.

And equal the gold that you lay on the earth.

Then neither rail nor grudge you, to see

The blind beggar's daughter a lady to be.

But first you shall promise, and have it well known,

The gold that you drop shall all be your own."

With that they replied, "Contented be we."

•* Then here's," quoth the beggar, " for pretty Besse."

With that, an angel he cast on the ground ;

And dropped, in angels, full three thousand pound ;

And oftentimes, it was proved most plain,

For the gentlemen's one the beggar dropt twain ;

O

210 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i.

Command bare heads, bow'd knees ; strike justice dumb,

As well as blind and lame ; or give a tongue

To stones by epitaphs ; be call'd " great master"

In the loose rhymes of every poetaster?

Could I be more than any man that lives,

Great, fair, rich, wise, all in superlatives ;

Yet I more freely would these gifts resign,

Than ever fortune would have made them mine ;

And hold one minute of this holy leisure

Beyond the riches of this empty pleasure.

Welcome, pure thoughts; welcome, ye silent groves ;
These guests, these courts, my soul most dearly loves.
Now the wing'd people of the sky shall sing
My cheerful anthems to the gladsome spring :
A pray'r-book, now, shall be my looking-glass,
In which I will adore sweet virtue's face.
Here dwell no hateful looks, no palace cares.
No broken vows dwell here, nor pale-fac'd fears
Then here I'll sit, and sigh my hot love's folly,
And learn t' affect an holy melancholy :

And if contentment be a stranger then,

I'll ne'er look for it, but in heaven, again.

Venator. Well, Master, these verses be worthy to keep a
room in every man's memory. I thank you for them ; and I
thank you for your many instructions, which, God willing, I will
not forget.^ And as St Austin, in his Confessions,'*" commemo-
rates the kindness of his friend Verecundus, for lending him and
his companion a country house, because there they rested and
enjoyed themselves, free from the troubles of the world, so,*
having had the like advantage, both by your conversation and the
art you have taught me, I ought ever to do the like ; for, indeed,

VARIATIONS.

' In ^^ first edition Venator proceeds : "Your company and discourse have been so
pleasant, that I may truly say, 1 have only lived since I enjoyed you and them and
turned Angler. I am sorry to part with you here, here in this place where I first met
you, but it must be so. I shall long for the ninth of May, for then we are to meet at
Charles Brandon's. This intermitted time will seem to me as it does to men in sorrow,
to pass slowly, but I will hasten it as fast as I can by my wishes, and in the meantime
the blessing of Saint Peter's Master be with mine ;" to which Piscator replies, "And
the like be upon my honest scholar, and upon all that hate contentions, and love quiet-
ness and virtue and angling."

* because there they rested themselves from the troubles of the world. — id and id
edit.

So that the place wherein they did sit,

With gold it was covered, every whit.

The gentlemen, then, having dropt all their store.

Said, " Now, beggar, hold, for we have no more ;

Thou hast fulfilled thy promise aright."

" Then marry my girl, quoth he to the knight ;

"And here," added he, " I will now throw you down

A hundred pounds more, to buy her a gown."
The neighbourhood of Bethnal Green is seldom without a public-house with a sign
representing The Beggar^ and the Dissnaders of the match, dropping gold: the young
Woman, and the Knight her lover, standing between tliem. — H.

* Book iv. chap. 3. The pas.sage to which Walton alludes will be found in a transla-
tion of the Life of St Augustine, printed for John Crook, and sold at the sign of the Ship
in St Paul's Churchyard, i65o, lib. 9, cap. 3.

CHAP. XXI.] THE FIFTH DAY, 211

your company and discourse have been so useful and pleasant,
that, I may truly say, I have only lived since I enjoyed them and
turned angler, and not before. Nevertheless, here I must part
with you ; here in this now sad place, where I was so happy as
first to meet you : but I shall long for the ninth of May ; for
then I hope again to enjoy your beloved company, at the
appointed time and place. And now I wish for some somni-
ferous potion, that might force me to sleep away the intermitted
time, which will pass away with me as tediously as it does with
men in sorrow ; nevertheless I will make it as short as I can, by
my hopes and wishes : and, my good Master, I will not forget
the doctrine which you told me Socrates taught his scholars, that
they should not think to be honoured so much for being phi-
losophers, as to honour philosophy by their virtuous lives. You
advised me to the like concerning Angling, and I will endeavour
to do so ; and to live like those many worthy men, of which you
made mention in the former part of your discourse. This is my
firm resolution. And as a pious man advised his friend, that, to
beget mortification, he should frequent churches, and view monu-
ments, and charnel-houses, and then and there consider how
many dead bodies time had piled up at the gates of death, so
when I would beget content, and increase confidence in the
power, and wisdom, and providence of Almighty God, I will walk
the meadows, by some gliding stream, and there contemplate the
lilies that take no care, and those very many other various little
living creatures that are not only created, but fed, man knows not
how, by the goodness of the God of Nature, and therefore trust
in him. This is my purpose ; and so, let everything that hath
breath praise the Lord : and let the blessing of St Peter's Master
be with mine.

PiscATOR. And upon all that are lovers of virtue ; and dare
trust in his providence ; and be quiet ; and go a-angling.*

"Study to be quiet"*

VARIATION.

* And the like be upon my honest ingenuous Scholar, and upon all that love virtue,
and to be quiet, and go a-fishin^;.— 4^A edit.

♦ z Thess. iv. xi.

A SHORT DISCOURSE* BY WAY OF POST-
SCRIPT, TOUCHING THE LAWS OF
ANGLING.

My good Friend,

I CANNOT but tender my particular thanks to you, for that you have
been pleased by three editions of your Complete Angler, freely to dis-
pense your dear-bought experiences to all the lovers of that art ; and have
thereby so excellently vindicated the legality thereof, as to Divine appro-
bation, that if I should go about to say more in that behalf, it indeed were
to light a candle to the sun : but since all pleasures (though never so
innocent in themselves) lose that stamp, when they are either pursued with
inordinate affections, or to the prejudice of another ; therefore as to the
former every man ought to endeavour, through a serious consideration of
the vanity of worldly contentments, to moderate his affections thereunto,
whereby they may be made of excellent use, as some poisons allayed are in
physic : and as to the latter, we are to have recourse to the known laws,
ignorance whereof excuseth no man, and therefore by their directions so to
square our actions, that we hurt no man, but keep close to that golden
rule, "To do to all men as we would ourselves be done unto."

Now concerning the Art of Angling, we may conclude. Sir, that as you
have proved it to be of great antiquity, so I find it favoured by the laws of
this kingdom ; for where provision is made by our statutes primo Elizab.
cap. 1 7, against taking Fish by Nets that be not of such and such a size
there set down, yet those law-makers had so much respect to Anglers,
as to except them, and leave them a liberty to catch as big as they
could, and as little as they would catch. And yet though this
Apostolical recreation be simply in itself lawful, yet no man can go
upon another man's ground to fish, without his license, but that he is a
trespasser ; but if a man have license to enter into a close or ground
for such a space of time, there, though he practise Angling all that
time, he is not a trespasser ; because his fishing is no abuse of his license :
but this is to be understood of running streams, and not of ponds or stand-
ing pools ; for in case of a pond or standing pool, the owner thereof hath a
property in the fish, and they are so far said to be his, that he may have
trespass for the fish against any one that shall take them without his

* This " Discourse," which was prefixed to the third and subsequent editions of The
Complete Angler, was evidently written by a friend and admirer of Walton; it could
not, therefore, with propriety be omitted in an edition of that work. The numerous
additions and alterations which have been made in the Laws of Angling since Walton
lived, render it impossible to state those changes in notes ; and the publication of " An
Essay on Aquatic Rights, intended as an illustration of the Law relative to Fishing, by
Henry Schultes, 8vo, 1811," would, under any circumstances, render such notes super-
fluous.

THE LAWS OF ANGLING. 213

license, though it be upon a common, or adjoining to tlie king's highway,
or adjoining to another man's ground, who gives hcense : but in case of a
river, where one or more have libera piscaria only, it is otherwise, for there
the fishes are said to be feroe naturse, and the taking of them with an angle
is not trespass, for that no man is said to have a property in ihem till he
have caught them, and then it is a trespass for any to take them from him :
but this is not to be understood of fishes confined to a man's own ground
by gates or otherwise, so that they cannot pass away, but may be taken
out or put in at pleasure, for in that case the party hath a property in
them, as in the case of a standing pool.

But where any one hath seperalis piscaria, as in Child and Greenhill's
Case in Trin. 15 Car. I. in the King's Bench, there it seemeth that the
fish may be said to be his, because no man else may take them whilst they
are within his several fishing ; therefore what is meant by a several fishing is
necessary to be considered : and though the difference between a free fish-
ing and a several fishing be often treated of in the ancient books of the law,
and some opinions will have the difference to be great, and others small or
nothing at all ; yet the certainest definition of a several fishing is, where one
hath the royalty, and owneth the ground on each side of the water : which
agreeth with Sir William Calthrop's Case,* where an action was brought
by him against another for fishing in his several fishing, &c., to which the
defendant pleaded, that the place wherein the trespass was supposed to be
done, contained ten perches of land in length, and twenty perches in
breadth, which was his own freehold at the time when the trespass was
supposed to be done, and that he fished there as was lawful for him to do :
and this was adjudged a good plea by the whole court, and upon argument
in that very case it was agreed, that no man could have a several fishing
but in his own soil, and that free fishing may be in the soil of another man,
M'hich was all agreed unto by Littleton our famous English lawyer. So
that from all this may be drawn this short conclusion, that if the Angler
take care that he offend not with his feet, there is no great danger of his
hands.

But there are some covetous rigid persons, whose souls hold no sympathy
with those of the innocent Anglers, having either got to be lords of royalties,
or owners of lands adjoining to rivers, and these do, by some apted clownish
nature and education for the purpose, insult and domineer over the innocent
angler, beating him, breaking his rod, or at least taking it from him, and
sometimes imprisoning his person, as if he were a felon : v/hereas a true-
bred gentleman scorns those spider-like attempts, and will rather refresh
a civil stranger at his table, than warn him from coming on his ground
upon so innocent an occasion. It would therefore be considered how far
such furious drivers are warranted by the law, and what the Angler may
(in case of such violence) do in defence of himself : if I come upon another
man's ground without his license, or the license of the law, I am a trespasser,
for which the owner may have an action of trespass against me ; and if I
continue there after warning to depart by the owner, or his servant there-
unto authorised, the owner, or his servant by his command, may put me
off by force, but not beat me, but in case of resistance by me, for then I (by
resisting) make the assault ; but if he beat me, I not resisting, in that case
he makes the assault, and I may beat him in defence of myself, and to
free myself from his violence : and in case I shall leave my rod behind in
* Mich. 17 E. 4, 6, and Pasc. 18 E. 4, 4.

214 THE LA WS OF ANGLING.

his ground, he may take it damage feasant, but he can neither take it from
my person by force, nor break it, but he is a trespasser to me : which
seems clear by the case of Reynell and Champeruon,* where Reynell
brought an action of trespass against Champernon for taking and cutting his
nets, the defendant justified for that he was seised in fee of a several fishing,
and that the plaintiff with others endeavoured to row upon his water, and
with the nets to catch his fish, and that for the safeguard of his fishing
he took and cut the nets and oars ; to which plea the plaintiff demurred ;
and there it was adjudged by the whole court, that he could not by such
colour cut the nets and oars, and judgment was thereupon given for the
plaintiff.

Doubtless our forefathers well considered, that man to man was a wolf,
and therefore made good laws to keep us from devouring one another, and
amongst the rest a very good statute was made in the three-and-fortieth
year of Queen Elizabeth, whereby it is provided, that in personal actions
in the Courts at Westminster (being not for land or battery), when it shall
appear to the judges (and be so by them signified) that the debt or damages
to be recovered amount not to the sum of forty shillings or above, the said
judges shall award to the plaintiff no more costs than damages, but less at
their discretion.

And now, with my acknowledgment of the advantage I have had both
by your friendship and your book, I wish nothing may ever be that looks
like an alteration in the first, nor anything in the last, unless by reason
of the useful pleasure of it, you had called it the Arcadia of Angling,
for it deserves that title, and I would deserve the continuance of your
friendship.

* Mich. 7 Car. I.

PORTRAIT OF CHARLES COTTON ESQ.

BY INSKIPP

THE COMPLETE ANGLER

BEING INSTRUCTIONS

HOW TO ANGLE FOR A TROUT OR GRAYLING

IN A CLEAR STREAM

PART IL

Qui mihi non credit, facial licet ipse periclum :
Et fucrit scriptis aequior ille meis

LONDON

PRINTED FOR RICHARD MARRIOTT AND HENRY BROME

IN ST. PAULS CHURCH-YARD

M DC LXXVI

I.THOMPSON SCiajL.
THE FISHING-HOUSE.

TO MY MOST WORTHY FATHER* AND
FRIEND,' MR IZAAK WALTON THE
ELDER.

Sir, — 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 favour even of your
meanest friends ; I accordingly expect to see these following par-
ticular Directions for the taking of 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 gener-
ally 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 endeavoured 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 recom-
mend 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 honour if the Cipher fixt and carved in the front of

* It was a practice with the pretended masters of the Hermetic science, to adopt
favourite persons for their sons, to whom they imp;»rted their secrets. Ashmole, in his
Diary, p. 25, says, " Mr Backhouse told me, I must now needs be his son, because he
had communicated so many secrets to me." And a little after, p. 27, " My father Back-
house, lying sick in Fleet Street, told me, in syllables, the true matter of the philosopher's
stone, which he bequeathed to me as a legacy." See more of this practice, and of the
tremendous solemnities with which the secret was communicated, in Ashmole's Theat.
Chem. Brit. p. 440.

In a similar manner, Ben Jonson adopted several persons as his sons, to the number
of twelve or fourteen ; among whom wt-re Cartwright, Randolph, and Alexander Broine.
And it should seem, by the text, that Walton followed the above-meuiioned examples, by
adopting Cotton for his sou.

2l8

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, Charles Coiton.

Beresford, loth of March 1675-6.

TO MY MOST HONOURED FRIEND, CHARLES
COTTON, ESQ.

Sir, — 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
endeavour 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 pleasantness 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 favour, and till then
will live, Sir, your most affectionate Father and Friend,

IzAAK Walton.*
London, April 29, 1676.

* This letter, and the Retirement, are placed at the close of the Second Part, in the
edition of 1676.

THE RETIREMENT.

STANZES IRREGULIERS TO MR IZAAK WALTON.

Farewell, 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 thy most conspicuous theatres,
Where nought, but ^ vanity and vice appears.

IL
Good God ! how sweet are all things here !
How beautiful the fields appear !
How cleanly do we feed and lie !
Lord ! what good hours do we keep !

How quietly we sleep !
What peace ! what unanimity !
How innocent from the lewd fashion
Is all our business, all our ' recreation I

III.
Oh how happy here's our leisure !
Oh how innocent our pleasure !
Oh ye valleys, oh ye mountains !
Oh ye groves and crystal fountains,

How I love at liberty,
By turn to come and visit ye !

IV.

Dear solitude,' the soul's best friend,
That man acquainted with himself dost make,
And all his Maker's wonders to intend :
With thee I here converse at will.
And would be glad to do so still.
For it is thou alone that keep'st the soul awake.

Variations y>-<?»« CottofCs Posthumous Poems^ 8vo, 1689.
vice and vanity do reign. 2 conversation. 3 O solitude.

220 THE RETIREMENT.

V.
How calm and quiet a delight

It is alone
To read, and meditate, and write.
By none offended, and offending none !
To walk, ride, sit, or sleep at one's own ease,
And pleasing a man's self, none other to displease !

Oh my beloved nymph ! fair Dove ;
Px-incess of rivers, how I love
Upon thy flowery banks to lie ;

And view thy silver stream.
When gilded by a summer's beam,
And in it all thy wanton fry

Playing at liberty,
And with my angle upon them

The all of treachery
I ever learnt, industriously to try.^

VII.

Such streams Rome's yellow Tyber cannot show,
Th' Iberian Tagus, nor Ivigurian Po ;

The Meuse, the Danube, and the Rhine
Are puddle-water all compar'd with thine ;
And Loire's pure streams yet too polluted are

With thine, much purer to compare ;
The rapid Garonne, and the winding Seine,

Are both too mean.
Beloved Dove, with thee
To vie priority ;
Nay, Tame and Isis, when conjoin'd, submit,
And lay their trophies at thy silver feet.

VIII.

Oh my beloved rocks ! that rise
To awe the earth, and brave the skies.
From some aspiring mountain's crown.
How dearly do I love.
Giddy with pleasure, to look down ;
And, from the vales to view the noble heights above !

IX.

Oh my beloved caves ! from dog-star's heat
And all anxieties, my safe I'etreat : ^
What safety, privacy, what true delight.

In the artificial night,

Your gloomy entrails make.
Have I taken, do I take !

VARIATIONS.

4 I ever learn 'd to practise and to try !

5 And hotter persecution safe retreats.

M ''■

1-1

<!

o

^ <
'^ Pi

I/)

THE RETIREMENT. 221

TIow oft when grief has made me fly.

To hide me from society

Even of my dearest friends, have I,

In your recesses' friendly shade.

All my sorrows open laid,
And my most secret woes, intrusted to your privacy !

X.

Lord ! would men let me alone,
What an over-happy one
Should I think myself to be ;
Might I in this desert place
(Which most men in discourse^ disgrace)
Live but undisturb'd and free !
Here, in this despis'd recess.

Would I, maugre winter's cold,
And the summer's worst excess.
Try to live out to sixty full years old ; *
And, all the while,
W^ithout an envious eye
On any thriving under fortune's smile.
Contented live, and then contented die.

Variation. 6 by their voice disgrace.

c. c.

This he did not ; for he was born 1630, and died in 1687.

Cfie JFirgt 3Dag.

CHAPTER I.

PISCATOR JUNIOR, AND VIATOR.

PISCATOR. You are happily overtaken, Sir : may a man be
' so bold as to inquire, how far you travel this way ?

Viator. Yes sure, Sir, very freely ; though it be a question I
cannot very well resolve you, as not knowing myself how far it is
to Ashbourn, where I intend to-night to take up my inn.

PiSCATOR. Why then, Sir, seeing I perceive you to be a
stranger in these parts, I shall take upon me to inform you, that
from the town you last came through, called Brailsford,* it is five
miles ; and you are not, yet, above half a mile on this side.

Viator. So much ! I was told it was but ten miles from
Derby ; and, methinks, I have rode almost so far already.

PiSCATOR. O, Sir, find no fault with large measure of good
land ; which Derbyshire abounds in, as much as most counties of
England.

Viator. It may be so ; and good land, I confess, affords a
pleasant prospect : but by your good leave, Sir, large measure of
foul way is not altogether so acceptable.

PiSCATOR. True, Sir, but the foul way serves to justify the
fertility of the soil, according to the proverb, *' There is good land

* Brailsford is six miles from Ashbourn, and Ashbourn thirteen miles from Derby.

CHAP. I.] THE FIRST DAY. 223

where there is foul way ;" and is of good use to inform you of the
riches of the country you are come into, and of its continual travel
and traffic to the country town you came from : which is also
very observable by the fulness of its road, and the loaden horses
you meet everywhere upon the way.

Viator. Well, Sir ! I will be content to think as well of your
country as you would desire. And I shall have a great deal of
reason both to think and to speak very well of you, if I may
obtain the happiness of your company to the forementioned place,
provided your affairs lead you that way, and that they will permit
you to slack your pace, out of complacency to a traveller utterly a
stranger in these parts, and who am still to wander further out of
my own knowledge.

PiSCATOR. Sir, you invite me to my own advantage. And I
am ready to attend you, my way lying through that town ; but
my business, that is, my home, some miles beyond it : however, I
shall have time enough to lodge you in your quarters, and after-
wards to perform my own journey. In the meantime, may I be
so bold as to inquire the end of your journey ?

Viator. 'Tis into Lancashire, Sir, and about some business
of concern to a near relation of mine ; for I assure you, I do not
use to take so long journeys as from Essex upon the single account
of pleasure.

PiSCATOR. From thence. Sir ! I do not then wonder you
should appear dissatisfied with the length of the miles, and the
foulness of the way, though I am sorry you should begin to quarrel
with them so soon ; for believe me, Sir, you will find the miles
much longer, and the way much worse, before you come to your
journey's end.

Viator. Why ! truly, Sir ! for that I am prepared to expect
the worst ; but methinks the way is mended since I had the good
fortune to fall into your good company.

PiSCATOR. You are not obliged to my company for that, but
because you are already past the worst, and the greatest part of
your way to your lodging.

Viator. I am very glad to hear it, both for the ease of my-
self and my horse ; but especially because I may then expect a
freer enjoyment of your conversation ; though the shortness of
the way will, I fear, make me lose it the sooner.

PiSCATOR. That, Sir, is not worth your care ; and I am sure
you deserve much better, for being content with so ill company.
But we have already talked away two miles of your journey ; for,

224 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part ii.

from the brook before us, that runs at the foot of this sandy hill,
you have but three miles to Ashbourn.

Viator. I meet, everywhere in this country, with these
little brooks ; and they look as if they were full of fish : have
they not Trouts in them ?

PiSCATOR. That is a question which is to be excused in a
stranger, as you are : otherwise, give me leave to tell you, it
would seem a kind of affront to our country, to make a doubt of
what we pretend to be famous for, next, if not before, our malt,
wool, lead, and coal : for you are to understand that we think
we have as many fine rivers, rivulets, and brooks, as any country
whatever; and they are all full of Trouts, and some of them the
best, it is said, by many degrees, in England.

Viator. I was first. Sir, in love with you ; and now shall be
so enamoured of your country, by this account you give me of it,
as to wish myself a Derbyshire-man, or at least that I might live
in it : for you must know I am a pretender to the angle, and,
doubtless, a Trout affords the most pleasure to the angler of any
sort of fish whatever ; and the best Trouts must needs make the
best sport : but this brook, and some others I have met with
upon this way, are too full of wood for that recreation.

PiSCATOR. This, Sir ! why this, and several others like it,
W'hich you have passed, and some that you are like to pass, have
scarce any name amongst us : but we can show you as fine
rivers, and as clear from wood or any other incumbrance to
hinder an angler, as any you ever saw ; and for clear beautiful
streams, Hantshire itself, by Mr Izaac Walton's good leave,
can show none such ; nor I think any country in Europe.

Viator. You go far. Sir, in the praise of your country rivers,
and I perceive have read Mr Walton's Complete Angler, by your
naming of Hantshire ; and I pray what is your opinion of that book?

PiSCATOR. My opinion of Mr Walton's book is the same
with every man's that understands anything of the art of angling,
that it is an excellent good one ; and that the forementioned
gentleman understands as much of fish and fishing as any man
living. But I must tell you, further, that I have the happiness to
know his person, and to be intimately acquainted with him ; and
in him to know the worthiest man, and to enjoy the best and the
truest friend any man ever had : nay, I shall yet acquaint you
further that he gives me leave to call him Father, and I hope is
not yet ashamed to own me for his adopted Son.*

• Vide p. 218.

CHAP. I.] THE FIRST DA K 22$

Viator. In earnest, Sir, I am ravished to meet with a friend
of Mr Izaac Walton's, and one that does him so much right in so
good and true a character : for I must boast to you, that I have
the good fortune to know him too, and came acquainted with him
much after the same manner I do with you ; that he was my
master, who first taught me to love Angling, and then to become
an Angler ; and, to be plain with you, I am the very man
deciphered in his book under the name of Venator; for I was
wholly addicted to the Chase, till he taught me as good, a more
quiet, innocent, and less dangerous diversion.

PiSCATOR. Sir, I think myself happy in your acquaintance ;
and before we part, shall entreat leave to embrace you. You
have said enough to recommend you to my best opinion : for my
father Walton will be seen twice in no man's company he does
not like, and likes none but such as he behaves to be very honest
men, which is one of the best arguments, or at least of the best testi-
monies I have, that I either am, or that he thinks me one of
those, seeing that I have not yet found him weary of me.

Viator. You speak like a true friend ; and in doing so, render
yourself worthy of his friendship. May I be so bold as to ask
your name "i

PiSCATOR. Yes surely. Sir, and, if you please, a much nicer

question : my name is , and I intend to stay long enough in

your company, if I find you do not dislike mine, to ask yours
too. In the meantime (because we are now almost at Ash-
bourn) I shall freely and bluntly tell you, that I am a brother
of the angle too, and, peradventure, can give you some instruc-
tions, How to angle for a Trout in a clear river, and my father
Walton himself will not disapprove, though he did either pur-
posely omit, or did not remember them, when you and he sat
discoursing under the sycamore-tree.* And, being you have
already told me whither your journey is intended, and that I am
better acquainted with the country than you are ; I will heartily
and earnestly entreat you will not think of staying at this town,
but go on with me six miles further to my house, where you shall
be extremely welcome ; it is directly in your way, we have day
enough to perform our journey, and, as you like your entertain-
ment, you may there repose yourself a day or two, or as many
more as your occasions will permit, to recompense the trouble of
so much a longer journey.

Viator. Sir, you surprise me with so friendly an invitation

* Vide p. 99.

P

226 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part ii.

upon so short acquaintance ; but how advantageous soever it
would be to me, and that my haste, perhaps, is not so great but it
might dispense with such a divertisement as I promise myself in
your company, yet I cannot, in modesty, accept your offer, and
must therefore beg your pardon : I could otherwise, I confess, be
glad to wait upon you, if upon no other account but to talk of Mr
I. Walton, and to receive those instructions you say you are able
to give me for the deceiving a Trout ; in which art I will not deny
but that I have an ambition to be one of the greatest deceivers :
though I cannot forbear freely to tell you, that I think it hard to
say much more than has been read to me upon that subject.

PiSCATOR. Well, Sir, I grant that too ; but you must know
that the variety of rivers require different ways of angling : how-
ever, you shall have the best rules I am able to give, and I will tell
you nothing I have not made myself as certain of, as any man
can be in thirty years' experience (for so long I have been a
dabbler in that art) ; and that, if you please to stay a few days, you
shall not, in a very great measure, see made good to you. But
of that hereafter ; and now. Sir, if I am not mistaken, I have
half overcome you : and that I may wholly conquer that modesty
of yours, I will take upon me to be so familiar as to say, you
must accept my invitation, which, that you may the more easily
be persuaded to do, I will tell you that my house stands i^)on the
margin of one of the finest rivers for Trouts and Grayling in Eng-
land ; that I have lately built a little fishing-house upon it,
dedicated to anglers, over the door of which you will see the
two first letters of my father Walton's name and mine twisted
in cipher ; * that you shall lie in the same t bed he has some-
times been contented with, and have such country entertainment
as my friends sometimes accept, and be as welcome, too, as the
best friend of them all.

Viator. No doubt. Sir, but my master Walton found good
reason to be satisfied with his entertainment in your house ; for
you who are so friendly to a mere stranger, who deserves so
little, must needs be exceedingly kind and free to him who
deserves so much.

* As in the title-page [of Part II.]— /^. Wa.

t Tradition does not point out the room ; but Mr Bagster has, in his edition of Cotton
civen an engraving of the carved mantelpiece of a bedroom, "which," he observes,
*' though it may not be the very room that Walton slept in, many circumstances unite
to lead to that conclusion." In 1825 there were two bedrooms with similar carved
mantelpieces existing, which were then used only as lumber or cheese rooms ; and in
Alstonefield church is a pew with the back finely car\'ed with the arms of Cotton on the
panels. — P.

^^^i^^|^'Vc.^vf^i^^^^^^

Pi u

o

CO

I

CHAP. I.] THE FIRST DA V. 227

PiSCATOR. Believe me, no : and such as are intimately-
acquainted with that gentleman know him to be a man who will
not endure to be treated like a stranger. So that his acceptation
of my poor entertainments has ever been a pure effect of his own
humility and good-nature, and nothing else. But, Sir, we are now
going down the Spittle hill into the town ; * and therefore let me
importune you suddenly to resolve, and most earnestly not to
deny me.

Viator. In truth. Sir, I am so overcome by your bounty,
that I find I cannot, but must render myself wholly to be disposed
by you.

PiSCATOR. Why, that's heartily and kindly spoken, and I as
heartily thank you. And, being you have abandoned yourself to
my conduct, we will only call and drink a glass on horseback at
the Talbot, and away.

Viator. I attend you. But what pretty river is this that
runs under this stone bridge ? has it a name ?

PiSCATOR. Yes, it is called Henmorejt and has in it both
Trout and Grayling : but you will meet with one or two better anon.
And so soon as we are past through the town, I will endeavour,
by such discourse as best likes you, to pass away the time till you
come to your ill quarters.

Viator. We can talk of nothing with which I shall be more
delighted than of rivers and angling.

PiSCATOR. Let those be the subjects then. But we are now
come to the Talbot : | what will you drink. Sir? ale or wine ?

Viator. Nay, I am for the country liquor, Derbyshire ale, if
you please ; for a man should not, methinks, come from London
to drink wine in the Peak.

PiSCATOR. You are in the right : and yet, let me tell you,
you may drink worse French wine in many taverns in London
than they have sometimes at this house. What ho ! bring us a
flagon of your best ale. And now, Sir, my service to you : a
good health to the honest gentleman you know of, and you are
welcome into the Peak.

* The old road, to the left of the turnpike, before the traveller enters Ashbourn.

t At that time it was commonly so called, because it flowed through Hen Moor ; but
its proper name is Schoo Brook. See a singular contest regarding the right of fishing in
this brook, as reported in Burrows, 2279. Richard Hayne, Esq. of Ashbourn, v. Uriah
Corden, Esq. of Clifton.

t This inn stood in the market-place, and till about sixty years since was the first inn
at Ashbourn. About that period a wing was divided off for a private dwelling ; and the
far-famed Talbot was reduced to an inferior pothouse, and continued thus degraded
imtil the year 1786, when it was totally demolished by Mr Langdale, then a builder in
that town, who erected a very handsome structure on its site. Mr Langdale is now (1815)
a bookseller in the town, and acts as clerk to the magistrates of the hundred.

228 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part ii.

Viator. I thank you, Sir, and present you my service again,
and to all the honest brothers of the angle.

PiSCATOR. I'll pledge you, Sir: so, there's for your ale, and
farewell. Come, Sir, let's be going, for the sun grows low, and
I would have you look about you as you ride : for you will see an
odd country, and sights that will seem strange to you.

PiSCATOR. So, Sir, now we are got to the top of the hill out

of town, look about you, and tell me how you hke
Chap. II. ^x. \

the country.

Viator. Bless me ! what mountains are here ! are we not in
Wales .?

PiSCATOR. No, but in almost as mountainous a country ; and
yet these hills, though high, bleak, and craggy, breed and feed
good beef and mutton above ground, and afford good store of lead
within.

Viator. They had need of all those commodities to make
amends for the ill landscape : but I hope our way does not lie
over any of these, for I dread a precipice.

PiSCATOR. Believe me, but it does ; and down one, especially,
that will appear a little terrible to a stranger ; though the way is
passable enough, and so passable that we who are natives of these
mountains, and acquainted with them, disdain to alight.

Viator. I hope, though, that a foreigner is privileged to
use his own discretion, and that I may have the liberty to intrust
my neck to the fidelity of my own feet, rather than to those of my
horse, for I have no more at home.

PiSCATOR. 'Twere hard else. But in the meantime, I think
'twere best, while this way is pretty even, to mend our pace, that
we may be past that hill I speak of, to the end your apprehension
may not be doubled for want of light to discern the easiness of the
descent.

Viator. I am willing to put forward as fast as my beast will
give me leave, though I fear nothing in your company. But
what pretty river is this we are going into .?

PiSCATOR. Why this. Sir, is called Bentley brook,* and is full
of very good Trout and Grayling, but so encumbered with wood
in many places as is troublesome to an angler.

Viator. Here are the prettiest rivers, and the most of them,
in this country that ever I saw : do you know how many you
have in the country .?

* A narrow swift stream, two miles beyond Ashbourn, in the present highroad, but
considerably nearer to it in the old road.

CHAP. II.] THE FIRST DA Y. 229

PiSCATOR. I know them all, and they were not hard to reckon,
were it worth the trouble : but the most considerable of them I
will presently name you. And to begin where we now are, for
you must know we are now upon the very skirts of Derbyshire, we
have, first, the river Dove, that we shall come to by-and-by, which
divides the two counties of Derby and Stafford for many miles
together, and is so called from the swiftness of its current, and
that swiftness occasioned by the dechvity of its course, and by
being so straitened in that course betwixt the rocks, by which
(and those very high ones) it is, hereabout, for four or five miles,
confined into a very narrow stream : a river that from a contempt-
ible fountain, which I can cover with my hat, by the confluence
of other rivers, rivulets, brooks, and rills, is swelled, before it fall
into Trent, a little below Eggington, where it loses the name, to
such a breadth and depth, as to be in most places navigable, were
not the passage frequently interrupted with fords and weirs ; and
has as fertile banks as any river in England, none excepted. And
this river, from its head for a mile or two, is a black water, as all
the rest of the Derbyshire rivers of note originally are, for they
all spring from the mosses ; but is in a few miles' travel so
clarified by the addition of several clear and very great springs,
bigger than itself, which gush out of the limestone rocks, that
before it comes to my house, which is but six or seven miles from
its source, you will find it one of the purest crystalline streams you
have seen.*

Viator. Does Trent spring in these parts ?

PiSCATOR. Yes, in these parts ; not in this county, but some-
where towards the upper end of Staffordshire, I think not far from
a place called Trentham ; and thence runs down, not far from
Stafford, to Wolseley Bridge, and, washing the skirts and purlieus
of the forest of Needwood, runs down to Burton in the same county ;
thence it comes into this, where we now are, and, running by
Swarkeston and Dunnington, receives Derwent at Wildon ; and,
so, to Nottingham ; thence, to Newark ; and, by Gainsborough,

* Between Beresford Hall and Ashboum lies Dove Dale, whose crested cliffs and
swift torrents are again noticed by Cotton in his "Wonders of the Peak." Through this
singularly deep valley the Dove runs for about two miles, changing its course, its motion,
and its appearance perpetually ; never less than ten, and rarely so many as twenty yards
in width ; making a continued noise by rolling over or falling among loose stones. The
rocks which form its sides are heaved up in enormous piles, sometimes connected with
each other, and sometimes detached ; some perforated in natural cavities, others adorned
with foliage ; with here and there a tall rock, having nothing to relieve the bareness of
its appearance but a mountain-ash flourishing at the top. The grandeur of the scenery
is probably unrivalled in England. — E.

230 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part ii.

to Kingston-upon-Hullj where it takes the name of Humber,* and
thence falls into the sea : but that the Map will best inform you.

Viator. Know you whence this river Trent derives its name?

PiSCATOR. No, indeed; and yet I have heard it often discoursed
upon : when some have given its denomination from the forenamed
Trentham, though that seems rather a derivative from it ; others
have said it is so called from thirty rivers that fall into it,t and
there lose their names ; which cannot be, neither, because it
carries that name from its very fountain, before any other rivers fall
into it : others derive it from thirty several sorts of fish that breed
there ; and that is the most likely derivation : but be it how it
will, it is doubtless one of the finest rivers in the world, and the
most abounding with excellent Salmon, and all sorts of delicate
fish.

Viator. Pardon me, Sir, for tempting you into this digression :
and then proceed to your other rivers, for I am mightily delighted
with this Discourse.

PiSCATOR. It was no interruption, but a very seasonable
question ; for Trent is not only one of our Derbyshire rivers, but
the chief of them, and into which all the rest pay the tribute ot
their names, which I had, perhaps, forgot to insist upon, being
got to the other end of the county, had you not awoke my memory.
But I will now proceed. And the next river of note, for I will
take them as they lie eastward from us, is the river Wye : I say
of note, for we have two lesser betwixt us and it, namely, Lathkin
and Bradford ; of which Lathkin is, by many degrees, the purest
and most transparent stream that I ever yet saw, either at home
or abroad, and breeds, it is said, the reddest and the best Trouts
in England : but neither of these are to be reputed rivers, being
no better than great springs. The river Wye, then, has its source
near unto Buxton, a town some ten miles from hence, famous for
a warm bath, and which you are to ride through in your way to
Manchester : a black water, too, at the fountain, but, by the same
reason with Dove, becomes very soon a most delicate clear river,
and breeds admirable Trout and Grayhng, reputed by those who,
by living upon its banks, are partial to it, the best of any : and this,
running down by Ashford, Bakewell, and Haddon, at a town a little
lower, called Rowsley, falls into Derwent, and there loses its name.;}:

* Humber loud, that keeps the Scythian's name. — Miltori.
t Trent, who, like some Earth-born giant spreads
His thirty arms along the indented meads.— /^?<f.
X By this it appears that there are two rivers in England that bear the name of Wye :
the former Wye, occasionally mentioned in this work, has, as well as the Severn, its

CHAP. II.] THE FIRST DA Y. 231

The next in order is Derwent, a black water too, and that not
only from its fountain but quite through its progress, not having
these crystal springs to wash and cleanse it which the two fore-
mentioned have, but abounds with Trout and Grayling, such as
they are, towards its source, and with Salmon below. And this
river, from the upper and utmost part of this county, where it
springs, taking its course by Chatsworth, Darley, Matlock, Derby,
Burrow- Ash, and Awberson, falls into Trent, at a place called
Wildon ; and there loses its name. The east side of this county
of Derby is bounded by little inconsiderable rivers, as Awber, Ero-
ways, and the like, scarce worth naming, but trouty too ; and
further we are not to inquire. But, Sir, I have carried you, as a
man may say, by water, till we are now come to the descent of
the formidable hill I told you of (at the foot of which runs the
river Dove, which I cannot but love above all the rest) ; and
therefore prepare yourself to be a little frighted.

Viator. Sir, I see you would fortify me that I should not
shame myself : but I dare follow where you please to lead me.
And I see no danger yet ; for the descent, methinks, is thus far
green, even, and easy.

PiSCATOR. You will like it worse presently, when you come
to the brow of the hill : and now we are there, what think you .?

Viator. What do I think } why, I think it the strangest place
that ever, sure, men and horses went down ; and that, if there be
any safety at all, the safest way is to alight.

PiSCATOR. I think so too, for you who are mounted upon a
beast not acquainted with these slippery stones : and though I
frequently ride down, I will alight too to bear you company and
to lead you the way. And, if you please, my man shall lead your
horse.

Viator. Marry, Sir ! and thank you too : for I am afraid I
shall have enough to do to look to myself : and with my horse
in my hand should be in a double fear, both of breaking my neck,
and my horse falling on me, for it is as steep as a penthouse.

PiSCATOR. To look down from hence it appears so, I confess :
but the path winds and turns, and will not be found so troublesome.

head in the Plinlimmon hill, on the borders of Montgomery and Cardiganshire ; from
whence, as its Latin name, Vaga, imports, wandering through part of Brecknockshire, it,
near the Hay, enters Herefordshire, and at Mordiford, within four miles of Hereford,
receives the Lug ; from thence, passing on to Ross, it enters Monmouthshire, and falls
into the Severn below Chepstow.

It abounds with that small species offish called Last-springs, and also with Graylinjf.

And here it may be necessary to remark, that the names of Avon, Ouse, Stoure, and
some others, are common to many rivers in England, as that of Dulas is to numbers in
Wales. See Notes on the Folyolbion, Song the sixth. — E.

232 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part ii.

Viator. Would I were well down, though ! Hoist thee ! there's
one fair 'scape ! these stones are so slippery I cannot stand ! yet
again ! I think I were best lay my heels in my neck and tumble
down.

PisCATOR. If you think your heels will defend your neck, that
is the way to be soon at the bottom. But give me your hand at
this broad stone, and then the worst is past.

Viator. I thank you, Sir, I am now past it, I can go myself.
What's here .^ the sign of a bridge ? Do you use to travel with
wheelbarrows in this country .?

PiSCATOR. Not that I ever saw, Sir ; why do you ask that
question 1

Viator. Because this bridge certainly was made for nothing
else : why ! a mouse can hardly go over it : 'tis not two fingers
broad.

PiSCATOR. You are pleasant, and I am glad to see you so ;
but I have rid over the bridge many a dark night.

Viator. Why, according to the French proverb, and 'tis a
good one, among a great many of worse sense and sound that
language abounds in, Ce que Dieu garde est bien garde., " They
whom God takes care of are in safe protection : " but, let me tell
you, I would not ride over it for a thousand pounds, nor fall off it
for two : and yet I think I dare venture on foot, though, if you
were not by to laugh at me, I should do it on all four.

PiSCATOR. Well, Sir, your mirth becomes you, and I am glad
to see you safe over, and now you are welcome into Staffordshire.
Viator. How, Staffordshire ! What do I there, trow .? there
is not a word of Staffordshire in all my direction.

PiSCATOR. You see you are betrayed into it, but it shall be in
order to something that will make amends ; and 'tis but an ill
mile or two out of your way.

Viator. I believe all things, Sir, and doubt nothing. Is
this your beloved river Dove ? 'Tis clear and swift, indeed, but
a very little one.

PiSCATOR. You see it, here, at the worst : we shall come to it
anon again, after two miles' riding, and so near as to lie upon the
very banks.

Viator. Would we were there once : but I hope we have no
more of these Alps to pass over.

PiSCATOR. No, no. Sir, only this ascent before you, which
you see is not very uneasy, and then you will no more quarrel
with your way.

<

CHAP. II ] THE FIRST DA Y. 233

Viator. Well, if ever I come to London, of which many a
man there, if he were in my place, would make a question, I will
sit down and write my travels ; and, like Tom Coriate,* print
them at my own charge. Pray what do you call this hill we
came down ?

PiscATOR. We call it Hanson-Toot.

Viator. Why, farewell, Hanson-Toot ! I'll no more on thee :
rU go twenty miles about, first. Puh ! I sweat, that my shirt
sticks to my back.

PiSCATOR. Come, Sir, now we are up the hill ; and now how
do you .'*

Viator. Why, very well, I humbly thank you. Sir, and warm
enough, I assure you. What have we here, a church ? As I'm
an honest man, a very pretty church ! Have you churches in this
country, Sir.?

• Tom Coriate lived in the reign of King James the First ; and, as Anthony Wood
calls him, was the whetstone of all the wits of that age : and indeed the allusions to him,
and to the singular oddness of. his character, are numberless. He travelled almost over
Europe on foot ; and in that tour walked 900 miles with one pair of shoes, which he got
mended at Zurich. Afterwards he visited Turkey, Persia, and the Great Mogul's
dominions, travelling in so frugal a manner, that — as he tells his mother, in a letter to
her — in his ten months' travels, between Aleppo and the Mogul's court, he spent but
three pounds sterling ; living remarkably well for about twopence sterling a day ; and of
that three pounds he elsewhere says, he was cozened of no less than ten shillings sterling
by certain Christians of the Armenian nation ; so that, indeed, he spent but fifty shillings
in his ten months' travels. In these his travels, he attained to great proficiency both in
the Persian and Indostan languages ; in the former, he made and pronounced an oration
to the Great Mogul ; and his skill in the latter, he took occasion to manifest in the
following very signal instance. In the service of the English ambassador, then resident,
was a woman of Indostan, a laundress, whose frequent practice it was to scold, brawl,
and rail, from sunrising to sunset. This formidable shrew did Coriate one day under-
take to scold with, in her own language ; and succeeded so well in the attempt, that, by
eight of the clock in the morning, he had totally silenced her, leaving her not a word to
speak. See A Voyage to East India., by Edward Terry, chaplain to Sir Tho. Row,
ambassador to the Great Mogul, i2mo, 1655. Further, it appears that he was a zealous
champion for the Christian religion against the Mahometans and Pagans ; in the defence
whereof he sometimes risked his life. In Turkey, when a priest, as the custom is, was
proclaiming from a mosque tower that Mahomet was a true prophet, Tom, in the fury of
his zeal, and in the face of the whole city, told the priest he lied, and that his prophet
was an impostor ; and at a city called Moltan, in the East Indies, he, in public, disputed
with a Mahometan, who had called him Giaur, or infidel, in these words : " But I pray
thee, tell me, thou Mahometan ! dost thou, in sadness, call me Giaur? That I do, quoth
he. Then, quoth I, in very sober sadness, I retort that shameful word in thy throat ;
and tell thee plainly, that I am a Mussulman, and thou art a Giaur." He concludes
thus : " Go to then, thou false believer, since by thy injurious imputation laid on me, in
that thou calledst me Giaur, thou hast provoked me to speak thus. I pray thee, let this
mine answer be a warning for thee not to scandalise me in the like manner any more :
for the Christian reliaion, which I profess, is so dear and tender unto me, that neither
thou, nor any other Mahometan, shall, scot free, call me Giaur, but that I shall quit you
with an answer much to the wonder of those Mahometans. Dixi." He died of the flux,
occasioned by drinking sack at Surat, in 1617 : having published his European travels in
a quarto volume, which he called his Crudities : and to this circumstance the pas.sage in
the text is a manifest allusion. See At/ten. Oxon. by Bliss, vol. ii. p. 208 ; Purchas's
fiigrims, part i. book 4, chap. 17; Coriate's Letter Jrom the Court 0/ the Great
Mos^iil, 4to, 1616; and, above all, Terry's Voyage, before cited, the author whereof was,
as he hituscif asserts, his chamber-fellow, or tent-mate, in East India. — H.

234 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part ir.

PiSCATOR. You see we have : but had you seen none, why
should you make that doubt, Sir ?

Viator. Why, if you will not be angry, I'll tell you ; I thought
myself a stage or two beyond Christendom,

PiSCATOR. Come ! come ! we'll reconcile you to our country,
before we part with you \ if showing you good sport with angling
will do it.

Viator. My respect to you, and that together, may do much,
Sir : otherwise, to be plain with you, I do not find myself much
inclined that way.

PiSCATOR. Well, Sir, your raillery upon our mountains has
brought us almost home ; and look you where the same river of
Dove has again met us to bid you welcome, and to invite you to
a dish of Trouts to-morrow.

Viator. Is this the same we saw at the foot of Penmen-
Maure 1 It is much a finer river here.

PiSCATOR. It will appear yet much finer to-morrow. But look
you. Sir, here appears the house that is now like to be your inn,
for want of a better.

Viator. It appears on a sudden, but not before 'twas looked
for ; it stands prettily, and here's wood about it too, but so young
as appears to be of your own planting.

PiSCATOR. It is so. Will it please you to alight. Sir .? And
now permit me, after all your pains and dangers, to take you in
my arms, and to assure you that you are infinitely welcome.

Viator. I thank you, Sir and am glad with all my heart I
am here ; for in downright truth, I am exceeding weary.

PiSCATOR. You will sleep so much the better ; you shall
presently have a light supper, and to bed. Come, Sirs, lay the
cloth, and bring what ycu have presently, and let the gentleman's
bed be made ready in the meantime in my father Walton's
chamber. And now. Sir, here is my service to you ; and once
more, welcome !

Viator. I marry. Sir, this glass of good sack has refreshed
me. And I'll make as bold with your meat ; for the trot has
got me a good stomach.

PiSCATOR. Come, Sir, fall to then ; you see my little supper is
always ready when I come home, and I'll make no stranger of you.

Viator. That your meal is so soon ready, is a sign your
servants know your certain hours. Sir ; I confess I did not
expect it so soon : but now 'tis here, you shall see I will make
myself no stranger. ^^

234 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part it.

PiSCATOR. You see we have : but had you seen none, why
should you make that doubt, Sir ?

Viator. Why, if you will not be angry, I'll tell you ; I thought
myself a stage or two beyond Christendom.

PiSCATOR. Come ! come ! we'll reconcile you to our country,
before we part with you ; if showing you good sport with angling
will do it.

Viator. My respect to you, and that together, may do much,
Sir : otherwise, to be plain with you, I do not find myself much
inclined that way.

PiSCATOR. Well, Sir, your raillery upon our mountains has
brought us almost home ; and look you where the same river of
Dove has again met us to bid you welcome, and to invite you to
a dish of Trouts to-morrow.

Viator. Is this the same we saw at the foot of Penmen-
Maure 1 It is much a finer river here.

PiSCATOR. It will appear yet much finer to-morrow. But look
you. Sir, here appears the house that is now like to be your inn,
for want of a better.

Viator. It appears on a sudden, but not before 'twas looked
for ; it stands prettily, and here's wood about it too, but so young
as appears to be of your own planting.

PiSCATOR. It is so. Will it please you to alight. Sir ? And
now permit me, after all your pains and dangers, to take you in
my arms, and to assure you that you are infinitely welcome.

Viator. I thank you. Sir and am glad with all my heart I
am here ; for in downright truth, I am exceeding weary.

PiSCATOR. You will sleep so much the better ; you shall
presently have a light supper, and to bed. Come, Sirs, lay the
cloth, and bring what ycu have presently, and let the gentleman's
bed be made ready in the meantime in my father Walton's
chamber. And now. Sir, here is my service to you ; and once
more, welcome !

Viator. I marry. Sir, this glass of good sack has refreshed
me. And I'll make as bold with your meat ; for the trot has
got me a good stomach.

PiSCATOR. Come, Sir, fall to then ; you see my little supper is
always ready when I come home, and I'll make no stranger of you.

Viator. That your meal is so soon ready, is a sign your
servants know your certain hours. Sir ; I confess I did not
expect it so soon : but now 'tis here, you shall see I will make
myself no stranger. ^^

l&^

CHAP. II.] , THE FIRST DA Y. 235

PiSCATOR. Much good do your heart : and I thank you for
that friendly word : and now, Sir, my service to you in a cup of
More Land's ale ; for you are now in the More Lands, but within
a spit and a stride of the Peak. Fill my friend his glass.

Viator. Believe me you have good ale in the More Lands,
far better than that at Ashbourn.

PiSCATOR. That it may soon be ; for Ashbourn has (which
is a kind of riddle) always in it the best malt and the worst ale
in England. Come, take away, and bring us some pipes, and a
bottle of ale: and go to your own suppers. Are you for this
diet, Sir .?

Viator. Yes, Sir, I am for one pipe of tobacco ; and I
perceive yours is very good by the smell.

PiSCATOR. . The best I can get in London, I assure you.
But, Sir, now you have thus far complied with my designs, as to
take a troublesome journey into an ill country, only to satisfy me ;
how long may I hope to enjoy you ?

Viator. Why, truly, Sir, as long as I conveniently can ; and
longer, I think, you would not have me.

PiSCATOR. Not to your inconvenience by any means. Sir :
but I see you are weary, and therefore I will presently wait on
you to your chamber, where, take counsel of your pillow ; and, to-
morrow, resolve me. Here, take the lights ; and pray follow
them. Sir. Here you are like to lie ; and now I have showed you
your lodging, I beseech you, command anything you want, and
so I wish you good rest.

Viator. Good-night, Sir.

Cfie ©econD Dag*

CHAPTER III.

PISCATOR. Good-morrow, Sir : what ! up and drest, so
early ?

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

PiSCATOR. I am glad to see you so brisk this morning, and
so eager for 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 tiy, and, one way or other, we
shall, sure, do something. What will you have to your breakfast,
or what will you drink this morning ?

Viator. For breakfast I never eat any, and for drink 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.

PiSCATOR. Well, Sir, you see the ale is come without

* Cotton's beautiful description of this river must here be brought to the reader's
recollection.

Oh my beloved nymph ! fair Dove ;

Princess of rivers, how I love

Upon thy flowery banks to lie,

And view thy silver stream,

When gilded by a summer's beam,

And in it all thy wanton fry

Playing at liberty ;
And with my Angle upon them,

The all of treachery
I ever learn'd to practise and to try !

CHAP. III.] THE SECOND DAY. 237

calling ; for though I do not know yours, my people know my
diet, which is always one glass so soon as I am drest, and no
more, till dinner : and so my servants have served you.

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

PiSCATOR. 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 shall raise all the exceptions
against our country you can.

Viator. 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.

PiSCATOR. 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 countries ?

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

PiSCATOR. 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 1 *

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

PiSCATOR. 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.

* Cotton, in his " Epistle to John Bradshaw, Esq.," printed in his Posthumous Poems,
thus alludes to his Fishing-house : —

My River still through the same channel glides
Clear from the tumult, salt, and dirt of tides,
And my poor Fishing-house, my Seat's best gracet
Stands firm and faithful in the self-same place,
I left it four months since, and ten to one
1 go a-fishing ere two days are gone.

238 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part ir.

Viator. 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 cipher too you spoke of; and 'tis prettily contrived. Has
my master Walton ever been here to see it ; for it seems new
built 1 1

PiSCATOR. 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.

Viator. 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 with this little

* There is, under this motto, the cipher mentioned in the title-page [of Part II.] 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. — Izaak Walton.

t In the edition of 1784, Sir John Hawkins says, "I have been favoured with an
accurate description of the Fishing-house, by a person [Mr White, since of Crickhowel]
who, being in that country, with a view to oblige me, went to see it. 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 panels up to the ceiling. In the larger panels were repre-
sented, in painting, some of the most pleasant of the adjacent scenes, with persons fish-
ing ; and in the smaller, the various sorts of tackle and implements used in angling. In
the further corner, on the left, was a fireplace with a chimney ; on the right a large
buffet, 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 cupboard ; on the door whereof
the figures of a Trout and of a Grayling were well portrayed. At this time the edifice was
in but indifferent condition ; the paintings, and even the wainscoting, in many places,
being much decayed."

To which Mr Bagster adds, that on visiting it, Sept. 5th, 1814, he found it in a much
worse condition than is here described. The pavement, the glass from the windows, and
the wainscoting, gone ; the inscription over the door tolerably legible, with the date of
1674 beneath : and on the keystone which forms the arch of the doorway Cotton and
"Walton's cipher. Above the roof, beneath the ball and vane, are the remains of a small
htone sundial. The fireplace in the further corner of the interior, had at each corner
the initials of Cotton, thus 3C» under that on the left, IZ . and that on the right

In June 1825, the publisher of the former edition and Mr Stothard visited Beresford
Hall, which was then rented by a widow named Gibbs. It had undergone many altera-
tions in the interior, and very little of the original ornaments remained, with the exception
of two carved mantelpieces, and one or two panes of stained glass ; but since that
period, some of the roofs have fallen in, consequently it is fast going to decay. The
Fishing-house was much in the state described above. The stone walls, fireplace,
and outer doors, were the only parts remaining. The stone table had been removed,
and all the windows had either fallen to decay or been taken away ; but the motto and
cipher on the keystone of the arched doorway was entire. The manor, hall, and about
eighty-four acres of land, were sold by auction on the loth August 1825, and was pur-
chased by William Viscount Beresford for;^ssoo, which included ;675o for timber.

f^mrn'

CHAP. III.] THE SECOND DA V. 239

house, of anything 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 !

PiSCATOR. 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.

Viator. None fitter, then. Sir, for the time and place, than
those instructions you promised.

PiSCATOR. 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.

Viator. 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.

PiSCATOR. You cannot oblige me more than by such a pro-
mise : 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, pur-
sued 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

240 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part ii.

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 show you how to make them, and with what dubbing
too, than he has taken notice of in his Complete Angler.'^

Viator. 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.f

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 J 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 Anghng in the middle, is also of two sorts ; with
a Minnow^, for a Trout, or with a ground-bait for a Grayling.

* See Part I. chap. v. p. loo.

t It should seem by what Walton says, chap, x., that he was a smoker : and the reader
sees, by the passage in the text, that Piscator, by whom we are to understand Cotton
himself, was alsd, and so curious as to have his tobacco from London. Vide p. 235.

Smoking, or, as the phrase was, "taking tobacco," was, in Queen Elizabeth's and her
successor's time, esteemed the greatest of all foppery. Ben Jonson, who mortally
hated it, has numberless sarcasms against smoking and smokers ; all which are nothing
compared to those contained in that work of our King James the First, A Coimter-
blast to Tobacco. Nor was the ordinary conversation of this monarch less fraught with
reasons and invectives against the use of that weed, as will appear from the following
saying of his, extracted from "A Collection of witty apophthegms, delivered by him and
others, at several times, and on sundry occasions," published in i2mo, 1671 : —

"That tobacco was the lively image and pattern of hell ; for that it had, by allusion,
in it all the parts and vices of the world whereby hell may be gained ; to wit : First, it
was a smoke ; so are the vanities of this world. Secondly, it delighteth them who take
it ; so do the pleasures of the world delight the men of the world. Thirdly, it maketh
men drunken, and light in the head ; so do the vanities of the world : men are drunken
therewith. Fourthly, he that taketh tobacco saith he cannot leave it, it doth bewitch
him : even so the pleasures of the world make men loath to leave them, they are for
the most part so enchanted with them. And further, besides all this, It is like hell in the
very substance of it, for it is a stinking loathsome thing; and so is hell. And further, his
Majesty professed that, were he to invite the devil to dinner, he should have three dishes:
1. A pig ; 2. A pole of ling and mustard ; and 3. A pipe of tobacco for digesture."

X Living.

CHAP, v.] THE SECOND DAY. 241

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.

Viator. The trouble will be yours, and mine the pleasure and
the obligation : I beseech you therefore to proceed.

PiSCATOR. Why then, first 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 Camlet-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 air be still ; or with a
longer, very near, or all out, as long as your rod, if you have any
wind to carry it from you. And this way of fishing we call
daping, dabbing, or dibling ; wherein you are always to have your
line flying before you up or down the river, as the wind serves,
and to angle as near as you can to the bank of the same side
whereon you stand, though where you see a fish rise near you you
may guide your quick fly over him, whether in the middle or on
the contrary side ; and if you are pretty well out of sight, either
by kneeling or the interposition of a bank or bush, you may
almost be sure to raise, and take him too, if it be presently done ;
the fish will, otherwise, peradventure be removed to some other
place, if it be in the still deeps, where he is always in motion,
and roving up and down to look for prey, though, in a stream,
you may always almost, especially if there be a good stone near,
find him in the same place. Your Line ought in this case to be
three good hairs next the hook ; both by reason you are, in this
kind of angling, to expect the biggest fish, and also that, wanting
length to give him line after he has struck, you must be forced
to tug for it : to which I will also add, that not an inch of your
line being to be suffered to touch the water in dibling, it may be
allowed to be the stronger. I should now give you a description
of those flies, their shape and colour ; and then give you an
account of their breeding ; and withal show you how to keep
and use them ; but shall defer them to their proper place and
season.

242 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part it.

Viator. In earnest, Sir, you discourse very rationally of this
affair, and I am glad to find myself mistaken in you : for, in
plain truth, I did not expect so much from you.

PiSCATOR. Nay, Sir, I can tell you a great deal more than
this ; and will conceal nothing from you. But I must now come
to the second way of Angling at the top ; which is with an
artificial fly, which also I will show you how to make before I
have done : but first shall acquaint you, that with this you are
to angle with a line longer by a yard and a half, or sometimes two
yards, than your rod : and with both this and the other in a still
day, in the streams, in a breeze that curls the water, in the still
deeps, where excepting in May and June, that the best Trouts will
lie in shallow streams to watch for prey, and even then too, you
are like to hit the best fish.

For the length of your rod, you are always to be governed by
the breadth of the river you shall choose to angle at : and for a
Trout-river, one of five or six yards long is commonly enough ;
and longer, though never so neatly and artificially made, it ought
not to be, if you intend to fish at ease ; and if otherwise, where
lies the sport .'

Of these, the best that ever I saw are made in Yorkshire ;
which are all of one piece, that is to say, of several, six, eight,
ten, or twelve pieces, so neatly pieced and tied together with fine
thread below and silk above as to make it taper like a switch,
and to ply with a true bent to your hand. And these, too, are
light, being made of firwood for two or three lengths nearest to
the hand, and of other wood nearer to the top, that a man might,
very easily, manage the longest of them that ever I saw, with one
hand. And these, when you have given over angling for a season,
being taken to pieces and laid up in some dry place, may after-
wards be set together again in their former postures, and will be
as straight, sound, and good as the first hour they were made, and
being laid in oil and colour, according to your master Walton's
direction, will last many years.

The length of your line, to a man that knows how to handle
his rod, and to cast it, is no manner of incumbrance, excepting
in woody places and in landing of a fish, which every one that
can afford to angle for pleasure has somebody to do for him.
And the length of line is a mighty advantage to the fishing at
distance ; and to fish fine and far off is the first and principal
rule for Trout-angling.

Your line in this case should never be less, nor ever exceed

CHAP, v.] THE SECOND DAY. 243

two hairs next to the hook ; for one (though some, I know, will
pretend to more art than their fellows) is indeed too few, the
least accident, with the finest hand, being sufficient to break it :
but he that cannot kill a Trout of twenty inches long with two,
in a river clear of wood and weeds, as this and some others of
ours are, deserves not the name of an Angler.

Now, to have your whole line as it ought to be, two of the first
lengths nearest the hook should be of two hairs apiece ; the next
three lengths above them of three ; the next three above them of
four ; and, so, of five, and six, and seven, to the very top : by
which means your rod and tackle will, in a manner, be taper
from your very hand to your hook : your line will fall much better
and straighter, and cast your fly to any certain place to which the
hand and eye shall direct it, with less weight and violence, that
would otherwise circle the water and fright away the fish.

In casting your line, do it always before you,* and so that your
fly may first fall upon the water, and as little of your line with it
as possible : though if the wind be stifl", you will then, of necessity,
be compelled to drown a good part of your line, to keep your fly
in the water. And in casting your fly you must aim at the
further or nearer bank, as the wind serves your turn, which also
will be with and against you, on the same side, several times in
an hour, as the river winds in its course, and you will be forced
to angle up and down by turns accordingly, but are to endeavour,
as much as you can, to have the wind, evermore, on your back.
And always be sure to stand as far off the bank as your length
will give you leave when you throw to the contrary side : though
when the wind will not permit you so to do, and that you are
constrained to angle on the same side whereon you stand,
you must then stand on the very brink of the river, and cast
your fly to the utmost length of your rod and line, up or down
the river, as the gale serves.

It only remains, touching your line, to inquire, whether your
two hairs next to the hook are better twisted or open ? And for
that I should declare that I think the open way the better, because
it makes less show in the water, but that I have found an incon-

* The tyro in the art of fly-fishing, who may be desirous of further instructions for
"casting his line" than those given bv Cotton in the text, is referred to the " Complete
Angler's Vade Mecum," by Captain Williamson, who has endeavoured " to supply the
learner with such plain matter-of-fact directions, with respect to the management of his
fly-rod, as may at once enable him to cast his line without restraint ; " and to Taylor's
Art of Angling ; but it is almost needless to observe, that one day's instruction from an
experienced fly-fisher will be found of more value than all the directions ever written.

244 ^^^ COMPLETE ANGLER. [part ii.

venience or two, or three, that have made me almost weary of
that way ; of which one is, that, without dispute, they are not so
strong open as twisted ;* another, that they are not, easily, to be
fastened of so exact an equal length in the arming that the one
will not cause the other to bag, by which means a man has but
one hair upon the matter to trust to ; and the last is, that these
loose flying hairs are not only more apt to catch upon every twig
or bent they meet with, but, moreover, the hook, in falling upon
the water, will, very often, rebound and fly back betwixt the hairs,
and there stick (which, in a rough water especially, is not pre-
sently to be discerned by the angler) so as the point of the hook
shall stand reversed ; by which means your fly swims backward,
makes a much greater circle in the water and till taken home to
you and set right, will never raise any fish, or if it should, I am
sure, but by a very extraordinary chance, can hit none.f

Having done with both these ways of fishing at the top, the
length of your rod, and line, and all, I am next to teach you how
to make a fly ; and, afterwards, of what dubbing you are to make
the several flies I shall hereafter name to you.

In making a fly, then, which is not a hackle or palmer fly
(for of those, and their several kinds, we shall have occasion to
speak every month in the year), you are, first, to hold your hook
fast betwixt the forefinger and thumb of your left hand, with the
back of the shank upwards, and the point towards your fingers'
ends ; then take a strong small silk of the colour of the fly you
intend to make, wax it well with wax of the same colour too, to
which end you are always, by the way, to have wax of all colours
about you, and draw it betwixt your finger and thumb to the head
of the shank ; and then whip it twice or thrice about the bare
hook, which, you must know, is done, both to prevent slipping,
and also that the shank of the hook may not cut the hairs of your
towght, which sometimes it will otherwise do. Which being
done, take your line, and draw it likewise betwixt your finger and
thumb, holding the hook so fast as only to suffer it to pass by,
until you have the knot of your towght almost to the middle of
the shank of your hook, on the inside of it ; then whip your silk
twice or thrice about both hook and line as hard as the strength
of the silk will permit. Which being done, strip the feather for
the wings proportionable to the bigness of your fly, placing that

* In the original the words are tivisted ns open, contrary to what is evidently, from
the connection, the Autlior's meaning : the Editor has therefore transposed the words.

t This, and the other inconveniences mentioned in this paragraph, are effectually
livoided by the use of a fine grass, or gut, of about half a yard long, next the hook.

CHAP, v.] THE SECOND DA V. 245

side downwards which grew uppermost before upon the back
of the hook, leaving so much only as to serve for the length of
the wing of the point of the plume lying reversed from the end
of the shank upwards : then whip your silk twice or thrice about
the root-end of the feather, hook, and towght ; which being done,
clip off the root-end of the feather close by the arming, and then
whip the silk fast and firm about the hook and towght, until you
come to the bend of the hook, but not further, as you do at
London, and so make a very unhandsome, and, in plain English,
a very unnatural and shapeless fly. Which being done, cut away
the end of your towght, and fasten it. And then take your
dubbing which is to make the body of your fly, as much as you
think convenient, and holding it lightly, with your hook, betwixt
the finger and thumb of your left hand, take your silk with the
right, and twisting it betwixt the finger and thumb of that
hand, the dubbing will spin itself about the silk, which when it
has done, whip it about the armed hook backward, till you come
to the setting-on of the wings. And then take the feather for
the wings, and divide it equally into two parts ; and turn them
back towards the bend of the hook, the one on the one side, and
the other on the other of the shank ; holding them fast in
that posture betwixt the forefinger and thumb of your left hand :
which done, warp them so down as to stand and slope towards
the bend of the hook ; and having warped up to the end of the
shank, hold the fly fast betwixt the finger and thumb of your
left hand, and then take the silk betwixt the finger and thumb of
your right hand ; and where the warping ends pinch or nip it
with your thumb nail against your finger, and strip away the
remainder of your dubbing from the silk : and then with the bare
silk whip it once or twice about ; make the wings to stand in due
order ; fasten, and cut it off. After which, with the point of a
needle, raise up the dubbing gently from the warp ; twitch off the
superfluous hairs of your dubbing ; leave the wings of an equal
length, your fly will never else swim true ; and the work is done.
And this way of making a fly, which is certainly the best of all
other, was taught me by a kinsman of mine, one Captain Henry
Jackson, a near neighbour, an admirable fly-angler ; by many
degrees the best fly-maker that ever I yet met with. And now
that I have told you how a fly is to be made, you shall presently
see me make one, with which you may peradventure take a Trout
this morning, notwithstanding the unlikeliness of the day ; for it
is now nine of the clock, and fish will begin to rise, if they will

246 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part ii.

rise to-day. I will walk along by you, and look on : and after
dinner I will proceed in my lecture of fly-fishing.

Viator. I confess I long to be at the river : and yet I could
sit here all day to hear you : but some of the one, and some of
the other, will do well ; and I have a mighty ambition to take a
Trout in your river Dove.

PiSCATOR. I warrant you shall : I would not, for more than
I will speak of, but you should ; seeing I have so extolled my
river to you ; nay, I will keep you here a month, but you shall
have one good day of sport before you go.

Viator. You will find me, I doubt, too tractable that way ;
for, in good earnest, if business would give me leave, and that
if it were fit, I could find in my heart to stay with you for ever.

PiSCATOR. I thank you, Sir, for that kind expression. And
now let me look out my things to make this fly.

PiSCATOR. Boy ! come, give me my dubbing-bag
here presently ; and now. Sir, since I find you so
honest a man, I will make no scruple to lay open my treasure
before you.

Viator. Did ever any one see the like ! what a heap of
trumpery is here ! certainly never an angler in Europe has his
shop half so well furnished as you have.

PiSCATOR. You, perhaps, may think now, that I rake together
this trumpery, as you call it, for show only, to the end that such
as see it, which are not many I assure you, may think me a great
master in the art of angling : but let me tell you, here are some
colours, as contemptible as they seem here, that are very hard to
be got, and scarce any one of them which, if it should be lost, I
should not miss, and be concerned about the loss of it too, once
in the year. But look you. Sir, amongst all these I will choose
out these two colours only ; of which, this is bear's hair, this darker,
no great matter what ; but I am sure I have killed a great deal
of fish with it ; and with one or both of these you shall take Trout
or Grayling this very day, notwithstanding all disadvantages, or
my art shall fail me.

Viator. You promise comfortably, and I have a great deal
of reason to believe everything you say : but I wish the fly were
made, that we were at it.

PiSCATOR. That will not be long in doing : and pray observe
then. You see, first, how I hold my hook ; and thus I begin.
Look you, here are my first two or three whips about the bare
hook ; thus I join hook and line ; thus I put on my wings ; thus

I

CHAP. VI.] THE SECOND DAY. 247

I twirl and lap on my dubbing- ; thus I work it up towards the
head ; thus I part my wings ; thus I nip my superfluous dubbing
from my silk ; thus fasten ; thus trim and adjust my fly. And
there's a fly made ; and now how do you like it .'*

Viator. In earnest, admirably well ; and it perfectly re-
sembles a fly : but we about London make the bodies of our flies
both much bigger and longer, so long as even almost to the
very beard of the hook.

PiSCATOR. I know it very well, and had one of those flies
given me by an honest gentleman, who came with my father Wal-
ton to give me a visit ; which, to tell you the truth, I hung in my
parlour window to laugh at : but, Sir, you know the proverb,
" They who go to Rome, must do as they at Rome do ; " and
believe me, you must here make your flies after this fashion, or
you will take no fish. Come, I will look you out a line, and you
shall put it on, and try it. There, Sir, now I think you are fitted ;
and now beyond the farther end of the walk you shall begin : I
see, at that bend of the water above, the air crisps the water a
little : knit your line first here, and then go up thither, and see
what you can do.

Viator. Did you see that, Sir t

PiSCATOR. Yes, I saw the fish : and he saw you too, which
made him turn short. You must fish further off", if you intend
to have any sport here ; this is no New River, let me tell you.
That was a good Trout, believe me : did you touch him .''

Viator. No, I would I had, we would not have parted so.
Look you, there was another : this is an excellent fly.

PiSCATOR. That fly I am sure would kill fish, if the day were
right : but they only chew at it, I see, and will not take it.
Come, Sir, let us return back to the fishing-house : this still
water, I see, will not do our business to-day : you shall now, if
you please, make a fly yourself, and try what you can do in the
streams with that ; and I know a Trout taken with a fly of
your own making will please you better than twenty with one of
mine. Give me that bag again, sirrah : look you. Sir, there is a
hook, towght, silk, and a feather for the wings : be doing with
those, and I will look you out a dubbing that I think will do.

Viator. This is a very httle hook.

PiSCATOR. That may serve to inform you, that it is for a very
little fly, and you must make your wings accordingly ; for as the
case stands, it must be a little fly, and a very little one too, that
must do your business. Well said ! believe me, you shift your

248 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part ir.

fingers very handsomely. I doubt I have taken upon me to teach
my master. So, here's your dubbing now.

Viator. This dubbing is very black.

PiSCATOR. It appears so in hand ; but step to the doors and
hold it up betwixt your eye and the sun, and it will appear a shin-
ing red ; let me tell you, never a man in England can discern
the true colour of a dubbing any way but that ; and therefore
choose always to make your flies on such a bright sunshine day
as this, which also you may the better do, because it is worth
nothing to fish in. Here, put it on ; and be sure to make the
body of your fly as slender as you can. Very good ! upon my
word, you have made a marvellous handsome fly.

Viator. I am very glad to hear it ; 'tis the first that ever I
made of this kind in my life.

PiSCATOR. Away, away ! You are a doctor at it : but I will
not commend you too much, lest I make you proud. Come, put
it on ; and you shall now go downward, to some stream betwixt
the rocks, below the little foot-bridge you see there,* and try your
fortune. Take heed of slipping into the water as you follow me
under this rock. So now you are over : and now throw in.

Viator. This is a fine stream indeed. There's one ! I have
him !

PiSCATOR. And a precious catch you have of him ; pull him
out ! I see you have a tender hand. This is a diminutive gentle-
man ; e'en throw him in again, and let him grow till he be more
worthy of your anger.

Viator. Pardon me. Sir, all's fish that comes to the hook
with me now. Another !

PiSCATOR. And of the same standing.

Viator. I see I shall have good sport now. Another ! and
a grayling. Why, you have fish here at will.

PiSCATOR. Come, come, cross the bridge ; and go down the
other side, lower, where you will find finer streams and better
sport, I hope, than this. Look you. Sir, here is a fine stream
now. You have length enough ; stand a little further off, let me
entreat you ; and do but fish this stream like an artist, and per-
adventure a good fish may fall to your share. How now ! what 1
is all gone t

Viator. No, I but touched him ; but that was a fish worth
taking.

PiSCATOR. Why, now let me tell you, you lost that fish by

* This bridge has been removed. See the note in p. 251.

LANDING THE &RA.YLING
BY T. STOTHARE, 3tA.

yt::^.ay^'Ca/?^<A^ya^-yr^

CHAP. VL] THE SECOND DAY. 249

your own fault, and through your own eagerness and haste ; for
you are never to offer to strike a good fish, if he do not strike
himself, till first you see him turn his head after he has taken your
fly, and then you can never strain your tackle in the striking, if
you strike with any manner of moderation. Come, throw in one
again, and fish me this stream by inches; for I assure you, here
are very good fish : both Trout and Grayling he here ; and at
that great stone on the other side, 'tis ten to one a good Trout
gives you the meeting.

Viator. I have him now : but he is gone down towards
the bottom. I cannot see what he is, yet he should be a good fish
by his weight ; but he makes no great stir.

PisCATOR. ^V^ly then, by what you say, I dare venture to
assure you *tis a Grayling, who is one of the deadest-hearted fishes
in the world ; and the bigger he is, the more easily taken. Look
you, now you see him plain ; I told you what he was. Bring
hither that landing-net, boy. And now. Sir, he is your own ; and,
believe me, a good one ; sixteen inches long I warrant him : I
have taken none such this year.

Viator. I never saw a Grayling before look so black.

PiSCATOR. Did you not 1 why then, let me tell you that you
never saw one before in right season ; for then a Grayhng is very
black about his head, gills, and down his back ; and has his belly
of a dark grey, dappled with black spots, as you see this is ; and
I am apt to conclude, that fi-om thence he derives his name of
Umber. Though I must tell you, this fish is past his prime, and
begins to decline, and was in better season at Christmas than he
is now. But move on ; for it grows towards dinner-time ; and
there is a very great and fine stream below, under that rock, that
£lls the deepest pool in all the river, where you are almost sure of
fish.

Viator. Let him come, 1*11 try a fall with him. But I had
thought that the Grayling had been always in season with the
Trout, and had come in and gone out with him.

PiSCATOR. Oh no ! assure yourself a Grayling is a winter
fish ; but such a one as would deceive any but such as know
him very well indeed ; for his flesh, even in his worst season,
is so firm, and will so easily calver, that in plain truth he is very
good meat at all times : but in his perfect season, which, by the
way, none but an overgrown Grayling will ever be, I think him so
good a fish as to be Uttle inferior to the best Trout that ever I
tasted in my life.

I^^fills the
^■kgood

250 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part ii.

Viator. Here's another skip-jack ; and I have raised five or
six more at least, whilst you were speaking. Well, go thy way,
little Dove ! thou art the finest river that ever I saw, and the
fullest of fish. Indeed, Sir, I like it so well that I am afraid you
will be troubled with me once a year, so long as we two live.

PiSCATOR. I am afraid I shall not, Sir ; but were you once
here a May or a June, if good sport would tempt you, I should
then expect you would sometimes see me ; for you would then
say it were a fine river indeed, if you had once seen the sport at
the height.

Viator. Which I will do, if I live, and that you please to
give me leave. There was one, and there another.

PiSCATOR. And all this in a strange river, and with a fly of
your own making ! why, what a dangerous man are you !

Viator. I, Sir : but who taught me t and as Damatas says
by his man Dorus, so you may say by me —

If mv man such praises have,
What then have I, that taught the knave ? •

But what have we got here ? a Rock springing up in the middle
of the river ! this is one of the oddest sights that ever I saw.

PiSCATOR. Why, Sir, from that Pike t that you see standing
up there distant from the rock, this is called Pike Pool, and
young Mr Izaak Walton was so pleased with it as to draw it in
landscape, in black and white, in a blank-book I have at home,
as he has done several prospects of my house also, which I keep
for a memorial of his favour, and will show you when we come up
to dinner.

Viator. Has young master Izaak Walton been here too ?

PiSCATOR. Yes, marry has he. Sir, and that again and again
too ; and in France since, and at Rome, and at Venice, and I
can't tell where : but I intend to ask him a great many hard
questions so soon as I can see him, which will be, God willing,
next month. In the meantime. Sir, to come to this fine stream
at the head of this great pool, you must venture over these

* From Sir P. Sidney's Arcadia, book i., which reads —

For if my man must praises have,

What then must I, that keep the knave?
t 'Tis a rock, in the fashion of a spire-steeple, and almost as big. It stands in the
midst of the river Dove, and not far from Mr Cotton's house, below which place this
delicate river takes a swift career betwixt many mighty rocks, much higher and bigger
than St Paul's Church before 'twas burnt. And this Dove being opposed by one of the
highest of them, has at last forced itself a way through it ; and after a mile's conceal-
ment, appears again with more glory and beauty than before that opposition, running
through the most pleasant valleys and most fruitful meadows that this nation can justly
boast of.— Walton.

}

VIEW OF PIKE POOL
BY INSKIPP

CHAP. VII.] THE SECOND DAY. 251

slippery, cobling stones.* Believe me, Sir, there you were nimble,
or else you had been down. But now you are got over, look to
yourself : for, on my word, if a fish rise here, he is like to be such
a one as will endanger your tackle. How now !

Viator. I think you have such command here over the
fishes, that you can raise them by your word, as they say con-
jurors can do spirits, and afterward make them do what you bid
them ; for here's a Trout has taken my fly ; I had rather have
lost a crown. What luck's this ! he was a lovely fish, and
turned up a side like a Salmon,

PiSCATOR. O Sir, this is a war where you sometimes win,
and must sometimes expect to lose. Never concern yourself for
the loss of your fly ; for ten to one I teach you to make a better.
Who's that calls ?

Servant. Sir, will it please you to come to dinner ?

PiSCATOR. We come. You hear. Sir, we are called : and
now take your choice, whether you will climb this steep hill
before you, from the top of which you will go directly into the
house, or back again, over these stepping-stones, and about by
the bridge.

Viator. Nay, sure the nearest way is best ; at least my
stomach tells me so ; and I am now so well acquainted with the
rocks, that I fear them not.

PiSCATOR. Come then, follow me. And so soon as we have
dined, we will down again to the little house : where I will begin,
at the place I left off", about fly-fishing, and read you another
lecture ; for I have a great deal more to say upon that subject.

Viator. The more the better ; I could never have met with
a more obliging master, my first excepted. Nor such sport can
all the rivers about London ever aff"ord as is to be found in this
pretty river.

PiSCATOR. You deserve to have better ; both because I see
you are willing to take pains, and for liking this little so well ; and
better I hope to show you before we part.

Viator. Come, Sir, having now well dined, and being again
set in your little house, I will now challenge your
promise, and entreat you to proceed in your instruc-
tion for fly-fishing ; which, that you may be the better encouraged

* Mr Bagster, who visited the spot in the autumn of 1814, for the purpose of identify-
ing the scenery, and who went stefo by step over the ground which is the scene of this
dialogue, says that "the undeviating accuracy of delineation is very striking ; but at
this spot an alteration was made a i^vi years since, by cutting ^iVf^y part of the rock, and
removing the bridge, the site of which is still marked by fragments of stone."

252 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part ii.

to do, I will assure you, that I have not lost, I think, one syllable
of what you have told me : but very well retain all your directions,
both for the rod, line, and making a fly, and now desire an
account of the flies themselves.

PiSCATOR. Why, Sir, I am ready to give it you, and shall
hare the whole afternoon to do it in, if nobody come in to inter-
rupt us ; for you must know (besides the unfitness of the day)
that the afternoons, so early in March, signify very little to angling
with a fly, though with a minnow, or a worm, something might (I
confess) be done.

To begin, then, where I left ofl", My father Walton tells us of
but twelve artificial flies only, to angle with at the top, and gives
their names ; of which some are common with us here ; and I
think I guess at most of them by his description, and I believe
they all breed and are taken in our rivers, though we do not make
them either of the same dubbing or fashion. And it may be in
the rivers about London, which I presume he has most frequented,
and where 'tis Hkely he has done most execution, there is not much
notice taken of many more : but we are acquainted with several
others here, though perhaps I may reckon some of his by other
names too ; but if I do, I shall make you amends by an addition
to his catalogue. And although the forenamed great master in
the art of angling, for so in truth he is, tells you that no man
should, in honesty, catch a Trout till the middle of March, yet I
hope he will give a man leave sooner to take a Grayling, which,
as I told you, is in the dead months in his best season : and do
assure you, which I remember by a very remarkable token, I did
once take upon the sixth day of December one, and only one, of
the biggest Graylings, and the best in season, that ever I yet saw
or tasted ; and do usually take Trouts too, and with a fly, not
only before the middle of this month, but almost every year in
February, unless it be a very ill spring indeed ; and have some-
times in January, so early as New-year's tide, and in frost and snow,
taken Grayling in a warm sunshine day for an hour or two about
noon : and to fish for him with a Grub, it is then the best time
of all.

I shall therefore begin my fly-fishing with that month (though,
I confess, very few begin so soon, and that such as are so fond of
the sport as to embrace all opportunities can rarely in that month
find a day fit for their purpose), and tell you that, upon my
knowledge, these flies, in a warm sun, for an hour or two in the
day, are certainly taken.

CHAP. VII.] THE SECOND DA Y. 253

JANUARY.

1. A Red Brown with wings of the male of a mallard almost white ;
the dubbing of the tail of a black long-coated cur, such as they commonly
make muffs of; for the hair on the tail of such a dog dyes, and turns to a
red brown, but the hair of a smooth-coated dog of the same colour will not
do, because it will not dye, but retains its natural colour. And this fly is
taken, in a warm sun, this whole month through.

2. There is also a very little Bright Dun Gnat, as little as can possibly
be made, so little as never to be fished with, with above one hair next the
hook ; and this is to be made of a mixed dubbing of marten's fur, and the
white of a hare's scut, with a very white and small wing ; and it is no
great matter how fine you fish, for nothing will rise in this month but a
Grayling ; and of them I never, at this season, saw any taken with a fly,
of above a foot long, in my life : but of little ones about the bigness
of a smelt, in a warm day, and a glowing sun, you may take enough
with these two flies ; and they are both taken the whole month
through.

FEBRUARY.

1. Where the Red Brown of the last month ends, another, almost of
the same colour, begins with this ; saving that the dubbing of this must be
of something a blacker colour, and both of them wrapt on with red silk.
The dubbing that should make this fly, and that is the truest colour, is
to be got off the black spot of a hog's ear : not that a black spot in any
part of the hog will not afford the same colour, but that the hair in that
place is, by many degrees, softer, and more fit for the purpose. His wing
must be as the other j and this kills all this month, and is called the
Lesser Red Brown.

2. This month, also, a Plain Hackle, or palmer-fly, made with a
rough black body, either of black spaniel's fur, or the whirl of an ostrich
feather, and the red hackle of a capon over all, will kiU, and if the weather
be right, make very good sport.

3. Also a Lesser Hackle, with a black body, also silver twist over
that, and a red feather over all, will fill your pannier, if the month be open,
and not bound up in ice and snow, with very good fish ; but in case of a
frost and snow, you are to angle only with the smallest gnats, browns, and
duns you can make ; and with those are only to expect Graylings no bigger
than sprats.

4. Li this month, upon a whirling-round water, we have a Great
Hackle, the body black, and wrapt with a red feather of a capon un-
trimmed ; that is, the whole length of the hackle staring out (for we
sometimes barb the hackle-feather short all over ; sometimes barb it only
a little, and sometimes barb it close underneath), leaving the whole length
of the feather on the top or back of the fly, which makes it swim better,
and, as occasion serves, kills very great fish,

5. We make use also, in this month, of another Great Hackle, the
body black, and ribbed over with gold twist, and a red feather over all ;
which also does great execution.

6. Also a Great Dun, made with dun bear's hair, and the wings, of the
grey feather of a mallard near unto the taU ; which is absolutely the best

254 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part ii.

fly can be thrown upon a river this month, and with which an angler shall
have admirable sport.

7. We have also this month the Great Blue Dun, the dubbing of the
bottom of bear's hair next to the roots, mixt with a little blue camlet ; the
wings, of the dark grey feather of a mallard,

8. We have also this month a Dark Brown, the dubbing of the brown
hair off the flank of a brended cow ; and the wings, of the grey drake's
feather.

And note, that these several hackles, or palmer-flies, are some for one
v/ater and one sky, and some for another ; and according to the change of
those, we alter their size and colour. And note also, that both in this, and
all other months of the year, ■when you do not certainly know w^hat fly
is taken, or cannot see any fish to rise, you are then to put on a small
hackle, if the water be clear, or a bigger, if something dark, until you
have taken one ; and then thrusting your finger through his gills, to pull
out his gorge, which being opened with your knife, you will then discover
what fly is taken, and may fit yourself accordingly.*

For the making of a Hackle, or a Palmer-fly, my father Walton has
already given you sufficient direction.

MARCH.

For this month you are to use all the same hackles and flies with the
other ; but you are to make them less.

1. We have, besides, for this month a little Dun, called a Whirling
Dun, though it is not the Whirling Dun, indeed, which is one of the best
flies we have ; and for this, the dubbing must be of the bottom fur of a
squirrel's tail ; and the wing of the grey feather of a drake.

2. Also a Bright Brown ; the dubbing either of the brown of a spaniel,
or that of a cow's flank, with a grey wing.

3. Also a Whitish Dun ; made of the roots of camel's hair ; and the
wings, of the grey feather of a mallard.

4. There is also for this month a fly called the Thorn-Tree Fly ; the
dubbing an absolute black, mixed with eight or ten hairs of Isabella-
coloured f mohair ; the body as little as can be made, and the wings of a
bright mallard's feather. An admirable fly, and in great repute amongst
us for a killer.

5. There is, besides this, another Blue Dun ; the dubbing of which it
is made being thus to be got. Take a small toothcomb, and with it comb

* This is a very questionable guide, as fish will frequently rise at an artificial fly of
quite a different colour to those playing on the water, and on which they have been pre-
viously feeding. Venables and other writers on the subject of angling give directions to
beat the bushes by the side of a stream, for the purpose of seeing what kind of flies are
abroad, a piece of information which is of no practical utility.

t Isabella, Spezie di colore che partecipa del bianco e del giallo. — AltierVs Diction-
ary. A kind of whitish yellow, or, as some say, buff colour a little soiled.

How it came by this name will appear from the following anecdote, for which I am
obliged to a very ingenious and learned lady : The Archduke Albertus, who had
married the Infanta Isabella, daughter of Philip the Second, King of Spain, with whom
he had the Low Countries in dowry, in the year 1602, having determined to lay siege
to Ostend, then in the possession of the heretics, his pious princess, who attended him
in that expedition, made a vow, that till it was taken she would never change her
clothes. Contrary to e.xpectation, as the story says, it was three years before the place
was reduced ; in which time her Highness's linen had acquired the above-mentioned
hue.— H.

CHAP, vii.] THE SECOND DAY. 255

the neck of a black greyhound, and the down that sticks in the teeth will
be the finest blue that ever you saw. The wings of this fly can hardly be
too white ; and he is taken about the tenth of this month, and lasteth till
the four-and-twentieth.

6. From the tenth of this month also, till towards the end, is taken a
little Black Gnat. The dubbing, either of the fur of a black water-dog,
or the down of a young black water-coot ; the wings, of the male of a
mallard as white as may be ; the body as little as you can possibly make
it, and the wings as short as his body.

7. From the sixteenth of this month also, to the end of it, we use a
Bright Brown ; the dubbing for which is to be had out of a skinner's
lime-pits, and of the hair of an abortive calf, which the lime will turn to be
so bright, as to shine like gold ; for the wings of this fly, the feather of a
brown hen is best. Which fly is also taken till the tenth of April.

APRIL.

All the same hackles and flies that were taken in March will be taken
in this month also, with this distinction only concerning the flies, that all
the browns be lapt with red silk, and the duns with yellow.

1. To these a Small Bright Brown made of spaniel's fur, with a
light-grey wing, in a bright day, and a clear water, is very well taken.

2. We have, too, a little Dark Brown ; the dubbing of that colour,
and some violet camlet mixt ; and the wing of a grey feather of a mal-
lard.

3. From the sixth of this month to the tenth we have also a fly called
the Violet-Fly ; made of a dark violet stuff; with the wings, of a grey
feather of a mallard.

4. About the twelfth of this month comes in the fly called the Whirling
Dun, which is taken every day, about the mid-time of day, all this month
through, and, by fits, from thence to the end of June ; * and is commonly
made of the down of a fox-cub, which is of an ash colour at the roots next
the skin, and ribbed about with yellow silk ; the wings, of the pale grey
feather of a mallard.

* The inutility of laying down precise rules for the colour of the flies to be used on
particular days or hours of the day must be obvious. Walton himself has humorously
observed, "that whereas it is said by many, that in fly-fishing for a Trout, the angler
must observe his twelve several flies for the twelve months of tne year ; I say, he that
follows that rule shall be as sure to catch fish, and be as wise as he that makes hay by
the fair days in an almanac, and no surer." The directions contained in the following
rhyme, respecting the colour of flies adapted to a certain time of the day, are at least as
useful as the others which have been published : —

A brown-red fly at morning grey, At eve, when twilight shades prevail,

A darker dun in clearer day ; Try the hackle white and snail :

When summer rains have swelled the flood. Be mindful aye your fly to throw

The hackle red and worm are good ; Light as falls the flaky snow.

" To make a fly is so essential, that he hardly deserves the name of an angler who
cannot do it. There are many who will go to a tackle-shop, and tell the master of it, as
Dapper does Subtle in the Alchemist^ th^t they 7i<ant a fly : for which they have a thing
put into their hands that would pose a naturalist to find a resemblance for : though,
when particular directions have been given, I have known them excellently made by the
persons employed by the fishing-tackle makers in London. But do thou, my honest
friend, learn to make thy own flies : and be assured, that in collecting and arranging the
materials, and imitating the various shapes and colours of these admirable creatures,
there is little less pleasure than even in catching fish."— H.

%S6 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part ii.

5. There is also a Yellow Dun, the dubbing of camel's hair, and yellow-
camlet, or wool, mixt, and a white-grey wing.

6. There is also this month another Little Brown, besides that
mentioned before, made with a very slender body ; the dubbing of dark
brown and violet camlet, mixt, and a grey wing ; which, though the
direction for the making be near the other, is yet another fly, and will
take when the other will not, especially in a bright day and a clear
water.

7. About the twentieth of this month comes in a fly called the Horse-
flesh Fly ; the dubbing of which is a blue mohair, with pink-coloured
and red tammy mixt, a light coloured wing, and a dark brown head. This
fly is taken best in an evening, and kills from two hours before sunset till
twilight, and is taken the month through.

MAY.

And now, Sir, that we are entering into the month of May, I
think it requisite to beg not only your attention, but also your
best patience, for I must now be a little tedious with you, and
dwell upon this month longer than ordinary; which that you may
the better endure, I must tell you, this month deserves and requires
to be insisted on, forasmuch as it alone, and the next following,
afford more pleasure to the fly-angler than all the rest : and here
it is that you are to expect an account of the Green-drake and
Stone-fly, promised you so long ago, and some others that are
pecuhar to this month and part of the month following, and that,
though not so great either in bulk or name, do yet stand in com-
petition with the two before-named, and so that it is yet undecided
amongst the anglers to which of the pretenders to the title of the
May-fly it does properly and duly belong. Neither dare I, where
so many of the learned in this art of angling are got in dispute
about the controversy, take upon me to determine ; but I think I
ought to have a vote amongst them, and according to that privilege
shall give you my free opinion, and peradventure when I have
told you all, you may incline to think me in the right.

Viator. I have so great a deference to your judgment in these
matters, that I must always be of your opinion ; and the more
you speak, the faster I grow to my attention, for I can never be
weary of hearing you upon this subject.

PiSCATOR. Why, that's encouragement enough ; and now
prepare yourself for a tedious lecture ; but I will first begin with
the flies of less esteem, though almost anything will take a Trout
in May, that I may afterwards insist the longer upon those ot
greater note and reputation. Know, therefore, that the first fly
we take notice of in this month is called —

CHAP. VII.] THE SECOND DAY. 257

1. The Turkey-Fly ; the dubbing ravelled out of some blue stuff, and
lapt about with yellow silk ; the wings of a grey mallard's feather.

2. Next, a Great Hackle, or Palmer-Fly, with a yellow body,
ribbed with gold twist, and large wings of a mallard's feather dyed yellow,
with a red capon's hackle over all.

3. Then a Black- Fly ; the dubbing of a black spaniel's fur, and the
wings of a grey mallard's feather.

4. After that, a Light Brown, with a slender body, the dubbing
twirled upon small red silk, and raised with the point of a needle, that
the ribs or rows of silk may appear through the wings of the grey feather
of a mallard.

5. Next a Little Dun ; the dubbing of a bear's dun whirled upon
yellow silk ; the wings of a grey feather of a mallard.

6. Then a White Gnat, with a pale wing, and a black head.

7. There is also in this month a fly called the Peacock-Fly ; the body
made of a whirl of a peacock's feather, with a red head, and wings of a
mallard's feather.

8. We have then another very killing fly, known by the name of the
Dun-Cut ; the dubbing of which is a bear's dun, with a little blue and
yellow mixt with it, a large dun wing, and two horns at the head, made of
the hairs of a squirrel's tail.

9. The next is a Cow-Lady, a little fly ; the body of a peacock's
feather, the wing of a red feather, or strips of the red hackle of a cock.

10. We have then the Cow-DuNG fly ; the dubbing light brown and
yellow mixt ; the wing, the dark grey feather of a mallard. And note, that
besides these above mentioned, all the same hackles and flies, the hackles
only brighter and the flies smaller, that are taken in April, will also be
taken this month, as all Browns and Duns. And now I come to my Stone-
fly and Green-drake, which are the matadores for Trout and Grayling, and
in their season kill more fish in our Derbyshire rivers than all the rest,
past and to come, in the whole year besides.

But first I am to tell you, that we have four several flies which contend
for the title of the May-fly, namely, the Green-Drake ; the Stone-Fly;
the Black-Fly ; and the Little Yellow May-Fly. And all these
have tTieir champions and advocates to dispute and plead their priority ;
though I do not understand why the two last named should ; the first two
having so manifestly the advantage, both in their beauty and the wonder-
ful execution they do in their season.

11. Of these the Green-Drake comes in about the twentieth of this
month, or be*;vvixt that and the latter end, for they are sometimes sooner
and sometimes later, according to the quality of the year, but never well
taken till towards the end of this month and the beginning of June. The
Stone-Fly comes much sooner, so early as the middle of April, but is
never well taken till towards the middle of May, and continues to kill
much longer than the green-drake stays with us, so long as to the end
almost of June ; and, indeed, so long as there are any of them to be seen
upon the water ; and sometimes in an artificial fly, and late at night, or
before sunrise in a morning, longer.

Now both these flies, and I believe many others, though T think not all,
are certainly and demonstratively bred in the very rivers where they are
taken ; our cadis or cod-bait, which lie under stones in the bottom of the
V atcr, most of them turning into those two flies, and being gathered in the

258 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part n.

husk, or crust, near the time of their maturity, are very easily known and
distinguished, and are of all other the most remarkable, both for their size,
as being of all other the biggest, the shortest of them being a full inch long
or more, and for the execution they do, the Trout and Grayling being
much more greedy of them than of any others ; and indeed the Trout
never feeds fat, nor comes into his perfect season, till these flies come in.

Of these the Green-Drake never discloses from his husk, till he be
first there grown to full maturity, body, wings, and all ; and then he creeps
out of his cell, but with his wings so crimpt and ruffled, by being prest
together in that narrow room, that they are for some hours totally useless
to him ; by which means he is compelled either to creep upon the flags,
sedges, and blades of grass, if his first rising from the bottom of the water
be near the banks of the river, till the air and sun stiffen and smooth
them : or if his first appearance above water happen to be in the middle,
he then lies upon the surface of the water, like a ship at hull, for his feet
are totally useless to him there, and he cannot creep upon the water as
the stone-fly can, until his wings have got stiffness to fly with, if by some
Trout or Grayling he be not taken in the interim, which ten to one he is,
and then his wings stand high, and closed exact upon his back, like the
butterfly, and his motion in flying is the same. His body is in some of a
paler, in others of a darker yellow, for they are not all exactly of a colour,
ribbed with rows of green, long, slender, and growing sharp towards the
tail, at the end of which he has three long small whisks of a very dark
Colour, almost black, and his tail turns up towards his back like a mallard,
from whence, questionless, he has his name of the Green-drake. These, as
I think I told you before, we commonly dape or dibble with ; and having
gathered great store of them into a long draw box, with holes in the cover
to give them air, where also they will continue fresh and vigorous a night
or more, we take them out thence by the wings, and bait them thus upon
the hook. We first take one, for we commonly fish with two of them at a
time, and putting the point of the hook into the thickest part of his body,
inider one of his wings, run it directly through, and out at the other side,
leaving him spitted cross upon the hook ; and then taking the other, put
him on after the same manner, but with his head the contrary way ; in
which posture they will live upon the hook and play with their wings for
a quarter of an hour or more ; but you must have a care to keep their
wings dry, both from the water, and also that your fingers be not wet
when you take them out to bait them, for then your bait is spoiled.

Having now told you how to angle with this fly alive, I am now to tell
you next how to make an artificial fly, that will so perfectly resemble him,
as to be taken on a rough windy day, when no flies can lie upon the water,
nor are to be found about the banks and sides of the river, to a wonder;
and with which you shall certainly kill the best Trout and Grayling in the
river.

The artificial Green-drake then is made upon a large hook, the dubbing
camel's hair, bright bear's hair, the soft down that is combed from a hog's
bristles, and yellow camlet, well mixt together; the body long, and
ribbed about with green silk, or rather yellow, waxed with green wax, the
whisks of the tail of the long hairs of sables, or fitchet, and the wings of
the white-grey feather of a mallard, dyed yellow, which also is to be dyed
thus :—

Take the root of a barbary-tree, and shave it, and put to it woody viss,

CHAP. VIII.] THE SECOND DAY. 259

with as much alum as a walnut, and boil your feathers in it with rain-
water ; and they will be a very fine yellow.

I have now done with the Green-drake, excepting to tell you, that he is
taken at all hours, during his season, whilst there is any day upon the sky ;
and with a made fly I once took, ten days after he was absolutely gone, in
a cloudy day, after a shower, and in a whistling wind, five-and-thirty very
great Trouts and Graylings, betwixt five and eight of the clock in the
evening, and had no less than five or six flies, with three good hairs
apiece, taken from me in despite of my heart, besides.

12. I should now come next to the Stone-fly, but there is another gentle-
man in my way that must of necessity come in between, and that is the
Grey-Drake, which in all shapes and dimensions is perfectly the same
with the other, but quite almost of another colour, being of a paler, and
more livid yellow, and green, and ribbed with black quite down his body,
with black shining wings, and so diaphanous and tender, cobweb-like,
that they are of no manner of use for daping, but come in, and are taken
after the green-drake, and in an artificial fly kill very well ; which fly is
thus maile : the dubbing of the down of a hog's bristles and black spaniel's
fur mixt, and ribbed down the body with black silk, the whisks of the hairs
of the beard of a black cat, and the wings of the black-grey feather of a
mallard.

And now I come to the Stone-Fly ; but am afraid I have
already wearied your patience ; which if I have I beseech you,
freely tell me so, and I will defer the remaining instructions for
fly-angling till some other time.

Viator. No, truly, Sir, I can never be weary of hearing you.
But if you think fit, because I am afraid I am too troublesome,
to refresh yourself with a glass and a pipe, you may afterwards
proceed, and I shall be exceedingly pleased to hear you.

PiSCATOR. I thank you, Sir, for that motion ; for, believe
me, I am dry with talking : here, boy ! give us here a bottle and
a glass ; and, Sir, my service to you, and to all our friends in the
South.

Viator. Your servant, Sir ; and I'll pledge you as heartily ;
for the good powdered beef I ate at dinner, or something else,
has made me thirsty.

Viator. So, Sir, I am now ready for another

Chap. VIII. . y ^ ■ -i

lesson , so soon as you please to givp it me.
PiSCATOR. And I, Sir, as ready to give you the best I can.
Having told you the time of the Stone-fly's coming in, and that he
is bred of a cadis in the very river where he is taken, I am next
to tell you, that —

13. This same Stone-Fly has not the patience to continue in his crust
I or husk, till his wings be full grown ; but so soon as ever they begin to

put out, that he feels himself strong, at which time we call him a Jack,

26o THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [pakt ii.

squeezes himself out of prison, and crawls to the top of some stone, where
if he can find a chink that will receive him, or can creep betwixt two stones,
the one lying hollow upon the other, which, by the way, we also lay so
purposely to find them, he there lurks till his wings be full grown ; and
there is your only place to find him ; and from thence doubtless he derives
his name ; though, for want of such convenience, he will make shift with
the hollow of a bank, or any other place where the wind cannot come to
fetch him off. His body is long, and pretty thick, and as broad at the tail,
almost, as in the middle : his colour a very fine brown, ribbed with yellow,
and much yellower on the belly than the back : he has two or three whisks
also at the tag of his tail, and two little horns upon his head : his wings,
when full grown, are double, and flat down his back, of the same colour,
but rather darker than his body, and longer than it, though he makes but
little use of them ; for you shall rai-ely see him flying, though often
swimming and paddling with several feet he has under his belly, upon the
water, without stirring a wing. But the Drake will mount steeple-height
into the air ; though he is to be found upon flags and grass too, and indeed
everywhere, high and low, near the river ; there being so many of them
in their season as, were they not a very inoffensive insect, would look like
a plague ; and these drakes, since I forgot to tell you before, I will tell
you here, are taken by the fish to that incredible degree, that upon a calm
day you shall see the still deeps, continually, all over circles by the fishes
rising, who will gorge themselves with those flies till they purge again
out of their gills : and the Trouts are at that time so lusty and strong, that
one of eight or ten inches long will then more struggle and tug, and
more endanger your tackle, than one twice as big in winter. But
pardon this digression.

This Stone-fly then we dape or dibble with as with the Drake, but with
this difference, that whereas the Green-Drake is common both to stream
and still, and to all hours of the day, we seldom dape with this but in the
streams, for in a whistling wind, a made fly, in the deep, is better, and
rarely, but early and late, it not being so proper for the mid-time of the
day ; though a great Grayling will then take it very well in a sharp stream,
and here and there, a Trout too, but much better toward eight, nine, ten,
or eleven of the clock at night, at which time also the best fish rise, and
the later the better, provided you can see your fly ; and when you can-
not, a made fly will murder, which is to be made thus : the dubbing, of
bear's dun with a little brown and yellow camlet very well mixt, but so
placed that your fly may be more yellow on the belly and towards the
tail, underneath, than in any other part ; and you are to place two or
three hairs of a black cat's beard on the top of the hook, in your arming, so
as to be turned up when you warp on your dubbing, and to stand almost
upright, and staring one from another ; and note, that your fly is to be
ribbed with yellow silk ; and the wings long, and very large, of the dark
grey feather of a mallard.

14. The next May- fly is the Black-Fly ; made with a black body, of
the whirl of an ostrich feather, ribbed with silver twist, and the black
hackle of a cock over all ; and is a killing fly, but not to be named with
either of the other.

15. The last May-fly, that is, of the four pretenders, is the Little
Yellow May-Fly ; in shape exactly the same with the Green-drake, but
a very little one, and of as bright a yellow as can be seen : which is made

CHAP. VIII.] THE SECOND DAY. 261

of a bright yellow camlet, and the wings of a white-grey feather dyed
yellow.

16. The last fly for this month, and which continues all June, though it
comes in the middle of May, is the fly called the Camlet-Fly, in shape
like a moth, with fine diapered or water wings, and with which, as I told
you before, I sometimes used to dibble ; and Grayling will rise mightily at
it. But the artificial fly, wiiich is only in use amongst our anglers, is made
of a dark brown shining camlet ribbed over with a very small light green
silk : the wings of the double-grey feather of a mallard ; and 'tis a killing
fly for small fish. And so much for May.

JUNE.

From the first to the four-and-twentieth, the Green-drake and Stone-fly
are taken, as I told you before.

1. From the twelfth to the four-and-twentieth, late at night, is taken a
fly called the Owl-Fly : the dubbing of a white weasel's tail ; and a
white-grey wing.

2. We have then another dun, called the Barm-Fly, from its yeasty
colour. The dubbing of the fur of a yellow-dun cat^ and a grey wing of a
mallard's feather.

3. We have also a Hackle with a purple body, whipt about with a
red capon's feather.

4. As also a GoLD-TwiST Hackle with a puiple body, whipt about
with a red capon's feather.

5. To these we have, this month, a Flesh-Fly. The dubbing of a
black spaniel's fur and blue wool mixt, and a grey wing.

6. Also another little PYesh-Fly, the body made of the whirl of a pea-
cock's feather, and the wings of the grey feather of a drake.

7. We have, then, the Peacock-Fly, the body and wing, both made of
the feather of that bird.

8. There is also the flying-ant, or Ant-Fly, the dubbing of brown and
red camlet mixt, with a light grey wing.

9. We have likewise a Brown Gnat, with a very slender body of brown
and violet camlet well mixt, and a light grey wing.

10. And another little Black Gnat, the dubbing of black mohair, and
a white-grey wing.

11. As also a Green Grasshopper, the dubbing of green and yellow
wool mixt, ribbed over with green silk, and a red capon's feather over
all.

12. And, lastly, a little DuN Grasshopper, the body slender, made of
a dun camlet and a dun hackle at the top.

JULY.
First, all the small flies that were taken in June are also taken in this
month.

1. We have then the Orange Fly, the dubbing of orange wool, and
the wing of a black feather.

2. Also a little White Dun, the body made of white mohair, and the
wings, blue, of a heron's feather.

3. We have likewise this month a Wasp-Fly, made either of a dark
brov/n dubbing, or else the fur of a black cat's tail, ribbed about with
yellow silk, and the wing of the grey feather of a mallard.

262 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part ir.

4. Another fly taken this month is a Black Hackle, the body made
of the whirl of a peacock's feather, and a black hackle feather on the top.

5. We have also another, made of a peacock's whirl without wings.

6. Another fly also is taken this month, called the Shell-Fly, the
dubbing of yellow-green Jersey wool, and a little white hog's hair mixt,
which I call the palm-fly, and do believe it is taken for a palm, that drops
off the willows into the water ; for this fly I have seen Trouts take little
pieces of moss, as they have swam down the river ; by which I conclude
that the best way to hit the right colour is to compare your dubbing with
the moss, and mix the colours as near as you can.

7. There is also taken, this month, a Black-Blue Dun, the dubbing of
the fur of a black rabbit mixt with a little yellow, the wings of the feather
of a blue pigeon's wing.

AUGUST.
The same flies with July.

1. Then another Ant-Fly, the dubbing of the black-brown hair of a
cow, some red warpt in for the tag of his tail, and a dark wing. A killing
fly.

2. Next, a fly called the Fern-Fly, the dubbing of the fur of a hare's
neck, that is, of the colour of fern or bracken, with a darkish grey wing of
a mallard's feather. A killer too.

3. Besides these we have a White Hackle, the body of white mohair,
and warpt about with a white hackle feather ; and this is, assuredly,
taken for thistle-down.

4. We have also, this month, a Harry Long-Legs ; the body made of
bear's dun and blue wool mixt, and a brown hackle feather over all.

Lastly, in this month, all the same browns and duns are taken that were
taken in May.

SEPTEMBER.

This month the same flies are taken that are taken in April.

1. To which I shall only add a Camel-Brown fly, the dubbing pulled
out of the lime of a wall, whipt about with red silk j and a darkish grey
mallard's feather for the wing.

2. And one other for which we have no name ; but it is made of the
black hair of a badger's skin, mixt with the yellow softest down of a
sanded hog.

OCTOBER.

The same flies are taken this month that were taken in March.

NOVEMBER.

The same flies that were taken in February are taken this month also.

DECEMBER.

Few men angle with the fly this month, no more than they do in January ;
but yet, if the weather be warm, as I have known it sometimes in my life
to be, even in this cold countiy, whei-e it is least expected, then a brown,
that looks red in the hand, and yellowish betwixt your eye and the sun,
will both raise and kill in a clear water and free from snow-broth : but, at
the best, it is hardly worth a man's labour.

And now, Sir, I have done with Fly-fishing, or Angling at the

CHAP. VIII.] THE SECOND DA Y. 263

top, excepting, once more, to tell you, that of all these, and I
have named you a great many very killing flies, none are fit to be
compared with the Drake and Stone-fly, both for many and very
great fish ; ai\d yet there are some Days that are by no means
proper for the sport. And in a calm, you shall not have near so
much sport, even with daping, as in a whistling gale of wind, for
two reasons, both because you are not then so easily discovered by
the fish, and also because there are then but few flies that can lie
upon the water ; for where they have so much choice, you may
easily imagine they will not be so eager and forward to rise at
a bait, that both the shadow of your body, and that of your rod,
nay, of your very line, in a hot calm day, will, in spite of your
best caution, render suspected to them : but even then, in swift
streams, or by sitting down patiently behind a willow-bush, you
shall do more execution than at almost any other time of the year
with any other fly ; though one may sometimes hit of a day when
he shall come home very well satisfied with sport with several
other flies. But with these two, the Green-drake and the Stone-fly,
I do verily believe I could some days in my life, had I not been
weary of slaughter, have loaden a lusty boy ; and have sometimes,
I do honestly assure you, given over upon the mere account of
satiety of sport ; which will be no hard matter to believe, when I
likewise assure you, that with this very fly, I have, in this very
river that runs by us, in three or four hours, taken thirty, five-and-
thirty, and forty of the best Trouts in the river. What shame
and pity is it then that such a river should be destroyed by the
basest sort of people, by those unlawful ways of fire and netting
in the night, and of damming, groping, spearing, hanging, and
hooking by day ; which are now grown so common, that though
we have very good laws to punish such offenders, every rascal
does it, for aught I see, impune.

To conclude, I cannot now, in honesty, but frankly tell you,
that many of these flies I have named, at least so made as we
make them here, will peradventure do you no great service in
your southern rivers ; and will not conceal from you, but that I
have sent flies to several friends in London, that, for aught I
could ever hear, never did any great feats with them ; and there-
fore if you intend to profit by my instructions, you must come to
angle with me here in the Peak : and so, if you please, let us walk
up to supper ; and to-morrow, if the day be windy, as our days
here commonly are, 'tis ten to one but we shall take a good dish
of fish for dinner.

Ci)e Cfjirtf Dag*

CHAPTER IX.

PISCATOR. A good-day to you, Sir; I see you will always
be stirring before me.

Viator. Why, to tell you the truth, I am so allured with the
sport I had yesterday, that I long to be at the river again ;
and when I heard the wind sing in my chamber window, could
forbear no longer, but leapt out of bed, and had just made an end
of dressing myself as you came in.

PiSCATOR. Well, I am both glad you are so ready for the day,
and that the day is so fit for you. And look you, I have made
you three or four flies this morning ; this silver-twist hackle, this
bear's dun, this light brown, and this dark brown, any of which I
daresay will do ; but you may try them all, and see which does
best : only I must ask your pardon that I cannot wait upon you
this morning, a little business being fallen out, that for two or
three hours will deprive me of your company ; but I'll come and
call you home to dinner, and my man shall attend you.

Viator. Oh, Sir, mind your affairs by all means. Do but
lend me a little of your skill to these fine flies, and, unless it have
forsaken me since yesterday, I shall find luck of my own, I hope,
to do something.

PiSCATOR. The best instruction I can give you is, that seeing
the wind curls the water, and blows the right way, you would

CHAP. X.] THE TH/RD DAY. 265

now angle up the still deep to-day ; for betwixt the rocks where
the streams are, you would find it now too brisk ; and besides, I
would have you take fish in both waters.

Viator. I'll obey your direction, and so a good-morning to
you. Come, young man, let you and I walk together. But hark
you. Sir, I have not done with you yet ; I expect another lesson
for angling at the bottom, in the afternoon.

PiSCATOR. Well, Sir, I'll be ready for you.

PiscATOR. Oh, Sir, are you returned? you have
but just prevented me. I was coming to call you.

Viator. 1 am glad then I have saved you the labour.

PiSCATOR. And how have you sped ?

Viator. You shall see that. Sir, presently ; look you, Sir,
here are three '"'' brace of Trouts, one of them the biggest but one
that ever I killed with a fly in my life ; and yet I lost a bigger
than that, with my fly to boot ; and here are three Grayhngs, and
one of them longer by some inches than that I took yesterday,
and yet I thought that a good one too.

PiSCATOR. Why, you have made a pretty good morning's
work on't ; and now, Sir, what think you of our river Dove 1

Viator. I think it to be the best Trout-river in England ;
and am so far in love with it, that if it were mine, and that I could
keep it to myself, I would not exchange that water for all the land
it runs over, to be totally debarred from't.

■ PiSCATOR. That compliment to the river, speaks you a tRie
lover of the art of angling. And now, Sir, to make part of amends
for sending you so uncivilly out alone this morning, I will myself
dress you this dish of fish for your dinner : walk but into the
parlour, you will find one book or other, in the window, to entertain
you the while • and you shall have it presently.

Viator. Well, Sir, I obey you.

PiSCATOR. Look you, Sir, have I not made haste ?

Viator. Believe me. Sir, that you have ; and it looks so well,
I long to be at it.

PiSCATOR. Fall to then : now. Sir, what say you, am I a
tolerable cook or no .^

Viator. So good a one that I did never eat so good fish in
my life. This fish is infinitely better than any I ever tasted of
the kind in my hfe. 'Tis quite another thing than our Trouts
about London.

PiSCATOR. You would say so, if that Trout you eat of were

* Spoke like a South cou ntrj-nian.

266 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part ir.

in right season : but pray eat of the Grayling, which, upon my
word, at this time, is by much the better fish.

Viator. In earnest, and so it is. And I have one request
to make to you, which is, that as you have taught me to catch
Trout and GrayUng, you will now teach me how to dress them as
these are drest, which, questionless, is of all other the best way.

PlSCATOR. That I will, Sir, with all my heart ; and am glad you
like them so well as to make that request. And they are drest thus :

Take your Trout, wash, and dry him with a clean napkin ; then
open him, and having taken out his guts, and all the blood, wipe
him very clean within, but wash him not ; and give him three
scotches with a knife to the bone, on one side only. After which,
take a clean kettle, and put in as much hard stale beer (but it
must not be dead), vinegar, and a little white wine, and water, as
will cover the fish you intend to boil : then throw into the liquor
a good quantity of salt, the rind of a lemon, a handful of sliced
horseradish-root, with a handsome little fagot of rosemary, thyme,
and winter-savory. Then set your kettle upon a quick fire of wood :
and let your liquor boil up to the height before you put in your
fish : and then, if there be many, put them in one by one, that
they may not so cool the liquor as to make it fall. And whilst
your fish is boiling, beat up the butter for your sauce with a ladle-
ful or two of the liquor it is boiling in. And being boiled enough,
immediately pour the liquor from the fish : and being laid in a
dish, pour your butter upon it ; and strewing it plentifully over
with shaved horseradish, and a little pounded ginger, garnish your
sides of your dish, and the fish itself, with a sHced lemon or two,
and serve it up.

A Grayling is also to be drest exactly after the same manner,
saving that he is to be scaled, which a Trout never is : and that
must be done either with one's nails, or very lightly and carefully
with a knife, for fear of bruising the fish. And note, that these
kinds of fish, a Trout especiall}^, if he is not eaten within four or
five hours after he be taken, is worth nothing.

But come, Sir, I see you have dined ; and therefore, if you
please, we will walk down again to the little house, and there I
will read you a lecture of Angling at the bottom.

Viator. So, Sir, now we are here, and set, let me have my

instructions for angling for Trout and Grayling at the bottom ;

which though not so easy, so cleanly, nor, as 'tis

said, so genteel a way of fishing as with a fly, is yet

(if I mistake not) a good holding way, and takes fish when

nothing- else will.

CHAP. XI.] THE THIRD DAY. 267

PiscATOR. You are in the right, it does so : and a wonn is so
sure a bait at all times, that, excepting in a flood, I would I had
laid thousand pounds that I killed fish, more or less, with it,
winter or summer, every day throughout the year ; those days
always excepted, that upon a more serious account always ought
so to be. But not longer to delay you, I will begin and tell you
that Angling at the bottom is also, commonly, of two sorts (and
yet there is a third way of angling with a ground-bait, and to
very great effect too, as shall be said hereafter); namely, by
hand: or with a cork or float.

That we call Angling by hand, is of three sorts.

The first with a line about half the length of the rod, a good
weighty plumb, and three hairs next the hook, which we call a
running-line, and with one large brandling, or a dew-worm of a
moderate size, or two small ones of the first, or any other sort,
proper for a Trout, of which my father Walton has already given
you the names, and saved me a labour ; or indeed almost any
worm whatever ; for if a Trout be in the humour to bite, it must
be such a worm as I never yet saw, that he will refuse ; and if
you fish with two, you are then to bait your hook thus : You are,
first, to run the point of your hook in at the very head of your
first worm, and so down through his body till it be past the knot,
and then let it out, and strip the worm above the arming (that you
may not bruise it with your fingers) till you have put on the other,
by running the point of the hook in below the knot, and upwards
through his body towards his head, till it be but just covered with
the head, which being done, you are then to slip the first worm down
over the arming again till the knots of both worms meet together.

The second way of angling by hand, and with a running-line,
is with a line something longer than the former, and with tackle
made after this same manner. At the utmost extremity of your
line, where the hook is always placed in all other ways of
angling, you are to have a large pistol or carabine bullet, into
which the end of your line is to be fastened with a peg or pin,
even and close with the bullet ; and, about half a foot above
that, a branch of line, of two or three handfuls long, or more for
a swift stream, with a hook at the end thereof, baited with some
of the forenamed worms, and, another half a foot above that,
another armed and baited after the same manner, but with
another sort of worm, without any lead at all above: by which
means you will always certainly find the true bottom of all depths ;
which with the plumbs upon your line above, you can never do,

268 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part ir.

but that your bait must always drag whilst you are sounding
(which in this way of anghng must be continually) ; by which
means you are like to have more trouble, and peradventure worse
success. And both these ways of angling at the bottom are most
proper for a dark and muddy water, by reason, that in such a
condition of the stream a man may stand as near as he will, and
neither his own shadow nor the roundness of his tackle will
hinder his sport.

The third way of angling by hand with a ground-bait, and by
much the best of all other, is with a line full as long, or a yard
and a half longer than your rod ; with no more than one hair
next the hook, and for two or three lengths above it ; and no
more than one small pellet of shot for your plumb ; your hook,
little ; your worms, of the smaller brandlings, very well scoured ;
and only one upon your hook at a time, which is thus to be baited :
the point of your hook is to be put in at the very tag of his tail,
and run up his body quite over all the arming, and still stript on
an inch at least upon the hair ; the head and remaining part
hanging downward. And with this line and hook, thus baited,
you are evermore to angle in the streams, always in a clear, rather
than in a troubled water, and always up the river, still casting
out your worm before you with a light one-handed rod, like an
artificial fly, where it will be taken, sometimes at the top, or with-
in a very little of the superficies of the water, and almost always
before that light plumb can sink it to the bottom ; both by reason
of the stream, and also that you must always keep your worm in
motion by drawing still back towards you, as if you were angling
with a fly. And believe me, whoever will try it, shall find this
the best way of all other to angle with a worm, in a bright water
especially. But then his rod must be very light and pliant, and
very true and finely made, which, with a skilful hand, will do
wonders, and in a clear stream is undoubtedly the best way of
angling for a Trout or Grayling with a worm, by many degrees,
that any man can make choice of, and of most ease and delight
to the angler. To which let me add, that if the angler be of a
constitution that will suffer him to wade, and will slip into the tail
of a shallow stream, to the calf of the leg or the knee, and so keep
off the bank, he shall almost take what fish he pleases.

The second way of Angling at the bottom is with a Cork or
Float. And that is also of two sorts ; with a worm, or with a
grub or cadis.

With a Worm, you are to have your line within a foot, or a

CHAP. XI.] THE THIRD DAY. 269

foot and a half, as long as your rod ; in a dark water with two,
or if you will with three, but in a clear water never with above one
hair next the hook, and two or three for four or five lengths above
it ; and a worm of what size you please : your plumbs fitted to
your cork, your cork to the condition of the river (that is, to the
swiftness or slowness of it), and both when the water is very clear,
as fine as you can ; and then you are never to bait with above
one of the lesser sort of brandlings ; or if they are very little ones
indeed, you may then bait with two, after the manner before
directed.

When you angle for a Trout, you are to do it as deep, that is,
as near the bottom as you can, provided your bait do not drag, or
if it do, a Trout will sometimes take it in that posture. If for a
Grayling, you are then to fish further from the bottom ; he being
a fish that usually swims nearer to the middle of the water, and
lies always loose ; or, however, is more apt to rise than a Trout,
and more inclined to rise than to descend even to a ground-bait.

With a Grub or Cadis, you are to angle with the same length
of line, or if it be all out as long as your rod 'tis not the worse,
with never above one hair, for two or three lengths next the hook,
and with the smallest cork or float, and the least weight of plumb
you can that will but sink, and that the swiftness of your stream
will allow ; which also you may help, and avoid the violence of
the current, by angling in the returns of a stream, or the eddies
betwixt two streams, which also are the most likely places wherein
to kill a fish in a stream, either at the top or bottom.

Of Grubs for a Grayling, the ash-grub, which is plump, milk-
white, bent round from head to tail, and exceeding tender, with a
red head, or the dock-worm, or grub of a pale yellow, longer,
lanker, and tougher than the other, with rows of feet all down his
belly, and a red head also, are the best ; I say for a Grayling,
because although a Trout will take both these (the ash-grub
especially), yet he does not do it so freely as the other, and I
have usually taken ten Graylings for one Trout with that bait ;
though if a Trout come, 1 have observed that he is commonly
a very good one.

These baits we usually keep in bran, in which an ash-grub
commonly grows tougher, and will better endure baiting ; though
he is yet so tender, that it will be necessary to warp in a piece
of a stiff hair with your arming, leaving it standing out about a
straw-breadth at the head of your hook, so as to keep the grub
either from slipping totally off when baited, or at least down to

270 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part ir.

the point of the hook, by which means your arming will be left
wholly naked and bare, which is neither so sightly, nor so likely
to be taken ; though to help that (which will, however, very oft fall
out) I always arm the hook I design for this bait with the whitest
horse-hair I can choose ; which, itself, will resemble and shine
like that bait, and consequently will do more good, or less harm,
than an arming of any other colour. These grubs are to be
baited thus : the hook is to be put in under the head or chaps of
the bait, and guided down the middle of the belly, without suffer-
ing it to peep out by the way (for then (the ash-grub especially)
will issue out water-and-milk till nothing but the skin shall
remain, and the bend of the hook will appear black through it),
till the point of your hook come so low, that the head of your
bait may rest, and stick upon the hair that stands out to hold it,
by which means it can neither slip of itself, neither will the force
of the stream nor quick pulling out, upon any mistake, strip it
off.

Now the cadis or cod-bait (which is a sure killing bait,
and for the most part by much surer than either of the other)
may be put upon the hook, two or three together ; and is some-
times (to very great effect) joined to a worm, and sometimes to
an artificial fly, to cover the point of the hook ; but is always to
be angled with at the bottom (when by itself especially) with the
finest tackle ; and is for all times of the year the most holding
bait of all other whatever, both for Trout and Grayling.

There are several other baits, besides these few I have named
you, which also do very great execution at the bottom ; and some
that are peculiar to certain countries and rivers, of which every
angler may in his own place make his own observation ; and
some others that I do not think fit to put you in mind of, because
I would not corrupt you, and would have you, as in all things else
I observe you to be a very honest gentleman, a fair angler. And
so much for the second sort of Angling for a Trout at the bottom.

Viator. But, Sir, I beseech you give me leave to ask you
one question. Is there no art to be used to worms, to make
them allure the fish, and in a manner compel them to bite at the
bait 1

PiSCATOR. Not that I know of; or did I know any such
secret, I would not use it myself, and therefore would not teach
it you. Though I will not deny to you, that in my younger days
I have made trial of oil of ospray, oil of ivy, camphire, asafcetida,
juice of nettles, and several other devices that I was taught by

CHAP. XII.] THE THIRD DA Y. 271

several anglers I met with, but could never find any advantage
by them ; and can scarce believe there is anything to be done
that way: though I must tell you, I have seen some men who I
thought went to work no more artificially than I, and have yet,
with the same kind of worms I had, in my own sight taken five,
and sometimes ten for one. But we'll let that business alone, if
you please ; and because we have time enough, and that I would
deliver you from the trouble of any more lectures, I will, if you
please, proceed to the last way of Angling for a Trout or Gray-
ling, which is in the middle ; after which I shall have no more to
trouble you with.

Viator. 'Tis no trouble, Sir, but the greatest satisfaction that
can be ; and I attend you.

PiSCATOR. Angling in the middle, then, for a Trout or
Grayling is of two sorts ; with a Pink or Minnow for
a Trout ; or with a Worm, Grub, or Cadis, for a
Grayling.

For the first. It is with a minnow, half a foot or a foot within
the superficies of the water. And as to the rest that concerns
this sort of Angling, I shall wholly refer you to Mr Walton's
directions, who is undoubtedly the best Angler with a minnow in
England ; only, in plain truth, I do not approve of those baits he
keeps in salt,* unless where the living ones are not possibly to be
had (though I know he frequently kills with them, and peradventure,
more than with any other ; nay, I have seen him refuse a living
one for one of them), and much less of his artificial one ; t for
though we do it with a counterfeit fly, methinks it should hardly
be expected that a man should deceive a fish with a counterfeit
fish. Which having said, I shall only add, and that out of my own
experience, that I do believe a Bullhead, with his gill-fins cut off
(at some times of the year especially), to be a much better bait
for a Trout than a minnow, and a Loach much better than that :
to prove which I shall only tell you, that I have much oftener
taken Trouts with a bullhead or a loach in their throats (for there
a Trout has questionless his first digestion) than a minnow ; and
that one day especially, having angled a good part of the day with
a minnow, and that in as hopeful a day, and as fit a water as
could be wished for that purpose, without raising any one fish,
I at last fell to it with a worm, and with that took fourteen in a
very short space ; amongst all which there was not, to my remem-
brance, so much as one that had not a loach or two, and some

* See p. 94. t See p. 95.

272 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part ii.

of them three, four, five, and six loaches in his throat and stomach;
from whence I concluded, that had I angled with that bait, I had
made a notable day's work oft.

But after all, there is a better way of angling with a minnow
than perhaps is fit either to teach or to practise ; to which I
shall only add, that a Grayling will certainly rise at, and some-
times take a minnow, though it will be hard to be believed by any
one who shall consider the littleness of that fish's mouth, very
unfit to take so great a bait ; but is affirmed by many that he
will sometimes do it, and I myself know it to be true ; for though
I never took a Grayling so, yet a man of mine once did, and
within so few paces of me, that I am as certain of it as I can be
of anything I did not see, and (which made it appear the more
strange) the Grayling was not above eleven inches long.

I must here also beg leave of your master, and mine, not to con-
trovert, but to tell him, that I cannot consent to his way of throw-
ing in his rod to an overgrown Trout, and afterwards recovering
his fish with his tackle : for though I am satisfied he has some-
times done it, because he says so, yet I have found it quite
otherwise : and though I have taken with the angle, I may safely
say, some thousands of Trouts in my life, my top never snapt,
though my line still continued fast to the remaining part of my
rod (by some lengths of line curled round about my top, and there
fastened, with waxt silk, against such an accident), nor my hand
never slackt, or slipt by any other chance, but I almost always
infallibly lost my fish, whether great or little, though my hook
came home again. And I have often wondered how a Trout should
so suddenly disengage himself from so great a hook as that we
bait with a minnow, and so deep bearded as those hooks com-
monly are, when I have seen by the forenamed accidents, or the
slipping of a knot in the upper part of the line, by sudden and
hard striking, that though the line has immediately been recovered,
almost before it could be all drawn into the water, the fish cleared,
and gone in a moment. And yet, to justify what he says, I have
sometimes known a Trout, having carried away a whole line,
found dead three or four days after, with the hook fast sticking in
him ; but then it is to be supposed he had gorged it, which a
Trout will do, it you be not too quick with him when he comes
at a minnow, as sure and much sooner than a Pike : and I
myself have also, once or twice in my life, taken the same fish,
with my own fly sticking in his chaps, that he had taken from
me the day before, by the slipping of a hook in the arming.

CHAP. XII.] THE THIRD DAY. 273

But I am very confident a Trout will not be troubled two
hours with any hook that has so much as one handful of line left
behind with it, or that is not struck through a bone, if it be in any
part of his mouth only: nay, I do certainly know that a Trout, as
soon as ever he feels himself prickt, if he carries away the hook,
goes immediately to the bottom, and will there root, like a hog
upon the gravel, till he either rub out or break the hook in the
middle. And so much for this first sort of angling in the middle
for a Trout.

The second way of Angling in the middle is with a worm, grub,
cadis, or any other ground-bait, for a Grayling ; and that is with
a cork, and a foot from the bottom, a Grayling taking it much
better there than at the bottom, as has been said before ; and
this always in a clear water, and with the finest tackle.

To which we may also, and with very good reason, add the
third way of angling by hand with a ground-bait, as a third way
of fishing in the middle, which is common to both Trout and
Grayling ; and (as I said before) the best way of angling with a
worm of all other I ever tried whatever.

And now, Sir, I have said all I can at present think of con-
cerning Angling for a Trout and Grayling, and I doubt not have
tired you sufficiently: but I will give you no more trouble of this
kind whilst you stay, which I hope will be a good while longer.

Viator. That will not be above a day longer ; but if I live
till May come twelvemonth, you are sure of me again, either with
my Master Walton or without him ; and in the meantime shall
acquaint him how much you have made of me for his sake, aind
I hope he loves me well enough to thank you for it.

PiSCATOR. I shall be glad, Sir, of your good company at the
lime you speak of, and shall be loath to part with you now ; but
when you tell me you must go, I will then wait upon you more
miles on your way than I have tempted you out of it, and heartily
wish you a good journey.

ADDITIONAL NOTES AND APPENDIX

TO THE COMPLETE ANGLER.

P. 3. The first edition of Walton's Angler appears, from the original
advertisements, to have been published at eighteenpence. It was thus
advertised in " The Perfect Diurnall : from Monday, May gth, to Monday,
May i6tk, 1653," p. 2716, London, 4to: —

"The Compleat Angler, or the Contemplative Man's Recreation, being
a Discourse of Fish and Fishing, not unworthy the perusal of most Anglers,
of 18 pence price. Written by Iz. Wa. Also the known Play of the
Spanish Gipsee, never till now published : Both printed for Richard
Marriot, to be sold at his shop m Saint Dunstan's Churchyard, Fleet
street. In the Mei'curius Politiciis : from Thursday, May 12, to Thursday,
May 19, 1653,/. 2470, Lojidon, ^to, the Complete Angler is thus noticed :
" There is newly extant, a Book of iSd. price, called the Compleat Angler,
or the Contemplative Man's Recreation, being a Discourse of Fish and
Fishing, not unworthy the perusal of most Anglers. Printed for Richard
Marriot, to be sold at his shop in St Dunstan's Churchyard, Fleet street."

P. 14. Alexander Brome also edited Fletcher's comedy of " Monsieur
Thomas" in 1639, which he dedicated to Charles Cotton, Esq., the father
of the author of the second part of " The Complete Angler."

P. 18. The following translation of Dr Duport's verses to Walton is
from the pen of the Venerable Archdeacon Wrangham, and was first printed
in his edition of Dr Zouch's works, vol. ii. p. 441 : —

Hail, Walton,' with thatjis/ier-sk\\], Reading, on no inglorious theme,

Which whilom Peter's tribute paid ; Deep lectures to a listening host.

And master thou, and scholar I,

And cheer'd Augustus earlier still

Mid empire s toils in Tibur s shade ! ^ ^^^^^ associate may record

Thee, friend, next Csesar now we deem (For I, too, watch the mimic fly)

Of fishing-rod and race the boast ; — A fisher was great nature's Lord.

Among more recent verses in praise of Walton, the following which
occur in a poem edited by N. Tate, entitled "The Innocent Epicure, or
Angling," published in 1697, the author of which is not known, merit
insertion from their commemorating Walton, Cotton, and Venables : —

Hail, great Triumvirate * of Angling 1 hail,
Ye who best taught, and here did best excel !
Play here the Gods, play here the Hero's part,
Yourselves the Proto-Poets of the Art ;
My humble Breast with pow'rful flames inspire,
To teach the World what justly we admire :
Joys fraught with Innocence, of Danger free ;
Raptures which none enjoy so full as we.

* Walton, Cotton, and Venables.

APPENDIX TO THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 275

But tell me first, for you or none can tell^

What God the mighty Science did reveal f

For sure a God he was ; less than Divine

Could Blessings richer than the raciest Wine

Enlarge our Hearts, or strengthen his Design?

A God he was then, or at least to me ;

And, my Associates, such he ought to be. •

He taught us first the Grandeur of the Court ;

Contemn'd and scorn'd for this, to choose a Sport

Full of Content, and crown'd with healthful Ease,

Where Nature frets not, while ourselves we please.

P. 35. In a poem by W. Vallans, entitled " A Tale of Two Swannes,"
printed in 1590, are these verses descriptive of Theobalds : —

♦ Thebalds, Now see these Swannes. the new and worthie seate *

Of famous Cicill, tresorer of the land,
Whose wi'^edome, counsell, skill of princes state,
The world admires ; then Swannes may doe the same :
The house it selfe doth shewe the owners wit^
And may for bewtie, state, and every thing,
Compared be with most within the land.

It may here be remarked, that the view of the exterior of Theobalds,
which will be found at page 180 of tliis work, from a picture by Vinken-
boom, now in the Fitzwilliam Collection at Cambridge, was engraved in
the second vohime of the Vetusta Monumenta, where it is called a view of
Richmond Talace. The following statement on the subject occurs in the
Gentleman's Magazine for September 1836 : *' There is a folio plate of it,
engraved at the expense of the Society of Antiquaries in the year 1765, but
under the misnomer of Ruhmond Palace, a very extraordinary instance of
carelessness and want of research, as there are two old views in existence
of Richmond Palace, showing that its architecture was totally different in
style to that of Theobalds, The original painting was then * in the posses-
sion of Lord Viscount Fitzwilliam at Richmond,^ a circumstance which
naturaHy led to the misnomer with inconsiderate persons." As the Vetusta
Monumenta is published by the Society of Antiquaries of London, the
blunder, however striking, surely cannot be considered extraordinary.

P, 42. Tradescant's House is now the residence of William Heseltine,
Esq.

P. 54. The following verses, ascribed to Sir Henry Wotton, which occur
in Clifford's " Tixall Poetry," p. 297, bear so much resemblance, in beauty
and simplicity, to many of the pieces alluded to by Walton, that theii
Assertion needs no apology : —

RUSTICATIO RELIGIOSI IN VACANTIIS.

QuiVERtNG feares, heart-tearing cares, Or the pure azure heaven, that smiles to
Anxious sighes, untimely teares, see

Fly, fly to courts. The rich attendance of our poverty ;

Fly to find worldly harts ; Peace, and a secare mind.

Where strain'd sardonick smiles are gloss- Which all men seeke, we only find.

And griefels forc'd to laugh against his will ; ^^^^^. mortals^ did you know

Where mirth is but mummery, Where joy, hart s ease and comforts grow,

And sorrows only reall be. Y"" ^ ^""^"^f^ P"""."^ ^°^^r='

^ And seeke them m those bowers,

Fly from our country pastime, fly, Where winds sometimes our woods perhaps
Sad troopes of humane misery. may shake.

Come, serened lookes, But blustering Care can never tempest

Cleare as these cristall brookes, make ;

I

276 APPENDIX TO THE

Nor murmurs ere come nigh us, Nor envy, unless among

Saving of fountains which glide by us. The birds, for praise of their sweet song.

Here's no fantastike maske. or dance, ^o, let the diving negro seeke

TT 1 oo „..^r, fV,^. o-^L.,» Save what the dewy morne

Unless upon the greene /-• i x. ■ c

Two harmles's lambs^re butting one the S;T;?f,t.Tr.f±^?L?.f kITh

other.

Which done, both bleating run each to his

Which careles sheapheards beat downe as
they passe :

mother • "^"*^ ^° *^ "^^^ \^&rQ. appeares

Nor wounds are ever found, _ ^"^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^o^ ^^"-^^ ^^^''"-

Save what the ploughshare gives the Sweet silent groves, O may you be

ground. For ever mirth's best nursery.

May pure contents
Here are no false entrapping baites For ever pitch their tents

To hasten too, too hasty fates, Upon these meads, these downs, these
Unless it be rocks, these mountains ;

The fond credulity And peace still slumber by these purling
Of silly fish, >which, worldlings like, still fountains ;

look Which we may every yeare

Upon the baite, and never on the hooke ; Find when we come to sojourne here.

P. 54. There are strong reasons for believing that the " Secrets of
Angling" was not written by John Davers, but by John Den7iys, Esq., who
was lord of Oldbury-sur-Montem, in the county of Gloucester, between
1572 and 1608. He was a younger son of Sir Walter Dennis, of Puckle-
church, in that county, by Agnes, daughter and co-heiress of Sir Robert
Davers, or Dan vers. It has been observed by Mr James Williamson, that
the author of the Secrets of Angling speaks of the river Boyd, "washing
the cliffs of Deighton and Week, and through their rocks, with winding
way, seeking the Avon, in whose fair streams are found trout, roaches,
dace, gudgeon, and bleak." Mention is also made of the many pleasant
banks of that river, and of parties of anglers from Bath and Bristol passing
along the meadows near the sides of that beautiful stream. The author
likewise speaks of the rivers Usk, Severn, and Wye, which flow not very
far distant from that neighbourhood. It appears that there is a beautiful
rivulet called Boyd, which is formed by four distinct streams, rising in the
parishes of Codrington, Pucklechurch, Dyrham, and Toghill, in the
southern part of the county of Gloucester, between Bath and Bristol, which
join in Wyke or Week Street, in the parish of Alston and Wyck, near a
bridge of three large arches, and thence by the name of Boyd down to
Avon, at Kynsham Bridge, and which river passes through the village of
Pucklechurch, and thence flows on to Bitton, where stands a stone bridge.
At Alston and Wyke there are many high cliffs or rocks, whose quarries
afford most excellent lime, and in the north aisle of the ancient Church of
Pucklechurch is the burial-place of the family of Dennys. John Dennys,
Esq., was resident in that neighbourhood in the year 1572, and so continued
till 1608, during which interval he was lord of the manor of Oldbury-sur-
Montem, and of other places in the county of Gloucester.

The poet who commends the " Secrets of Angling" in the copy of verses
tinder the signature of "Jo. Daves," was probably the author's relation;
and this seems to have been the old way of spelling the name of Davers or
Danvers, as may be collected from Leland's Itinerarium, ed. 1 769, vol. iii.
p. 115.

P. 79. The following are the songs mentioned by Walton : —

COMPLETE ANGLER.

277

COME, SHEPHERDS, DECK YOUR HEADS."

(From a MS. in the collection of the late Mr Heber, communicated by
Mr T. Rodd.)

Come, Shepheards, deck your heads
No more with bayes but willowes,
Forsake your downie beds
And make the downes your pillowes,
And mourne with me, since crost
As never yet was no man.
For shepheard neaver lost
So plain a dealing woman.

All yee forsaken wooers
That ever were distressed,
And all ye lusty doers
That ever wenches pressed.
That losses can condole
And altogeaiher summon
To mourne for the poor soule
Of my plaine-dealinge woman.

Faire Venus made her chast,
And Ceres beauty gave her,
Pan wept when shee was lost,
The Satyrs strove to have her ;
Yet seem'd she to theire view
So coy, so nice, that no man
Could judge but he that knew
Shee was plaine-r.ealinge woman.

At all her pretty parts
I nere enough can wonder ;
She overcame all hearts,
Yet shee all hearts came under ;
Her inward parts were sweetc.
Yet not so sweete as common,
Shepheard shall neaver meet
So plaine a dealinge woman.

AS AT NOON DULCINA RESTED.'

(Printed in Ellis's Specimens of Early English Poetry, 2d ed. p. 189.)

As at noon Dulcina rested

In her sweet and shady bower.
Came a shepherd, and requested
In her lap to sleep an hour.

But from her look

A wound he took
So deer), that for a further boon

The nymph he prays,

Whereto she says.
Forego me now, come to me soon.

But in vain she did conjure him.

To depart her presence so.
Having a thousand tongues t' allure him,
And but one to bid him go.

When lips invite,

And eyes delight.
And cheeks as fresh as rose in June,

Persuade delay —

What boots to say.
Forego me now, come to me soon ?

I He demands, what time for pleasure
f Can there be more fit than now ?
jSie says, night gives love that leisure
I Wliich the day doth not allow.

Improves delight .*
Which she denies : night's murky noon,

In Venus' plays.

Makes bold (she says) ;
Forego me now, come to nie soon.

But what promise or profession

From his hands could purchase scope?
Who would sell the sweet possession
Of such beauty for a hope ?

Or for the sight

Of lingering night
Forego the present joys of noon ?

Tho' ne'er so fair

Her speeches were.
Forego me now, come to me soon.

How at last agreed these lovers ?

She was fair and he was voung ;
The tongue may tell what th' eye discovers,
Joys unseen are never sung.
Did she consent
Or he relent,
Accepts he night, or grants she noon,
Left he her a maid
Or not, she said,
Forego me now, come to me soon.

PHILLIDA FLOUTS ME.

(Printed in Ritson's "Ancient Songs," ed. 1790, p. 236, from the "Theatre
of Compliments," in 1689.)

Oh ! what a plague is love,

I cannot bear it;
She will inconstant prove,

I greatly fear it ;
It so torments my mind,

That mv heart faileth ;

She wavers with the wind,

As a ship saileth :
Please her the best I may.
She loves still to gainsay,
Alack, and well-a-day !

Phillida flouts me.

* In the third, fourth, and fifth, as well as in the present edition of
Angler," this word is erroneously printed ^^ herds'*

The Complete

■

278

APPENDIX TO THE

At the fair t'other day.

As she pass'd by me,
She look'd another way,

And would not spy me.
I woo'd her for to dine,

But could not get her ;
Dick had her to the Vine,

He mig'-t entreat her.
With Daniel she did dance,
On me she wou'd not glance.
Oh I thrice unhappv chance,
Pliillida flouts me.

Fair maid, be not so coy,

Do not disdain me ;
I am my mother's joy.

Sweet, entertain me.
I shall have, when she dies.

All things that's fitting.
Her poultry and her bees,

And her goose sitting ;
A pair of mattress beds,
A barrel full of shreds :
And yet for all these goods,
Phillida flouts me.

I often heard her say,

That she lov'd posies ;
In the last month of May

I gave her roses ;
Cowslips and gilly-flowers,

And the sweet lily,
I got to deck the bowers

Of my dear Philly :
She did them all disdain,
And threw them back again ;
Therefore 'tis flat and plain,
Phillida flouts me.

Thou shalt eat curds-and-creim

All the year lasting,
And drink the crystal stream,

Pleasant in tasting ;
Swig whey until you burst.

Eat bramble-berries,

CHEVY CHASE

Pie-lid and pastry cru«t.

Pears, plums, and cherries ;
Thy garments shall be thin.
Made of a wether's skin.
Yet all's not worth a pin,

Phillida flouts me.

Which way soe'er I go.

She still torments me ;
And whatsoe'er I do.

Nothing contents me ;
I fade and pine away

With grief and sorrow:
\ fall quite to decay.

Like any shadow ;
I shall be dead, 1 fear.
Within a thousand year,
And all because my dear

Phillida flouts me.

Fair maiden, have a care,

And in time take me ;
I can have those as fair.

If you forsake me :
There's Doll the dairymaid

Smil'd on me lately.
And wanton Winnifred

Favours me greatly ;
One throws milk on my clothes.
T'other plays with my nose ;
What pretty toys are those?
Phillida flouts me.

She hath a cloth of mine,

Wrought with blue Coventry,
Which she keeps as a sign

Of my fidelity ;
But if she frowns on me.

She ne'er shall wear it ;
I'll give it my maid Joan,

And she shall tear it.
Since 'twill no better be,
I'll bear it patiently ;
Yet all the world may see

Phillida flouts me.

The length of this well-known ballad prevents its being reprinted here.
It will be found in '* Percy's Reliques," as well as in several other collec-
tions.

JOHNNY ARMSTRONG.

(From Ritson's Ancient Songs and Ballads, ed. 1829, vol. ii. p. 215,
where it is entitled "John Armstrong's Last Good-Night.")

Is there never a man in all Scotland,

From the highest estate to the lowest
degree,
That can show himself now before the king,

Scotland is so full of treachery?

Yes, there is a man in Westmoreland,

And John Armstrong they do him call.
He has no lands nor rents coming in,

Yet he keeps eight-score men within his
hall.
He has horses and harness for them all.

And goodly steeds that be milk-white.

With their goodly belts about their necks,

With hats and feathers all alike.
The king he writes a loving letter,

And with his own hand so tenderly,
And hath sent it unto Johnny Armstrong,

To come and speak with him speedily.
When John he look'd this letter upon.

Good lord, he look'd as blithe as a bird m
a tree : . . vr

»' I was never before a king in my life.

My father, my grandfather, nor none of
us three.

COMPLETE ANGLER. 279

" But seeing we must go before the king, Then they fought on like champions bo'd,
Lord, we will go most gallantly ; For their hearts were sturdy, stout, and

Ye shall every one have a velvet coat, free,

Laid down with golden laces three : Till they had kill'd all the king's good guard,

" And you shall every one have a scarlet '^^"'^ ^^ "0"« left alive but two or three.

Laid down with silver laces five ; ^"^,J^«" '■°='= up all Edinburgh,

With your golden belts about your necks, . ^ ^^^ '"f.^'^ "P ^y thousands three
With hats and feathers all alike." ^ cowardly Scot came John behind.

And run him through the fair body.
But when John he went from Giltnock Hall, .
The wind it blew hard, and full fast it did Said John, " Fight on, my merry men all,
rain : Jf ^f" a little wounded, but am not slain ;

"Now fare thee well, thou Giltnock Hall, I will lay me down for to bleed a while,
I fear I shall never see thee again." Ihen I'll rise and fight with you again."

Now John is to Edinburgh gone, Then they fought on like madmen all,

With his eight-score men so gallantly. Till many a man lay de.id upon the plain.

And every one of them on a milk-white For they were resolved, before they would

steed, yield.

With their bucklers and swords hanging That every man would there be slain.

to their k:iee.

T, 1 T L »i_ 1 • 1. r So there they fought courageously,

^ w^u*;" J°^? "'"'' ^^"^ """^ ^^'f; Till most of them lay dead there and

With his eight-score men so gallant to see, slain* v w.c «..«

The king I'e moved his bonnet to him, 3,,^ little Musgrave that was his foot-page.

He Jhought he had been a king as well as ^ith his bonny Grissel got away untaen!

" O pardon, pardon, my sovereign liege, ^V^;,^';*^" ^'^ "^"^V Giltnock Hall,

Pardon for my eight-score men and me ; .. -\, u ^'^^ ^^'^1: '^"" P''«^«"''y j. , ,
For my name it is John Armstrbng. ^^at news, what news, thou little foot-

And a subject of yours, my liege," said he. ,,P*'^*' - , ...

What news from thy master, and his
" Away with thee, thou false traitor, company?"

No pardon will I grant to tliee.
But, to-morrow 'mora' by eight of the " My news is bad, lady," he said,

clock, " Which I do bring, as you may see ;

I will hang up thy eight-score men aod My master Johnny Armstrong is slain,
thee." And all his gallant company."

Then John look'd over his left shoulder, «• Yet thou art welcome home, my bonny

And to his merry men thus said he. Grissfel,

" I have ask'd grace of a gniceless face, Y\A\ oft hast thou been fed with corn and

No pardon there is for you or me.' hay,

Then John pull'd out his nut-brown sword, But now thou shall be fed with bread and

And it was made of metal so free, . ^i"?' -j i_ n t .j

Had not the king mov'd his foot as he did. And thy sides shall be spurr d no more,

John had taken his head from his fair body. ^ s^V*

" Come, follow me, my merry men all, O then bespake his little son,

We will scorn one foot for to fly. As he sat on his nurse's knee,

It '■hall ne'er be said we were hung like dogs, " If ever I live to be a man,

We will fight it out most manfully." My father's death revenged shall be."

TROY TOWN.

I

^V (From Ritson's Ancient Songs and Ballads, ed. 1829, vol. ii. p. loi,

^^^vhere it is entitled " the Wandering Prince of Troy." Ritson observes

that "the old printed copies, being palpably corrupt, have been judiciously

corrected by the ingenious Dr Percy, whose emendations are here adopted,

though not without proper marks of distinction.")

When Troy town had, for ten years Waste lie those walls that were so good,

' past,' And corn now grows where Troy town
Withstood the Greeks in manful wise, stoocf.

Then did their foes increase so fast, a? „ j • t> • cv

I

28o

AI'PENDIX TO THE

At length, ' arriving ' with great joy,

To mighty Carthage walls was brought ;
Where Dido queen, with sumptuous

feast.
Did entertain this wandering guest.

And, as in hall at meat they sat,
The queen, desirous news to hear.

Says, " Of thy Troy's unhappy fate,
Declare to me, thou Trojan dear :

The heavy hap, and chance so bad.

Which thou, poor wandering prince, hast
had."

And then, anon, this comely knight,
With words demure, as he could well.

Of ' their ' unhappy ten years' ' fight,*
So true a tale began to tell,

With words so sweet, and sighs so deep,

That oft he made them all to weep.

And then a thousand sighs he fetch'd.
And every sigh brought tears amain ;

That where he sate the place was wet,
As he had seen those wars again ;

So that the queen, with ruth therefore,

Said, Worthy prince, enough, no more.

The darksome night apace grew on,

And twinkling stars in skies were spread ;

And he his doleful tale had ' done,'
And every one was laid in bed ;

Where they full sweetly took their rest,

Save only Dido's boiling breast.

This silly woman never slept.

But in her chamber all alone,
As one unhappy, always wept,

And to the walls she made her moan ;
That she should stiil desire in vain
The thing that she could not obtain.

And thus in grief she spent the night,
Till twinkling stars from sky were fled.

And Phoebus, with his glittering ' light,'
Through misty clouds appeared red ;

Then tidings came to her anon,

That all the Trojan ships were gone.

And then the queen, with bloody knife,
Did arm her heart as hard as stone.

Yet, somewhat loth to lose her life,
In woeful wise she made her moan ;

And, rolling on her careful bed.

With sighs and sobs, these words she said :

O wretched Dido queen ! quoth she,
I see thy end approacheth near ;

For he is gone away from thee.
Whom thou didst love, and ' hold ' so

Is he then gone, and passed by? [dear :

O heart, prepare thyself to die.

Though Reason would thou shouldst
fcrbear.
And stay thy hand from bloody stroke :
Yet Fancy says thou shouldst not fear,
Who fettereth thee in Cupid's yoke.
Come, Death, quoth she, resolve my

smart : —
And with these wcrds, she pierced her
heart.

When Death had pierc'd the tender heart
Of Dido, Carthaginian queen ;

And bloody knife did end the smart.
Which site snstain'd in woeful teen, —

i'Eneas being shipp'd and gone.

Whose flattery caused all her moan. —

Her funeral most costly made.
And all things furnish'd mournfully ;

Her body fine in mould was laid,
Where it consumed speedily :

Her sister's tears her tomb bestrew'd ;

Her subjects' grief their kindness shew'd.

Then was ^neas in an isle,

In Grecia, where he liv'd long space.
Whereas her sister, in short while,

Writ to him to his vile disgrace ;
In phrase of letters to her mind,
She told him plain he was imkind.

False-hearted wretch, quoth she, thou art ;

And treacherously thou hast betray'd
Unto thy lure a gentle heart,

Which unto thee such welcome made ;
My sister dear, and Carthage joy.
Whose folly wrought her dire annoy.

Yet, on her deathbed when she lay,

She pray'd for thy prosperity,
Beseeching Heaven, that every day

Might breed thy gr-.-at felicity :
Thus, by thy means I lost a friend ;
Heaven send thee such untimely end !

When he these lines, full fraught with gall.
Perused had, and weigh'd them right.

His lofty courage then did fall.
And straight appeared in his sight

Queen Dido's ghost, both grim and pale ;

Which made this gallant soldier quail.

i^neas, quoth this grisly ghost.
My whole delight while I did live.

Thee of all men I loved most ;
My fancy and my will did give :

For entertainment I thee gave,

UnthankluUy thou 'dug'si' my grave.

Therefore prepare thy fleeting soul
To wander with me in the air ;

Where deadly grief shall make it howl,
Because of me thou took'st no care :

Delay no time, thy glass is run,

Thy day is pass'd, thy death is come.

O stay a while, thou lovely sprite ;

Be not so hasty to convey
My soul into eternal night,

Where it shall ne'er beho'd bright day.
O do not frown, — thy angry look
Hath 'ail my soul with horror shook.'

But, woe to me ! it is in vain.
And bootless is my dismal cry ;

Time will not be recall'd again,
Nor thou surcease before I die '.

O let me live, to make amends

Unto some of thy dearest friends.

COMPLETE ANGLER.

2S1

But, seeing thou obdurate art,
And wilt no pity to me show.

Because froni thee I did depart.
And left unpaid what I did owe,

I must content myself to take

What lot tliou wilt with me partake.

P. 84. Commendation of ale.

And, like one being in a trance,

A multitude cif ugly fiends
About this woeful prince did dance,

No help he had of any friends;
His body then they took away.
And no man knew his dying day.

The following old ballad, which is

printed in "A ryght pithy, pleasaunt, and merle comedie : Intytuled
Gammer Gurton's Nedle" (London, 1575), by Bishop Still, was probably
well known to Walton : —

I CANNOT eate but lyile meate.

My stomacke is not good ;
But -^ure I thinke that I can drynke

With him that weares a hood.
Though I go bare take ye no care,

I am nothinge a colde ;
I stuff my skyn so full within,
Of joiv good ale and olde.

BacTke and side go bare, go bare.

Booth foote and hande go colde :
But belly, God sende thee good ale
inoughe.
Whether it be new or olde.

And Tyb my wyfe, that as her lyfe,

Loueth well good ale to seeke.
Full oft drynkes shee, tyil ye may see

The teares run downe her cheeke :
Then doth she trow'e to me the bowle,

Euen as a mault-worm shuld ;
And sayth, sweete hart, I tooke my part

Of this joly good ale and olde.
Backe and side, &c.

I loue no rost, but a nut-browne toste.

And a crab* laid in the fyre ;
A little breade shall do me stead,

Much breade 1 do not desyre.
No frost nor snow, nor winde I trowe.

Can hurte mee if I wolde,
I am so wrapt, and throwly lapt.

Of jo'y good ale and olde.
IJacke and side, &c.

P. 85. The followinsj are the songs mentioned by Walton as having
been composed by Mr William Basse : —

Now let them drynke tyll they nod and
winke,
Even as good fclowes shoulde doe :
They shall not mysse to have the blisse.

Good ale doth bringe men to.
And all poore scules that have scowred
boules
Or have them lustely trolde,
God saue the lyues of them and their
wyues.
Whether they be yonge or olde.
Backe and side, &c.

THE HUNTER IN HIS CAREER.

(From a Collection of Old Ballads, ed. 1725, vol.

i. p. 196.)

Long ere the moni

Expects the return
Of Apollo from th' Ocean Queen :

Before the creak

Of the crow, and the break
Of the day in the welkin seen ;

Mounted he'd hallow.

And cheerfnlly follow,
To the chase with his bugle clear ;

Echo doth he make.

And the mountains shake,
With the thunder of his career.

Now bonny Bay

In his foine waxeth gray,
Dapp'e-grey waxeth bay in his blood ;

whte Lilly stops.

With the scent m her chaps,
And Black Ladv makes it good ;

Poor silly Wat,

In this wretched state,
Forgets these delights for to hear ;

Nimbly she bounds

From the cry of the hounds,
And the music of their career.

Hills with the heat

Of the gallopers sweat.
Reviving their frozen tops ;

The dale's purple flowers,

That drop from the showers.
That down from the rowels drops :

Swains their repast

And strangers their haste
Neglect, when the horns they do hear ;

To see a fleet

Pack of hounds in a sheet.
And the hunter in his career.

Thus he careers

Over heaths, over meers,
Over deeps, over downs, over clay ;

Till he hath won

The noon from the morn,
And the evening fi om the day :

His sport then he ends,

And joyfully wends
Home again to his cottage, where

Franklv he feasts

Himself and his guests,
And carouses in his caree;-.

* Apple.

282

APPENDIX TO THE

TOM OF BEDLAM.

(From Percy's Reliques, vol. ii. p. 357.)

Last night I heard the door-star bark
Mars met Venus in the darke ;
Limping Vulcan het an iron barr,
And furiouslye made at the god of warr ;

Mars with his weapon laid about.

And Vulcan's temples had the gout.

For his broad horns did so hang in Ins

light,
He could not see to aim his blowes

aright :

Mercurye the nimble post of heaven.
Stood still to see the quarrell ;

Gorrel-bellyed Bacchus, gyant-like,
iiestryd a strong-beere barrell.

To me he dranke,

I did him thanke,
But I could get no cyder ;

He dranke whole butts.

Till he burst his gutis,
But mine were ne'er the wyder.

Forth from my sad and darksome cell,
Or from the deepe abysse of hell,
Mad Tom is come into the world againe
To see if he can cure his distempered
braine.

Feares and cares oppresse my soule ;
Harke, how the angrye Fureys houle !
Pluto laughes, and Proserpine is gladd
To see poore naked Tom of Bedlam madd.

Through the world I wander night and
day

To seeke my straggling senses :
In an angrye moode I mett old Time,

With his pentarchye * of tenses :

When me he spyed,

Away he hycd.
For Time will stay for no man :

In vain with cryes

I rent the skyes,
For pity is not common.

Cold and comfortless I lye :
Helpe, oh heipe, or else I dye I

Harke ! I heare Apollo's teame,

The carman 'gins to whistle ;
Chast Diana bends her bowe,

The boare begins to bristle.

Come, Vulcan, with tools and with tackles.
To knocke off my troublesome shackles ;
Bid Charles make ready his waine
To fetch me my senses againe.

Poore n.nked Tom is very drye,
A little drinke for charitye !

Harke, I hear Acteon's home !

The huntsmen whoop and hallowe ;
Ringwood, Royster, Bowman, J owler,

All the chase do foUowe.

The man in the moone drinkes clariet,
Eates powder'd beef, turnip, and carret,
But a cup of old Malaga sack
Will fire the bushe at his backe.

. P. 89. Besides the above songs, William Basse was the author of verses
"On William Shakespeare, who died in April 1616," which are printed
in Malone's edition of Shakespeare, vol. i. p. 470 ; and another poem by
him will be found in the " Annalia Dubrensia, upon the yearely cele-
bration of Mr Robert Dover's Olympic Games upon Cotswold Hills," 4to,
1636. He was also the author of a poem called the Sword and Buckler,
printed in 8vo, in 1602, which is supposed to be in Malone's Collection in
the Bodleian Library ; and of a poem on the Death of Prince Hemy,
printed in i2mo, in 1613, of which a fragment only is known to exist,
which is in the possession of J. Payne Collier, Esq. A quarto volume,
in manuscript, entitled " Polyhymnia," a poem by William Basse, was in
Mr Heber's collection. Vide " Bibliotheca Heberiana," Part xi. No. 70.
Anthony Wood (Athen. Oxon. edit. Bliss, iv. 222) states that Basse was
of Moreton near Thame, in Oxfordshire, and was sometime a retainer of
Lord Wenman, of Thame Park, i.e., Richard Viscount Wenman in the
Peerage of Ireland.

P. 87. Since the Memoir of Walton was printed, a presentation copy
of Walton's Lives, ed. 1670, has been discovered in the possession of the
Rev. W. Cotton, of Newgate Street, in which Walton wrote " For my
brother Chalkhill, Iz. Wa." but the connection between them has not been
ascertained. See, however, the Memoir of Walton, p. xciii., and the Pedi-
* Pentateuch.

COMPLETE ANGLER. 283

gree of Chalkliill in the Appendix. It ought also to be observed, that in
the parish register of St Dunstan's in the West, the following entry occurs :
"Jany. 2, 1628 [1628-9], Ann, the daughter of Roger Chalkhill, baptized ;"
and that John Ken (the half-brother of Wahon's second wife) bequeathed
^■5, by his will dated 26th April 1651, to his kinsman Roger Chalkhill,
This Roger Chalkhill may have been the person of that name who lived
at Kingston-upon-Thames, the administration of whose effects was granted
in 1669 to his widow Susannah.

P. 96. The caterpillar here described is that of the Privet Hawk, of
which an engraving will be found in Harris's Aurelian, ed. 1766, plate 2 ;
and of the Puss Moth, in the same work, plate 38.

P. loi. Mr Thomas Barker. The first line of the note to this page
ought to be deleted. The passage referred to in the Complete Angler, and
a few particulars which occur in the two editions of the Art of Angling
published by Barker, contain nearly everything which is now known con-
cerning that singular character. In " the Epistle to the Reader," prefixed
to his "Art of Angling," Lond. 1651, i2mo, are related some circumstances
of his life, which are amplified in the Dedication to "Barker's Delight,"
Lond. 1659, i2mo, which is the second and best edition of the foregoing
work. The volume is inscribed " To the Right Honorable Edward Lord
Montague, Generall of the Navy, and one of the Lord Commissioners of
the Treasury ; " and in the course of the Author's Epistle, he writes as
follows. " I am now grown old, and am willing to enlarge my little book.
I have written no more but my own experience and practise, and have set
forth the true ground of Angling ; which I have been gathering these
threescore yeares, having spent many pounds in the gaining of it, as is
well known in the place where I was born and educated, which is Brace-
meale in the liberty of Salop, being a freeman and burgesse of the same
city. If any noble or gentle angler, of what degree soever he be, have a
mind to discourse of any of these wayes and experiments, I live in Henry
the 7lh's Gifts, the next doore to the Gatehouse in Westm. My name is
Barker, where I shall be ready, as long as please God, to satisfie them,
and maintain my art, during life, which is not like to be long."

The following quaint lines occur in the commendatory verses prefixed to
the edition of the Art of Angling, printed in 1657 or 1659 : —

" Perhaps some Rustick currishly will bark
At thee, brave Barker: but if in the dark
And silent night thou canst the knave espie,
With the captive Trout he soon shall make a die.
Then rogues thy name wil dread, and from thee gallop
As from the Devil, when 'tis Tom o{ Salop.
But thou ingenuous spirit, follow him
To christall slreames, where nimble fish do swim
With fins display'd, and skipping up the streams :
Then (without help ol Phoebus' glorious beams)
The Trout shall gorge thy bait with pleasure store ;
Sweet Philomel sliall eccho on the shore.
What now remains? thou hast ensnar'd the fish,
And Barker's Art will make a princely dish.

Edward Hopton, Gen. Hamtoniensis."

P. 104. To Iniy a good wind of one of the honest witches. Mr Richard
Thomson observes on this passage, " Walton in this place most probably
alludes to a passage in a superstitious and legendary book entitled ** A

284 APPENDIX TO THE

Compendious History of the Goths, Swedes, and Vandals, and other
Northern Nations. Written by Olaus Magnus, Arch-Bishopof Upsall, and
Metropolitan of Sweden." Lond. 1658, folio. This was a translation from
the Latin by J. S., and the particulars mentioned in the text occur on page
47, in book iii. chap. xv. '* Of the Conjurors and Witches in Finland.
Also, I shall shew very briefly what force conjurors and witches have in
constraining the elements, enchanted by them or others, that they may
exceed or fall short of their naturall order : premising this, that the extream
land of the North Finland and Lapland, was so taught by witclicraft
formerly in heathenish times, as if they had learned this cursed art from
Zoroastres the Persian ; though other inhabitants by the sea-coasts are
reported to be bewitched with the same madness ; for they exercise this
divellish art, of all arts of the world, to admiration ; and in this, and other
suchlike mischief, they commonly agree. The Finlanders were wont for-
merly, amongst their other errors of Gentilisme, to sell winds to merchants,
that were stopt on their coast by contrary weather ; and when they had
their price, they knit three magical knots, not like to the laws of Cassius,
bound up with a thong, and they gave them to the merchants ; observing
that rule, that when they unloosed the first, they should have a good gale
of wind; when the second, a stronger wind; but when they untied the
third, they should have such cruel tempests, that they should not be able
to look out of the forecastle to avoid the rocks, nor move a foot to pull
down the sails, nor stand at the helm to govern the ship ; and they made
an unhappy truth of it, who denied that there was any such power in those
knots." .

"Olaus Magnus, the author of the above, was brother and successor to
John, Archbishop of Upsal ; and, like him, he suffered much from his
attachment to the Roman Catholic religion when Gustavus Ericksou
introduced Protestantism into Sweden. He distinguished himself at the
Council of Trent, and he died at Rome in 1555."

P. 117. In Evelyn's Memoirs (ii. 80, ed, 1827), under 22d July
1654, it is said, ** We departed and dined at a farme of my uncle Hunger-
ford's, called Darneford Magna, situate in a valley under the plaine, most
sweetly watered, abounding in trouts catcJid by speare in the night, when
they come attracted by a light set in the sterne of a boat." Pepys, in his
Diary, March 18, 1667, says, "This day Mr Ccesar told me a pretty
experiment of his, of angling with a minikin, a guttstring varnished over,
which keeps it from swelling, and is beyond any hair for strength and
smallness. The secret I like mightily." — Vol. iii. p. 171, ed. 1828.

P. 128. The conjecture in the note to this page that " R. R." may have
been the R. Roe mentioned in the preface to Walton's Angler, is rendered
improbable by the fact that in the first edition of the " Secrets of Angling "
the initials are " R. B."

Since the Memoir of Walton was written, wherein it is said (p. Ixvii.)
t^^t nothing had been discovered respecting his friends Nat. and R. Roe,
the following entries have been found in the register of St Dunstan's in
the West :—

1622. August 12. John, the Sonne of Edward Roe, buried.

1624. August 5. Susanna and Elizabeth, daughters of Edward Roe
and Barbara his wife, christened.

1636. January 3. Mary, daughter of Nathaniel Roe, was buried.

COMPLETE ANGLER. 2S5

1652. March 22. Alexander Roe, infant, buryed, churchyard ; out of
he Friers.

1653. Nov. 17. Barbara, wife of Edward Roe, buryed.

1654. May 26. Edward Roe was buryed, churchyard ; coffined, out of
he Friars.

P. 163. It was then usual to exhibit curiosities of any kind at cofTee-
louses, and the custom is alluded to in the Spectator.

P. 166. By an error of the press, the note which refers to the Guiniad
s made to apply to the Barbel.

P. 177. Cowper has beautifully expressed the same idea in the follow-
ng lines : —

He looks abroad into the varied field
Of nature, and though poor perhaps comp.ired
With those whose mansions glitter in liis siglu,
Calls the delightful scenery all his own.
His are the mountains and the valleys his,
And the resplendent rivers. His to enjoy
With a proprietv that none can feel.
But who, witli filial confidence inspired.
Can lift to Heaven an unpresumptuous eye,
And smiling say, " My Father made them all !"
Are they not his by a peculiar n'sht,
And by an emphasis of interest his,
Whose eye they fill with tears of holy joy,
Whose heart with praise, and whose exalted mind
With worthy thoughts of that unwearied love
That plann'd, and built, and still upholds a world
So clothed with beauty for rebellious man ? *

The Task. Book V.

P. 179. It was intended to insert a poem, preserved in a MS. in the
Library of the Royal Society, which is attributed to Walton, and is sup-
posed to be unpublished, entitled *' On a Lady fishing with an Angle,"
commencing -

" See where the fair Clorinda sits, and seeing."

On applying to the librarian of the Royal Society, with a letter from one
[)f the Pillows, it appeared, however, that an extract was not allowed to
be made from any manuscript belonging to that learned body, without a
special order of the Council. As the Council would not meet for some
weeks, it was not thought worth while to delay the publication of this
v>'ork until all the necessary forms could be observed. Any remarks on
the absurdity of a regulation which tends to render the library of a society,
incorporated for the advancement of knowledge, comparatively useless,
even to its own Fellows, must be unnecessary ; but the hope may be
expressed that it will not much longer be allowed to cast discredit on a
body which claims the first place among the learned associations of
Europe.

It would seem from the following verses, which were written by the
witty Lord Rochester, that King Charles the Second was an angler.
They are printed in a collection of Poems on Affairs of State, 8vo, 1703,
vol. i. Continuation, p. 43 : —

WINDSOR BY THE LORD R R.

Methinks I see our mighty Monarch stand,
His pliant angle treniblitig in his hand ;

285 APPENDIX TO THE

Pleas'd with the sport, good man, nor does he know.

His easy sceptre bends and trembles so.

Fine representative, indeed, of God,

Whose sceptre's dwindled to a fishing-rod.

Such was Domitian in his Romans' eyes,

When his great Godship stoop'd to catching flies ;

Bless us ! what pretty sport have Deities !

But see, he now does up from Dochet come,

Laden with spoils of slaughter'd Gudgeons home ;

Nor is he warn'd by their unhappy fate.

But greedily he swallows every bait,

A prey to every King-fisher of state ;

For how he Gudgeons takes, you have been tauglit;

Then listen now how he himself is caught.

So well, alas ! the fatal bait is known,

Which R does so greedily take down ;

And, howe'er weak and slender be the string,
Bait it with whore, and it will hold a King.
Almighty power of women, &c.

P. 197. Dr Wharton. The portrait of this learned physician has
been recently engraved for the first time, and published by Mr Major.

P. 237. Cotton again notices his favourite river Dove in the " Won-
ders of the Peake : "—

'Twixt these twin-Provinces of Britain's Perpetual winter, endless solitude,

shame, Or the society of men so rude.

The silver Dove (how pleasant is that That it is ten times worse. Thy murmurs

name !) (Dove)*

Runs through a Vale high-crested Cliffs Or humour of Lovers ; or Men fall in love

o'ershade With thy bright Beauties, and thy fair blue
(By her fair progress only pleasant made) : Eyes

But with so swift a torrent in her course, Wound like a Parthian, whilst the shooter
As shows the nymph flies from her native flies.

source, Of all fair Thetis' Daughters none so briglit,

To seek what there's deny'd, the sun's So pleasant none to taste, none to the sight

warm beams, None yields the gentle Angler such delight.

And to embrace Trent's prouder swelling To which the Bounty of her Stream is

streams ; such.

In this so craggy, ill-contriv'd a nook As only with a swift and transient Touch,

Of this our little world, this pretty brook, T' enrich her steril Borders as she glides.

Alas ! is all tlie recompence I share, And force sweet Flowers from their marble
For all the intemperances of the air, sides.

EXTRACTS FROM SHAKESPEARE, QUARLES, BUNYAN,
POPE, GAY, AND THOMSON, IN REFERENCE TO
ANGLING.

SHAKESPEARE.

Give me mine angle, — We'll to the river, there.

My music playing far off, I will betray

Tawny-finn'd fishes ; my bended hook shall pierce

Their slimy jaws. — Ant. and Cleop. act ii. sc. 4,

The pleasant'st angling is to see the fish

Cut with her golden oars the silver stream.

And greedily devour the treacherous bait. — Mn^h Ado, actiii. .sc. i.

If the young dace be a bait for the old pike, I see no reason, in the law of nature, but
I may snap at him. — Henry IV. Pt. IL act iii. sc. 2.

Bait the hook well and the fish will bite. — Much Ado, act ii. sc. 3.
* The- river Dove.

COMPLETE ANGLER.

287

QUARLES.

The broad-side bream,
The wary trout that thrives against the stream :
The well-grown carp, full laden with her spawn.

The surest way
To take the fish, is give her leave to play.
And yield her line. — Shepheard's Eglogues.

You see the ways the fishermen doth take
To catch the fish ; what engines doth he

make?
Behold ! how he engageth all his wits ;
Also his snares, lines, angles, hooks, and nets :

BUNYAN.

Yet fish there be, that neither hook nor line,
Nor snare, nor net, nor engine, can make

thine :
They must be grop'd for, and be tickled too.
Or they will not be catch'd, whate'cr you do.

POPE.

In genial spring, beneath the quivering shade,
When cooling vapours breathe along the

mead.
The patient fisher takes his silent stand.
Intent, his angle trembling in his hand:
With looks unmoved, he hopes the scaly

breed,
And eyes the dancing cork and bending reed.

Our plenteous streams a various'race supply,
The bright-eyed perch with fins of Tyrian dye ;
The silver eel, in shining volumes roll'd ;
The yellow carp, in scales bedropp'd with

. S"'^ ' . .
Swift trouts, diversified with crimson stains ;
And pikes, the tyrants of the watery plains.
Wifidsor Forest.

GAY.

When genial Spring a living warmth bestows,
And o'er the year her verdant mantle throws.
Mo swelling inundation hides the grounds,
Bnt crystal currents glide within their bounds ;
Tiie finny brood their wonted haunts forsake,
F oat in the sun, and skim along the lake ;
With frequent leap they range the shallow

streams.
Their silver coats reflect the dazzling beams :
Now let the fisherman his toils prepare,
And arm himself with every wat'ry snare:
His hooks, his lines, peruse with careful eye.
Increase his tackle, and his rod retie.
When floating clouds their spongy fleeces

drain,
Troubling the streams with swift-descending

rain.
And waters 'tumbling down the mountain's

side.
Bear the loose soil into the swelling tide.
Then, soon as vernal gales begin to rise,
And drive the liquid burden through the skies,
The fisher to the neighbouring current speeds,
Whose rapid surface purls, unknown to weeds ;
Upon a rising border of the brook
He sits him down, and ties the treach'rous

hook ;
Now expectation cheers his eager thought,
His bosom glows with treasures yet uncaught ;
Before his eyes a banquet seems to stand,
Where every guest applauds his skilful hand.
Far lip the stream the twisted hair he

throws.
Which down the murm'ring current gently

flows ;
When if or chance or hunger's pow'rful sway
Directs the roving trout this fatal way,

He greedily sucks in the twining bait,
And tugs and nibbles the fallacious meat :
Now, happy Fisherman ! now twitch the line !
How thy rod bends ! behold, the prize is

thine !
Cast on the bank, he dies with gasping pains.
And trickling blood his silver mail distains.

You must not every worm promiscuous use ;
Judgment will tell thee proper bait to choose ;
The worm that draws a long immod'rate size
The trout abhors, and the rank morsel flies ;
And if too small, the naked fraud's in sight,
And fear forbids, while hunger does invite.
Those baits will best reward the fisher's pains.
Whose poiish'd tails a shining yellow stains :
Cleanse them from filth, to give a tempting

gloss,
Cherish the sullied reptile race with moss ;
Amid the verdant bed, they twine, they toil,
And from their bodies wipe their native soil.
But when the sun displays his glorious

beams.
And shallow rivers flow with silver streams.
Then the deceit the scaly breed survey.
Bask in the sun and look into the day :
You now a more delusive art must try.
And tempt their hunger with the curious fly.

To frame the little animal, provide
All the gay hues that wait on female pride :
Let Nature guide thee ; sometimes golden

wire
The shining bellies of the fly require ;
The peacock's plumes thy tackle must not

fail.
Nor the dear purchase of the sable's tail.
Each gaudy bird some slender tribute brings.
And lends the growing insect proper wings ;

288

APPENDIX TO THE

Silks of all colours must their aid impart,
And ev'ry fur promote the fisher's art.
So the gay lady, with expensive care,
Borrows the pride of land, of sea, and air ;
Furs, pearls, and plumes, the glittering thing

displays,
Dazzles our eyes, and easy hearts betrays.

Mark well the various seasons of the year.
How the succeeding insect race appear;
In this revolving moon one colour reigns,
Wiiich in the next the fickle trout disdains.
Oft have I seen a skilful angler try
The various colours of the treach'rous fly ;
When he with fruitless pain hath skinim'd the

brook.
And ihe coy fish rejects the skipping hook.
He shakes the boughs that on the margin

grow,
Which o'er the stream a waving forest throw,
When if an insect fall (his certain guide),
He gently takes him from the whirling tide.
Examines well his form with curious eyes.
His gaudy vest, his wings, his horns, his eyes ;
Then round his hook the chosen fur he winds,
And on the back a speckled feather binds ;
So just the colours shine through every part,
That Nature seems to live again in Art.
Let not thy wary step advance too near.
While all thy hope hangs on a single hair ;
The new-form'd insect on the water moves,
The speckled trout the curious snare approves ;
Upon the curling surface let it glide,
With nat'ral motion from thy hand supplied,
Against the stream now let it gently play.
Now in the rapid eddy roll away :
The scaly shoals float by, and, seized with

fear.
Behold their fellows tost in thinner air :
But soon they leap, and catch the swimming

bait.
Plunge on the hook, and share an equal fate,
when a brisk gale against the current blows,
And all the wat'ry plain in wrinkles flows,
Then let the fisherman his art repeat.
Where bubbling eddies favour the deceit.
If an enormous salmon chance to spy
The wanton errors of the floating fly,
He lifts his silver gills above the flood.
And greedily sucks in ih' unfaithful food.

Then downright plunges with the fraudful

prey,
And bears with joy the little spoil away :
Soon in smart pain he feels the dire mistake,
Lashes the wave, and beats the foamy lake ;
With sudden rage he now aloft appears,
And in his eye convulsive anguish bears ;
And now again, impatient of the wound,
He rolls and wreaths his shining body round ;
Uhen headlong shoots beneath the dashing

tide.
The trembling fins the boiling wave divide :
Now hope exalts the fi-her's beating heart.
Now he turns pale, and fears his dubious art ;
He views the tumbling fish with longing eyes,
While the line stretches with th' unwieldy

prize ;
Each motion humours with his steady hands,
And one slight hair the mighty bulk com-
mands ;
Till tired at last, despoil'd of all his strength,
The game athwart the stream unfolds his

length.
He now, with pleasure, views the gasping prize
Gnash his sharp teeth, and roll his blood-shot

eyes ;
Then draws him to the shore, with artful care,
And lifts his nostrils in the sick'ning air :
Upon the burthen'd stream he floating lies.
Stretches his quivering fins, and gasping dies.
Would you preserve a num'rous finny race?
Let your fierce dogs the rav'nous otter chase :
Th' amphibious monster ranges all the shores,
Darts through the waves, and ev'ry haunt ex-
Or let the gin his roving steps betray, [plores :
And save from hostile jaws the scaly prey.

I never wander where the bord'ring reeds
O'erlook the muddy stream, whose tangling

weeds
Perplex the fisher ; I nor choose to bear
The thievish nightly net nor barbed spear ;
Nor drain I ponds, the golden carp to take.
Nor trowle for pikes, dispeoplers of the lake.
Around the steel no tortur'd worm shall twine,
No blood of living insect stain my line :
Let me, less cruel, cast the feather'd hook.
With pliant rod athwart the pebbled brook.
Silent along the mazy niarcin stray,
And with the fur-wrought fly delude the prey
Rural Sports.

THOMSON.

Now when the first foul torrent of the brooks,
Swell'd with the vernal rains, is ebb'd away,
And, whitening, down their mossy-tinctured

stream
Descends the billowy foam : now is the time.
While yet the dark-brown water aids the guile,
To tempt the trout. The well-dissembled fly.
The rod fine tapering with elastic spring,
Snatch'd from the hoary steed the floating

line.
And all thy slender wat'ry stores prepare.
But let not on thy hook the tortured worm
<"onvulsive twist in agonising folds ;
Which, by rapacious hunger swallow'd deep.
Gives, as you tear it from the bleeding breast

<Jf the weak, helpless, uncomplaining wretch.
Harsh pain and horror to the trembling hand.

When, with his lively ray, the potent sun
Has pierced the streams and roused the finny

race.
Then issuing cheerful to thy sport repair.
Chief should the western breezes curling play,
And light o'er ether bear the shadowy clouds
High to their fount, this day, amid the hills,
And woodlands warbling round, trace up the

brooks ;
The next, pursue their rocky-channel'd maze
Down to the river, in whose ample wave
Their little naiads love to sport at large.
Just in the dubious point, where with the pool

COMPLETE ANGLER. 289

Is mix'd the trembling stream, or where it From his dark haunt, beneath the tangled

boils roots

Around the stone, or from the hollow'd Of pendent trees, the monarch of the brook,

bank Behoves you then to ply your finest art.

Reverted plays in undulating flow, Long time he, following cautious, scans the
There throw nice-judging the delusive fly fly;

And as you lead it round in artful curve, And oft attempts to seize it, but as oft

With eye attentive mark the springing game. The dimpled water speaks his jealous fear.

Straight as above the surface of the flood At last, wlii e haply o'er the shaded sun

They wanton rise, or urged by hunger leap, Passes a cloud, he desperate takes the
Then fix with gentle twitch the barbed death,

hook : With sullen plunge. At once he darts along.

Some lightly tossing to the grassy bank, Deep struck, and runs out all the length-
And to the shelving shore slow dragging en'd line ;

some, Then seeks the farthest oo2e, the sheltering
With various hand proportion'd to their weed,

force. The cavern'd bank, his old secure abode ;

If yet too young, and easily deceived, And flies aloft, and flounces round the pool

A worthless prey scarce bends your pliant Indignant of the guile. With yielding hand

rod ; That feels him still, yet to his furious course

Him, piteous of his youth and the short Gives way, you now retiring, following now

space Across the stream, exhaust his idle rage :

He has enjoy'd the vital light of Heaven, Till floating broad upon his breathless side.

Soft disengage, and back into the stream And to his fate abandon'd, to the shore

The speckled captive throw. But should You gaily drag your unresisting prize.

you lure Spring.

Burton in his Anatomy of Melancholy makes the following observations
upon Angling : —

** Fishing is a kind of hunting by water, be it by nets, weeles, boats,
angling, or otherwise, and yields all out as much pleasure to some men, as
dogs, hawkes. When they draw their fish upon the bank, saith Nic.
Heuselius, Silesiographia, cap. 3, speaking of that extraordinary delight his
countrymen took in fishing and making of pooles. James Dubravius, that
Moravian, in his book De Piscibus, telleth, how travelling by the highways
side in Silesia, he found a nobleman booted up to the groins, and wading
himself, pulling the nets, and labouring as much as any fisherman of them
all ; and when some belike objected to him the baseness of his office, he
excused himself, that if other men might hunt hares, why should not he
hunt carps? Many gentlemen in like sort with us, will wade up to the
arm-holes upon such occasions, and voluntaiily undertake that to satisfy
their pleasure, which a poor man of a good stipend would scarce be hired
to undergo. — But he that shall but consider the variety of baits, and pretty
devices which our anglers have invented, peculiar lines, false flies, several
sleights, &c., will say that it deserves as much commendation, requires as
much study, and perspicacy as the rest, and much to be preferred before
many of them. — But this is still and quiet ; and if so be the angler catch
no fish, yet he hath a wholesome walk to the brook's side, pleasant shade
by the sweet silver streams, he hath fresh air, and sweet smells of fine fresh
meadow flowers, he hears the melodious harmony of birds, he sees the
swans, herons, ducks, water-hens, cootes, &c., and many other fowl, with
their brood, which he thinketh better than the noise of hounds or blast of
liorns, and all the sport that they can make." — Part 2, sec. 2, in. 4, edit.
Oxf. 1 62 1.

For the reasons stated in the following extract from the advertisement
prefixed to a reprint of the "Treatyse of Fysshyng wyth an Angle,"
ascribed to Juliana Berners, in 1827, it is desirable that the most striking
passages of that treatise should be inserted among these notes :—

T

290 APPENDIX TO THE

It is not, however, merely as a literary curiosity that this treatise is of
interest, for independently of the information which it contains of the state
of Angling at the period in which it was written, there are some grounds
for presuming that it suggested to Walton the idea of his " Complete
Angler," for the most superficial reader cannot fail to be struck with the
general resemblance between them. " The Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth
an Angle," commences with some observations, which are remarkable for
their truth and simplicity ; and after comparing the pursuits of Hunting,
Hawking, and Fowling, with that of Angling, the preference is of course
given to the latter. Then follow instructions for making tackle, rods, baits,
&c., and a description of the most skilful manner of using them, together
with an account of the various kinds of river fish, and their respective
merits as food ; and the treatise is concluded by some admirable rules for
the conduct of Anglers towards each other, and towards those whose lands
they frequent, an observance of which, it is emphatically added, would
secure ' ' the blessing of God and Saint Peter which he them grant that
with his precious blood us bought."

Thus it is manifest, that in the most important features, Walton has
closely followed the treatise, and although he has much enlarged upon it,
and introduced his remarks in a dialogue, there is so great a similarity
between them, as to justify the opinion, that if the original idea of his work
■was not derived from this tract, he was indebted to it in an eminent degree.
In piety and virtue, in the inculcation of morality, in an ardent love for
their art, and still more, in that placid and Christian spirit, for which the
amiable Walton was so conspicuous, the early writer was scarcely inferior
to his more celebrated successor. Nor ought the suggestion to offend the
admirers of the latter, that judging from their writings upon the same
subject, and making a proper allowance for the different state of manners
in the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries, it would be difficult to find two
more kindred spirits than the authors of " The Treatyse of Fysshynge
wyth an Angle," and of " The Complete Angler."

" Here beginneth the Treatise of Fishing with an Angle. — Solomon in
his parables saith that a good spirit maketh a flowering age, that is, a fair
age and a long. And, sith it is so : I ask this question, which be the
means and the causes that induce a man into a merry spirit ? Truly, to
my best discretion, it seemeth good disports and honest games in whom a
man joyeth without any repentance after. Then followeth it that good
disports and honest games be cause of man's fair age and long life. And,
therefore, now will I choose of four good disports and honest games, that
is to wit : of hunting, hawking, fishing, and fowling. The best to my
simple discretion which is fishing ; called angling with a rod, and a line
and a hook. And thereof to treat as my simple wit may suffice ; both for
the said reason of Solomon, and also for the reason that physic maketh in
this wise. Si tibi deficiant medici, medici tibi fiant : hec tria mens Iseta
labor et moderata dieta. Ye shall understand that this is for to say, if a
man lack leech or medicine he shall make three things his leech and medi-
cine, and he shall need never no more. The first of them is a merry
thought ; the second is labour not outrageous ; the third is diet measurable.
First, that if a man will evermore be in merry thoughts and have a glad
spirit, he must eschew all contrarious company, and all places of debate,
where he might have any occasions of melancholy ; and if he will have a
labour not outrageous, he must then ordain him, to his heart's ease and

' COMPLETE ANGLER. 291

pleasance, without study, pensiveness, or travail, a merry occupation
which may rejoice his heart, and in which his spirits may have a merry
delight ; and if he will be dieted measurably, he must eschew all places of
riot, which is cause of surfeit and of sickness ; and he must draw him to
places of sweet air and hunger, and eat nourishable meats and defiable
also.

" Now then will I describe the said disports and games, to find the best
of them, as verily as I can, albeit that the right noble and full worthy
prince, the Duke of York, late called master of game, hath described the
mirths of hunting, like as I think to describe of it and of all the other.
For hunting as to my intent is too laborious, for the hunter must always
run and follow his hounds, travelling and sweating full sore ; he bloweth
till his lips blister ; and when he weneth it be a hare, full oft it is a hedge-
hog. Thus he chaseth and wots not what. He cometh home at even,
rain-beaten, pricked, and his clothes torn, wet shod, all miry, some hound
lost, some surbat. Such griefs and many other happeneth unto the hunter,
which for displeasance of them that love it I dare not report. Thus truly
me seemeth that this is not the best disport and game of the said four.
The disport and game of hawking is laborious and noisome also as me
seemeth ; for often the falconer loseth his hawks, as the hunter his hounds,
then is his game and his disport gone ; full often crieth he and whistleth
till that he be right evil athirst. His hawk taketh a bow and list not once
on him reward ; when he would have her for to flee, then will she bathe ;
with misfeeding she shall have the fronce, the rye, the cray, and many
other sicknesses that bring them to the souse. Thus by proof this is not
the best disport and game of the said four. The disport and game of fowl-
ing me seemeth most simple, for in the winter season the fowler speedeth
not, but in the most hardest and coldest weather, which is grievous ; for
when he would go to his gins he may not for cold. Many a gin and many
a snare he maketh : yet sorrily doth he fare ; at morn-tide in the dew he
is wet shod unto his tail. Many other such I could tell, but dread of
meagre maketh me for to leave. Thus me seemeth that hunting and hawk-
ing and also fowling be so laborious and grievous, that none of them may
perform nor be very mean that induce a man to a merry spirit : which
is cause of his long life according unto the said parable of Solomon.
Doubtless then followeth it that it must needs be the disport of fishing with
an angle; for all other manner of fishing is also laborious and grievous :
often making folks full wet and cold, which many times hath been seen
cause of great infirmities. But the angler may have no cold nor no disease
nor anger, but if he be causer himself. For he may not lose at the most
but a line or a hook : of which he may have store plenty of his own making,
as this simple treatise shall teach him. So then his loss is not grievous,
and other griefs may he not have, saving but if any fish break away after
that he is taken on the hook, or else that he catch nought : which be not
grievous. For if he fail of one he may not fail of another, if he doth as
this treatise teacheth ; but if there be nought in the water. And yet at the
least he hath his wholesome walk and merry at his ease, a sweet air of the
sweet savour of the mead flowers : that maketh him hungry. He heareth
the melodious harmony of fowls. He seeth the young swans, herons, ducks,
coots, and many other fowls with their broods ; which me seemeth better
than all the noise of hounds, the blast of horns, and the cry of fowls that
hunters, falconers, and fowlers can make. And if the angler take fisli.

292 APPENDIX TO THE COMPLETE ANGLER.

surely then is there no man merrier than he is in his spirit. Also whoso will
use the game of angling, he must rise early, which thing is profitable to
man in this wise, that is to wit, most to the heal of his soul. For it shall
cause him to be holy, and to the heal of his body, for it shall cause him to
be whole. Also to the increase of his goods, for it shall make him rich.
As the old English proverb saith in this wise, whoso will rise early shall
be holy, healthy, and. zealous. Thus have I proved in my intent that the
disport and game of angling is the very mean and cause that induce th a
man into a merry spirit : which after the said parable of Solomon, and the
said doctrine of physic, maketh a flowering age and a long. And there-
fore, to all you that be virtuous, gentle, and free-born, I write and make
this simple treatise following, by which ye may have the full craft of
angling to disport you at your last, to the intent that your age may the
more flower and the more longer to endure.

"Ye that can angle and take fish to your pleasures, as this foresaid
treatise teacheth and showeth you, I charge and require you in the name
of all noble men that ye fish not in no poor man's several water, as his
pond, stew, or other necessary things to keep fish in, without his license
and goodwill. Nor that ye use not to break no man's gins lying in their
weirs and in other places due unto them ; nor to take the fish away that is
taken in them. For after a fish is taken in a man's gin, if the gin be laid
in the common waters, or else in such waters as he hireth, it is his own
proper goods : and if ye take it away ye rob him, which is a right shame-
ful deed to any noble man to do that that thieves and bribei's do : which
are punished for their evil deeds by the neck and otherwise, when they
may be espied and taken. And also if ye do in like manner as this treatise
showeth you, ye shall have no need to take of other men's while ye shall
have enough of your own taking if ye list to labour therefore, which shall
be to you a very pleasure to see the fair bright shining scaled fishes
deceived by your crafty means and drawn upon land. Also that ye break
no man's hedges in going about your disports : nor open no man's gates
but that ye shut them again. Also ye shall not use this foresaid crafty
disport for no covetousness, to the increasing and sparing of your money
only, but principally for your solace, and to cause the health of your body,
and specially of your soul. For when ye purpose to go on your disports
in fishing, ye will not desire greatly many persons with you, which might
let you of your game ; and then ye may serve God devoutly in saying
affectuously your customable prayer. And thus doing ye shall eschew
and avoid many vices, as idleness, which is principal cause to induce man
to many other vices, as it is right well known. Also ye shall not be too
ravenous in taking of your said game, as too much at one time, which ye
may lightly do if ye do in every point as this present treatise showeth you
in every point, which lightly be occasion to destroy your own disports and
other men's also. As when ye have a sufficient mess ye should covet no
more as at that time. Also ye shall busy yourself to nourish the game in
all that ye may, and to destroy all such things as be devourers of it. And
all those that do after this rule shall have the blessing of God and Saint
Peter, which he them grant that with his precious blood us bought."

INDEX.

" Academy of Compliments," 1650, iii n.
" Accomplishment of the Prophecies," by

Du Moulin, 8vo, 1613, 40.
Acre, carrier-pigeons used at the siege of, 27.
Action, question whether preferable to con-
templation, 39 ; Lord Clarendon's opinion

thereon, 39 n.
" Adenographia ; sive Glandularum totus

corporis descriptio," by Dr Wharton, 8vo,

1656, 33 «.
Adonis, or darling of the sea, a fish so called

by ./Elian, 46.
iElianus, Ciaudius, quoted by Walton, 46.
Air, the element of the fowler, 25.
Aire, the river, made subject to the fence

months by stat. 13 Edw. I., 62 «.
Albertus Magnus, quoted by Walton, 74, 160.
" Alcilia. Philoparthens loving Folly," xix.
Akiersgate Street, Doctor Wharton's house

in, 33 «.
A'dridge, Anne, wife of Robert, gent of

Burton, civ.
Aldrovandus, Ulysses, quoted by Walton, 96,

121, 156, 164.
Ale, a ballad in commendation of, 281, v.

Ashbourn.
Aleppo, carrier-pigeons used at, 27.
Alfred, King, turned the course of the Lee

to prevent the return of the Danes, who

had sailed up it, 196 n.
Algiers, the pirates of, clxxxii.
Allington, Cordell, daughter of Richard,

Esq., ccii.
Alstonefield Church, arms of Cotton carved

on a pew in, 226.
Ambrose, St, Hishop of Milan, styles the

grayling "the flower of fishes," 121.
Amerly trout considered superior to others,

73, 140.
Amos, the Prophet, mention of fish-hooks

made by, 38, 49.
Amwell Hill, li, 21, 22 ; engraving of, 56.
Andrew, St, a fisherman, 49.
Andrews, Matthew, of Mathfield, co. Stafi"ord,

civ.
Angel, a coin of the value of ten shillings,

209 M. ; explanation of the term to " vie

angels,'^ 209 n.
Angler, the idea of making one by a book

justly ridiculed by Walton, xlvii ; the

qualifications of an, from Markham's

'■ Country Contentments," 37 «., vide

"Complete Ang er."

Anglers, Walton's character of the generality
of, 24.

"Angler's Song," the, written by William
Basse, 88. 178.

"Angler's Wish," the, by Walton, no; con-
tains the only allusion to his having resided
at or near Stafford, xli.

" Angler's Wish," the, by John Davors, Esq.,
extract from, 55.

Angling, verses in praise of, addressed to
Walton by the Rev. Thomas Weaver,
xlix ; a song in praise of, made by Basse,
an eminent composer, at Walton's request,
cxiv ; the favourite amusement of Charles
Cotton, clxx ; not forgotten among his
regrets at taking leave of his home, clxxiv ;
the antiquity of, 24 «., 36 ; the art of, said
to be as ancient as Deucalion's flood, 37 ;
first invented by Belus, 37 ; of high esteem
and of much use in other nations, 50 ;
allowed to Churchmen by the ancient
ecclesiastical canons, as a harmless recrea-
tion, 50 ; a recreation used by Cleopatra
and Mark Antony, 50 ; commendations
bestowed on, by the learned Perkins, 51 ;
Dr Whitaker, a great lover of, 51 ; account
of memorable men, ornaments of the art
of, 51-53 ; a short discourse by way of
postscript, touching the laws of, 212-214 ;
different sorts of, and directions for, 241,
et seq.; verses descriptive of the art and
of the pleasures of, by Shakespeare, 286 ;
by Quarles, Bunyan, Pope, and Gay, 287 ;
by Thomson, 288.

Ankham, in Lincolnshire, famous for eels,
164 n.

Ant-fly, the, a b.iit for chub, 69 ; directions
for preserving the, 184 ; directions for
making the artificial, 261.

Anthony, St, the picture of, bequeathed to
Lord Newport by Dr Donne the younger,
cxiii.

" Antidote against Melancholy," Svo, 1669,
by Playford, 85 «.

Antonia, the wife of Drusus, had a lamprey
at whose ears she hung jewels or ear-
rings, 119, 160 «.

Anus, the river, in Spain, 41.

Arnbia, a river in, of which all the sheep that
drink have their wool turned to a vermil-
ion colour, 41.

Archer, Charlotte, cc ; bequest made to, by
her father, Dr Stanhope, cci.

I

294

INDEX.

Archer, Charlotte, wife of Robert Turner,
ccii.

, Elizabeth, ccii.

, Emily, living in 1744, cciii.

, the Rev. Dr Henry, rector of Fevers-
ham, in Kent, cc, ccii.

, Henry, of Thaxted, ccii.

, Olivia Alcione, cciii.

, Stanhope, ccii.

Ardglass, Wingfield, second Earl of, clxxxlv.

, Mary, Countess-Dowager of, the wife

of Charles Cotton, clxxxv, cciii ; adminis-
tration of his effects granted to her, 12th
Sept. 1687, clxxxviii.

Aristotle, quoted by Walton, 41, 45, 48.

Armstrong, Augustine, of the parish of St
George the Martyr, cci, cciii.

, Charles, cci, cciii.

, Gilbert, ccii.

, Katherine, ccii, cciii.

, Mrs Lettice, sister of Sir Aston Cokayne,

buried at Ashbourn, clxxviii 11.

Aruficial flies, Walton's list of, and directions
for making, 100, 102-105 J Cotton's direc-
tions for making, 244, et seq.; twelve only
mentioned by Walton, 252 ; Cotton's list
of, for January and February, 253 ; for
March, 254 ; for April, 255 ; for May, 256-
261 ; for June and July, 261 ; for August,
September, October, November, and De-
cember, 262.

**Art of Angling," the, by Thomas Barker,
Lond. 1651, i2mo, extract from, 101, 283.

Arundel mullet considered superior to others,
73, 140-

"As at noon Dulcina rested," copy of the
song so called, 277.

Ashbourn, the town of, 222, 225 ; account of
the Talbot Inn at, 227 «.; said by Cotton
to be famous for the best malt and the
worst ale in England, 235.

Ash-fly, the oak-fly so called, 106 n.

Ashford, county of Derby, 230.

Ashmole, Elias, his collection of natural
history, 43 ; biographical account of, 43 n.

Aston, the family of, connected with that of
Cotton by marriage, clxiv.

, Walter, Lord, 21 «.; a copy of the

Lives of Donne, Wotton, and Hooker, pre-
sented to him by Walton, preserved in the
library at Tixall, Ixxviii.

, Sir Willoughby, of Aston, county of

Chester, Bart., i n.

Atkinson, Mr, quantity of barbel caught by
him at Shepperton, 9th Aug. 1807, 170 «.

Aubrey, John, Esq., his statement that
Cotton had relieved Colonel Lovelace,
during his distress, corroborated, clxviii ;
described as "a silly crackbrained en-
thusiast," 43 n.

Aurelius Macrobius, a writer of the fourth
century, quoted by Walton, 33.

Ausonius, Decius, referred to by Walton,

45» 172-
Austin, St, his "Confessions," quoted by

Walton, 210.
Aviaries in Italy, 26 \ Varro's, 26.

Avon, the river, 55 ; mentioned in one of
Drayton's sonnets, 196 ; the name com-
mon to many rivers in England, 230 n.

Awber, the river, 231.

Awberson, co. of Derby, the town of, 231.

Aylesbury, the town of, 195 «.

Aylmer, Dr, letter from Walton to Anthony
Wood, in reply to an inquiry respecting
his death, xcix.

Babylon, carrier-pigeons used at, 27.

Backhouse, Mr, said to have imparted to
Ashmole the secret of the philosopher's
stone, 217 71.

Bacon, Sir Francis, his visit to John Hales,
cxlvi ; his works quoted by Walton, 74,
118, 123, 125, 127, 139, 144, 149, 159, 160.

Bagley, or Baily, a clergyman, compliment-
ary verses addressed by him to Walton, on
the publication of the second edition of
" The Complete Angler," xlviii, 16.

Bagster, Mr, his account of the fishing-
house at Beresford, 238, 251.

Bailing with a lob-worm, directions for, 93 ;
with a minnow, 94 ; with live bait, 135 ;
with dead bait, 138.

Baits, for barbel, 168 ; for bleak, 172 ; for
bream, 149, 150 ; for bullheads, 193 ; for
carp, 147, 148 ; for the chub, 68-70, 189,
190 ; for dace, 183-185, 188, 189 ; for eels,
161 ; for flounders, 165 ; for grayling, 122,
188 ; for gudgeon, 171 ; for loach, 192 ;
for minnows, 192 ; for perch, 157 ; for pike,
135-139, 152; for roach, 184, et seq.; for
ruffe, 171 ; for the salmon, 127 ; for tench,
155 ; for trout, 69, 70, 94, 117 ; directions
for preserving dead baits, 138.

Baker, Sir Richard, quotation from his
Chronicle respecting the first introduction
of carp into England, 141.

Bakewell, county of Derby, 230.

Balaena, or whirlpool, a fish found in the
Indian Sea, 42.

Bala Lake, the guiniad found in, 166 «.

Bald buzzard, the, a species of hawk, 29.

Balsami, Opobalsami, Carpobalsami, et Xylo-
balsami, cum suo cortice, Explanatio ;
Lond. 1598, written by Matthias de Lobel,
160 n.

Bar, arms of the ancient Counts of, 166 n.

Barbel, the care taken by it of its spawn, 48 ;
complaint made in 1384 that they were
unlawfully taken in the Thames and sold
as food for pigs, 63 n. ; a leather-mouthed
fish, 69 ; description of the, its haunts, 167 ;
part of the arms of the ancient Earls of
Bar, 166 ; spawning-time ot', the spawn
considered poisonous, 167 ; baits for, 168 ;
directions for angling for, 169 ; quantity of
j caught by a fishing party at Shepperton,
in 1807, 169 «.

Barker, Thomas, author of "The Art of
Angling," biographical notice of, 283 ; his
directions for fly-fishing adopted by Wahon,
loi ; his recipe for anointing boots and
shoes, 189 «.

Barker, ^ Elizabeth, widow of, ccv.

INDEX.

295

Barlow, Dr, Bishop of Lincoln, his letter to
Walton, loth May 1678, xcii.

, Mr George, conveyed the king's lesser

George, which had been preserved by
Colonel Blague, after the battle of Wor-
cester, to Robert Milward, Esq., xlv, vide
Blore Pipe House.

Barm- fly, the, for June, directions for
making, 261.

Barnacles, 43.

Barrington, the Hon. Daines, 166 «.

Basse, William, an eminent composer, in-
timate with Walton, cxiv ; composed the
"Angler's Song," at his request, 85, 88;
author of the songs mentioned by Walton,
called "The Hunter in his career," and
"Tom of Bedlam," 281; list of other
verses and poems composed by, 282,

Bat, the, called a half-year bird, 73.

Bateman, William, Esq. of Middleton, near
Bakewell, anecd. ite of Cotton related from
his information, clxxvii.

Baitey, Francis, of Stafford, apprenticed by
Izaak Walton, cxiix.

Beaucham, Ion, vicar of East Brent, in
March 1688 ; prebend of Wanstrow, in
October 1689 ; fellow of Trinity College,
1713, cxxii, cciv ; a bequest made to him
by his "cousin" Izaak Walton, the
younger, cxviii.

-^— , James, a goldsmith of London, god-
father to Izaak Walton's "last son Isaac,"
xlii ; a ring bequeathed to him by Walton,
cii ; living in July 1714, cxxii, cciv.

, Martha, wife of James, mentioned in

the will of her father, Mr Thomas Ken,
xlii ; Izaak Walton, the younger, en-
joined by his father's will to be kind to
her, cii.

, William, fellow of New College, ap-
pears to have died before 1713, cxxii, cciv.

Bede, the Venerable, account of him, 159 «.

Bedford, Charles, Esq., the occupier of John
Tradescant's house in Lambeth, 43.
ee, the diligence of the, 28 ; the brood of
the, a good bait for bream, dace, and
roach, 186.

Beggar's Bush, the," Lond. 1647, a
comedy, by Fletcher, 113 «.

" Beggar's Daughter of Bethnal Green," the
ballad of the, 209 n.

Beketes, mentioned in the Rolls of Parlia-
ment, anno 1382, 140 «•

Bellonius, a voucher for the authenticity of
the story of the bishop-fish, 45 «.

Belus, said to be the first inventor of the art
of angling, 37.

Benion, the scent of the herb so called, said
to deter otters from fish-ponds, 59.

Beniley Brook, near Ashbourn, 228.

Bently, county of Derby, the manor of,
possessed by Charles Cotton, the father of
the poet, in right of his wife, clxiv ; settle-
ment of on the marriage of Charles Cotton,
the younger, clxxi.
^^Ben Jonson adopted several persons as his
I^L SODS, 217 n.

I

■^

Beresford Hall, county of Stafford, Walton
supposed to have spent some weeks at, in
May and June 1676, Ixxxvi ; description
of the fishing-house at, built by Charles
Cotton, Ixxxvii «., 238 «. ; drawings of,
made by Izaac Walton the younger, cxvi ;
enjoyed by Charles Cotton, the father of
the poet, in right of his wife, clxiv ; settle-
ment of, on the marriage of Charles
Cotton, the younger, clxxi ; the grounds
ntrar, planted by him, clxx ; settled on
him for life by Act 27 Car. II., clxxxv ;
said to have been surrendered by him, in
1681, to Joseph Wood house, gent.,
clxxxviii; purchased by Loid Beresford
in 1825, 238 ; engravings of the hall, 234,
257 ; engravings of the fishing-house,

237-239-
Beresford, John, Esq., of Ashbmrn, portrait

of Cotton in his possession, cxcix.
, John, Esq., of Newton Grange, county

of Derby, clxxxviii.
, Olivia, daughter and heiress of Edward

Beresford, of Beresford, county of Stafford,

clxiv, cciii.
Berners, Dame Juliana, 29 ; extract from the

advertisement prefixed to her " Treatyse

of Fysshynge wyth an Angle," 290.
Berwick, the town of, 196.
Bibliotheca sive Catalogus Scriptorum, Lat

Gr. and Heb., by Gesner, 1545-55, 44» ''•
Biddulph, Ann, wife of Simon, Esq., of the

Cape of Good Hope, the representative of

Mrs Burnet, cc.
, Walter, Esq., of Barton-under-Need-

wood, sale of his otter-hounds, 56 «.
Bird of Paradise, 43.
Birds' nests, 43.

Bishop-fish, the story of the, 45 n.
Bishop's Thorpe, the archiepiscopal palace

at, 27 «.
Bittern, the, 63.
Blackbird, the, 26.
Black-blue dun fly, the, for July, directions

for making, 262.
Black-fly, the, directions for making, 100,

257, 262.
Blackfriars, shoals of roach formerly settled

at, 182 n.
Black gnats, directions for making, 255, 261.
Black hackle, the, for July, directions for

making, 262.
Black patches, worn by women of fashion,

129 n.
Blagden, Mrs, the only living descendant of

Walton, excepting the Rev. Dr Hawes,

cxxi.
Blagden, Mr Thomas Knapp, of Winchester,

cxxi, cxxxii, vide Hawkins.
Blague, Colonel, preserved the king's lesser

George, after the battle of Worcester, xlv ;

imprisoned in the Tower, xlv. ; escaped

from thence, xlv.
Bleak, the, called the river Swallow ; de-
scription of, and baits and mode of angling

for, 172.
Bleak Hall, near Edmonton, liv, 64 «., 78.

296

INDEX,

B is', Dr, a recipe for catching pike, from
a MS. in his possession, 128 n.

Blood-red rook from Turkey, the, a species
of hawk, 28.

Blore Pipe House, county of Stafford, the
residence of Mr George Barlow, xlv.

Blowfield, John, gent., xxii, cxxxiv, vide
Cranmer.

Bludworth, Elizabeth, widow, administration
of the effects of Charles Cotton granted to
her, clxxxviii.

Blue-dun fly, directions for making the, 254.

Bluet, Dorothy, daughter of John, of Hol-
comb Regis, county of Devon, Esq., xcvi,
vide Wallop.

Boar, the wild, 30; a feast of, given by
Cleopatra to Mark Antony, 30.

Bobbing for eels, the method of, 162 n.

Bockerel and Bockeret, the, 28.

Bocton Palace, Ixxix.

" Bonny Milkmaid," the, a song, 83 n.

Booby, Thomas, cxxxiii, cxxxviii.

" Book of St Alban's," the, quoted, 141.

" Booke of Fishing with hooke and line,"
4to, Lond. 1600, supposed to have been
written by Leonard Mascal, 141 n.

Borradale, Dr, rector of Market Deeping,
county of Lincoln, was in 1714 in pos-
session of the letter written by the younger
Donne to Izaak Walton, thanking him for
having written his father's Life, xxix.

Borrowashe, settlement of the manor of, on
the marriage of Charles Cotton, the
younger, clxxi.

Buswell, James, reque^^ted by Dr Johnson, in
1777, to procure him all the editions of
Walton's Lives, cxxiv, vide Johnson.

Botcher, the, description of, 126 n.

Boteler, Sir Francis, of Lewin, county Herts,
ccii.

Boteler, or Butler, Dr William, his observa-
tion respecting strawberries quoted by
Walton, 109 ; biographical account of,
109 n.

Bowles, the Rev. William Lisle, an error in
his Life of Bishop Ken corrected, xxxix ;
no evidence in support of his assumption
in his Life of Bishop Ken, that Dr Morley
was Walton's guest at his cottage in
Staffordshire, from April 1648 to May
1649, xl ; his authority apparently derived
from traditional information, xl n \ his
remark upon an alteration made by Walton
in the epitaph of his second wife, Ixix ;
his conjecture " that the retired spot which
contains Walton's remains, was fixed on
by himself, as suiting his humbler station
of life," cvii ; his account of Walton's

^merits, cxxviii.

Boultoii, James, of Stafford, apprenticed by

Izaak Walton, cxlix.
Bowlker, extract from his "Art of Angling"
respecting the mode of generation of eels;
164 «. ; his directions for making the oak-
fly, 105 n. ; quotation from him respecting
the making offish-ponds, 200 u.

Boyle, the learned, advanced a sum of money

to Bishop Sanderson, during a period of
distress, xcii.

Bradford, the river, 230.

Bradley, A., his answer to the song " Phil-
lida flouts me," 79 n.

Bradshaw, John, Esq., 237.

Brailsford, a village near Ashboum, clxxxv,
222.

Brandling, the, a bait for trout, where to be
found, 91 ; method of preserving it, 92 ;
the best bait for perch, 157.

Brandon, Charles, his residence near tne
Swan, in Golden Lane, Ix ; mentioned in
the first and second editions of the " Com-
plete Angler," 188 n.

Bream, the, 11 ; description of, 148; found
in the larger lakes and still rivers of
Europe, and in the Caspian Sea, 148 «. ;
highly esteemed by the French, 149 ; in-
stances of the high price of in the 15th
century, 149 n. ; baits for, 149, 185, 186,
188 ; directions for angling for, 150, 152 ;
ground-bait for, 151 ; a kind of bastard
roach bred from the bream and the roach,
182.

Breton, Nicolas, the author of "Poste with
a packet of Mad Letters," 1637, 81.

" Brewsed Reide," the, lay Dr Sibbs, be-
queathed by Walton to his son Izaac, ci.

Bridgeman, Sir Orlando, lord keeper, his
plan for the compression of the more
moderate of the dissenters from the Estab-
lished Church, and allowing indulgences
to such as could not be brought within the
comprehension, rejected by the House of
Commons, xcvi.

Bright brown fly, directions for making, 254.

Bright dun gnat, the, directions for making,

253-

Brigntman, Mr, his comment on the Revela-
tions, cxliv.

" Britannia," Camden's, the edition of 1637,
quoted by Walton, 5, vide Camden.

Broderick, Sir Allan, a bequest made to by
Dr Donne, the younger, cxlii.

Brome, Alexander, complimentary verses
addressed by him to Walton, on the pub-
lication of the second edition of " The
Complete Angler," xlviii, 14 ; an " humble
eclogue," addressed to him by Walton, on
the Restoration, Ixv ; the first edition of
his songs and other poems printed in 1661,
Ixvi ; died 2qth Jime 1666, Ixvi n.; the
second edition of his poems, printed in 1668,
Ixvi «.; an epode written to, by Charles
Cotton, on the king's return, clxix ; verses
on his death, by the same, clxxii ; was one
of the adopted sons of Ben Jonson, 217 «.;
edited Fletcher's Comedy of *' Monsieur
Thomas," in 1639, 274.

, Mr Henry, of St Paul's Churchyard,

London, xcvii, clxxvi «., clxxxiii ; the
publisher of Charles Cotton, presumed to
be the brother of the poet of that name,
clxxxi.

Bromley, William, son of Sir William
Bromley, K.B., cxxxv.

INDEX.

297

Brookhouse, Anne, wife cf Robert, of Bub-
ton, CO. Derby, civ.

Broughton, Mary, daughter of Thomas
Broughton, of Broughion, county of Staf-
ford, I «.

Brown Gnat, the, for June, directions for
making, 261.

Brown, Miss Elizabeth, married the Rev-
Henry Hawes, cxxi, cxxxii.

Browne, Mr Leonard, alderman of Canter- 1^
bury, married Anne, daughter of Captain
Richard Bargrave, of Patricksbourne, xxx.

, Martin, alderman of London, ccv.

, the Rev. Moses, reprinted the "Com-
plete Angler," in 1772, cxxiv ; quotation
from his preface, cxxvii, 28 «., 40 «., 59 n.

, Rebecca, ccv.

, William, Esq., cxxxii.

Brvdges, Margaret, of Upleaden, county of
Hereford, 143 n.

I'uck, the, 29, 30, 75.

Biilbourne, a spring so called, near Tring,
county of Herts, said to be one of the heads
of the Thames, 195 n.

Bullhead, or miller's-thumb, description of
the, 193 ; spawning-time, haunts of and
baits for the, 193.

Bullock, Daniel, of St.ifTord, apprenticed by
Izaak Walton, cxiix.

Bull-trout, a trout so called in Northumber-
land, 74.

Burgess, Mr John, mentioned in the will of
Mrs Floud, mother-in-law to Izaak Walton,
xxx.

Burleigh, Lord, extract from instructions to
him for the regulation of his fish-ponds,
144; Theobalds, the residence of, 180.

"Burlesque upon Burlesque, or the Scoffer
Scoffed," Svo, 1675, written by Charles
Cotton, clxxxiii.

Burlesque on the great frost, written by
Cotton, quotation from, cxc.

Burman, Charles, Esq., his Memoirs of Elias
Ashmole, 43 "•

Burnet, Dr, Bi>hop of Salisbury, the friend
saac Walton, the younger, cxvi.
, Gilbert, grandson of Dr Stanhope, cc,
ccii.

— ^, Thomas, ccii.

, Mrs, wife of William, governor of New

York, eldest son of Gilbert, Bishop of
Salisbury, ccii ; anecdote of, cc

Burrowash, county of Derby, 231.

Burrows, Margaret, of Ashbourn, county of
Derby, widow, civ.

Burton, county of Stafford, 229.

Burton, Francis, Esq., cxxxii.

Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, extract
from, relative to the art of angling, 28^.

Bury, Lady Charlotte, formerly Lady Char-
lotte Campbell, verses suppo.sed to have
been written by her in a copy of the
" Complete Angler," which belonged to
Sir Humphrey Davy, cxxv.

Butterflies, baits for salmon, 127 n.
uxton, the town of, famous for its baths.

J5uri

w

I^Tcc

I

Buzzard, the, a species of hawk, 29.
Bysshe, Sir Edward, Clarenceux king-of-

arms, solicited Walton to write the Life of

Sir Henry Wotton, xlii.

Cadara, an island near the Ganges, the
inhabitants whereof make the timber for
their houses of fish-bones, 42.

Cadis or case worms, where found, 189, 191 ;
different kinds of, 190.

Calthorp, Sir William, the case of cited,
213.

Camden's Britannia, quoted by Walton, 5,
40, 41, 124, 126, 160, 161, 166, 198.

Camel brown fly, the, for September, direc-
tions for making, 262.

Cameleon, the, 74.

" Camerarius' Living Library," fol. Lond.
1621, copy of, lormcrly belonging to
Walton, in the cathedral library of Salis-
bury, cxlvii.

Camlet fly, the, mentioned by Cotton, 241 ;
directions for making, 261.

Campbell, Lady Charlotte, cxxv, vide Bury.

Camphire, said to give worms a tempting
smell, 93.

Cannon, or down-hill fly, the oak-fly so called
in Shropshire, 106.

Canterbury, a bequest of ;^4o made to the
poor of St Mildred's parish by Mrs Fioud,
mother-in-law of Izaak Walton, xxx.

Cantharus, a fish mentioned by Du Bartas,
46.

Cardanus, Hieronymus, quoted by Walton,
136 ; account of him, 136 n.

Carew, the friend of Charles Cotton, the
elder, clxiv.

Carey, Sir Lucius, verses written by him on
the death of Dr Donne, xxiv.

Carleton, Sir Dudley, ambassador to the
States, cxliii.

Carlingford, in Ireland, Thomas Cranmer,
slain in an action with the Irish at, xxii.

Carp, the, 11 ; a leather-mouthed fish, 69;
assembled to feed by the ringing of a bell,
118 ; killed by frogs, 134, 143 ; said to
have been brought into England by Mr
Mascal, of Plumstead, in Sussex, 141 ;
mentioned in the " Book of St Alban's,"
141 «.; quotation from Baker's Chronicle,
respecting its first introduction into Eng-
land, 141 ; lives longer out of the water
than any other fish, 141 ; presents of made
to King Henry the Eighth, 141 «.; breeds
several months in one year, 141 ; will not
breed in cold ponds, 142 ; large size of in
Italy, 142 ; receipt for making them fat in
gravelly water, 142 «.; their breeding and
decay very mysterious, 143 ; account of
very large ones, 142 «. ; their longevity,
144 ; instances thereof at Emanuel College,
Cambridge, and at the Prince of Cond^s
seat at Chantilly, 144 n.; their time of
spawning, 144 w. ; the galls and stones in
their heads very medicinable ; great profit
made by the Italians by selling their roes
to the Jews to make caviare, 145 ; eat their

298

INDEX.

own spawn ; will not fatten where thete
are many tench, 145 n.\ directions for
angling for, 145, 147 ; baits for, 146, 147,
150, 185 ; the haunts of, 147 ; recipe for
cooking, 147 ; called the water fox, 182 ;
the spawn of, devoured by ducks, 199 ;
thrive and breed best when no other fish is
put into the same pond, 200 ; directions for
storing ponds with,and feeding them, 200 «.,
201.

Carpenter, Anne, sister of John, second son
of John Carpenter, of Rye, in Sussex,
supposed to have been the mother of Izaalc
Walton's first wife, xxiii, cxxxv.

Carthusians, the college of, never eat flesh,
59-

Cartwright, Edmund, of Ossington, in the
county of Notts, cxxxv.

, William, a collection of his poems pub-
lished in 1643, xxxii ; elegies on his death,
referred to by Walton, cxlviii ; was one of
the adopted sons of Ben Jonson, 217 «.

Cary [or Carew], Mr Thomas, " a poet of
note," anecdote of, cxlvi.

Casaubon, Dr, his " Discourse of Credulity
and Incredulity," quoted by Walton, 41,
116 ; biographical account of, 41 n.

Cases of Conscience, Hale's letters on, cxivii.

Case-worm, the, a bait for chub, 69.

Catechism, dissertation on the authorship of
the, 52 «.

Caterpillars, mode of generation, and dif-
ferent kinds of, 95-97.

Cats, quotation from Montaigne relative to,23.

Caussin, Nicholas, account of, 207 n.; quota-
tion from, cxv.

Caviare, made from the roes of carp, 145.

Cecil, the arms of, on a building called the
Almshouse, on the road leading from
Waltham Cross to Cheshunt, 36 n.

, Sir Robert, afterwards Earl of Salis-
bury, 35 n.

, Sir William, afterwards Lord Burleigh,

Theobald's Palace built by, 35.

" Ce que Dieu garde est bien garde," a
French proverb quoted by Cotton, 232.

" Certaine Experiments concerning Fish,"
4to, 1600, by Taverner, extract from,
132 n.

Chalkhill, Anne, daughter of Roger, 283.

, John, Esq., the author of a poem en-
titled "Thealma and Clearchus," xciii ;
his identity unascertained, xciv ; styled by
Walton in a presentation copy of his Lives,
now in the possession of the Rev. W.
Cotton, " my brother Chalkhill, 282 ; song,
"Oh the sweet contentment," composed
by, 86 n.\ verses of Angling by, 174; the
supposed author of " Alcilia," xix.

, John, fellow of Winchester College,

his monumental inscription in Winchester
Cathedral, xciv n.

, Martha, daughter of Ion, married Mr

Thomas Ken, xxxix «., xlviii, cciv.

, pedigree of, ccv.

Chalk hills, near London Bridge, formerly
resorted to for roach-fishing, 182 «.

Chancery Lane, Walton's residence in, xxix;

xl ; a house in, bequeathed by Walton to
his son-in-law, Dr Hawkins, and his
wife, c.

Chantilly, tame carp at the Prince of Conde's
seat at, 144.

Chapman, Geo., the poet, alluded to in some
verses by Sir Aston Cokayne, clxviii.

Char, the, 165 ; where found, 165 n.

Charles the First, expressed his approbation
of Walton's Life of Dr Donne, xxviii, Ixiv ;
anecdotes of, xxxvi ; Walton's account of
the religious dissensions which preceded
his death, cix.

Charles the Second, his restoration attended
by the promotion of many eminent divines
who had suffered in his cause, Ixv ; satirical
verses on his angling, by Lord Rochester,
285.

Charleton, Sir Job, chief-justice of Chester,
III «.

" Charon of Wisdom," 4to, Lond. n. d., copy
of, formerly belonging to Walton, in the
cathedral library of Salisbury, cxivii.

Chatfield, Elizabeth,^ wife of William, of
Bermondsey Street in Southwark, civ.

Chatsworth, in the county of Derby, 231 ;
a poem descriptive of, published by Cotton
in 1681, clxxxvi.

Chaucer's prologue to the Canterbury Tales,
quotation from, 140.

Chauncy, Sir Henry, 21 n.

Cliavender, vide Chub.

Cheeke, Sir John, secretary of state and pre-
ceptor to Edward the Sixth, clxiii ft.

Chelsea, Bishop Morley's house at, Ixxviii.

Chepstow, the town of, 230 n.

Chester, Cotton's account of his meeting
with, and visit to the Mayor of, clxxv.

Chesterfield, Philip, first Earl of, xliii.

, Philip, second Earl of, ccii ; the third

edition of the " Reliquiae Wottonianae
dedicated to him by Waiton in 1673, Ixxix ;
the translation of De Montluc's " Com-
mentaries" dedicated to him by Charles
Cotton, clxxx.

, Katherine, wife of Henry, Lord Stan-
hope, created Countess of, for life, xliii,
ccii.; the "Reliquiae Wottonianae" dedi-
cated to her, xiiii.

" Chevy Chace," a song, 79.

Chichester lobsters considered superior to
others, 73, 340.

Child and Greenhill, the case of, cited, 213.

Chillingworth, Mr, mentioned in the dedi-
cation of Walton's Life of Bishop Sander-
son, xci.

China, gold and silver fish brought from,
192 n.

Chiswick, the drag-net much used by the
fishermen of, 1S2 n.

" Choice Ayres, Songs, and Dialogues, to
sing to the Theorbo, Lute, and Bass Viol,"
fol. 1675, 185 n.

" Choice Drollery, with Sonsrs and Sonnets,"
1656, written by Thomas Weaver, 13 n.

Cholmondeley, Lord, 131 «.

" Christ's Passion," a tragedy, translated
from Grotius, 1640, i2mo, 27 n.

INDEX.

299

Chub or Chavender, the, 11 ; reckoned the
worst of fish, 64 ; an engraving of the, 65 ;
called by the French " un villain," 67 ; re-
ceipts for cookinjj, 67, 68 ; directions for
angling for, 68, 106 ; baits for, 69, 70, 184,
185, 189 ; the flesh of, accounted best in
winter months, 70 ; haunts of, 71.
"Chudley's Elegies," referred to by Walton,

cxiviii,
Churchey, George, fellow of Lyon's Inn, the
translator of Dubravius's treatise of " Fish
and Fish-ponds," 133 n.
Clarenceux king-of-arins, xlii, vide Bysshe.
Clarendon, Lord, the friend of Charles
Cotton the elder, clxiv ; his account of
him, clxiv, clxxi ; his opinion on the sub-
ject whether contemplation be preferable
to action, 39 n.
Cleare, Jane, the wife of Richard, xlii n.
Cleobury, Sir John, Bart, of Bradsione, in

the county of Devon, cxxxv.
Cleopatra, a feast of wild boars given by,
to Mark Antony, 30 ; used the recreation
of angling, 50.
Clerkeiiwell, Walton's residence in, xli, xlv ;

extracts from the parish register of, xli w.
Clifford, Mr, the editor of the "Academy

of Compliments," iii «.
Clifton, Sir Clifford, an epistle to, from

Charles Cotton, clxxvi.
Cock, the, his want of care in hatching his

brood, 47.
Cockle, the, of Shelsey, considered superior

to others, 73, 140.
Cockspur, the case-worm so called, 190 ;

produces the may-fly, 190 11.
Cod-worm, the. a bait for chub, 6g.
Cokayne, the family of, connected with that
of Cotton by marriage, clxiv ; anecdote of
Cotton's having been disinherited by a
female relative of that name, clxxvii.
, Anne, wife of Sir Francis Boteler, ccii.

, Sir Aston, ccii; "Small Poems of

divers sorts," written by him, London,
jsmo, 1658, xlv «. ; verses written by him,
on the death of his cousin, Mrs Cotton,
clxiv «.; educated at Cambridge, clxv«. ;
verses addressed by him to Charles Cotton,
the poet, clxvi, clxvii, clxxi ; an epitaph
by him on the death of his sisters, clxxviii.

, Isabella, died unmarried, ccii.

, Katherine,wife of Richard Weston, ccii.

, Lettice, wife of Gilbert Armstrong, ccii.

, Mrs Lucy, daughter of Sir Thomas, of

Ashbourn, clxxviii «., ccii.
Coke, Anne, 21 n.

Sir Edward, chief justice, 21 n.
loleman, Charles, doctor of music, 178 «.
illar of SS., anecdote respecting a, fuund
amongst the king's baggage, after the
battle of Worcester, xlv.
Come live with me and be my love," a
song, 79; doubtful whether written by
Christopher Marlowe or by Shakespeare,
80 «. ; imitations of it, 82 «. ; a song in

I imitation of, written by Marlowe, 158.
"Come, Shepherds, deck your herds," a
song, 79 ; copy thereof, 277.

ai

" Commentary on the Somnium Scipionis of
Cicero," by Aurelius Macrobius, 33 «.

" Commentaries," the, of De Montluc,
Marshal of France, translated by Cotton,
clxxxi.

" Complete Angler," the, first edition of,
published in 1653, xivi ; the second edition
in 1655, xlviii ; observations upon, and
analysis of the contents of that edition,
xlviii, Ixii ; the third edition, published in
1661, Ixvii ; the fourth edition, in 1668,
Ixxv; the fifth, in 1676, Ixxxv; price and
advertisement of the first edition of the, 274-

"Compleat Gamester," the, published in
1674, attributed to Cotton, cl.xxxi.

Comprehension, Walton said to have written
a letter to a kinsman at Coventry, on the
rejection of the Bill of, Ixxiv.

Compton, Charles, son of George, fourth
Earl of Northampton, cci, cciii.

, Charles, seventh Earl of Northampton,

cciii.

, Charles, ninth Earl of Northampton,

cciii.

, Spencer, eighth Earl of Northampton,

cciii.

, Spencer Joshua Alwyne, second Mar-
quess and tenth Earl of Northampton, one
of the present representatives of Charles
Cotton, cciii.

Condd, the Prince of, 144, vide Chantilly.

Conger, the, 165.

"Consideration.s," by John Valdesso, 40 n.

Contemplation, question whether preferable
to action, 39 ; Lord Clarendon s opinion
thereupon, ^9 n.

"Contemplation on God's Providence," by
Mr George Herbert, quotation from, 44.

" Contentation," the, a poem, by Charles
Cotton, cxcvi.

Cony-fish, the, 43.

Cooke, Clarenceux king-of-arms, ccv.

Coppinger, a Nonconformist, his death al-
luded to by Walton, cxi.

Corbet, Major, brought to the Parliament a
collar of SS. and a garter found amongst
the king's baggage, after the battle of
Worcester, xlv.

Coriate, Tom, biographical account of, 233 «.

Cormorant, the, 63.

Comeille's tragedy of Horace, translated by
Charles Cotton, clxxii.

" Corona Florida Medicinse sive de Con-
servatione Sanitatis," fo. 1491, 168 «.

Cornwall, famous for otter-hunting, 59,

Corracle, description of a, 122.

Cotswold Hills, the Olympic Gnmes annu-
ally celebrated upon, by Mr Robert Dover,
282.

Cotton, pedigree of the family of, ccii.

, Beresford, son of Charles, ccii.

, Cassandra, wife of Sir George, clxiii,

cciii.

, Cassandra, daughter of Sir George,

clxiii M., cciii ; an Ele.sy on her death,
written by Colonel Lovelace, clxiii.

, Charles, of Ovingdean, county Sussex,

cciii.

300

INDEX.

Cotton, Charles, father of the poet, the friend ■
and companion of many of the most emin- |
ent of his contemporaries, clxiii ; his '
character by Lord Clarendon, clxiv n.

• , Charles, the poet, born April 28, 1630 ;

is supposed to have been educated at
Cambridge, clxv ; his affection for his
tutor, Mr Ralph Rawson, strongly ex-
pressed in the translation of an Ode of
Johannes Secundus, clxv ; did not take
his degree at either University, clxv ;
possessed considerable classic attainments,
and an extensive knowledge of modern
languages, clxv ; little known of his pur-
suits until after the Restoration ; probably
went abroad before his twenty-fourth year;
many of his poems published after his de-
cease, written at an early period of his life,
clxvi ; an Elegy upon the death of Henry
Lord Hastings, 1649, and a copy of verses
prefixed to Edmund Prestwich's translation
of the Hippolitus of Seneca in 1651, attri-
buted to him, clxvi «. ; verses addressed to
him by Sir Aston Cokayne, clxvi, clxvii";
the " Triumphs of Philamore and Amoret,"
inscribed to him, by Col. Lovelace, clxviii ;
is stated by Aubrey, to have relieved Love-
lace in his distress, clxviii ; was a zealous
Loyalist, and an uncompromising enemy of
Cromwell, clxix ; his pohtical opinions
strongly expressed in his verses on the
execution of James, Earl of Derby, in
1651, and in his castigation of Waller, for
writing a panegyric on the Protector,
about the year 1654, clxix ; neither the
name of his father nor of himself, found in
connection with any political event during
the Commonwealth, clxx ; became one of
the intimate friends of Izaak Walton, clxx;
married in August 1657, his cousin, Isa-
bella, daughter of Sir Thomas Hutchinson ;
settlement of the manors of Bentley, Bor-
rowashe, and Beresford, and of rectory of
Spoondon, made in contemplation of his
marriage, clxxi ; lost his father in Decem-
ber 1658 ; first appeared before the public
as an author on the Restoration of Charles
the Second ; birth of his eldest son Beres-
ford ; published a burlesque poem, entitled
" Scarronides, or the First Book of Virgil
Travestie," in 1664, and prepared for the
press a translation of "The Moral Philo-
sophy of the Stoics," from the French of
Du Vaix, published in 1667, clxxii ; an Act
passed in 1665, to enable him to sell part
of his estates, for the payment of his debts;
translated Corneille's Tragedy of Horace
for the amusement of his wife's sister. Miss
Stanhope Hutchinson; the dedication dated
7th November 1665 ; pubished in 1671 ;
wrote some verses on the poems of his
friend, Alexander Brome, about the year
1667, clxxii ; his dislike at being obliged to
live in the country, and at being separated
from his literary friends, frequently ex-
pressed in his works, clxxiii ; his " Voyage
to Ireland in Burlesque," composed about
the year 1670 or 1671 ; extracts therefrom,

descriptive of his history, situation, and
feelings, clxxiv, clxxv ; allusions made to
himself in his Epistle to Sir Clifford Clifton,
clxxvi ; published a new edition of his
"Virgil Travestie," in 1670; critical re-
marks thereupon, clxxvi ; some lines in
that work said to have given such offence
to a female relative, whose name he had
used in allusion to her ruff, that she
changed her intention of leaving him her
fortune ; this anecdote extremely doubtful,
clxxvii ; published a translation of Gerard's
History of the Life of the Duke of Esper-
non, dedicated to Dr Gilbert Sheldon,
Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1670, clxxviii;
his motives for inscribing it to that prelate,
as explained in a letter to the archbishop,
30th Oct. 1669, clxxviii ; extracts from the
preface, clxxviii, et seq.; translated the
Commentaries of De Montiuc, Marshal of
France, between 1670 and 1674, clxxx ;
alluded to in a letter from Walton to Lord
Chesterfield, in Feb. 1673, Ixxx ; his liter-
ary labours attended with little success,
clxxx ; authorship of " The Compleat
Gamester," published in 1674, attributed
to him, c xxxi ; published "The Fair One
of Tunis," in 1674, clxxxi ; printed a work
entitled "Burlesque upon Burlesque," in
1675, and "The Planter's Manual," in same
year, clxxxiii ; death of first wife, and issue
by her, clxxxiv; remarried Mary, daughter
of Sir W.P.ussell, before 1675, clxxxiv ; ap-
plication made to Parliament for authority
to sell part of his estates, for payment
of his debts, clxxxiv; was applied to by
Walton to write a treatise on Fly-Fishing,
Ixxxv ; treatise thereon written in ten days,
Feb.'i676, Ixxxvi, clxxxv ; published " The
Wonders of the Peak," in 1681, clxxxvi ;
translation of Montaigne's Essays, printed
in 1685, considered to be his most im-
portant contribution to English literature,
clxxxvii ; complimentary letter to him from
George, Marquis of Halifax, to whom that
work was dedicated, clxxxvii ; said to
have sold Beresford, in 1681, clxxxviii ;
a ring bequeathed to him by Walton, in
1683, cii ; was engaged in translating the
Memoirs of the Sieur de Pontis, at his
death, in Feb. 1687, clxxxviii ; adminis-
tration of his effects granted, Sep. 12, 1687,
clxxxviii ; an imperfect edition of his works
published soon after decease, clxxxviii ;
the most valuable and interesting facts
relative to his feelings and character, ob-
tained from this volume, clxxxix ; extracts
therefrom, cxci ; his " Ode to Hope,"
cxciii ; his poem entitled " Contentation,"
cxcv; anecdotes relative to his pecuniary
embarrassments, cxcvii ; his literary merits
not sufficiently appreciated at the present
day, cxcvii ; the idea that he was an author
by profession, shown to be erroneous,
cxcviii ; his conduct and character, cxcviii ;
his portrait in possession of John Beres-
ford, Esq., of Ashbourn, cxcix ; account of
his children and present representatives.

INDEX,

cxcix ; commemorated in a poem entitled
the " Innocent Epicure, or Angling," pub-
lished in 1697, 274.

Cotton, Charles, son of Charles, of Beresford,
cciii.

, Sir George, of Warblenton, co. Essex,

clxiii, cciii.

, Isabella, first wife of Charles, of Beres-
ford, cciii.

, Isabella, daughter of Charles, ccii.

, Jane, daughter of Charles, cciii.

, Katherine, daughter of Charles, cciii.

, Mary, wife of Sir George, clxiii «.

, Mary, second wife of Charles, of Beres-
ford, cciii.

, Mary, daughter of Charles, cciii.

, Olive, mother of Charles Cotton, the

poet, clxiv, cciii ; her death, clxiv ; verses
to her memory, by Sir Aston Cokayne,
clxiv w.

, Olive, wife of Dr Stanhope, ccii.

. Persis, daughter of Charles, clxv n.

, Sir Richard, comptroller of the house-
hold, and privy councillor to Edward VI.,
of Warblenton, county Essex, clxiii.

, Susan, sister of Sir G., of Warblenton,

and wife of Charles, Earl of Kent, clxiii n.

, Wingfield, son of Charles, of Beres-
ford, ccii.

" Counterblast to Tobacco," by King James
I., 240 «.

"Country Contentments," by Markham,

Quotation from, 37 n.
ountry Parsons," Herbert's, eulogised by
Walton, Ixxvi.

Court of Judicature for determination of
differences touching houses burnt in Lon-
don, Ixxix.

Covenanters, the Scottish, invited into Eng-
land by the Presbyterian party in 1643,
xxxiv ; their motto, xxxiv.

*' Covent Garden Drollery," 1672, 15 «.

Cow-dung fly, a, for May, directions for
making, 257.

"Cowley's Works," fol. 1674, copy of, for-
merly belonging to Walton, in the cathe-
dral library of Salisbury, cxlviii.

" Cowper's Heaven Opened," 4to, 1631, cory
of, formerly belonging to Walton, in the
cathedral library of Salisbury, cxlviii.

Cowper the poet, one of Walton's ideas beau-
tifully expressed in his "Task," 285.

" Cozen's Devotions," referred to by Walton,
cxlviii.

Craber, the, or water-rat. 64.

Cranefield, Thomas, of Bromham, county of
Norfolk, 131 M.

Cranmer, pedigree of, cxxxiv. cxxxv.

, Anne, wile of John Sellar, xxii, cxxxv.

, Dorothy, supposed to have married

Dr Richard Field, Dean of Gloucester,
xxii, cxxxv.

, Elizabeth, the wife of Alexander Nor-
wood, xxii, cxxxv.

, Francis, son of John, cliv.

, George, of Christ's Church, Oxford,

uncle of Mrs Walton, biographical account
of, xxii «., cxxxiv ; alluded to in a letter

from Dr King, Bishop of Chichester, to

Izaak Walton, Ixxii.
Cranmer, Humphry, cliv.

, Jane, xxii, cxxxv.

, Margaret, xxii, cxxxv.

, Rachael, wife of John Blowfield, gent.,

xxii, cxxxiv.
, Susan, sister and co-heiress of Sir

William, cv, cxxxiv.
, Susanna, the daughter of Thomas, of

Canterbury, married Floud, xxi, xxii,

cxxxiv.

, Thomas, xxii, cxxxiv.

, William, the intimate friend of Izaak

Walton, xxii, cxxxiv.
, Sir William, governor of the Merchants'

Adventurers of England, xxii, cxxxiv.
Crassus, the orator, his grief for the death of

a tame lamprey, 160.
Crawley, Thomas, a witness to Izaak Wal-
ton's will, cii.
Crew, Anne, daughter and co-heiress of

John, Esq., i.

, John, of Crew, Esq., i.

Crispes, , Isabel, widow of, cxxxii.

Crocodile, the, 75 ; longevity of the, 142.
Cromwell, Lord, an instance of his gratitude

to Sir Frescobaldi, a Florentine merchant,

118 n.
, Oliver, offered a pension of ;^30o per

annum to Dr Casaubon, to write a history

of his time, 42 w.

, Wingfield, fifth baron, clxxxiv.

Crook, John, a publisher, of the Ship, in St

Paul's Churchyard, 210 «.
Crooked Lane, many fishing-tackle shops

formerly in, 182 n.
•' Crown of Laurell," the, by Skelton, ex-
tract from, 149 «.
Crowther's Well Alley, near Aldersgate

Street, the residence of a descendant of

Charles Kerbye, famous for the shape and

temper of his hooks, 188 «.
Crucian carp, brought into England, from

Germany, since Walton wrote, 192 «.
Cuckoo, the, its want of care of its eggs, 48.
Cuckow's spit, 73.
Cullen, R., clxxxi «.

"Cunning Lovers," the, atragedy, i654,i5«.
Curiosities, formerly the custom to exhibit,

in coffee-houses, 285.
Cuttle-fish, account of the, 46.
Cyrus, hunting one of the qualifications be-
stowed upon him by Xenophon, 30.

Dace, the, swims in shoals, 132 ; baits for,
184-186, 188 ; their haunts, and instructions
for angling for, 187 ; directions for cook-
ing, 189 n.

Dalbm, Mrs, mentioned in Walton's will,
cii ; not identified, cvi.

Dallaway's "Letheraeum sive Horti Le-
theraeani," 41 n.

Dale, Mr, a pedigree of Ken compiled by,
cxxii w.

" Damon and Dorus." an humble eclogue,
addressed by Walton to " his ingenious
friend, Mr Brome," Ixvi.

ki

;02

INDEX.

Danow, the river, 196.

Danube, the river, 167.

Darbishire, Mr John, bequests made to by
Walton, ci, cii ; not identified, cvi.

Dark brown flies for February and April,
directions for making, 2,54, 255.

Darley, county of Derby, 231.

Darneford Magna, a farm belonging to Mr
Hungerford, the uncle of Sir John Evelyn,
284.

Davenant, Sir William, the poet, intimate
with Charles Cotton the elder, clxiv ; sup-
posed author of some verses quoted by
Walton, in praise of music, 179 n.

Davers, or Danvers, Agnes, daughter of Sir
Robert, 276, vide Davers.

, John, supposed to be the author of the

" Secrets of Angling," 37 ft ; and of the
"Angler's Wish," 54, vide Dennys.

Daves, John, 54 n., 276 ; the old way of
spelling Davers, or Danvers, 276.

David, the prophet, quoted, 48.

Davison, Anne, sister of Mr Secretary Davi-
son, married John Carpenter, of Rye, in
Sussex, xxiii, cxxxv.

— — , Francis, eldest son of Secretary Davi-
son, biographical account of, 113 n. ; editor
of the ''Poetical Rhapsody,'' xxii ; author
of the "Beggars' Song," in the "Com-
plete Angler," xxiii, Ivii.

• , Mr Henry, of Gray's Inn, godfather to

Walton's last son Izaak, xlii, cxl ; his will,
xlii n.

, Jane, the wife of Richard Cleare, xlii «•

, Mary, xlii n.

, William, Secretary of State to Queen

Elizabeth, xxii.

Davy, Sir Humphrey, cxxv, vide Bury.

Debat, Elizabeth, wife of Henry Archer, ccii.

Decimus Brutus, 27, vide Hircus.

Dee, the river, 166, 196.

Defoe's "Tour through England," quoted,
41 n.

Deighton, the c-iffs of, 276.

Deloney's " Strange Histories, or Songes
and Sonnets," i2mo, 1607, 81 «.

Dennys, John, Esq. of Oldbury-sur-Montem,
CO. Gloucester, 54 n. ; reasons for believing
that the " Secrets of Angling " were written
by him, and not, as commonly supposed,
by John Davers, 276.

— , Sir Walter, of Pucklechurch, co. Glou-
cester, 276.

Derby, the county of, famed for trout and
grayling, 224.

, the town of, 231.

— , James, Earl of, verses on his execution,
by Charles Cotton, clxix.

Derwent, the river, 196, 229, 231 ; made sub-
ject to the fence months by stat. 13 Edw.
I. c. 47, 62 n.
*' Description of the spring on a bank, as I
sat a-fishing," by Sir Henry Wotton, xliv.
Devonshire, the Countess of; Cotton's
"Wonders of the Peak," dedicated to her,
in 1681, clxxxvi.
Dew-worm or lob-worm, 91 ; directions for
baiting with, 93.

Dibbing, instructions for, by an anonymous
writer, 106 «.

Dickenson, the lord mayor in 1757, destroyed
all the stops or weirs in the Thames, be-
tween London and Staines. 183 n.

Diodorus Siculus, quoted by Walton, 177.

" Discourse of Credulity and Incredulity,"
by Ca=aubon, 42 n.

Dixon, Cecily, widow of , ccv.

Dock-worm, gi ; directions for finding, 91 «.

Dogfish, the, 43.

Dolphin, the, fond of music, 42.

Donne, George, son of the dean, biographical
account of, Ixx n.

, Dr John, Dean of St Paul's, intimate

friend of Izaak Walton, xx ; was attended
by him in last hours, and presented to him
a seal of blood-stone, engraven with a re-
presentation of the Saviour extended on an
anchor, xxiv ; edition of his poems, printed
in 1633, xxiv ; second edition, with a
portrait, published 1655, xxvi ; first volume
of his sermons, with Life by Izaak Walton,
prefixed, published 1640, xxvii ; author of
the song, " Come, live with me and be my
love," Iviii, 158 ; said to be author of a
poem called a " Farewell to the Vanities
of the World," Ix ; also poem called " The
Bait" 81 «. ; second edition of his Life,
published 1658, Ixiii ; republished with the
Lives of Herbert, Hooker, and Wotton,
about 1670, Ixxvi ; again in 1675, Ixxxi ;
sermons bequeathed by Walton to Dr
Hawkins, ci ; Letters, 4to, Lond. 1651 ;
and his Eighty Sermons, fol. 1640, formerly
belonging to Izaak Walton, now in the
cathedral library of Salisbury, cxlviii ; in-
timate with Charles Cotton the elder,
clxiv.

, Dr John, the younger, bequeathed his

father's collection of extracts to Bishop
King, for the son of Izaak Walton, xxiv ;
letter to Walton, thanking him for having
written his father's Life, xxix ; death, Ixx ;
character of, by Anthony Wood, Ixx ; bio-
graphical account of, Ixx n. ; extracts from
will, Ixxi ; copy of will, cxli.

Dorchester, the town of, 195 «.

Dove, the, 27 ; dissertation on two passages
in Scripture, respecting descent of the Holy
Ghost in the shape of a dove, 27 n.

the river, Ixxxvi, 196, 231, 232, 234, 246 ;

made subject to the fence months, by stat.
13 Edw. I. 62 n. ; divided the counties of
Derby and Stafford, 229; Cotton's de-
scription of, 236, 286.

Dove bridge, clxxxvi.
Dovedale, description of, 229 n.

Dover, Mr Robert ; a poem by William Basse
upon the Olympic games annually cele-
brated by him upon the Cotswold Hills,
4to, 1636, 282.
Drake, Dr, a passage from "Complete
Angler," on singing of birds, quoted by
him in "Literary Hours," cxiv n.
Dravus, the river, 196.

Drayton, Michael, poet, biographical account
of, 124 n. ; quoted by Waiton, 197.

INDEX.

303

Droxford, Walton's books at, mentioned in
his will, c, ci, civ.

Dryden, imitation by, of lines quoted by
Walton, from an unknown poet, lii n.

Du Bartas, quoted by Walton, 45-47, 97 ;
account of his works, 45 «.

Dubbing, list of materials for, 103 n.

Dubravius, Janus, biographical account of,
133 w. ; his treatise " De Piscinis et Pis-
cium qui in eis aluntur naturis," quoted by
Walton, Ixi, 133, 134, 144, 145, 199 ; anec-
dote related by, 289.

Duck, the, destructive to fish, 63.

*' Ductor Dubitantium," by Bishop Taylor,
cited, 27.

Dugdale, Sir William, showed to Walton a
letter from Sir Thomas Herbert, wherein
he and others were directed to compare
with the original King Charles the First's
translation of Dr Sanderson's lectures
" De Juramento," xxxvii.

Dug-worm, the, 91.

Dulas, the name of, common to many rivers
in Wales, 230 n.

Duncombe, Mr, extract from his "History
of Herefordshire," relative to the salmon
of the Wye, 126 n.

Dun-cut fly for May, the directions for mak-
ing, 257.

Dundell, co. of Herts, the source of one of
the heads of the river Tliames, 195.

Duniiington, the town of, 229.

Duport, Dr James, Latin verses addressed
by him to Walton, Ixxxviii, 18; translation
thereof by Archdeacon Wrangham, 274 ;
biographical account of him, 18 «.

Duppa, Dr, presented by Dr Donne, with a
seal of bloo<Jstone, engraven with a repre-
sentation of the Saviour extended on an
anchor, xxiv.
Durfey's "Pills to purge Melancholy,"

83 «.
" Dutch Fair," the picture of a, cxHi.
Dyrham, in Gloucestershire, 276.

Eagle, the, styled Jove's servant in ordinary,
25 ; a species of hawk, 28.

Eastcarlton, county of Norfolk, tenure of
the manor of. 198 «.

Eaton-fords, clxxxvi.

Eaton, James, of Stafford, apprenticed by
Izaak Walton, cxlix.

Eccleshall, in Staffordshire, xlv ; a farm near,
bequeathed by Walton to the town of
Stafford, ci.

Edghill, Thomas. Walton's servant, a be-
quest made to him, ci.

Eels, said to be found in river Ganges, thirty
feet in length, 42 ; imbed themselves and
stir during thunder, 118 ; betterfor age and
size, 130 ; much esteemed by the Romans,
158 ; different opinions as to their mode of
generation, 159, 164 « ; those bred in rivers
near the sea said never to return to fresh
water, 160 ; supposed to lie torpid half the
year, 160; varieties of, 161; baits and direc-
tions for fishincj for, 161 ; mode of sniggling
for, 162 ; bobbing for, 162 «. ; directions

for cooking, 163 ; verv large one caught at
Peterborough, 163 ; their haunts, 164 n.

Eggington, county of Derby, 299.

Erie, the, a species of hawk, 29.

Elephant, the, 30, 33.

Elijah, the prophet, fed by ravens, 27.

Elizabeth, Queen, often wished herself a
milkmaid all the month of May, 81.

Elusina, the river, 41.

" England's Helicon," published in 1600, 80 «.

"English Guzman,'' the, or the history of
that unparalleled thief, James Hind, 4to,
1652, 113 M.

" Epigrams," by Sir John Harrington, xix.

Epirus, a river in, that puts out any lighted
torch, and kindles any that was not lighted,
41.

Eroways, the river, county of Derby, 231.

Espernon, Gerard's Life of the Duke of,
translated by Charles Cotton, clxxviii.

Evans, Eyans, or Janes, Thomas, of Bow,
county of Middlesex, cxxxiv.

, Susan, cxxxv.

" Eusebius, Socrates, and Evagrius, Eccle-
siastical Histories," fol. Lond. 1636, for-
merly belonging to Izaak Walton, now in
the cathedral library at Salisbury, cxlviii.

Exton, Sir Thomas, cii.

Fairclough, alias Featley, Dr Daniel, 13 n.

Fairfax, Sir Thomas, 33 n.

" Fair One of Tunis, or the Generous Mis-
tress; a new piece of gallantry, out of the
French," published by Charles Cotton, in
1674, clxxxi.

Faithorne, the fish in the first edition of the
" Complete Angler, " supposed to have been
engraved by, 3 «.

Falcon, the, a species of the hawk, 28.

Fa kland, Lord, his visit to John Heals, cxlvi.

F.' riiigdon, Mr Anthony, cxlvi ; Mr Fulman
referred to him for information relative to
the Life of John Hales, Ixxx ; his sermons
bequeathed by Walton to Mr John Darbi-
shire, cii.

" Farewell to the Vanities of the World," a
poem said to have been written by Dr
Donne, Ix.

Farnham Castle, in Surrey, a seat of the
Bishop of Winchester, xcvi ; visited by
Walton in May 1683, xcix ; prints and
pictures at, bequeathed by him to his son
Izaak, ci, cv.

Farvvell, Mrs Anne and Mrs Elizabeth,
bequest made to by their " cousin " Izaak
Walton, the younger, cxviii ; not identified,
cxxiii.

Faulkner, "an hidustrious angler," men-
tioned by Robert Frank in his " Northern
Memoirs," Ixi.

Feathers for fly -making, directions for
choosing, 104 n.

Fell, Dr, master of Christ's Church, Ixxxv ;
expelled from the university, xxxv.

Fence months, the, regulated by stat. 13
Edw. I. c. 47, and stat. 13 Rich. II. c.
ig, 62 n.

Ferabosco, Sig. Alfonso, iii «.

304

INDEX.

Fern-fly, the, directions for making, 262.

Ferrers, John, Esq., a translation of the
'* Moral Philosophy of the Stoics," from
the French of Du Vaix, dedicated to him
by Charles Cotton, clxxii.

Ferret, the, 29.

Pichet, the, 29.

Field, Dr Richard, Dean of Gloucester, xxii,
Ixxviii.

Finlanders, superstition of the, 284.

Firman, Raymond, executor of the will of
Jane Walton, of Derby, cxxxix.

Fish, have hearing, 118 : salmon called a
fish, par excellence, in Scotland, Ixii.

Fishing-frog, called by the Dalmatians " the
water devil," 134.

Fishing-house, Cotton's, vide Beresford.

, Sir Henry Wotton's, near Eton, de-
scription of, by Mr Jesse, cxxix.

Fishing-lines, directions for making, 202, 203.

Fish-ponds, directions for making, 198-200-

i'itzwilliam Collection at Cambridge, error
respecting a view of Theobalds in, published
by Society of Antiquaries, corrected, 275.

Flatman, Thomas, the poet, verses addressed
to Walton on publication of Chalkhill's
poem of Thealma and Clearchus, xcv ; to
Charles Cotton, on his translation of De
Montluc's Commentaries, clxxxi.

Fleet Street, Walton's house in, xx.

Flesh-flies, directions for breeding, 261.

Fletcher, Giles, 177 n.

, Phineas, the poet, in «., iig n. ; ac-
count of, 177 n.; intimate with Charles
Cotton the elder, clxiv.

, John, his comedy of "Monsieur

Thomas," edited by Alexander Brome in
1639, 274.

Florence, the beauty of, 34.

Floud, John, A.M., biographical notices of,
xxi, cxxxv ; mentioned in his mother's will,
XXX ; verses to Walton on the publication
of the "Complete Angler," xlviii, g.

— — , Rachel, the wife of Izaak Walton, xxi,
cxxxiii, cxxxv.

, Robert, son of John Floud, xxi, cxxxv.

, Robert, his son, B.A., xxi, cxxxv ; men-
tioned in his mother's will, xxx ; verses
to Walton on the publication of the " Com-
plete Angler," xlviii, xlix, 14.

, Mrs Susannah, xxx, cxxxv ; abstract of

her will, xxx.

, Sir Thomas, of Milgate, co. Kent, xxi.

Flounder, the, description of, baits, and
directions for angler for, 165.

Flower, Alice, daughter of John, of Whit-
well, CO. RutiJ.and, 60 n.

Fly-fishing, Cotton's treatise on the art of,
written by him at Walton's request, within
ten days, Ixxxv, clxxxv ; Walton's direc-
tions for, quoted from Barker, loi et seq. ;
instructions for, from an anonymous writer,
106 «. ; Cotton's instructions for,24o et seq.
Fly-making, list of materials necessary for,

103 n.i vide Artificial flies.
Ford, John, married Elizabeth Walton, cliv.
Fordidge trout, never caught by angling, 73;
eats nothing in fresh water, 74.

Forked kite, the, a species of hawk, 29.

Fox, the, 29.

Frank, Robert, author of "Northern Me-
moirs," his criticism of the " Complete
Angler," Ix.

French pye, the, a species of hawk, 28.

Frescobaldi, Signor, a Florentine merchant,
118 n.

Frog, the, several kinds of, described by Top-
sel, 74 11. ; said to be venomous in spawning-
time, 132 ; very destructive to carp, 134 «.,
143 ; a bait for pike, 135 ; different kinds
of, and directions for baiting with, 136, 137.

Frome, George, a witness to the will of Izaak
Walton the younger, cxix.

Fuller, Dr, Walton's opinion of his " Church
Historv," Ixiii ; quoted by Walton, 51 «.,
52 «.

Fuller's "Abel Redivivus," 4to, 1651, for-
merly belonging to Izaak Walton, now in
the cathedral library at Salisbury, cxlvii.

Fulman, William, author of the " Notitia
Oxoniensis Academiae," Ixxx.

Fulimart, the, 29 «.

Gaisford, Stephen, a witness to the will of
Izaac Walton the younger, cxix.

"Gammer Gurton's Nedle, a ryght pithy,
pleasaunt and merie Comedie," 1575, 281.

Ganges, the river, 42, vide Eels.

Gardner, Dr, expelled from the University
of Oxford, xxxv.

Garrard, Mr 'Jhomas, a ring bequeathed to
by Walton, cii ; notice of, cv.

Garrick, widow of David, 142 n.

Garter, a, and George, belonging to Charles
1 1., taken after the battle of Worcester, xlv.

Gasius, Antonius, quoted by Walton, 168 ;
account of, 168 n.

Gatehouse at Westminster, the, 283.

Gauden, Dr, Bishop of Exeter, published
the Life of Richard Hooker, Ixxvii.

Gay, the poet, verses descriptive of the art of
angling, by, 287-289.

Geneva, the trout taken 'in the lake of, a
great article of commerce, 72.

Gentles, breeding and jjreserving, 185.

George, the King's lesser, preserved by
Colonel Blague, after battle of Worcester,
xlv ; its restoration to his Majesty, xlv.

Gerard, John, quoted by Walton, 160; ac-
count of, 160 «.

Gerard's History of the Life of the Duke of
Espernon, translated by Charles Cotton,
clxxviii.

Gerfalcon, the, a species of the hawk, 28.

Gesner, Cmrade, biographical account of,
44 w. ; his " Historia Animalium," and
" De Serpentum Natura," quoted by Wal-
ton, Ixi, 44, 48, 59, 72, 118, 120, 123, 125,
127, 130, 132, 140, 141, 144, 148, 156, 160,
166, 167, 193.

Gise, Mr Christopher, a bequest made to, by
Dr Donne, the younger, cxlii.

Glanville, Sir Bartholomew, custos of Orford
Castle, temp. Hen. II., 45 n.

Glascocke, William, a witness to the will of
Dr Donne, the younger, cxlii.

INDEX.

305

Gloucester, the town of, 195.

Goedartius, Joannes, " De Insectis," Lond.
8vo, 1685, 96 n.

Golden Lane, London, the Swan, in, lix.

Goldsmith, Francis, Esq., 197 «., vide Gro-
tius.

"Go, lovelyrose,&c.," song by Waller, cxcv.

Goose, the, destructive to fish, 63.

Gorara, the, destructive to fish, 63.

Goshawk, the, 28.

Gower, Earl, his supercilious mention of Dr
Johnson, 124 «.

Grasshopper, the, a good bait for chub, 68,
84 ; for trout, ^ ; said to have no mouth,
73 ; varieties o(, 73 n. ; artificial, 106, 261.

Gravel lastspring, a fish so called, found only
in the Wye and Severn, 129 «.

Grayling or Umber, the, styled by the
French " an humble chevalier," said to be
very medicinable, 120 ; called by St
Ambrose "the flower of fishes," 121; en-
graving of, 121 ; where found, baits for,
and directions for angling for, 121 ; Cotton's
instructions for angling for, 240 et seq.

Great blue fly, for February, 254.

Great dun fly, for February, 253.

Great hackles or palmer flies, for February
and May, 253-255.

Green-drake fly, description of, where found,
and directions for making, 241, 257, 259.

Gregory, Mr John, the posthumous works of,
4to, Lond. 1683, quoted, 45 «.

Greinsell, " my cozen's widow," mentioned
by Walton in his will, cii ; not identified,
cvi, vide Grinsell.

Greinwood, Mrs, mentioned in Walton's
will, c.

Grey drake, the, for May, 259.

Greyhound, the, 30.

Grinsell, Mrs Anne, widow, cliv.

, John, son of Thomas, cliii.

— — , Mr Thomas, cliii.

, Walter, son of Thomas, cliii.

'' Grotius ; his Sophompaneas or Joseph," a
tragedy, by Francis Goldsmith, Esq.,
i2mo, Lond. 1652, quoted, 197 «.

Ground-bait for bream and carp, 151.

Gudgeon, the, a leather-mouthed fish, 69 ;
description of, and directions for angling
for, 171.

Guiniad, the, description of, and places
where found, 166 n.

Gunpowder Alley, near Shoe Lane, clxviii.

Gustavus Erickson, introduced Protestant-
ism into Sweden, 284.

Hackles, directions for choosing, 103 «.
Haddock, the, 30.
Haddon, county of Derby, 230.
Haggard, the, a species of hawk, 29.
Hailes, Lord, said to have contemplated a

new edition of Walton's Lives, cxxiv.
Hakewill, Dr, account of his " Apology of

God's Power and Providence," 118 «.;

quoted, 130 «., 160.
Hale, Sir Matthew, prepared a bill for the

compression of the more moderate dis- 1

sinters from the Church, and allowing cer- J

tain indulgences to such as could not be
brought within the comprehension, 96.

Hales, Anne, wife of Sir Edward, first edi-
tion of the " Reliquias Wottonianae," dedi-
cated to, xliii.

, John, of Eton, intimate friend of Izaak

Walton, XX, Ixxiii ; styled " the walking
library ; " his opinion of the merits of Wal-
ton's Life of Dr Donne, xxviii ; collections
for his Life by Walton, Ix.xx ; his portrait
painted after death by Lady Anne Howe,
Ixxxi ; Walton's memoranda respecting
him, cxliv-cxlvii.

Hale's Treatise on Fencing, ridiculed by
Walton, 3, 5, 7.

Halifax, George Savile, Marquis of; letter
to Charles Cotton on his translation of
Montaigne's Essays, 1685, clxxxviii.

Hall, Dr, Bishop of Exeter, presented by
Dr Donne with a seal of bloodstone,
engraven with a representation of the
Saviour extended on an anchor, xxiv ; his
works bequeathed by Walton to his daugh-
ter, Mrs Hawkins, ci.

Ham, in Essex, 196 «.

Hambleton Lock, 115 «., vide Howell.

Hammond, Dr, expel led from the University
of Oxford, xxxv ; attended King Charles L
during his imprisonment, xxxvi ; intimate
with Walton, xci ; copy of his " Christian's
Obligations to Peace and Charity," ten
Sermons, 4to, 1649, formerly belonging to
Walton, now in the cathedral library at
Salisbury, cxlvii.

Hampton, chiefly resorted to by Londoners,
for the purpose of angling, 183 n.

Hampton Court, the conference at, 52 n.

Hanson, Richard, of Stafford, apprenticed
by Izaak Walton, cxlix.

Hanson-Toot, Derby, engraving of, 233.

Harboone, John, Esq., of Tackley, county
of Oxford, 54.

Harcourt, Humphrey, son of John Harcourt,
of Ranton Hall, co. Stafford, cvi.

, Mr Valantine, ring bequeathed to, by

Walton, cii ; notice of, cvi.

Hare, the, 29, 30 ; formerly supposed to
change its sex every year, 116.

Harington, Dr, 60 n.

, Sir John, epigrams written by, xix.

Harp Alley, in Shoe Lane, the residence of
Charles Kerbye, 188.

Harrison, Jas., alias Walton, his will, cxxxix.

Harry Long-legs, 262.

Hartley, Thomas, of London, merchant,
cxxxiv.

Hartshorn, co. Derby, Ixxxvi «.

Harvey, Thomas, 108 w.

Harvie, the Rev. Christopher, verses ad-
dressed by him to Walton on publication
of the "Complete Anpler," xlviii, 10;
verses by him, on the Book of Common
Prayer, Ivii, loS ; verses addressed bv him
to Walton, on publication of the fourth
edition of his poem called "The Syna-
gogue," Ixvii.

Harvy, Mr John, beque.st made to, by Dr
Donne the younger, cxlii.

U

3o6

INDEX,

Haslam, Alice, cxxxiii.

Hastings, Sir George, son of Henry Hastings
of Woodlands, 2d son of George, 4th Earl
of Huntingdon, 72 «., 128, 186.

— — , Henry Lord, elegy upon his death by
Charles Cotton the poet, clxvi n.

Hatfield, Agnes, daughter of Lawrence, of
Willoughby, co. Notts, cxxxiv.

, an ancient royal residence, 36 n.

Hawes, pedigree of, cxxxii, cxxxiii.

, Anne, cxxi, cxxxiii.

, Rev. Henry, minister of Clifton, cxxi,

cxxxii.

, Rev. Dr Herbert, prebendarj' of Salis-
bury, great-great-grandson, and, except
Mrs Blagden, only living descendant of
Walton, cxxi, cxxxiii ; copy of Walton's
prayer-book in his possession, xli ; list of
portraits of Walton's family in his posses-
sion, cli.

, Margaret Jane, cxxi, cxxxiii.

, Rev. John, married Anne Hawkins,

cxxi, cxxxiii ; his death, cxxi ; his issue,
cxxi.

Hawk, varieties of the, 28, 29 ; has only four
or five young ones at a time, 76.

Hawking, the pleasures of, 25.

Hawkins, pedigree of, cxxxii, cxxxiii.

, Anne, daughter of Walton, bequests

made to by her father, c, ci ; by her brother,
Izaak Walton the younger, cxviii ; ap-
pointed his executrix and residuary legatee,
cxviii ; her portrait in the possession of the
Rev. Dr Hawes, cli.

• , Anne, granddaughter of Walton, be-
quest made to her by him, ci ; by her
uncle, Izaak Walton the younger, cxviii ;
biographical account and epitaph of, cxx ;
her portrait in the possession of the Rev.
Dr Hawes, cli.

, Anne, daughter of William Hawkins,

Esq., married the Rev. John Hawes,
cxxi, cxxxiii.

■ , Frances, the wife of Mr Thomas Knapp

Blagden, cxxi, cxxxii.

• , Henrietta Rebecca, cxxi, cxxxiii.

— — , Jane, her epitaph, cxxi, cxxxii.

, Sir John, error in his statement re-

.specting Walton's marriage, xx ; his con-
jecture that the Life of Wotton was finished
in 1644 supposed to be erroneous, xlii ;
mentions letters of Walton extant in the
Ashmolean Museum, relating to a Life of
Mr Henry Savile, Ixxiii ; his description of
the fishing-house at Keresfoid, Ixxxvii,
238 «. ; his conjecture that the fish in the
first edition of the "Complete Angler"
were engraved on silver proved to be
erroneous, 3 n. ; discovered the tune to
which the song '* Come, Hve with me," &c.,
was sung, 81.

• , Mary, cxxi, cxxxiii.

■ , Dr William, prebendary of Winches-
ter, married Walton's daughter Anne,
Ixxxiv, cxxii, cxxxiii ; bequests made to
him by Walton's will, c, ci ; his death,
cxH ; his portrait in the possession of the
Rev. Dr Hawes, cli. !

Hawkins, William, Esq., bequest made to him
by his uncle, Izaak Walton'the younger,
cxviii ; executor of his will, cxix ; biogra-
phical account and epitaph of himself, and
Jane, his wife, cxx ; their issue, cxxi,
cxxxii ; his portrait in the possession of the
Rev. Dr Hawes, cli.

, Rev. William, vicar of Boldre, county

of Hants, cxxxii.

Hawthorn-fly, the, Walton's directions for
making, 106 ; Barker's do., 105 n.

Hayne, Richard, Esq., of Ashbourn, 227 n.

Headley, a passage from the "Complete
Angler," quoted by him in his notes to the
Select Beauties of Ancient English Poetry,
cxiv «.

Heath, J., the translator of Du Moulin's
"AccompHshmentof the Prophecies," 39 «.

Heber, Mr, copy of a song entitled " Come,
Shepherds, decjc your Heads," from a MS.
in his possession, 277.

Helmet pigeon, the, 76.

Henchman, Dr, Bishop of Salisbury, Ixv ;
contributed to Walton's Life of Herbert,
Ixxvi.

, Humphry, LL.D., cxix.

Hen-driver, the, a species of hawk, 29.

Henley Bridge, 184.

Henly, " old Oliver," a noted fisher, both for
trout and salmon, 127.

Henry, Prince, a poem on the death of,
printed in i2mo in 1613, by William Basse,
282.

Henry VI I. 's Gifts, next door to the Gate-
house in Westminster, the residence of
Thomas Barker, author of " The Art of
Angling," 283.

Henshaw, Samuel, of Stafford, apprenticed
by Izaak Walton, cxlix.

Herbert, George, author of "The Temple,"
presented by Dr Donne with a seal _ of
bloodstone, engraven with a representation
of the Saviour extended on an anchor,
xxiv ; his Life by Walton, published in
May 1670, Ixxv ; quotation from his poem
entitled " Contemplation on God's Provi-
dence," 44 ; from "The Temple," 107.

, Sir Thomas, attended Charles I. during

his imprisonment, xxxvii.

Hermit-fish, the, 46.

" Hero and Leander," a poem by Chris-
topher Marlow, 78 n.

Heron, the, destructive to fish, 63 ; marrow
of the thigh bone of, a tempting bait, 138.

Herrick, the poet, intimate with Charles
Cotton the elder, clxiv ; his " Hesperides,"
quoted, 81 n.

Herring, the, dies out of water sooner than
any other sea-fish, 141 ; plentiful near Yar-
mouth, 198, vide Yarmouth.

Hertford, the castle of, built by Edward the
elder, 196 n.

Heseltine, William, Esq., Tradescants
house in Lambeth now in his occupation,
275.

Heylin's Cosmography, quoted by Walton,
194 ; copies of his Microcosmus, 410, 1621,
and of his " Parable of the Tares," 4^0.

INDEX.

507

1659, formerly belonging to Walton, now
in the cathedral library of Salisbury,
cxlvii,

Hickes, Thomas, M.A., his Lucian's Dia-
logues, 22 «.

Higgs, Mr Walter, a ring bequeathed to, by
Walton, cii ; notice of, cvi.

Hind, James, the " English Guzman," bio-
graphical account of, 113 n.

Hircus, the consul, held intelligence with
Decimus Brutus, besieged in Mutina, by
means of a pigeon, 27.

" History of Thomas Lord Cromwell," pub-
lished as Shakespeare's, 118 «.

Hobart, Sir Richard, cv.

Hobbes " De Mirabilibus Pecci," clxxxvi.

Hobby, the, a species of hawk, 28.

Hobson, Ellen, of Bromley, in Kent, civ.

Hoddesdon, the Thatched House at, 1, 20,
36 ; engraving of the, 56.

Hog-fish, the, 43.

Holdsworth, Dr Richard, 13 «.

Holinshed, Mr, a bequest made to, by Wial-
ton, ci ; not identified, cvi.

Hollar, portraits of the John Tradescants^
father and son, engraved by, 42 «.

Holmes-Chapel, co. Chester, the ale at
praised by Cotton, clxxiv.

Holt, Sir John, Bart., cxxxv.

, Sir Robert, of Aston, co. Warwick,

Bart., the second edition of Donne's Life
dedicated to, Ixiv.

Holtenby, Daniel, overseer of the parish of
St Dunstan's in the West, clii.

Hooker, Richard, author of the " Ecclesias-
tical Polity," xxii ; his Life, by Walton,
published in January 1665, Ixxi ; reprinted
in 1666, Ixxiv ; republished with the Lives
of Donne, Herbert, and Wottoa, about
1670, Ixxvi ; again in 1675, l.xxxi ; a copy
of his " Ecclesiastical Politic," fol. 1666,
formerly belonging to Walton, now in the
cathedral library at Salisbury, cxlviii.

Hooks, for fishing, mentioned by the prophet
Amos, and in the Book of Job, 38, 49 ;
Charles Kerbye, famed for his method of
tempering, 1S8 v.

Hooper, Mr, warden of the Stationers' Com-
pany in 1612, 54 n.

" Hope," an Ode to, by Charles Cotton, cxciii.

Hopton, Edward, gent., commendatory
verses by, prefixed to Barker's "Art of
Angling," 1657 or 1659, 283.

Home, Bishop, a passage from the "Com-
plete Angler," quoted in his commentary
on the 104th Psalm, cxiv «. ; contemplated
the republication of Walton's Lives, cxxiv.

Horse-flesh fly, the, for April, 256.

Hoskins, Elizabeth, Susan, and William,
bequests to by their " cousin " Izaak Wal-
ton the younger, cxviii, cxxiii.

, Matthew, cxviii, cxxiii.

Howe, the Lady Anne ; formerly Mrs Anne
King, cxliv ; painted the portrait of John
Hales, after his death, Ixxxi, cxliv ; a ring
bequeathed to, by Walton, cii; biographi-
cal account of, cv.
, Sir Richard, Bart., Ixx.xL

Howell, Mr, large trout taken by, at Hamble

ton Lock, 115 «.
Hiibball, Adam, of Stafford, apprenticed by

Walton, cxlix.
Hughes, Jane, daughter of Rowland, of

Essenden, co. Herts, the mother of

Walton's second wife, xx.idx,^ cciv.
Humber, the river, made subject to the

fence months by stat. 13 Edw. I. c. 47,

62 «. ; grayling plentiful in the, 122 « ; the

sestuarium, 196
" Hunter in his Choice Career," the, a song

by William Basse, 85 ; copy of, 281.
Huntingdon, Ferdinand, Earl of, clxvi «•

, George, 4th Earl of, 72 «.

Hunting, the pleasures of, 29, 31.
Hutchinson, ("harles, of Wiiloughby on the

Wolds, CO. Derby, cciii.
, Isabella, daughter of Sir Thomns, of

Owthorpe, co. Notts, wife of Charles

Cotton the younger, clxxi, cciii.

, Katherine, wife of Sir Thomas, ccii.

, Miss Stanhope, clxxii, cciii.

" Hygrasticon, seu vera ratio valetudinis

bonae et vitae ad extremam senectutem

conservantiae," by Leonard Lessius, 99.

Ingelo, N., and the Life of Hales, cxlvi.

"Innocent Epicure," a poem, commemorat-
ing Walton, Cotton, and Venables, 274.

Ireland, Mrs Mary, bequest to, by Izaak
Walton the younger, cxviii ; not identified,
cxxiii.

Irk. the river, in Lancashire, famed for eels,
164 n.

Iron, the, a species of hawk, 28.

Isabella, the colour, why so termed, 254 n.

Isis, the river, 195, 196.

Ivy-berries, worms anointed with the oil of,
very attractive to fish, 127.

Jack, the pike, so called until it attains the
length of twenty-four inches, 138.

, the, a species of hawk, 28.

Jackson, Captain Henry, ccxlv.

, Mr Roger, 54 «.

James I., a copy of his works, fol. Lond.
1616, formerly belonging to Walton, now
in the cathedral library of Salisbury,
cxlvii.

Jenkinson, Sir Robert, of Oxfordshire, Bart.,
cxxxiv.

Jerkin, the, a species of the hawk, 28.

Jervis, Mrs, only child of John Swinfen,
Esq., grandmother of the late Earl St
Vincent ; a MS. note in a copy of the Life
of Bishop Sanderson, presented by Walton
to her grandfather, supposed to have been
written by her, xxxvi.

" Jew of Malta," a tragedy by Marlowe, 80 «.

"Johnny Armstrong," a song, 79, 278.

Johnson, Mrs Elyza, a ring bequeathed to,
by Walton, cii ; notice of, cvi ; bequest ta
her by Izaak Walton the younger, cxviii.

Johnson, Dr, a great admirer of Walton,
cxxiii.

Jons, Mr, large trout speared by, at Cook'sv
Ferry, 115.

3o8

INDEX.

Jonson, Ben, author of the " Beggar's
Bush," 113 ; his adopted sons, 217 n.

"Jovial Crew, the, or the Merry Beggars,"
a comedy by Brome, 87 «.

Jovius, Paulus, the author of a tract, "De
Romanis Piscibus," 142 «.

Judea, a river in, mentioned by Josephus,
that runs swiftly all the six days of the
week, and stands still on the Sabbath, 42.

Juxon, Dr, Bishop of London, attended
Charles I. during his imprisonment, xxxvi.

Ken, pedigree of, cciv.

, Anne, the second wife of Izaak Walton,

xxxix, cciv.

, Elizabeth, xxxix «., cxxiii, cciv.

, Jane, the wife of Thomas, xxxix.

, Jane,the wife of John Synions,xxxix «.,

xlvii, cciv.

, Ion, Treasurer of the East India Com-
pany, xxxix «., xlviii, cxxii, cciv ; a ring
bequeathed to him by Walton, cii.

, Ion, B.D., cxxii, cciv.

, John, xxxix «., cciv, 283.

, Margaret, xxxix it., cxxii, cciv.

, Martha, wife of Thomas, xxxix «., cciv.

, Martha, wife of Christopher Frederick

Kreinberg, xxxix «., xlii, xlviii, cxxii, cciv.

, Martin, cciv.

, Mary, xxxix «., cciv.

, Rose, cxxii, cciv ; Isaac Walton the

younger directed by his father's will to be
kind to her, ci, civ ; bequest to her, by her
nephew, Izaak Walton the younger, cxviii.
, Thomas, xxxix ; his will, xlvii.

, Thos., his son by his first wife, xxxix n.

, Thomas, his son by his second wife,

Bishop of Bath and Wells, xxxix ; sup-
posed by Mr Bowles to have been the issue
of the first wife, xxxix ; mentioned in his
father's will, xlviii ; a ring bequeathed to
by Walton, cii ; after being deprived of his
see resided with Izaak Walton the younger,
cxvi ; bequeathed part of his books to him,
cxvii ; his death, cciv, cxli ; his portrait, in
the possession of the Rev. Dr Hawes, cii.

Kenilworth, near Coventry, a pike in a pond
at, seized a woman's foot whilst washing
clothes, 130.

Kennet, the river, a trout taken in, forty-five
inches in length, 115 n.', famed for eels,
164 n.

Kehrick, Dorothy, a ring bequeathed to, by
Walton, cii, cv, cxxxiv.

, Edward, of London, merchant, cv,

cxxxiv.

, John, of Shropshire, cxxxiv.

, John, of London, xxii, cxxxiv.

, Mary, cxxxiv.

, Mathew, cxxxiv.

Kentish hens, great compared with others,
76.

Kerbye, Charles, famed for a method of tem-
pering hooks, obtained from Prince Rupert,
I SB n.
Kerobvn, Thomas, of Burton, co. Stafford,

surgeon, civ.
Killigrew,Sir H., ambassador to France, xxii.

Killigrew, Mr Thomas, bequest made to, by
Dr Donne the younger, cxlii ; stated by
Pepys to have introduced good music,
III n.

Kilmorrey, Robert, Viscount, i n.

King, Dr Henry, Bishop of Chichester, inti-
mate friend of Walton, xx, Ixiv ; executor
to Dr Donne, xxiii ; presented by him
with a. seal of bloodstone, with a repre-
sentation of the Saviour extended on an
anchor, xxiv ; verses on Dr Donne's death,
xxiv ; mentioned by Walton, in the second
edition of his Life of Dr Donne, Ixiv ; re-
stored to his see, after the Restoration,
Ixv ; bequest to him by Dr Donne the
younger, Ixxi ; letter to Walton, Ixxi.

, H., of Foster Lane, London, gent., clv.

, Dr John, Bishop of London, Ixiv.

, John, son of the Bishop of Chichester,

cxcix.

, John, of Fleet Street, London, gent., clv.

, Mrs, the wife of Dr Philip, a ring be-
queathed to, by Walton, cii, cv.

Kingfisher, destructive to fish, 63 ; its nest,
igo.

Kingston-upon-HulI, the town of, 230.

Kingston-upon-Thames, 283.

Kirby, in Westmoreland, a well near, which
ebbs and flows several times a day, 41.

Kniveton, Mary, daughter of Sir Gilbert, of
Murcaston, in Derbyshire, ccii.

Krienberg, Mr Frederick, and his wife, be-
quests to, by Izaak Walton the younger,
cxviii, cciv.

Ladbroke, Mr, of Gatton, 142 n.

Lake Leman ; trout of three cubits in length

said to have been taken in, 72.
Lake Lurian in Italy, carp taken in, of fifty

pounds weight, 142.
Lambeth, John Tradescant's house at, now

called Turret House, 43.
Lamperne, the, 165 n.
Lamprey, a favourite dish of the Romans,

33, 119, 160, 165 n.
Laneare, Mr Nicholas, an eminent master of

music, no n.
Laner, and Laneret, a species of hawk, 28.
Langdale, Mr, of Ashbourn, 227 «.
Lark, the, 26.

Last-spring, a fish of the salmon kind, 129 «.
Lathkin, the river, 230
Laud, Archbishop, his execution, xxxv, cxlvi,

cxlvii.
Laverock, the, cxiv, 26.
Lawes, Henry, 178 n.
Lawson, W., 54 n.
Lee, the river, account of, 196 n.
Lees, Richard, of Stafford, apprenticed by

Izaak Walton, cxlix.
Lentner, the, a species of hawk, 29.
Leominster, co. Hereford, 119.
Lessius, Leonard, biographical account of,

99 «•
Lewin, -, a ring bequeathed to, by his

" coz." Walton, cii.
Lidcott, Dorothy, daughter of Sir John, of

Mousley, in Surrey, i n.

INDEX.

309

Liebault, Dr, author of "L' Agriculture et

Maison Rustique," account of, 198 11.
Light brown fly for May, 257.
" Like Hermit Poor," a song, no «.
Lilly, the astrologer, 43 w.
Linnet, the, cxiv, 26.
Little brown fly for April, 256.

dun fly for May, 257.

yellow May fly, 257, 260.

Liturgy, abolisned by Act of Parliament,

108 n.
Livy, the choicest of historians, 34.
Lloyde, Mr John, a ring bequeathed to, by

Walton, cii ; not identified, cvi.
Llyn Quellyn, near Snowdon, the char

caught in, 166 «.
K-aithlyn, co. Merioneth, a singular

variety of perch found in, 157 «.
Loach, the, breeds several times in the year,

141 ; description of, 192.
Lobcl, Mathi.is de, biographical account of,

160 n.
Lobster, the, 140, vide Chichester.
Lochmaben, the guiniad found in, 166 n.
Lochmere, in Ireland, 41.
Lombart, the fish in the first edition of the

"Complete Angler," engraved by, 3 11,
London Uridge, an engraving of, 183.
Long, Elizabeth, of Bury St Edmunds civ.
Longieat, the asylum of Dr Ken, after he

was deprived of his see, cxvi.
Lough Neagh, in Ireland, the guiniad found

in, 166 «.
Lovelace, Colonel Richard, intimate with

Charles Cotton the elder, clxiv ; addres.sed

an Ode to Charles Cotton the elder, and

wrote an elegy on the death of his sister

Cassandra, clxviii ; relieved by the younger

Cotton, in his distress, clxviii ; his death,

clxviii n.
Low, the river, made subject to the fence

months, bystat 13 Rich. IL, 62 «.
Lowe, Mrs Bridget, a bequest made to, by

Izaak Walton the younger, cxviii.
Lowth, Bishop, his translation of a passage

\\\ Lsaiah, where fishing-hooks are men-
tioned, 49 «.
Luce, the old name for Pike, 129.
Lucian's Dialogues, translated by Mr Francis

Hickes, 22 «.
Lucy, arms of the family of, 140 n.

, Geoff"ry de, temp. Hen. IIL, 140 n.

, Sir Berkeley, Bart., of Broxbourne, co.

Herts, cci, cciii.

, Katherine, Lady, cci, cciii.

, Mary, wife of the Hon. Charles Comp-

ton, cciii.
Lymington, John Wallop, Viscount, and

Earl of Portsmouth, xcvi.

Macrobius, Aurelius, account of, 33 «.;

quoted by Walton. 33.
Mac William, Ambrose, clxiii n.
, Cassandra, the wife of Sir George

Cotton, clxiii, cciii.

• , Cicely, clxiii n.

, Edward, clxiii «.

i

Henry, clxiii «.

Mac William. Susan, the wife of Edward
Sanders, clxiii n.

Margrave, Mr, a seller of fishing-tackle,
mentioned in ilie fifth edition of the
" Complete Angler, i88 «.

Mark Antony, 30.

Markham, Jerv.ase, author of "The Plea-
sures of Princes, or Good Men's Recrea-
tions," containing a discourse of the general
art of fishing wiiu an angle, or otherwise.
410, 1614, 37 n.

Markland, Abraham, a witness to Izaak
Walton's will, cii, civ.

Marlowe, Christopher, a song made by, liv ;
biographical account of, 78 «.

Marriott, Ann, daughter of Richard, cliii.

, Edward, son of John, cliii.

, Elizabeth, daughter of John, cliii.

, Elizabeth, wife of John, cliii.

, Jane, widow, cliii.

, John, the publisher of Donne's Poems,

ed. 1633, xxiv, xxxvii, cliii.

, John, son of John, cliii.

, Mary, daughter of John, cliii.

, Richard, the friend and publisher of

Izaak Walton for nearly half a century',
xxviii, xxxvii, xcviii ; letter from Walton.
Ixxx ; bequest by Walton, cii, civ ; his
shop in St Dunstan's Churchyard, 274.

, Richard, an infant, cliii.

, Sarah, daughter of John, cliii.

, Valentine, son of John, cliii.

Marsh, J., anecdote of Cotton told by.clxxviii.

Marston, John, the author of Pigmalion's
Image, xix.

Martins, caught by whipping with a fly, 172.

Martyn, , Susannah, wife of, ccv.

Mascal, Leonard, author of the "Booke of
Fishing with Hookeand Line,"4to, Lond.
1600, 141 «.

— —, Mr, of Plumstead, county of Essex,
introduced the carp into England, 141.

Mason, Mr, 54 n.

, John, a hosier, joint tenant with Wal-
ton of a house in Fleet Street, xx.

Matlock, 231.

Mayerne, Sir Theodore, 73 n.

May-fly, the directions for making, 105.

Maynard, Wm., 2d son of Wm. Lord, cxxxv.

Medway, the, 195, 196.

Memoirs of the Sicur de Pontis, translated by
Charles Cotton, clxxxviii, clxxxix.

Mendez Pinto, Ferdinand, account of, 50 v.

"Mensa Lubrica," a poem, by "Thumas
Master, 173 n.

Mercator, Gerard, account of, 72 n.

"Mercurius Politicus," the first edition of
the " Complete Angler," advertised in
the, 274.

Merewether, Jane, the wife of William Haw-
kins, Esq., cxx, cxxxii.

, John, M.D., cxx, cxxxii.

Merlin, the, a species of hawk, 28.

Merril, , an industrious angler, men-
tioned by Frank, in his " Northern Me-
moirs," Ixi.

Mersey, the river, made subject tcf the fence
months by stat. 13 Rich. II., 62 «.

3IO

INDEX.

Mew, definition of the term, 20 n.

Milington, Mr, mentioned by Walton in a
letter to his publisher, Ixxx.

Miller's Thumb, or Bullhead, the, 192.

Millington, Sir Thomas, M.D., cxcix.

Milton, supposed to have taken the hint for
the last lines of " L'AUegro and Penser-
oso," from the ballad, "Come, live with
me," &c., 81 n.

Milward, Mrs Eliza, a ring bequeathed to,
by Walton, cii, cv.

, Henry, of Dovebridge, co. Stafford,

cxxxii, cliv.

, John, of Dovebridge, cliv.

, Margaret, wife of Henry, cxxxii, cliv.

, Robert, of Catton, in the county of

Derby, cxxxii.

, Robert, Esq., an intimate friend of

Izaak Walton's, xlv.

, William, of Christ Church, Oxford, a

ring bequeathed to, by Walton, cii, cv.

Milvvood, Robert (? Milward), cxxxviii.

Minnow, the, directions for baiting with, 94,
193 ; artificial, instructions for making, 94 ;
description of the, 192.

Mole, the river, erroneously said to run
underground, 41 n.

Monings, John, lieutenant of Dover Castle,
cxxxv.

"Monsieur Thomas," Fletcher's comedy of,
274.

Montague, Edward, Lord, General of the
Navy, and one of the Lords Commissioners
of the Treasury, 283.

Montaigne's fondness for cats, 23 ; his Essays
translated by Charles Cotton, clxxxvii.

IMontfoit, Dr, residentiary of St Paul's, xxiii.

Moor, Sir Thomas, a portrait of, bequeathed
by Dr Donne the younger to Mr Chris-
topher Gise, cxlii.

Moore, Elizabeth, daughter of William, cciii.

Moor-fly, the, 95 ; directions for making, loi.

"Moral Philosophy of the Stoics," from the
French of Du Vaix, translated by Charles
Cotton, clxxii.

Mordiford, co. Hereford, 230 n.

!Moreton, near Thame in Oxfordshire, the
birthplace of William Basse, 282.

Morley, Dr George, anecdote told by Wal-
ton respecting his expulsion from Oxford,
XXXV ; no authority for Mr Bowles' as-
sumption that he was Walton's guest at
his cottage in Staffordshire, from Aprfl
1648 to May 1649, ^1 '. verses addressed by
him to Walton on the pubhcation of the
"Complete Angler," xlviii ; Dean of
Christ Church and Bishop of Worcester,
Ixv ; Walton's second wife supposed to
have died whilst on a visit to him at Wor-
cester, Ixix ; translated to the see of Win-
chester in 1662, from which year Walton
constantly resided with him, Ixx ; the Lives
of Hooker, Herbert, and Sanderson dedi-
cated to him by Walton, Ixxi, Ixxvii, xc ;
a bequest made to him by Walton, ci, ciii.

- — , Mr Francis, a ring bequeathed to, by
Walton,' cii.

Morney, on the Christian Religion, 4to, 1617,

a copy of, formerly belonging to Walton,

now in the cathedral library at Salisbury,

cxlviii.
Morton, Dr, Bishop of Durham, intimate

with Walton, Ixxiii.
Mossop, Mr William, 115 n.
Mouldwarp, the, 29.
Mountague, Mr, formerly schoolmaster of

Eton, promised to afford information to

Walton respecting John Hales, Ixxx, cxlv,

cxlvi.
Mountjoy, Lord, lord-lieutenant in Ireland,

xxii.
Moxon, Mr, a sonnet by him, cxxvi.
Mullet, a favourite dish of the Romans, 33,

47 ; those taken at Arundel superior to

others, 73, 140.
Musket, the, a species of hawk, 28.

Nares, Archdeacon, first discovered the fal-
lacy of the hypothesis that the poem of

Thealma and Clearchus was written by

Walton, xciii, xcviii.
Nelson, the Rev. Henry, rector of Haughani,

CO. Lincoln, cv.
, Mrs, a ring bequeathed to, by Walton,

cii, cv.
Neville, Mr Henry, xlii «.
Newark, the town of, 229.
Newbury, the town of, 115 n.
Newcastle, the Duchess of, her plays alluded

to by Cotton, clxxxiii.
Newport. Francis Lord, a bequest made to,

by Dr Donne the younger, cxlii.
Nid, the river, made subject to the fence

months, by stat. 13 Edw. I., 62 «.
Nightingale, the, cxiv, 26.
Nile, the river, 197.
Noel, Sir John, of Kirby, co. Leicester,

cxxxv.
Noell, Mr Walter, lands near- Stafford bought

of him by Walton, c, ciii.
Norington farm, held by Walton, by lease

from the Bishop of Winchester, c.
Northampton, George, 4th Earl of, cci, vide

Compton.
"Northern Memoirs," written by Robert

Frank ; extract from, relative to the

" Complete Angler," Ix.
Norton, Alice, wife of Thomas, cxxxv.
Norwood, Alexander, gent., xxii, cxxxv.
Notley Abbey, 195 «.
Nottingham, the town of, 229.
Novvel, Dr Alexander, Dean of St Paul's,

biographical account of, 51 n.; his portrait,

52, S3-

Oak-fly, the, directions for making, 105.
Offley, Crew, of Wichner, county Stafford,
I n.

, Sir John, of Madeley, county Stafford,

knight, I n.
, John, of Madeley Manor, county Staf-
ford, Esq. ; the first edition of the
" Complete Angler" dedicated to, xlvii, i,
his issue, i n.
ohn, of Crew, E=q., i «.
.awrence, i n.

—'.Jo
, La

INDEX.

3u

Offley, Mary, wife of Robert, Viscount KiU

inorrey, i n.

, Sir Thomas, lord mayor in 1557, i n.

"Oh! the Gallant Fisher's Life," a song

partly composed by Walton, Iviii, 174.
"Oh! the sweet Contentment," a song by

John Chalk-hill, 86.
Olaus Macni

I

laus Magnus, Archbishop of Upsal, and
Metropolitan of Sweden, 284.

Oldbury-sur-Montem, co. Gloucester, 276.

"Old Rose." the song so called, li, 60.

Oldys, William, Norroy king-of-arms, Ixxiii.

Oley,' Barnabas, his preface to Herbert's
"Country Parson," Ixxvi.

Orange-fly, the, for June, 261.

Orford, account of a sea monster taken at,
temp. Hen. II., 45 n.

Ormoiid, the Duke of; the Memoirs of the
Sieur de Pontis dedicated to him by Charles
Cotton, cc.

Osprey, the, 63.

Otter, very destructive to fish, 21 ; pleasures
of hunting it, 29 ; gloves made of the skin
of the, recommended by Walton, 59 ; said
to travel as much as ten miles in a night,
59 ; a young one tamed by Mr Nicholas
Segrave of Leicestershire, 60 ; said to smell
fish at adistanceof forty furlongs, 118, 127.

Otter-hounds, belonging to Mr Sadler, of
Standon, co. Herts, mentioned by Walton,
1, 21 ; the pack of Walter Bi.idulph, Esq.,
of Barton-under-Needwood, advertised for
sale in May 1760, 5G.

Ottersey, the river, co. Devon, so called from
the number of otters that breed in it, 59.

Oudert. Nicholas, a confidential servant of
Sir Henry Wotton, xlii.

Oughtred, Mr, his "Key to the Mathe-
matics," 33.

Ouse, the river, made subject to the fence
months, by stat. 13 Edward L, 62 «,, 196 ;
the name common to several rivers in
England, 230 n.

Overall, Dr John, 52 n.

Overbury, Sir Thomas, his "character" of a
milkmaid, 82 «.

Ovid's Metamorphoses, 1626, a copy of, for-
merly belonginy: to Izaak Walton, now in
the cathedral library at Salisbury, cxlviii.

Owen, John, anecdote of, 34 n.

Owldham, Isaac, an industrious angler,
mentioned by Frank, in his " Northern
Memoirs," Ixi.

Owl-fly, the, for June, 261.

Oziander, Anne, niece to the wife of ,

cxxxiv.

Paine, Dr, expelled from the University of

Oxford, XXXV.
Palmer, Mr, a ring bequeathed to, by

Walton, cii ; not identified, cvi.

Imer-fly, the, 96, 102.

Paraphrase on the Song of Solomon," 410,

1641, 27 K.
Parke. James, Esq. ; verses by him in praise

of Walton, cxxvi.
Parkyns, Beaumont, of Sutton Bonington,

CO. Notts, cci, cciii.

S

Parkyns, Jane, cci, cciii.

, Sir "Thomas, Bart., cciii.

Parrot-fish, the, 43.

Partridge, the, 47.

" Passionate Pilgrim," and other sonnets, by
Mr William Shakespeare, 1599, 80 «.

Paternoster-line, the, why so called, 172.

Paternoster Row, a house in, called " The
Cross Keys," rented by Walton, Ixxi ;
burnt during the Fire of London, Ixxix ;
Walton's interest therein bequeathed to
his son-in-law, Dr Hawkins, c.

Peacock-fly, the, for June, 261.

Pemble Mere, the char caught in, 166 «.

Perch, description of the, 156; German pro-
verb respecting, 156 ; its time of soawning,
iS^j 157 ; engraving of the, 157 ; baits anil
directions for angling for, 157 ; haunts of,
157 n.; a singular variety of, found in a
lake called Liyn Raithlyn, in Merioneth-
shire, 157 «•

"Perfect Diumall," first edition of the
" Complete Angler," advertised in, 274.

Perkins, Dr William, biographical account
of, 51 «.

Petty, George, clxviii n.

•' Pheer," definition of the term, 47 n.

" Philida flouts me," a song, liv, 79 ; copy of,
277.

" Phoenix Nest," the, a collection of poems,
published in 1593, 110 «.

Philips, Mrs Katherine ; her translation of
Corneille's Tragedy of Horace, clxxii.

Phillippes, Margaret, cliv.

Pickerel, their appearance in ponds not
known to have oeen stored with them,
accounted for, Ixi.

Pickering Tor and the Iron Chest in Dove-
dale, view of, 235.

Pierce, Dr, letter from, to Walton, xdii.

Pigeons, used to convey letters, 27.

" Pigmalion's Image," xix.

Pike, the said by Gesner to be generated by
the pickerel weed, 129 ; instance of lon-
gevity of, 130 «.; voracity of, 130-132 ; time
of breeding, 132 ; destroyed by frogs, 133 ;
directions for fishing for with a live bait,
135-137 ; baits for, and trolling for, 138 n.;
recipe for cooking, 139 ;• cooking in the
14th and 15th centuries, 140 11. ; not intro-
duced into England before the reign of
Henry VIII., 140 «.; early mention of,
140 n.

Pike, the, a rock so called, in the river Dove,
near Beresford Hall, 221 ; description of,
250 n.

Pilsbury, William, of Stafford, cli.

Piper-cadis, the, description of, 189.

" Piscatory Eclogues," 177, vide Fletcher.

Pitts, Mr George, a bequest made to, by Dr
Donne the younger, cxlii. Mr, of En-
comb, county Dorset, 134 n.

Piain hackle, a, for February, 253.

" Planter's Manual," the, by Charles Cotton,
8vo, 1675, clxxxiii.

" Playford's Antidote against Melancholy,"
85 «.

Plinlimmon Hill, 195.

312

INDEX.

Pliny, quoted by Walton, 42, 44, 48, §5, 142,
160.

Plot's Natural History of Staffordbhire,
clxxxviii.

Poetical Rhapsody, the, edited by Francis
Davison, 1 13 n.

Poison-fish, the, 43.

Poker, William, cxxxix.

Pole-cat, the, 29.

Pollen, the guiniad, in Ireland, 166 n.

Polshot, bequest to the poor of the parish of,
by Izaak Walton the younger, cxviii.

"Polyhymnia," a poem, by Wm. Basse, 282.

" Polyolbion," the, by Michael Drayton,
quotation from, 124.

Pope, quotation from, in reference to angling,
287.

Port, the family of, connected with that of
Cotton, by marriage, clxiv.

Portland, Jerome, Earl of, executor to the
will of Dr Donne the younger, cxlii.

" Poverty," an Ode to, by Cotton, cxci.

Powell, Charles, rector of Cheddington,
author of "The Religious Rebel," i/^n.
Edward, verses to Walton, on the publica-
tion of the "Complete Angler," xiviii, 13.
Sir Edward, of Pengethley, co. Hereford,
cxxxiv. Susannah, his sister and co-heir,
wife of William Cranmer, cxxxiv.

Powny, Mrs, of Windsor, Ixxx, cxlv, cxlvi.

Prescott, George, Esq., 36 «. Sir George,
Bart., 36 n.

Prestwich, Edmund ; his translation of the
Hippolitus of Seneca, clxvi n.

Pride, small species of lamprey, 162.

Prior, Mathew, and Bishop Burnet, 124 n.

" Private School of Defence," the, by Hales,
3. 5> 7-

Privet hawk, the, a caterpillar, 283.

Pucklechurch, county Gloucester, the burial-
place of the family of Dennys, 276.

Puet, the, destructive to fi.-h, 63.

Pulsion, George, cxxxix.

Purchas, Samuel, the author of "The Pil-
grimage," xix.

" Purple Island," the, a poem, by Phineas
Fletcher, 177 n.

Puss moth, the, 283.

Puttenham, county Herts, 195 n.

Pye, Mrs, a ring bequeathed to, by Walton,

QuARLES, Francis ; his " Shepherd's Ec-
logues ; " the Address to the Reader,
written by Walton, xxxvii; quotation from
in reference to angling, 287 ; his death,
xxxvii n.

" Quatrains on Morning, Noon, and Even-
ing," by Charles Cotton, cxcv.

" Queen Elinor," a ballad, 81 n.

Queenhithe, 182 n.

Raikes, Job Mathew, Esq., 36 n.

Raleigh, Sir Walter, song composed by, 78 ;

verses written by, whilst a pri.soner in the

Tower, 209.
Ramish-hawk, the, 29.

Randolph, Thomas, one of Ben Jonson's
adopted sons, 217.

" Rascal game," definition of, 30 n.

Ratclyffe, Mary, daughter of Sir John, of
Ordsall, co. Lancaster, cciii.

Ravens, the prophet Elijah fed by, 27.

Rawson, Ralph, fellow of Brazen Nose Col-
lege, Oxford, tutor of Charles Cotton the
younger, clxv ; verses addressed by him
to Cotton, clxv.

Red-brown flies for February, 253.

Rede, Mr, a ring bequeathed to, by Walton,
cii, cvi.

Reeves, John, a waterman, obtained a living
by giving notice to anglers of the arrival of
roach in the Thames, near London Bridge,

l82_«.

" Religious Rebel," by Edward Powel, 14 «.
I " Reliquiae Wottonianae," published by Wal-
! ton in 1651. xlii ; a second edition in 1654,
xiviii ; a third in 1673, Ixxix.

"Retirement," the, " Stanzes Irreguliers to
Mr Izsak Walton," by Charles Cotton,
219-221.

Reynell and Champernon, case of, 214.

Reynolds, Bishop, a copy of his '* Treatise
of the Passions," 4to, 1640, formerly be-
longing to Izaak Walton, now in the cathe-
dral library of Salisbury, cxlvii.

Rhodes, besieged by the Turks, 27.

Ribble, the river, made subject to the fence
months by stat. 13 Rich. II., 62 n.

Richmond Palace, an engraving of Theo-
balds, published by the Society of Anti-
quaries, under the misnomer of, 275.

Ricking, abode of John Hales, cxlv.

Ringtail, the, a species of hawk, 28.

Roach, the, why so called, 182 ; the season
for angling for in the Thames, 182 n. ;
the Londoners considered the best roach-
anglers, 183 ; baits for, 184-186, 188 ; direc-
tions for angling for, 183 «.; their haunts,
187 n. ; method of cooking, 189.

Roberts, Mr John, of the Cross Keys, Little-
port, 131 «.

, Lewis, the publisher of the Merchants'

Map of Commerce, xxxii.

Robin, the, cxiv, 26.

Robinson, George, Esq., editor of Marlowe's
Dramatic and Poetical Works, 78.

Rochester, Lord, satirical ver.ses by, on
seeing Charles II. angling, 285.

Rock, Mrs,- a ring bequeathed to, by Wal-
ton, cii ; not identified, cvi.

Rods, Walton's directions for painting, 203 ;
Cotton's directions for choosing, 242.

Roe, or Row, Mrs, the godmother of Izaak
Walton the younger, xHi, cxl.

, Nat. and R., mentioned by Walton,

x'.ii, xlvii, Ix, Ixvii, 3, 5, 7. _

— , persons of the name of, interred in St
Dunstan's Churchyard, 284.

Rogers, Mrs Mary, a ring bequeathed to, by
Walton, cii ; not identified, cvi.

Rondeletius, quoted by Walton, 44, 153,
■ 159, 160, 167 ; account of him. 44 n.

Rosicrucians, account of the, 186 n.

Rossell, Dorothy, wife of Harrold, cxxxv.

INDEX.

3»3

Rowell, George, citizen and upholder, of'
London, civ. j

Rowsley, co. Derby, 230.

Royal Society, the, absurdity of the regula- 1
tions respecting their library, 285. I

Rud, kind of bastard roach engendered be-
tween the roach and the bream, 182.

Ruddy-fly, the, for May, 100.

Ruffcoat, the, a species of cadis, 190.

Ruffe, the. description of, and directions for
an:;ling for, 171.

Rufford, Francis, of Sapy, co. Worcester,
Esq., 143 «. : Benjamin, 143 n. ; Francis,
his son and heir, 143- «. ; Tamerlane, of
London, 143 «.

Running-line, the, why so calledi and direc-
tions for making it, 93 «.

Rupert, Prince, communicated to Charles
Kerbye a method of tempering hooks, 188.

Russell. Mary, daughter of bir William,
of Strensham, in Worcestershire, Bart.,
clxxxiv, cciii.

Rusticatio Religiosi in Vacantiis, verses by
Sir Henry Woiton, 275.

Sacaret, the, a species of hawk, 28.

Sadler, Ralph, of Standon, co. Hert.s Esq.,
his otter-hounds ; Sir Ralph, knight ban-
neret, temp. Hen. VIIL and.Eliz., «.; Sir
Thomas, knight, 21.

St Dunstan's in the West, parish books and
registers, clii, 284 ; Richard Marriott's shop
in the churchyard of, 274.

St James's Park, iii n.\ ladies angling in
the canal in, alluded to by Waller, 200 n.

St Peter never visited Rome, 34 n.

.Saker. the, a species of hawk, 28.

Salamander, the, 43.

Salisbury Cathedral, epitaph of Izaak Wnl-
ton the younger in, cxvii ; bequest to the
dean and chapter of, cxviii ; list of books
belonging to Izaak Walton the elder in
the library of, cxlvii.

Salmon — salmon rivers made subject to the
fence months by stat. 13 Edw. I. cap. 47,
and 13 Rich. IL cap. 19, 62 «.; spawning-
time of, 122 ; migration, 123, 124 ; growth,
125 ; extract from Duncombe's History of
Herefordshire respecting the salmon of
the Wye, 126 «.; engraving of, 126; baits,
flies, and directions for fishing for, 126,
127; varieties of, 129 «.; the roe of, re-
commended by Barker as an excellent
bait, 189 n.\ directions for preserving it,
189 «.

Salter, Mr Edmund, the son of Lady Salter,
cxlvi. Sir William, cxlvi.

Sancroft, Archbishop, attributed to Walton
the authorship of two letters of political
afit'airs in 1678 and 1679, xcvii, xcviii.

Sanderson, Dr Robert, expelled from the
University of Oxford, xxxv ; his lectures
" De Juramento," approved of by Charles
I., and translated by him into English

I during his imprisonment, xxxyi ; Walton's
interview with, Ixiii ; made Bishop of Lin-
coln after the Restoration, Ixv ; his Life

which belonged to Walton, now in the
possession of Mr Pickering, xcii.
Sandwich, Lord and Lady, 129 n.
Sandys, Dr Edwin, Archbp. of York, 27 «.
Sir Edwyn, xxii, Ixxii. Mr George, bii>-
graphical account of, 27.

Sargas, account of a fish called the, 46.

Saturnalia Convivia, by Aurelius Macrobius,
quoted by Walton, 33.

Saunde, Anne, wife of Ed. Cranmer, cxxxv.

Saunders, Susan, wife of Edward, clxiii.

Saville, George, Marquis of Halifax, Cotton's
translation of '* Montaigne's Essays " dedi-
cated to, clxxxvii. Sir Henry, cxliii ;
Walton erroneously supposed to have in-
tended to write the Life of, Ixxii.

Scala, Janus Dubravius, Bishop of Olmutz in
Moravia, account of, 133 w.

" Scarronides, or the First Book of Virgil
Travestie," published by Charles Cotton in
1664. clxxi ; a new edition in 1670,
clxxvi.

Schoo Brook, in Derbyshire, 227 n.

" Scillaes Metamorphosis, enterlaced with
the unfortunate love of Giaucus, &c.," by
Thomas Lodge, 1589, 4to, no «.

" Scintillula Altaris, or a Pious Reflection on
Primitive Devotion, as to the Feasts and
Fasts of the Christian Church," by E.
Sparke, xlvi.

Scott, John, Esq., 56 n. Sir Walter, his de-
fence of Walton against the criticism of
Robert Frank, author of the " Northern
Memoirs," Ixii ; allusions to Walton in his
works, cxxiv.

Sea-angler, the cuttle-fish so called, 46.

.Sea-gull, the, destructive to fish, 63.

Seale, Edward, a witness to the will of Izaak
Walton the younger, cxix.

Seals of helitropium or bloodstone engraven
with a representation of the Saviour ex-
tended on an anchor instead of a cross,
presented by Mr Donne to his friends be-
fore his death, xxiv.

" Secrets of Angling," a poem, by John
Davors, Esq., 37 «., 54 n. ; observations
respecting the authorship of, 276 ; quota-
tion from, 128.

Segrave, Charles, of Scalford, co. Leicester,
Esq., 60. Nicholas, mentioned by Walton
as having tamed an otter, 60, 130.

Selarus, the river of, said to possess the
power of converting wood into stone, 41.

Selby, John, of Kingsbury, co. Middlesex,
cc ; his issue, cciii. Robert, Esq., of
Kingsbury, in Middlesex, one of the repre-
sentatives of Charles Cotton, cc, cciii.

Selden, John, intimate with Charles Cotton
the elder, clxiv.

" Select Ayres and Dialogues for one, two,
and three Voyces : to the Theorbo-Lure
and Basse Viol," by John Wilson and C.
Coleman, doctors in music, 178 n.

Select Musical Ayres and Dialogues for 1633,
III n.

Sellar, Chas., mentioned in the will of Mrs
Flond, XXX. John, xxii, vide Cranmer.

Seneca's '* Natural Questions" quoted, 71.

314

INDEX.

Sergius I., Pope, the Venerable Bede invited
to Rome by, 159 n.

Serpentine river, a perch vv'eighing nine
pounds taken in the, 157 n.

Severn, salmon of the, when in season, 5, 7 ;
the conger in the, 165 ; source of the, 195 ;
mentioned by Drayton, 196 n.

Seymour, Richard, Esq., clxxxi n.

Shakespeare, Mr William, author of the
"Passionate Pilgrim," and other sonnets
in, 1599, 80 n. ; verses on his death, by
William Basse, 282 ; quotations from his
plays, in reference to angling, 286.

Shark, the, 43.

Shawford Brook, alluded to by Walton, in
''The Angler's Wish," xli ; that part of the
river Sow that runs through the land be-
queathed by Walton to the corporation of
Stafford, in n.

Sheldon, Dr Gilbert, Warden of All Souls
College, afterwards Archbishop of Canter-
bui-y, the friend of Walton, Ixxi, Ixxix ;
Cotton's translation of Gerald's "History
of the Life of the Duke of Espernon" dedi-
cated to, clxxviii ; mentioned by Walton as
a famous angler for barbel, 170.

Shelley, Marj% daughter of John, of Michel-

. grove, CO. Sussex, clxiii «.

Shell-fly, the, 95, loi, 262.

Shelsey cockles, superior to others, 73.

" Shepherd's Eclogues," xxxvii, videQuarles.

Shepperton, chiefly resorted to by Londoners,
for the sport of angling, 183.

Shirley, James, his poems, 14 n.

Shovelboard, account of the game of, 173.

Shrewsbury, the town of, 195.

Shrigley, Isabel, daughter of Lawrence, of
Sinfin, CO. Derby, cxxxii.

Shute's Divine Cordials, in Ten Sermons, a
copy of, formerly belonging to Izaak Wal-
ton, now in the cathedral library at Salis-
bury, cxlvii.

Sibbs, Dr, his " Soules Conflict," liequeathed
by Walton to his son Izaak, ci ; his " Saints
Cordial," and "Returning Backslider,"
formerly belonging to Izaak Walton, now in
the cathedral library of Salisbury, cxlviii.

" Sicelides, a Piscatory," by Phineas Flet-
cher, 119 n.

Skelton, the poet, extract from his " Crown
of Laurell," 149 w.

Slane, , Anne Cranmer, wife of, cxxxv.

Small bright-brown .%, for April, 255.

" Small Poems of Divers Sorts," by Sir Aston
Cokaine, xlv n.

Smith, Martha, of Stafford, cli.

Sniggling for eels, directions for, 162.

Solan goose, the, 43.

" Songs and Poems of Love," by Thomas
Weaver, 13 71.

"Songs and other Poems," by Alexander
Brome, 1664, 15 «.

South, Nathaniel, President of India, cxxxv.

Sow, the river, near Stafford, xli.

" Spanish Gipsee," the play of, 274.

Sparke, Edward, verses by Walton, prefixed
to his " Scintillula Altaris," xlvi.

Sparrowhawk, the, 28.

Spencer, Dr J., President of Corpus Christi
College, married a daughter of Thomas
Cranmer, of Canterbury, xxii ; mentioned
in will of Mrs Floud, mother-in-law to
Walton, XXX ; pupil and friend of Hooker,

cxxxv 71.

Spiders, thirty-three kinds of, discovered and
published by the Royal Society, 76.

Spoondon, rectory of, co. Derby, clxxi, cc

Stafford, the birthplace of Walton, xvii ; no
allusion in his works to his residence at,
xli ; a farm near, bequeathed to his son
Izaak, c ; bequest to the town of, c ; his
charities to the town of, cxiix-clii. Henry,
son of Mr William, bequest to, by Dr
Donne the younger, cxlii.

Standon, co. Herts, the seat of Ralph Sadler,
Esq., 21 n.

Stanhope, the family of, connected with that
of Cotton by marriage, clxiv. Anne,
daughter of Sir John ; Charlotte, wife of
Rev. Henry Archer, cc, ccii. Elizabeth,
cc. Dr George, Dean of Canterburj' ; G.,
his son, cc-cci. Henry Lord, eldest
son of Philip, ist Earl of Chesterfield, xliii,
Ixxix. Sir Henry, K.B. ; Sir John, of
Shelton, CO. Notts, and of Elvaston, co.
Derby ; John, ancestor of the Earls of
Harrington, cc, ccii. Katherine, daughter
of Sir John, ccii. Mary, wile of William
Burnet, Governor of New York, cc, ccii.
Olive, daughter of Sir John, of Elvaston,
in Derbyshire, wife of Charles Cotton,
clxiii, clxiv, ccii. Olivia, wife of Dr
George, cci. Sir Philip, ist Earl of Ches-
terfield ; Philip, 2d Earl of Chesterfield, ccii.

Stangel, the, a species of haw k, 28.

Staples, Mary, wife of John Donne, Ixx.

Starkin, Mr, of Stafford, his charity, cl.

Steletto, species of hawk, 28.

Stickleback, baiting with, 193.

Still, Bishop, author of "Gammer Gurton's
Needle," 1575, 281.

Stone-fly, the, for April, 95, 100, 257, 259.

Stour, in Dorsetshire, famous for eels, 164 n.
The name of, common to several rivers in
England, 230 «.

Stourhead, a carp caught at, eighteen pounds
in weight, 142 71.

Strafford, the Earl of, Charles L's assent to
his death, xxjcvi.

Strawberries, Dr Boteler's observations re-
specting, quoted by Walton, 109.

Straw-worm, a species of cadis, 190.

Stubs, Mr John, near to the Swan in Golden
Lane, mentioned by Walton as a seller of
fishing-tackle, 188.

Sturgeon, the, ushered in with music by the
Romans, 33.

Sudbury, the seat of Lord Vernon, clxxxvi.

Sussex, boasts of four sorts of fish, 140.

Sutton, George, of Stafford, apprenticed by
Izaak Walton, cxlix.

Sutton, CO. Warwick, a bream pie made at,
and sent to the Earl of Warwick at Middie-
ham, 218 ?z.

Swale, the river, made subject to the fence
months by stat. 13 Edw. I., 62 «.

INDEX.

0*3

Swallow, carrying letters between armies,
39 ; called a half-year bird, 73.

Swan, the, destructive to fish, 6*3.

Swinfen, Mr, a member of the Committee
appointed by the House of Commons in
1647, to hear arguments adduced on behalf
of the University of Oxford, to show why
they should not take the Covenant, xxxv ;
conjectured to have been the " powerful
man in the Parliament" who desired Wal-
ton to advise his friend Dr Morley to leave
Oxford on the arrival of the Visitors, xxxvi.

*' Sword and Buckler," a poem by William
Basse, 202.

Sword-fish, the, 43.

Symonds, John, xxxix «., xlvii, cciv.

Symson's Historie of the Church, formerly
belonging to Izaak Walton, now in the
cathedral libraiy of Salisbury, cxlvii.

" Synagogue," the, a religious poem by the
Rev. Christopher Harvie, Ixvii.

Taglis, Thomas, cHi.

"Tale of Two Swannes," by W. Vallans,
275-

Tanner, John, Joseph, and Judith, ccv.

Tarcel, the, a species of hawk, 28.

Tassel-gentle, a species of hawk, 28.

Tate, Rev. James, his translation of a Latin
ode, addressed by Dr James Duport to
Walton, on the publication of the "Com-
plete Angler," Ixxxviii. N., editor of
" The Innocent Epicure," 274.

Tawny fly, tiie, 95.

Tayler, Joseph, a witness to Izaak Walton's
will, cii ; not identified, cvi. Mr, a ring
bequeathed to, by Walton, cii.

Tees, the river, made subject to the fence
months by stat. 13 Edw. I., 62 «.

" Temple," a poem, by G. Herbert, Ixxxi.

Tench, description of, 153 ; old recipe for
cooking, 153 «. ; the Physician of fishes,
154 ; engraving of, 155 ; baits for, 155 ;
its haunts, 155 n.\ a large one caught at
Thornville Royal, 155 «.

Thame, the town of, 195 n.

Tiiames, the salmon of, when in season, 9,
12 ; made subject to the fence months by
Stat. 13 Rich. II., 62 n.\ the Lord Mayor
appointed conservator of, by stat. 17 Rich.
II., 62 «. ; complaint made by the Commons
in 1384, of the taking of fish in, with un-
lawful nets, 63 «.; directions for chub-fish-
ing in, 70 n. ; weirs forbidden to be made
in, by Magna Charta, 183 n.\ weirs in, be-
tween London and Staines, destroyed by
the Lord Mayor in 1757, 183 n.\ sources
of, 195 n. ; mentioned by Drayton, 196 n.

Thatched House at Hoddesdon, 1, 20, 36 ;
engraving of, 56.

Thaurosthones, gave notice to his father in
./Egina, by a pi^'eon stained with purple, of
his victory at the (;)lympian games, 27.

" Thealma and Clearchus," a Pastoral, by
John Chalkhill, Esq., published by Walton
about 1678, xciii.

"Theatre of Compliments; or, New Aca-
demy," 79 n.

Theobald's Palace, engraving of the interior
of, 35 ; historical account of, 35 n. ; one of
King James' favourite places of retire-
ment, 35«.; general view of, 180; verses
descriptive of, 2715 ; plate of, under the
misnomer of Richmond Palace, 275.

Thompson, Mr Richard, his observations
upon the phrase, " To buy a good wind of
one of the honest witches," 283.

Thomson, quotation from his "Seasons,"
de-criptive of the art of angling, 28S.

Thrustros, Mr, baptized Izaak Walton the
younger, xli.

Thorn tree-fly, the, for March, 254.

Thornville Royal, in Yorkshire, an extra-
ordinary tench taken at, 155 n.

Thracimane Lake, in Italy, the largest pike
said to be found in, 132.

Thrassel, the, cxiv, 26.

Throckmorton, Mary, daughter of Sir Ar-
thur, xliii.

Thynne, Lady Isabella, quotation from Wal-
ler, on her playing the lute, 179 11.

Titlark, the, cxiv, 26.

Tivy, the river, in Pembrokeshire, extract
from Drayton's Polyolbion respecting the
salmon-leap in, 124.

Tixall, a presentation copy of Walton's Life
of Hooker, in the library at, Ixxviii.

Tobacco, King James' Counterblast, 240 n.

Toghill, in Gloucestershire, 276.

Tombs, Mr Thomas, goldsmith of London,
inscription on his gravestone, in Hampton
Churchyard, 183 «.

Tomlins, Thomas, of London, merchant,
cxxxiv. Sarah, wife of Sir Thomas Jen-
kinson, cxxxiv.

"Tom of Bedlam," a song, by William Basse,
85 ; copy thereof, 282.

Topsel, Edward, author of a "History of
four-footed Beasts and Serpents," 74 n.

Tottenham Cross, 19, 191 n., 194, 203, 207.

Tradescant, John, grandfather, father, and
son, collection of Natural History, 42 ;
monument in Lambeth Churchyard, 42 «. ;
residence in Lambeth, 42 w.; now occupied
by William Heseltine, Esq., 273.

"Travels to the Holy Land, Egypt, and
elsewhere," by George Sandvs, 27 n.

** Treatise on the Nature of God," the model
adopted by Walton for the " Complete
Angler," xlvi ; extract from, 19.

"Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle,"
by Juliana Berners, 289.

Trent, salmon of the, when in season, 5, 7 ;
made subject to the fence months by stat.
13 Edw. I., 62 «.; and 13 Rich. II., 63 « ;
the grayling found in, 122; " Practical Ob-
servations on Angling" in, 165 w. ; source
and course of, 195, 229 ; mentioned by
Drayton, 196 «.

Trentham, Katherine, daughter of Thomas,
of Rowcester, co. Stafford, cciii. Co. Staf-
ford, 229.

" Triall of Treasure," the, a new and merry
Enterlude, 1567, 87.

Tring, co. Hertford, three sources of the
river Thame, in the parish of, 195 «.

3i6

INDEX.

"Triumphs of Phllamore and Amoret," an
elegy, inscribed by Colonel Lovelace to
Charles Cotton, clxviii.

Trollope, Sir Thomas, Bart, cxxxv.

Trolly Lolly, a notorious female offender,
prostitute, and housebreaker, 87 n.

Trout, the, when in season, 72, 75 ; caught
in the Lake of Geneva three cubits in
length ; varieties of, 72 ; Fordidge trout
will not take a bait, 72 ; bull-trout, 74 ;
time of spawning, 75 ; varieties of, 76 ; en-
graving of, 84 ; baits for, 90, 91, 94 ; direc-
tions for angling for, 93, 99, 117, 119 ;
natural flies for, Walton's list of, 95 ; list
of artificial flies, and directions for making,
quoted from Barker, 100, io5 ; painting of
a trout near an ell long, at the George Inn,
Ware, 115 ; very large ones, noticed, 115 n.;
instanceof longevity of, 115 «.; its haunts,
120 n. ; dies sooner out of water than other
fresh-water fish, 141 ; the roe of, recom-
mended by Barker as an excellent bait, 189 ;
directions for preserving, 189 «.; Cotton's
directions for fishing for, 241 et seq.

Trout Hall, mentioned by Walton, li.

"Troy Town," a song, printed in Percy's
" Reliques of Ancient English Poetry,"
79 n. ; copy, 279.

Tufton, Margaret, wife of Sir John, xliii.

Tully, the best of orators, 34.

Turkey-fly, the, for May, 257.

Turtle-dove, the, 27, 47.

Tweed, the, mentioned by Drayton, 196 n.

Twety, master of the game to Edw. IL, 116 n.

Tyne, the river, 196.

Ullswater, the guiniad taken in, 166 n.
Undeihill, S., son of Mr Francis, cliv.
Usher, Dr, Archbp. of Armagh, xxxvii, Ixxiii.
Usk, the salmon of, when in season, 5, 7.
Uxbridge, a gudgeon taken at, weighing
half a pound, 171.

Valdesso, John, a Spanish author, 40 n.

Vallans, W., author of " A Tale of Two
Swannes," 275.

Varro Marcus Terentius, quoted by Walton,
33-

Vaughan, the fish in the first edition of the
" Complete Angler " engraved by, 3. Lord
Chief-Justice, intimate with Chas. Cotton
the elder, clxiv.

Venables, Colonel, commemorated in "The
Lmocent Epicure," in 1697, 274.

Vernon, Anna, daughter of George, of Sud-
burj'-, civ n. Dorothv, daughter of George,
ot Sudbury, cv n. Elizabeth, daughter of
Sir George, of Famham, cv. Sir George, of
Farnham, a ring bequeathed to, by Izaak
Walton, cii. George, son of George, of
Sudbury, cv. Henry, son of George, of
Sudbury, ancestor of the present Lord, cv
n. Henry, of Congerton, in Cheshire,
letter to Sir Edward Vernon, of Sudbury,
clxxxvi. Rose, sister of Sir Thomas, of
Coleman Street, xxxix «., cv.

Villiers, Colonel George, cxcix.
Vine-fly, the 95.

Violet-fly, the, for April, 255.

Virgil, his tomb, erroneously said by Walton

to be at Florence, 34.
" Voyage to Ireland in Burlesque," a poem

by Charles Cotton, clxxiv.
Vuedvill, Mrs, a ring bequeathed to, by

Walton, cii ; not identified, cvi.

Wagtail, the, called a half-year bird, 73.

Walker's " History of the Sufferings of the
Clergy," Izaak Walton the younger said
to have been a contributor to, cxvi.

Waller, Edmund, the poet, castigated by
Charles Cotton for writing a panegyric on
"The Protector," clxix ; extract from a
poem by, in praise of music, 179 ; extract
from a poem by, on St James' Park, 200 «.

Wallop, Mrs Dorothy, a copy of the " Com-
plete Angler" presented to, by Walton,
xcvi ; a ring bequeathed to, by Walton, cii.
Henry, of Farley, in Hampshire, Esq., xcvi.
John, Viscount Lymington, and Earl of
Portsmouth, xcvi.

Waltham, the town of, 196 n.

Walton, pedigree of the family of, cxxxii,
cxxxiii ; wills of persons of the name of,
from the bishop's registry at Lichfield,
cxxxvii ; list of portraits in the possession
of the Rev. Dr Hawes, cii ; births, mar-
riages, and deaths, from the registers of St
Dunstan's in the West, chi; from the
registers of St Mary, Stafford, cliv ; obser-
vations upon the early part of the pedigree
of, cliv. Anne, daughter of Izaak, her
birth, xli; married Dr William Hawkins,
prebendary of Winchester, Ixxxiv ; be-
quests to by her father's will, c ; also by
the will of her brother, Isaac Walton,
cxviii ; appointed sole executrix of his will,
cxviii ; her death, monumental inscription,
and issue, cxx. Henry, of Whitechapel,
Izaak Walton the elder supposed to have
been apprenticed to, civ.

Walton, Izaak, the Elder ; birth and
parentage, xvii ; childhood, xvii ; appren-
ticed to a sempster or haberdasher in Lon-
don, xviii ; observations on an article in
"The Freebooter," i8th October 1823,
xviii «. ; " The Love of Amos and Laura,
written by S. P.," xix ; corrected, or partly
written by him, previous to the first pub-
lication, when twenty years of age, xix ;
identity of S. P. with Samuel Purchas,
author of "The Pilgrimage," unascer-
tained, xix ; resided in Fleet Street in
1624, XX ; intimacy with Dr Donne, through
whom he became acquainted with Sir
Henry Wotton, Dr Henry King, John
Hales of Eton, and other eminent persons,
XX ; known to Ben Jonson, and terms
Drayton his honest old friend, and lived
on terms of intimacy with the most dis-
tinguished literary men of his age, xx ;
their acquaintance proof of the esteem in
which he was held, xx ; errors of his bio-
graphers respecting his wives ; stated by
Sir John Hawkins and Dr Zouch to have
been only once married, the name of his

INDEX.

first wife contained in every edition of
the "Complete Angler," except the first,
xxi ; his acquaintance with Dr King the
cause of his introduction to the family of
Floud of Canterbury, xxi; married Rachel,
daughter of Robert Floud, xxi ; his wife's
mother removed to London, and resided
with them until her death, x\ii ; Walton's
account of his connection with the Cranmer
family from his Life of Hooker, xxii ;
the two sisters of William Cranmer, sup-
posed to have been his mother-in-law, Mrs
Floud, and the widow of Dr Spencer, xxii ;
his account of the death of his friend Dr
Donne, whom he attended in his last hours,
xxiii ; presented by the Dr with a ring of
heliotropium, or bloodstone, engraven with
a representation of the Saviour extended
on an anchor, instead of the cross, which
he always used, xxiv ; Elegy on Dr
Donne's death, xxiv ; remark on his use of
the word "convert" in the Elegy, xxvi ;
lines written by him and placed under a
portrait of Dr Donne, xxvi ; requested by
Sir Henry Wotton to collect materials for
an intended Life of Donne, xxvi ; letter on
the subject from Sir Henry Wotton, xxvii;
Sir Henry dying, Walton himself under-
takes to write the Life, xxvii ; his motives
for so doing, xxviii ; his first essay as a
biographer highly applauded by his con-
temporaries, xxviii ; received the appro-
bation of Charles I., and of "the ever-
memorable " John Hales, xxviii ; Donne's
son sends him a copy of the volume of
Sermons and a letter of thanks, for
having written his father's Life, xxix J
his residence from 1628 until 1644,
as stated in the parish books of St
Dunstan's, xxix ; filled various parish
offices between 1632 and 1640, xxix ; birth
and death of his two sons, respectively
named Henry, and death of his mother-in-
law, Mrs Floud, xxx ; bequests to him and
his wife by her, xxx ; death of his wife
Rachel, and of his only child Anne, xxx ;
the original of his picture of the married
state presented to him by his own home,
xxxi ; only one allusion to his first wife in
his works, xxxi ; in " The Angler's Wish"
he speaks of the happiness it affords him
to •* hear my Chlora sing a song," but in
the fifth edition, in 1676, " Keniia" is sub-
stituted for " Chlora," xxxii ; verses to his
friend Lewis Roberts, the author of "The
Merchants' Map of Commerce," xxxii ;
supposed to have published George Cran-
mer's Letter to Hooker concerning the
new church discipline, xxxii ; verses pre-
fixed to a collection of the Poems of Wm.
Cartwright, xxxiii ; continued to reside in
Chancery Lane until August 1644, xxxiii ;
his place of residence between 1644 and
1651 doubtful, xxxiii ; supposed to have
retired from mercantile pursuits, xxxiii ;
jiolitical and religious opinions, account of
the Scotch Covenanters, and the proceed-
ings of the Long Parliament, xxxiv; re-

I

markable fact respecting the execution of
Archbishop Laud, xxxv ; in London in
Jan. 1645, and in Dec 1647, xxxv ; his
account of the expulsion of Dr George
Morley, canon of Christ Church, from
Oxford, xxxv ; anecdotes of Charles L,
xxxvi ; the address to the reader prefixed
to F. Quarles' " Shepherd's Eclogues,"
attributed to Walton, xxxvii ; married
Anne, daughter of Thomas Ken, attorney
in the Court of Common Pleas, xxxviii ;
his wife's age and character, xxxix ; refu-
tation of Anthony Wood's statement re-
specting Walton's removal from London,
xi ; said to have retired during the civil
wars to a cottage of his own, near Staf-
ford, xl ; the accuracy of this statement
considered to be doubtful, xl ; no allusion
in his works to his having lived at or near
Stafford, excepting the mention of " Shaw-
ford Brook" in "The Angler's Wish," xli ;
Mrs Walton delivered of a daughter, Anne,
on the nth March 1648, xli; the event re-
corded by Walton in a copy of his prayer-
book, now in the possession of Dr Hawes,
xli ; description of that book, xli ; took a
house in Clerkenwell before the year 1650,
where Mrs Walton gave birth to a son,
Izaak, who was buried there on the lotli
June, xli ; his last son Izaak, born 7th
September 1651, xli; published a collec-
tion of the writings of Sir Henry Wotton,
under the title of " Reliquiae Wottoniana,"
with a memoir of the author, xlii ; his
motives for becoming Wotton's biographer,
xlii; observations on that work, xliii ;
Walton the "friend" alluded to by Wotton
in his "Description of the Spring, on a
baiUc as I sat a-fishing," xliv ; letter by Sir
Henry Wotton, enclosing a hymn, written
during a severe illness, xliv ; intrusted by
Robert Mil ward, Esq., a prisoner in the
garrison at Stafford, to convey to Colonel
Blague, then a prisoner in the Tower, the
King's lesser George, preserved by the
latter after the battle of Worcester, xlv ;
resided in Clerkenwell from 1650 to 1661,
xlv ; commendatory verses, prefixed to his
" worthy friend" Edward Sparke's " Scin-
tillula Altaris," xlvi ; published the first
edition of the " Complete Angler " in 1653,
being then sixty years of age, xlvi ;
adopted as the model for his work, "A
Treatise on the Nature of God," and in-
debted for some of his ideas to Heresbach-
ius' Husbandry, by Googe, xlvi ; dedicated
the work to John Offley, of Madeley
Manor, in Staffordshire, Esq., xlvii ; ac-
complished in the "Complete Angler," as
in the " Life of Donne," an object which
had been contemplated by Sir Henry
Wotton, xlvii ; proved the will of
his father-in-law, Mr Thomas Ken,
xlvii ; made large additions to the se-
cond edition of the Reliquiae Wottoni-
anse, xlviii ; published a second edition of
the "Complete Angler" in 1655; analy-
sis of the contents of his second edition.

INDEX.

xlviii-lx ; can be no doubt that Walton
meant to identify himself with Piscator,
l,x ; his treatise gave universal satisfaction
to his contemporaries, with the exception
of Robert Frank, the author of " Northern
Memoirs," Ix ; defended from this attack
by Sir Walter Scott, in a second edition of
Frank's work, Ixii ; account of his inter-
view with Bishop Sanderson, in 1655, Ixii ;
his opinion of Dr Fuller's " Church His-
tory," Ixiii ; published a second edition of
his " Life of Dr Donne " in 1658, dedicated
to Sir Robert Holt, of Aston, in Warwick-
shire, Ixiv ; the memorials of Walton again
imperfect until after the Restoration, Ixv ;
an "Humble Eclogue," addressed to his
" ingenious friend Mr Brome, on his vari-
ous and excellent poems." Ixvi ; published
the third edition of the "Complete Angler "
in 1661, wherein he alludes to the loss of
his fishing companions, Nat. and R. Roe,
although he does not notice the death of
Mr Offley, to whom he had dedicated the
previous edition, Ixvii ; also wrote some
verses on the publication of the fourth edi-
tion of a poem, called " The Synagogue,"
by the Rev. Christopher Harvie, Ixvii ;
death of his second wife, Ixviii ; epitaph to
her memory, Ixix ; remarks on the altera-
tions in a manuscript copy thereof, in his
Prayer-Book, Ixix ; conjectured to have
been on a visit to his friend Dr Morley at
the time of his wife's death, Ixix ; became
the permanent guest of Dr Morley soon
after his translation to the see of Winches-
ter, Ixx ; had a bequest from Dr Donne
the younger, who died in the winter of
1662, " of all my writings under my father's
hand, which may be of some use to his son
if he makes him a scholar," Ixxi ; obtained
a lease of a building adjoining a house
called the Cross Keys, in Paternoster Row,
Ixxi ; the first two years of his residence
with Bishop Morley occupied in writing
the Life of Richard Hooker, Ixxi ; letter
from Dr King, Bishop of Chichester, con-
gratulating him on that undertaking, Ixxii ;
the inference which has been drawn from
a passage in Dr King's letter, that Walton
intended to write the Life of Sir Henry
Savile, apparently without foundation,
Ixxiii ; his motives for writing the Life of
Hooker, Ixxiii ; said to have written a let-
ter to a kinsman at Coventry, on the rejec-
tion of the Bill of Comprehension, in 1668,
Ixxv ; published a fourth edition of the
" Complete Angler," in 1668, which is
stated in the title-page to have been "much
corrected and enlarged," Ixxv ; still the
guest of Bishop Morley, and engaged
upon the Life of Mr George Herbert, and
iu revising the Memoirs of Donne, Wot-
ton, and Hooker, Ixxv ; indebted for some
of the facts respecting Herbert to Dr
Henchman, Bishop of London, and to Mr
Oley's preface to Herbert's "Country
Parson," Ixxvi ; complimentary verses
addressed to him " upon his excellent

Life of Mr George Herbert," by Samuel
Woodford, afterwards prebendary of Chi-
chester, Ixxvi ; Walton's account of his
biographical labours, Ixxvii ; compliment-
ary verses to Walton upon the Life of
Hooker, by Dr Woodford, Ixxviii ; a copy
of the "Lives," presented by Walton to
Walter, Lord Aston, preserved in the
library at Tixall, Ixxviii ; presented a peti-
tion to the Court of Judicature for the
determination of differences touching
houses burnt in London, Ixxix ; dedicated
the third edition of the "Reliquiae Wot-
tonianae," to Philip, Earl of Chesterfield,
Ixxix ; copy of his letter of dedication,
Ixxix ; letter from him to his publisher
Marriott, Ixxx ; the tenth edition of
Herbert's poem, "The Temple," with
Walton's "Life of Herbert," for the first
time prefixed to it, Ixxxi ; poem addressed
to Walton, by Charles Cotton, on the re-
publication of the Lives of Donne, Wotton,
Hooker, and Herbert, Ixxxi-lxxxiv ; no
allusion mf\de by Walton to his only surviv-
ing son and daughter during their child-
hood, Ixxxiv ; his son destined for holy
orders, Ixxxiv ; marriage of his daughter
Anne with Dr William Hawkins, preben-
dary of Winchester, Ixxxiv ; published the
fifth edition of the " Complete Angler," in
1676, Ixxxv ; observations upon the addi-
tions made by him in that edition, Ixxxv ;
Cotton's treatise on fly-fishing, written in
consequence of Walton's application to
him, Ixxxv ; his letter to Walton which ac-
companied the MS., dated at Beresford,
loth March 1676 ; a printed copy of the
treatise, with an answer, dated at London,
returned to him on the 29th of the follow-
ing month, Ixxxvi ; supposed that Walton
spent some weeks at Beresford in May and
June 1676, Ixxxvi ; the intimacy between
Walton and Cotton well known to the
readers of the " Complete Angler," Ixxxvi ;
their initials joined in a cipher on a stone
placed over the door of a fishing-house
which the latter erected on the banks of
the Dove, between Walton's last visit to
Beresford and that paid in 1676, Ixxxvii ;
Walton's description of the scenery near
the fishing-house, Ixxxvii ; eulogiums upon
his character introduced into Cotton's
treatise, Ixxxvii ; his allusions thereto in a
letter to Cotton, Ixxxviii ; complimentary
verses to Walton, on the publication of the
fifth edition of the " Complete Angler," in
a Latin Ode, by Dr James Duport, trans-
lated by the Rev. James Tate, canon resi-
dentiary of St Paul's, Ixxxviii; verses ad-
dressed to him by Cotton, inviting him to
renew their piscatory'sports in the ensuing
May, xc ; published his last work, the Life
of Robert Sanderson, Bishop of Lincoln,
xc ; dedication to Bishop Morley, xci ; his
reasonsfor writing the Life, xci ; requested
information relative to Sanderson from Dr
Barlow, Bishop of Lincoln, xcii ; whilst
writing the account of Bishop Sanderson's

INDEX.

319

death, appears to have been deeply im-
pressed with the close approach of his own,
xcii ; theJLife of Sanderson, with a correct-
ed edition-of his sermons, reprinted in 1678,
xciii; determined in 1678 on publishing a
poem, entitled Thealma and Clearchus,
a pastoral history, which had been written
many years before, by John Chalkhill,
Esq. ; the authorship erroneously attri-
buted to himself, xciii ; his preface thereto,
xciv ; verses by the poet Flatman on the
publication of this poem, xcv ; copy of the
" Complete Angler " presented by him to
Mrs Wallop, at Farnham Castle ; account
of that lady, xcvi ; two letters on political
subjects in 1678 and 1679, ascribed to him ;
inquiry into their authenticity, xcvi-xcix ;
his son presented to the living of Polshot,
in Wiltshire ; wrote to Anthony Wood, in
reply to an inquiry respecting the death of
Dr Aylmer ; made his will 9th August 1683,
xcix ; copy thereof, xcix-cii ; observations
thereupon, and biographical notices of the
persons mentioned therein, ciii-cvi ; died
at Winchester on the 15th December 1683 ;
buried in Prior Silkstead's Chapel, in
Winchester Cathedral, cvi ; his character
and education, cvii ; his opinion of ancestry
and honours, cvui ; his political and re-
ligious opinions, cix-cxii ; fond of poetry
and music, cxiv ; had some knowledge of
the art of design, cxiv ; his contempt for
riclies, cxv ; account of his surviving issue
and representatives, cxvi, cxxiii ; tributes
paid to his memory by some of the most
distinguished writers of the present age,
cxxiii, cxxvii ; copy of entries of the births
and deaths of his family made by him in
his Book of Common Prayer, cxli ; copy of
his memoranda respecting John HaJes,
cxliii-cxlvii ; list of books belonging to
him, now in the Cathedral Library of Salis-
bury, cxlvii ; his charities to the town of
Stafford, cxlix ; list of portraits of his
family, in the possession of the Rev. Dr
Hawes, cli ; extracts from the parish books
of St Dunstan's in the West, and from the
registers of that parish, relative to parochial
offices filled by him, clii ; additional rea-
sons for supposing that he was apprenticed
to Henry Walton, of Whitechapel, civ.

Walton, Izaak, the younger, his birth, xli ;
bequest made to his use by Dr Donne the
younger, Ixxi ; destined for holy orders,
Jxxxiv ; presented to the living of Polshot,
in Wiltshire, xcix ; bequests made to him
by his father's will, ci ; biographical ac-
count of, cxvi ; his death, cxvii ; his will,
cxvii, cxix.

, Mr Richard, a ring bequeathed to,

by Iz.iak Walton the elder, cii.

Ward, Dr Seth, IJishop of Salisbury, xcix ;
a ring bequeathed to, by Walton, cii, cv.

Ware, the town of, 20, 196 n. ; painting of
a trout near an eil long, at the George Inn
at, mentioned by Walton, 115.

Warren, Mr, large barbel caught by, in
Walton Deeps, 170.

Warrington, the battle of, 113 «.

Waskite, a species of hawk from Virginia, 28.

Wasp-fly, the, for July, loi, 261.

Water, 31 ; its productiveness, 32.

Weaver, the Rev. Thomas, commendatory
verses on the publication of the " Com-
plete Angler," xlviii, 10 ; biographical
account of, 13 «.

Webb, or Webburie, Elizabeth, wife of John,
of Rotterdam, merchant, cxxxv.

Wenman, Richard, Viscount, 282.

Westminster, King Street in, 163.

Weston, Rich., Baron of Exchequer, ccii.

Whale, the, 33, vide Balaena.

Wharfe, the river, subject to the fence
months by stat. 13 Edw. I., 62 n.

Wharton, Dr, biographical account of, 33 «. ;
description of a strange fish dissected by,
197 ; his portrait, 286.

Whetley Bridge, 195 n.

Whirling dun-flies, for March and April,
directions for making, 254, 255.

Whitaker, Dr William, a lover of angling,
51 ; account of him, 51 n.

White-dun fly, the, for July, 261.

White gnat, the, for May, 257.

White hackle, the, for August, 262.

Wliite, Mr Peter, a ring bequeathed to, by
Walton, cii ; not identified, cvi.

Whitehead, Mr John, mentioned in Walton's
will, ci.

Whitgift, Archbishop, Ixxii.

Whitish-dun fly, a, for March, 254.

Wildon, CO. Derby, 229.

Williams, Sir Abraham, mentioned by Wal-
ton, 156.

Williamson, Mr James, his observations re-
specting the author of "The Secrets of
Angling," 276,

Willy, the river, mentioned by Drayton,
i96«.

Wilson, John, doctor in music, 178 «.

, the ornithologist, cxxv.

Winander Mere, in Westmoreland, the char
taken in, 16=;.

Winchester, Walton's books at, bequeathed
to his daughter, Mrs Hawkins, c, ci ; his
epitaph in Prior Silkstead's Chapel, in the
cathedral of, cvii.

Windsor, the town of, Ixxx, 184 ; the castle
of, cxxx.

WinnifF, Dr, afterwards Bishop of Lincoln,
xxiii.

Winston, CO. Durham, the birthplace of Dr
Wharton, 33 «.

"Wise Men of Gotham," a facetious penny
history much in circulation in the time of
Walton, II «.

Wolseley Bridge, co. Stafford, 229.

" Wonders of the Peak," a poem published
by Cotton in 1681, clxxxvi ; extract from,
286.

Wood, Anthony, quoted, xl, Ixx.

Woodford, Samuel, prebendary of Win-
chester, complimentary verses addressed
by him to Walton, on the publication of
his Life of Herbert, Ixxvii ; also on the Life
of Hooker, Ixxxviii.

320

INDEX.

Woodhouse, Joseph, of Wollescote, co. Der-
by, gent, clxxxviii.

Worcester, the battle of, xliv ; Mrs Walton's
epitaph in the cathedral of, Ixix.

Wordsworth, a sonnet by, in praise of Wal-
ton's biographical works, cxxiv.

Worms, different kinds of, directions for find-
ing, scouring, and keeping, gi, 92.

Wotton, Anne, wife of Sir E. Hales, xliii.
Sir Henry, the intimate friend of Izaak
Walton, XX ; presented by Dr Donne with
a seal of bloodstone engraven with a re-
presentation of the Saviour extended on an
anchor, xxiv ; letter to Walton, in reply to
communication from him respecting an
intended Life of Dr Donne, xxvii ; his
writings published by Walton, under the
title of " Reliquiae Wottonianse," xlii ; ac-
count of him, xlii; his " Description of
the Spring, on a bank as I sat a-fishing,"
xliv, 1, 54 ; letter from him to Walton, en-
closing a hymn written at night during
a severe illness, xliv ; intended to have
written a discourse of the art and in
praise of angling, xlvii, 2 ; mentioned by
Walton, Ixxix, Ixxx, 172 ; intimate with
Charles Cotton the elder, clxiv ; a lover
of angling, 53; oils used by him to tempt
fish to bite, 186 ; verses by him quoted by
Walton, 208, 209 ; descriptive account of
his fishing-house near Eton, by Mr Jesse,
cxxix ; verses entitled " Rusticatio Re-
ligiosi in vacantiis," ascribed to him, 275.

Wotton, Katherlne, wife of Henry, Lord
Stanhope, xliii, ccii. Margaret, wife of
Sir John Tufton, xliii. Mary Baroness,
the " Reliquiae Wottonianse," dedicated to,
xliii. Thomas, 2d Lord, of Marley, xliii.

Wrangham, Archdeacon, his translation of
verses, written by James Park, Esq., in
praise of Walton, cxxvi ; his translation of
verses addressed to Walton by Dr Duport,
274.

Wye, the salmon of the, when in season, 5,
7, 126 ; grayling plentiful in the, 122 ; both
the lamperne and the lamprey taken in the,
165 n. ; sources of the, 230.

Wyre, the river, made subject to the fence
months by stat. 13 Rich. IL, 62 n.

Yananton, Ann, wife of John, of Redstone,

CO. Worcester, 143 «.
Yare, the river, made subject to the fence

months by stat. 13 Edw. I., 62 «.
Yarmouth, herrings plentiful at, 198 ; the

town of, bound by charter to send to the

king, yearly, one hundred herrings baked

in twenty-four pies, 198 n.
Yellow-dun fly, a, for April, 256.
Yellow flies, for May and June, 100.
York, the Duke of, master of the game,

alluded to by Juliana Berners, 291.

ZoucH, Dr, error in his statement resoecting
Walton's marriage, xx; his Life of Walton
quoted, Ixxxviii, cxiii, cxxvii.

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HARRIS'S AURELIAN ; A Natural History of English Moths and
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HORNE.— ORION. An Epic Poem, in Three Books. By Richard
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