Sir,

TH

TO THE READER.

HE book I here present to you was put into the Printer's hands for the entertainment of a few Gentlemen Fishers; and I hope you take a pleasure in the harmless recreation of Angling, otherwise I may not hope you will overlook its defects. I heartily wish it were a more worthy tribute to the memory of those best musters of our art, Mr. Izaak Walton, and Mr. Charles Cotton :

C ALAS, THAT THEY ARE DEAD!' But I beseech you to be civil, and moderate in your cenfures; for I undertook thofe pleasant walks, to which I here invite you, by the banks of the Dove (now ten years are past) to unbend my mind from fome ferious cares. And that I may

not detain you from the perufal, I have only this