Compendious History of the Goths, Svvedes, and Vandals, and other Northern Nations. Written by Olaus Magnus, Arch-Bishop of Upsall, and Metropolitan of Svveden." 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 witchcraft 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 formerly, 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 Erickson 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. So, ed. 1827), under 22d July 1654, it is said, "We departed and dined at a farme of my uncle Hungerford's, called Darneford Magna, situate in a valley under the plaine, most sweetly watered, abounding in trouts catch'd 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 Cæsar 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.) that 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. 1624. August 5.

John, the sonne of Edward Roe, buried. Susanna and Elizabeth, daughters of Edward Roe and Barbara his wife, christened.

1636. January 3. Mary, daughter of Nathaniel Roe, was buried.

1652. March 22. the Friers.

1653. Nov. 17. 1654. May 26.

the Friars.

Alexander Roe, infant, buryed, churchyard; out of

Barbara, wife of Edward Roe, buryed.

Edward Roe was buryed, churchyard; coffined, out of

P. 163. It was then usual to exhibit curiosities of any kind at coffeehouses, and the custom is alluded to in the Spectator.

P. 166. By an error of the press, the note which refers to the Guiniad is made to apply to the Barbel.

P. 177. Cowper has beautifully expressed the same idea in the following lines:

He looks abroad into the varied field

Of nature, and though poor perhaps compared
With those whose mansions glitter in his sight,
Calls the delightful scenery all his own.
His are the mountains, and the valleys his,
And the resplendent rivers. His to enjoy
With a propriety that none can feel,

But who, with 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 right,

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 supposed 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 of the Fellows, 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 work 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 RR.
Methinks I see our mighty Monarch stand,
His pliant angle trembling in his hand;

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 taught;
Then listen now how he himself is caught.

So well, alas! the fatal bait is known,

Which Rdoes 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 "Wonders of the Peake:"

Perpetual winter, endless solitude,

Or the society of men so rude,

That it is ten times worse. Thy murmurs
(Dove)*

Or humour of Lovers; or Men fall in love
With thy bright Beauties, and thy fair blue
Eyes

Wound like a Parthian, whilst the shooter
flies.

Of all fair Thetis' Daughters none so bright,
So pleasant none to taste, none to the sight
None yields the gentle Angler such delight.
To which the Bounty of her Stream is
such,

As only with a swift and transient Touch,
T'enrich her steril Borders as she glides,
And force sweet Flowers from their marble
sides.

EXTRACTS FROM SHAKESPEARE, QUARLES, BUNYAN, POPE, GAY, AND THOMSON, IN

ANGLING.

SHAKESPEARE.

REFERENCE TO

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.-Much Ado, act iii. sc. 1.

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. II. act iii. sc. 2.

Bait the hook well and the fish will bite.-Much Ado, act ii. sc. 3

* The river Dove.