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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:

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Walton attained his sixtieth year in 1653, and then published the first edition of "The Complete Angler," a work to which he is more indebted for the admiration of posterity than to his biographical 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 descriptions 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 Googe, 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. 1.

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4 This work was reprinted in 1586, and again in 1614.

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,5 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 intentions 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 prevented 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 18th of May 1653, Waltor. proved the will of his fatherin-law, Mr Thomas Ken, who died on the 12th of June 1651.7 That instrument was dated on the 12th 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

5 The price of the first edition of "The Complete Angler" was eighteenpence. 6 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.

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 "Reliquiæ Wottonianæ " was published, in which Walton made large additions: 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 slight variations 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

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 1649 is appended to Weaver's verses; but as they were addressed 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 Complete 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 the second individual of the dramatis personæ of the first edition, disappears; and the conversation commences with remarks from each of the interlocutors 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 considered 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

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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 occasion 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 otters, 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 willingly have them destroyed, for doubtless they do as much mischief as otters do?"-a political allusion, of which the whole point cannot now be understood; but Piscator 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 dissertation accordingly follows upon Hunting, Hawking, and Angling. 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 "glides as soft and sweetly from his pen, as that river does now by which it was then made."

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

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